FROM-THE- LIBRARY OF TWNITYCOLLEGETORONTO
TREATISE
VOL. II.
ON THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF THE CREATOR.
Permittcs ipsis expendere Numinibus, quid Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nostris ; Parior est illis homo, quiim sibi.
Juv.
LONDON :
A
TREATISE
OS THE
RECORDS OF THE CREATION,
AND ON THE
MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE CREATOR ;
WITH
PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE JEWISH HISTORY,
AND
TO THE CONSISTENCY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION WITH THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF THE DEITY.
BY JOHN BIRD SUMNER, D.D.
l.tMMi BISHOP OK CHKSTEK.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II. FIFTH EDITION.
LONDON: J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY.
UDCCCXZXIIl.
- /
<3<5b .38
CONTENTS
THE SECOND VOLUME.
PART II.
ON THE WISDOM OF THE CREATOR.
Introduction. Statement of the Attributes. Modes of proving them a priori, and from the Works of the Creation. (Page 1.)
CHAP. I.
On the Wisdom af the Creator, (Page C.)
Instances from the few Principles employed to execute his Purposes in the natural World. Attraction, Gasses, Rare faction, Condensation, &c.
Probability that similar Laws extend to the human Race.
CHAP. II.
On the Design of the Creator as to Man's Existence
upon Earth. (Page 16.)
That he might exercise his Faculties and Virtues. Proof,
A 3
Vl CONTENTS.
from the improvable Reason which distinguishes Mankind from all other Animals. Remarks on the Fallacy of the Scale of Existence. Faculty of improvement useless, without a Situation fit to call it forth.
Purpose of this improvement, a higher State of Existence.
Proofs from Reason and Revelation.
Statement of the proposed Argument.
CHAP. III.
Whether Equality or Inequality of Ranks and Fortunes is the situation best suited to the Developement and Improvement of the human Faculties. (Page 31.)
Proofs in favour of Inequality : from the low State of So ciety wherever Equality exists. North and South Ameri cans. Reason of this analyzed. Effects of Example, and Emulation, arising from Division of Property. In stances from Pelew Islanders. Progress of Civilization. Superiority of civilized Life.
Contrary Opinion of Godwin considered. Desire of better ing the individual Condition, shown to be the only Spur of Industry. Case of Sparta considered, and of Peru. Use of Slaves in those Communities. Conclusion in fa vour of unequal Fortunes, Ranks, and Conditions.
CHAP. IV.
Whether Equality or Inequality of Ranks and Fortunes is the Condition best suited to the Exercise of Virtue. (Page 85.)
Effect of a Community of Goods upon the Opportunities of Virtue. Nature of Virtue examined. Rewardable Vir tue supposes Difficulty. Opportunities to practical Virtue
CONTENTS. VII
in civil Society. Duties of the Rich; of the middle Ranks ; of the Poor. Difference between Poverty and Indigence. Case of Peruvian Society supposed. Low State to which it would reduce Mankind. Conclusion in favour of various Conditions.
CHAP. V.
On the Principle of Population, and its Effects : in tended to show that ^fan in inevitably placed in that Condition which is most calculated to improve his Faculties, and afford Opportunities for the Exercise of Virtue. (Page 113.)
Statement of the Principle under every Condition of So ciety. Its Effect universal, in bringing- the Population up to the Supply of Food. First Result of the Principle, the Division of Property. Mode of Operation exem plified, in the Case of a Single Family, for whose increase the allotted District is too small. This the date of the Re cognition of Property among the existing Families.
II. This Division of Property is followed by the Division of Ranks through the Effect of casual Misfortunes, and moral Habits, causing Property, at first equal, to run into large "lasses Vain Attempts in the ancient Repub lics to obviate this Tendency. Inequality becomes more striking in the Progress of Civilization.
These Effects dependent upon the relative Ratio of the In crease of Population, and of human Sustenance. Their Consequence, individual Exertion.
Law of [ncrease, a Law of Design.
Wisdom of the Ordinance.
V11I CONTENTS.
CHAP. VI.
On the collateral Effects of the Principle of Popula tion. (Page 157.)
Objections against the Dispensation.
Evil accompanying it, belongs to an imperfect State.
Its collateral Advantages. I. Universal Industry. A sti mulus to exertion necessary to Mankind. Proofs from Experience. A Compensation is made in the Advantages derived from the Division of Labour.
II. Second collateral Benefit, the Communication of Arts and natural Productions. Case of mere Reproduction supposed ; its Consequences. Advantage of Migrations. Instances, from Countries with and without Communica tion : also from a View of the present state of the World ; Asiatic Russia; Southern Asia : Africa; America. Dif fusion of Christianity.
Adaptation of the Principle of Population to peculiar Cir cumstances of every Society. Its Operation not severe or coercive.
Recapitulation of the Argument. Concluding Remarks.
PART III.
CHAP. I.
On the Goodness of the Creator. (Page 205.)
Proofs of a benevolent Design in the Creator, from the
Constitution of Mankind. Argument a priori.
CONTENTS. ix
Sceptical Objections from the Appearance of the World.
Proofs of benevolent Intention from the Gratifications at tached to our Nature, both bodily, and secondly, intel lectual ; sufficient to fix the Onus probandi on the other Side.
Objections from the Existence of Evil.
CHAP. II.
The present Existence of Mankind considered as a State of moral Trial ( Page 223. )
General Determination in favour of Virtue.
Statement of the Question. That Mankind are not placed
in the best conceivable State, conceded ; but in a State of
Probation.
Probable Reasons of such a Dispensation. Trial necessary to future Reward. Instance in the Call of
Abraham, &c.
Difference of tried and untried Virtue. Degree of Evil not greater than was necessary to the Purpose
of Discipline. Analogy from the Persecutions of the early
Christians. Justice of placing Mankind in this State of moral Trial,
argued.
CHAP. III.
On the Goodness of God displayed in the. Christian Dis pensation. (Page 261.) The Sacrifice of Christ, a Scheme to obviate the fatal Effects
of Sin. The Influence of Grace, to counteract the moral Weakness
consequent upon the Fall.
X CONTENTS.
Genera) Plan of Justice and Goodness disclosed in (lie Gospel.
Outline of that Plan, according to Scripture.
The Nature of the Atonement, and the Cause of our being placed in a probationary State, above our Reason, but not contrary to it ; and analogous to other of the divine Plans.
Concluding View of the Ettect of moral Evil.
CHAP. IV.
On natural Evils, and those of civil Life. (Page 285.,)
Different View they present to different Minds.
Natural Evils explained by a probationary State.
Death — its moral Effects.
Disease — its moral Effects.
Evils of civil Life. Their Extent.
Affluence not necessary to Happiness.
Force of Habit. Intelligence not wanting to the lower
Classes, in a Christian Country.
Superfluities only rendered necessary by Power of Custom. Essentials of Happiness, Occupation and Health. Conclusion.
CHAP. V.
On the Capabilities of Improvement in a State of ad vanced Civilization. (Page 328.)
State of Society in Great Britain. Question, whether it
admits of Melioration.
Ignorance of the Poor, not a necessary Evil. Indigence, its Alleviations and Preventives. Parochial Banks for small Savings, recommended.
CONTENTS.
Practicability of these Improvements.
Detailed in the Case of a Parish of a thousand Souls.
Power of the lower Classes to save if Facility were given.
Its Advantages shown by Calculations.
Result of the Whole, in favour of the divine Goodness.
CHAP. VI.
On the Evils of an uncivilized State. (Page 368.) General Remarks.
Situation aVid Number of the hunting Tribes considered. Pastoral Nations considered. Agriculture naturally tends to Civilization. Compensations of uncivilized Life, among the hunting and
pastoral Tribes.
in the equinoctial Regions.
Actual Extent of the Evil; and Provisions for its Remedy,
in Commerce and Colonization. No Situations inconsistent with a State of Probation.
CONCLUSION. (Page 417.)
Recapitulation.
Practical Consequences.
Objection from want of visible Interposition answered, first, from the Nature of Virtue ; and secondly, of Faith, as essential to moral Trial.
Conclusion, as to the Duty incumbent on Mankind from the Suggestions of natural Religion, confirmed by Reve lation.
A
TREATISE,
PART II.
ON THE WISDOM OF THE CREATOR.
INTRODUCTION.
THE argument, as far as it has hitherto ad vanced, has assured us of the being- of one self- existent, eternal, intelligent Creator.
We proceed farther, and affirm that the Creator is endued with infinite power, wisdom, and goodness.
These attributes are strictly deducible from those that have been already argued. It is too
VOL. II. B
2 INTRODUCTION.
evident to be denied, that no controul can by any possibility be exercised over the will or designs of that Being-, who is himself the first and sole cause of whatever exists. The self-existent Creator, therefore, must of necessity, that is as being- self-existent and the cause of all other existences, be possessed of infinite power.
Again, the Creator, as being the author of all things, must possess a complete and actual acquaintance not only with the things that exist, or have existed, at any definite point of time, but with whatever can possibly arise as consequences from things so existing, or be contingent upon them. Neither can He, on whose original will it depended that certain powers should contribute to produce certain effects, be possibly ignorant of the means which best conduce to any design, or of the end which may result from any particular means. And this perfect knowledge of all that is past and all that is present, and all that is dependent upon the past and present, is omniscience, or infinite wisdom.
INTRODUCTION.
The goodness of the Creator is deduciblo from similar inferences. For goodness, truth, and justice, consisting- in the observance of the mutual rights and relations of persons, can only be impeded either by ignorance of the different bearings and dependencies of actions, or by some frailty and imperfection inducing the violation of those bearings and dependencies, when known and perceived. But the relations of all existing beings, and of every possible action, are always and at once present to the view of infinite Wisdom. And a Being possesed of omnipotence can be swayed by none of the weaknesses OF frailties which assail imperfect natures, to a viola tion of the eternal rules of truth and equity.
But these arguments from necessity, though demonstrably irrefragable, produce a very weak and transient effect upon the mind in comparison with those proofs which are derived from the several parts of the creation and the visible ar rangement of the universe. These being always before our view and within the reach of our observation, contribute to give a strength and
4 INTRODUCTION.
permanency to our impression of the attributes, proportioned to the frequent occasions by which it is confirmed. The occasions indeed are limit ed only by the extent of our observations upon the animate and inanimate, the rational and ir rational creation. From a subject so inex haustible, and widening- daily with the increase of knowledge and research, every individual must select the proof which strikes his own mind most forcibly.
With respect to the power, indeed, of the Creator, there is little room for such selection. The minutest created object displays power as inconceivable to our capacities as the creation of a system. The wonders which astronomy unfolds to our contemplation, of world beyond world, extending- into immeasurable space, and filling our imagination with the idea of numerous ranks of beings, the probable inhabitants of those worlds, are often set before us as calcu lated to raise the sublimest apprehensions of the power of the Creator. But I conceive that the fact of the creation being- once proved, the
INTRODUCTION. 5
power of the Creator is proved along- with it'; and that no person ever granted the one, and denied the other.
Passing over therefore the attribute of power, as implied in the act of creation, I shall bestow my principal attention on the wisdom and good ness of the Deity j and the more willingly, be cause many who have given their assent to the power displayed in the creation, have refused it to the moral attribute of goodness, altogether ; and have alleged many insulated appearances which are supposed to be inconsistent with infi nite wisdom.
ON THE WISDOM
CHAPTER I.
On the Wisdom of the Creator.
WHEN we desire to form an estimate of any extraordinary degree of power, or knowledge, or wisdom, we are led by a habit almost in stinctive to compare the object proposed to us with our own powers, under similar circum stances, and to judge of its extent by the de gree of difference resulting from such a com parison. The same principle must be pursued, in order to communicate to our limited facul ties any idea of the wisdom of the Creator. The utmost elevation which the human mind can attain stops infinitely short of the absolute omniscience of the Deity. The only notion we can form upon the subject is relative ; by taking the highest aim and object of human
OF THE CREATOR. 7
wisdom as a basis, and with this in view, con templating- the vast provisions and simple execution, which the general laws that regu late the natural and moral world unfold to our observation.
I shall attempt to illustrate this view of the subject by a few particular instances ; which will prove, if just, that both in the constitution of the universe, and in the laws which respect peculiarly the human race, the Deity has shown the most comprehensive and prospec tive wisdom.
Confessedly, the highest aim of philoso phical theory is to account for the phenomena it treats of by the fewest possible principles ; and the great ambition of human art, practi cally exerted, is to attain the end proposed by the least complicated means. To contrive that the same- machinery should execute various purposes, and contribute by one ope ration to the different exigencies of the manu facture, is the summit of our ingenuity, the
8 ON THE WISDOM
result of a length of time, numerous trials, and numerous disappointments. According- to this test then, which our own efforts confess to be the highest, I proceed to examine the wisdom of the Creator.
We are sufficiently acquainted with the mechanism of the natural world, to form some notion of the universality of the laws which accomplish the most immense purposes. With respect to the system at large of which our globe constitutes a comparatively inconsider able part, one principle of gravitation preserves the planets in their orbits, and determines the descent of the most trifling body to the ground. In proportion as researches into the planetary system have penetrated deeper, which have now ended in the complete development of the Newtonian theory ; in that proportion has the provision been more and more clearly un folded, that by an obedience originally pre scribed to this single and universal law, not only the motions of the different bodies com posing the system are regulated, but their
OF THE CREATOR. Q
aberrations and eccentricities are adjusted and corrected, and the permanence of the system itself is maintained, equally free from variation, and from the necessity of interference to pre vent variation.
Still farther, not only does one and the same body give support and stability to the system, but furnishes it with the essential requisites of light and heat.
In descending- from the contemplation of the whole system to the examination of the globe to which we ourselves belong, we are attended by the same comprehensive wisdom. The air of our atmosphere, which is necessary to the existence of the animal and vegetable world, is composed of two elastic fluids, united in a definite and exact proportion ; a proportion so precisely suited to those for whose respiration it was intended, that any difference in the quantity of either ingredient would prove, according to its degree, injurious or destruc tive. The same air which supplies life and
10 ON THE WISDOM.
health to the human race, is equally and alone salubrious to every other animal. It might be expected that the portion of this air which animals return in the alternate motion of the lungs, having performed its service, would prove of no farther utility : but it has been otherwise contrived. This part of the atmos phere, though insalubrious to man, affords the most grateful nourishment to the plants by which he is surrounded ; according to which provision nothing is lost, and the constant purity of the air we breathe is preserved.
The same air which in its compound state supports the life of the animal creation, admi nisters also to the comfort and necessities of man in the shape of fire.* Combustion is the decomposition of the atmosphere, a process which, under certain circumstances of tempe rature, most of the products of the earth have
* Though the phlogistic theory still retains some advocates, and the one here alluded to is not without its difficulties, I conceive that its general reception warrants the use I make of it, in a view so rapid and cursorv as the present.
OF THE CREATOR. 11
in a greater or less degree the power of affect ing ; and which is regularly accompanied by the disengagement of the light and heat for which we have such frequent occasion, when the assis tance of the solar rays is either wanting, or in applicable. The same elastic fluids which per form these important purposes, in another state of composition become the chief constituents of water also. And the result is, that the princi pal wants of the animal and vegetable world are supplied by three elastic fluids, the peculiar union of which furnishes us with water, fire and vital air. Neither do these fluids require the interposition of the Creator to supply their constant expenditure. The original mandate of eternal Wisdom provided, as far as we can learn from physical researches, for a world of which we cannot foresee the termination. The simple gasses, disengaged by various natural pro cesses, from the combustibles, vegetables, and different substances which absorb them, are so contrived as to form a natural re-union, and pre serve a constant equilibrium.
12 ON THE WISDOM
The same principle of economy and of uni versality in the means employed to produce the most important results, might be exemplified throughout the whole constitution of our globe. It is no light provison, for instance, that the fertility of the earth is incapable of the decay which the perpetual production of plants might be expected to cause : an effect which is guarded against by the single law, that the destruction of one race of vegetables affords aliment to a fresh succession. By a contrivance equally prospec tive, the same principle of rarefaction and con densation which purifies the atmosphere, and re gulates the temperature of the seasons, raises water in the form of vapour to the clouds, and re turns it to the earth as rain, thus diffusing a fer tility universally, which would otherwise have been confined to the banks of rivers : and it re sults from these united operations, that the moisture once given at the creation preserves its own equilibrium, without increase, or dimi nution, or reproduction. It is a part of the same contrivance to furnish the means of communica tion, and sometimes even of regular cummunica-
OF THE CREATOR. 1.3
tion, between countries the most widely sepa- rated from each other.
I contend, therefore, that the slightest out line of the constitution of the natural world conveys a proof of the most comprehensive wisdom : which having determined upon the existence of a habitable system, like ours, ac cording to a certain plan, obtained the purposes required by the simplest conceivable means : and arranged originally the various parts in a regular and dependent order, which should neither be subject to accident, nor require in terposition. Indeed, there is sound reason to believe that the argument here touched upon may hereafter be carried to an extent, not only far beyond that to which I have limited it, but beyond that which is compatible with the present state of our knowledge. Every year's experience in natural philosophy diminishes the number of those bodies which are necessarily considered as simple, because they have never been hitherto decomposed, and of course diminishes at the same time the original principles employed in
14 ON THE WISDOM
the constitution of the universe. The argu ment is progressive ; it is not merely co-exten sive with our knowledge, but extending with it. The opinion is not only justifiable, but philosophical, that, notwithstanding the com prehensive provisions with which we are al ready familiar, we are not yet acquainted with half the economy really employed in the struc ture of the world. And yet, from the result of our present inquiries, it appears, that " a few undecompounded bodies, which may perhaps ultimately be resolved into still fewer elements, or which may be different forms of the same ma terial, constitute the whole of our tangible uni verse of things."*
It might be expected, however, that not the inanimate world alone, but those for whose re ception it was fitted, and to whose use it is adapted, should be subject to their Creator's regulation, and conform to laws of the saim- general and comprehensive nature. This regu-
* Davy's Elem. of Chem. Phil. p. 503.
OF THE CREATOR. 15
lation, indeed, which the right government of the universe appears to require, the free agency of man seems to forbid, and to be inconsistent, both in reason and experience, with the inter ference which would be necessary to reduce mankind to an uniform course of action. I think it will nevertheless appear, that there tire laws equally universal in their operation, if not equally obvious with those already alluded to, which confine within certain bounds even the animate creation, and are not transgressed by the free agency of man himself. A stronger evidence of omniscient wisdom will hardly be demanded, than such a provision would afford : I shall therefore, with less hesitation, endeavour to illustrate it, though the nature of the subject will carry me into a somewhat prolix discussion.
16 ON THE OBJECT OF
CHAPTER II.
On the Design of the Creator in regard to the Existence of Mankind upon Earth.
BEFORE we can decide upon the wisdom of the Creator's provisions respecting man, we must necessarily consider his design in bringing him into existence ; which appears to be, that he might exercise, according to his opportunities in his progress through the world, the various powers of reason and virtue with which he is en dowed.
The proof which reason furnishes of this design, without appealing to higher sources of information, is this, that unless the Creator did propose such an object to the existence of mankind upon earth, he has bestowed upon
MAN'S EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 17
them needless and superfluous faculties, both moral and intellectual. But to imagine this with regard to man, would be to acquiesce in a belief with respect to the most exalted inha bitant of the earth, which is contradicted by all our researches into the inferior orders of the creation, and diametrically opposite to the ge neral analogy of nature.
If we look to the inanimate world, there is scarcely a part of which we cannot distinguish the object, either general or particular, subser vient to the various wants of living beings.
Among all the properties of things, we dis cover no inutility, no superfluity. Voluntary motion is denied to the vegetable creation, be cause mechanical motion answers the purpose ; which raises, in some plants, a defence against the wind, which expands others towards the sun, inclines them to the support they require, and diffuses their seed. If we ascend higher towards irrational animals, we find them pos sessed of powers exactly suited to the rank
VOL. n.. c
18 ON THE OBJECT OF
they hold in the scale of existence. The oyster is fixed to his rock, the herring traverses a vast extent of ocean. But the powers of the oyster are not deficient ; he opens his shell for nourish ment, and closes it at the approach of an enemy : nor are those of the herring super fluous ; he secures and supports himself in the frozen seas, and commits his spawn in the sum mer to the more genial influence of warmer climates. The strength and ferocity of beasts of prey are required by the mode of subsist ence allotted to them : if the ant has peculiar sagacity, it is but a compensation for its weak ness ; if the bee is remarkable for its foresight, that foresight is rendered necessary by the short duration of its harvest. Nothing can be more various than the powers allowed to animals, each in their order ; yet it will be found, that all these powers, which make the study of nature so endless and so interesting, suffice to their necessities, and no more.
But man alone, if he is born for no other purpose than to cultivate the earth, and con-
MAN'S EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 19
tinue his species, has been endued with a fa culty, and this the noblest we are acquainted with, for no assignable end. This faculty is improvable reason ; and is of a much loftier and more exalted nature than is necessary to his mere existence or preservation. Ask the inha bitant of Lapland or Paraguay, what is requisite to the existence of man ; and a very low stan dard of intellectual endowment will be returned. The lowest ranks of savages, whose reason, how improvable soever, has scarcely been raised by exercise beyond the natural instinct of the bee, can continue their unfortunate race, and pro vide against the rigours of cold and hunger, as effectually as the happier children of civilization. All the superiority, therefore, of the philosopher above the Hottentot, might have been lost, if the situation had been wanting which led the way to his improvement ; and all the power of mind which lies dormant in the savage, and is awak ened to full activity in the European, would be a superfluous waste of talent, if it did not contri bute to the general design, and co-operate with some farther plan of the Creator.
( 'J
20 ON THE OBJECT OF
There are writers, it is true, who have taken an extraordinary pleasure in levelling the broad distinction which separates man from the brute creation.* Misled to a false conclusion by the infinite variety of nature's productions, they have described a chain of existence connecting the vegetable with the animal world, and the different orders of animals one with another, so as to rise by an almost imperceptible grada tion from the tribe of simiee, to the lowest of
* M. Bonnet observes, that if we survey the principal pro ductions of nature, we shall perceive that betwixt those of a different class, and even those of a different species, there will always be found some which will apparently link the classes or species together. He has given a scale of beings on the principle of gradation ; the first link of which connects man with quadrupeds, by means of the orang-outang and monkey. The idea is enlarged upon by Mr. White, in a treatise, entitled, " An Account of the regular Gradations in Man, &c.w— " This rash hypothesis, ' that the Negro is the connecting ' link between the white man and the ape,' took its rise from the arbitrary classification of Linnaeus, which associates man and the ape in the same order. The more natural arrange ment of later systems separates them into the bimanous and quadrumanous orders. If this classification had not been followed, it would not have occurred to the most fanciful mind to find in the Negro an intermediate link."— Pritchard on Man, p. 67.
MAN S EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 21
the human race, and from these upwards to the most refined. But if a comparison were to be drawn, it should be taken, not from the up right form, which is by no means confined to mankind ; nor even from the vague term rea son, which cannot always be accurately sepa rated from instinct ; but from that power of progressive and improvable reason, which is man's peculiar and exclusive endowment. It has been sometimes alleged, and may be founded on fact, that there is less difference between the highest brute animal and the lowest savage, than between the savage and the most improved man. But in order to warrant the pretended analogy, it ought to be also true that this lowest savage is no more capable of improvement than the chimpanzee or orang-outang. Among brute animals of the same species, there are no de grees of improvement. The wolf of North America, as far at least as its natural powers are concerned, resembles the wolf of the Alps j the elephant of Africa may be mistaken for that of India. Animals, in short, are born, with no material exception, what they are intended to
22 ON THE OBJECT OF
remain, and bring their instincts with them into the world. A well-bred dog is not taught the sagacity with which he hunts his game : a bird requires no parental instruction, but builds her nest with as warm a lining, and in a spot as suitable and secure, as that in which it was hatched. But man must be taught, either by precept or example, to direct his bow, to climb his tree, to construct his hut : the rudest savage is only stimulated by instinct, and not instructed.
Here then lies the distinction, which may be confounded, but can never be removed ; that Nature has originally bestowed upon other animals a certain rank, and limited the extent of their capacity by an impassable degree : man she empowered and obliged to become the artificer of his own rank in the scale of beings, by the peculiar gift of improvable rea son : improvable, certainly not to an unbounded extent, as some would fondly persuade them selves, yet to an extent of which the bounds have neither been assigned nor attained. The
MANS EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 23
rudest savage who may be compelled, as it has been pathetically said, to shelter himself beneath a heap of stones from the wind and rain, is " born with all those faculties which culture refines and education expands."
Let what is called the chain of existence be drawn from the vegetable to the animal crea tion, and from insects and reptiles to the high est order of brutes, a rank to which the ape has far less claim than the dog or beaver ; but here the parallel ceases. There is nothing phi losophical in the comparison of a being pos sessed of improvable reason, with one that is governed by natural instinct, because there is no just analogy between the talents which are compared.
This distinguishing talent, however, is be stowed upon man to no effectual purpose, as long as he continues in circumstances which do not bring it into exertion. Man is, in fact, the rnsitnre of education and discipline, and is rendered so by the very faculty which charac-
£4< ON THE OBJECT OF
terizes him ; neither is it from what he is born, but from what he is capable of becoming, that he is entitled to claim a place at the head of created beings that fall within our knowledge. Supposing, therefore, as some may be con tented to suppose, that the employment of the human faculties had no higher object than the advantages it produces in the present life, by exalting the character and enlarging the ra tional happiness of mankind, it would still be desirable that the latent powers of intellect should be excited, and the virtues of which the civilized mind is susceptible brought for ward into action. Even to those who carry their views no farther, it must still appear a proof of wisdom in the Creator, if he has provided to secure the exercise of the best faculties of the human race, at the same time that he has assigned them faculties of such a nature as to be improved, by that exercise, to an indefinite extent.
But when the question is put, to what pur pose this improvement of reason, with all is
MAN'S EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 25
consequences, tends ; it is not an answer en tirely satisfactory, to reply, that mankind are thus enabled to increase the sum of their pre sent happiness. Reason is certainly very ill employed in arguing1, that the happiness of mankind is not promoted by its exercise. But though there can be no hesitation in affirming that the quantity of human happiness is greatly enhanced by the exercise of reason, and that its destined use is partly to make this addition ; still there is so much imperfection, at best, in our earthly happiness, that it would be difficult to suppose this the sole and ultimate end for which reason was bestowed on man.
It is scarcely worth while to glance at a con jecture of some of the ancients, who pretended that man was made capable of reason, that he might hold dominion over the irrational animals. They require no such domination. An infi nitely small proportion allow the assistance of man, and not one requires it. They are per haps iH'crssary to the human race, and we be-
26 ON THE OBJECT OF
lieve, were created for its use ; but the human race is so far from being necessary to them, that the greater part degenerate, and lose their finest properties, when reduced to a domestic state.
The only answer to this question which ad mits of examination, and agrees with the ana logy of nature, affirms, that man has the power of reason, and is destined to employ it, with reference to a future and higher state of exist ence. The assurance of this can only come from Revelation. But the rational faculties of man afford the strongest presumptive argument in favour of a future state. For, that one who uses these faculties best, should proceed in the acquisition of knowledge and advancement of virtue, and then, at the very time when having passed the weakness of childhood and the ve hemence of youth, he seemed to approach nearest to perfection, should be suddenly plunged into annihilation, is an order of things so inconsistent with the general appearance of
MAN'S EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 2?
the Creator's wisdom, that the wisest of the ancients could never reconcile their minds to the belief of such a dispensation.
I shall, therefore, proceed on the assumption, that the faculty man possesses of improvable reason, is not superfluous ; but was given him to be employed, partly for the advancement of his happiness on earth, but chiefly with reference to a future state of existence, in conformity with some ulterior plan of his Creator.
This view of human life is not only justified, but decisively confirmed, by the Christian scriptures. The mind is there represented as possessed of talents intrusted to its use, of which an account is to be rendered hereafter. Human life is declared to be a state of discipline, in which the various faculties of mankind are to be exerted, and their moral character formed, tried, and confirmed, previously to their entering upon a future and higher state of existence for which they are destined ; and in which the final condi tion of every individual will be proportioned
28 ON THE OBJECT OF
to the use he has made of his talents and oppor tunities in this preparatory stage. Life, there fore, is with great propriety described as a race in which a prize is to be contended for ; as a season for sowing the seeds of a future and im mortal harvest ; as a journey, in which mankind are merely pilgrims ; as a warfare, in which the combatants must arm themselves with all the virtues, and employ them with zealous courage and enduring patience, that they may be fitted to partake hereafter in the glories of an eternal triumph.
This double consideration, of the nature of the human faculties as requiring culture and exercise, and of the purport of this life as a state of discipline, is absolutely necessary as a clue to any inquiry into the actual appearance of the world. In all questions which relate to the skill of any contrivance, it is pre-supposed, that the intention and execution of the work are alike understood, and considered together. The most harmonious movements or the wisest arrangements may be mistaken for chance and
MAN'S EXISTENCE ON EARTH. 29
confusion, by those who are unacquainted with the design to which they are directed. It is evident, that if the present state is not final, if its object is discipline, what might appear to us the happiest, or easiest, or best condition for the human race in an immediate view, would not be the most suitable to the ultimate intention of the Creator. The object which would be present to the divine mind, in deter mining- the circumstances in which it were ex pedient to place mankind, would be, to assign them that state of being- which was best suited to render this world the stage of discipline it was designed to prove : one that should most effectually and inevitably work out the powers, exercise the virtues, and display the character of man. And it might be expected from what we see in other instances of the Creator's wis dom, that he would place mankind in circum stances through which the order of things best calculated to further this design, should natu rally establish itself, without any such imme diate interference as might disturb the spon taneity of human actions.
30 ON THE OBJECT, &C.
I think it may be rendered evident that He has done so : and the proof of Wisdom I shall endeavour to illustrate, is this ; that the order of things, in which the human race arrives at the highest degree of improvement, and has the widest scope for moral and intellectual perfec tion, is inevitably, and with some trifling excep tions, universally established, by the operation of a single principle, and the instinctive force of a single natural desire.
CHAPTER III.
PFlietlier Equality, or Inequality, of Ranks and Fortunes, is the Condition best suited to the Developement and Improvement of the human Faculties.
BEFORE I proceed to explain the action of a principle on which so much depends, and the mode of its operation, it will be requisite to institute a careful inquiry as to the situation most favourable to the exercise of the talents and virtues of the human race. In a case so intimately affecting their condition, it is not sufficient to prove the wise subservience of the means to the end, unless the end itself be wisely proposed. It is not enough that the contrivance should be aptly suited to the ob ject, unless the effect of the whole prove bene-
32 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
ficial. However we might applaud, for ex- ample, the exquisite skill with which a tyrant had contrived his implements of torture, we should certainly hesitate to call his contrivance wisdom.
Supposing it then to be the design of the Creator, as laid down in the preceding chapter, to develope the faculties and virtues of man kind in this stage of existence, as preparatory to another ; what shall we affirm to be the con dition of human life, which appears best calcu lated to answer this purpose ? Is it society, or is it solitude ? Is it a separation of tribes, or an union of many ? Is it a state of equality, or a state consisting of various degrees of rank and fortune?
If this question were to be decided a priori, and without reference to experience and ob servation, it would certainly be determined in favour of equality. For what can be more promising as an ideal picture, than a state in which tyranny and servility, penury and super-
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 33
fluity, arc alike unknown ; where, all equal, the general harmony meets with no interruption, and the abundance of one ministers to the necessities of another ?
But as, in seeing- a complicated piece of machinery, the most experienced artisan could not judge of its powers or defects without the opportunity of observing- its action and oper ation : so the wisest philosopher can only reason upon the effect of peculiar situation on the in tricate habits and passions of mankind, from what he knows by recorded experience and observation. And judging thus of the effect of equality upon the energies and happiness of mankind, it becomes no less undesirable in theory, than it is unattainable in general practice. Wherever equality is found to exist, and we have now a tolerable acquaintance with almost every region of the world, man kind are in the lowest and most savage state. Accordingly, those writers who have traced all the evils of human life to the inequalities of rank and condition, have been forced to
VOL. II. 1)
34 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
lay this paradox as their foundation : that the savage life, which is unwarrantably called the state of nature, is that state of happy security, every deviation from which begins in error, and terminates in wretchedness. Rousseau laments the necessity of acknowledging, that " the very distinctive faculty of man, that of progressive improvement, is the source of all his evils, because it carries him from the origi nal condition in which he might pass his days in tranquillity and indolence."* The savages of the Caribbee islands, who barter their ham mock in the morning for some trifling gratifica tion, and weep in the evening for its loss, are, according to one of their eulogists, " the most happy, the least vicious, the most social, the most healthy, and the least counterfeit of all the nations of the world."t " Is the savage op-
* Discours sur 1'Imgalite. He afterwards adds, " Ine quality, scarcely existing in a state of nature, grows with the growth of man's faculties and reason, and is permanently authorised by the establishment of property and luus."
t Pere du Tertre. Raynal was also a great admirer of savage life. These defend equality as it is found. Con-
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 35
pressed by superior fierceness and strength ? Let his enemy," says Rousseau, " but once turn his head, the weaker darts twenty paces into the forest, his chains are broken, and he loses sight of his enemy for ever."
That this freedom, carelessness, and indolence, are the compensations which savages enjoy for many of the advantages which their circum stances deny them, I shall have occasion here after to prove more explicitly : but it never can be allowed that the perfection of existence is compatible with insensibility to improvement, or that happiness is consistent with ignorance of rational enjoyment. It is forgotten by the querulous and disappointed advocates of savage life, that the evils of society do not owe their birth to civilization, but spring up in spite of it ; and are to be referred to the nature of man, not to the constitution of society. The same course of argument might reject agriculture, because weeds thrive quickest in the richest soil.
dorcet, Codwin, N.r. only ivcumineud an ideal equality, united with civilization.
1) <2
DO CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
A partial survey of civilized life represents, it is true, each individual neglectful of the general good, and struggling merely for the advancement of his own ; flourishing by the discomfiture of competitors, and elevated by the depression of his brethren. But the other side of the picture shows individual advantage terminating in public benefits, and the desire of aggrandizement which is stimulated by am bition or domestic partialities, contributing towards the welfare of the community at large. Man, in all situations, has both opportunity and inclination for vice, though all vices do not flourish equally in all situations. But ferocity, intemperance, and revenge, if they are not worse, certainly are not better than avarice, rapacity, or luxury : whilst the savage vices have no compensation of delicate taste, refined manners, improved understanding, or exalted virtues. A. contest for riches or power does not more disturb the harmony of life, than the disputed possession of a palm-tree or a cabin : but the latter produces no other fruit than
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 37
private rancour or revengeful malice : the former enriches the state by the addition of two active and useful citizens.
The argument, however, requires that it should be distinctly shown, why that state of civilization which admits and consists of a gradation of ranks and of unequal conditions, is precisely the situation which affords to man the best opportunities of performing the pur poses of his being.
I. If we except that lowest species of the human race which the increase of population has driven to seek subsistence at the utmost verge of the habitable globe, and which seem to mark the ultimate point of degradation to which man can descend, no country is known to which the distinction of ranks is altogether wanting. The bravest warrior, or the most skilful hunter, becomes the chief of his tribe : nor can pre cedence exist, even of this rude sort, without exciting some emulation. But as this influence does not extend to the division of property,
38 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
and leads only to feats of courage and dexterity in the field, we may justly represent these scat tered hunting- tribes as an example of a state of nature or equality.
In fact, even of this degree of equality the native Indians of North and South America afford us almost the only instance.* Reduced in number, and degenerated, as there appears reason to believe, from a more improved state to which their ancestors had advanced, with out government, or policy, or laws of their own, they occupy a few spots in that vast con tinent, f Their state of society exhibits to us
* " The Indians are strangers to all distinctions of pro perty, except in tlie articles of domestic use, which every one considers as his own, and increases as circumstances admit. No visible form of government is established. They allow of no such distinction as magistrate or subject, every one appearing to enjoy an independence that cannot be con trolled. They are total strangers to the idea of separate property in land." — Travels by order of the American Govern ment, under Captains Clark and Lewis.
+ This description does not include the Indians of New Spain and Peru, many of whom are settled in villages, and
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 39
an assemblage of human beings, whose highest enjoyment is indolence, and who are only roused even to a temporary exertion, by the sting of necessity. No prospect of security can excite them to the energy requisite for agriculture. Could an European village be transported into Chili or Paraguay, with all its industry and foresight, and ensured from the maladies attendant on such a change of climate, the soil and seasons would overspread them with luxury and plenty for many generations. But the inhabitants of South America, with all the advantages of unimpoverished land and luxuriant climate, are not less pressed for sub sistence than the occupants of the most rugged and inhospitable islands.* Careless of the
retain the advantages which they derived before the Spanish conquests from a more advanced state of government and civilization.
*"The effects of famine are common to almost all the equinoctial regions. In the province of New Andalusia in South America, i have seen villages whose inhabitants art- forced to disperse themselves from time to time in the de serts, to pick up a M-anly subsistence from the wild plants. In tin- province de los l*astos, the Indians, when the potatoes
40 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
regular and fixed supply which cultivation affords, they depend for two thirds of the year on the precarious resources of hunting1 and fish ing ; and are so sparing in their exertions towards providing a sufficient stock, that a diminution of the quantity of game, or delay of the usual season for procuring it, exposes them to all the misery of scarcity and famine. Yet are they incapable of judging of die probable future from the past distress : nor ever led by experience to prevent the recurrence of an evil. The same indifferent carelessness appears also in their dress and lodging, if such terms can be applied to the miserable protections which the Americans contrive against the vicissitudes
fail, which are their principal nourishment, repair sometimes to the most elevated ridge of the Cordilleras to subsist on the juice of achupallas. The Otomais at Uruana swallow, during several months, potter's earth, to absorb the gastric juice. Under the torrid zone, where a beneficent hum! seems every where to have scattered the germ of abundance, man, careless and phlegmatic, experiences periodically a want of subsistence which the industry of more civili/id nations banishes from the most sterile regions of the North." — llumboldt, vol. i. p. 123.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES.
of weather. It appears, also, in the total ab sence of a quality so universal among- civilized nations, curiosity : a quality which probably originates in the idea of gaining some new acquisition, and is certainly in a great degree characteristic of an active mind. An European, with all his convenience of dress and equipage, passes unnoticed through an assembly of half- naked Indians ; or if he attracts any degree of curiosity, a fragment of scarlet cloth, or a string of beads, is more coveted than any addition he could propose to their real comfort.*
* Dr. Pinckard, after describing his visit to an Indian town up the river Berbische, adds, " The curiosity by which we were actuated was by no means reciprocal : we passed through their huts, and round their persons, in a manner unnoticed : and they continued at work, or unemployed, exactly as we found them." Notes on the West Ind. ii. 422. All travellers unite in the same rewarks. See Ashe, or I HIM. The latter says, " When an Indian is settled on his hams, their usual and favourite posture, no reward can make him stir ; so that if a traveller has lost his way, and happens to reach any of their cottages, they hide themselves, though the whole of their labour would consist in accom- l>'»ii\ ing the traveller a quarter of a league, for which they would be generously rewarded."
42 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
Without dwelling on the detail of manners uniformly the same, and generally acknow ledged, it is sufficient to observe that equality of rank and condition, wherever it is met with, affords a similar scene of careless ignorance, and indifference to all improvement. The nearer you approach towards it, the more stag nant and inactive is the human mind ; the farther you recede from it, the energies are ex cited in proportion. It must be allowed, therefore, that the same appearance must have a common cause of universal operation. Is this cause to be sought, as some writers have been inclined to conclude, in the nature of the people themselves ? Certainly not. We learn the contrary from the same evidence which has hitherto been adduced against them. \Ve are informed by Ulloa,* that " a great part of the rusticity in their minds must be attributed to the want of culture. The Indians of the missions of Paraguay are, among others, re markable proofs of this, where, by the zeal,
* Vol. i. p. 435.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 43
address, and exemplary piety of the Jesuits, a regular well-governed republic of rational men has been established : and the people, from an ambulatory and savage manner of living, have been reduced to order, reason, and religion.* In all the villages. of the mission are schools for learning, not only to read and write, but also .nechanic trades ; and the artificers here are not inferior to those of Europe. These Indians in their customs and intellects are a different sort of people from those before mentioned ; not that they have any natural advantage over the others, for I have observed throughout the whole king dom, that the Indians of the several provinces through which I travelled, are alike."
A more general intercourse with uncivilized nations has now in a great measure removed the erroneous prejudice which formerly existed
•* It is much to be regretted, that an improvement so happily begun, should have been stopped by the recal ot the Jesuits in 1767. A favourable account of the Indian com munity established by them may be seen in Burke's Euro pean Settlements, vol. i.
44 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
upon this subject ; and it is commonly agreed, that education and habit contribute more than climate to form the man ; and that the barbarism of savages is to be ascribed to the defects of their civil, and not of their natural constitution. The cause, in fact, is no other than that very equality, upon which so many undeserved en comiums have been lavished ; but which removes at once from the mind of man all the industrious emulation, which is excited among- civilized peo ple by the desire of bettering their individual condition.
Happy savage ! say the advocates of equa lity :* if his cabin but ill defends him from the storms, or his tattered blanket from the cold, he sees no proud superiors who behold his shivering with insulting pity ; no lofty palaces, which seem to mock his poor and indigent ha bitation. They forget, that to the absence of this palace and these superiors, he owes the misery of his hut of reeds, and the insufficiency of his scanty clothing.
* Rousseau sur 1'Inegalite.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 45
The truth of this becomes obvious on a very slight consideration. Men, in every state, are less induced to a change of their present habits by reason, than by example. If you affirm to an American that the prospective labour of a month or two will enable him to rest through the year secure in his supply of food, and to defy a scarcity of game, you excite no emotion in his mind ; the ideas to be conveyed are so numerous, and those to be eradicated so deeply rooted, that it is impossible by arguments of this nature to effect a change of habits. But let an European settle in his neighbourhood, let him see the comfort of his habitation, the plenty of his granary, the warmth of his cloth ing, the regular process of his industry ; and by degrees he will exchange his furs for useful implements, rather than for spirits ; will con struct his cabin with logs instead of reeds ; and acknowledge the excellence of the example by his imitation.*
* " The desire of property proceeds from experience ; and the industry by which it is gained, or improved, requires such a habit of acting with a view to distant objects, as may
4<6 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
This melioration, however, will never take place, while " all around him are clothed in the same simple garb, feed on the same plain fare, and have houses and furniture exactly similar."* Though his forests abound with timber, that he cannot imagine to himself the superiority of a dwelling built by geometrical rules, or under stand it when proposed to him, is no matter of
overcome the present disposition either to sloth or to enjoy ment. This habit is slowly acquired; and is, in reality, a principal distinction of nations in the advanced state of me chanic and commercial arts." Ferguson on Civil Society, part ii. sect. 2.
If there could be any doubt on this subject, it is sufficiently removed by the improvements made in the condition of the Indian nations of North America by the Quakers, entirely on the principle of example. An interesting account of their success is given in the Ed. Review, vol. viii. p 442. Euripides perhaps alludes to the want of objects of emulation at Sparta, in the following lines of a play which abounds in political discussion.
So^oy ce, Trei'idv r etaopqv TOV o\ftiov, ttevTjTa. r' etc TOVQ ir\ova!.ov£ aVo/3\e7re« v, ZrfXovvd', 'iv O.VTOV ")(prma.T(i)v epwc f\\]' Tct T otKrpd roue p>] (Jv<Trv\ei<: SeSoiKei'ai.
Supplices, 1. 187. * Robertson's America, vol.ii. 133.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 4?
surprise, while he is surrounded by huts like that in which he was born. But if he saw before him the comfort and security of a regularly con structed habitation, the latent spark of industry would be excited, and his ignorant patience converted into active emulation.
This example, however, will never arise among the nations of any uncivilized country, and if introduced, will be witnessed without ef fect, till the first blow has been given to the system of equality, by recognising that division of property which secures to every man the fruit of his own labour. It is this mainspring which keeps the arts and civili/ed industry in motion. " The first, who having enclosed a spot of ground, has taken upon himself to assert, This is mine, and has remained undisturbed in the possession of it, gives a new aspect to the society,"* and lays the foundation, not of crimes, and wars, and murder, as Rousseau proceeds to say, as if these were unknown to the savage; but of improvement and civilization, * Rousseau sur
48 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE.
Man is easily brought and quickly reconciled to labour ; but he does not undertake it gratui tously. If he is in possession of immediate ease, he can only be induced to relinquish that pre sent advantage by the allurement of expected gain. Gratification, which in some degree or other forms the chief excitement of civilized life, is almost unknown to the savage. The only stimulus felt by him, is that of necessity. He is impelled by hunger to hunt for subsistence, and by cold to provide against the rigour of the seasons. When his stock of provision is laid in, his rude clothing prepared, and his cabin con structed, he relapses into indolence ; for the wants of necessity are supplied, and the stimulus which urged him is removed. However ex perienced he may be in the preparation of skins for clothing or of reeds for building, beyond the wants of his own family he has no demand for ingenuity or skill ; for the equality of property has confined each man's 'possessions to the bare necessaries of life ; and though he were to em ploy his art in providing for his whole tribe, they have nothing to offer him in exchange. As
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 4-9
long- as this state of things continues, it is plain that we can expect neither improvement of art nor exertion of industry. Whatever is fabricated will be fabricated with almost equal rudeness, whilst each individual supplies his own wants ; and he will continue to supply them, as long- as the wants of the society are limited to the de mands of nature. An intelligent traveller, who had an opportunity of observing this on the spot, remarks exactly to the point, that " the Indians of Guiana have no interest in the accumulation of property, and, therefore, are not led to labour in order to attain wealth. Living under the most perfect equality, they are not impelled to in dustry by that Spirit of emulation, which in society leads to great and unwearied toil." :
II. But as soon as it has been agreed, by a compact of whatever kind, that the property before belonging to the community at large, shall be divided among the individuals who compose it, and that whatever each of them shall hereafter obtain, shall be considered as
* Notes 011 the West Indies, ii. 24<i. vol.. ii. i;
50 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
his exclusive possession ; the effect of this di vision will show that industry requires no other stimulus than a reward proportioned to its exertion.
We have an instance in the natives of the Pelew Islands, who, deprived as they were of all external advantages, afford a most decisive contrast to the inactivity of the American tribes. Before their accidental discovery in 1783, they had enjoyed no intercourse with civilized nations, had no acquaintance with the use of iron, or the cultivation of corn, or regular manufacture. But they had been for tunate in the establishment of a division of ranks, ascending from the servant to the king ; and a division of property, rendering not only " every man's house, furniture, or canoe, his own, but also the land allotted to him, as long as he occupied and cultivated it."* The effect of this is distinguishable in habits so different from those hitherto represented, that, " the portion of time each family could spare from * Keate's Account of the Pelew Islands.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 51
providing- for their natural wants, was passed in the exercise of such little arts, as, while they kept them active and industrious, admi nistered to their convenience and comfort." Here also were no traces of that want of cu riosity, which all travellers remark as so extra ordinary in America. Industry had sharpened their minds. The natives were constantly in terested in obtaining- every information respect ing- the English tools and workmanship ; and the brother of Abba Thule found amusement for hours, in the novelty of a grindstone, polish ing the iron which was scattered about the tents.
In fact, the division of property is the source from which all the arts of civilization proceed. Before this division has taken place, the indo lent suffer no inferiority, the active receive no gain. But from the date of the recognition of property to the individual, each man is rich, and comfortable, and prosperous, setting aside the common infirmities which flesh is heir to, according to his portion of effective industry
i: -J
52 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
or native genius.* From this period, lie is continually impelled by his desires from the pursuit of one object to another ; and his ac tivity is called forth in the prosecution of the several arts which render his situation more easy and agreeable.
* To limit industry or genius, and narrow the field of in dividual exertion by any artificial means, is an injury to human nature of the same kind as that brought on by a community of possessions. Where there is no stimulus to industry, things are worst; — \vhcre industry is circumscribed, they cannot prosper ; and are then only in a healthy state, when every avenue to personal advantage is open to every talent and disposition. A state of equality is an instance of the first case ; the division of the people into castes, as among the ancient Egyptians and still among the Hindus, of the second. This division has been considered by all intelli gent travellers as one powerful cause of the stationary cha racter of the inhabitants of that country : and the effect would have been still more pernicious, if time or necessity had not introduced some relaxation into the rigorous restric tions originally established, and so ancient, as to be attri buted to SIVA. As long, however, as the rule is generally adhered to, that a man of a lower class is restricted from the business of a /tig/ier class, so long, we may safely pre dict, India will continue what it is in point of civilization. See Asiat. Researches, vol. v. art. 3. An approach to the same eilect may be witnessed in the limitation of honours, privileges, and immunities in some countries of Europe.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 53
Since the produce of every man's labour is secured to his own use, the soil, being- better tilled, affords a better return : and the plenty of provisions allows the society to clothe and lodge themselves with more attention to com fort. By this application to a variety of ob jects, commodities of different kinds are pro duced ; which are exchanged for one another, according to the demand of different indivi duals. This operation is so simple, that it may be easily expected in the poorest community ; and our voyagers found it well understood by the natives of the South Sea Islands. At the same time it is so extensive in its effects, that all the different ramifications of trade and com merce, and even the distinctions of wealth and rank, may be traced to this common origin. For, through this medium, the division of pro perty leads immediately to accumulation.
At first, the best hunter, and the best maker of arms for defence or the chace, would be come the richest individual of the society. These desire to display their wealth, as the
.04 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
African chiefs, by ornament, and to feel its ad vantage in their comfort. They part with the superfluous produce of their skill to the man who weaves them the finest cloth, and tinges it with the brightest dye ; or who provides for them the best-constructed habitation.* So that those who exercise the arts of ingenuity at home, soon become no less rich in the means of sub sistence than those who procure it from the forest, or labour for it in the field. Property thus acquired, and exceeding the continual wants of the proprietor, descends to the children of the artist ; and with it is perhaps inherited
* As Paris, in the Iliad, is represented as inhabiting a house built by the best artificers in Troy. B. vi. 1. 315.
"Ot 61 eTroirjaav ddXapov, Kdl cwfia KCII dvXiji', Eyyu'flt re tlpta'^oto /cut ''EkTOpoc, eV iro'Aet aKprj.
When artificers were in sufficient repute to be sought out for their skill, we cannot doubt that they would be amply repaid for it. " There was in Homer's time great difference in the possession of individuals ; some had large tracts of laud with numerous herds and flocks, others had none. This state of things is generally favourable to the arts; a few who have <i superabundance of wealth, being better able, and generally more willing, to encourage them than numbers who have only a competency." Mitford's Greece, vol. i. p. 185.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 55
the skill by which it was obtained. In process of time, successful warriors, or the children of successful warriors, rich in conquered lands, tog-ether with those who have inherited or gained possessions which exempt them from the neces sity of farther labour, begin in periods of tran quillity to require amusements at home : for, long before society has arrived at this point, the chief enjoyment has ceased to be found in indolence.* This desire of amusement brings into demand a new set of persons, the men of letters ; whose business it is first to entertain, and afterwards to instruct ; and who must re ceive at least such a reward of their powers as repays them for withdrawing from active labour. To furnish amusement during the respite from the toils of the field of war, which a feast or a peace afforded, was the first em ployment of the epic and dramatic poets of antiquity ; as well as of the Troubadours and
* " In every fertile soil, where a great extent of property is allowed, there is room for elegance, sumptuousness, and the encouragement of the arts." Wallace on Numbers of Mankind, p. 18.
-0() CO.NDITION MOST SUITABLE
minstrels of the middle ages.* These begin ning's, as culture refines the taste and increases the demand, lead at length to the infinite variety of intellectual pursuits, which form the business of so large a part of the society, as it advances farther towards literature and re finement.
National possessions require the defence, not of every citizen, as in a ruder state, since it would be now inexpedient to divert them from more useful avocations ; but of an established profession. Individual possessions require, as they become more extended and various, the defence of statutes, which it is also the business of a peculiar profession to interpret. Medicine, which in uncivilized countries is confined to the
* The poet, or harper, has a place among the chiefs in Homer, who describes his office and situation, representing ltiniself, probably, under the character of Dcmodocus. Tw & lipa FIoi'ToVooc 0>;«:e Bp&VOf dpyvporfXov MeffffySaiTVfJidi'wi', irfwr Kttn-u ftatpw epeiVac. AvTvp e'irei TTI'MJUH; KI.II edqrt/OC e£ evro, MoiV ap' am$ov di'tJKCV «enV/uevai K\en dvi'ituv.
Oil o. v. (;.•>.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. $1
experimental knowledge of a few simples, be comes a complex and detached study. Religion, too, is no longer united wih the office of chief, but it is intrusted to a peculiar body of men. Commerce takes a wider range ; and what was once confined to the simple barter of super fluous articles, branches out into an arduous science, and opens an extensive field of specu lation.*
These are the principal features, though the portrait is very incomplete, of the gradual pro gress of all the arts, all the sciences, and all the opulence which distinguish civilization. It is not pretended that we can trace every stroke of the outline, still less that we can point out every shade that contributes towards the finished picture ; the effect of which, after all, is subject to infinite variations, according to peculiarity of situation, climate and government. The process which leads from the rudest to the most civilized society, continues for many centuries, and meets with many and various checks before * See Millar on the Origin of Hunks, p. 3, 1 37.
58 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
the perfect figure is formed ; like some of the secret processes of nature, which elude our ob servation and research, but terminate in her most curious and valuable productions.
And that the civilized man is to be classed as the most perfect, and not as a depraved part of the species, it can scarcely be necessary to prove. The union of various characters, whose bent of disposition has inclined them to the different pursuits which have been just enume rated as composing- civilized life, produces the quick apprehension, the versatile talent, the ac curate discernment, the steady conduct, which entitled man to be called the chief of created beings. What comparison is there between that perfection of the corporeal powers, which a constant dependence upon the senses has produced in the savage, and that habitual power of reason with which a cultivated mind is accus tomed to trace events to their sources, and pursue them to their consequences ? If experi ence assures us, that, wherever equality is esta blished, savageness will continue, let us see to
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. O(J
what state equality would reduce the world. Observe the savage in his retirement ; his eyes bent on vacancy, his stagnant mind making no compensation for the inactivity of his body ; or follow him to his feast, which has no object but intemperate excess, and is succeeded by a deathlike torpor ; or watch him when roused by hostility from his indolence, cherishing even by artificial means, hatred and revenge, and vigorous only to supplant his enemy by strata gem and treachery. Compare this representa tion, which it is mortifying to hold up as the description of a human being, not with the philosopher, whose active mind could even find in the bath a solution of his problem ; not with another of the wonders of antiquity, who re fused even to sleep a complete dominion over his faculties ; but merely with the ordinary exer tion and habitual activity of civilized existence ; with the vigilant observation that unfolds the mysteries of nature, or the patient abstraction that facilitates the works of art ; with the energy of animated conversation that dignifies the rational entertainment ; and then let the moral-
60 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
1st or historian misuse as he will the powers he owes to civilization, in extolling- an uncivilized state, yet he can never disprove the acknow ledged fact that inequality sharpens and exer cises the natural powers of man, and that this exercise of the natural powers brings the human species to that degree of excellence which He who made him capable of it, intended him to attain.
III. At this point of the argument, however, I find myself opposed on my own ground by some of the latest advocates of equality. The Abbe Raynal and Rousseau, with others to whom allusion has heretofore been made, though perceiving that equality must produce savageness, still preferred the savage state for the sake of the equality. But another sect of inquirers, aspiring as anxiously as any one to the perfection of the human race, and enjoying indeed, a much brighter view of its perfecti bility than common observers can be per suaded to entertain, recommend at the same time an equality of fortunes and conditions, as
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. f)l
tending- both to produce that perfection, and to maintain it.* " The established administra tion of property," we are told, " is the true levelling system with respect to the human species, by as much as the cultivation of intel lect is more valuable and more characteristic of man, than the gratifications of vanity or ap petite. Accumulation of property treads the powers of thought in the dust, extinguishes the sparks of genius, and reduces the great mass of mankind to be immersed in sordid cares ; besides depriving the rich of the most salu-
* I am aware it may be thought that 1 have paid too much attention to a writer now so completely forgotten as Mr. Godwin. But it seemed to me very much to the purpose of a treatise like the present, to show that the inequality of conditions which the ordinances of Providence render neces sary, is also agreeable to the attribute of divine wisdom. And if this was to be proved, it was convenient to find the arguments on the opposite side concentrated, as in Mr. God win's Political Justice ; and at the same time it was fair to take the ablest and best known statement of (hem that has ap peared in this country.
It is probable, too, that many, though thev may allow with Mr. Malthas that equality is unattainable in prarlioc, may agree generally with Mr. Godwin that it is desirable in theory.
62 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
brious and effectual motives to activity. If superfluity were banished, the necessity of the greater part of the manual industry of mankind would be superseded ; and the rest, being amicably shared among the active and vigor ous members of the community, would be bur densome to none. Every man would have a frugal yet wholesome diet ; every man would go forth to that moderate exercise of his cor poreal functions, that would give hilarity to the spirits ; none would be made torpid by fa tigue, but all would have leisure to cultivate the kindly and philanthropical affections, and to let loose their faculties in the search of intellectual improvement."*
The advantages represented to us as likely to result from this equal distribution of the gifts of fortune, are twofold — intellectual and moral. With respect to the first, how rapid, it is said, " would be the advances of intellect, if all men were admitted into the field of know ledge ! At present, ninety-nine persons in a * Political Justice, b. viii. c. 3.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 63
hundred are no more excited to any regular exertions of general and curious thought, than the brutes themselves. What would be the state of the public mind in a nation where all were wise, all had laid aside the shackles of prejudice and implicit faith, all adopted, with fearless confidence, the suggestions of reason, and the lethargy of the soul was dismissed for ever?"*
It is here impossible not to envy that san guine imagination, which surveying mankind from China to Peru, could discover a single nation so happily exempted from the common frailties of humanity, as to disclose the germ, or even to contain the seeds, of a general im provement here so luxuriantly described. The truth is, that man, who obviously requires an urgent stimulus to manual exertion, has equal need of a strong and sensible incitement to the exertion of the mind. It is not necessary to maintain the degrading opinion, that the im provement of the intellect can only be stimu- * Polit. Justice, vol. i. p. 461.
64 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
lated by the actual and immediate influence of the love of gain. It is sufficient to know, that the vast and complicated machine of human society, the movements of which are as intri cate as the motion is constant, was originally actuated, and is kept in continual activity, by each individual's desire of bettering- his own condition. Experience proves this ; by show ing us, from the examples of rude countries, that exertion is never made till it begins to be individually productive. Banish then super fluity, remove what is called " the gratification of vanity or appetite ; " is it reasonable to ima gine that the same industry will be employed, when the inducement by which it is excited has been taken away ? The impulse, indeed, once caused, the active habits once introduced by the hope of individual advancement, reaches far beyond the immediate influence of the prin ciple ; but it does not follow that it would con tinue, if the principle itself were removed. That natural and spirit-stirring desire is the nourishment of the body politic ; it is the fer tilizing source which supplies the juices to the
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 65
tree ; and though the stem may for a while show signs of life, and even continue to put forth shoots after the nourishment is dried up, it soon becomes a barren trunk, the decaying monument of former strength and vigour.
What, I would ask, are the circumstances which in the general constitution of civilized society lead to the cultivation of the mind ? Is it, comprehensively speaking, the desire of spreading useful knowledge ? is it the abstract love of science ? is it not rather the conviction, that wealth is procured by learning, that dis tinguished honours reward distinguished abi lity, which implants the principle in early life, which generates in youth the habits of indus try, and animates the labours of maturer age ? The largest share, beyond comparison, of the useful discoveries in moral or philosophical science, in history or civil policy, is derived from the learned professions, which are filled by men who have looked forward from their youth to the various branches of learning as the means of acquiring both subsistence and
VOL. II. F
66 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
reputation. But these sources of information will be cut off, when the hope of improving fortune, and of accumulating- property, is re moved ; when the inexorable agrarian law pre scribes to each man his condition, apportions to him his lot, and forbids him to improve it. The love of fame and distinction may operate for a little while, and upon a few minds ; but being, as we are assured, " a delusion," * it will soon cease to deceive, when no longer supported by the substantial good of increased fortune, and enlarged means of gratification. It matters not that the information contributed to the general stock by the leisure of the learned professions, deviates from the regular path of their duties ; that it is not connected with their necessary labours, but the voluntary amusement of their retirement ; for the habit which is thus exercised in retirement, was ge nerated in the activity of business ; and the study which becomes - recreation, owes its ori gin to the necessity of labour : like the stream
* Polit. Justice, i. 487.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 67
which fertilizes the valleys, but descends from the side of some bleak and barren mountain.
The argument which is commonly employed to enforce youthful application, is the prospect of future success and competency. How is it that a father urges his son to overcome his natural indolence ? He points out to his obser vation some prosperous adventurer, who, born to slender circumstances, by industry, tem perance, and prudence, has raised himself to public distinction or splendid fortune. His precepts, thus illustrated by the examples which the world every where affords, must have a powerful, and, it may be added, an honourable effect upon the mind. But reverse this intelligible argument ; and say, " Enter the field of knowledge, promote the general advance of intellect. Let your mind be deli vered from all anxiety about corporal support, and expatiate freely in the field of thought which is congenial to her. It is the duty of each individual to assist the inquiries of all." * * Polit. Justice, vol. i. p. 463.
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Few persons, I conceive, entertain such san guine views of human nature, as to suppose that if the pursuit of knowledge had been encouraged by no other stimulants, it would not have been confined within much narrower limits.
Nor would it be a satisfactory answer to these observations, to point out the numerous persons who apply to the cultivation of their minds, though urged by no necessity. The necessity of labour to the majority, establishes a standard which it is an object of emulation to attain : but remove that general necessity, and you break the main-spring of the whole. It may be fairly asserted, that one third, at least, of the community receive as good an education now, as it would be possible to give them even though things were levelled to the proposed equality. Yet, notwithstanding the advan tages of education, the example of general ac tivity, and the force of early habit, the prone- ness of the mind to sink into languid indolence, as soon as it ceases to be stimulated by the
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 6Q
immediate view of reward or the sensible pres sure of necessity, too plainly blazons the truth that mankind are not so constituted as to be swayed by abstract rules, rather than sensible motives ; and that nothing can be more chime rical than the expectation of a whole people setting- out upon the pursuit of knowledge, with no stronger inducement than the prospect of general utility.
It is, indeed, curious to observe how im possible it is to preserve consistency in an argument the basis of which is defective. " Hereditary wealth," says the author of Poli tical Justice, " is in reality a premium paid to idleness, an immense annuity expended to retain mankind in brutality and ignorance. The poor are kept ignorant by the want of lei sure. The rich are furnished indeed with the means of cultivation and literature, but they are paid for being dissipated and extravagant. The most powerful means that malignity could have invented, are employed to prevent them from improving their talents, and becoming
70 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
useful to the public."* What, however, are these means, except the power of enjoyment without the necessity of labour ? It is hard to say what obstacles prevent the rich from cul tivating- the mind in the present state of things, which would not oppose the improvement of the whole community on the principle of uni versal and equal competency. To appoint to every one, on his entrance into the world, the limits of his fortune, would be the most suc cessful method of encouraging ignorance and privileging idleness.
IV. The great, indeed the only test of poli tical expediency, is practice : the only guide, experience. Of this the advocate of equality is aware ; and therefore refers us, though in a cursory manner, which betrays his conviction of the weakness of his prop, to the " great practical authorities, Crete, Sparta, Peru, and Paraguay."!
* Pol. Just. vol. ii. p. 459.
t The missionary government of Paraguay was so peculiar, and so far from independent, as not to require any discussion. Its authors and supporters, the Jesuits, did not spring up, and
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 71
The first mention of these countries does not certainly excite in the reader of history, the idea of moral or intellectual perfection. We re member the barbarous treatment of the Helots at Lacedaemon, and the systematic massacres by which their numbers were reduced. We are re minded of the proverbial disesteem in which the inhabitants of Crete* were held by the surround ing nations ; while Peru and Paraguay suggest to us the idea of " societies, still at the time of their discovery, in the first stages of their transi tion from barbarism to civilization. "t Let us, however, briefly inquire whether the imperfec tions were accidental, which forbid the proposing of these governments as models, or whether they proceeded from the very nature of their equal constitution, and are not, in fact, " great practical authorities" in favour of that different establish-
had not their education, in a state of equality. The Indians however, it may be observed, were only just emerging from gross ignorance when the missionaries were for them so un fortunately recalled.
* Polybius, 1. 6. Mitford's Greece, i. 280.
f Robertson's America, iii. 353.
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memt which nature has uniformly introduced where her laws are not counteracted by some very peculiar provision.
The laws of Minos led the way to those of Lycurgus. Their principles were the same ;* namely, that all freemen should be equal. It will be sufficient, therefore, to comprehend them under one head, and to take the laws of Sparta from their panegyrist Xenophon.t Ly curgus, it appears, divided the possessions of the state into lots, according to the number of citizens he found ; and these parcels of land were neither to be increased by subdivision,
* These principles were, " that all freemen should be equal ; and therefore that none should have any property in lands or goods ; but that citizens should be served by slaves, who cultivated the lands on public account That the citi zens should dine at public tables, and their families subsist on public stock." Adams on Ant. Republics. This con stitution of Crete is enthusiastically described by Strabo. Aristotle, 1. 2, de Rep. speaks of" that of Sparta in a very different tone.
f De Laced. Politeia, cap. 7. See also Plutarch in Vila Lycurgi. According to the latter authority, even ra cTriTrXa, personal and moveable property, was divided.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. J3
nor diminished by alienation ; but the redun dant population was drained off in colonies. Every thing conspired to keep down and restrain the natural tendency of wealth towards in equality. The frugal and public mode of living rendered it useless to acquire wealth with a view to gratification. The peculiar nature of the cjrrent coin rendered its accumulation impossi ble. It was the boast of the country, " that, in other states of Greece, all men were allowed to exercise their fortunes in whatever way they chose, in agriculture, navigation, merchandise, or the arts ; but that, in Sparta, Lycurgus had forbidden freemen to be concerned in any business by which money is acquired, and to study those things only which tend to preserve freedom."*
If equality of condition can expand the mind, if relaxation from the labour to which the lower orders are commonly subjected, can withdraw it from the ground we tread upon, and raise it
* Xen. cap. 7.
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to the subjects of contemplation that are con genial to active intelligence ; here surely we shall find the genius to have flourished that enlarged science, and pointed out the immu table truths of morals ; here we shall find the source of that refined literature, which has ren dered Greece the instructress of so many ages. Far otherwise. The truth of history obliges us to confess, that the constitution of Sparta gave to her citizens independence and bravery, but none of the virtues which render those qualities engaging. The regulations which preserved equality, benumbed the activity of the mind ; rendered the Spartans formidable indeed to their neighbours, because restless at home ; and rest less at home, because deprived of the resources of industry. Crete, though somewhat less bar barous, and not averse from the arts of poetry and music, has left to posterity no memorial of literary genius, or examples of illustrious virtue. Upon the whole, these republics are so far from having practically shown us, that no farther sti mulants to the cultivation of the mind are re quired, than opportunity and leisure, that the very
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 75
equality which is the theme of so much pane gyric is explained to us by writers of less equal and more laborious communities ; to whose un fettered activity alone it is owing-, that the once important names of Crete arid Lacedcemon are not as completely obscured and blotted out by time, as the ruins of Carthage or Babylon.*
Peru offers us an example of the equal divi sion of property, but not of equality of con dition. t The distinction of ranks was there fully established. " A great body of the inha bitants, under the denomination of Yanaconas, were held in a state of servitude. Their garb
* Cicero (Brutus, 1. 13) remarks that Sparta had never even produced an orator ; which is most extraordinary in a country where there was so much liberty. Tyrtaeus was an Athenian, though he wrote (or sung) at Lacedzemon. In Crete, the names of Thales, who was sent to Lacedaemon to soften the Spartan manners by his lyric poetry, and of Chry- sothemis, who gained the musical prize at the Olympic games, have been recorded.
t The account of this division, and the mode of cultivation, as given by Robertson, is highly interesting, and seems the groundwork of Mr. Godwin's ideal system.
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and houses were of a form different from those of freemen. Like the Tamenes of Mexico, they were employed in carrying- burdens, and in per forming every work of drudgery. Next to them in rank were such of the people as were free, but distinguished by no official or here ditary honours. Above them were raised what the Spaniards denominated Orejones. They formed what may be called the order of nobles, and in peace, as well as war, held every office of power or trust. At the head of all were the Children of the Sun, who, by their high descent and peculiar privileges, were as much exalted above the Orejones, as these were ele vated above the people."* These different orders must necessarily have infused a spirit into the general body, and have prevented that stagnation which results from total equality. The arts of industry and refinement, unknown in Sparta, were here carried to some perfection. But it is remarkable, that the peculiarity of their administration of property gives a prac-
* Robertson's America, vol. iii. p. 339.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 77
tical illustration of the very evils which I origi nally alluded to, as universally accompanying the equalization of fortunes. " In the towns of the Mexican empire, stated markets were held, and whatever could supply any want or desire of man was an object of commerce. But in Peru, from the singular mode of dividing pro perty, and the manner in which the people were settled, there was hardly any species of com merce carried on between different provinces ; and the community was little acquainted with that active intercourse, which is at once a bond of union and an incentive to improvement." A recent intelligent traveller makes the same conclusion : " If we examine,'* he says, " the mechanism of the Peruvian government under the Yncas, generally too much exalted in Europe, we shall find, that wherever the people are divided into castes, of which each can only follow a certain species of labour, and wherever the inhabitants possess no particular property, the people, preserving for thousands of years the same appearance of external comfort, make
78 CONDITION MOST SUITABLE
almost no advances in moral cultivation."* Nor did these institutions, which denied to the Peru vians the advantag-es of refinment arising from industrious communication, compensate the loss, as with the Spartans and Cretans of old, by that public spirit and love of freedom which is the just object of admiration. " There is not an instance in history, of any people so little advanced in refinement, so totally destitute of military enterprise. Peru was subdued at once, and almost without resistance ; and the most favourable opportunities of regaining their free dom, and of crushing their oppressors, were lost through the timidity of the people."-}-
This review of those few countries which have, by artificial means, kept down the natural tendency of property to run into large and unequal masses, and have retained any degree of equality together with civilization, abundantly proves to us that the distribution of fortunes,
* Humboldt, vol. i. p. 162. Robertson, vol. iii. p. 355. f Robertson, vol. iii. p. 35(i.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 79
which nature has rendered inevitable, is in fact the only one conducive to general improve ment. The most insuperable objection, how ever, still remains to be brought forward. " When labour should be rendered in the strict est sense voluntary, when it should cease to interfere with our improvement, and rather become a part of it, or, at worst, be converted into a source of amusement and variety,"* who would undertake those employments which form the largest, and not the least necessary part of the labour of the community, which no variety could render satisfactory, no perversion of taste amusing ? to which, in short, nothing could reconcile the mind, but the necessity of working for subsistence, and the constant and presiding influence of gain ? When the " quan tity of exertion is to be so light, as rather to assume the guise of agreeable relaxation and gentle exercise, than of labour,"t what shall pre serve all the roads, the mines, the canals, of the community ?
* Polit. Just. vol. ii. p. 494. t Pol. Just. ii. 482.
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" Labor omnia vincit
Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas."
But will the sense of justice, or the sense of shame, to which we are referred as the genu ine correctives of idleness, cut a canal in a century, or induce a body of individuals, al ready, according- to the supposition, possessed of competence, to conduct the subterraneous operations of a mine ? At the first stroke, then, of equality, we are deprived of the useful, as well as of the precious metals ; of coals, in many countries no less indispensable ; the pro duce of the richest districts is locked up or wasted, while the poorest are reduced to famine through the want of cultivation. There is not a manufacture, even after the exclusion of all luxury, that does not require processes very " inconsistent with the most desirable state of human existence." *
* The absence of luxuries, however ornamental, and even of the polite arts, might certainly be considered as desirable, if the condition of the main body of the people was in con sequence improved. " Servants, labourers, and workmen of different kinds, make up the far greater part of every
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 81
How then was this difficulty overcome in the "great practical authorities" we have been considering? In a manner which must surely deter the advocates of equality from the defence even of their own system. In Sparta, four hundred thousand slaves were devoted to forty thousand citizens. In Crete, nine tenths of mankind were doomed to slavery, to support the citizens in total idleness, excepting those exercises proper for warriors. In Peru, it has already been observed, that " a great body of the inhabitants were kept in a state of servitude.*' And to this servitude, no doubt, the Peruvians were indebted for the celebrated road of the Yncas, extending from Cusco to Quito, about fifteen hundred miles.
political society. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable." (Smith's Wealth of Nations, b. i. 1. 8.) But the same great authority has observed with perfect truth, that the " accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodations of the latter exceed those of an African king." Every condition of life is alike a gainer by the arts of civilization.
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The political advantage, therefore, of equality is, we see, a splendid image,* which crumbles at the touch : and there would be no surer method of fixing mankind in stationary barba rism, if the constitution of things had not posi tively forbidden that it should ever be introduced into real or general practice. We are told, indeed, that a state of great intellectual improve ment is to obviate the objection arising from indolence. Our experience, however, of the slow and painful progress of intellectual improve ment does not authorize any sanguine expecta tions of a rapid or considerable advance beyond the present standard of civilized countries. The records of a hundred generations, during which we have a tolerable history of mankind, oblige us to conclude that there is no way by which
* It is impossible that these obstacles to its practice should not have been felt by Mr. Godwin, during the close attention to the subject which his inquiry demanded ; but by an inge nious rejection of all details, 'and an abundance of general remark, he has kept the total impracticability of the system out of the first view of the reader, who is charmed by the delusive prospect, and overlooks the impassable barriers that lie between.
TO HUMAN FACULTIES. 83
the mind can be so effectually prompted to exer tion, as by the prospect of those tangible re wards which minister comfort or supply necessity. When the race of men shall have been to such a degree improved, as to require no other motives of action* than benevolence, and a sense of public utility, the main prop will certainly be taken from the argument which I have here pursued. But in the mean time it is not pre sumptuous to conclude, that the situation best calculated to improve by exercise the faculties of man, is civil society, consisting, as it does, of unequal fortunes, ranks, and conditions.t
* " The moment I require any farther reason tor supplying you, than the cogency of your claim, the moment, ia addi tion to the dictates of benevolence, I demand a prospect of reciprocal advantage to myself, there is an end of that poli tical justice and pure equality of which I treat." Pol. Just. ii. 513.
•j- This must not be understood as favouring the accumu lation of wealth into few hands. The more gradual the steps by which you ascend from the lowest to the highest fortune, the more advantageous is the state of the community. Much inconvenience results, in many countries, from the colossal fortunes of a few individuals, contrasted with general poverty. The civilization is always least advanced where any of the intermediate steps are wanting.
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84 ON THE CONDITION
CHAPTER IV.
Wliether Equality or Inequality of Ranks and Fortunes, is the Condition best suited to the Exercise of Virtue.
IF the advantages arising to mankind from their union in civil society could be pursued no farther, it would be a sufficient evidence of the Creator's wisdom, that he had provided for bringing the human race into a situation so favourable for the development of their facul ties. But intelligence, though the distinguish ing ornament of our species, is still to be held inferior and subservient to virtue. And since the great object of our existence on earth is believed to be moral discipline, it might be, difficult to reconcile the inequality of condi tions with that main purpose of human life,
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 85
unless a state consisting- of such unequal con ditions had a farther advantage, even beyond its first effect of bringing the mental faculties to their highest perfection. The truth is, how ever, that the inequality of conditions, which is the foundation of civil society, affords not only the best improvement of the human faculties, but the best trial of the human virtues ; it is the nursery most suited to their formation, and the theatre most fitted for their exercise.
The advocates of equality are not contented with denying this j they assert the very con trary. " Reduce all conditions to equality,'' it has been said, " and the great occasions of crime will be cut off for ever." This bold de claration must not be admitted even in passing : for it is impossible to suppose any condition of things so equal, that no man shall desire what belongs to another. A change of this sort, if effected at all, must originate in the inward habits, and riot in the outward situation of man. But the truer proposition is, that the great occasions of virtue would be cut off for
86 ON THE CONDITION
ever, without any corresponding1 deduction on the score of vice.* A complete community of goods, if it could possibly exist on a large
* Pol. Justice, i 462. The observations of Aristotle on this subject deserve attention, because he had an opportu nity of seeing that of which we have no instance, the actual operation of a certain degree of equality with some share of comparative civilization. " The bare necessaries of life, food and fuel, clothes to cover our nakedness, and a home to shelter us from the storm, comforts, which it is pretended, the equalization of property would enable all men to enjoy, are not the only incentives to injustice. The greatest crimes are committed for none of these things. It is not to avoid cold or hunger that tyrants cover themselves with blood ; and states decree the most illustrious rewards, not to him who catches a thief, but to him who kills an usurper. Pha- leas's plan of equalizing property is useful, therefore, against the least and most inconsiderable only of the evils which infest society, evils against which there is an appropriate remedy in industry and moderation.
" The equalization of fortunes may have some slight ten dency to stifle animosity and prevent dissension. But its effect is always inconsiderable, and often doubtful ; since those who think themselves entitled to superiority will not patiently brook equality. The wickedness of man is bound less ; and is an evil that cannot be remedied by equalizing property, whether lands or moveables." Lib. 2. de Polit. chap, vii.; or v. of Dr. Gillies's translation, from which 1 here quote, as being sufficiently accurate for the purpose.
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 87
scale, might diminish the temptations to fraud and robbery ; but these constitute only a small part of the moral guilt of mankind ; while, on the other hand, all those virtuous habits which derive both their origin and their perfections from the varieties of the human condition, all the dispositions of mind to which the different circumstances of civilized life give play and action, would lose the occasions under which they are now formed, and the opportunities in which they are displayed. The Platonic view of moral virtue, which places it in the contem plation of ideal excellence, may be consistent with a state of perfection, but is incompatible with a state of probation. Virtue is an active and energetic habit, arising from the various relations of human life, and exercised in the practice of real duties ; so that, as you increase the number and variety of those relations, you enlarge its sphere of action ; and in proportion as you contract them, in proportion as you bring down the conditions of mankind towards an uniform level, you lower the standard, and reduce the degree of moral excellence.
88 ON THE CONDITION
It may possibly be argued, that this descrip tion of virtue originates not in the nature of virtue itself, but in the situation of man ; and that I represent as its essential property what is only its accidental quality. It may be thought, that although, according to the pre sent constitution of things, man must certainly deny himself many gratifications, and repress his natural feelings and desires, in compliance with the laws ordained for his conduct : yet that he would be an equally virtuous being, if placed in circumstances that required no such reluctant exertion.
It is undeniable that there may be a species of virtue, visible and pleasing to the Creator, which shall consist in the internal habit of the mind, independent of any outward action ; an equable, unmoved, pious, and pure state of the soul, not shining by victorious exertion against opposition, but admirable for its intrinsic ex cellence. There is nothing unintelligible in this idea of virtue, though it is rather an object of our conception than of experience. Such is
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 8<J
probably the virtue of beings, higher than our selves in the scale of creation ; such may be our virtue hereafter, in a purer state, and in a purer world. It is superior in positive excellence to any that we can possibly acquire, because the difficulties and repulses which man encounters in his endeavours towards the perfection which he sets before him, are all so many proofs of his inferiority, and of the weakness of his moral principle.
The Deity however, when he determined to make this stage of existence a passage to ano ther, in which the virtues here cultivated and exhibited should be rewarded, and the contrary habits punished in proportion, had it not in con templation to create a perfect character, but to discipline an imperfect one. Therefore, he did not place human beings in a state where inherent virtue should be most sublime, but where prac tical virtue should be most conspicuous, and most properly the subject of reward. But untried virtue is the object of love, esteem, or admira-
90 ON THE CONDITION
tion, rather than of reward ; which being a recompense for good performed, requires, or supposes, that such good should not have been the unavoidable consequence of the circum stances in which the agent was placed, but his voluntary election from various conflicting ob jects set before him. Virtue, therefore, cannot become justly rewardable, till it has been proved equal to trial ; in other words, till it has shown itself capable of enforcing the practice of some duty, or the sacrifice of some inclination, in obe dience to certain obligations by which it is bound.
Humble, therefore, as the pretensions of the fairest human virtue must ever be in regard to intrinsic worth, it may, notwithstanding, be more deserving of reward than virtue far supe rior to it in dignity and stability. Its com parative value is proportioned to the difficulties it has overcome. The intellectual powers of the laborious student may never arrive at the vigour of the lofty genius ; yet though the
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. (J1
mind of superior mould commands the highest admiration, the industrious exertions of the other are the object of more just approbation to the impartial observer of their mutual pro gress. The Creator is such an observer of the actions of mankind ; and, in appreciating their deserts, will take into consideration their natu ral powers, opportunities, and difficulties, ra ther than the positive degree of moral virtue they have attained.
It is certain, at least, that this idea of re- wardable virtue falls in with our common and familiar notions. In for.ninsr our estimate of
o
merit or demerit, we habitually take into ac count the circumstances of the agent ; and ad mire the moderation of Cyrus or the continence of Scipio, more than the privations of a recluse or an anchoret. Justice appears brightest where it has proved superior to opportunities of fraud ; benevolence, where something is re signed by its exercise. The virtue of Adam in Paradise was liable to no trial, except that of obedience to a positive law ; and if that obe-
92 ON THE CONDITION
dience had not been exacted, would have been entitled to no contingent reward.*
* As human life is constituted, it is difficult to find the case of a virtue which is not exposed to actual temptation. But perhaps an instance in point may be taken from the vir tue of loyalty, which, in a time of civil union, lies dormant and unregarded ; no man praises another, or values himself for possessing it, as if it were called into daily display, like charity, justice, or temperance. Change the complexion of the times, and loyalty becomes an active virtue ; and no one will deny that it was a virtue of considerable account in the numerous persons, many of them in a very inferior condition, who favoured the concealment and escape of Charles the Second after the battle of Worcester. Independently of all political considerations, it is impossible not to admire the rooted fidelity which was proof against a large reward on one hand, and the dread of the punishment of treason on the other.
What loyalty is in quiet times, such would all virtue be in a state which precluded temptation ; and it approaches nearer to this dormant state, in proportion as the temptations are fewer or less powerful. Introduce the idea of reward and the case becomes still clearer. For, as we should ridi. cule a subject who demanded any favour of his king in return for his inherent loyalty, or abstract veneration of the mo narchical character ; so we should think that loyalty worthy of any reasonable requital which had been evinced in seasons of public commotion, and practised at the expense of pecu niary sacrifice and at tin- risk of personal danger.
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 93
It does not follow from this reasoning, that it is the duty of man to expose his moral con stancy to hazard, or that virtue ought to court danger, and place itself in the midst of volun tary temptation. The description here given of rewardable virtue will not even derogate from the merit of those, whatever it may be thought to be, who in various ages have re treated from the seductions of the world, and shut the door against its pleasures. For virtue though it demands occasions for its exercise, and does not consist in the absence of all temptations to the contrary practice of vice, may very properly consist in the avoiding, as well as in the overcoming, the attractions of vicious pursuits. To retreat beyond the reach of objects which are likely to conquer our prin ciples and resolutions, is actual virtue ; but it supposes the existence of those objects. It has indeed been often alleged as a reproach against a monastic life, that it was excluded from the opportunities of virtue, and sacrificed active duties to passive devotion ; but it should not be forgotten, that a world of temptation
1)4 ON THE CONDITION
existed without the walls of the monastery, which it was some virtue to avoid.
All the merit, however, which can arise from such a sacrifice, all the train of graceful and benevolent virtues, which have their origin in the various conditions of which human society is composed, and the mutual dependence of these upon each other, are unknown to a state of equality. In exact proportion as you reduce the conditions of mankind to one uniform level, and diminish the number and variety of rela tions which they bear towards each other, you circumscribe the opportunities of virtue, and narrow the theatre of its exertion. The state of savage life, which, after what has been said in the preceding chapter, I must be allowed to make synonymous with equality, affords little room for that benevolent expan sion of the heart, which arises from the exercise of the social affections. The place of those social affections is filled by selfish appetite, and the unsubdued violence of natural feelings ; and the moral state is marked by the absence of that gene-
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 95
rous affection, which in civilized life springs up within the domestic circle, and, extending- from thence to all who are placed within reach of its influence, spreads joy and happiness in every direction.
The connexion, on the contrary, which unites the various ranks of civil society, is peculiarly calculated to call forth all the benevolent, all the social duties, of which the human heart is capable. It is perhaps true, that the first prospect of a country far advanced in civiliza tion, appals us by the vast disproportion ob servable between the wealth of a few, and the poverty of the many : nor can we rid ourselves of the idea of superfluity and indigence, even when it becomes apparent that these extremes are connected by an almost regular gradation of intermediate fortunes. If mankind had no ulterior destination, and their enjoyment on earth was the sole end and purpose of their being, this disproportion would not only be re. markable if it existed at all, but inexplicable if it existed necessarily. But the case becomes
J(J ON THE CONDITION
altogether different, when every situation is considered as being accompanied by its pe culiar duty, and forming a separate sphere of probation. The various conditions of hu man life each require a settled course of action, according to a principle deliberately embraced for the right government of the conduct : and in proportion as the conditions are various, the more room there is for the exercise of virtue, in determining and adhering to the line of duty.
Take, for example, the superfluity of the rich. This is not gratuitously bestowed, but imposes upon them the peculiar duty of judi cious expenditure. To determine what excess beyond the natural wants is suitable to an ex alted station or an abundant fortune, and what, on the other hand, may be justly condemned as useless and ostentatious luxury, is a ques tion which demands the constant exercise of judgment, and lays a most beneficial restraint upon all the selfish feelings. For, let it not be thought that all superfluities should be pruned
:\IOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 97
off as luxury, or blamed as vanity : some part of an extensive fortune may be properly em ployed in encouraging those liberal arts which contribute towards the perfection of man, and in diffusing- that wholesome industry which the regular expenditure of the rich spreads in a thousand channels. I hold no concurrence with the unsound axiom, that vice, in any case, ran be productive of public utility ; but it would argue an unjustifiable austerity to deny that the judicious liberality of the opulent, though not employed on purposes usually termed cha ritable, is beneficial to a civilized community. The exercise of judicious charity is still more imperative. This demands of the affluent not only a denial of some luxurious vanities, but what is often more reluctantly sacrificed, a portion of their time, and a sound exertion of discriminating judgment. Those stated and uninquiring bounties, which, having their as signed periods, are expected by the receivers as their regular income, and, having no defi nite object, produce no definite advantage, commonly meet with no other return than in-
VOI.. II. II
98 ON THE CONDITION
gratitude. But much less wealth than is often misapplied in such indiscriminate purposes, or in others of a more useful but equally ostenta tious kind, might invigorate drooping industry, might solace patient suffering, and, above all, might widely spread those advantages of edu cation, which, if universally diffused, would prevent one half the miseries and privations we lament in the world. The charity which is often employed to wipe the tear of distress, might, by a more prudent application, stop the source from which it flows.*
* It is interesting to find this clearly recognized by Aristotle, who had seen the consequence of a regular distri bution of public bounty at Athens. 'Owov $' curl irpoaotiai, Sel fjirj TTOielv 8 rvv 61 Stjfjaywyol iroioval. rd yap Trepidvra vepovvi. \afjiftuvovai fie a^ia, KOI TciXii' deoi'rai rtSy dvru>v. 6 rerpi^evoc yap efffi iriQoq tj roidvrr] fioqSeia roFc QTropoic- 'AXXct £ei TOV d\riQivwQ IrinoTixov, opqv OTTWC TO TrXrjdoQ HYJ \iav Airopov »/'. Pol. lib. vi. ch. v. " \Vhen revenues superabound, it is now usual with demagogues to divide the surplus among the poor : but this is to pour water into a sieve. A good statesman, instead of occasionally relieving the wants of the poor, who quickly return to be again relieved, will continually strive to better their permanent condition." To compare Aristotle's " Politics " with Smith's Wealth of Nations, is as absurd on
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 99
This peculiar exercise, proposed to the active virtue of the rich, springs entirely, let it be ob served, from the relative situation in which they are placed by the inequalities of fortune. De stroy that inequality, there is no industry to en courage, no genius to stimulate ; a loss indeed that would be of less importance, if it could be added, that no want would require relief, no misery demand alleviation. But they have not studied in the rigid school of experience, who imagine that equality could banish the most poignant distresses of life, or that the greatest misfortunes to which mankind are subject ori ginate in their external circumstances.
It would be a trespass on the province of the moralist, to take more than a cursory view of the duties which their situation more parti cularly imposes upon the middle and lower ranks of society. In the former of these, a prudential restraint upon the passions stands
the one band, as it is on the other to deny that it contains a fund of profound and judicious remark on the constitutions <>f antiquity, though mixed with some fundamental errors.
H 2
100 ON THE CONDITION.
most prominent, and deserves especial remark, as being totally unknown in those conditions of society where an equal hand supplies alike the thoughtless and the temperate, the frugal and the extravagant. This duty arises out of the rapid growth of population. The difficulty which exists in an old and fully peopled coun try, of acquiring support in the rank and sphere to which each individual belongs by birth, re quires an habitual restraint, and a prudent de- r.ial of those inclinations which, in other cir cumstances of the human race, are only felt to be gratified.* Since the desires which it is
* Should any one be inclined to question the wisdom of a provision which requires this restraint, and allege its fre quent infraction as an argument against the dispensation, let him reflect on the state of those countries where the restraint is disregarded, or where there is little occasion for its exer cise ; as in many parts of the East, and among the Poly nesians, &c. Their example is a sufficient proof how little is gained, on the score of mor.ality, by the facility of grati fication, or the absence of restraint. America is a case still more in point, being generally understood to be the country where marriage takes place earlier, and more easily, than in any other of equal civilization. Yet it is not represented as superior in the virtue of chastity to countries where the multi-
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 101
necessary to subject to these checks, are always natural, and sometimes laudable ; and since the evils which attend their gratification are pro spective and even distant, while the gratification is itself immediate ; reason has here an occasion of exercising- her peculiar province, in keeping the right balance between opposite interests ; and the right use of that province leads to the perfection of those virtues which are the chief ornament and characteristic of man.
It is equally true with respect to the lowest
plication of the species is ten times slower. Among1 Euro pean nations, where the duty of restraint is recognised, the sexual passion is the great touchstone of virtue, and of the efficacy of religion. That it is too often violated, all must lament : that it is observed to a considerable extent, no one can deny ; or that its observance would be more general and easy if proper attention were paid to the subject in educa tion, and if absurd custom had not autliori/ed the habitual use of inflammatory liquors, at an age \\hich by no means re quires any such artificial incitement. The Creator has not made the indulgence of any passion obligatory on mankind ; but vicious custom may pervert the intention of nature, and change a necessary provision into a moral poison.
See, on the first part of the subject of this note, Maltlius's <>bst nations, vol. ii. p. 493.
102 ON THE CONDITION
ranks, that their peculiar circumstances open at once a field both for the trial of their virtue and the improvement of their reason. To see so many around them in the easy and undisturbed possession of what they are themselves inces santly labouring- to attain, because their own ancestors have been either less prudent or less fortunate, requires the constant exertion of patient contentment. Their reason is employed meanwhile, in some cases, to point out the ad vantage of preserving- a cheerful equanimity under those hardships which no discontent can remove or alleviate ; and in others, to discover what prospect there may be of meliorating-, by successful industry, the difficulties inseparable from the very lowest condition. The strug-g-le to escape this is the constant spur of labour. Reason must teach the foresight which enables a healthy and vigorous youth to provide against the infirmities of age ; and by which a father points out to his children the path in which they may tread the rough road of life with fewest obstacles, and the fairest prospect of success. I>y this right application of the rational faculties,
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 103
poverty may be rendered tolerable, and indi gence avoided. These conditions, it must be ever remembered, are essentially distinct and separate. Poverty is often both honourable and comfortable ; but indigence can only be pitiable, and is usually contemptible. Poverty is not only the natural lot of many, in a well-constituted society, but is necessary, that a society may be well constituted. Indigence, on the contrary, is seldom the natural lot of any, but is commonly the state into which intemperance and want of prudent foresight push poverty : the punishment which the moral government of God inflicts in this world upon thoughtlessness and guilty ex travagance. It is one of the moral advantages of civil society, that every condition has a ten dency to sink into the degree immediately below it, unless that tendency is counteracted by pru dence and activity ; and the descent, which from the higher ranks becomes degradation, from the lower becomes indigence.
From the collected aggregate of these various duties, results that mutual dependence and
104 ON THE CONDITION
connexion, which is the bond of society. The labour of the lowest class, which feeds the super fluities of the highest, like the vapour which has been drawn from the earth, descends again in a thousand channels, and fertilizes the soil into which it falls. There are persons, it must be confessed, who, in such a constitution of things, can see only " a spirit of oppression, a spirit of servility, and a spirit of fraud ;" and, in truth, among the infinite varieties and corruptions of the human mind, some will doubtless find an oc casion of falling, where others find an occa sion of virtue. But it may be maintained, that, exclusive of the particular duties which this scheme of society renders incumbent on each individual, and every class of individuals, the general spirit of dependence, the general connexion, not necessary but voluntary, is highly favourable to that benevolence which was truly said to approximate mankind nearest to the divine nature. There is little in the situation of man, which can make us select independence as most congenial to him. For his original and his continued existence, he is indebted to his
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 105
Creator. For the real comforts and happiness of his life, he must be indebted to his fellow- creatures. All those who, in the crowded scene of civilization, are mainly employed in pursuing- their own advantage, can only attain their end, by promoting collaterally the happiness of their neighbour. The confidence, the reciprocal kind ness, the intercourse which arises from this con nexion, is surely as amiable as that proud inde pendence which has been recommended as the chief advantage resulting- from an equality of ranks and possessions.
Let us examine the case before appealed to, and conceive a division of property like that in Peru. "The largest share of the lands was reserved for the maintenance of the people, among whom it was parcelled out. They pos sessed it, however, only for a year ; at the ex piration of which, a new division was made in proportion to the rank, the number, and exi gencies of each family. All these lands were cultivated by the joint industry of the com munity. The people, summoned by proper
106 ON THE CONDITION
officers, repaired in a body to the fields, and per forming- their common task, while songs and mu sical instruments cheered them to their labour."*
There is something, it must be confessed, in this description, so unlike the unwilling toil and incessant drudgery we see around us, that a sanguine mind must imperceptibly be seduced by its fascination. That the concerns of an ex tensive community cannot be regulated in this manner, and were not even in Peru, has been already shown, by an examination of particu lars ; and the progress of population makes it evident, that the long duration of such a state of
* Robertson's America, iii. 339.
So, among the Negroes on the banks of the river Gambia, the seed-time is a period of much festivity. "Those who belong to the same village unite in cultivating the ground, and the chief appears at their head, armed as if he were going out to battle, and surrounded by a band of musicians, who, by singing and playing upon musical instruments, en deavour to encourage the labourers. The chief frequently joins in the music ; and the workmen accompany their labour with a variety of ridiculous gestures and grimaces, according to the different tunes witli which they are entertained." Millar, Orig. of Ranks, 159.
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 107
things is absolutely inconsistent with the eco nomy on which the world is constituted, unless that obstacle is provided against by some arti ficial expedients. But laying aside for a moment these considerations : to a degree how inferior, when compared with his present dignity and station, would man be lowered, when reduced to a situation so regular and mechanical !
Virtue, as it has been truly and frequently remarked, is not more seen or tried in high and splendid situations, than in the every -day oc currences of quiet and tranquil life ;* since that obedience to given rules, on which virtue de pends, is no less necessary in a humble, than in an exalted sphere. But this remark does not apply to the sameness of a life such as has been here described, where the faculties have no ex citement, where half the passions would lie dormant, and that noblest virtue which consists
* Arist, Eth. X. 8. 'Ot tctw-at rwv Ivvaaruv ov\ IJTTOV a eirieiKtj Trpc/rreu', c«XXa xal ^dXXov. IKUVOV £e roiavff . earut yiip 6 /3/oc evciit^wy, TOV Kara. TI)V a'per^V i et sc<|»|.
108 ON THE CONDITION
in the moderation and right direction of them, must want all opportunity of exercise. The real fact is, that such equality would sink the general standard of morality, first, by rendering- stagnant the human faculties, and secondly, by cutting off the existence of exalted characters.
It is by observation of the actions of man kind in various situations, and of their effect upon the character of the actors and the hap piness of others, that the leading rules of morality are discovered and laid down. Whe ther virtue be defined to consist in the suit ableness of the affections to their objects, in the conformity of the actions to the truth or fitness of things, or in a benevolent regard to general utility and expediency,* questions which have
4 I would not be understood to give any of these as defi nitions of Chr 1st i fin virtue. It is so evident, that the same definition of virtue will not be applicable to persons \vho have, and who have not, the advantage of Revelation, that it is surprising so much fruitless pains should have been taken to bring both situations under the same rule. If asked what has been my view of virtue in this chapter, I should say, that, considered as a settled principle of action,
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. 109
afforded an advantageous employment to reason in various ages ; it can certainly only be judged of in situations admitting the various relations of society, and displaying the effects of their various duties. This is the field where intellect should expatiate, and these are the situations where, in fact, the brightest ornaments of hu manity have successively appeared and shone. If we trace the progress of morals from Con fucius to Socrates, and from Cicero to the present day, all who have formed the truest judgment and delivered the justest rules of action have lived in a state where the distinction of ranks was most marked, and every variety of condition visible.*
it consisted in the being influenced by right motives to the attainment of a right end, according to the degree of light enjoyed by the agent. In proportion as the right end is perceived and the right motives are understood, human virtue becomes more or less perfect. Therefore intelligence is absolutely necessary to the higher degrees of virtue.
* This observation is confirmed by what has been before remarked of the ancient Greeks, that they were first natural, then mural, and last of all political plilosophers.
Ferguson has obstruct, speaking of Rome, under (he
110 ON THE CONDITION
Even if the opportunities of moral observa tion, indispensably necessary to enlarge the views and comprehension of the moralist, could be supposed compatible with equality ; still, the mind to observe, and to reduce observations to practice, would be wanting-. Any state of society, which does not admit and provide for literary leisure, is inconsistent with the due culture and proper discipline of the mind. In Peru, or a state like that of Peru, Socrates would have studied husbandry, and Solon have regulated the plough. Such employments are compatible with active, but not with contempla tive exertion. Generals, if antiquity is to be believed, have been summoned from the field ; but no philosophers.
On the whole, we may be allowed to con clude, that if it had been possible, according
emperors, "The civil law received from the consultations of lawyers, the decisions of judges, and the edicts of princes, continual accessions of light and authority, which has ren dered it the great basis of independence to all the modern nations of Europe." R. R. v. 416.
MOST SUITABLE TO VIRTUE. Ill
to the established system of the universe, for mankind to have continued equal in their for tunes and conditions, the same equality would have extended to their minds. The conse quence would have been a general inferiority of the rational faculties. The existence of high practical rules raises the general standard of morality ; because, even if few attain the sum mit, all are tending, more or less, towards it. But those lights of the world, which have occasionally appeared, and have established, from collected observations, the most useful rules of conduct, and the sublimest morality, would have been extinct. Extinguish then these lights, annihilate these general rules, diminish at the same time the temptations to vice and the opportunities of virtue, the advan tage is doubtful, the evil certain. Experience does not acquaint us, that even the vices would be less gross or numerous j but it is undeniable that the approved virtues would be both of a lower standard, and of rarer occurrence. Va riety of condition enlarges the sphere of active duty ; and every circumstance that enlarges
112 ON THE CONDITION, &C.
the sphere of duty, contributes towards the perfection of a being-, whose distinguishing faculty is obedience to reason, and whose most valuable quality is a power of moral and intel lectual improvement commensurate with his individual situation.
ll.'i
CHAPTER V.
On the Principle of Population, and its Effects :
intended to show that Man is inevitably placed
in that Condition which is most calculated to
improve his Faculties, and afford Opportunities
for the exercise of Virtue.
I AM willing to suppose it has appeared from the foregoing discussion, that a state of society, consisting of various ranks and conditions, is the state best suited to excite the industry and display the most valuable faculties of mankind. Taking, therefore, into consideration the object of man's existence upon earth, it might naturally be expected that the Creator would devise a mean which would inevitably tend to bring the human race, for the most part, into such a situation.
VOL. II. 1
J 14- EFFECTS OF THE
And this, in fact, I believe to be the final cause of that " principle of population," with whose powerful agency we have recently been made acquainted ; the final cause, in other words, of that instinctive propensity in human nature, under all governments, and in every stage of civilization, to multiply up to the means of subsistence, and even to press, by increase of numbers, upon the limits of the food as signed them. The consequence of this univer sal tendency is, to render an inequality of for tunes, and a consequent division of ranks, no less general ; not as a matter of agreement or expediency in which mankind have a liberty of option ; but as a matter of imperious necessity, growing out of the established constitution of their nature.
The existence of this principle was first re marked by political economists in the con cluding half of the last century, and allusions to it may be found in the writings of Wallace, Hume, Franklin, Smith, and particularly of Mr. Townsend, who in the course of his travels
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 115
through Spain had an opportunity of illustrating its influence and effects in every valley and opening- of the mountains, many of which in that country are in a manner insulated from the rest of the world. The human race, he ob serves, however at first, and while their num bers are limited, they may rejoice in affluence, will go on increasing, till they balance their quantity of food. From that period, two appe tites will combine to regulate their numbers. But the merit of establishing the fact, that, notwithstanding the checks to population, both from natural and moral causes, which exist, more or less, in every country, mankind do every where increase their numbers, till their multiplication is restrained by the difficulty of procuring subsistence, and the consequent poverty of some part of the society : this merit is justly due to the comprehensive treatise, in which Mr. Malthus has unfolded this important branch of human history. The work to which I allude, is too well known to justify any abridgment of its leading doctrines, and too
i 2
116 EFFECTS OF THE
well digested to allow any material addition to its statements.*
* I would be understood to speak here of the facts estab lished by Mr. Malthus, as to the different ratio of increase of mankind and their support ; in saying which, I do not allude to the arithmetical and geometrical ratios, as if they were established laws of nature, but to the universal tendency of the species to increase faster than subsistence can be sup plied. With the hypothetical ratios which open the subject in Mr. Malthus's work, I have no immediate concern. Even though as abstract facts they may be undeniable, the general argument of Mr. Malthus is independent of them : and the propositions he brings forward would stand as well even if the introductory statement could be overthrown. Whatever exceptions may be urged against the mode in which Mr. Malthus has introduced his arguments, or to some of the particular consequences he has deduced from them, on which, of course, even the surest premises leave just room for dif ference of opinion ; it is impossible to rise from his trea tise without a conviction, that there is a tendency in mankind under all known circumstances, to pass the limits of their actual supply. It may, however, naturally be asked, how a treatise, which admits the justice of Mr. Malthus's premises, and even takes them as a basis, should represent the effects of the principle of population upon mankind, under such a different aspect ? This will admit of very satisfactory expla nation. It was the object of Mr. M. to show the strength of that principle. Its strength was to be proved by a circum stantial detail of the checks which retard or diminish popula-
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 11?
The fact stands thus. An instinctive prin ciple in our nature, forcibly urgent, wherever it meets with no discouragement from the diffi culty of providing for a family, mutually at taches the sexes to each other. Where this desired and desirable union is unrestrained, and
tion in every country of the world, notwithstanding and in spite of which, no country has actually any food to spare. Those checks are, moral restraint, vice, and misery. Of these three, moral restraint, i. e. restraint upon marriage from prudential considerations, is incalculably the most uni versal and effectual, and is distinctly stated as such by Mr. M. vol. ii. p. 75. But it is a silent and an unseen check, and, comparatively, makes no figure in the account ; whereas the vices and the natural evils to which mankind are liable, wear a tremendous appearance when collected into a small space to prove a particular point. That there was much poverty, much vice, much misery in the world, was well known before ; but it was lost in the more evident appearance of industry, plenty, and content, till all the checks to popula tion were brought together in the aggregate, to point out to us the vigorous operation of the law of increase. For this reason, Mr. Malthus's first volume, though none of its main facts can be disproved, is not to be taken as a representation of the actual state of human nature, but of the disorders to which it is liable. The human constitution is not to be judged of from a system of nosology ; nor the state of society in England from Mr. Colquhoun's View of the Police of the Metropolis.
118 EFFECTS OF THE
its offspring- subject to no premature mortality, the increase which attends it is so rapid, as to double the original population in twelve or fif teen years. And, not to insist upon extreme cases, the increase in countries to a certain degree civilized and widely extended, is known to proceed in a geometrical ratio, i. e. to double the population in twenty-five years, as long as it continues possible, by the employment of skill and labour on a surface of unoccupied land, to find a plentiful subsistence for this growing population.
This tendency to multiplication has long ago so far filled the greater part of the habitable globe, that very few spots remain where it has still room to exert and expand itself. But as the instinct no where ceases, till it meets with its natural check from the diminished supply of food, there is no country, either civilized or uncivilized, where its force does not intrude itself on our observation. This fact is mani fested by the difficulty and distress, to which it is notorious that every state of society, except
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 119
the first possessors of uncleared countries, is re duced in order to procure subsistence for some of its members. It arises from the activity of the principle, which, as long as it remains un checked, as in America, and to a considerable degree in some parts of the Rusisan empire, so quickly doubles the population, that in old and fully peopled countries the population is still constantly pressing against the means of sup port, and labouring to increase, by every possi ble mode, the quantity of food which the country affords.
A survey of the different conditions in which we find mankind collected ; whether the hunt ing state, the pastoral, the agricultural, or the commercial ; will satisfactorily prove, that by a principle inherent in their constitution, man kind invariably press against, and have a ten dency to surpass their actual and available supply of food.
It would appear that in the hunting countries, though they are so thinly peopled, that a tra-
120 EFFECTS OF THE
veller may go many hundred miles without meeting- half a dozen persons, the distresses which are occasionally suffered from hunger are incredible. Mr. Hearne, after describing some in which he was so unfortunate as to par ticipate, desires that these may be considered as no more than the common occurrences of an Indian life, in which they are frequently driven to the necessity of eating one another.*
It would appear, that in the immense dis tricts of Asiatic Russia, Turkey, and the inha bited parts of Africa, we find the same truth universally meeting us. In security of property, arising from vicious government at home, and from the perpetual risk of foreign incursions, spreads an unnatural sterility over the most fertile countries of the world. Yet it is an un deniable fact, that the people, under every
* Quoted by Mr. Weyland, in his volume on Population and Production, p. 34. It is necessary to remark here, that the cause of these evils is not over-population, but want of regular industry. The fact really proved is, that there is no country where the demand for food is below the supply.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 121
circumstance of discouragement, rudely press against the limits of their actual subsistence. Even countries so peculiarly situated as North America, and the newly settled districts of Russia, do not furnish an exception to the general rule : the pressure, of course, is less severe ; population only reaches the available supply, without passing it ; but still it reaches those bounds ; there is nothing to spare.
With regard to the more crowded commercial countries of Europe, the most advanced we know in point of absolute civilization, we have only to look around us in order to be satisfied whether the people do not increase up to the means of support; i. e. whether those who have no other maintenance than the daily wages of their labour, do not increase till that labour earns barely sufficient to support their families. The result of such observation cannot fail to be, that in every department of national industry there are more claimants for employ than em ployers; that the demand is for labour rather than for labourers ; that there are somewhat
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more manufacturers, more artificers, more agri culturists, than can be usefully or profitably, under the existing circumstances, kept in activity by the funds destined for their maintenance. And as labour is the only claim to support which the lowest classes can urge ; to be without employ, is to be without support ; and to mul tiply beyond the demand for labour, is to multi ply beyond the available supply of subsistence.
While every new discovery acquaints us that this principle is not partial in its influence, we learn from history that it has always operated, and produced the same effect. The invasion of Egypt by the shepherd kings, for whose increase their original limits had become insuf ficient, took place within three hundred years of the deluge, and shows how rapidly the most desirable part of the East had been occupied.*
* The other accounts we possess of this period tend to the same conclusion. The partition of countries, a hundred years after the flood, was of course dictated by expediency, if not by absolute necessity. The dispersion from Babel followed at the distance of a hundred and fifty years, and it
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 1C23
The numerous migrations from the maritime states of Asia and ancient Greece, show the constant tendency of the parent countries to multiply beyond the means of comfortable sub sistence. Neither the fertility nor the barren ness of any region seems to prevent the same cause from ending in the same result. Even in the abundant climate of the South Sea Is-
was soon after that event, that the invasion alluded to in the text happened, by part of the family of Ham, who, accord ing to Manetho, took possession of Memphis, under the title of Auritae, or shepherds. See Bryant, Ant. Myth. vol. i. How much light is thrown upon history by the exposition of the principle of population, appears from the following pas sage of Mr. Mitford : u Mankind, according to the most ancient of historians, considerably informed and polished, but inhabiting yet only a small portion of the earth, was in spired generally with a spirit of migration. What gave at the time peculiar energy to that spirit, which seems always to have existed extensively among men, commentators have indeed, with bold absurdity, undertaken to explain ; but the historian himself has evidently intended only general, and that now become obscure information. All history, however, proves that such a spirit has operated over the far greater part of the globe ; and we know that it has never yet ceased to actuate, in a greater or less degree, a large portion of mankind." Hist, of Greece, vol. i. sect. 1.
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lands, the pressure of famine is not unknown ; and " the hungry season, or time of scarcity," is familiarly spoken of by those who have re sided there. The same is true even of the more genial districts of South America.* In climates the most opposite to these, as for in stance, those of Lapland or New Zealand, any deviation from the usual course of the seasons brings upon the inhabitants as sensible a dis tress from scarcity, as the crowded kingdoms of China or Hindostan sustain by the failure of their crops of rice, and the deficiencies of the public granaries.
Such then is the established fact, that, ac cording to the attachments and instincts of our common nature, the human race continues to increase, till the population presses upon the actual supply of food ; so that there will always be in every inhabited country as many persons existing as it will support at all, and always more than it can support well. And having merely stated this undeniable truth, it becomes * Humboldt's New Spain, vol. 1.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 1 25
my object more particularly to consider its effects upon the moral and political state of mankind.
I. The primary result of this universal ten dency to increase, is the division of property. The property of first necessity to every man, is his supply of food. Whilst this is plentiful, he is careless about it. Its value originates with its scarcity. If the fruits of the earth were supplied from a source as regular and inexhaustible as the water of the ocean, there could be no occasion, and there would, pro bably, be no thought, of their appropriation. If every family, like the Israelites in the wil derness, could supply their wants without the necessity of labour or the fear of deficiency, no one would think of setting bounds to the demand of any claimant, or grudge his neigh bour his share of the superabundance.
By the constitution of things, however, it appears, that abundance, even if it exists for a while, can never be of long duration. It de-
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feats itself. Wherever it is found, the number of claimants is daily increasing in proportion, and will soon require an addition to the supply of food, which can only be procured by labour ; and as soon as it demands labour, becomes valuable.*
* I need hardly observe, that I do not state this as the mode in which we have been uniformly led to the division of property ; the case is only put hypothetically, to prove that even under the most favourable circumstances the pressure of population would soon either render such division inevi table, or leave the inhabitants in the most wretched and stationary condition, if they refused to comply with the inten tions of Providence for their comfort and improvement.
The hypothesis, however, has so much justification in fact, that it is very nearly a representation of the case of Abraham and Lot. " The land was not able to bear them, " that they might dwell together ; for their substance was " great, so that they could not dwell together. And there " was a strife between the herdmen of Abraham's cattle, and " the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And Abraham said unto Lot, " Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, " and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we are " brethren. Is not the whole land before thee ? separate " thyself, I pray thee, from me ; and if thou wilt take the " left hand, then I will go to the right hand ; or if thou de- " part to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Thus " Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 127
Let us suppose, for example, a couple in the situation of the first created man and woman, having" the world all open before them. Here the idea of scarcity seems entirely precluded. Let them take possession of a district, con sisting of 200,000 acres, which, according to the average power and cultivation of land in Great Britain, would support 100,000 persons.* Reckon twelve persons at the end of the first twenty years ; who, under such favourable cir-
" east, and they separated themselves one from another." (Gen. xiii.)
A more recent example is given by Mr. Elphinstone, in his Account of Cabul. The tribe of Kharotics in Afghauu- istaun, are so closely hemmed in by mountains, that they are unable to extend their cultivation. According to the Mahometan laws, the lands of each person were divided among his sons. The gradual increase of population, there fore, showed itself in this, that each man's portion became regularly less and less, till it was soon too small to maintain a man." In consequence, upwards of 300 families had re nounced their share of the land, and become thorough wan derers. Elph. Cabul, 447.
* Weyland on Poor Laws, p. 273. This is the average of a high state of cultivation, though not of the highest possible. People would certainly emigrate, before they endeavoured to make their land more productive than it is in England.
1 EFFECTS OF THE
cu instances, would certainly, taking- one period with another, multiply according- to the quickest known increase of the species, and double their number every fifteen years.* Within a hundred and forty years from the creation, these eight persons would have above 3000 descendants ; which in sixty years more, would ascend to 49,152. One g-eneration farther would give us 98,304 persons, and carries us already as far as the point to which population can possibly go, the point of subsistence.
It is evident that in the later stages of this increase, food, however plentiful at first, would become scarce, and the object of eager de mand. It is evident too, that at last, the only resource would be to increase the supply of food by the emigration of part of the society,
* " According to a table of Euler, calculated on a mor tality of 1 in 36, if the births be to the deaths in the propor tion of 3 to 1, the period of doubling will be only 12| years. In the back settlements of America, the population has been found to double itself in fifteen years. Sir Wm. Petty sup poses a doubling possible in so short a time as ten years." Malthus, i. 7.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 12})
or to diminish the demand for it at home by laying a restraint upon the natural desires.
In the case of an unoccupied world, with the prospect of plenty on the opposite side of a river, or across the chain of hills which bounded the district, there is no doubt which alternative would be chosen. Before, how ever, men consented to leave the spot of their nativity, and to try the fortune of fresh cultivation, they would certainly argue, that what could not be possessed without a sa crifice, or obtained without labour, must be long to each person, according to the labour he was able or willing to employ.* It is true, that, while the common store was always full, it was of little consequence whether ten shares were subtracted from it, or one ; but since the demand had now become greater
* Even if it should be thought, that at first, while emigra tion wore so easy, the division of property might possibly not precede it, that consequence must at all events ensue as soon as emigration became difficult, which in the course of nature, as here described, it would soon become.
VOL. If. K
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than could be supplied, it was unreasonable that one person with a numerous family should draw upon the common stock for ten times as large a portion, as another who contributed an equal share of labour. It would be required, therefore, as the only remedy of this inequality, that those who had the advantage of mutual attachment and affectionate children, should pay the price of that advantage ; which they would do, as soon as each family provided for its own support.
The immediate resource is at hand, to divide the lands belonging to the society between the existing families : and this resource would be applied to, as soon as the first pressure of scarcity was sensibly felt, and produced dis putes as to the equal rights of contending claimants. Such a change in the circum stances of a society may be easily understood, by supposing a parallel case in the article of water ; which being in many countries of the world inexhaustibly abundant, is common pro perty : but ceases to be so, as soon as the supply
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 131
requires to be increased by expense or labour. It is easy to imagine the water of a well which had been commonly resorted to for the consump tion of a village, so far to fail, that it should be necessary to raise by labour what was requisite for the daily expenditure. As long as the well poured forth its supply spontaneously, no one thought of limiting, or even observing, what his neighbour drew from it. But when circum stances are altered, will the inhabitants of the village unite their common labour to fill a re servoir, to which all shall have an equal claim ? Some one will soon argue, I require a single gallon, and my neighbour twenty, for daily consumption : it is not reasonable that I should contribute twenty times as much labour as I receive in return : the well is amongst us all ; but let each draw his own supply.
If we merely change the terms, the conse quence of a division of territory upon the first scarcity of subsistence is evident : the com mon territory is the common well, and culti vation is the labour it requires.
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Here then, from the time when the claimants for food pressed against the supply, not of the whole world, but of the district they had first peopled, we have the date of the recognition of property, resulting- from the necessities imposed upon man by the constitution of things : and in the recognition of property we have the point, as was before observed, from which in dustry, arts and civilization set out. Human nature, if we judge from experience, requires that the individual should be satisfied that the effects of his personal exertion should con tribute to his personal comfort. According as he is more or less assured of this, he is more or less active and laborious. Look at the degrees of industry in different countries : the variation is uniformly true to this principle. Where property is recognized, but insecure, as in countries where the police is deficient, though the effect of labour is more evident than when its produce is carried to a common store, still, as its advantage is uncertain, the individual is less disposed to exertion than the inhabitant of a well-regulated community.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 133
Again, where the government is regular, but the despotism severe, there will be much humble industry, but little accumulation of property ; it is worth while to enjoy, but not to lay up what will soon become an object of rapacity. In every case, the exertion bears a close pro portion to the visible and certain advantage it produces. This advantage is never less visible, than when labour contributes to a common store.
The step, therefore, immediately following the first distress for food, is the determination that each family should support itself, and each individual enjoy the fruits of his own labour. And since it is an acknowledged truth, that, according to the nature of things, the supply of food can only be increased at a much slower rate than an unchecked population will multiply,*
* In an anonymous pamphlet lately published at Paris, which professes to exhibit " les vraies causes de la misere et de la felicite publiques," the author, who calls himself " an ancien administrateur," repeats with great parade the old objection against Mr. Malthus's reasoning, viz. that popula tion cannot be said to increase faster than subsistence, as
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there is every reason to suppose that in all ages and countries a very short period, even
long as there is any unsettled land in the world. The fact, however, of the natural ratio of increase, is not affected by pointing out spots in the universe where there are no inhabi tants to multiply. The only just mode of calculating on this subject, is that adopted by Mr. M., viz. to set the possible po pulation of any given country, supposing the principle un checked, against the possible domestic supply. Mr. M. does not deny that the redundant population in one district may be transferred to another ; he only shows, that, where in crease is unchecked, there will be a redundant population. We may safely grant, therefore, that, " il n'y a d'autres li- mites pour la production des subsistances destinees aux peuples repandus sur le globe, que celles du globe merae, et de 1'industrie humaine qui en fertilise le sol." (P. 12.) But it is equally true, that nothing except actual want in one country leads human industry to reclaim another. Man does not voluntarily leave his native soil. Necessity is the agent which enforces emigration.
From the unfeeling mode in which emigration is some times proposed as a remedy for all the evils of indigence, one might imagine that it was as easy to cross the Atlantic and stock a farm in Louisiana or Kentucky, as for Adam or Noah to find a settlement. What does it signify to the thousands who may be thrown out of employ by sudden changes of po litical affairs, or the sudden depreciation of agricultural pro duce in this the best regulated and richest country of the world ; what docs it signify that there are millions of acres of unoc-
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 135
shorter than that supposed in the preceding- calculation, has been suffered to elapse, before the expediency had been seen of dividing the occupied lands among- the existing families. For it can hardly be thought that the few tribes which still afford an example of a general stock, furnish a material exception to the division here represented as arising necessarily from the law of nature. Most of these tribes depend prin cipally, if not entirely, for their support, on the produce of the chase. The chase requires the co-operation of numbers : and it is obviously
cupied land in the universe, ready to repay their labour with abundance ? They may too justly exclaim with the poet, () quis nos gelidis in vallibus Hiemi Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra ! Fs there a capital to support them till that land is reclaimed ? Is there a fleet in port, ready to carry them gratuitously to their Eldorado? The expedition which proved fatal to Raleigh was not halt' so rash or cruel, as the project of encouraging population with a view to emigration, without providing at the same time that this resource should be easy and uniform.
This is not meant to argue that England is over-peopled, but only to show that it is vain and fallacious to talk of emi gration as a ready and simple cure for the evils of poverty or scarcity.
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natural, that what has been acquired by the united labour of the tribe, should be laid up for equal distribution. It is indispensable too, that where the people depended upon the comparatively regular returns of agriculture, the necessity of appropriation and division would be soonest perceived. It is a matter of easy calculation, how much corn a certain portion of land will produce, and how many persons a certain quantity of corn will support. But the supply derived from fishing or the chase being irregular and variable, there are no data afforded for a certain calculation, which might point out the necessity of imposing the burden of providing for his own and his family's wants upon each individual.
II. The first effect, it has appeared, of the natural law which uniformly presses the popu lation against the means of subsistence, is the division of property. Its second effect, spring ing inevitably from the former, is the division of ranks. To explain the process by which this result is produced, we will return to the
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 1^7
district which we left a few pages ago, in want of subsistence for its redundant population, and resorting to the first and most obvious means of remedying the evil. Let us suppose then, that forty or fifty families from this over-peopled society, shall emigrate into a new and uncul tivated tract of country, all hitherto equal and independent ; but taught by experience to agree that each family should provide for its own wants, and enjoy the produce of its own industry.
These free settlers, entering upon their new world, and dividing their territory into equal shares, proceed to cultivate it with equal zeal, but by no means with equal success. One man, whose strength and vigour enable him to pro secute his work unremittingly, prospers in his undertaking, and reclaims a quantity of land not only sufficient to supply his own wants, but to afford an overplus. Even if his family in creases, his children, as they grow up, add so much labour to the common stock, that the surplus above all their wants increases gradu-
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ally with their strength and skill, till they are enabled to support a second family in addition to their own. In the natural course of things, however, others must prove less fortunate. One is cut off by sickness, and leaves his chil dren dependent upon the care of friends. * Another is deprived by some accident of the power to use his tools, till the season of crop ping the ground is past : it follows, that he must be fed by the more successful labour of his companions.
But it cannot be expected that the produce of their labour should be long imparted gra-
* The first colonists from this country to America under went hardships and misfortunes which fatally realize this description. A company of Puritans, who laid the founda tion of the New England colonies, arrived at Cape Cod in November 1620, one hundred and twenty in number, divided into nineteen families. Each family had an allotment of land for lodging and gardens, in proportion to the number of persons it contained ; and, to prevent disputes, the situa tion of each family was chosen by lot. Within two or three months half of the company was dead. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 121. See also Hume's Appendix to James 1.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 139
tuitously ; for there is no superfluous food : even this small society is gradually increasing as fast as this supply increases, and the pro duce of each year finds claimants equal to its amount ; claimants who can only be satisfied by adding to the labour, in proportion to the demand. The man, therefore, who has nothing else to offer, exchanges the prospect of his future labours when his strength shall be reco vered, for sustenance during his present dis tress ; an agreement which is quickly made with the more fortunate cultivator whose in dustry has returned him a surplus. But the additional labour thus supplied, enables our first adventurer to turn up more soil, or to till the rest more skilfully. The gradual increase of his surplus produce, according to the known return of agricultural labour, makes him spee dily celebrated in the colony as one to whom all may resort, whose efforts have been unsuc cessful, or whom the evils incident to humanity have cut off from exertion ; as one from whom they may receive immediate support, in return
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for the labour they can give, or engage to give, in exchange.*
B
Hitherto, let it be observed, only those ca sualties of illness or death to which all alike are subject, have been mentioned as the causes
* " When a people have emerged ever so little from a savage state, and their numbers have increased beyond the original multitude, there must immediately arise an inequa lity of property ; and while some possess large tracts of land, others are confined within narrow limits, and some are en tirely without any landed property. Those who possess more, laud than they can labour, employ those who possess none, and agree to receive a determinate part of the product." Hume, Essay iv. This inequality is not confined to the case of agriculturists alone. Pastoral nations are subject to the same laws. " The wealth they enjoy in their herds and flocks is distributed in various proportions, according to the indus try or good fortune of different individuals; and those who are poor become dependent on those who are rich, who are capable of relieving their necessities, and affording them subsistence. As the pre-eminence and superior abilities of the chief are naturally exerted in the acquisition of that wealth which is then introduced, he becomes of course the richest man in the society ; and his influence is rendered pro portionally more extensive. According to the estate he has accumulated, hz is exalted to a higher rank, lives in greater magnificence, and keeps a more numerous train of servants and retainers." Millar on the Origin of Ranks, p. 152.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 141
of inequality. But there are moral differences in the characters of men, which would tend to hasten the same result. All have not equal skill ; all have not equally patient industry. Many would resign their apportioned share, instead of bartering" their labour for subsistence : and thus, by beggaring- themselves, and aug menting the superfluity of their wiser neigh bours, would quicken the effect which the course of nature was producing by slow de grees. So that it is no hypothetical conclu sion, but consistent with the habits and dispo sition of mankind, to affirm, that in less than a century the land originally parted among fifty families, would be possessed by twenty in very unequal shares : upon whose return for their labour, exerted in various ways, the posterity of the original settlers, and the rest of the increased colony, must be dependent for their annual support.*
* " Rome, like most other of the ancient republics, was originally founded upon an agrarian law, which divided the public territory in a certain proportion among the different citizens who composed the state. The course of human
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It is unnecessary to proceed farther. On a small and confined scale, this is a history of the subordination of ranks ; and, in many actual cases, the mode in which we know it has pro ceeded. In this manner, as we learn from history, Ionia, and southern Italy, and all the shores of the Mediterranean which afforded a practicable opening-, were peopled with the overflowing's of the Grecian states ; and in this manner the conquered countries of Italy were
affairs, by marriage, by succession, and by alienation, ne cessarily deranged this original division, and threw the lands, which had been allotted for the maintenance of many dif ferent families, into the possession of a single person." Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. It is worth observing here, that if equality could have subsisted any where toge ther with the division of property, it would have subsisted at Rome. Romulus and his successors not only divided equally the lands of the state, but they enacted such laws respecting succession, that the marriage of the female into another family should not cause alienation. Neither was it allowed to make a will, except in the public assembly, before the promulgation of the twelve tables. By these rules equa lity was preserved at Rome much beyond its natural period. Montesq. 1. xxvii. So at Athens it was not allowable to be queath money out of the family before Solon's time. See Plutarch, Life of Solon, i. p. 196, ed. fir.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 143
afterwards replenished with settlers from Rome. The colonists of North America are of more recent experience ; and the very case here sup posed has an example in the settlers in Prince Edward's Island under Lord Selkirk's direc tion, where each man had a portion of land assigned him, according to his own strength and that of his family. These and other emi- grators have been subject to no other regula tions than the division of lands by an agrarian law. The only inequality they have set out with, has been that which the constitution of nature has established between different men ; which produces the effect in question, by act ing in conjunction with that primary law of Providence by which it is ordained, that sub sistence shall universally become the object of eager competition.
In some cases, as we know, attempts have been made to resist this constitution of nature, and obviate its effects. The early Roman kings, when they apportioned settlements among their citizens, adopted peculiar precautions to pre-
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vent alienation.* One of the modes by which this is effected, in the usual course of nature, is the failure of male heirs. It was orig-inally, however, enacted at Rome, that the marriag-e of the female into another family should not be followed by an eventual alienation of the pater nal inheritance. On a similar principle, in some of the provinces of North America, the rights of primogeniture were either annulled or curtailed. These attempts have all, eventu ally, proved fruitless.
Indeed, had it been possible, compatibly with the law of increase, f to preserve an
* " Si lorsque le legislateur fait un pareil partage (des terres) il ne donne pas des loix pour le maintenir, il ne fait qu'une constitution passagere ; 1'inegalite entrera par le cote que les loix n'auront pas defendu, et la republique sera per due." Mont. 1. v. chap. 6. Experience, however, must have proved to Montesquieu's satisfaction, that no law could bar out inequality, which has always found some quarter unde fended.
•j- Under the Jewish theocracy, an express provision was seen to be necessary, in order to counteract the natural ten dency of fortunes towards inequality. In that government it was desired to preserve, as nearly as possible, the same
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 115
equality of condition throughout a community, it would have been universal among- the an cient republics. It was the great ambition of most of their legislators, and no measures were left untried to accomplish it. Phaleas, for ex ample, proposed the equalization of fortunes at Chalcedon, as a most salutary institution, easily established in new settlements, and which, he thought, might be introduced into old countries by one simple law, commanding the rich always to give portions with their daughters, but never to receive any ; and the poor always to receive, but never to give them.* In legislating for Athens, Solon had
balance between the tribes, the heads of families of the same tribes. Since, however, it was foreseen that this was contrary to the usual course of things, and that inequality would soon disturb this peculiar provision, it was especially ordained that a release of all debts and servitudes should take place every seventh year. It was still farther provided by the law of jubilee, that every 50th year, all alienated lands should be restored, and the estate of every family, being cleared from all incumbrances, should return to the family again. Deut. xv. Lev. xxv. See Lowman, chap. 4. An exception esta blished by such forcible measures is the strongest confirma tion of the general law.
* Arist. de Rep. 1. ii. chap. 7.
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the same object in vie\v.* The early institu tions of several states both limited the acqui sition, and prohibited, under certain circum stances, the sale of lands. In Locris, a citizen was not allowed to dispose of his estate, unless he could make it appear that he was reduced to this necessity by some unmerited and mani fest calamity. Philolaus, at Thebes, proposed some peculiar laws relating to the adoption of children, which had in view the perpetuating the original divisions of the territory.t In some states it was a law, that no individual should possess above a certain measure of
* " Solon allowed a brother to marry his sister on the father's side, but not his sister uterine ; because, by marry ing the latter, he might have increased the estate which de scended to him from his father, by that which came from the first husband of his mother, and thus, in his own person, have accumulated two inheritances. Several other of Solon's laws breathe the same spirit." Gillies on Arist. Polit. p. 92. See also Montesquieu, 1. v. chap. 5.
-f- The original here only shows, that the subject required regulation, without acquainting us with its precise nature : No^oSer^c au'roic (9»;/3at'oic)e'yeVero 4>t\d\aoc, Kepi r' a\\utv TIVWV, KCII Trepl 7->;c irat&MTflAlCj ovc KaXovoiv eYeu'ot rJ/tOVC OertKovi;. Kat rour' eanv t£iwc vir e/ceiVov y
<rw£>jrat TWV K\t'j()t>jt'. L. ii. chap. 12.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 14-7
ground : in others, this regulation was confined to lands within a limited distance from the ca pital. Some commonwealths enacted that no family should be allowed to part with its ori ginal lot of land, or ancient inheritance ; and a law of Oxylus, king of the Elians, forbade any man to mortgage above a certain proportion of his estate.*
But, in all cases, the legislator's intention was frustrated, sooner or later, by the silent operation of nature overpowering the feeble bulwarks of human regulation. Even in Crete and Sparta, where the prohibition against ac cumulating personal property seemed likely to perpetuate equality, and did, in fact, preserve it longest, still the course of nature at length prevailed, and to such a degree, that a strong complaint made against the Spartan government by Aristotle, is its unequal distribution of pro- perty.t
* Arist.de Hep. 1. vi. s. 4.
f Lycurgus prohibited the acquisition of lands by pur chase, but set no limits to their transmission and accumula-
L 2
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The cause, too, by, this time, became evident from the permanent effect ; which is justly at tributed, by the same philosopher, to the prin ciple of population. Lawgivers forget, he says, that it is necessary to limit the increase of families, if they wish to limit the extent of fortunes. If children multiply beyond the means of supporting- them, the intention of the law will be defeated, and families will be reduced from opulence to beggary.* It was from this conviction that both he and Plato resorted to those detestable measures for re straining- the increase of children in their ima ginary commonwealths, which have contri buted more, perhaps, than any other instance, to furnish a practical evidence of the defec
tion by gifts and wills. The consequence was, that, in Aristotle's time, the landed property had been engrossed by few. Hence the foundation of Montesquieu's remark : " Jl faut done que Ton regie dans cet objet, les dots des femmes, les donations, les successions, les testaments, enfin, toutcs les manieres de contracter." L. v. ch. 5.
* L. ii. ch. 7. Again, in the 7th book, he says, 'Atvra-
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 14-9
tive morality acquiesced in by the wisest of the ancients.
Such, then, is the fact, that, by the original constitution of human nature, inequality uni formly finds its way, in spite of every obstacle. The stream which is constantly setting- against the barriers raised to oppose it, has a source so deep and permanent, that it has always, at no distant period, either found a channel, or forced one. There is no country which, in the course of a century or two, has not exhibited the same spectacle of abundance and poverty ; of some who have accumu lated the superfluous produce of their la bours; and of others who are eager to ex change their labour for a portion of that super fluity.
In the gradual progress of time the in-, equality becomes more and more striking, and all the arts of civilization follow in its train. A certain portion of the society being exempted from the necessity of labour, apply to other pursuits ; literature is cultivated,
L 3
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genius is excited and encouraged. A chain of innumerable links is formed from the co lossal fortunes of the highest rank, to the large and increasing class who are obliged to give their daily labour for their daily subsis tence. It is by means of this class that all those works of utility are accomplished, which adorn the beautiful structure of a civilized country, and which, in a healthy state of things, reflect their share of advantage upon the hands that labour in their execution. And it is by a union of all the various classes that the community flourishes in strength and opulence ; that the arts are every day minis tering some new comfort to man's wants, or some assistance to his labours ; in a word, that the gradual enlargement of the sources of know ledge and improvement of the human condition takes place, which has been shown to exalt and dignify civilized man.
It has thus appeared, from a brief state ment of the laws which regulate population, that the instinctive principle which attaches
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the sexes to one another, and rears a family, keeps the inhabited districts of the world so continually full, as to call into action all their resources, and oblige them to econo mize the means of subsistence, by making them the reward of individual exertion. I have also traced the progress by which this principle necessarily leads to an inequality of ranks and fortunes, which effect, indeed, it has constantly and universally produced in a greater or less degree, from the earliest date of history. For the primary agent is all along to be found in that original law, which multiplies the consumers of the fruits of the earth faster than the fruits themselves. The difference of men's habits and powers would signify nothing, if food were so plen tiful that it could be procured without a re turn of labour. Were it the law of the uni verse, no matter how brought into execution, that every man born into the world should find himself heir to indolence and plenty, then there need be no division of property, since no one could possibly, according to
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the supposition, possess what his neighbour wanted, or require what his neighbour had. Or if it had been appointed that all mankind should possess the same genius, the same powers of mind and body, and be exempt from physical evils, the division of property would not necessarily have been accompanied by inequality. But since the fact is ordained otherwise, and, for reasons already shown, wisely ordained ; since men are born with various capacities of mind, and different degrees of bodily strength ; since the necessaries of life can only be produced by labour ; and since there are, in all countries, more claimants for the necessaries of life than can be easily or plentifully supplied with them ; it must inevi tably follow that possessions shall be appropriated and unequally divided ; and that the conveniences of life shall belong, in the greatest abundance, to the head which is most fertile in resources, or the hand which is the most industrious in exertion.
If then the wisdom is to be estimated by
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 153
the fitness of the design to its purpose, and the habitual exercise of the energies of mankind is allowed to be that purpose, enough has been said to confirm the original proposition. The Deity has provided, that by the operation of an instinctive principle in our nature, the hu man race should be uniformly brought into a state in which they are forced to exert and im prove their powers : the lowest rank, to obtain support ; the one next in order, to escape from the difficulties immediately beneath it ; and all the classes upward, either to keep their level, while they are pressed on each side by rival industry, or to raise themselves above the standard of their birth by useful exertions of their activity, or by successful cultivation of their natural powers. If, indeed, it were pos sible, that the stimulus arising from this prin ciple should be suddenly removed, it is not easy to determine what life would be except a dreary blank, or the world except an un cultivated waste. Every exertion to which civilization can be traced, proceeds directly or indirectly from its effects ; either from the actual
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desire of having- a family, or the pressing- obli gation of providing for one, or from the neces sity of rivalling the efforts produced by the operation of these motives in others.
I cannot suppose it will be disputed, that the law, ordaining the multiplication, of which the effects are thus extensive, is a law of de sign. Among brute animals, we find the qua lity of fecundity subjected to intelligible re gulations, and proportioned to the utility or peculiar circumstances of the species : since it is denied to strength and rapacity, and be stowed as a compensation for a short term of existence. Of the latter case, the hare and rabbit, and the insect tribes, afford familiar examples : whereas the kite lays but two eggs, the eagle but one, and the elephant produces only a single calf. In another department of nature, it is observed that a cod-fish lays many million eggs, whilst a whale brings usually one cub, and never more than two. It would have been incomprehensible if the multiplication of animals had not fallen under the regulation of
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 155
Providence, and been subject to assigned laws ; and these, with a thousand other instances that might be as readily adduced, manifestly prove that it has been directed by design. And as it would be contrary to all just analogy to believe, that brute animals received an atten tion denied to the human race, it is impossible to suppose that the ratio of increase among men, and its consequences, were not present to the contemplation of the Creator. In point of fact, we know that even the casualties to which one sex is more exposed than the other, are provided for by the excess of male over female births, a foresight which can only be attributed to the original mandate of Pro vidence.*
* It is not so generally acknowledged, but appears from Humboldt's recent inquiries, that this law of nature is no less established in the different climate of America than in Europe. The proportion of male to female births in New Spain he determines to be " as 100 : 97, which indicates an excess of males nearly equal to that in France, where for 100 boys there are born 96 girls From the whole of the data we may conclude, that in Europe, as well as in the equinoctial regions, which have enjoyed a long state of tranquillity, \v«-
156 EFFECTS, &C.
I am justified, therefore, in concluding, that the Deity has displayed the same comprehen sive wisdom which is seen in the natural world, by regulating, according to a general law, the state and condition of mankind, and bringing it, without actual control or interposition, to a conformity with his plan of moral govern ment.
should find an excess of males, if the seas, the war, and dan gerous employments peculiar to our sex, did not tend inces santly to diminish their number." Pol. Ess. i. 253.
157
CHAPTER VI.
On the Collateral Benefits derived by the Human Race from the Principle of Population.
IT will, perhaps, be objected to the preceding- survey of the effects of the principle of popula tion, that it exhibits only the brig-lit side of the picture. Some persons may be disposed to argue, that if the rapid multiplication of the species augments the treasures of civilized so ciety, it also entails upon civilization a certain inheritance of want, and pain, and misery ; and that the human race are little benefited by arts and improvements, which are wrung from them by the urgency of their necessities : that, however plain it may be made, that the means employed accomplish their apparent object, still it is by a mode so harsh and ungentle in its
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operation, that the wisdom of the Creator is im peached, rather than displayed, when the intricate web of human society is thus unfolded, and its texture unravelled.
To these and similar objections, which have been sometimes urged against the view of hu man society exhibited by Mr. Malthus, some concession must be made. There is undoubtedly much want and misery, that is, much natural evil in the world. And since the law of increase is an agent of such vast importance in deter mining the condition of mankind, it cannot fail of producing, in the course of its operation, much of that natural evil, which is an ingredient in the cup of human nature, and inseparable from the present condition of our species. The per mission of this will properly come under future consideration.
If we were peopling an Utopia, or amusing our fancy, after the manner of the ancient phi losophers, with creating an imaginary republic, we should undoubtedly be inclined to banish
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 159
from it all necessity for severe labour. We should omit the curse denounced upon the first transgressors, and literally fulfilled upon their posterity, ordaining that the earth should bring forth thorns and thistles, and that man should eat bread by the sweat of his brow. But these sports of the imagination deviate from the real state of things in one most important particular. They all suppose that this world is the final object, as well as limit, of man's existence. They proceed, therefore, on premises altogether different from those I originally laid down, as derived both from reason and revelation ; and which affirm, that the present state affords only a partial developement of the Creator's designs.
It is on no other premises, I repeat, that I profess to consider the appearance of the world. Those who neither allow the arguments with which reason furnishes us, strongly militating against the supposition of this being the final stage of man's existence ; nor listen to the voice of Revelation which confirms these natural intimations ; those, I say, who limit their views
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to this contracted horizon, must take up other ground ; and must defend their ideas of the Creator's providence as they can, upon the principle of optimism. But, in a world allowed to be initiatory and preparatory, it cannot justly surprise us to find the necessity of labour ad mitted ; or to hear the wisdom of the Creator displayed by a view of a dispensation, which regularly brings the labours of mankind into action. Were our lot cast in a state at present perfect, we should, no doubt, see sufficient rea son to adore the wisdom of the Creator. But the inhabitants of Paradise, and the inheritors of a fallen world, are not likely to meet in the same arguments, though they may agree in the same conclusion.
Under these qualifications, I shall endeavour to show, not that the human race is in the best conceivable condition, or that no evils accom pany the law which regulates their increase; but that this law makes, upon the whole, an effectual provision for their general welfare ; and that the prospective wisdom of the Cre-
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. l6l
ator is distinguishable in the establishment of an ordinance which is no less beneficial in its collateral effects, than it is efficacious in accom plishing- the first and principal design of its enactment.
These collateral advantages are, first, the establishment of universal industry, and se condly, the quick and wide diffusion of the beneficial results of that industry. These are secured by the ordinance which regulates the increase of mankind.
I. Fecundity depends upon various causes, some of which are obvious, and others very partially understood : but by the average cal culation of marriages in Europe, which is pro bably a fair average for the world at large, four births may be reckoned for every mar riage. No doubt a fiat of the Creator might as easily have ordained that the produce should be less by one fourth, or that every marriage should bring three children. In this case, the result would still have raised the population
VOI. II. M
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fully up to the means of subsistence, with the difference only of doubling the period before it reached that limit.* Therefore it would have protracted for a time, the end proposed by the physical law of increase, without preventing ultimately the difficulties inseparable from a redundant population ; it would have delayed the exertion of habitual industry, and the ex istence of the useful arts and sciences, resulting from that industry, by all that period of years during which the population was protracted, not only in the first peopling and subsequent re-peopling of the world, but in the occupation of all new countries. Eventually the pressure of the population against the supply of food would have been no less certain and regular, unless it had also been ordained, that the supply
* Independent of the longevity attributed in Scripture to the patriarchs, the world may have reached the amount of its present population,' supposed to be • 1000 millions, in about 550 years : allowing" ten^rpersons to be alive at the end of the first twenty years, and to double their number every subsequent twenty. Several calculations of the kind occur in Wallace on the Number of Mankind.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. l63
of food should always and every where proceed in the same ratio as population.
Any complaint, therefore, must be urged, not against the particular ratio of increase from each marriage, which is, in fact, variable in different countries, and depends upon nume rous circumstances with which we are little acquainted ; but against the general and incon trovertible fact, that, according to the present constitution of the human race, the increase of the species has a tendency to proceed at a quicker rate, than the increase of the supply of food.
It certainly requires no great stretch of fancy to imagine such a dispensation as might have rendered the ratios, in which population shall proceed, and the quantity of human suste nance be increased, so equal to one another, as entirely to remove all difficulty as to the support of mankind, however large their num bers might become. No restriction, no quali fication was set against the original command
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in Paradise, " Increase and multiply." But when Paradise was forfeited, then came the subsequent denunciation, that the replenishing of the world should entail the obligation to labour on its inhabitants.
If it was desirable that there should be any exertion among mankind, this obligation was indispensable. The nature of a being living under a dispensation of unlimited abundance, ought to be no less different than the consti tution of the world he inhabited. As human nature now is, the implanted principle which leads to marriage is, mediately or immediately, the source of all effective industry. We have no reason to believe that the stream would continue to flow, if the source were cut off by which it is visibly supplied. Could a family be supported without labour, the known stimulus to exertion would be re moved ; energy would , be exchanged for in dolence, and the arrival of plenty would be followed by the stagnation of the human faculties.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. lC5
We see around us a world under the power ful agency of this incentive ; and whatever may be thought of the weakness or wickedness of mankind, the fairest side of the picture they present is that which their unwearied industry and active intelligence afford. At the same time, experience does not authorize us to be lieve that a necessity less urgent than that now existing, would excite their dormant powers, or furnish the appearance of energy we admire. On every side, to whatever age, or rank, or condition we look, an inherent principle of indolence betrays itself, which can only be expelled by the operation of a still more powerful desire.
In savage life, indolence puts on the ap pearance of a positive gratification, too valuable to be bartered for any return of prospective advantage, and only relinquished on the pres sure of actual uneasiness. Among the lower classes in civilized society, much of the same principle is manifest. Some prefer any chance or precarious mode of seeking subsistence to
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regular industry : others are industrious till they have removed the urgency of immediate want, and, when that is satisfied, remain idle and dissolute till it returns again. The more gratifying sight of constant and contented ex ertion, still furnishes no countenance to the belief that it would be voluntarily undertaken, or continued without necessity. As we ad vance higher in the scale, we find the same necessity operating no less extensively, stimu lating invention, giving stability to exertion, and, in the end, bringing all those talents to maturity by which mankind is no less bene fited than adorned. Few of the most useful discoveries or acquirements, can be attained without such an unremitting attention, such a sacrifice of present enjoyment, as only a very powerful incentive can enforce : if it were otherwise, why is this field of exertion left almost exclusively to those who are not born heirs of that plenty which a different dispen sation might render universal? Why are the avocations which conduce most to the welfare of the species, seldom pursued by those who
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are not driven to them by the strong hand of necessity, i. e. who can by any easier means comply with the instinctive principle of nature, and support a family in the rank and sphere to which they were born ?*
It is as possible to picture to the imagination a race of men, who should require no stimulus to the exercise of their minds and powers, as it is to conceive a soil that should be fertile without cultivation. But our business is with the world as it exists, and with men as we find them : and judging according to that expe rience, we may affirm without hesitation, that any ordinance which might establish universal plenty, would establish also universal indo lence, and not only arrest civilization in its progress, but force it to retrograde, if it had once advanced. There is reason to believe that this effect has in some peculiar circum stances actually taken place j when a few tribes having left their parent and overpeopled
* See Chapter iii p. 52, &<•.
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country, and found an unexpected plenty in some new abode, have lived upon that plenty till they have lost the arts of their ancestors, and left their posterity to work out anew, by the slow method of invention, the means of supplying" wants or providing1 comfort.* How soon rude inventions are lost, when the neces sity which first struck them out is removed, may be learnt from the example of the South Sea islanders, some of whom are now in greater distress from the precarious supply of iron upon which they depend, than before the visits of Europeans they had experienced from the total want of it. Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that the effect of plenty on savage nations is indolence and extravagance, till the supply that brought the evil is exhausted, and activity returns with the necessity for its ex ertion.
* All travellers have observed in North America proofs of evident deterioration, in the traces and remains of useful arts which have been long utterly unknown in that country. The best account of these is now to be found in Humboldt's Researches.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. l69
All mankind, as far as we know, agree in the same propensities by nature, and owe their infinite varieties only to the circumstances of society. We have no right, therefore, to assume that the consequences of plenty would be dif ferent in America and in Europe ; or that, if the necessity which has produced all the multi plied inventions and ornaments of civilized life, were once removed, the faculty to suggest them would be fostered, or the industry to per- feet them survive. But who would be so visionary as to affirm, that the comfort of society might be benefited by a system which excluded all the useful and ingenious arts j or the general good of mankind promoted by the extinction of all the liberal professions, the absence of all science and literature ? Inde pendence would be dearly purchased at the expense of refinement and cultivation ; and universal plenty would afford a poor compen sation for the gross ignorance into which man- kind would be plunged.
For human labour, after all, is not sown
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upon the sand ; it returns an abundant recom pense even to the most wearisome and reluct ant exertions. The quick multiplication of the species enables the arts to be carried on, and all the labourers in them to be supported, with a far less proportion of real evil, and a much greater share of advantage, than any hypothetical change of system could promise. That multiplication affords a numerous body of labourers, ready to exchange for support the exertion of their industry. The abundance of labourers leads to the division of labour ; which is generally known to multiply two or three hundred fold the productive powers of man. By such a division it happens that one person employed in agriculture can feed four or five others; which enables those others to clothe, and not only to clothe, but to instruct and de fend him in return, and to provide his humble cottage, and to cheer his laborious life with conveniences and comforts, which raise his situation infinitely above any benefits that could be expected to result from a different system. It is not without the assistance and
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co-operation of many thousands that the very meanest person in a civilized country is pro vided, even according to what we falsely imagine the easy and simple manner in which he is com monly accommodated. He who first made this remark, had no hypothesis to serve or argument to support, when he added, that " the accommo dation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of an African king, the ab solute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages."*
It appears, therefore, that the exertion of the human faculties is a result necessarily following the relative proportion which the increase of the species bears to that of food ; and that, as far as we see, no other ordinance would have been effectual. The law of nature has not provided, certainly, that a gratuitous feast should be spread for every individual at his en trance into the world, at which he may partake
* Smith's Wealth of Nations, b. i. c. 8.
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himself, and introduce whatever guests he pleases, without a return on his own part : he must pay for his own subsistence, and that of his family, by his labour, in some shape or other, according to the situation he fills. This is no ex post facto law ; it does not take him by surprise, it is publicly engraven in the consti tution of things ; therefore he accommodates his mind from his youth up, to comply with the terms prescribed : the object is ever present before him, and determines all his views. Neither is the law partial ; it is obligatory some way or other upon all ; neither is it a law enforced by punishment alone and offering no reward : the industry of one assists others, and is assisted by them in return ; and univer sal welfare (such welfare at least as is consistent with an imperfect state) is the consequence of universal labour.
II. The first beneficial, effect of the laws of population being thus the production of in dustry, the second is the quick and ready communication and interchange of the acqui-
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sitions of that industry among- the various inha bitants of the globe.
An objector will ask, why is such inter change necessary ? what advantage is gained by the provision, that one country should be peopled only by the overflowings of another ? Why was not the whole intended population of the world, i. e. as many as could be easily maintained, placed at once upon its surface, with a power only of reproducing the same number ? He, however, must be a bold theo rist who would prefer this operation, so unlike the usual plan of the Creator's works, to the existing law, by which, according to the course of gradual multiplication, as many as can be fed, are regularly and quickly produced. The Creator might certainly have called into sudden existence, a thousand millions, the estimated number of the inhabitants of the world now,* together with the maintenance they required, with the same ease that he created a single
* Wallace on the Numbers of Mankind, p, 10.
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pair : but how little would such a plan have harmonized with the wisdom discoverable in the wonderful economy of nature ; with that prospective contrivance which we now admire in the organization of the universe, as far as our researches can scrutinize ? Waving, however, these objections, it cannot be for a moment doubted, that the effect of any law which con fined the human race to the spot in which they were born, would be a greater deterioration of mankind in point of civilization. None, it may be said, would be in want : but none would be better provided than the meanest now. Neces sity, having never existed, would never have led to all those gradual improvements of which it has in every age been the parent, and by which it has raised, as was largely shown, the character and situation of man.
It is evident, that a constant communication of the inhabitants of different parts of the globe, transfers the arts and improvements which each have attained, with a degree of celerity to which their gradual discovery bears no sort of proper-
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 17-5
tion. This communication is preserved by the ordinance of multiplication ; by which the world was originally stocked with inhabitants, and by which it is kept almost uniformly full, through the continual migrations from over-peopled coun tries. These migrators* carry with them the language, the arts, and the improvements of their parent country. If every distinct portion of the globe had been assigned its stock of cultivators, each tribe, thus permanently settled, must have discovered by their own light their own arts, sciences, and inventions. But this perpetual obstacle to improvement is thrown down by the ordinance which has led to the frequent migrations of which history is so full ; and the bands or parties separated at various
* This has been the case in all the regular migrations, as in those from Egypt to Asia, from Asia to Greece, from Greece to the different shores of the Mediterranean, and in the later settlements from European countries in unpeopled regions. This is the regular course of things, and must not be confounded with the invasions of the Roman Empire, or the subsequent inundations of Europe from Arabia and Tartary, which were expeditions of conquest, not of colon ization.
17 COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
periods from countries overstocked and civilized, have carried civilization with them, disturbed, perhaps, and checked in its growth by the strong- hand of necessity which tore the settlers from their native soil ; but often well adapted to a change of climate, and different mode of cul ture ; and striking its roots deeper, and spread ing its branches more widely, than if confined to its original spot, or natural country.*
Let us consult the only guide we can trust, experience ; and look to the countries which have enjoyed least of that intercourse for which nature has established a general provision : to
* In Sicily alone, for instance, first some Iberians settled, and gave the name Trinacria ; then a band of Trojans, after the destruction of their native city : next a body of Siculi from Italy, gave the appellation which has been ever since retained- Some Phoenicians settled on the coast and in the neighbouring islands. Of the Greeks, the Chalcidians built Egesta, Naxus, Catana, and other cities ; the Mega- reans, Megara, and Selinus ; the Rhodians, Gela. Herod. 1. 6, in init. Time. 1. 6, s. 2, &c. Must not all these have brought a greater accession of arts, than could have been expected to be indigenous ? See also the full account of tbe Grecian colonies and migrations, Mitford. chap. v. s. 2.
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America, for instance, at its discovery, by Columbus ; to many parts of Africa and Asia ; to China, and the islands of the Pacific. These are the countries to which we resort for exam ples of a savage stage, or of a retrograde, or at best a stationary condition of civilization : and these are likewise examples of people who have long remained fixed in the same spot, with little or no interchange of communication. Some of these countries, when first discovered, had no knowledge at all of any arts, except those absolutely necessary for their preserva tion : many were totally ignorant of the use of letters ; others had recourse to the most insuf ficient and cumbrous methods of supplying their place. Any cultivation of the mind, moral, religious, or literary, is here to be found in its lowest possible degree.
Still farther, it appears, that absence of in tercourse is able to perpetuate barbarism in the centre of cultivation. Which of the Grecian states has left us no relic of its literature, and was confessedly most behindhand in all the arts
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of civilized life ? We turn at once to the com munity whose lawgiver prohibited the admission of strangers at home, and the intercourse of his own citizens abroad.* The natives of Sparta never attained any degree of mental improve ment, till they left the artificial constitution under which they were born, and were brought into the natural situation of the rest of man kind by colonization.
If we prefer the positive to the negative argument, we may look on the other side for those countries which have advanced quickest and farthest in the road of mental and civil improvement. Opportunity of communication in all ages has facilitated this progress to such a degree, that a gradual scale of civilization would pretty exactly serve to indicate the mea sure of foreign intercourse.
He is no consistent philosopher, who would take away the pillars by which civilization is
* Plutarch, Vit. Lye. p. 121.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 1?9
visibly supported, and argue, that civilization would stand as securely without them. Nor is it necessary to prove again that the existing law of population is the principal of these pil lars : or that the necessity it occasions is at the bottom of all intercourse, whether for the pur poses of colonization or commerce. Without that necessity men would not be very likely to cross seas or traverse deserts, however easily reconciled to it, when placed under its influ ence.
In truth, those who would prefer an ordi nance of mere reproduction^ must create the world itself anew, as well as its inhabitants. Every district must realize the dreams of the golden age, and produce in itself all things requisite to the prosperity of mankind. Cin chona, the sugar-cane, and the potatoe, must be indigenous in Europe j the useful metals must abound in America and Africa. This ar gument is not confined to the great divisions of the globe, but is equally applicable to every separate district : all of which must possess
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within themselves the materials necessary for every useful art, and bring- their own inhabit ants to equal perfection in the practice of it, or they would gain little on the whole by an ordinance which prevented communication. According- to the existing dispensation, there is a division of labour among the inhabitants of the globe as well as among the inhabitants of a city or kingdom, which is equally bene ficial on the larger and on the smaller scale.
The fact is, that, when we form the first idea of a scheme from which the stimulus of neces sity should be removed, we are apt to paint to our imagination a society restricted from far ther increase, protected from more numerous tribes, yet placed in the midst of surrounding civilization ; like the republic of Marino as de scribed by Addison, in the neighbourhood of the populous Italian states, receiving the works of art and of manufacturing industry they might require, in return for the redundant produce of the flocks and herds which it was their simple and innocent concern to tend : enjoying, in
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short, at once, the advantages of a golden and an iron age. But in forming a consistent hy pothesis we must of course suppose the whole world peopled, as far as it was peopled at all, in the same manner, and advancing in the same way to the rudiments of art and science, with out the collision of foreign intercourse or the assistance of foreign wealth. And if such an hypothesis were applied to practice, and fol lowed to its consequences in particular detail, the plain statement would contain the proof of the wisdom of a provision which is calculated to unite mankind into one great family, so as to render partial improvement universally bene ficial, and to make individual genius the com mon property of the whole race.
We shall appreciate more justly the benefits continually diffusing by these means, if we contemplate the state of the world at the pre sent point of time ; and consider how, in every part of it, the quick progress of population is spreading civilization. We may look first to northern Asia : where Russia has been for
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many years extending her supernumerary sub jects over the rude and pastoral nations which belong- to that immense empire. These com paratively civilized people, together with the settlers which have been transported from the over-peopled districts of Germany, are intro ducing habits of industry, and communicating the advantage of their experience in the arts. From the moment when an industrious race has established itself in the neighbourhood of a rude and indolent people, the improvement of their condition is inevitable. They have no other chance of competition. For, the addi tion of people, and their superior views of com fort increasing the demand for the necessaries of life enhance also their marketable value to a price which only industry can pay. The natives, therefore, either unite with the foreign race by intermarriage and assimilation, becom ing an useful and industrious people ; or they retire from habits with which they can neither cope nor imitate, and, through the increasing difficulty of rearing a family, gradually disap pear. The barbarism of Asiatic Russia has felt
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this influence ; and civilized habits have, dur ing the last fifty years, been spreading- with rapid strides. Siberia, which was formerly a wilderness utterly unknown, and in population far behind even the almost desert tracts of North America, is now a flourishing colony, its imported inhabitants greatly exceeding the natives in number. And the case is generally the same throughout the settlements, where that degree of civilization is already attained, which the rigour of the climate, the difficulty of transporting produce, and the little oppor tunity of commercial intercourse allow.
The immense and populous kingdoms of southern Asia do not appear to require the assistance of foreign supernumeraries. Being subject to regular governments and division of ranks ; supported by agriculture, and advanced in the arts ; they should be enumerated amongst those who have long possessed the improve ments which a full population introduces. But there are various degrees of civilization : and the influence and prejudices of Paganism have
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sunk Asia far below the level to which her lux uriant soil and climate might enable her to rise. The commercial industry of the crowded Eu ropean kingdoms has penetrated hither also ; and has transferred a part of their population, small indeed in comparative number, but of inestimable value in respect of their attainments. The light thus introduced has already benefited some portion of these vast empires ; which, by their ignorance of the principles of law and free dom, afford a striking example of the slow progress improvement makes in any region which has little collision with others.
Africa, from the nature of its soil and its want of internal communication, though it may have its turn in the gradual diffusion of know ledge, must always remain the least populous, and consequently the least improved, of the great divisions of the globe. But Africa, too, is profiting from the fulness of other countries, and from the spirit of enterprise which is the effect of increasing population. Even there settlements are forming for the express purpose
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 185
of meliorating the habits of the people, and communicating- to them a share of the ad vantages which other nations have already at tained.
The destiny of America is more fortunate, and the prospect it presents is a valuable illus tration of the uses of that active principle which conveys civilization universally. This vast con tinent, which on its first discovery was, for the most part, wandered over by thin and scattered tribes, is now inhabited by a culti vated and increasing people ; and has received by inheritance those treasures of improvement which the nations of Europe have been through many centuries painfully acquiring. The case was similar with the colonists from ancient Greece, many of whose settlements, within a period comparatively trifling1, rivalled the mo ther country, not only in extent of territory, but in arts and opulence. But the recent and living example of America is peculiarly calcu lated to place before us the reality of the ad-
186 COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
vantages effected by colonization.* The neces sity of legal restraints in countries that emerge by their own efforts from barbarism, is learnt by experience of mischief; by colonists it is already known : and the forms of law most compatible with the essentials of liberty, have been discovered. The principles of govern ment are understood, and the benefits of sub ordination acknowledged. Literature is not obliged to force its way from its first elements, but has an advanced point to set out from.
The subject requires no more than to glance, in passing, at these beneficial effects of the overflow of Europe ; for it will not surely be denied, that such an increase in the number of the civilized inhabitants of the globe is justly termed a beneficial consequence resulting from a full population. And it must not be forgotten,
* " The colony of a civilized nation which takes posses sion either of a waste country, or -of one so thinly inhabited that the natives easily give place to the new settlers, ad vances more rapidly to wealth and greatness than any other human society." Wealth of Nations, b. iv. ch. vii.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 187
that not only the moral acquirements, but the natural productions in which one country has the advantage over another, are spread through out the world by this interchange of its great families. * " The inhabitants of western Eu rope have deposited in America whatever vege table treasures they have been receiving for two thousand years by their communications with the Greeks and Romans ; by the irruption of the hordes of central Asia, by the conquest of the Arabs, by the Crusades, and the navigation of the Portuguese. All these productions, augmented by those of America, pass farther still to the islands of the South Sea and New Holland. A colony collects in a small spot every thing most valuable, which wandering man has discovered over the whole system of the globe."t
* " The potatoe, indigenous in South America, has become common in New Zealand, in Japan, in Java, in Boutan, and Bengal, where potatoes are considered more useful than the bread-fruit tree introduced at Madras. Their cultivation extends from the extremity of Africa to Labrador, Iceland, and Lapland." Humboldt.
t Humboldt, vol. ii. p. 500.
188 COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
Lastly, it remains to be observed, that the important purpose effected by this provision in disseminating the blessings of Revelation, must have been prominent in the view of the Creator. Were there no stimulus to intercourse between different countries, any revelation must either have been as partial as that made to the Jews, or it must have been displayed sepa rately to every district of the globe. But, through the influence of the principle we are considering, civilization becomes the instru ment of diffusing Christianity : how active and how powerful an instrument, is abundantly testified by the unexampled exertions which are employed, at the present moment, to trans late the Scriptures into every known language, and to distribute them in the remotest quarters of the world. Whoever contemplates this fact, must either be blind to the advantages of such distribution, or must acknowledge the wisdom of a dispensation, by means of which a Reve lation made in one age ' and country, is, in effect, made to all ages and all nations. For, if we analyze those means, we find that it
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 189
is the activity of full population in England which has carried the arts that minister to human comfort to unrivalled perfection ; that the industry of the same population employed in the transmission of those arts has found access to the rudest and most distant coun tries ; and that the fulness of every avenue to wealth at home is the foundation of that readiness to emigrate and colonize, which leads to the establishment of Christianity together with civilization.
This transference of arts and population leads me to remark, as one of the most ad mirable beauties of the system, its easy adapta tion to the various circumstances in which mankind may be placed by the fortune of their birth. What is the fact? Population, which, in the American states doubles itself within twenty-five years, in the old countries of Eu rope is not supposed to double in less than five hundred years.* Here is a difference so enor-
* This calculation of Smith's does not agree with the quick progress of population in these kingdoms during the last cen-
190 COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
mous, that we might believe at first sight that it could only be effected by the interposition of rude and violent checks to the increase, in the shape of famine or epidemic disease. The plan, however, of a wise Creator is of gentler operation. It does not require that the popu lation should be reduced by depriving of ex- istence those who have been once brought into the world ; but it provides by a natural check, that the existing number shall never far exceed the actual demand of the country itself for la bourers, t Redundance is prevented, not re-
tury. But it may be a just average for Europe taken toge ther ; and it does not really affect the argument, whether the difference is ten or twenty-fold. The fact mentioned by Mr. Malthus is more than sufficient for the purpose : " In New Jersey the proportion of births to deaths, on an average of seven years, ending 1743, was 300 to 100. In France and England the highest average proportion cannot be reckoned at more than 120 to 100." Vol. ii. p. 67.
-}- A perversion of the real state of the fact as to this point is too common. The French pamphlet I before alluded to is mainly directed against an imaginary position which the author attributes to Mr. Malthus, viz. the necessity of misery to correct the evils of the principle of population. However we may pity the faculties which could fall into such an error, it certainly shows a just view of Divine Providence to be in-
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 1Q1
medied j and prevented by the simple effect of that division of property, which obliges every man, before he brings a family into the world, to see the means of providing- for it within his reach ; and thus gradually, as the inhabitants of a country advance nearer and nearer to the limits of their attainable support, protracts the average period of marriage much beyond the
dignant at this supposed injury to his attributes. It appears undeniably from the calculation in the preceding chapter, that if the population of any country were to proceed un checked, even for a short period, it would so far surpass the power of the land to produce subsistence, that nothing but the death of a part could allow any to survive. But it does not proceed, and is not intended to proceed, in this manner, except where the productive country is as unlimited as the power to increase the number of consumers. If prudential restraint, i. e. the preventive check, is disregarded, who can doubt that famine, war, or epidemics will arise? just as bankruptcy will come upon a man who takes no care of his fortune ; or disease will follow the neglect of prudential rules for the management of the constitution. But it is not neces sary that the prudential check should be violated ; neither, therefore, is it necessary that famine and pestilence should carry olf a redundant population.
Mr. Malthus, with great candour, has omitted some para graphs in his late edition, which had before created a wrong impression in the minds of many readers.
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time which unchecked nature would dictate. It is true, that if the inclinations were indulged with as little restraint and consideration in old countries, as in the empty wastes of America, some melancholy corrective, as famine, pesti lence, or the sword, must soon ensue, and bring- things to a level. But man, being- moderated by reason, as well as impelled by passion, has the means within his power of keeping clear of any such desperate condition. Where a space appears, in which the principle of population may act unlimitedly, the natural desire is also the law of reason. But under the different appearance which most European countries present, rational prudence interferes as a check to the natural desire, and, by setting before every individual his own best interests, actually, though perhaps unconsciously, determines the rate in which population shall proceed.
In all this there is no violence, no cruelty, nothing contrary to the nature of man, as a reasonable and accountable being. If his lot is
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 193
cast in a country where no opening- appears, by filling which he may gratify the natural wish of planting a family around him ; this wish, however natural, yields at once, and almost without a struggle, to the circumstances which impede its gratification. The mind, di verted from one object, turns, without pain or convulsion, to another : it seeks for amusement in the endless varieties of pursuit which civi lized life affords, and devotes the attention which, in another case, would have been paid to a family, to the interests of dignified ambition or literature. In those ages of refinement which oppose obstacles in the way of marriage, many, like Epaminondas, have left a posterity behind them in the victories they have achieved, not indeed over their fellow men, but over the difficulties of natural and moral science ; victories which might never have been gained, but for the circumstances which diverted their attention from the common concerns of ordinary life. This applies to educated minds. In the inferior ranks, a man sees his prospect fairly placed before him. If he chooses, as it is
VOL. II. O
194* COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
usually better he should, in preference to ease and freedom from care, the comforts of domestic enjoyment and affectionate inter course, he knows that he must pay for those comforts in his labour.* And thus his labour has a perpetual stimulus, and a daily reward. Without labour nature gives nothing any where. A man born into a country already fuily occupied is possessed of many advantages ; but those advantages certainly demand from him in return, severe and constant exertion, if he claims to himself the peculiar privilege of a young society — that of having a family in early life, together with the comforts attending a state of advanced civilization.
* Among the other uncandid remarks of which Mr. Mal- thus has been the object, he has been accused as the enemy of marriage. But what rule will the objector venture to sub stitute for that which he has laid down ? " The only plain and intelligible measure with regard to marriage is the having a fair prospect of being able to maintain a family." Or again, " The lowest prospect with which a man can be justified in marrying seems to be the power, when in health, of earning such wages, as, at the average price of corn, will maintain the average number of living children to a mar riage." Appendix, 1. ii. p. 537.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 1Q5
But on the other hand, is a country unex pectedly discovered in which there is abund ance of unappropriated land, affording a fair prospect of support and improvement of their condition to new adventurers ? There are many prepared to embrace the prospect, and dissatisfied with the reward their labour can attain at home, to transfer their exertions and affections to an adopted land. And there is already, in human nature, an inherent prin ciple, which, now freed from prudential re straints, in a short period will people the vacant space with intelligent existence, with millions of beings possessed of all the im provable faculties which distinguish mankind, and heirs to all the hopes which religion opens to our view.
Thus, when population has answered its purpose, and it becomes expedient that it should be checked for a while, the foreseen diffi culty of procuring support retards it, silently, but effectually. And if the expedience lies the other ,kway, there is a natural power at
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hand by which the advantage attained by civi lization in one country is quickly communicated to another.
It appears, then, that the principle of popula tion, prescribed by the Deity as an instrument for peopling the world with a successive stock of intelligent inhabitants, and keeping it in that state which was most agreeable to his plan in its formation, not only fills but civilizes the globe, and contains in itself a provision for diffusing the beneficial effects which it origi nally generates. To trace the power of such a principle, and to discover, on inquiry, that an object so extensive as the replenishment and civilization of the globe is accomplished by the silent operation of a single natural law, empowers us to pronounce that the designs of the Creator are carried into execution with in finite wisdom. Neither should it be forgotten, that the law itself, by which these ends are attained, is neither harsh nor coercive, but forms an important part of our earthly happi ness : it is not written in characters of severity,
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 197
but promulgated by the gentle voice of per suasion. The first fruit of that instinctive principle which terminates in the results we have deduced and contemplated, is the passion of love ; which, among the most rational and improved part of mankind, refines, chastens, and animates the soul ; encourages the noblest exertions, and inspires the sublimest senti ments. Even in lower stages of civilization, love has been found to cherish feelings ele vated far above the general standard, to soften the severity of pastoral habits, and disarm the ferocity of the conqueror. Among the rude and uneducated classes, the principle of which I have traced the effects, is both the source and the pledge of domestic union : and by the " charities of father, son, and brother," which it introduces, affords a volun tary support to the imbecility of the weaker sex, and to the helpless condition of infancy and childhood. To enlarge, however, upon this head, would be to encroach on a subject more properly belonging to that part of this work which treats of the goodness of the1 Civ-
198 COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
ator. I shall accordingly conclude the present chapter, by a concise recapitulation of the general argument.
It appeared then, first, to be the design of the Creator to people the world with rational and improvable beings, placed there, it should seem, in a state preparatory to some higher sphere of existence, into which they might hereafter be removed. With this view, he im planted in the first progenitors of the species a passion transmitted by them to their descend ants ; which in the outset prompts the finest feelings of the mind, and leads to that close union of interests and pursuits, by which the domestic comfort and harmony of the human race is most effectually promoted. The opera tion of this principle, filling the world with competitors for support, enforces labour and encourages industry, by the advantages it gives to the industrious and laborious at the expense of the indolent and extravagant. The ultimate effect of it is, to foster those arts and improve ments which most dignify the character and
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 199
refine the mind of man ; and lastly, to place mankind in that situation which best enables them to improve their natural faculties, and at the same time best exercises, and most clearly displays, their virtues.
The collateral benefits derived from the same principles were shown to be the promotion of universal comfort, by ensuring the most effective disposition of labour and skill : and the diffusion of the civilization thus attained, by a gradual and steady progress, throughout the various regions of the habitable globe.
Such is the view of the omniscience and comprehensive wisdom of the Creator, deducible from the facts respecting population, and its tendency to a quicker increase than the supply of food can keep pace with, which have been first explained to the present generation, and added to the stock of physical truths unfolded by modern inquiry.* The particular effects
* The tinal cause of such an universal law, viz. to stimu late energy and industry, lias been succinctly hinted by the
200 COLLATERAL EFFECTS OF THE
of the multiplication of the species, which the object Mr. Malthus had in view obliged him to illustrate and enlarge upon, are so un prepossessing, that many persons have forcibly shut their eyes against the completeness of the induction, and the extent of the evidence by which the force of the principle is in disputably proved. Others, unable to with stand conviction, have been inclined to class this among the " boisterous doubts and sturdy objections, wherewith, in philosophy, as well as in divinity, the unhappiness of our know ledge too nearly acquaints us."t They have considered it as an anomaly in the system of divine administration ; a provision for en tailing upon mankind much laborious poverty,
expositor of the principle, in his excellent chapter upon moral restraint. Had it made part of his subject to trace its moral as far as its physical effects, I imagine there would have been as little room left for subsequent observations in one branch of the argument as the other.
t Sir Thomas Brown, Religio IVfedici. " More of these," continues the excellent author, " no man has known than myself ; which I confess I conquered, not in a martial postuiv, but on my knees.
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. "201
and some painful indigence. The antidote, however, is commonly found to grow within reach of the poison. The instinctive prin ciple by which every country in the world is replenished with inhabitants as fast as its fertility allows, when more generally under stood, and more fully reflected upon, will be appealed to as a proof, that as our knowledge and researches extend, they discover to us, in the moral as well as in the natural world, new proofs of most comprehensive wisdom in the Creator. It is, in fact, the mighty engine, which, operating constantly and uniformly, keeps our world in that state which is most agreeable to the design of the creation, and renders mankind the spontaneous instrument of their Maker, in filling and civilizing the ha bitable globe. We may not, perhaps, be able to discover all the bearings, or follow all the conse quences of a principle which is undoubtedly the primary, though secret agent, in producing all the boundless varieties of the human condition. It ought, however, to satisfy us, if, as our in quiries penetrate farther into the general laws
202 COLLATERAL EFFECTS, &C.
of the animate and inanimate creation, we clearly discover a wonderful subserviency of appointed means to the accomplishment of some uniform design : affording, even where the design is but partially understood, such testi mony of wisdom in the means, as obliges us to rely in humble acquiescence upon the Supreme Disposer of both.
PART III.
ON THE GOODNESS OF THE CREATOR.
PART TIL
ON THE GOODNESS OF THE CREATOR.
CHAPTER I.
Proofs of a benevolent Design in the Creator, from the Constitution of Mankind.
IT is sublimely declared in the Christian Scrip tures, that " God is Love." In truth, to figure to ourselves under any other character a Being of infinite wisdom to conceive, and power to execute his designs, would appal the imagina tion of his dependent creatures. Neither can we find, in reasoning a priori, and from the nature of things, any foundation for believing that the misery rather than the happiness of those dependent creatures can be desired or devised by a Being who cannot possibly be actuated by any of the motives from which we know that injustice proceeds, as ignorance, selfishness, or partiality ; and who can have
206 ON THE GOODNESS
entertained, so far as we are able to discover, no other object in creating man, except the in tention of finally communicating- a larger propor tion of happiness than misery. These are the principles from which is deduced the necessity of justice and benevolence in the Creator.
Arguments of this nature will have more or less effect, according to the constitution of the mind to which they are presented. At the same time it must be conceded, that the works of God generally considered, form the best criterion of his intentions ; and that, however indisputable the eternal truths may be which render good ness inseparable from power and wisdom, there will still remain a reasonable inquiry, how far the actual appearance of the world justifies this conclusion. And, in point of fact, many, as was before observed, have denied the moral attributes of God, who have deduced his physical attributes from the works of the creation. It is sufficient to instance Lord Bolingbroke, who has declared, that a self-existent Being, the first cause of all things, infinitely powerful and infinitely wise, is
OF THE CREATOR. 207
the God of natural theology ; but he sees no ground for the assertion, that God is just, and good, and righteous, and holy, as well as power ful and wise : an assertion which he evidently thinks inconsistent with the admission of evil.* He will not allow, with some of the ancient theists, that love was the first principle of things, and that it determined God to bring his creatures into existence. He argues, that it cannot be said of the moral attributes which we ascribe to the Supreme Being, that they appear, like his wisdom, in his works ; nay, he says, " it cannot be disputed, and all sides agree, that many of the phenomena are repug nant to our ideas of justice and goodness." I have selected the terms of the more modern sceptic : but his is, in fact, the same objection
* Phil. Works, v. 315, &c. See also Leland, vol. i. 387, &c. Gibbon transfers the remark even to the Hebrew Scrip tures : " The moral attributes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled to the standard of human virtue ; his metaphysical qualities are darkly expressed ; but each page of the Pen tateuch and of the Prophets is an evidence of his power." History, ch. 50.
208 ON THE GOODNESS
which has been urged ever since the days of Epicurus, who alleged that the existence of evil, whether natural or moral, must either disprove the omnipotence, or prove the malevolence, of the Deity.*
Lord Bolingbroke does not fail in severity against those divines who have ventured to assert that God made man only to be happy. Such an assertion, indeed, it is sufficiently evident, cannot be maintained. But it has been made with more attention to the rules of induction than the contrary conclusion of Lord Bolingbroke. It is at least founded on a com prehensive view of the general laws observed
* " Deus aut vult tollere mala, et non potest ; aut potest et non vult : aut neque vult neque potest ; aut et vult et potest. Si vult et non potest, imbecillis est, quod in Deum non redit: si potest et non vult, invidus, quod aeque alienum a Deo. Si neque vult neque potest, et invidus et imbecillis est, idoque neque Deus. Si vult et potest, quod solum Deo convenit ; unde ergo sunt mala ?" Lactant. de Ira Dei, cap. 13. Lactantius's answer is on the principle of King-, in his Origin of Evil, that God could have removed the evil, but, in so doing, would have removed more goocHhan evil.
OF THE CREATOR. 209
in the constitution of the world, though with too much neglect of the exceptions : whereas Lord Bolingbroke requires us to deduce our conclusion respecting the character of the Deity, in defiance of all just argument, not from those general laws, but from the exceptions themselves.
It will be necessary, first, to touch very briefly upon the arguments by which it has been shown, beyond the possibility of contra diction, that the general laws of our system evince that regard for the happiness of mankind which we call goodness in the Deity : and I shall then inquire, at more length, how far the excep tions to which objectors refer, may be accounted for without militating against this conclusion.
Government, whether divine or human, pro poses to itself some special object ; keeps some plan in view, in conformity to which those sub ject to its influence must move ; points out some actions to be done, and others to be shunned. Now, human governments employ the agency of terror, and enforce obedience by
VOL. ii. r
210 ON THE GOODNESS
punishment alone. They order, they forbid, they deter, they chastise. Rewards, for reasons which have been often assigned, they neither propose nor confer ; and the only return which can be expected from the most studious obser vance of their laws, is immunity from their penal sanctions. Had the Ruler of the world prescribed to himself the same course, human life would have proved a very unenviable pos session. That he might have done so, that he would have done so, if he had not willed by pre ference, and, to a certain degree, the earthly happiness of mankind, is no less evident, than that he has really contrived the system on which the world is governed with benevolence in view.
I. Mankind are endowed, as their business on earth requires, with two sets of faculties, corporeal and intellectual : and it has been al ready shown to be a reasonable assumption, that their right exertion , of these faculties was the object proposed in their creation. With this constitution, it obviously appears that two modes of government might be applicable to
OF THE CREATOR. ^J 1
man ; and that, to perform the part assigned him, he might either have been stimulated by unmixed and unrecompensed pain, or induced and rewarded by gratification. It were possible, doubtless, that the satisfaction of hunger and the other appetites, should, at best, only have proved the alleviation of suffering ; that mental exertion and social intercourse should be ac companied by no delight ; that reciprocal af fection and the domestic charities should be prescribed to us as barren duties, but rewarded by no return of pleasure. It were possible that uneasiness should not only be the spring of all our actions, as has been asserted with too little limitation, but that no enjoyment should be consequent upon the exertions to which we were so prompted.
This, I say, might have been the law of na ture. But, on the contrary, even in those cases where a desire to escape from present pain, that is, where uneasiness, positively felt, determines our will in regard to our actions ; it is ordained by the general constitution of
p 2
ON THE GOODNESS
the world that the means by which we attain our object, are accompanied with gratification. Human life is itself supported, from the cradle to the grave, through the medium of gratifica tion. The species is continued by the influ ence of a passion which enlivens existence and sweetens exertion. We are not goaded by pain to labour, without a recompense of plea sure ; we are not tormented into a course of action conformable to the divine plan of go vernment, but allured to obey it, by the pros pect of some attainable satisfaction. The de sire of distinction, the hope of bettering our condition, the love of ease, are the universal motives to exertion, because it is understood that pleasure accompanies the attainment of ease and distinction. Uneasy sensations, in deed, properly so called, although they are the appointed admonitions against danger, are very seldom the immediate stimulants of action : but whether employed as stimulants or ad monitions, it is uniformly provided that some reward should attend the energies exerted in obedience to them. And that these rewards
OF THE CREATOR. 213
are the gratuitous gift of benevolence on the part of the Supreme Contriver, must remain an incontrovertible proposition, till it be shown on the other side that the government of the world could not be carried on without them : or that all mankind might not have been forced into habitual action by the sting of positive pain, as well as a West Indian slave, if they had been subject to the control of a ruler equally indif ferent towards their happiness.
II. That the happiness of man was consulted by his Creator, appears no less evidently from the constitution of our intellectual faculties, than from our bodily sensations. The nature of those faculties, and the improvement which they are capable of receiving from exercise, show that it was the intention of the Creator to bring the powers of the mind into action by which the advantage of mankind collectively is no less promoted, than the rank of individuals is exalted in the scale of beings. It is contrived accordingly that the situation allotted to mankind renders the exertion of their mental powers
ON THE GOODNESS
necessary ; and the chain of circumstances, as has been seen already, is so linked together, as to produce that exertion, invariably and univer sally, to a greater or less degree, in all states of civilization. It commonly happens, however, that this exertion is not made for the sake of any pleasure immediately resulting from it ; the intellectual faculties are not improved, nor the imagination cultivated, for the purpose of ob taining the gratification which a well-cultivated imagination and a vigorous mind confer : but any such pleasure is rather the result than the object of mental exertion ; which is originally undergone with the intent of supporting or bettering our condition in society, or from the necessity of keeping up to that standard which a state of general cultivation has raised. The pleasures, therefore, which reward a mind whose powers are cultivated, and energies habitually employed, may be as properly styled gratuitous as those which we receive through the medium of the external senses. They are the inci dental consequence of a labour undertaken for other purposes than those of obtaining1 a return
OF THE CKEATOlt. ^15
of pleasure ; and which would be undertaken equally, the circumstances of the world re maining the same, even if no such return at tended it.
That the pleasures, however, thus gratuit ously bestowed, are not inconsiderable, will be universally acknowledged. Though they are moderate in degree, they are frequent in occurrence : and alike exempt from all the evil of excess, and clear from any deduction of pain. They impart a charm to the common concerns and business of life, which, without them would be necessary, but tedious and dull. For, it is not only true, that, as the moderate exercise of the body is agreeable to a person in health, so to a mind habitually active, its own exertions are pleasurable ; but it is also a result of the pleasure annexed by our consti. tution to the exercise of the imagination, that there is scarcely an object in art or nature, which may not, either in itself, or through re presentation and description, excite a pleasing idea to a well-cultivated mind.
216 ON THE GOODNESS
If the origin of these gratifications is con sidered, it becomes evident that they are not fortuitous, but interwoven with our constitu tion, by the primary design of Providence. The fact, with respect to the pleasures here alluded to, viz. those dependent upon literature and the improvement of taste, stands confessedly thus : that to a mind invigorated by exercise, and re fined by cultivation, a new class of pleasures is introduced, and an avenue is opened to in tellectual gratification, of which there is no limit except the boundaries of nature herself, in all her infinite varieties. Then, farther, if we inquire into the mode through which these pleasures are received, it will appear that the images which are delightful to a person of im proved taste, aiford that delight from some pleasing emotion which they are calculated to raise ; either by an agreeable interest, suggested by the object itself, or by renewing, through the medium of the imagination, some former interest or satisfaction, which it is now agreeable to recal. It is not, therefore, the object itself, whether seen in nature or represented by those
OF THE CREATOR. 217
who describe or copy nature ; but the ideas which that object is able to excite, which gratify the mind ; and which are raised in us by a regular and secret association, discernible in its effect, but often escaping- our notice in its mode of operation.
But although the association, as it thus ap pears, is the immediate, it cannot be the ultimate cause of the pleasure. The association pleases by exciting emotion ; but in the emotion itself the pleasure originally resides. " The ideas suggested by the scenery of spring, are ideas productive of emotions of cheerfulness, of glad ness, and of tenderness. The images suggested by the prospect of ruins, are images belonging to pity, to melancholy, and to admiration. The ideas, in the same manner awakened by the view of the sea in a storm, are ideas of power, of majesty, and of terror."* We must, however, go one step farther, in order to inquire why these emotions are pleasing. And this can only be referred to the original constitution of our * Alison on Taste, i. p. 75, oct. ed.
218 ON THE GOODNESS
nature, which is so framed as to be gratified by the trains of feeling thus awakened, and thus constantly arising in every intelligent mind.
It is necessary to insist upon this, because, since it has been received, apparently with much justice, that the pleasures of taste are derived from our own associations, it might perhaps be forgotten, that the pleasures are not altogether of our own formation. The power of being so pleased is, in fact, as much the Creator's gift, as the gratification arising from a sweet flavour, a beautiful colour, or an harmonious sound. The sweetness of sugar would be wasted, if the palate were not naturally gratified by that taste ; and harmony is lost upon a diseased or imperfect ear. So would the pleasures of asso ciation, or in other words, the pleasures be longing to an improved understanding, cease altogether, if the mind were not naturally sus ceptible of pleasure arising from its own emo tions. That it is thus susceptible, affords a strong additional proof of the benevolence of the Creator ; who in the same manner that he
OF THE CHEATOK. 21 Q
has rendered the means of our preservation agreeable, has also bestowed a reward upon those exertions of the mind which were rendered necessary by a separate branch of the dispensa tion relating to mankind.
This rapid outline of the plan upon which our bodily and mental faculties are constituted, is sufficient to show that the design of God, in creating man, is carried into execution generally by the medium of pleasure instead of the opera tion of pain ; and that he has superadded grati fications to the exertion of all our faculties, without which his counsels might be fulfilled as completely, but less happily for mankind. I deem it superfluous to enlarge upon a subject which so many excellent writers have occupied, and upon which so much has been already shown, that it is evidently the concern of the opponents of divine goodness to argue by opposite proofs, that the happiness of man was not the object of the Creator. It is as unneces sary in moral as in philosophical inquiries to labour farther in proving points which have
220 ON THE GOODNESS
been proved already. More truth would be elicited, and much pains spared, if each reasoner set out where his predecessor in the same subject had concluded ; or only thought himself obliged to demonstrate anew points that had been hitherto imperfectly explained.
The example, however, of Bolingbroke, which I before adduced, affords an instance, amongst others, of arguments raised against the general conclusion, from the numerous exceptions which confessedly militate against it ; and which, in the opinion of some, prove the object of the Creator not to have been benevolent, or accord ing to others, frustrate his benevolent con trivance. Let it be allowed, they say, that there is a visible provision for the happiness of man ; that sources of gratification are opened, such as cannot be resolved into mere utility, and evi dencing a desire upon the part of the Creator corresponding to what might have been antece dently expected, that man should be happy. But in a Being of infinite power, why is this provision frustrated ? Why do we actually find so great a
OF THE CREATOR. 221
proportion of natural evil, in the shape of pain and privation ; and of moral confusion, from the existence of vice, the consequences of which are destructive to happiness, and entail misery on the good as well as on the wicked ? " If we behold any thing- irregular in the works of man, if any machine answer not the purpose it was made for — if we find something in it repugnant to itself or others, we attribute that to the im potence, ignorance, or malice of the workman, but since these qualities have no place in God, how come they to have place in his works ?"*
This objection embraces an inquiry which has been often pursued : neither indeed can it be expected, from the limited nature of our faculties and our want of a comprehensive knowledge of the divine counsels, that it ever should receive so complete an answer as to set at rest the curio sity of man upon a subject at once so perplexed and so interesting. But as the difficulty it involves is both more important and more obvious than any other within the range of theology ; and * King's Origin of Evil, p. 72.
222 ON THE GOODNESS, &C.
as there are various courses of argument by which it may be met ; additional inquirers may be still usefully employed, in considering the dis orders of the natural and moral world, the degree in which they exist, and the probable design of the Creator in permitting their existence.
CHAPTER II.
T7i>? present Existence of Mankind considered as a State of moral Trial.
ON our entrance upon this subject, it is necessary to premise what has sometimes been kept out of sight by the visible and prominent disorders of man's moral state, namely, that there are still proofs of an evident determination in favour of virtue in the world. This determination is shown by the tendency of virtue to promote happiness, to gain superiority, to acquire the love and approbation of mankind ; while vice, on the other hand, is not only punished as detrimental to society, but excites general ab horrence, as it were from some innate principle, however in many instances perverted. The fact, at all events, whether ascribed to innate
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sentiment, or to the spontaneous influence of reason, or to the universal effects of virtue upon society, is undeniable, that, in spite of the extent and prevalence of evil, it is the uniform tendency of mankind to favour, love, and admire virtue ; and that this being- part of the constitution of thing-s, or necessarily arising- out of it, amounts to a declaration from " Him who is supreme in nature, which side he is of, and which part he takes ; a declaration clearly in favour of virtue and ag-ainst vice." *
But supposing it allowed, that mankind, by the exertion of some of their inherent faculties, usually discern, and even choose by preference, where their passions do not interfere, a course of conduct conformable to the g-eneral rules of moral virtue ; a fact which, in this low view of it, will hardly be denied ; the question, it is
* Butler, Analogy, chap. iii. to which I refer, as having indisputably established the tact alluded to. See also some remarks to the same purpose in Search's Light of Nature, vol. v. p. 307.
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still said, does not so much concern the degree as the existence, of moral evil— an evil which has hitherto kept the world in a state of per petual disturbance, which deforms universally, though unequally, the human mind and cha racter in every individual, and overwhelms a large proportion in unrepented sin ; which exposes them to present misery and detestation, and, as we are expressly told by Revelation, to the severest punishment in a life to come.* This question is not completely answered by alleging that free will is man's most valuable quality ; that his abuse of this power has intro duced the disorders of the moral world ; and that man, therefore, himself the delinquent, cannot reasonably arraign the divine goodness for his
* The Scripture history of the fall of our first parents, and its consequences, however satisfactorily it accounts to Christians for the present state of man, cannot be expected to silence sceptics ; because the argument of the objector goes farther back, and inquires why they were permitted, or created liable to fall. This is the objection of Bolingbroke, when he complains of the severity with which God punished our first parents for a fault which he foreknew they would commit, when he abandoned their free will to the temptation of committing it.
VOL. II. Q
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own bad use of his distinguishing- property. * Surely when we reflect upon the past history of the world, when we contemplate its present ap pearance, and when at the same time we turn our thoughts to that future state of existence which forms the best hope and consolation of the good ; our reason must forcibly suggest to us, that, as far as our views can embrace the question, it would appear infinitely better for mankind if they had possessed no opportunity of making a bad election, or had been deter mined invincibly in favour of a good one, than that they should be exposed to the hazards of a contest where all are endangered, and so many are sure to fall irrecoverably. f
* This is the scope of King's argument in his famous Origin of Evil. " If we can show that more evils necessarily arise from withdrawing or restraining the use of free-will, than from permitting the abuse of it, it must be evident that God is obliged to sutler either these or greater evils. And since the least of these necessary evils is chosen, even infinite goodness could not possibly do better." Sect. v. subs. 1.
f It is a principal inquiry of Bayle, in his well-known discussion of this subject, why God, foreseeing that a creature would sin, if left to its own free conduct, did not determine it to that which was good, as he does continually
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Whoever endeavours to prove that mankind, in being- left liable to error, are placed in the most desirable state, lies under the disad vantage of arguing against the general appre hension and conviction which must result from a survey of the world. That general convic tion asserts, that the being free and liable, and consequently likely, without constant diligence and painful struggles, to choose evil, is not only the greatest drawback on individual, but on universal happiness ; that it leads to the heaviest misfortunes and the most poignant anguish to which life is exposed : of which the chief alleviation is the hope of becoming at length victorious in such a difficult trial, of being relieved from intercourse with guilty free agents, and of enjoying the delightful tranquillity of a repose from the disturbing power of passion.*
determine the souls of the blest in paradise. The best answer, probably, which that objection can meet with is given by Law in his notes on King, vol. iv. p. 112, chap. v. sect 5, subs. 2. But it is more calculated to silence, than to satisfy objections.
* The passage in Cicero to this purpose is very striking : " O felicem ilium dietn, cum ad illud divinum animorum
Q 2
THIS WORLD A STATE
It is a position wholly untenable, that ac cording to our view of the subject, the degree of moral evil must necessarily have been as great as it is, unless an absolute restraint had been laid upon the will of man. Without entering into metaphysical discussions, it may be safely assumed, that the will is determined by the greater apparent good ; and that, when it makes a bad election in defiance of reason and judgment, the dismission of some present uneasiness, or the possession of some present gratification, is the greatest apparent good at the time being. Had, then, their real interest, upon a full view of their present and future condition, been placed before all mankind with a clear distinctness which we can certainly conceive, because we have examples of it on record ; free-will, though exposed to less chance of error, would not have been annihilated ; and yet it would have been as morally impossible for man to choose evil in opposition to good, as we imagine it to be for the glorified inheritors
concilium coetumque proficiscar, et cum ex hac turba et colluvione discetlam !" De Senectute.
OF MORAL TRIAL. ^29
of a future state; as it proved to be for Jesus Christ, during his adoption of human nature with its temptations and infirmities ; or, to go no farther, as it appears to be for good men when they approach the termination of their course, after a long perseverance in the habit and practice of virtue. If any one denies that this might have been, to our rational apprehen sions, a better state, such a one must be led by force of consequence to deny that it would have been happier for mankind, if our first parents, and all their subsequent posterity, had withstood the temptation to which they were exposed, and remained with the liability to err, but without the error. Yet the description which might have suited the state of man, if he had never fallen into moral evil, represents a brighter scene than the face of the world, such as we now live in, can realize. " Then there would have been no desertion on God's part, because no apostasy on man's : no clouds in his mind, no tempest in his breast, no tears, nor cause for any ; but a continual calm and serenity of soul, enjoying all the innocent de-
230 THIS WORLD A STATE
lights that God and nature could afford, and all this for ever. The whole world had been but a higher heaven and a lower ; earth had been but heaven a little allayed ; and Adam had been as an angel incarnate, and God all in all : and all this to be enjoyed eternally, with out diminution, without period. O how great a happiness may we conceive the state of up right man to be ; which nothing can resemble, nothing exceed ; unless it be the happiness and bliss to which fallen man shall be re stored !"*
The fact, I conceive, must be admitted, not withstanding all the ingenious arguments which some very excellent persons have adduced to prove the contrary, that mankind is not, at present, in the best possible, or intelligibly conceivable state ; and it must be equally con ceded, that the Deity did not intend he should be.f The infinite wisdom of God supposes
* Hopkins's Doctrine of the two Covenants, p. 1. •f This is allowed by King, Origin of Evil. " Moral evils cannot be excused by necessity, as the natural ones, and
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an infallible prescience of all future events ; and must have clearly seen, that a being-, liable to vice and temptation in the degree to which man was liable, would inevitably fall into it : we cannot, therefore, either argue otherwise concerning such error, than as happening with his permission ; or concerning such liability, than as forming a part of his general scheme in the creation of man.* That general scheme, as is evident to reason as well as declared by reve lation, was to place man in a state of probation. How we came to be placed in it, is a question more profound than our faculties can pre tend to fathom. " Whether it be not beyond those faculties not only to find out, but even to understand, the whole account of this ; or
those of imperfection, are. It is plaiu that created nature implies imperfection iu the very terms of its being created ; either, therefore, nothing at all must be created, or some thing imperfect. But the evils incident to free agents are permitted by God voluntarily, since neither the nature of things nor the good of the universe require the permission of them ; i. e. the world would have been as well without them." * Epicurus's dilemma (Bayle, article Marcionites ; King, p. 400) is to this purpose, and has bom already quoted. Chap. i.
232 THIS WOULD A STATE
though we should be supposed capable of un derstanding it, yet whether it would be of service or prejudice to us to be informed of it ; it is impossible to say." * Thus much is certain; that those who have adventured upon so deep a speculation, have left little encou ragement for others to follow them on a sub ject of so great difficulty. Some reasonersf endeavour to account for the imperfection of man, as if it were necessary to preserve the con nexion between the higher and inferior orders of created beings, or imagine J that God having created, out of pure benevolence, as many im material beings of the noblest kind as were suited to the order and convenience of his system, added others of the mixed and imperfect nature which belongs to the inhabitants of our world, since even such imperfect beings were better than none at all.
It is not to be supposed that this view of the
* Butler's Analogy, p. 107.
-j- Soame Jenyns' Inquiry into the Origin of Evil.
1 Law on King's Origin of Evil, p. 393.
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subject can satisfy or silence those who are inclined to argue it.* In reply it may be un answerably urged, that, of three orders of beings, it does not appear what advantage the first and third receive from the imperfection of the second ; or that indeed they might not equally exist if the second had never been, or should cease to be. Neither can it be main tained, that a world, imperfect both in its own organization, and in that of the creatures its inhabitants, formed a necessary part in the system of a Being whose omnipotence to pre vent is as unlimited as his wisdom to foresee.
The conclusion to which Baylet brings his free inquiry into the permission of moral evil is, that " these are unsearchable depths, in which reason is swallowed up, and only faith can support us." This seems to convey an insinuation, that the phenomena are not only above our reason, but contrary to it : and the inevitable consequence of such a conclusion is,
4 See Johnson's Review of Jenyns. •\ Article, Marcionites.
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that we are referred to our faith for support, with the pillar which should support us, shaken ; if it is at the same time pretended, that the difficulty in hand is irreconcilable with our natural notions of justice. Premising-, therefore, that all endeavours to understand an extended scheme, such as that to which the creation of man appears to belong-, must be defective, whilst only that part of it is revealed to us in which we are immediately concerned : it may still be inquired, whether it is any dero gation from the divine perfections of justice and goodness, of which the proofs are derived from other sources, to suppose that God has placed mankind in a state, as preparatory to another, in which all being liable to error and guilt, some were sure to prove, finally and without repentance, erring and guilty, and ob noxious to all the fatal consequences of such delinquency.
It is undeniable, that certain imperfections must belong to every created being. Omni potence itself cannot create a being absolutely
OF MORAL TRIAL. 235
perfect ; since a being- absolutely perfect must necessarily be self-existent. But there are various degrees of imperfection ; various de grees of frailty in the agent, and of temptation from external objects : all this was to be deter mined by the will of the Creator alone ; nor can we conceive any thing- to control or inter fere with his view as to what best coincided with his design for the human race.
In the Scripture, to which alone we can appeal with confidence, the creation of man is represented as a voluntary measure on God's part, to which we can only suppose him deter mined by the exercise of his attributes, justice and goodness. The account there given, though accommodated to human expression, is decla rative of the intention of the Creator ; who says, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (i. e. endued with the distinctive faculty of reason); " and let them have domi nion" over the earth.
Here, and throughout the history, God
C23G THIS WOULD A STATE
appears to resolve, independently of all restraint or necessity,* to create a world fit for the re ception of the human race, to make them the sovereign or principal inhabitants of it, and at the same time to place them on their pro bation ; their happiness being- dependent on their obedience to prescribed commands, and their disobedience being threatened with punish ment.
The stress of the question, therefore, lies here : why the Deity, if his purpose was really benevolent, did not at once create man capable
* This is said in opposition to the language of King, be fore cited, who speaks of " God being obliged to suffer" these or greater evils ;" and of Jenyns, who argues to the same purpose ; " It is not at all difficult to conceive, that in every possible method of ordering, disposing, and framing the universal system of things, such numberless inconveniences might necessarily arise, that all that infinite wisdom could do, was to make choice of that method which was attended with the least and fewest ; and this not proceeding from any defect of power in the Creator, but from that imperfection which is inherent in the nature of all created things." The real extent of the necessary imperfection has been already .stated.
OF MORAL TRIAL. 237
of enjoying- a state of perfect purity and holi ness, and incapable of corrupting or forfeiting it. Now, although it is not pretended that we can see into all the reasons by which the Deity was swayed to create man a peccable being ; yet there are not wanting many considerations which may serve, if not to satisfy our curiosity, at least to remove any scruples which might be raised on this ground, against the conclusions of natural religion with respect to the divine attributes.
Without denying, on the one hand, that a being free from all temptation, and unspotted by any stain of guilt, might be created, and, if created, would be an object of the highest love and admiration ; yet, on the other hand, it must be conceded, that the virtue of such a being would be altogether different in kind from the virtue of one who has successfully re sisted the temptations and overcome the diffi culties to which a good man is exposed on earth, and who has so far contributed to form his own
238 THIS WORLD A STATE
character, his own moral excellence.* The one would have received, the other has acquired. The one would have succeeded by inheritance to the possession, which the other has attained by victory.
* I greatly respect the piety and humility of those Chris tians who will think that this passage represents the future condition of man as depending too much on his own deserts. Theirs is the safe side. Nothing is so indispensable, in all practical discourses and exhortations, as to insist on the weakness of man's endeavours, as his natural propensity is to magnify his deserts and trust to his own powers. But while the Scripture every where assures us, that no man's merit can entitle him to heaven, it likewise leaves us to un derstand, that "the gift of God, eternal life, through Jesus Christ," is not an unconditional gift, any more than Paradise to Adam. So is it no less certain from St. Paul, that fallen man cannot, without the aid of divine grace, form his own character to good : but it equally appears from the same source, that he must contribute to form it ; and that the indi viduality of personal character remains, notwithstanding the " inward renewal" required of the Christian ; as their pecu liar style and habits of thinking remained to the inspired writers, supported, but not superseded, by inspiration. Those who do not find in Scripture this life represented as a state of probation, or the dispensation of the Gospel as a system of rewards and punishments, certainly read it with different eyes from mine.
OF MORAL TRIAL. 239
If, indeed, that were the highest character of virtue, which consists in the perpetual con- templation and love of supreme excellence, an idea which was erroneously entertained by some of the ancient philosophers, and has been bor rowed from them by the modern Quietists, there would be less occasion for a situation of so great difficulty and danger ; though, even according to their system, it was no inconsiderable triumph to abstract the mind from the objects with which it is surrounded, and fix it to the contemplation of unseen and ideal perfection. But as this speculative disposition of the mind towards what is abstractedly good, is found by experience to be consistent with much that is vicious in practice ; and as real practical virtue, such as we are con cerned with in this life, does in fact consist in an habitual subjection of the mind to the conclu sions of reason, where revelation has not been made, and where it has, to the commands issued by the Creator of the world to direct his people ; it is evident that this habitual subjection of the will must be acquired, like other habits, by re peated acts ; and to its formation must be pre-
240 THIS WORLD A STATE
supposed, of course, frequent opportunities of executing- those acts, or the contrary. How far the nature of the heavenly rewards may require a mind previously disciplined, and how far such an established disposition as is here meant, may be even absolutely necessary to fit mankind for the enjoyment of a future state, we are not precisely informed ; but that such is the actual case, is rendered very credible by intimations which may be gathered from Scripture, as well as by numerous analogies which the economy of the present life affords.
Whatever is the explanation of the fact, it certainly appears from the positive assurance and clear examples with which we meet in Scripture, that trial, severe trial, is absolutely requisite to purify and establish the human character. The characters which the Apostle enumerates to the Hebrews as distinguished beyond others by the divine favour, are almost all of persons whose faith was testified by some great present sacrifice risked in confidence of future recompense. Tt wnni/i not seem to bo
OF MORAL TRIAL. 241
sufficient, that the mind should be ready to make the sacrifice ; that the inclination should be pious, the confidence entire ; i. e. the good disposition alone does not seem sufficient : but the action in proof of that disposition is really performed, the sacrifice is actually made, the suffering1 positively undergone : as by those who " stopped the mouths of lions, quenched " the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the " sword ; or were tortured, not accepting deli- " verance, that they might obtain a better re- " surrection."* In all these cases, I argue, the being actually exposed to situations of the great est difficulty appears essential to the " obtaining " a good report through faith."
Let us look more minutely to the process pursued with regard to the particular instance of Abraham. The blessing destined for him was equally important and peculiar. An indi vidual family was to be selected, from whose stock the birth of the Redeemer of mankind
* Hebrews xi. VOL. II. R
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should take place. A particular people was to be chosen, which should become depositaries of the fact of the creation, and inheritors of the knowledge and worship of the Creator, as well as of his favour and protection, accompa nied with great temporal blessings and prospe rity. These two signal advantages, in their nature necessarily peculiar, centered in Abra ham.
However, they were not ultimately made over to him till his fitness to receive them had been proved and exhibited by several remark able instances of obedience. His first call was attended with a command to " leave his coun- " try and his kindred, and his father's house."* This call he immediately obeyed ; and it is justly remarked as a proof of his faith, that when he was summoned into a country which he should afterwards receive as his inheritance, "he went out, not knowing whither." t When the covenant made with him upon this evidence of faith was subsequently renewed, a fresh * Gen. xii. -[ Hebrews xi. 8.
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proof was demanded of him, and was followed by the institution of the rite of circumcision. The ultimate ratification of the covenant was preceded by a temptation as much severer than any to which any other mortal can be exposed, as the benefits were singular which were about to be conferried : requiring- him to sacrifice, by his own hand, his only son, that son through whom all the promised blessings were to be derived. The object of this command is suf ficiently declared, when it is said in the open ing of the narration, that " God tempted (i. e. " tried) Abraham." And it was not till his fidelity had been displayed in this remarkable manner, that the final assurance was given : " Because thou hast done this thing, and hast " not withheld thy son, thine only son, in " blessing I will bless thee, &c. ; and in thy " seed shall all the nations of the earth be " blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice."* Now, that Abraham's faith was really equal to temptation, was of course known to the Al-
* Gen. xxii. 16.
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mighty before he brought it to trial. Yet he was tempted notwithstanding ; as if the actual proof and exhibition of character were a neces sary part of the divine counsels, and a step which must be passed in the way to final reward.
This conclusion to which we are led by the case of Abraham is strongly corroborated by the history of Job. It is still more worthy of notice, that we find it confirmed in the exam ple of Christ himself in his human character ; who did not enter upon his ministry till he had proved himself in actual trial superior to the temptations which the minister of evil was per mitted to place in his way ; as he does, accord ing to their respective situations, in the way of every individual who passes through the world.
The necessity of trial to render a nature con stituted like that of man acceptable to God, and finally rewardable, seems decisively esta blished by these instances, as well as by many
OF MORAL TRIAL. 24v3
other intimations which may be collected from Scripture to the same effect.* Who indeed can deny that such a discipline and exhibition of cha racter may be a preparation requisite to some ulterior purpose in man's final destination ?t If the being surrounded with so much evil increases the difficulty of his situation, it must be allowed that i he characters of those who overcome these difficulties are exalted in proportion . Natural and moral evil are closely connected tog-ether in their consequences as well as in their origin. The weak ness of our bodily constitutions, and the many dis orders to which they are liable, are both attended
" " Blessed is the mau that endnre.th temptation ; for, " when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which " the Lord lias promised to them that love him.'' James i. 12. " Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, " that ye may be. tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten " days : be thou faithful untu death, and I icill give tJiee a " croitii of life." Revel, ii. 10. So also, ch. iii. 10, we find " the hour of temptation" spoken of, " which shall come " upon all the world, to try them that are upon the " earth." To the same purpose is the declaration, xxi. 7, " He that overcometh shall inherit all things." Compare vii. 14; iii. 11, 12;xi. 26.
-{- See Macknight on the Epist. Essay vii. s. 4.
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with temptations of their own, and give to foreign temptations additional power. Evil ex amples surround us on every side, and the inclination to transgress which actuates us within, is constantly deriving fresh force from external impulse. On the other hand, we both feel, and are confidently assured, that there is a power bestowed upon us equal to the existing danger, and by which it may be overcome, and the character of virtue triumphant, though far from perfect, finally established. Now, it would oppose all our natural convictions, to deny that virtue, thus proved victorious, is of a different nature, and more properly the subject of reward, than untried innocence, which has never been exposed to danger.
This being admitted, it will scarcely be thought a question within the limit of our fa culties, whether the degree of moral evil which exists is that precise degree which would alone be adequate to the intended purpose, or whe ther the Deity might not have restrained the bad passions of the human race within stricter
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bounds, and still have made life a state of pro bation. When the thousand different turns and relations of things on which every action depends, and the nice points of discrimination by which every character is shaded and marked out, are taken into the account, he will not be deemed wise who shall venture to assert that the proposed object could have been accom plished by a less sacrifice of good, or a smaller proportion of evil.
It is true, that when we survey the violence, the injustice, the rapacity, which have at all times prevailed in the world, and consider the malignity of some of the human passions, and the vehemence of others, we are sometimes inclined to indulge such a suspicion.* But, on the other hand, we ought to bear in mind,
* Johnson, in his masterly review of Soame Jenyns's Inquiry, has veutured to affirm, " Whether evil can be wholly separated from good, or not, it is plain that they may be mixed in various degrees ; and, as far as human eyes cau judge, the degree of evil might have been less, without any impediment to the good.'1
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that these very vices give occasion to the exer cise of the opposite virtues ; that, if there were less violence, less provocation, less injury, there would also be less room for meekness and forgiveness, less opening- for those passive virtues, the excellence of which is proportioned to their rarity ; which are rare because they are difficult, and difficult because they find the strongest opposition from man's inward nature, and least applause from the surrounding world. Trial, in fact, is supposed, in the first formation of the abstract idea of all the virtues. Where is fortitude, without opposition ? What is pru dence, but a right course among difficulties? Patience is the daughter of affliction. Justice is most brightly exhibited amidst that compli cation of affairs, in which the business of the world involves mankind. We cannot possibly affirm whether the lustre would have been equal, if the labour had been less ; or what degree of attrition could be spared, without detriment to the effect. Perhaps, however, it may assist us in a subject which no thinking person will affirm to be within the grasp of our
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understandings, to compare it with a case in which we have some assistance from past ex perience
For instance, would it not have been natural to believe, that the persecutions which the con verts to Christianity underwent during- the three first centuries, were a needless trial of their sincerity and constancy ? God, it might be argued, knew their hearts and saw their faith. Attachment to an earthly ruler can only be shown by open risk ; but the Searcher of hearts does not require the same actual displays of fidelity, since he knows beforehand who will and who will not abide the fiery ordeal. To what purpose then did he suffer such refine ments of cruelty to be exercised on one side and undergone on the other, as might appear to the contemporaries a plausible proof that he did not approve or support the cause ?* Such
* 'Ot erriek'teorepoi KCLI Kurd iroaov avfjuraOflv wveidtTov iroXv \eyov~ei,' TTOV 6 Oedf (ivrttJv, KOI ri a'vrovc wvtiaeuv r} OprjaKeta, >; cat irpo r»)c e'avriii' etXovro Knscb. tie Martyribus Lugduueiisibus, Hist. v. c. 1.
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reasoning-, 1 can imagine, might have occurred in the days of Decius or Dioclesian. But to us, now, there appears an evident and intelli gible design in the permission of those very martyrdoms. The zeal with which they were incurred, and the constancy with which they were endured, form the strongest links in that chain of arguments by which the certainty of the facts on which the Christian revelation rests, is supported. Had the trial been con fined to a few individuals, they might have been denounced as enthusiasts ; had it been less severe, their perseverance might have been termed obstinacy ; had it been less universal or enduring, they might have been supposed mistaken, and in any of these cases, the most convincing evidence we at present enjoy of the truth of Christianity would be taken away : for, strong as the internal testimony assuredly is, it is more open to dispute, and comes less home to all understandings. All this, however, would not appear to the eye-witnesses of the martyrdoms : nor does it always appear to us who are familiar with the evils resulting from
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human depravity, why that corruption is allowed to disturb the calm of the moral world, and deform the beauty of virtue.
II. It may possibly be argued, that it was inconsistent with divine justice to place intel ligent beings, without any consent of their own, in a situation of such hazard : in which there was a moral certainty undoubtedly foreseen, that liability to err would end in transgression ; that wickedness would ultimately prevail in the world to a great extent : that many would plunge themselves into final ruin, from whose fall, too, the heaviest dangers and temptations must necessarily ensue to the whole race of mankind.
This objection, if valid, renders it inconsistent with the justice of God to create any being with the power of acting well or ill, and to make him accountable for his use of such power. Therefore, it would oppose an insu perable bar to the creation of man in his pre sent preparatory state, or in any state at all
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similar to the present. For it is evident, ven if we were not told so, that the rewards and punishments awaiting mankind in a state of existence where their faculties will be alto gether renewed and changed, and their mode and place of existence inconceivably different, could not possibly be comprehended by the human understanding, as it is now constituted ; and therefore could not be more clearly pre sented to it. Neither could the circumstances of the risk, even if intelligible, be possibly pro posed to man at his entrance into life, or at any period of it that we can assign, so as to enable him to act according to a regular contract, rather than according to a positive command. Therefore we are at once driven to the regions of fancy ; the Deity might have created other imaginable natures ; but it was not conform able to his goodness to create such a being as man, and to render him responsible.
This obliges us to inquire whether there is no fallacy in the reasoning which leads to such an absolute conclusion. If we trace to their
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origin the notions of justice on which it is founded, they appear to spring- from the ac knowledged impossibility of one man's deciding with respect to a fellow-creature, by what motive he may, under any given circumstance, be most forcibly swayed, and to which of oppo site interests he may be inclined to yield. In addition to this undeniable objection against any individual, unauthorized, placing another in a situation of hazard, it is also impossible that human faculties should so appreciate the dangers of such a risk, varying in nature and degree with every different temper and cir cumstance, as to apportion the reward in any tolerable exactness. The conclusion, therefore, must be admitted, as far as regards the dealings of man with his fellow-men.
It cannot however, on due consideration, be pretended that the analogy is just, which ap plies this mode of argument to any dispensa tion of the Deity. For, in the first place, he is able, though creatures of limited faculties are unable, to comprehend in one view all the cir-
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cumstances of the risk and of the reward, and to make the latter so heavy in the scale, as to overpay, to an infinite extent, the dangers in curred. And next, he is able to judge in tuitively and infallibly of the motives by which every individual would suffer himself to be de termined : and to know of a certainty before hand, whether, if the difficulties of the course to be pursued and the penalties of failure, were proposed to the understanding-, the reward must appear so to preponderate as to preclude all hesitation, and sway every man's choice in vincibly. Now, that the reward is of such a nature, religion teaches us to believe ; and not revealed only, but natural religion, that ge nuine natural religion which points to another world to correct the inequalities of this. For, to be placed in the enjoyment of every plea surable faculty, and at the same time to be re moved from the possibility of any pain and suffering, any drawback to our happiness from fear or danger ; would be a state of very en viable and desirable existence, even if it were only awarded us here for a limited time, and
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with our present imperfections. But to pos sess such perfect enjoyment with our faculties enlarged, and improved, and purified, and ac companied at the same time with a conscious certainty of its illimitable duration, holds out a prospect which may be truly affirmed to pass man's understanding. We surely may con ceive it known to an omniscient God, that, if this prospect were actually or could possibly be made intelligible to the human race, all would instantly and joyfully embrace it, not withstanding the difficulties that might oppose the attainment, and the dreadful evils awaiting a failure, of which a view no less clear and distinct is of course supposed to be given. But, if it could be known with certainty what the choice would be, if the liberty of choosing were actually presented to mankind, the case becomes virtually, though not formally, the same, as if the alternative of accepting or re fusing existence were absolutely proposed. The objection, as was before allowed, applies con clusively to man, who can never be positively assured what alternative will appear preferable,
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what motive strongest, to the mind of another : but no analogous argument can hold with respect to the Deity, who comprehends in one view the motives which would actuate the decision of man in every possible contingency. His attri butes continue unimpeached, as long as his dealings with his creatures conform to the eternal principles of justice : we cannot without pre sumption require that he should submit his actions to its forms, to the definite contracts which the frailty, as well as the equality, of mankind obliges them to sign and seal. And on the principle upon which this argument is raised, no objection can be consistently made against the Deity's thus acting from his foreknowledge. For, if it is urged on one side against the justice of God, that he exposed mankind to a moral danger, into which he foresaw they would fall, and bring consequent ruin upon themselves ; it must be admitted on the other side, that he might place them in a situation which he foresaw they would choose, if left to the free exercise of their will.
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It is every way probable, from our experience of man's nature, that undismayed by the lament able consequences of failure, he would actually make the choice here supposed, and place him self voluntarily in the same responsible situation in which, as things are constituted, God has placed him, if the great and unbounded prospect such as we conceive heaven to offer, were laid before him. Granting it for a moment to be possible, that the punishments and rewards of the eternal world should be proposed to his view and understanding, with all the contingent circumstances of the risk ; there is every reason to believe that he would be swayed by hope rather than deterred4 by danger, even if the reward and punishment are supposed equal in degree. And if God had no other attribute than justice, it were sufficient to believe them equal; but as he is also benevolent towards mankind, it is probable that the reward of virtue is so vastly superior in proportion to the punishment of vice, dreadful as we believe the latter to be, as would irresistibly incline the will
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to embrace the offer of existence, under the terms proposed.
If, then, the Deity must have foreseen by his prescience the certainty of that election, as clearly as he foresaw that numbers of the human race would ultimately incur the evils to which their state of hazard exposes them, there is an end to all objection against the justice of God, and the question is shifted to his goodness. But no argument against the goodness of God can be maintained from the circumstances of danger in which mankind are placed, unless it were clearly proved that the present situation of the human race is ultimately productive of more misery than happiness. If the sum of happiness produced to mankind collectively be greater than the sum of misery, then it was benevolent in the Deity to give them existence, though attended with danger to all, and with ultimate misery to some. To have placed' man in a situation which he himself would have chosen, though the sum total of risk was more than commensurate with
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the sum total of gain, would have been just, but not benevolent ; but to call into existence a larger proportion of happiness than misery, is at once benevolent and just.
Now although we cannot hold the scales which can balance so immense an account, it is contrary to every probability that happiness would not be found to preponderate, if we could : for those who assert the opposite argu ment are bound to point out some motive which could induce an omnipotent Being to create a world for any other purpose than that of pro ducing a preponderating sum of final happiness, when he has in all the parts of that creation given evidence, by a vast plurality of instances, that he desired the physical happiness of man, at the same time that he required his moral obedi ence : in other words, that benevolence was a constituent part of his divine perfections, as well as power and justice. And that this evidence is actually given by the general appear ance of the world, must be considered as a fact which has been already shown by numerous
260 THIS WORLD A STATE, &C.
writers beyond possibility of refutation, or even of denial.
These considerations, I think, furnish a suffi cient answer to those objectors who insinuate that it cannot be reconciled to our notions of justice or goodness in the Creator, that he has placed sentient and intelligent beings, without any consent of their own, in a state of such awful responsibility.
In these circumstances, therefore, the first parents of mankind were placed ; subject to command, and responsible to their Maker ; with power over the impulse of the will suffi cient to enable them to obey, but not so irre sistibly determined to good, as to render it im possible for them to swerve into disobedience.
CHAPTER III.
On the Goodness of God, displayed in the Christian Dispensation.
IT is an employment not unsuitable to the human faculties, and, we may trust, not dis pleasing to their divine Author, to follow the clue of reason through the intricate paths into which the moral state of mankind leads us ; and, as far as we are enabled by that feeble help,
to assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to man.
But any such inquiry cannot fail to terminate in a feeling of just gratitude, that we, who have fallen within reach of light from the Gospel, are not left to such an uncertain road through perplexity and error ; but possess a stronger evidence than any arguments could furnish, that benevolence was actually preponderant
262 ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD
in the mind of the Creator in determining the situation of mankind. This evidence is derived from the dispensation unfolded in the Gospel. I will not appeal to the disposition which it authoritatively declares, but to that which it practically testifies. Whatever doubts the permission of evil might excite, whatever clouds it might appear to cast over the plan of God's moral government, are dispersed by the view which the Scriptures present of the mission and sacrifice of Christ : a pledge in controvertible, that love and goodwill towards man did preside at the creation. When the freedom of the human will had led to trans gression, and the penal causes of that trans gression had placed mankind in a very difficult and laborious condition ; when the principle of holiness had been corrupted, and human nature despoiled of its primitive integrity and perfection ; when the admission of sin had been followed by its increase, and the natural ability to resist it, lost j here, where it might appear for a moment doubtful whether bene volence had been the object of the Deity in
IN THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 263
creating man, and if so, whether it had not been defeated, the Christian* revelation steps in to confirm our confidence, and restore us to a just view of the divine attributes. It acquaints us with a part of God's providential government, which exalts, in the highest degree, our sense of his goodness, and immediately meets the difficulty arising from the temptations to which mankind are exposed. A scheme is there unfolded to us, mercifully devised to meliorate man's condition, and obviate the fatal effects of sin, by which, when the event had proved that the human race were unequal to their trials, the evil consequences of their first transgression were, to a certain degree, averted, and it was appointed that repentance should be accepted instead of innocence, and final punishment be awarded only to the im penitent and obdurate offender.
It appears, therefore, that the Creator, whilst he foresaw* that liability to sin would be fol-
* It may be thought that I overlook an objection, in which "ome Christians as well as sceptics coincide, who deny the
264 ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD
lowed by its commission, provided at the same time a remedy for the evil thus impending over his fair creation. This he did, first, by ap pointing a vicarious atonement for sins repented of, and for those imperfections which the ad mission of moral evil has introduced, even into man's best obedience ; and, secondly, by the regular dispensation of such gracious assistance as should correct and support the weakness of mankind, and enable them to fulfil those com mands which, as the descendants of guilty parents, and the heirs of a sinful nature, they would otherwise be disqualified from obeying. That this power is bestowed, and, co-operating with their own moral faculties, enables the sincere disciples of Christ to perform the obedi-
freedom of the human will, or argue, that to permit and to decree are the same thing with absolute power. But after the repeated examinations which this difficult subject has under gone, the idea seems gradually to be prevailing more and more, that it is tvithin the power of the Almighty to create •A free agent : and the parallogisms of Edwards, the latest theological champion of necessity, are beginning to be seen and acknowledged. A discussion of the scriptural authorities involved in this subject would run to a length rather suited to a treatise on divinity than to the pivsrul note.
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ence required of them, is distinctly declared in Scripture, and evidently seen in the conduct of those who listen to its dictates.*
* The existence of this power, and its dispensation in various degrees, according to the exigencies and merits of the individual, is perfectly intelligible. That a superior influence should assist the mind of man, is no more extraordinary than that the power of motion should be communicated to him, a power evidently derived from nothing on earth, and only referable to the Supreme Mind, or Creator: nor is the mode of its operation more inexplicable, than the operation of external objects upon our minds in the excitement of ideas ; or than the communication to the limbs of the determination of the will.
For example : the relinquishment of a present desire, in conformity with the command of a superior, and for the sake of a distant object, requires a double mental exertion of considerable difficulty : viz. to overcome the present inclina tion, and for that purpose to bring the future object nearer. Now, it is evident that the human mind, while viewing any immediate object of attainment, may be endued with a greater or less degree of power both to see that object in a just light, and to advance into closer view the future object, whether of hope or fear. That these are not of any fixed dimensions, but vary in their importance according to the medium through which the mind surveys them, is manifest from the different degree of relative importance they assume, before or after attainment. Crimes are pigmies before commission; they become giants afterwards. Motives which are trivial while the judgment is overbalanced by desire, become of paramount
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To those, therefore, who receive the mys teries declared in the Gospel, as a disclosure of the counsels of God relating- to mankind, as far as it concerns mankind that they should be
influence when it is restored to its equilibrium. Our first parents, who were bold under the pressure of temptation, hid their faces when they had become conscious of disobedience.
It is in that wavering' state of the judgment which precedes the determination of the will, that the divine influence may be presumed to act, in assisting the mind to reduce conflicting objects to their just size, to appreciate rightly the forbidden object, and to approximate the distant recompense. This requires an exertion of intellect, which it is easy to suppose roan may be enabled to make with more or less success, according to the power bestowed upon him. For instance : our ablest metaphysicians are of opinion, that man cannot, with his present intellectual faculties, embrace two objects at the same time, or reason without the intervention of words ; but we can easily imagine this possible to higher intellectual faculties, or that the faculties of man might be so enlarged as to enable him to reason upon any object without the representa tive sign, or to compare two objects at once, without requiring the aid of memory. In the same manner, let it be supposed that he cannot, naturally, so forego things present, or so clearly apprehend things future, as to obey the latter rather than the former. But such a power may be bestowed upon him by the same Being who gave him mind. And it may be bestowed upon him in greater or less degree, in the way of reward for the right exercise of the power he does possess
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disclosed, is opened a most consistent scheme of moral government, in which the union of justice and goodness in the divine nature is consummated. They learn as certain, what reason before showed them to be probable, that this earthly state of existence is prepara tory to a superior state for which they are des tined after its close : God having chosen, for reasons which he does not reveal, that man kind should display their characters in a pre vious state before they reached their final destination, and should attain the enjoyment of a future and more glorious existence by labour, exertion, and obedience. But, if this life is preparatory, and if that preparation is to consist in the trial of virtue, vice becomes the touchstone by which virtue is proved, and the possibility of falling is necessary to show the strength of those who stand. In the very no-
naturally. And consequently, as a punishment for the wrong exercise of that power, it may be diminished, withdrawn in various degrees, or totally denied.
There is nothing in this supposition unintelligible, nothing, as it appears to me, inconsistent with Scripture or with philosophy.
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tion of a state of trial, evil must be included. If there were no moral evil, i. e. no temptation to vice and wickedness in the world, the world would certainly be infinitely happier, but it would no longer be a situation of moral trial. Or if, while evil still existed, man had been irresistibly determined to choose the good, a case which, as was before allowed, it is very possible to conceive ; the moral character would have remained undisciplined, untried, and unimproved ; moral liberty being essential to a system of which moral trial is the object, and retributive justice the consummation.
God, however, confessedly foresaw, not only that the possibility of erring would lead into actual error, but that the moral evil thus let into the system, would diffuse an universal moral weakness, would introduce a general im perfection, and, in addition to the large account of total failures, cause many partial falls, which might, in the course of years, be repented of and recovered. To reconcile, therefore, his own holiness with his plan for the probation of
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mankind, instead of human weakness, he ac cepts the perfection of Christ. This does not alter the nature of life, as a state of trial, but by the opportunity of repentance thus allowed it renders the trial less perilous. At the same time that the various scenes and changes ex perienced in the world, are well adapted to prove the character and discipline the mind, a merciful and wise provision diminishes the ex tent of the risk, and lightens the difficulty to which man is subjected by those temptations. He is at best frail and imperfect, and, it might seem, unworthy of a superior state ; instead, then, of that frailty and imperfection, God declares his acceptance of Christ's perfect righteousness, as having by his voluntary sacri fice redeemed mankind from the consequences of their guilt, and opened to them a way of eternal happiness. How far retrospective this benefit may be towards those who lived ante cedently to the death of Christ, or how far it may improve the condition of those who have not yet received the mercies and obligations of the Gospel, we can only conjecture by analogy
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from the goodness shown in the whole dispen sation. The true believer, however, is not only set free from the consequences of those frailties of which he is conscious, and with which the existence of moral evil has stained every cha racter j but the relation to the divine Being, which the Gospel opens to his view, proposes to him purer and higher duties than any with which natural reason could have acquainted him, and exalts the nature of his virtues in pro portion to the brighter lustre of the object to wards which they are directed.
With respect to the atonement, should it be further demanded, why, if not the occasional admission of guilt, but the irreclaimable cha racter of wickedness were destined to final punishment : why, under this, which is declared to be the real purpose of the Deity, he could not have pardoned sin, upon the repentance of the offender, without requiring an atonement incomprehensible to us in its nature and effi cacy: the answer has been repeatedly given, and, we might believe, satisfactorily given by
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various excellent writers, in just and profound reflections on the nature of sin, and of the divine perfections. The question, indeed, seems to assume that goodness, or benevolence, is the single attribute of the Deity. But bene volence, even in man, forms an amiable, but not a perfect character. To complete the di vine perfections, justice and holiness must bo indispensably and inseparably united to bene volence : and justice, it would appear, required the vicarious atonement which goodness de vised ; and which opens to those who, having erred, repent of their errors, and reform them, a way to the indulgence of that Being whose purity would revolt from the presence of unex- piated guilt.
To show that this idea of the necessity of vicarious atonement is analogous to many cir cumstances which the course of human life, and conduct, and opinion, presents to our view, would be only to detail again arguments which have been repeatedly urged with all the force of which they are capable.* Repentance,
* Of late writers, see particularly Arcbb. Magee, Disc. I.
272 ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD
I would briefly observe, may fit a person for the acceptance of reward, but cannot, in itself, deserve reward ; it cannot expiate an offence, though it may render the offender worthy of expiation ; it may excite compassion, but it cannot efface a crime. This holds true in all our intercourse with one another, and in the common concerns of man with man. Though we excuse one who has injured us, on his re gret and contrition, our forgiveness of his of fence does not restore him to the place he held in our esteem, when innocent. The commis sion of a flagrant crime we never entirely par don. The reformation of the criminal does not expiate his guilt in the eyes of society ; his modest deportment and evident contrition may engage our pity, and incline us towards lenity and favour ; but, in spite of this feeling, his offence has raised a kind of barrier between him and the rank from which he fell, and he is still viewed as a person to whom a stain is attached, which it is impossible to efface, either from his character or our recollection. If this is the effect of a crime once committed, upon the
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opinion of man, in the case of the Supreme Being- it will appear a necessary consequence of the excellence of his nature and perfections. With man, the lapse of time and succession of events weakens, if it does not obliterate, the memory of the past ; but to the view of God the past is ever present ; and the guilt once contracted re mains in his sight uneffaced, and in all its ori ginal heinousness.
Those writers, among whom some of consi derable learning and piety might be enu merated, who have held that repentance and reformation are in themselves a necessary res toration to the divine favour, have been misled, by the abundant evidences of the benevolence of God, to transfer that inclination towards the happiness of his creatures which is uniformly displayed in things indifferent, to circumstances in which it could not be consulted without a violation of the other attributes, which are equally essential to the character of an all-per fect Being. In things morally indifferent, and bearing no connexion with the character of
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man as a moral agent, it is decisively proved that the Deity has shown an exclusive regard to the happiness of the human race. But in the different effects of different sorts of moral conduct upon the well-being of individuals, and of mankind at large, he has taken occasion to display his justice too ; and has given us reason to conclude, by an analogy drawn from the present to a future dispensation, that the punishment incurred by guilt is not necessarily averted by repentance. This appears, not only in the instances already mentioned, of the loss of character and reputation, which might be referred to the fallible judgment of man ; but in the consequences which follow vice, by the natural constitution of things, and are, there fore, to be argued upon as actual testimonies of the divine counsels. And these conse quences, we find, usually continue, long after the moral character which caused them has been changed ; and the loss of fortune and health is not repaired by repentance of that ill conduct which originally forfeited them.
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The analogy, therefore, which we can derive from the course of things here, gives us no rea son to imagine that God either has, or would have, forgiven the violation of his moral laws, by any departure from the holiness which belongs to his perfections. " Some other in tercession, some other sacrifice, some other atonement, it appears, must be made for sin, beyond what man himself is capable of making, before the purity of the divine justice can be reconciled to his manifold offences. The doc trines of Revelation coincide then, in every respect, with the original anticipations of na ture,"* when they assure us, that God in appointing an atonement as an instrumental mean for the general restoration of repentant and reformed transgressors to his favour, has satisfied his holiness at the same time that he has consulted his benevolence : and wherever this revelation of his counsels has been hitherto explained, he has also given the strongest dis couragement to vice, by declaring its repug-
* Smith's Moral Sentiments, three first editions, p. 206.
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276 ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD
nance to his nature ; and the highest induce ment to virtue, by showing- the perfect purity, either inherent or imputed, which his presence demands.
This view of the situation of man, and of the attributes of the Creator, which the Christian revelation unfolds, is complete and consistent ; and, while it accounts for all the pheenomena of our state, contains but two points that are beyond our reason, and none that are contrary to it. It is above our reason, why we should be subjected to so much hazard ; it is also above our reason, how the sacrifice of Christ should expiate human transgressions. But it is not, therefore, contrary to reason, that God should have chosen to create a being1 who should form and display his character in a probationary state, before he was admitted to the scene of his ulterior destination : or that he should mer cifully have appointed a mean, by which, con sistently with his own justice, the risk incurred by that being should be diminished. Admit this ; and the moral world, which is sometimes
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treated as a scene of confusion, in which an unequal contest between reason and passion, between duty and transgression, is constantly carried on, will appear a comprehensive plan of harmony and intelligible design.
For reasons of which we are confessedly ig norant, God placed us in a state, not of ultimate perfection, but of preparatory probation. To the formation and developement of human cha racter, which was the object of this probation, the existence of moral evil, and the possibility of falling into it, became necessary. The de gree of criminality in which some part of the human race is consequently involved, places the whole race in a situation of so much diffi culty, that a total escape from the general con tagion is rendered impossible. It follows, therefore, that where the inducements to offend were so powerful, if no provisional remedy had been applied to cases of inferior or repentant offenders, the system might have appeared so far defective, as to be irreconcileable with the belief of the goodness of God, which we derive
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from other sources, though not contrary to the rules of strict justice. Revelation, however, sets aside this difficulty ; and acquaints us, that the appointment of this provisional remedy was coeval with the foundation of the system itself; and that the disorders consequent upon the introduction of moral evil, have been all along- accompanied and palliated by a vicarious atonement, which reconciles the forgiveness of man to the perfection of the divine attributes, and renders the final happiness of those whose moral character has ultimately borne the test re quired of them, no less consistent with the justice, than it is agreeable to the benevolence of God.
Against this uniform and comprehensive scheme nothing can be advanced, except the presumptuous inquiry, why we were not cre ated heirs to an immortality of gratuitous hap piness. This would doubtless have been an act of pure benevolence, highly preferable, as far as we can imagine, to the majority of man kind : but surely it is not pretended that man can justly claim such an existence from his
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Creator. It would be equally reasonable to arraign the goodness of God, that we are not born possessed of all the strength of manhood, without the delay and dangers of a tedious infancy : or that our intellectual faculties are not bestowed upon us perfect, instead of re quiring so long a course of industrious culture.
It is remarkable indeed, that the arguments which arraign the divine goodness with the difficulties which embarrass virtue on earth, go in direct contradiction to all that we see around us of the divine oeconomy. According to that plan, nothing, if I may so speak, is done immediately : all is brought about by the instrumentality of means. The world is not peopled by immediate creation. The food by which mankind are supported, is produced by a series of laborious exertions, which constitute no small share of their employment. The hu man mind itself is possessed of no stores by na ture, but acquires whatever it has the capacity of acquiring, by pains and cultivation. All these dispensations are akin to the discipline
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which the human character undergoes, in its progress through the world. Why is not man created in perfect vigour, and able to per form without the waste of a tedious interval, the purposes to which he is destined ? Why does his strength require to be continually re cruited ? Why is he not gifted from his birth, or by inspiration, with the knowledge requisite to his condition? Why do so many actually leave the world, without having ever attained any considerable degree of that knowledge? These are questions, which, when we venture to inquire respecting divine ordinances, we might ask with the same justice, as when we ask why the human character is formed for a future state by previous discipline in this.
Again : should it be alleged, that if the object of man's residence on earth is to form and prove the character, in preparation for another state, this world, so full of confusion and wickedness, is ill adapted to serve for such a preparation j the objection must be refuted by an appeal to our own practical experience,
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in a case remarkably similar. For who would not believe, previous to experience, that the same argument was applicable to the early stages of the earthly existence of mankind ? In this outset of life, the helplessness of in fancy is succeeded by the perverse wayward ness of childhood ; childhood is succeeded by the headstrong passions and follies of youth ; and the process of education exhibits a conti nual conflict of indolence against exertion, of licentiousness against discipline, and extrava gance against reason. Yet in the midst of this apparent lawlessness and confusion, the cha racter is formed, and the individual is matured, and enters upon the duties of a more advanced period of his existence ; which he discharges well or ill, and with good or bad consequences to himself, according to the use he has made of his early life and education. To this order of things the whole of man's preparatory state bears a striking analogy. He is prone to error ; he is assaulted by temptation ; he is hindered by his own weakness, and impeded by obsta cles thrown in his way by others j he is urged
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and agitated by contrary passions, conflicting wishes, fears and desires. And it is in this tumultuous scene that the moral character expands, and is decided to good or evil ; and ultimately takes its place among the innumer able gradations which form the connecting chain between the best and the worst of the human race.
In fact, the very viciousness of the world renders it a state of virtuous discipline, in the degree it is, to good men ; and so highly exalts the dignity of those who subject their rebellious nature to the guidance of reason or superior obligation, and look beyond the business or concerns of the present state towards that final destination, of which this world is only the entrance. For, in proportion as the dross is impure, the metal is refined ; and if the admis sion of evil into the system sinks a vast mul titude to a very low state of degradation, it raises the character of virtue to an elevation, which a state affording no temptation or oppor tunity of failure could never have attained. A
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being, before whom the views of his real in terest had been always so clearly displayed, as to render it morally impossible that he should swerve from them, would not appear so fit a subject of reward, as one conscious of his free agency, sensible of opposite desires, swayed by alternate interests, with passion to impel and reason to direct him. A man thus strug gling- against the vicious habits with which he is surrounded, is worthier of celestial specta tors, than the great admiration of former ages, the man struggling against misfortunes. It is a sufficient justification of the phenomena of the moral world, that the established system of things exhibits such spectacles, and raises man to so sublime a height, superior to the suggestions of the depraved part of his nature, and to the tyranny of bad example. And it must not be omitted, in conclusion, that the obvious effect of such a state as Revelation represents the life of man to be, is to introduce, in the person who acts up to the faith and pre cepts of Revelation, that sort of connexion between man and his Creator, of dependance
284 ON THE GOODNESS OF GOD, &C.
and obedience on the side of man, and of re gard and assistance on the part of God, which we conceive will be renewed and perfected in the life to come.
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CHAPTER IV.
On the Existence of natural Evils, and those of civil Life.
IF we turn from the moral to the natural state of man, we find on that side also a body of evil, which is seized upon as a strong- hold by the opponents of the goodness of the Deity. The extent, indeed, of these evils is differently estimated, according-, it would seem, to the natural temperament of the person who con templates them. While Dr. Paley, whose writings bear strong testimony to his sanguine and cheerful mind, maintains that they hold no proportion to the mass of human enjoyment;*
* Paley's Nat. Theol. p. 499. " It is a happy world, after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted
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another eye sees through another medium, and at once the picture is reversed. " There is no day nor hour," it is said, " in which, in some regions of the many-peopled globe, thousands of men, and millions of animals, are not tor tured to the utmost extent that organized life will afford. Let us turn our attention to our own species. Let us survey the poor ; op pressed, hungry, naked, denied all the grati fications of life, and all that nourishes the mind. Let us view man, writhing under the pangs of disease, or the fiercer tortures that are stored up for him by his brethren."* A less prejudiced writer expresses his belief, " that even among those whose state is beheld with envy, there are many who, if at the end of their course, they were put to their option, whether, without any respect to a future state, they would repeat all the pleasures they have had in life, upon condition to go over again
existence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view."
* Godwin, p. 455.
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also also all the same disappointments, the same vexations, and unkind treatment from the world, the same secret pangs and tedious hours, the same labours of body and mind, the same pains and sicknesses ; would be far from ac cepting them at that price."* Dr. Johnson has even declared, that the evils of life pre ponderate in so great a degree, as to render the subject incomprehensible to human facul- ties.f
* Wollaston, Relig. of Nature delin. p. 390. His argu ments are well turned aside by Balguy, Div. Benev. asserted p. 3. Cicero makes Cato affirm the same of himself: "Si quis deus inihi largiatur, ut ex hac aetate repuerascam, et in cunis vagiam, valde recusem : nee vero velim, quasi decurso spatio, a calce ad carceres revocari." Seneca argues, " hanc vitam, si scientibus daretur, neminem accepturum." These observations may be true, but do not prove the point. What ever pleasures we may have enjoyed in our past lives, we expect little from their repetition, which would want the zest of novelty and variety. I do not think it fair to allege the unwillingness of mankind to part with life, as a proof of the actual value of it; because this may as often arise from the fear of dying, as the delight of living. Law, however, Hut- cheson, Balguy, and Paley, all use that argument as satis factory.
-j- Review of Soame Jenyns.
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The difficulty, however, great as these au thors represent it, lies not so much in the evils themselves, as in their partial distribution. In this point of view, the natural no less than the moral appearance of the world is unaccount able, unless taken in connexion with another. The existence of any partial evil, which can neither be avoided by prudence nor mitigated by virtue, is inconsistent with the perfect good ness we attribute to the Deity, under the notion of this world being- a final state. In that case it ought either to be made up to the sufferer by compensation, which we do not always find ; or to be apportioned exactly to the degree of vice, which is equally irreconcileable with ex perience.
The usual answer to this objection, drawn from the course of general laws, rendering " partial evil universal good," does not suf ficiently obviate the difficulty to which it is applied. For why, it may be asked, should the Deity have appointed such general laws as must confine him to imperfection ? General
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 28'J
laws are necessary to the moral government of the world, in connexion with a future state, because moral government could not consist with free agency, under the plan of peculiar in terposition. But if a future state is already, by the supposition, removed from the argu ment, there ceases to be any objection to a particular providence ; or rather, it is the only mode by which the world can be impartially governed.
Neither is it satisfactory to say of these evils, that they are only evils of imperfection. It is true, that " no anatomist ever discovered a system of organization calculated to produce pain and disease ; or, in explaining the parts of the human body, ever said, This is to irri tate, this to inflame."* But it is equally true, that no inquiry has ever yet shown to common reason, why the natural state of man is bettered by being subject to disorder and pain, or why such imperfections are necessary to the exist-
* Paley's Theol. p. 502. VOL. II. ii
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ence of our system, or to the happiness of any other. We are reduced to the alternative of referring- all to our ignorance, or to the more reasonable method of turning our view from the present spectacle of labour and suffering, to its distant and moral effect upon the mind and conduct. Then only, when this light is shed upon the system, are we enabled to contemplate it with satisfaction and complacency.
No errors are more repulsive to honest in quirers, than a tendency to admit too little, or an attempt to prove too much. If we espouse the favourite propositions of Dr. Paley, and allow, without limitation, the conclusion which he £draws, that God wished the happiness of mankind in creating the world ;* an opponent may fairly allege the irreconcileableness of such a wish with existing appearances, and we may find the goodness of the Deity sup ported at the expense of his wisdom. It is as
* The basis of his argument in his Moral Philosophy and Natural Theology-
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impossible to account for natural as for moral evil, without considering this state as a state of discipline and preparation. Arguments without this basis may perplex, but will never convince the understanding, The more mo derate proposition, that the Deity wished the happiness of mankind in this world, as far as it might contribute to their final happiness in another, is a proposition confirmed by the in numerable benevolent provisions by which the goodness of the Deity is maintained, and at the same time is consistent with the many in stances of pain, privation, and sorrow, which abound on every side.
The machinery of human life is complicated and intricate. The course of things, ordained by its divine Governor, is sustained by the ope ration of naturally implanted inclinations, as the desire of enjoyment, the love of ease, and the hope of distinction. The part which these inclinations perform has been declared already.
But, that springs so powerful, when once
• set in motion, may do no more than is required,
u 2
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not overthrow the farther and more important destination of man, a counter-movement be comes necessary to regulate their aberrations and restrain the inequalities of their action : and the natural evils at present under consi deration, the abruption of hopes by the sepa ration of friends, the destruction of promised pleasures by the interference of sickness and suffering, and the various loads which age and infirmity lay on nature, perform this purpose, and keep things in order. Such pains, anxie ties, and privations, as are incident to the human race collectively, are evidently the means which the Deity has appointed to de tach mankind from the pleasures, and occupa tions, and concerns which relate to this world only, and are ill fitted to prepare their minds for that superior state of which this is the forerunner : and even strong as the corrective undeniably appears, experience shows us that it is not more severe than the nature of the case requires. Nothing to a theoretical inquirer would appear more disproportionate than the punishments with which, in well-civilized com-
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inunities, offences against private property and the public peace are visited ; yet all the dis grace and misery which is heaped upon the head of convicted guilt, is unable to overcome, or do more than to restrain, the stream of cri minality. So, if we merely saw the pain and wretchedness, which is not the consequence of intemperate courses or guilty luxury alone, but to which all men are liable, and which for the most part they actually suffer in the course of their lives, we might naturally suppose that the measure exceeded the occasion. But if we turn our eyes upon the world, we soon perceive that all this discipline is scarcely sufficient to make men look beyond the present day and the present state of things : that the pleasures of life are earnestly sought, notwithstanding the dis appointment with which the search is often re- paid : and that immediate enjoyment is the main spring of most persons' conduct, notwithstanding the accidents to which it is exposed, and the acknowledged shortness of its duration.
I. To apply these remarks to an evil which
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is inherent in the system, and must be neces sarily inherent in any system, that was not in tended to be final, and therefore perfect : no inevitable evil strikes a deeper blow against human happiness, than the separation of friends by death. But in a religious point of view, the advantageous consequences resulting from this dispensation, are a matter of daily expe rience. It is an evil useful in its apprehension, its approach, and its consummation. A con viction of the precarious tenure by which hu man attachments are held together, cannot perhaps be truly said to moderate their violence ; it is more consonant to observation to allow that such a conviction increases their tenderness, whilst it diminishes their transport. But it preserves in minds imbued with that piety which it is the nature of tender attachments to cherish, a constant dependence upon the superior Power, to whose favour the valued possession is owing, and on whose counsels its continuance depends. Thus far the apprehension of death is salutary. And when it actually arrives, the mind is not only alienated from the surrounding scene, and
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disposed by the pressure of immediate sorrow to place its happiness on a more permanent foundation ; but the survivors are admonished of their own mortality in a way so powerfully impressive, that no causes have been found to contribute in a nearly equal degree to effect that difficult change of conduct, which it is often impossible not to desire, but vain to ex pect, while the course of prosperity is smooth and even. Considered with reference to this world only, the separation of friends, whose innocent enjoyments depend on one another, is simply and gratuitously evil ; but considered with reference to a future state of existence, no part of our preparation is more salutary or effectual.
II. The other evil generally affecting and pervading our system, is pain. Now pain, to a certain extent, is the instrument of our pre servation ; an agency by which it is probable that more good is attained with less violence or disorganization to the system at large, than any other plan would have afforded. As, how-
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ever, it is justly argued, that the Deity had the happiness of the human species in view, be cause he made the desire of pleasure their ex citing1 object more commonly than the dread of pain ; so it must be allowed, that if he had placed us here in the best possible state, he would have made pleasure rather than pain the instrument of our preservation. Neither can it be denied, that more pain is mixed up in the system, than can be justly referred to this salu tary precaution ; inasmuch as many disorders are incident to the human frame, against which no precaution is able to guard. Here, as in our former case, we account for the dispensa tion, when we see it in a moral view. Long and painful illnesses are among the means by which a continued sense of imperfection and dependence is preserved, as a necessary check upon the freedom of our choice and actions ; by which an attachment to this world is weak ened, and habits of piety are sometimes ge nerated and sometimes confirmed. A person cannot have seen much of the world, without recollecting instances of strong moral impres-
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 297
sions, and lasting alterations of character, which may be referred to this original. The house of mourning and the bed of sickness is at once the theatre and the school of virtue. The virtue, too, which is there displayed and learnt is of a different species from that which is de manded and exhibited in the active scenes of life : and as it is not compensated by the same reward, and cannot be excited by the same hope of human approbation or ap plause, it becomes necessary that there should be a provision for its exercise, if it is determined that man should be placed in a state of trial. Those sublime and difficult virtues which consist in suffering, though they seldom fail of admiration when observed and known, are in their nature silent and unobtrusive ; and so far are purer and of a less dubious source than those social virtues of which man is both the object and the judge, and often the re- warder.
Whilst in these considerations we find a rea son, which can no where else be satisfactorily
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supplied, for the existence of positive evils at all in the creation of a Being of perfect good ness ; it must not be forgotten, that, even in the most afflictive visitations, the benevolence of the Deity does not leave itself without wit ness. I allude to those alleviations of illness, and consolatory mitigations of suffering and even of death, which have been acutely ob served and stated by many excellent writers.* If the natural world, examined as a system perfect in itself, must perplex the reasoner and disappoint the philosopher ; still it is far from displaying the chaotic confusion which some writers have delighted in describing. Like the face of the country in spring, it shows some desolate spots among many promises of vegetation ; and contains within itself the seeds of perfection active and growing, which a less fickle season will mature.
* See in particular Paley, Theol. p. 498. It adds consi derably to the force as well as to the interest of what he there observes concerning the alleviations of pain, that the chapter was actually written during the intermissions of an acute disorder, as appears from Meadley's Memoirs.
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In addition to these natural evils, hitherto considered, and to which the whole species are equally liable, there remain others, as poverty, dependence, servitude, which it has been usual to designate generally as the evils of civil life. They consist of two classes — those which in opulent states of society press heaviest upon the inferior stations; Jind those which in rude and unsettled countries press more uniformly upon the whole population. Of the former class, it would be uncandid to argue that they arise from arbitrary and human distinctions ; since it has been affirmed already that these distinctions spring up inevitably from the nature of man, and that the poverty and inferiority complained of as consequent upon them, has its origin in a principle interwoven with the human constitution, and invariably tending to the same result. These evils, then, must be allowed their real force, and we must acquiesce in a belief which is warranted by many proofs, that they are the consequence of such general laws as are more beneficial to the world at large, that is, contribute more to the happiness
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and improvement of man collectively, than more partial enactments could have been con trived to do, consistently with the general de sign of the Deity, which must always be kept in view, respecting- the inhabitants of our globe. Thus, though it may be objected, that poverty or subordination of classes are not necessary, like the positive evils of pain or death, to our trial or moral amendment ; yet are they bene ficial in another point of view, as being the essential consequence of that system of things which best contributes to man's improvement on the whole. Many proofs comprehensible to us why this supposition seems to agree with the actual fact, have been already adduced in treating of the wisdom of the Deity.
The inquiry principally connected with the present consideration of his goodness, relates to the extent of the evils now alluded to, and of their mitigations. And into this inquiry I am more particularly bound to enter, from the line of argument I embraced throughout the former Book. The first view of that principle
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of population, the effects of which branch out so widely, appears to many, as was before remarked, like an anomaly in the system of divine administration ; a provision for entailing upon mankind ' much laborious poverty, and some painful indigence. But in a system not pretending- to be final or perfect, evil must be expected ; it is sufficient for the wisdom of the Deity that the evil is overbalanced by ad vantage upon the whole ; and it is sufficient for his goodness, that it is limited in extent, and moderate in degree. From a prosecution of the subject I think it will appear in fact, that the extent of the evils of civil life is much more circumscribed, and that their alleviations are much more effectual, than a partial survey might incline us to imagine.
I. It must have been already evident that I am far from espousing the opinion that happi ness is diminished by civilization, or from de nying that it is the general tendency of educa tion to increase both its quantity and its purity. Nor have I any doubt, that, upon the whole,
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the happiest, as well as the most perfect hu man beings, are to be found among- the best educated men in the most civilized society. Their capacity of happiness is larger, being- in creased by all their powers of intellectual en joyment; and the nature of that happiness is purer, because it depends upon objects least liable to change, and least injured by the ad mixture of alloy. But the capability, is not the possession, of enjoyment. And could the individual who is the best educated in the most refined community be discovered and pointed out, it need not be said how infinitely the chances are against that being the happiest man, to whom the most multiplied sources of happiness are open.
From what cause it arises that the actual enjoyment of happiness is much more equally distributed, than the power of attaining it would at first sight appear to authorize, will be obvious to all who have pursued what has been emphatically called " the proper study of mankind/' This study acquaints us, that
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 303
affluence, and civil distinctions, the desire of which is so natural as to be the chief source of human industry and prosperity, are contingent circumstances no more necessary to happiness than they are essential to virtue. The vulgar, indeed, imagine, and with some reason, when they are so earnestly sought, that these are the very constituents of happiness ; but the philo sopher knows that they contribute little to wards it ; and the possessor often feels too sensibly that they cannot confer it. That elastic adaptation of the mind to its permanent situation, which we call the power of habit, equalizes the apparent inequalities of fortune ; and blunts the edge of imagined hardships whilst it depreciates the value of what we are used to consider luxurious indulgences. Those who commiserate the condition of the in dustrious poor, are for the most part person?, who, born in a different sphere, and accus tomed to a different manner of living, have learnt to consider the superfluities of their station no less important to human nature ge-
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nerally, than use has rendered them to their own enjoyment.* They proceed, too, upon an assumed uniformity of dispositions and tastes, which observation immediately confutes : and which, if it did exist, must give a death-blow to the business of the world. It would be scarcely more unreasonable for the members of one profession to pity those devoted to ano ther, than to suppose that the degrees of satis faction of which life admits, were confined to the well educated or affluent. Every one per ceives that the sedentary pursuits of literature
* " To estimate the real situation and feelings of another, we must divest our minds, if possible, of every idea they have imbibed; and undertake the still more difficult task of in fusing into them the ideas of the person, of whose situation we pretend to judge. For, happiness or misery in this world seems to depend chiefly upon the relative proportion of what is usually called good or evil, which befals us, compared with what we have been in the habit of partaking. A poor chimney-sweeper will eat, drink, and be merry, will feel the excess of joy and happiness, in situations where a man of deli cacy and refinement would die of horror, vexation, and dis gust." VVeyland's Observations on Mr. Whitbread's " Poor Bill," p. 23.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 305
and learned occupations, in which one man places his pride and pleasure, would be un satisfactory to another, though born in an equal station, and gifted with equal talents, but employing them on other objects. Yet there is not a greater difference, in external appearance, between the comforts of the pea sant and the affluent, than between the accom modation of the studious recluse, and of those who follow the profession of arms. Habit, which reconciles the soldier to his tent and the sailor to his deck, reconciles the peasant to his cabin.* The want of those superfluities which are supplied by affluence, is as little distress ing to the poor, as the mere possession of them can be satisfactory to the rich ; and a probable assurance that the necessaries of life will not be wanting, is the only thing which can be
* " Nihil miserum est, quod non in naturam cousuetudo perdux.it." Seneca ad Helv. " Paulatim enim voluptati-s sunt, quae necessitate cseperunt." He exemplifies this in a niiimirr much to the present purpose from the customs of the Germans.
VOL. II. x
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justly considered an indispensable condition of comfortable existence.
This force of habit is spontaneously recog nised by the common feelings of mankind. Even a beggar is the object of their occasional relief, but seldom of their habitual commisera tion. No one doubts that he has satisfactions of his own ; that his lot is made easy, perhaps endeared to him by custom ; and that cheerful ness may dwell under tattered garments and a squalid mien. The object of our pity is not the common soldier, but Belisarius reduced to beggary ; the man who begins to labour to wards the close of a life of ease ; or who is fallen into indigence, after having been pam pered by superabundance. This man we visit with kindness and compassion, even though his fall is probably the punishment of impru dence, and he is still provided conveniences which would be superfluous to one who had been born and educated in an humbler station. But it is not with his condition, but with his change of condition, that we sympathize.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 30?
There is, indeed, a description of the inferior ranks, which, if it were just, would forbid any man to sit easy under the advantage of fortune and education. It speaks of the " peasant or artisan, as rising- early to his labour, and leaving- off every night weary and exhausted. He never repines, but when he witnesses lux uries he cannot partake, and that sensation is transient : and he knows no diseases but those which rise from perpetual labour. The range of his ideas is scanty ; and the general train of his sensations comes as near as the nature of human existence will admit, to the region of indifference. This man is in a certain sense happy. He is happier than a stone." *
If this were an impartial description of the labouring ranks among the civilized states of Europe, human life would cease to be what we profess that it is, a state of discipline. But it is the description of a variety, not of a genus. It may be possible, no doubt, among our native peasantry to meet with those who have scarcely
* Political Justice, p. 444, vol. ii.
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ON THE EXISTENCE OF
extended tlicir ideas beyond the field they have cultivated or the spot where they were born. But as poverty is a thing- separate from indigence, so is this sort of stupidity from poverty. It is not its general character, but either the result of individual ill fortune, or neglected opportunities. Among the inferior ranks, there is no want of intelligence upon the subject with which they have to do ; no indifference about affairs within the range of their observation and interest. In conversation with their equals they show a mind active, though uninformed, generally in tent upon some subject of common concern, and often less trifling than that of a station far above them. Whether or not it can be true of a negro slave, that " he slides through life with something of the contemptible insensibility of an oyster,"* need not be here inquired ; it certainly is not true of the inhabitants of any country where Christianity is preached and understood. Other religions, encouraging the ignorance by which they flourish, contract the human mind : but it is the peculiar nature of * Godwin, p. 446, vol. ii.
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Christianity, to awaken energy, to inform and to enlighten ; to raise, in short, the standard of human intellect. It effects this not only by the advantages of public worship and in struction, which is in itself a species of educa tion ; but by turning the mind towards its own operations, and teaching it to reflect, to com pare, to combine, and to reason. The man who has attained just views upon a few important subjects, is elevated considerably above dull in difference : and that this is the case in general with the labouring classes in a Christian country, may be doubted by the philosopher, but is familiarly known by those who have entered into the habits and feelings of the poor.
If, then, it be undeniably true, that com parative happiness cannot be weighed or mea sured according to any definite rule, we must judge of it by the index of the countenance and the expression of the tongue. A reference to this test gives us a very different result re specting the equality of enjoyment, from that produced by a survey of external circuni-
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stances.* The countenances of the labouring- poor are not depressed by care j their language is not that of repining- or discontent. In their daily intercourse with each other there is as much cheerfulness, in their occasional con viviality as much mirth, as can be found among their richer neighbours. The man of refined taste may find fault with this mirth, and call it turbulent and noisy : but so will a circle of polished Frenchmen appear to a well-bred Englishman ; and so to a Turk will that English circle which the Frenchman considers dull and phlegmatic. A party of rustic la bourers, taking their customary meal under the shelter of a tree, may seem an object of wretchedness to those who make their own feel ings the only standard of comparison ; but will be less pitied by those who have compared the hilarity which accompanies their meal, and the activity , which succeeds it, with the ennui,
* " Aspice quanto major sit pars pauperutn, quos nihilo notabis tristiores solicitioresque divitibus ; imo ncscio an eo laetiores sint quo auirnus eoruin in pauciora distringitur." Sen. ad Helv.
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formality, and lassitude which so frequently attend the banquets of the rich and great. As to luxurious living", few can fail to know by their own experience how entirely such a taste is formed by habit, and how habit blunts the sensibility to such gratifications. It might be truly affirmed, that the peasant has usually more actual enjoyment from the satisfaction of his hunger by the most frugal fare, with an ap petite sharpened by air and labour, than those receive whose table is regularly spread with sumptuous variety. There are, indeed, evi dent proofs of this : for we deem it a proof of great sensuality, if the rich man reckons the appeasing his appetite among his serious plea sures, which the poor man seldom fails to do : and the occasional gratification which he en joys from a meal more elaborate than his usual fare, is a clear accession of gain to his advan tage. He may not perhaps think this. He sees the value which is commonly set upon the luxuries of life, and can only conceive it founded in reality; and what he has tasted of them have come to him recommended by the
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adventitious charm of novelty. The truth is only known to those who have studied in theory, and observed in practice, the effect of these things upon the mind. It often indeed hap pens, that the rich for the sake of recovering health or avoiding pain, confine themselves to as little variety, and live as sparingly, as the poorest peasant ; and this, after having been bred to different habits, and without the same incentives to appetite. Yet how little do these persons seem to lose of the enjoyment of life ! and how little should we sympathize with their lamentations over a vegetable meal, and com pulsory abstinence from wine ! Here is surely a general conviction that we must look to other sources for the presence as well as the priva tion of happiness.
What has been here argued more particularly with respect to the sustenance of man, may be extended to all his ordinary relaxations. Habit is the equalizer of them all. The poet did not consult his own imagination, but human nature, when he complained that sleep is not to be purchased by the canopies of state, or sounds
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of sweetest melody. The ship-boy's hammock, the peasant's hut, the mechanic's truckle-bed, disgusting as different habits render them to the rich and luxurious, receive their owners as comfortably, and send them forth as much re freshed, as the best furnished apartment and the softest down.
It is not, therefore, so just a subject of com plaint as it has been often thought, and may at first appear to be, that, in the most civilized state of Europe, " vast numbers of their inha bitants are deprived of almost every accom modation, that can render life tolerable or secure/'* It is not a subject of complaint, if these accommodations contribute no more than experience shows they do contribute to the happiness of the habitual possessor. The power of habit mitigates such privations : and such privations only are the peculiar evil of poverty. Pain presses upon the poor man only in common with his richer superiors, or rather
•" Pol. Just. p. \v. vol. i.
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it might be said, if it were not unnecessary to push the argument too far, that pain presses upon him less severely, from the hardiness of his frame, and his exemption from the scourges of luxury.
II. Is it, then, to be concluded, that hap piness is altogether imaginary, or uniformly equal ? By no means : but the essentials of it have not been hitherto brought into view. They do not consist of the gifts of fortune. By the common principles of our nature, one of the first of these is occupation. Provided only that it be tolerably agreeable to the physical or mental powers, occupation is happiness. Nothing, indeed, is more usually heard than complaints of the fatigue of labour, and weari- someness of business ; but if a comparison could be instituted between the satisfaction of a man who rises with a certain portion of busi ness to be performed, and of him who looks forward to no definite and fixed employment of the day, it would be clearly understood how favourable to happiness is a regular occupation.
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Nor is this assertion inconsistent with that love of ease and relaxation, which is the great in centive to industry. Relaxation is certainly advantageous, and probably even necessary, to the bodily and mental powers. Every age has found it so : the ancients sought it in their games and spectacles : the warlike exertions of savages are followed by feasts and carousals : the man of business and the man of literature alike indulge in their season of rest ; the pea sant and the artisan relax on the sabbath, and at the season of their occasional festivals. But relaxation is not enjoyed by the habitually idle. Ease is their labour, want of occupation their fatigue ; a fatigue far more oppressive, and less susceptible of alleviation, than any which the necessities of the poor can impose upon them.*
So Cotta, in Cic. de Nat. Deor. argues against Epicurus, " Nihil cessatione melius existimantem. At ipsi tamen pueri, etiam cum cessent, excrcitatione aliqua ludicra delectautur." And Plutarch, on the same ground : Vevtof; eon, TO evOvpeiv TOI/C fit) iro\\u TrpaWocrac. Contr. Epic. A remarkable confirmation of this may be drawn from the early life of the Italian pod, Alli.ii, whose account of the misery he cxperi-
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The truth of this and of the preceding- obser vations is evident from the various inventions by which the ingenuity of man contrives to divert the hours of idleness, and to find a point for the mind to fix upon. The chief allurement to gaming- seems to be the hold it takes on the attention ; and the persons most addicted to it are undeniably those who seek a refuge from ennui, and an employment of vacant time.* The more rational amusement of field sports affords a mixed satisfaction, arising, in part, from the animating glow of health which is produced by active exercise and air ; but re ceiving its completion from the energy with which the mind is inspired, intent upon the pursuit of its object. If bodily labour were, in
enced from listlessness would be incredible it' it did not pro ceed from himself.
* Robertson, A mer. ii. 213. "These same causes which so often prompt persons in civilized life, who are at their ease, to have recourse to this pastime, render it the delight of the savage. The former are independent of labour, the latter do not feel the necessity of it; and as both are unemployed, they run with transport to whatever is interesting enough to stir and to agitate their minds." See to the same purpose, l»aley,Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 32.
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itself, an evil, or a pain without compensation, it would not be thus voluntarily undertaken.
We hear, however, frequent complaints of the severity and constant recurrence of manual exertion. But the irksome routine of seden tary business, from which a very small portion of mankind is exempted, calls forth complaints as loud, and probably as reasonable. That both are founded on a miscalculation of the nature of happiness, appears from the disap pointment which commonly accompanies a change of life : a circumstance to which most persons look forward, when pressed with tem porary burdens : but which is never attended with the expected satisfaction, unless the acti vity of the mind finds new resources for itself, in occupations no less busy and constant than it had pursued before.
The poorer ranks of society, therefore, are not deprived of happiness because they are condemned to labour, unless that labour is op pressive to their bodily strength and faculties.
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That this is not the case may be ascertained, not only from what we know of human strength, and its gradual adaptation to the burden im posed upon it, but from what we see of the recreations of the poor, which are, in favour able seasons and climates, invariably athletic and active. In those countries of Europe which enjoy a dry atmosphere and mild tem perature, the peasant's evening is regularly concluded with dancing. The exercises are all athletic with which the labouring poor of our own country divert the close of the day, and relax from its serious fatigues.
To these general views of the effect of labour upon happiness, manufactures, at first sight, appear to afford a solitary exception. The mechanical exercise of the manufacturer bears no comparison with the manual labour of the peasant, whose horizon is expanded, and whose employments are various ; while the manu facturer breathes an air which custom may render tolerable, but nothing can render salu tary ; and his gregarious mode of living is too
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often productive of dissoluteness and vice. We find, however, by experience, that the exten sion of manufacturing industry is not necessarily followed by injury, either to the mind or the bodily frame. Care and attention on the part of the employer, in well-regulated concerns, diffuse the comforts of improved manufactures, without the drawback of individual distress.*
* There are manufactories which, by the care and judg ment of their superintendents, have become even schools of moral discipline : nor is there any existing reason why they should not commonly exhibit such an appearance, if the ex cellent practice of which the success has been experimentally proved were general. As to the unhealthiness of manufac tories, Dr. Jarrold's observations are of importance, because they are the result of local experience. He speaks of the cotton-works in the neighbourhood of Stockport. " As children are admitted to work at the age of eight or ten years, it might be expected that the injurious influence of their occupation would, at that tender age, be most apparent ; on this account I have attended much to them, and I do not scruple to declare, that children so employed are as healthy as those of the poor brought up in great towns usually are, and more so than such as are apprenticed to tailors, shoe makers, or basket-makers: it is true, their countenances are pale and delicate ; so are all children kept within doors : their clothes, covered with cotton, give them a forlorn ap-
320 ON THE EXISTENCE OF
Happily, too, in proportion as the division of labour has narrowed the circle of the mind's activity, it has diminished the necessity of labourers in crowded rooms by the introduction of machinery.
It must by no means be supposed, though it is frequently affirmed, that the walls which confine the manufacturer, are the limits to the expansion of his mind, which runs the same dull round to which his hands are habituated. Let it be considered, how few are the avoca tions of life, either among- the educated or illiterate classes, in which the mere prosecution of their daily employments furnishes any ma terial improvement to the intellect. This is left to the hours of recreation or leisure. In
pearance, but their health is not injured by their work. What has been said of children applies with equal force to adults." Dissertations on Man, p. 60. It has been even asserted, that out of near 3000 children employed in the mills at Lanark, then in the occupation of Mr. Dale, " during a period of twelve years, from 1785 to 1797, only fourteen died, and not one became the object of judicial punishment." " Society for the Poor Reports," vol. ii.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 3121
point of fact, the manufacturer derives a supe riority over the peasant, from his constant intercourse with society, and the collision of various minds to which he has been accustomed from his youth. And as for the mechanic, whose labour does not confine him to a single spot, whose work demands the frequent re sources of his ingenuity, and who is constantly interested in the pursuit of some new employ ment or operation, none of the evils of ma nufactures must be considered as applying to him ; his active mind might be an object of envy to many who profit by, and reward his toil ; and is often found of a superior rate, as to quickness of talent and reasoning powers.
III. Next in importance, as a constituent of happiness, is health. It is, perhaps, less es sential than occupation ; because we may often observe much tranquillity exist in a very uncer tain state of health, but never without an en gagement of the mind. Health, however, is not only requisite to the proper enjoyment of circumstances the most favourable to happiness,
VOL. II. Y
ON THE EXISTENCE OF
but it gives enjoyment to circumstances the most common, or the least promising. It was justly remarked by a profound observer of hu man nature, that " little can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience : yet this," he continues, " is the state of the greater part of mankind/'* There is, in fact, a pleasure attached to the mere feeling of existence, when enlivened by the activity, and nerved by the vigour of health.
Whatever be the value of these feelings, which, indeed, less than any other, derive their importance from custom or comparison ; they are at least in an equal proportion dis pensed to the labouring part of the community. The diseases of the poor are few and simple, compared with those of the rich and luxurious. Indeed, so favourable are regular hours, and meals, and exercise, to health, that their good effect counteracts the tendency of the most un-
* Smith, Theory of Mor. Sent. vol. i.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 323
\vholesomo avocations. You may converse with persons who have passed their lives from an early age, among founderies and forges, whose health has been never interrupted by the furnaces and sudden transitions to which they have been so long exposed, which have had no other effect than to harden their features and encrust their limbs.* It is common, also, to find persons who, even in our variable and humid climate, have lived in the open air, and encamped from place to place under tents ; and to learn that their mode of life has not only been favourable to generation, as Smith observes of poverty in general, f but even to the rearing large families of healthy children.
* " In the Mexican mines, from five to six thousand per sons are employed in the amalgamation of the minerals, or the preparatory labour. A great number of these individuals pass their lives in walking barefooted over heaps of brazed metals, moistened and mixed with muriate of soda, sulphate of iron, and oxid of mercury, by the contact of the atmo spheric air and the solar rays. It is a remarkable pheno menon to see these men enjoy the most perfect health" Humb. i. 127.
f Wealth of Nations, vol. i.
Y 2
324- ON THE EXISTENCE OF
This must be ascribed to the facility with which the human constitution adapts itself to the habits and circumstances under which it is placed ; a facility which we must suppose de signed, because it peculiarly belongs to that one of created beings, to whose welfare such a property is requisite. Even those climates which prove fatal to adult strangers, are seldom unsalutary to native constitutions, or to children transplanted into them at an early age. The climate of Norway, and the rude cabin of a Norway peasant, would not readily be con ceived favourable to health or longevity. Yet the average duration of life is considerably longer in that country than in any of the more civilized and genial parts of Europe ;* and affords a sufficient proof, that those conveni ences are little necessary to health, of which the poor of all countries are in a great measure
* The same observation may be extended to Iceland. " A comparison of facts would probably prove, that the longevity of the Icelanders rather exceeds than falls short of the average obtained from the continental nations of Europe." Sir G. Mackenzie, p. 416.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS. 325
deprived. A change from the comforts and luxurious indulgences possessed by the rich, would probably be accompanied with disease, and certainly with wretchedness. The con sciousness of this has made it appear, that the situations which want those comforts, are posi tively, not relatively, evil. But " when Pro vidence divided the earth among a few lordly masters, it neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been left out in the par tition. In what constitutes the real happiness of human life, these last are in no respect inferior to those who would seem so much above them. In ease of body and peace of mind, the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level." *
* Smith's Mor. Sent. p. 4, 1. 1. We are assured by Humbohlt, that " the mortality among the miners of Mexico is not much greater than what is observed among the other classes. We may be easily convinced of this by examining the bills of mortality in the different parishes." Vol. i. 124.
" Avant que le Christianisme cut aboli en Europe la ser vitude civile, on regardoit les travaux des mines comme si pi'iiibles, qu'on croyoit qu'ils nc pouvoient etrc fails <|iu- p ai des esclaves ou par des criminels. Mais on s^-ait qu'au-
ON THE EXISTENCE OF
It appears from the preceding remarks, that for those evils to which the division of ranks, and tendency to increase among mankind, ex pose the inferior classes of society, a mitigation is provided by the nature of happiness itself, which is more independent of those advantages to which they are strangers, than might be ima gined upon a cursory observation. It is inde pendent of luxurious superfluities, because those superfluities which luxury renders ha bitual, habit renders unimportant. It is not diminished by laborious occupation, because occupation is one of the necessary ingredients to happiness, which every one either invents for himself, or regrets the want of: and it is only from the turn of mind acquired by educa tion or custom, that one occupation differs materially from another. Health, too, which in itself affords a certain portion of enjoyment, and is indispensably necessary to the enjoyment of any situation, is bestowed in at least an equal degree upon the rich and poor.
jourd' hui les homines qui y sont employes, viveut heureux." Montesquieu, 1. 15, (>8.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVILS.
It is, therefore, an additional testimony to the goodness of the Deity, that where the scheme which his wisdom devised for the fur therance of his plans in exercising- and im proving- the faculties of mankind, might inter fere with individual happiness, he has contrived such mitigations of the inconvenience, as not only to diminish its force, but almost to render its existence questionable.
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CHAPTER V.
On the Capabilities of Improvement in the State of advanced Civilization.
IT may be plausibly argued, that speculations on the nature of happiness, however satisfac tory in the closet, are often decisively contra dicted by the realities of life ; and that the appearance of our own society, which meets every eye, is a standing argument against my conclusions. It furnishes us with an example of great public prosperity ; of all the mecha nical improvements and refinements of art, which the combination of skill and capital, and an industrious population, can produce : yet what is the result ? Indigence and pauperism ; and in the very heart of opulence, and industry, and intelligence, considerably more than a
IN AUVANCKD CIVILIZATION. 32(J
tenth part of the population relieved by public charity.*
It is very soothing- to our indolence and self- satisfaction, to charge upon the constitution of the world, that is, upon the ordinances of the Deity, the various evils of poverty and igno rance which confront us on every side. But it
* I have stated the tact much as it appears on the face of the returns. But it is liable to great misapprehension with those who do not remember, that by the system of poor laws, inadequate wages are made up to labourers with large fami lies by the parish ; they derive, therefore, no more than a fourth, fifth, or sixth part of their support from this source : and that in most cases only in severe seasons, dear years, or during temporary loss of work. This circumstance requires the more observation, because it appears ou the face of one of Mr. Colquhoun's abstracts, that among the unproductive labourers in Great Britain and Ireland, whose exertions do uot create any new property, are to be classed 1,548,400 paupers. Now, a large proportion of those here denominated paupers and unproductive, are iu fact the most hard working members of the community. Those relieved in work-houses may be reckoned really as unproductive, and amounted, in 1803, to 83,462. Mr. Colquhouu himself, in a subsequent calculation, considers the paupers as gaining two fifths of their support. Compare pages 109 and 1">1.
330 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
would be more reasonable as well as more decorous, to inquire in the first place, how far such evils arise necessarily from the law of na ture, and how far, on the other hand, they admit of easy mitigation, and only need that care and attention which the Christian religion enjoins every man to bestow upon his neigh bour. When a South American Indian is seized with an infectious disorder, he is shut up in a solitary hovel, and abandoned to his fate. In our improved state of society, the sufferer under a similar calamity experiences the benefit of skill and care, and is probably recovered. But we must not be Europeans in our treatment of bodily maladies, and treat the minds and morals of our fellow creatures with barbarian indifference. The Author of our existence, when he did not exempt us from the civil or physical disorders of an imperfect state, ordained also that each should have their alle viations ; without which mankind would live miserably or perish prematurely. Those alle viations, indeed, are not definitely pointed out or prescribed. Neither was it possible they
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 331
should be ; inasmuch as they depend on cir cumstances varying1 at every point of civiliza tion, varying in every climate and country, and even in the same country according to its progress towards opulence. The human race, whose faculties are infinitely improved by a state of advanced civilization, is bound to em ploy them in discovering- and applying the remedies of those evils which peculiarly belong to each condition of society. It is a part of the system by which the Deity acts universally, to render man a free and spontaneous, but not a necessary instrument of his own welfare.
Pater ipse colemli
Haud tacilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem Movit agros, curis acuens mortalia cortla : Nee torgere gravi passus sua regtia veteroo.
This is as true of the moral as of the natural world. Neither soil can dispense with culti vation, although both are so constituted as to be capable of excellent produce. Let that only be undertaken, which in our advanced stage of civilization is within the reach of practicable accomplishment, and the pvncral ^tatc of so-
332 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
ciety, like the country it cultivates, would on every side be full of " beauty to the eye and music to the ear."
I. The fundamental cause of the greatest evils of the poor is ignorance. Ignorance, how ever, is not only the mere incapacity to write or read ; experience often teaches us, that these acquirements, however desirable, are by no means indispensable ; and that though they are wanting, there may be much intellect, a quick sense of the ways and means of individual ad vantage, and an accurate knowledge of moral good and evil. The ignorance arising from the want of intercourse with minds superior to their own, possessed of wider information, and having therefore different views of interest and duty ; this, together with the scantiness of religious knowledge, is the ignorance which most generally and most hurtfully besets the lower classes.
It cannot be argued, that either of these sorts of ignorance is unavoidable. They \\cic
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 333
not, even in former days ; but in our own, the improvements so happily introduced into edu cation, have brought the first rudiments of learning- within reach of the poorest rank. And they have done more : for it is one of the prin cipal advantages of the Madras system, that it sharpens the faculties and exercises the minds of those subject to it so successfully, as to render them, comparatively, different beings from the scholar of a former age. So that the drilled and practised soldier does not show a greater change from the slovenly and awkward follower of the plough, than the child thus educated from the tenant of some remote hamlet or neglected waste, which population has found out, but none of its advantages have reached.
An indefinite capability of improvement opens before us, when the human mind is thus put in motion. But, that the soil may give all its produce, the skill of the agriculturist must be superadded to the labour of the peasant. A right direction, as well as a stimulus, must be
334' CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
applied to the mind, by the superintendence and occasional intercourse of the superior ranks. Where this intercourse is not wanting1, to ob viate any mischief which the system of compe tition might introduce, and counteract wrong impressions; when the good seed of religion is sown upon the soil prepared by education, to remind the growing generation that the object of the care bestowed upon them is not to raise them above their allotted condition, but to fit them for performing more adequately their duties both to God and man ; then we have a prospect of general improvement, not chime rical and visionary, but approved by judgment and realized by experience.
It is now unnecessary to combat the idea, that these privileges of civilization, if granted universally, would throw down the ladder by which the eminence was reached, and paralyze the industry which is required to maintain it. Few will any longer venture to assert that igno rance makes a necessary ingredient in industry, or that stupidity is essential to subordination.
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 335
Which will be the best servant or the best sub ject ? He who returns unwillingly, or at best mechanically, like the patient animal he drives, to his daily routine of employment ; or he who has learnt in his youth, that the object of his life is the performance of appointed duties, and who, in his man's estate, keeps constantly in view his responsibility for their right perform ance ? He who sees no farther than the neces sities of his station and his daily stipend ; or he whose mind " of larger discourse," more capable " to look before and after," brings a principle to his work higher than that of immediate interest, and makes his habitual employment an exercise of practical religion ?
We have now reached that stage in the pro gress of improvement, where, with a few ex ceptions, the culture requisite to implant these principles and extend these views, is generally and amply provided. Elementary schools either are, or may be, universal. Children do not leave them, till they are both initiated and prac tised in the primary duties of religion ; nor, if
336 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
all parties discharge their office, till they have been made intimately acquainted with the im portant purpose of their lives. In the Bible, which they may both possess and read, they have a perpetual and infallible instructor. Public and private prayer, to which they have been habi tuated at school, public and private instruction from their minister, which their awakened facul ties enable them to comprehend, supply them with the knowledge of their duty and the power of performing- it. The bounty of their Creator, and the love of their Redeemer, in placing- an immortal existence within their reach, are dis closed to their view, as a solace and a guide in the troubles and difficulties of their progress through life.
Now, let any one consider how much is thus removed from the pressure of laborious poverty ; and what a step it is towards human happi ness, to have an object of infinite price in con tinual prospect, and to feel the inward con sciousness of a constant advance towards it.*
* " A man who is in earnest in his endeavours after the
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If labour is heavy, or distress severe, ho\v greatly is the load lightened by the conviction that man is not the sport of chance, or acci dental circumstances, or human enactments, but the work of a wise and benevolent Creator, and the object of his paternal care I In short, what a cloud of ignorance is dispersed, what a mine of information is opened, wherever the great principles of Christianity are understood : as comprehending our duty both personal and relative, to God and to our neighbour !
But in this country, if these are not practi cally learnt, the imputation must not be cast upon the Deity, nor even upon the state. Ex cepting where population has outgrown the ori ginal establishment, and a fresh legislative provision is demanded, ignorance must origi nate in the omission of a positive duty, either
happiness of a future state, has, in this respect, an advantage over all the world. For he has constantly before his eyes an object of supreme importance, productive of perpetual en gagement and activity, and of which the pursuit (which can be said of no other) lasts to the conclusion of his life." Paley's IMor. Phil. i. 13.
VOL. II. Z
338 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
on the part of him who neglects to teach, or of him who refuses to learn. The Bible, the power of reading it, of hearing comments on it, (I speak collectively,) are within every one's reach : and where these advantages are attain able, shall the goodness of God be impeached ? He has performed his part towards man, and it is for man to see that he performs liis part in return to his Creator.
Ignorance, therefore, is not the inevitable lot of the majority of our community ; and with ignorance a host of evils disappear. Of all ob stacles to improvement, ignorance is the most formidable, because the only true secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in bettering their own condition, and to supply them, not with a temporary stimulus, but with a permanent energy. As fast as the standard of intelligence is raised, the poor become more and more able to co-operate in any plan pro posed for their advantage, more likely to listen to any reasonable suggestion, more able to understand, and therefore more willing to pur-
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 339
sue it. Hence it follows, that when gross igno rance is once removed, and right principles are introduced, a great advantage has been already gained against squalid poverty. Many avenues to an improved condition are opened to one whose faculties are enlarged and exer cised j he sees his own interest more clearly, he pursues it more steadily, he does not study immediate gratification at the expense of bitter and late repentance, or mortgage the labour of his future life without an adequate return. In digence, therefore, will rarely be found in com pany with good education.
II. In the case, however, of its unavoidable occurrence, a remedy is already provided by the state. The poor laws possess this advan tage among many objections, that we are not haunted with the idea of unalleviated dis tresses : if nature is worn down with age or sickness, if labour yields no support, and family assistance fails, the indigent member of society has at least a shelter to which he may retire, and either take refuge from the pelting of the
z2
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storm, or be enabled to weather it by temporary assistance.
This provision, like other human institutions, contains a mixture of good and evil. Unques tionably, local charity, well directed, might supply small and particular districts much more comfortably and much less expensively than the operation of any laws ; but much good sense, and leisure, and benevolence, are requi site to perform this business in an impartial manner. Many may be expected to doubt whether irremediable poverty, and the help lessness of sickness, infancy, and old age, can ever be safely left, in a large and fully peopled community, to the care of that spontaneous charity on which they must devolve in the ab sence of all legislative provision. In the mean time it is some satisfaction to reflect that an infant family, deserted by profligate parents, or left orphans by the visitation of God, are not abandoned as if human life was of no value ; and that the disabled or decrepit labourer has a sure resource, and is not condemned to elicit
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 341
casual sustenance from door to door. But the system, though professing1 to remedy the evils of human nature, would be in fact more inno cent if human nature were more perfect ; so that none should receive its aid except the ob jects really deserving such interference, nor any depend upon its support except in failure of all other resources. The injury does not fall upon the contributor to the rates, as is commonly supposed, who, if he did not pay these, would pay much more in the enhanced price of every article from the augmented wages of labour : the principal mischief is done to the moral character of the receiver, who is extravagant, in confidence of a sure support : or, if he is not positively taught improvidence, at least does not learn prudence.
The Friendly Societies, which include nearly a million of labouring members of our own community, in some measure diminish the evils resulting from the system of poor laws : and the eagerness with which they have been incor porated, is an evidence that the lower classes
342 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
are not unwilling to avail themselves of any intelligible plan for the improvement of their condition, or to fortify themselves against the uncertainties of life by forethought and fruga lity. But friendly societies, though good, are not the best possible provision; because they assist only old age and personal sickness ; whereas a labourer, through the afflictions of his family or temporary loss of employ, may be seriously distressed without positive illness : and the evil at last requires a cure, which seasonable relief might have prevented from existing. *
* " In considering the innocent causes of indigence, it will be seen that the irremediable cases, requiring constant and permanent support, are few in number, compared with those useful labourers broken down for the moment, but who, by the judicious application of well-timed props, might be restored to society, and their industry rendered again productive." Colq. p. 112. Much has been done in this way in many large towns by associations on the principle of the "Stranger's Friend Society " in London, by assisting the poor with tem porary loans or gifts ; which shows the benefit that might be expected from a plan enabling them to lend or give to them selves.
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 34-3
The present state of our civilization has sug gested a more unexceptionable plan for the melioration of the condition of the poor ; which it is the more necessary to point out, because it shows that the peculiar evils and their ap propriate remedies lie near together, in every stage of society. An advanced state of public opulence does not seem at first sight the most desirable air for a poor man to breathe. Of necessity, its population is dense, and the reward of labour scanty ; and every road to preferment so choaked with rival adventurers, that he has little prospect of surpassing or even overtaking them in the race. But, on the other hand, the same circumstances of society afford opportuni ties, which no other can, of deriving the greatest possible advantage from every farthing which labour can obtain. The demand for capital, occasioned by universal industry, the ease of communication, the general intelligence to fore see, and public credit to ensure every profitable opportunity, are a set-off, if a proper use were made of them, against the evils of low wages and contending labourers. An American peasant
344 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
with four shilling's a day is not richer, if comfort is riches, than an English peasant with two, and has little other superiority than the questionable one of being- more independent of his em ployer.
The security of capital in this country, the ease with which it is turned to the best use, the quick and ready communication of labour and the produce of labour throughout the whole kingdom, afford inestimable facilities to what ought to be the first consideration of public and private men, the improvement of the state of the mass of the community. I do not mean to insinuate that this subject has been neglected in Great Britain. The emi nence which our country has reached by her charities is no less remarkable than that to which she has been raised by the superiority of her arms and opulence. But something still remains to be done. The poor man re quires to be taught prudence, by seeing its ad vantage clearly before him. There are fe\v situations in which the labouring classes might
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 34-O
not save, in the season of their strength, a pro vision for the season of infirmity : but as things are, there are still fewer, where they can place out their savings at all, or, if at all, with secu rity.* A great commercial establishment can not stop its machinery to receive weekly shil lings from a hundred or a thousand individuals. If it could, or would, the melancholy instabi lity of country banks, often built upon no other foundation than the credulity of the neighbour hood, is a powerful objection to their becoming, without an especial guarantee, the depositaries of petty savings. No bankruptcy among these establishments takes place, which does not heap ruin on the heads of hundreds of the most de serving members of the community : those who by laborious industry and long self-denial have laid up their twenty, or fifty, or hundred pounds, as a support to a future family or their own de clining years ; and now find themselves by a
* I have allowed these pages to stand as they were first published ; though no longer applicable to their original pur pose, they may not be \\ithoul interest in showing the difler- i IKT cllccU'd e\cn in a tew jcars.
CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
sudden blow deprived of the hard earned pro duce of a life of labour. Neither does the evil stop with the immediate sufferers. The burst ing of a single dam inundates a widely-extended level. Is this the fruit of frugality? Why should we hoard up, that others may squan der our savings ? This reasoning is too obvi ous, not to be unanswerable in the view of youth, and irresistible when backed by incli nation.
The difficulty admits of easy remedy, though it is really the greatest of which our labouring poor can complain. If some of the more in telligent inhabitants of a district, or the prin cipal landholders of a county, would bestow their attention upon this subject, as they have with great advantage upon Insurance Societies and other general interests, they would de serve the gratitude of the age, and receive the most satisfactory applause, the improvement of public welfare. In a small district, or a single village, an individual might effect something, by vesting a certain sum in the hands of trus-
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 347
tees as a security to his poorer neighbours ; and by devoting a few hours in every week or month to receiving their small savings, he might render them most effectual service, with out the least risk to himself, by allowing the 4 per cent, for their little capital. But the system, to be useful, ought to be general ; and, if general, could not be well managed without the regularity of habits of business and skill in the employment of capital. The establish ment of county banks, with such security as should be satisfactory to the superintendents of the scheme, would be both desirable, and easily practicable ; and might soon be made so far advantageous as at least to defray the expenses of management, since the customer would have just reason to be satisfied, if he could obtain without risk even 4 per cent, for his money. The security of the capital is of much more consequence than the rate of interest ; and its insecurity, according to any mode already within reach of the poor of employing their savings, is one great reason why so little is at present saved.
348 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
It is a benevolent appointment of Providence, that judicious charity is twice blessed, and re dounds to the advantage of the giver, sometimes not to his moral only, but temporal advantage. If a system of this kind should ever be univer sally established, its promoters will find the poor- rates diminished, which now oppress landed property so heavily, not only by the amount of the sum thus annually saved from dissipation, but by all the habits which the constant custom of frugality and thoughtfulness would generate ; and parish support will only be what it ought to be, the resource of irremediable misfortune, of orphan infancy or friendless age. Such a system seems alone to be wanting, in order to render this country the happiest as well as the most intelligent of the world ; it would form a natural union with the general education now diffused among the poor ; it derives an evident facility from the state of public debt ; and is peculiarly demanded by the sudden variations of prices which our present condition seems likely to entail upon us, as well as to correct the improvident habits which the existence of
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION*. 3 1<9
a poor-law has introduced among- our pea santry.
It certainly cannot be pretended that these and similar advantages of an opulent state, spring up spontaneously, like the produce of the golden age : intelligence must be exerted to descry, and philanthropy to direct them. But it might form a serious objection against the divine goodness, if it were supposed that the condition of the majority of the community must always be deteriorated, as the commu nity itself advanced in opulence. That this highest point of civilization is still capable of such a measure of general happiness, as be longs to an imperfect and preparatory state, is all that I undertake to prove. Should any one think the universal establishment or application of such beneficial plans impracticable, it will be easy to show that the impossibility does not lie in the nature of things. There can be no harm in building an Utopia on a Christian foundation. There is positive good, when the question regards the benevolence of the Crea-
350 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
tor j who, when he placed within the reach of man the means of general happiness, Christian doctrines, Christian precepts, and Christian intelligence, justly demands on man's part that he should stretch out his hand to obtain them.
In reducing the plan to detail, we will sup pose, for convenience sake, a parish of 1000 souls ; which is larger than the average of coun try parishes in England, and smaller than that of towns. The principle is universal ; the prac tical detail admits of considerable enlargement or contraction. The first thing necessary to the general welfare, is the education of the growing population. The number within the age of education may be roughly stated at one fourth of the whole.* Of these 250, 50 may be supposed in a situation above the
* The average result of the census of 1820, showed for every 100 individuals
Under 7 years, ... 20
Between 7 and 15, . . 20
- 15 and 20, . . 10
Above 20, ... 50
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 351
parochial school, for which 200 remain after that deduction. According to the Madras sys tem, one person can effectually superintend the education Lof more than 100 children of all ages. One school, divided into two apart ments, one master, and one mistress, will suffice to conduct the education, each having under their care 100 of their own sex. The annual expense, after the building of the school-room, will be covered by ^JOO, or at most £\25 ; be ing no more than two shillings or two shillings and sixpence a head on the whole community of 1000 individuals.
I consider the clergyman of the parish as the natural and legal superintendent of the establishment ; and his presence for two hours in the week, after the machine is once in ope ration, will suffice to preserve a check on the immediate directors, and to fill that depart ment which requires superior intelligence or authority ; * and to interweave with all the in-
* I would not appear to expect of ray clerical brethren more than is required of them by their ordination vow : the
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formation acquired by the children, the most valuable of all information, a sense of their situation in life, and its practical duties of sub ordination, content, and industry.
The advantages of little savings, the import ance which the smallest sums acquire by accu mulation, may be not only inculcated, but practically taught, by a trifling weekly contri bution, either to be employed at the end of the
religious education of the poor, and the visitation of the sick hereafter alluded to, are among their prescribed duties. I am still more certain that I do not demand from them more than is readily bestowed by the majority of our parochial clergy. They have indeed an awful and responsible situa tion, when it is considered how much both of the temporal and eternal interest of their flock depends upon the faithful and complete discharge of their ministerial duties. But they have their reward. Much is said of the increasing zeal of sectaries ; and it may be necessary for us to keep a prudent guard against possible as well as evident dangers. But the parochial clergy are drawing round themselves, and the excellent establishment to which they belong, a rampart stronger than exclusive privileges or state protection ; they are fortifying themselves in the hearts of the people, who are never insensible to what is contributed towards thrir best and dearest interests by the attention of a laborious and con scientious minister.
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year in clothing or in Bibles, or any other desirable object.* If the child saves pence, the man will save shilling's, supposing- only that the same pains are taken to make him understand the advantages of so doing, and tho same facilities placed in his way. In a parish of 1000 souls, it is not too much to assume that some individual may have sufficient leisure, philanthropy, and general acquaintance with business, to be the banker of his poorer neigh bours ; a guarantee being given that the de posits should be laid out in real or government securities. It is proved by experience in Edinburgh, that on the opening of such a concern, one hour in the week will in general be sufficient for a single person to receive and
* 1 have been often astonished at hearing these penny con tributions objected to, as coming eventually from the pa rish rates. Granting the fact, which is certainly too rare to be made a sweeping assertion ; suppose the family to re ceive their whole support, or 12s. a week from the parish ; what evil can arise from the deduction of a hundred and forty-jttnrtlt part of that sum for any permanent object, at all equal to the advantage derived from the habit of fore thought and self-denial ?
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pay the money, and to enter the transactions in the books : the expense is so trifling-, that it would be repaid, even if the concern were on a very small scale, by the fractions of in terest.*
These simple improvements do not seem to me to presuppose either a degree of under standing in the poor, or of humanity in the rich, which it is unreasonable to require. But it may be argued, look at the weekly wages of the peasant or manufacturer, look at the pit tance which the density of population compels him to accept as the meed of continued exer tion ; and then answer, what can be reserved from immediate and daily wants for the sup port of future infirmity ?
The nature of happiness requires thus much : the prospect of a competency in the situation to which every individual is born. I ask no
* See "A short Account of the Edinburgh Savings Bank ;' or an abstract of it in the Ed. Rev. vol. xxv.
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 355
one to be satisfied with a lower rate of welfare than this : but I assert, that on a general view of the chances of life, this prospect is within the reach of every individual, even on the pre sent average rate of wages, if he had the pru dence to look forward and save, and the facility of securing his savings. As things are now, indeed, the common practice is, for the young labourer or mechanic to marry as soon as he begins to work for himself, without a farthing beforehand, with weekly employment perhaps for the summer, but no certainty of the same constant occupation in winter, with wages only sufficient for a very small family, and consequently without resource in case of illness or occasional difficulty, except in casual charity or parish pay. The immediate feeling on his mind is, that his wages will support a wife as well as himself ; and if he had not that demand upon them, they would all disappear before the end of the week : he has neither the idea nor the means of saving any portion of them. But since he claims the advantage peculiar to an infant society, early marriage,
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while he is living- in fact in an old and fully peopled community, the consequence is, severe poverty for the rest of his life.
It cannot be said, however, that this impro vidence is a necessary evil, therefore its con sequences are not necessary. Supposing the prudential system only so far established, that the average period of marriage should be twenty-five, it might be easily within the power of the lowest classes to secure a provi sional support for their family more inde pendent than the parish allowance, and more regular than the operation of private charity.
The wages of husbandry, including the ad ditions of harvest-time, may be averaged at 12*. per week, from the age of eighteen. Half that sum is amply sufficient for the support of a single man. This would leave an overplus of 6s. per week for seven years : but, to avoid any appearance of overstating the fact, and to allow for lost time, we will only take 4s. or £10 per ann. which if regularly laid up, would,
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 357
with interest, make £80 by the age of twenty- five. Allow the mechanic to work for himself at twenty-one, his higher rate of ' wages will enable him to save 10*. weekly, or £21 per- ann. The careful application of this surplus will also make him worth the same sum at twenty-five.*
Allow this to be the period of marriage, which is much earlier than the average period of those who are brought up to the learned professions. It is probable, that by similar habits the wife may contribute such a share of capital as will supply the cottage with its humble furniture. At all events, they live without difficulty, even if without farther saving, for four or five years ; the interest of former savings paying the rent, and thus re-
* The exertions which the lower classes make, when they see the benelit clearly before them, would surprise the mere calculator of the money which passes through their hands. See Mr. Whitbread's speech on the Poor Laws, and the case of Joseph Austin (Reports on the Poor, vol. iii.), with many others which occur in that collection.
358 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
moving the necessity of those extraordinary exertions, which in the way of taskwork some times undermine the constitutions of the indus trious poor. If the family increase after this time, difficulties will increase. This is the period of a labourer's life which it is hardest to encounter, from his thirtieth to his fortieth year : it is the inclement season, which he ought to expect and to which he should look forward. Before that period, he has only occasion to be frugal : after it, his children will begin to support themselves : but at present, an infant family will prevent the wife from con tributing much towards the weekly outgoings : and the children themselves can gain nothing towards them. Former savings, therefore, the harvest of the productive season, must now be drawn upon : but they were laid up for this very purpose, and we can afford it. Let 5s. a week be taken from the four dead months of the year ; those who are conversant with the labourer's cottage, will know that 5*. in addi tion to his usual wages will place him in com parative opulence j and suppose this draft to
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 359
be continued during1 ten years, the capital has only lost £40. From that time the children contribute their share ; the family ceases to be a growing- burden ; and there remains a stock towards setting forward the children in life, or to supply some of the numerous wants of increasing years.
Were these habits general, how little com parative distress would the appearance of soci ety exhibit ! Marriage, by being a short time delayed, would be more prudent and happier ; population would more equally adapt itself to the demand for labour ; labour, therefore, would be paid in more exact proportion to the real value of money ; fewer would be neces sarily idle ; and that great embitterer of do- mestic life, irremediable poverty, or indigence, would be seldom known. Only those dis tresses would meet our view, which are the common lot of all ranks and conditions ; and there are many, no doubt, which neither pru dence can prevent nor fortune cure. Neither education nor frugality can make our earthly state again a paradise : the angel still guards
360 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
the frontiers of Eden, and shuts its entrance against the descendants of the first trans gressors. But the unavoidable evils of life have been already considered : and how much miti gation they admit in a civilized state, may be not only demonstrated, but seen and felt : in deed, in our country, much more attention has been paid to the means of alleviation than of prevention.
The silent and unseen griefs of penury and desertion belong almost exclusively to large and crowded cities.* In a parish of the size we have contemplated, the minister will be well acquainted with the situation of all its inhabitants, either by personal inspection, or by means of a committee of his active neigh-
* If societies like those established at Bath, Bristol, Oxford, and elsewhere, for inquiring into the case of all travellers, vagrants, paupers, aud beggars, and relieving real distress, were general in large towns, they would alleviate much misery, and restrain much vice, by rendering mendicity an unprofitable trade. At present the good is partial ; and the .stream is only diverted into another channel, \\lierever its usual course is stopped.
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 361
hours, who can afford a portion of their time to this most useful species of charity. In pro portion as the size of the parish increases, the chance will increase of finding1 such assistance ; and committees thus associated will be able to relieve the severest suffering's of indigence even in those populous manufacturing- towns which certainly were not foreseen, when the division of our country into parishes took place.
Shall I be asked, whether I look forward in earnest to any such melioration of society, or that it should generally present this aspect to the observer ? I can only answer, that there is nothing in the nature of things to make it impossible j there is wealth enough, and in telligence enough ; the difficulty arises not from the inability, but the unwillingness of mankind. We have no right to reject an ob vious remedy, and then complain that the dis ease is incurable. Let every one in his station do his duty, and there will be little room for murmuring against the condition of the human race. This i> all, I repeat, with which the
362 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
vindicator of the divine goodness is concerned : the right performance of these duties is the trial of man's virtue ; and if they are faithfully performed, public welfare is his immediate re ward.* There are at this moment many dis tricts which furnish examples of the practica bility of such improvement ; where a large majority of the population display in their con duct the excellence of the religion they pro fess ; where the rising generation is so edu cated as to be useful in their respective stations ; where regular contributions provide Bibles and clothing, and other articles of use and comfort; where the elder members of the society are
* The late Mr. Whitbread, in a speech which will confer lasting honour upon his memory, gave a public declaration of what might be effected even by the means at present in operation: " I have had the good fortune, with the assist ance of able hands, to produce, by the operation of the poor laws alone, in the parish where I reside, a situation of things than which none can be presented more agreeable ; where there is not one wretched being, nor one well-founded cause of complaint ; and where the workhouse exhibits regularity, industry, economy, cleanliness, and health, testified by the countenances of all who inhabit it."
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 303
associated for the purpose of visiting1 the sick, instructing- the ignorant, comforting- the afflicted, and reporting cases of distress.* If there are any such parishes now, there is no reason why there should not be more ; nay, there is no necessary obstacle to their becoming universal. The prevalence of religious knowledge, educa tion, and frugality, does not defeat its own object, or tend, like indeterminate or indis creet charities, to encourage a redundant popu lation. t
* See Reports of the Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor, passim. Among these every charitable person may find useful hints to direct his own benevolence. It has now, perhaps, become desirable to republish in a single volume, a collection of those plans which have best stood the test of experience.
-f- Upon the whole, there is satisfaction in reflecting, that more has been done towards permanently bettering the con dition of Ihe lower classes, within the last twenty years, than in the whole preceding century ; and Mr. Whitbread's pleas ing anticipation is not altogether visionary : " In the adop tion of the system of education, I foresee an enlightened peasantry, frugal, industrious, sober, orderly, and contented, because they are acquainted with the true value of frugality, sobriety, industry, and order ; crimes diminishing, because the enlightened understanding abhors crime; the practice
3(Ji CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
There are mistakes on this head, which demand correction. It has been urged, that our improved knowledge on the subject of population is unfavourable to charity ; and even inconsistent with Christianity which en joins it. This may be an easy shelter to the selfish and extravagant, who lull their con sciences with the belief, that, in spending sumptuously instead of giving prudently, they are practising political economy. But the most rigorous precept of Scripture might be followed in the most literal exactness, without any danger of injuring the community or any violation of general rules : " Turn not your face from any poor man ;" but inquire into the circumstances of his distress, and point out to
of Christianity prevailing, because the mass of your popu lation can read, comprehend and feel its divine origin, and the beauty of the doctrines which it inculcates ; your king dom safe from the insult of the enemy, because every man knows the worth of that which he is called upon to defend. In the provision for the security of the savings of the poor, I see encouragement to frugality, security to property, and the large mass of the people connected with the state, and indis- solubly bound to its preservation." Speech, &c. p. 95.
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 365
him the mode in which the prudent regulations of society have directed that it should be relieved. The subdivision of labour, which is peculiar to a large and intelligent community is applicable to charity, as well as to literature and the arts, and renders it very possible to bestow attention on the wants and distresses of every individual.*
There is something in this mutual dependence and connexion of the different members of society on one another, which is both pleasing in contemplation, and eminently suited to the situation of mankind as the children of one common parent, and the heirs of one common immortality. A state of civilization, which supposes opulence, competency, and poverty, in all their various degrees, is far more suitable, when thus improved, to the purposes of man's being, than any condition of uniform equality could become, even if we depart from experience
4 This may be seen reduced to practice in the operations of the Bath, Oxford, or Bristol Mendicant Societies.
366 CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT
in framing- it, and indulge the imagination with an ideal picture. That there should be room for the exercise of benevolence, a disposition of the mind, which, in fact, contains within itself many virtues, was undoubtedly in the contem plation of the Creator. The contrast of con dition which arises from the unequal distribution of wealth, is well fitted to excite this ; and a crowd of Christian graces follow in its train : the humility which visits the cottager, encourages his industry or cheers his distress ; the denial of selfish gratification, for the purpose of raising laborious poverty ; the prudence which with holds relief from the clamorous, to give it, though at the expense of time and trouble, to unobtrusive merit ; the reciprocal emotions of gratitude and goodwill ; and " all the charities" of neighbour, friend, and patron, have their origin in the just exercise of benevolence. When man is in a more perfect state, he will stand in no need of these opportunities, which are, in effect, trials : but no preparatory dis pensation could be more consistent with the
IN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. 3G7
divine goodness, than that which makes the general well-being of the members of society depend upon their right performance of their respective duties.
308
CHAPTER VI.
On the Evils of an uncivilized State.
THE circumstances of those countries which have either never reached a state of tolerable civilization, or having reached it, have fallen back to the different degrees of rudeness in which we find them now, remain still to be examined. But first, it is right to observe, that the nature of these evils is widely different from the case of partial poverty, arising from the inequality of ranks. That has appeared to be, in a great measure, the certain result of general improvement. On the other hand, the evils of barbarous countries are the offspring of no such necessity, but of moral degradation : they militate against the apparent design of Providence, since it has been largely shown
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE.
that the natural instincts and reason of man kind tend to their union, improvement, and civilization. In as far, therefore, as they ori ginate in a departure from those principles of reason of which the Deity has left no man naturally destitute, they are not chargeable upon God, but upon man.
But it will be argued, that these wide and extensive deviations from the divine plan must have come within the prescience of the Deity ; and it would have been more consonant with the character of his goodness to have prevented them by the original constitution of things. Here it is just and reasonable to answer, that such an objection, in order to be valid, ought to proceed upon a knowledge far more com plete than we possess, either from conjecture or revelation, of the extent and nature of the divine counsels ; and in particular with respect to the prescribed duration of the world, and the continuance of this inferior and preparatory state. A chain of mountains, of which the height is immense, when seen within the con-
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370 ON THE EVILS OF
fined horizon which our visual powers can embrace, makes but a trifling inequality upon the surface of the whole globe. So the evils of barbarism, which seem a formidable aggre gate when brought together, and drawn up in array against the divine goodness, would probably appear of trivial weight and force, when viewed as part of the comprehensive scheme of Providence ; and especially if the number actually suffering under them could be ascertained, and the sum of evil divided by the series of ages to which it belongs.
By the principle which regulates population, civilization, throughout the universe, is con stantly tending to an equilibrium. But the radiation both takes place slowly, having a vast space and a dense medium to pass through ; and is subject to a diminution of force from the obstacles by which it is opposed ; such as barren soils, and the climate of extreme lati tudes : difficulties inherent in the nature of the system, and only to have been prevented by a constitution altogether unlike ours. Under
AX UNCIVILIZED STATE. 3?!
these circumstances it was to be expected, that, notwithstanding- the tendency to universal refinement, refinement would never be uni versal, though it might be much more equally diffused than at present, but would always ex hibit an appearance like that we see, of very different stages and degrees. This is a part of the moral and natural evil confessedly existing in the world. The question with which we are now concerned is, how far the evils inseparably attendant upon rude states of society can de tract from the evidence derived from other sources, and attesting the divine benevolence? And to this question a satisfactory reply will be given, if it can be shown, both that the number of the individual tribes bears no pro portion to the whole, and that there are con siderable mitigations of the actual discomfort of that inferior state ; or also, lastly, that there is a tendency in the laws which regulate the world to diminish the number, and meliorate the condition, of the less improved commu nities.
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I. The people whose unsettled mode of life and rude government, and general want of in tellectual culture, include them in the present inquiry, are the native Indians of North and South America, the inhabitants of some part of Africa, of Australasia and Polynesia, and the numerous tribes which extend along the north of Asia, from the Euxine to the North Pacific Ocean.* Now, in the first place, it is a material remark, that we must not estimate the number of persons living in a barbarous state by the surface over which they are spread. It is the nature of that very barbarism to lessen the number of those who suffer under it, in exact proportion to its degree. The hunting state is more rude than the pastoral ; and it furnishes
* I would be understood to speak generally, as taking a general line of argument. No doubt, tribes might be found in Europe and Asia, existing on the confines, and far from the seat, of regular government, which might strictly be added to this number : especially in parts of Persia, Turkey, and Arabia. But it would be tedious to specify each par ticular variety of rudeness; and Ihe arguments, if just, are of universal application.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE.
support to a smaller comparative population. The pastoral state, again, is far less conducive to civilization than the agricultural ; and from its very nature, a comparatively small number of inhabitants is spread over a vast extent of ground.
The hunting tribes in North America are so few and so widely scattered, that they cannot properly be said to occupy the country of which they are natives. Now and then a tra veller, after penetrating for many days a vast extent of forest, encounters an Indian tent, containing a single family of five or six indivi duals. In the journey of discovery undertaken by order of the American government, under Captains Lewis and Clarke, during the whole course of a route extending from the east to the western coast, from the mouth of the Mis souri to that of the Columbia, the largest native tribe with which the party met consisted of five hundred souls, though traversing countries till then undisturbed, and probably never be fore trodden by the foot of civilized man. The
374 ON THE EVILS OF
Esquimaux, unattached to any particular spot, wander over an immense tract of inhospitable wilds, though their numbers, if collected, scarcely people two or three villages.* The hunters of the southern regions are not more numerous. Forster, who is by no means in clined to reduce the numbers which he esti mates, reckons the Pesserais, who inhabit Terra del Fuego, the lowest of mankind : but " though their country is little inferior in size to one moiety of Ireland, hardly two thousand inhabitants are found in this great extent of lands."t The Kamchadals, Koriaks, Ostiaks, and other tribes spread along the vast shore of the Arctic Ocean, depend for subsistence al most entirely upon fish, of which the sea and rivers furnish a plentiful supply during the summer, and the redundance of that season is dried and laid up for a winter store. Here the degree of population falls so low, that the Rus sian government of Irkutsk has only three persons on every square geographical mile.t
* Heriot's Canada, 21. 7 Observations, p. 317. J Tooke's Russia, i. 525.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 375
Perhaps it may be safely stated, that the people who derive their subsistence from the chase alone throughout the globe, do not exceed, do not even equal, the number of the inhabitants of Scotland. Necessity presses them within these scanty limits. The uncertainty of the supply, whether of fish or of the wild animals of the forest ; the difficulty of obtaining, the impossibility of increasing it j together with the waste attending their expeditions ; all for bid their multiplication, as strongly as they prevent their civilization, and confine to a very small portion, perhaps to a four or five hun dredth part of the whole, the evils belonging to that lowest state of the human race, which is necessarily consequent upon the general law of increase. It might be added, also, as con curring in the same effect, that the rigours of extreme latitudes, and the hardships of savage life, have been observed by numerous travel lers,* either to restrain the attention from the
* Forster, of the Esquimaux, Greenlanclers, New 7ea- lauders, and 1'cs.scrais, 315 ; Bruce, of the Shaiigalla na tions ; La Vaillant, of (ho Hottentots.
376 ON THE EVILS OF
sexual passion, or to diminish the prolific power.
II. Very far removed from these, but still in a state which admits of only a low degree of improvement, compared with a settled mode of living- and regular government, are the pastoral nations of northern Asia ; the Calmuk, the Mongol, and Mandshur tribes, and the nume rous smaller branches which, among various shades of difference, agree in the generic cha racter of refusing agriculture, and despising a stationary abode. What has been stated of the hunting nations, is in a great measure also applicable to these ; their occupation, and the nature of their subsistence, though it does not render less strong the principle of population, which keeps their number fully up to the level of their support, yet reduces that level so low, that the population is not only thinly scattered, but in its total number very inconsiderable. Gibbon has observed, that the inhabitants of the vast peninsula of Arabia might be outnum bered by the subjects of a fertile and industri-
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 377
ous province. And the whole of the inhabitants of Asiatic Russia, comprehending- the principal of the Nomadic nations, whose number, by the inquiries and registers of the Empress Ca therine, was ascertained with tolerable exact ness, does not exceed five millions ; * so that a population amounting1 to little more than one fourth of that of the British isles, is spread along- a hundred and seventy degrees of longi tude.
The laws which regulate this low population are permanent. No art or labour on the part of a pastoral nation can increase their cattle faster than a certain ratio, or to a number be yond what can be supported by their average pasture. The ratio of increase is steadily fixed by nature. The pasture is limited by the ex tent of land over which the tribe can range ; by the degree of security with which they can lay up a winter provision, or, lastly, by the nature of the climate, and the proportion of
* S«-r 1'iiikcrton, ii. 48, with liis authorities.
378 ON THE EVILS OF
winter provision it requires. The accounts of pastoral people exemplify to us all these several circumstances. Some wander from district to district, till they are checked in their migra tions by the incursions or vicinity of more powerful neighbours : with others, a great part of the summer labour consists in stacking fo rage for a severer season : while others again expose their cattle to the inclemency of the winter, and trust to their finding a scanty pro vision among the leaves and brushwood. * These difficulties and hardships, added to the epidemic diseases which occasionally appear among the cattle, and are the most formidable evils to pastoral nations, reduce the average increase of the herds and flocks so low as to make it impossible for a large population to find subsistence.
III. But in agriculture the case is widely different. The increase of corn varies, accord ing to the climate and the culture, from ten to
* See the account of the Choriziens, a rich tribe of the Burattes, in the Dccouvertes Russes, liv. vi. 109.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE.
sixty, or even a hundred fold. To the in crease of population, therefore, that may be supported by agriculture, there would appear to be no limit except the extent of ground : and as long1 as land remained to be brought into cultivation, it would seem impossible for men to increase in so great a proportion as their subsistence. It might accordingly at first be imagined, that if a people could only be in duced to change their pastoral for agricultural habits, a very rude and a very large population might exist together. Against this, however, there is a barrier which cannot be overstepped. We may suppose the land to be so fertile, as to return, with very moderate cultivation, more subsistence than the family of the cultivator requires. But the cultivator will not give away his superfluity.* He will either indulge
* A striking illustration of this case may be found in the fertile island of Java. Rice is the principal food of the in habitants, of which a labourer can earn in ordinary circum- st.mo-s from four to five kalis a day ; and a kfiii being equi valent to one pound and a quarter avoirdupois, is reckoned a suih'cient allowance for an adult in those regions. The consequence is, that the soil of st vcn eighths of the island is
380 ON THE EVILS OF
his indolence, and relax his exertions till the supply only equals his annual wants ; or he will turn his own attention to other pursuits, and employ the hands which require subsist ence in labour — at which point the distinction of ranks and all its concomitant advantages beg-in — or he will stimulate the invention of the hungry claimant of his superfluous produce, to make him a compensation by some useful ma nufacture. In either of the latter cases we see the first germ of improvement : and in those few countries where there is a smaller actual population than the climate and soil could sup port with ease, it should be the grand object of more civilized nations to take advantage of the favourable moment, not by multiplying labourers, which will multiply of their own
either entirely neglected or badly cultivated, and the whole of the nation is supported by the produce of the remaining eighth. "When nature does much for a country, its inha bitants are sometimes contented to do little, and, satisfied with its common gifts, neglect to improve them into the means of dignity or comfort. The peasantry of Java, easily pro curing the necessaries of life, seldom aim at improvement of their condition." Raffles' Java, vol. i. p. 109.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 381
accord, at least as soon as they can be fed ; but by assisting the struggles of nature to emancipate herself from a low and servile con dition, and furnishing stimulants to the first weak efforts of industry. Unless this assist ance is given, or industry is by some means or other encouraged, there may exist one genera tion of these redundant labourers, but there will be no more ; they will neither have in ducement nor ability to marry, and propagate a race for which there is no demand. It has been remarked by various travellers, that they have no where witnessed more distress and poverty, than where provisions were so cheap that a plentiful subsistence might be obtained at the rate of a penny a day.*
Population, therefore, and civilization have a relative effect upon each other. Where agri culture, either from want of industrious ex ample, or from peculiar soil and climate, or from accidental discouragements and inveterate
* Turner, of the frontiers of Boolan; Morier, Travels in Persia, &c, ; Pallas, of Siberia.
382 ON THE EVILS OF
habits, has never been introduced so as to fur nish the principal support, as among all the pastoral and hunting nations, the population, that is, the number of persons labouring under the evils of a rude state, must be inconsiderable, when compared with the inhabitants of the globe of which they form a part ; and again, to take the converse of the proposition, wher ever the population is considerable enough to be of weight in the scale, the comforts and civilization of agricultural life and fixed habi tations must exist, not according to arbitrary or contingent circumstances, but according to the necessity of things. From these causes is de rived and accounted for the remarkable fact, that European Russia yields a population of four hundred and five, Asiatic Russia, of only eleven, persons to a square mile.* And yet European Russia holds a very subordinate place, when compared in populousness with the other kingdoms of Europe, which have been longer in a state of improved civilization.
* Tooke, vol. i. p. 525.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 383
Of the nations which have depended for sub sistence on the culture of the earth, the inha bitants of Polynesia and those parts of western and southern Africa which have been chiefly visited by Europeans, are lowest in the rank of improvement. Here too we are liable to be much deceived in our idea of number.* The inhabitants of the islands, which on their first discovery were estimated at a million, have been since ascertained not to exceed three hun dred thousand, even including- the vast coun tries of New Holland and New Zealand, equal ling- in extent the whole of Europe. With respect to the population of Africa there is more uncer tainty. It is known, however, to be thinly peopled, in those parts especially which, from a concurrence of moral causes, have hitherto re mained barbarous and rude.f For the interior of
* The first discoverers were notoriously so. Cook esti mated the Otaheitans at 100 000 ; the Protestant missiona ries, at 49,000; Capt. Wilson, 16,000; Mr. Turnbull, 5,000. However, there is no doubt that the population has actually declined.
-}- " The population of Africa cannot exceed 30, or even 20 millions." Piukertou. Of the extensive kingdom of
384 ON THE EVILS OF
Africa must be excluded from this part of the subject. Their civilization has reached a consi derable extent ; commerce is established ; a general distinction of ranks is acknowledged ; the inhabi tants are collected together in towns and villages; and that system of things exists, and appears to have long existed, which admits of moral im provement and constitutes moral probation.*
IV. After explaining the natural laws which affix these impassable limits to the number who lead a life admitting a low degree of intellectual attainment, it must be next observed, that the mode of life itself is not without its compensa tions. Independence, and freedom from all restraint of action, are a compensation. To know no settled home ; to fix the tent or the yourt where the cattle can find temporary subsistence, and to remove or leave it when the district is depastured, excites no idea but that of wretched-
Dar Fur, Browne says, " It seems to me, from various con siderations, that the number of souls within the empire cannot much exceed 200,000." Browne's Travels, 284.
* Browne, Horneman, Park, and Jackson, concur in this account.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 385
edness to the European, who has learnt by his own habits, and those of his ancestors, to attach a value to his home, however mean ; and whose heart, from whatever distance, fondly turns to the place of his nativity or his education. The Tartar, on the contrary, can utter no severer sentence against his enemy, than that he may be condemned to reside in one place, and to be nourished with the top of a weed. And for a still ruder race, even the pastoral life is too careful and stationary. It was a proverbial im precation in use among" the hunting" nations on the confines of Siberia, that their enemy might be obliged to live like a Tartar, and have the folly of troubling himself with the charge of cattle.*
* Robertson's America, ii. '236. Ferguson oil Civ. So ciety, from Abulgaze's Genealogy, Hist, of Hie Tartars. " It seems universally true with regard to a people habituated to the sweets of unbounded liberty, that they are not easily tempted to resign the roving pleasures of that free condition, fur the quiet, ease, security, or even luxuries of regular society. This observation may be justly applied to the true Bedouin. The Hottentot or Cherokee is not louder of his native woods, than the wandering Arab of his sandy domain.
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Nothing, indeed, can prove more evidently the charms which a wandering life, with its mixed occupations of pasturage and the chase, and a perpetually shifting scene, presenting objects to occupy, and novelty to amuse the mind, possesses to those who have followed it from their infancy, than the difficulty with which those tribes can be brought to learn the practice, and seek the certain, but uninterest ing returns of agriculture. Large districts, in many parts of the north of Asia, are well suited
As his wants are few, for he knows only those of nature, so his desires are confined ; for lie either subdues or afiects to disclaim those he cannot gratify." Wood on Homer, p. 150. " The rude tribes which have been described, are not envious of that civilization of which we are so proud. We may wonder at their ignorance and prejudice; but we must recollect that men are formed by habit, and that all their sufferings and enjoyments are comparative. How often do we see them rejoicing under hardships and bondage, and repining at their lot when courted by liberty and fortune ! The feelings we receive from living in one state of society, disqualify us from judging of those of another; but he who has travelled over the greatest space will be most struck with the equal dispen sation of happiness and misery ; and his value for knowledge will not be decreased by observing that those are not always the most happy who possess it." Malcolm, Persia, ii. 619.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 387
to produce various sorts of grain. The climate and soil, for instance, in the neighbourhood of the sea of Baikal, yield to few parts of Europe in fertility ; and some of the poorer classes have here, as in other parts, united agriculture to pasturage.* But it affords them a feeble re source. They will not be at the pains to apply the necessary labour, and are too much attached to their nomadic habits to leave them for any length of time. The example of the foreign settlers, and even the advantages offered by the Russian government, have as yet effected so little change, that the scientific travellers to whom we owe the account of this terra incognita never fail to mention any district with evident surprise, where tillage has been pursued with tolerable success. ^
Nor is there any want of enjoyment among these people. The chase itself is an enjoyment. Of this we have examples even in Europe. The Tyrolese, we know, in particular, were so
* I Jell's Travels. J)ecuuv. Kusscs, b. iii. f Dec. Uiisst's, b. iii. ]>. :2!),S.
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addicted to it, that the tyrannical penalty of perpetual slavery could not deter them from hunting the chamois, not for its value, which was extremely trifling, but for the occupation it afforded. The Asiatic tribes have a similar passion ; but they possess a greater variety of game, and hunt it with no impediment except the tributary payment of a part of the furs. Even European travellers can speak without disgust of a country, where, as in the vast territory of Mongolia, there is not a single fixed habitation to be seen ; where " all the people, even the prince and high priest, live constantly in tents, and remove with their cattle from place to place as conveniency requires."*
Some satisfaction may be derived from the description of a very inferior people, even of some of the hunting nations. The Greenlanders have habitations adapted to each season. In
* Bell's Travels, i. 275. He continues ; " Satisfied with necessaries, without aiming at superfluities, they pursue the most ancient and simple manner ot life ; which I must con fess I think very pleasant in such a mild and dry climate."
AN UNCIVILIZED STATK. 38(J
the winter they occupy warm and commodious houses, built of stone and covered with a roof of wood. The summer they pass in neat and convenient tents, regularly built of poles and covered with skins. All their contrivances are proofs of their skill and ingenuity, and their enjoyment of the lowest degree of con- veniencies.* These stand certainly at the head of the class. But the whole race, with the exception of a few tribes at the very extremities of the globe, whether wandering in tents or collected in villages, strongly exemplify that active principle of the human mind, which searches for its peculiar satisfaction under all the various circumstances in which it can be placed j and is seldom disappointed. Custom renders the North American savages indifferent to the extremes of heat and cold, endows them with indefatigable activity in all their pursuits, and enables them, by the sagacity which it confers upon the senses, to meet the hazards to which their life exposes them. When they are stationary, and the business of the day is
* Forster's Observations, p. 311.
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over, " the entire village sup together at the same time. The prelude to it is a dance of an hour ; the dancers chanting singly their own exploits, and jointly those of their ancestors."* That these and similar habits should afford a gratification indispensably valuable to those who have been habituated to them, cannot be con sidered wonderful, when even Europeans have been found who have preferred such inde pendence to the restraints of civilized life. The Baron de Casteins, it is well known, hav ing been an officer in a regiment reduced in Canada, joined the savages, whose manners he loved, and whose language he had acquired. He was made grand chief of the nation of the Albinaquis, and amassed, from presents and other sources, a fortune of an hundred thou sand crowns, which he expended in purchasing the manufactures of Europe. Though courted by the governors of New France and New England, he preferred the wilds of Acadia.f
* Ashe of the Shawanese, on the banks of the Ohio, iii. 70. t Heriot, from Voyage de la Houtan.
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The reverse has more frequently taken place, when it has been attempted to educate savages in a state of civilization. The experiment has been tried with the Hottentots, whom we might reasonably expect to be disgusted with their domestic misery, both by the East India Com pany and by individuals : but they have never been persuaded to buy comfort at the expense of independence, which has endeared to them the coarse manner of life to which they have been accustomed. Within a few years too, we have had an example of an intelligent chief of a tribe in North America, who conformed for a time to European habits, and lived in the best society in England;* but with no other wish or intention, than to carry back to his countrymen those advantages of civilization by which he judged they might be most usefully improved.
What, then, is the result of this evidence?
* \Vell remembered under the name of Norton ; and leader of the Indian Allies who assisted in repelling the invasion of lYuada in 1812.
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Not that all situations, natural and moral, are equal ; not that there is no distinction in the degree of happiness between rude and civilized man ; but, that no situations in which mankind can be placed, are without a peculiar compen sation and satisfaction. It has even been re marked, that the poorer the country is in which a native has lived, the more wretched his habi tual manner of life, the more insupportable the loss of it has appeared ;* probably because its gratifications, being- few, have become on that account more dear and indispensable. But, however we may pity a taste enslaved to habits inconsistent with the improvement of the best faculties of the human species, we must at least allow that such an existence is not pain ful to the possessor ; nay, that it has enjoy ments of its own. No one, I suppose, has
* Millar, Origin of Ranks, p. 143. " The savage, still less than the citizen, can be made to quit that manner of life in which he is trained; he loves that freedom of mind which will not be bound to any task, and which owns no superior : and, however tempted to mix with polished nations, and to better his fortune, the first moment of liberty brings him to his \\oods again." Ferguson, part ii. s. 2.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 303
ever been so long habituated to positive pain, as to regret its loss, or solicit its return, or com plain of the ease which he has acquired by the relaxation of some tormenting disorder.
V. It is an inevitable consequence of the connexion between the bodily and mental facul ties, that climate should affect the character of the human species. Neither could Montes quieu's untenable theory have been supported by so many appeals to fact, unless it had pos sessed some foundation in the general, though by no means insuperable tendency of climate to maintain peculiar habits and dispositions. The natives of tropical countries, and of those which I have been just now mentioning, are perhaps, taken in the mass, in about the same degree of civilization ; but, from the difference of climate, their occupations, as well as their recreation and pastimes, must be altogether different. The compensations, therefore, of their rude state are equally different ; but pe culiarly suited to the climate, and the dispo sition it generates. That activity which ren-
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ders occupation amusement to the native of more temperate regions, is unknown, and would probably be destructive, near the line. There, inactivity is enjoyment : and, accord ingly, to the countries of which we are speak ing, the abundance of the necessaries of life, and the ease with which they are commonly produced, afford a compensation for the loss of those advantages which more civilized nations enjoy.
How much interest and admiration the first accounts of the South Sea islanders excited, will be long remembered. The ease enjoyed in a country where three or four fruit-trees furnished a provision sufficient for the con sumption of a grown person during eight months, and the consequent plenty which ap peared to abound, astonished those who had been accustomed to the labour of less bounti ful and genial climates. The exertion that was required to lodge, to subsist, or clothe a family, seemed to be mere amusement to those who had experienced the fatigue, but could not
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 395
appreciate the use and value, of closer and more rig-id occupation. Longer acquaintance has shown, that ease and idleness engender vices, more baneful in their effects to happi ness than the opposite evils of civilized life : but still the free use of the corporeal powers, the unrestrained liberty of action, the absence of all care respecting the support of a family, must be admitted as a set-off against the cruelties of frequent hostility, and the want of refined gratifications. These advantages of an indulgent climate are evident by comparison ; for the natives who possess them, though with no other superiority or nearer approach to ci vilization, have obtained, in a much higher de gree, the conveniences of life than the savages in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, or their brethren in the less favoured islands of the Pacific.
These, however, are at the very bottom of the scale. Forced, probably, from their native continent by the overflow of population, or driven by stress of weather, they originally
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depended upon the natural abundance of their adopted country, till all remembrance of former arts was lost among them ; and when a new generation began in its turn to be pressed by the difficulties arising from multiplication, every thing was to be learnt anew and effected by invention, without any of the advantages resulting from communication with more im proved people. The African Negroes, there fore, as in advantages, so in acquisitions, are one step above them. It may be thought also, that circumnavigators, to whom we owe the descriptions of the inhabitants of Polynesia, may be deceived into a report too favourable for truth, by the luxury of fresh provisions, and the pleasing associations with the sight of land. But even long residents in Africa have been struck with the happiness of the Negroes of the western coast, and their perfect enjoy ment of life, resulting from ease, carelessness, and security. The indispensable articles of life are reduced to a very narrow compass ; the heat of the climate, which renders clothing an tncumbranct arid lodging a matter of indiffer-
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 397
ence, enables the Negro to exist on his native soil " in the most agreeable apathy, without either the fear of want, the chagrin of priva tion, the cares of ambition, or the arbour of desire."* Twenty days' labour in the year is sufficient for the cultivation of all the articles of subsistence he requires ; his existence, therefore, is almost a gratuitous gift of na ture : his wants are supplied without severe exertion, his desires are gratified without re straint ; and, with a few solicitudes or apprehen sions, his life glides on in a sort of tranquil calm.-)-
* Golberry, vol. ii. p. 303. Corry on the Windward Coast, chap. 6. Lest the reports collected by the benevolent authors of the abolition of the slave-trade (see Clarkson, &c.) should be considered as somewhat exaggerated, I have se lected, by choice, two authors who countenance that execra ble traffic, as Golberry in France and Corry in England, that the account derived from them of the happiness of the Africans in their native country, may not be overcharged.
-j- So Mr. Jackson of Morocco: "Living on simple food, chiefly of the farinaceous kind, their appetites are few, their wants are easily satisfied, and their resourses many." P. 151.
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In northern climates, the natives, if not cm- ployed in those active exercises to which I alluded as forming- their amusement as well as their occupation, must be confined in narrow apartments, where the want of circulating- air would be as unsalutary as the inactivity of the body. In the southern latitudes, shelter from the sun's rays is alone required. Under the shade, therefore, of a tree, or the roof of the palaver-house which belongs to every principal villag-e, and which the air is freely allowed to penetrate, the Negroes form an assembly at sunrise; and as they are ranged in a circle consisting of thirty or forty of all ages, pass the time in conversation. Their subjects are in exhaustible ; and the amusement thus furnished is so attractive, that they separate with great reluctance, sometimes passing the entire day in talking, smoking, and diversion.* The evenings are devoted to dancing : for, after the setting of
* " Even towards evening I often observed these coteries in the same place, and conducted with the same gaiety and spirit: the conversation being as animated as if it had just begun." Golberry. Cook observes the same of the Friendly Islanders; Third Voyage, vol. i.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 399
the sun, every village resounds with song's and music ; and " I have often," says Mr. Corry, " listened to them with attention and pleasure, during- the tranquil evenings of the dry season."*
Persons, whose judgment is swayed by no hypothesis, and who have had long opportuni ties of observing the habits of a people, cannot easily be mistaken as to the mere fact, whether life is miserable or comfortable. And this careless disposition, so different from what we are accustomed to witness, may be accounted for by considering, that in most European coun tries the climate introduces a thousand wants ; the varieties of season must be counteracted by a variety of expedients; desire is always athirst for some new conveniency, and fur nishes, by the very uneasiness it occasions, a stimulus to the industry by which arts and sciences, and all the embellishments of huma nity, are improved. But in these tropical countries, the indulgence of the climate at the same time diminishes the number of wants
* P. 153.
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and render indispensable gratifications of easy acquirement.* The consequence is, that among civilized nations the inclinations are under a constant restraint, either moral or physical. The restraint, no doubt, is useful, and conduces to render the European what he is, the most improved of the human race. But it is also usually unpalatable, and sometimes burden some. The easy life, therefore, and the se curity as to the future resulting- from it, which the African and other nations in similar cir cumstances enjoy, must be acknowledged as a mitigation of the evils to which in their turn they are subject, and a compensation for the in ferior rank they hold in the great aggregate of human society.
* " According to the ideas of the common people hi South America, all that is necessary to h.ippiness, is bananas, salted fish, a hammock, and a guitar. The hope of gain is a weak stimulus, under a zone where beneficent nature provides to man a thousand means of procuring an easy and peaceful subsistence." Humboldt, vol. iii. p. 92.
" During the whole time that I resided in Africa, and in all the countries which I visited, I never saw a single poor beggar." Golberry.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 401
The indifference with which all these nations regard their actual situation, and the slight exer tions which any of them are disposed to make for the purpose of bettering their condition, must surely be considered as a proof that the positive pressure of misery is not severe. * No accounts affirm, that they are indifferent to pain, so as not to step aside when it may be avoided ; or that, when urged by hunger, they refuse to appease it. The exertion by which a better habitation, a more sufficient clothing, more cleanly, nutritious, or palatable food
* " The miserable and forlorn condition of the poor Pes- serais appeared dreadful to us, who were accustomed to the conveniencies of a civilized life ; but habit, together with in dolence and stupidity, render these hardships supportable, and they have hardly an idea that their situation can be im proved." Forster, 313. " Such is the disposition of the Indians, that if their indifference to temporal things did not extend itself also to the eternal, they might be said to equal the happiness of the golden age. They show so little concern for the enjoyments of life, as nearly approaches to a total contempt of them." Ulloa, i. 420. This accords with the description given by Giraldus of the Irish in the twelfth century: Solum olio dediti, sol u in desidiaj dati, summas reputant delicias la- bore carcre ; summas repulant divitias libcrtatu gaudere." VOL.11. DD
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might be obtained, is only one step beyond the natural instinct that prompts these sponta neous actions ; and the unwillingness to use that exertion must be admitted as evidence that the evils in question do not press upon the mind, so as to produce actual unhappiness. For it is to be remembered, that in the same state of savage life, evils that do press, lead to action, and to a sort of foresight the very reverse of the general character. There is an instance of this nature in the cruel kindness of the American women, who are said to feel so sensibly the miseries to which their sex is ex posed under the dominion of barbarous hus bands, as to destroy their female children in their infancy, in " order to deliver them from that intolerable bondage to which they know they are doomed." *
Since all evil depends upon consciousness, and suffering which is not felt, is unintelligi ble ; some authors have made the insensibility of an uncivilized people as to their condition,
* Robertson's America, ii. I0(i.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 4-03
the ground of an argument for the equality of all conditions. But I would by no means ap pear to go that length. There is a great dif ference between actual misery, and a low ca pacity for happiness : there is a great differ ence between a rnind satisfied with few enjoy ments, and one alive and awakened to every species of refined gratification. As the native of an unenlightened country may act up to the moral views he enjoys, and yet be very defi cient in morality ; so may the native of an un civilized country possess a portion of enjoy ment which will yet admit of much improve ment, both in degree and in purity. The con siderations, therefore, which have been urged, though sufficient to vindicate the divine good ness in these points, can never interfere with the expediency, nay, I may add, the positive duty of meliorating the condition and inform ing the understanding of these rude children of nature. That they are in a state of general inferiority; that their reasoning powers lie dor mant ; that the nature of their gratifications being of a lower order, their capacity of hap-
D J) 'J
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piness is diminished in proportion ; as it can never be denied, so it will always supply a reason for communicating to them the benefits of superior civilization.
It has been already stated as probable, that the thin and scattered tribes who have no other subsistence than the produce of the chase, to gether with the savage inhabitants of Polyne sia, that is, the lowest species of the human race, do not exceed in number two or three millions in the whole. The wretchedness of this barbarism, besides its being, from the apathy it superinduces, less appalling in exist ence than in recital, cannot be allowed to have much weight in the scale, when compared with that immense community of which it forms so trifling a part. If to these are added the na tions of Africa and northern Asia, who enjoy few, comparatively, of those advantages, moral and intellectual, which collisions of interest and opinion confer upon a state of civilization, the number will fairly be estimated at about twenty millions ; but cannot exceed, according
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 405
to some calculations a fortieth, according to others a fiftieth, of the inhabitants of the globe. And it was sufficiently shown, that the inconsiderable relation which this part bears to the whole does not depend upon accidental circumstances, but upon inviolable laws ; which must be deemed an express provision for cor recting- the evils which there is a tendency in the general system to produce. It will scarcely be pretended, that so slight a flaw could de tract from the merits of a system, upon which the improvement of the faculties of the whole human race is hinged. But even if this could be pretended, the divine benevolence has vindi cated itself by contriving that each peculiar evil should be accompanied by its peculiar compensa tion. The independence or indolence of a sa vage or semi-barbarous state, though feeble extenuations with respect to the improvement or perfection of the species, are of great import ance with regard to the actual state of the indi vidual ; inasmuch as positive pain and suffering arc more immediate and pressing evils than
40(5 ON THE EVILS OF
moral or mental deficiency. A dispensation of the Governor of the universe may, in his future counsels, correct the one ; but any future dis pensation, though it may compensate, can never alleviate the other.
VI. But the point of principal consequence, and in which the wisdom and goodness of the Deity are equally concerned, is this : that the same source from which the evil itself pro ceeds, also produces its remedy. A rude com munity, which a concurrence of circumstances may have precluded from agricultural resources, pushes itself to some inclement corner of the habitable world, and continues its existence without increasing its numbers. Another peo ple, more fortunate in the moral and natural causes which contribute to civilize the world, extend their growing population beyond the crowded limits of their own kingdom, and, with their population, convey the stock of improve ment which has accumulated in a long period of years. The manner in which this effect
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 4-07
takes place, and the beneficial changes which it is every where continually operating, have been shown under a former head.
Europe is now the centre, from which the rays of civilization are diverging in every direc tion ; and there is no region of the world in which its influence is not annually diminishing both the degree and the quantity of evil arising from the absence of cultivation. It has indeed been sometimes suggested as probable, that each quarter of the globe may be destined to take its turn in civilization ; that Asia, hav ing reached its acme first, has gradually de clined, and yielded its precedence to Europe ; that Europe may already see a future rival in the increasing importance of America; and that the comparative facility of intercourse from that continent may at some distant period give to Africa an opportunity, which cannot be at pre sent foreseen, of asserting its superiority over nations whom it has hitherto known chiefly as oppressors. But this is neither a very pleasing theory, nor very agreeable to philosophical ex-
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perience. For, although it is true, that civil ization was earliest attained in Asia, there may be reasonable doubts whether that civilization was ever higher in degree, than Asia, con sidered generally, enjoys at present. And although single kingdoms are subject to de cline and fall, and their maturity itself some times contains the seeds of their dissolution ; yet there is no reason, from past history, to apprehend that civilization, founded on agri culture and sustained by Christianity, can ever be so far depreciated by internal corruption, or annihilated by external enemies, as to lose all weight in the scale, however it may sink in relative importance by the preponderance of other nations. For, since a country does not diminish its own lustre by diffusing light to others, but, on the contrary, obtains a recipro cal advantage from such communication, it is more natural, and more consonant to experi ence, to indulge the hope that some future, however distant sera, will find the whole world in a comparatively equal state of civilization.* * Stewart's Phil. chap. iv. s. 8.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 409
Iii the mean time, whilst it is distinctly acknowledged that the classes into whose con dition an inquiry has been made, have the lowest opportunities of exercising1 their reason and virtue ; and that it is the evil of a system, from which evil confessedly is not excluded, to produce some classes with these low oppor tunities ; we should still err on the other side by conceiving that their situation is inconsistent with the purposes of man's creation. Wher ever there is a perception of right and wrong, there is a capacity of probation, more or less imperfect. But as, in every country, the ge neral principles of justice and humanity are to be traced, however obscured by error ; there is a sort of moral probation going on in every condition to which the human race can be ex posed.* The prospect indeed of hardships and
* " There is no situation in which a rational being is placed, from that of the best instructed Christian down to the condition of the rudest barbarian, which affords not room for moral agency ; for the acquisition, exercise, and display of voluntary qualities good and bad. Health and sickness, enjoyment and suffering, riches and poverty, know-
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difficulties endured by uncivilized communities, is often enlivened by the unexpected appear ance of some moral beauty, for which we could scarcely look in so inclement a situation. One of the early visitants of the South Sea islands could riot refrain, he says, from repeatedly wishing that our civilized Europeans might add to their many advantages, " the same innocence
ledge and ignorance, power and subjection, liberty and bondage, civilization and barbarity, have all their offices and duties, all serve for the formation of character ; for, when we speak of a state of trial, it must be remembered, that characters are not only tried, or proved, or detected, but that they are generated also, and formed by circumstances. The best dispositions may subsist under the most depressed, the most afflictive fortunes. A West Indian slave, who, with his wrongs, retains his benevolence, I for my part look upon as amongst the foremost of human characters for the rewards of virtue. The kind master of such a slave, that is, he who in the exercise of an inordinate authority, postpones, in any degree, his own interest to his slave's comfort, is likewise a meritorious character; but still he is inferior to his slave. All, however, which I contend for is, that these destinies, opposite as they may be in every other view, are both trials, and equally such. The observation may be ap plied to every other condition; to the whole range of tlie scale, not excepting even its lowest extremity." Paley's Nat. Theol. 528.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 'til
of heart and genuine simplicity of manners, the same spirit of benevolence," that he found among- their rude inhabitants.* He mentions also having seen mothers punishing obstinacy and disobedience, and, though extremely fond of their children, doing violence to their feel ings, that the children might not acquire habits of ingratitude, obstinacy, or immorality. A later resident, whose intercourse with the na tives gave him every opportunity of judging, observes that their patriarchal mode of life, in which the younger and inferior part always surround the chief, as the father of one large family, is calculated much to refine and im prove their mental faculties, and polish their language and behaviour.| In these islands, the want of regular government is the grand existing evil. Among other barbarous tribes, a different disposition supplies the place of law. When the Spanish fathers in Mexico explained to some of the natives, who adhered to their own habits, the security which prevailed in the
* Forster, p. 349, 351.
t Narrative of four Years' Residence at Tongataboo.
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Christian missions, where an Indian alcalde administered justice, the chief replied, " This order of thing's may be necessary for you. We do not steal, and seldom disagree : what use have we, then, for an alcalde amongst us?"* We are told also by Golberry, that in Africa there is commonly " very little disorder, so that the small number of offences produces a sort of habitual tranquillity."!
Traits of character not less interesting are to be found among the shepherds of Asia. Po-
* Humboldt, vol. ii. 303. " In their intercourse with strangers the Shoshonees are frank and communicative, in their dealings perfectly fair ; nor have we had, during our stay with them, any reason to suspect that the display of our new and valuable wealth has tempted them to a single act of dishonesty. While they have generally shared with us the little they possess, they have always abstained from begging any from us." Lewis and Clarke's Travels.
f Vol. ii. p. 305, " Charlevoix has observed, that the nations among whom he travelled in North America, never mentioned acts of generosity or kindness, under the notion of duty ; they acted from affection as they acted from appe tite, without regard to its consequences. \Vhen they had done a kindness, they had gratified a desire." Ferguson, p. 11. s. '2.
AN UNCIVILIZED STATE. 413
verty, we are assured, is in no disgrace among them. When a family is unfortunate, the richer members of the tribe unite to set them up again with cattle, as far as three separate times ; if their ill fate still pursues them, they become labourers, but no one ever upbraids them with their humiliation, and they are clothed and fed as well as those whom they serve.* Their attention to the rites of hospi tality is proverbial, and indisputably proves their acquaintance with the first principles of morals. Of the Kalmucks in particular, it is related, that, though of a warm and sanguine temperament, they live more peaceably among themselves than would be expected of a people in such an independent state. They seldom come to blows, even at their drinking parties, and their quarrels are very rarely bloody. Though their anger is tinged with ferocity, murder is little known among them. In this respect it seems, that their religion, idolatrous
* Decouv. Russes, of the Barattes, vi. 124.
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as it is, has been able to modify their natural temper.*
To come nearer home : the surveys of some counties in Ireland bring* us acquainted with a people scarcely more cultivated, and equally susceptible of the virtues belonging to their condition. " In more minutely examining the situation of this abandoned peasantry, \ve have an opportunity of seeing far into human nature, and behold the natives happy, and abundantly
* Gmelio, Dec. Russes, iii. 233, &c. In physical advan tages no country has a lower place than Iceland. " Yet here," says Sir G. Mackenzie, " the moral and religious habits of the people at large may be spoken of in terms of the highest commendation. In his domestic capacity, the Icelander per forms all the duties which his situation requires, or renders possible ; and while by the severe labour of his hands he obtains a provision of food for his children, it is not less his care to convey to their minds the inheritance of knowledge and virtue. In his intercourse with those aronnd him, his character displays the stamp of honour and integrity. His religious duties are performed with cheerfulness and punctu ality ; and this even among the numerous obstacles which are presented by the nature of the country and climate under which he lives." P. 332.
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possessed of those qualities which endear man kind to each other. In acts of friendship to their neighbours, they are rarely deficient : their generous hospitality to strangers is proverbial : for educating their children they are particu larly anxious, and a close attention to religion is universally prevalent ; and though their idea of it may be strongly tinctured with super stition, it only argues that their minds have been totally neglected ; as they show a great wish and anxiety for instruction even in re ligious concerns." * Another inquirer assures us, that " the heart of the poorest cotter is no stranger to generous feelings ; his jug of milk, and plate of potatoes, are charitably offered alike to the errand-boy, and to the mendicant who appears before his door : in short, charity throughout the whole island supplies the place of poor laws." |
These instances make it sufficiently clear,
* Mr. Tighe's Survey of the County of Kilkenny, •f Sir Richard Hoare's general remarks, at the close of his Tour in Ireland. 1806.
416 ON THE EVILS, £c.
that no argument can be raised against the goodness of the Deity, as if he had placed a portion of mankind in situations inconsistent with the object of their creation. It certainly could not be held just, that a man should be the subject either of punishment or reward, where his condition afforded him no opportu nities of virtue. But it appears, that although the degrees of light diffused throughout the world are various, there is no where total dark ness ; and that although civilization, as ori ginally proved, is the climate most favourable to virtue, there is no state where the seeds of morality are not planted, or refuse to thrive. Before, therefore, any derogation can be made on this score, from the evidence by which the divine goodness is supported, it must be main tained, that the Deity is either unable or un willing to make compensation or allowance, in his future disposal of mankind, for whatever moral deficiencies arise from that general scheme, by which he has seen it best upon the whole to regulate the world.
417
CONCLUSION.
IN the first volume of this work I endeavoured to show, that the evidence in favour of the ex istence of an independent, eternal, and omni potent Creator, is such as to demand the assent of mankind.
In the considerations, which followed, of the attributes belonging to the Creator, 1 attempted to point out a remarkable proof of the wisdom with which the Creator has organized our world, and directed its various parts in subservience to his general designs. I also examined the ob jections which have most commonly been urged against the goodness of the Deity ; and have proved, I imagine, at least thus much : that neither the existence, nor the extent, of natural and moral evil, can interfere with that belief
VOL. n. E E
418 CONCLUSION.
of the benevolence of the Creator, which the preponderating- tendency of his works inclines us to entertain.
It only remains to consider the practical conclusions resulting from what has been proved ; without which the judicious person who proposed the subject, rightly foresaw that any enquiry into the existence and attributes of the Deity would be a needless and unprofitable speculation.
Is, then, the existence of a Being- endued with these attributes, and enabling- us to dis cover the relation we bear towards him by the reasoning- powers of which he has made us par takers, a mere matter of philosophical disquisi tion, a speculative fact, which we are as much at liberty to neglect or examine, to allow or reject, as the Newtonian theory of the tides, or law of gravitation ? Far otherwise. It cannot be plausibly maintained, that no relative duty on our part arises as a consequence from what is the certain conclusion of these inquiries j viz.
CONCLUSION. <
that we derive our being from an eternal Crea tor, infinitely powerful, wise, and just ; who has placed us here in a state preparatory to a future and higher sphere of existence. Since our rea son declares to us his existence, his power, his wisdom, and his goodness, he has a title to our adoration, our veneration, our submission, and tur love.
I. Against this deduction I can suppose it may be urged, that, although we may acknow ledge such a Being as the Creator of the world, yet, if he demanded the worship or obedience of mankind, he would declare his existence, and display his power, by such regular and frequent interference, as should never permit his crea tures to lose sight of their Creator. Why is the claim of the Deity upon our faith and reverence left to be discovered by a slow process of uncer tain effect, which a clearer manifestation of our relation towards him would have undeniably secured.
This question may be partly met^ by appealing
i: i. I
420 CONCLUSION.
to the Christian revelation. Natural theology, however, requires another answer : neither is the Christian revelation hitherto made universal ; and numerous generations passed away before it was made at all. * Let us consider the question on other grounds.
Undoubtedly the Deity, had he seen fit, might have devised modes of declaring himself, unknown to us at present. But it is easier for us to conceive the possibility of this, than to explain the precise manner which should have been consistent with his views respecting man kind. Interferences so regular or sensible, as constantly to enforce the dependence of man upon his Creator, must take place, it is obvious, either in the natural or the moral world. But
* With regard to this subject, Paley's remark is important : " The dispensation of Christianity may already be universal. That part of mankind which never heard of Christ's name, may nevertheless be redeemed, that is, be placed in a better condition, with respect to their future state, by his interven tion ; may be the objects of his benignity and intercession, as well as of the propitiatory virtue of his passion." Nat. Theol. 530.
CONCLUSION. 421
in the natural world, the Creator, with his power and wisdom, is already conspicuously displayed. We perceive it in harmony ; would we see it in disorder ? We feel it in mercy ; would we dread it in destruction ? For what, except perpetual habit, and consequent uncon cern, could prevent our acknowledging- divine omnipotence, not merely, " as the poor Indian/' in the winds and storms, but in every object which the natural world presents ? Any visible interposition of the Creator's power, be it re membered, must be either regular or partial ; if it is partial, it disturbs, it overturns the established constitution of things ; if it is regular, its effect is lost by frequency, and identified with what by general consent is termed the order of nature. This effect might be anticipated before hand ; and it is exemplified in the history of the Jews.
It will be confessed, I imagine, that these difficulties do not admit of obvious solution, and we shall be referred to the moral world, as
422 CONCLUSION.
a proper theatre for the constant superintend ence of God. For instance, by the present dispensation of affairs, we daily see those gifts of fortune which are thought most valuable, and which indisputably afford the most pro bable means of enjoyment, bestowed on those who deserve them little, and employ them worse ; we see offered gratuitously to men of careless or vicious dispositions a more flattering prospect of worldly prosperity, than industry can secure to the most laborious, or goodness to the most virtuous of men. To correct this injustice of fortune, why does not Providence interpose ? why does not God display his om niscience by rewarding conspicuous merit, and visiting notorious vice by immediate chastise ment ? Suppose it granted, that, upon a wide and general view of things, it appears to be the natural effect of virtue to exalt, and of vice to depress the individual character in the estima tion of society ; and that the Supreme Disposer has thus afforded to a careful observer an evi dence of his aversion to vice, and preference of
CONCLUSION.
virtue ; * yet why does lie suffer so many ex ceptions to arise, that the part he takes is not immediately discernible ? why not visibly inter fere, to obviate those contradictions of his general plan which embarrass and perplex man kind ?
Now, it is plain that this imaginary scheme would not be so far complete, as to be reconcile- able even with human notions of strict justice, unless it extended universally from the highest to the lowest degrees of vice and virtue. If otherwise, since we find every different shade of each among mankind, how slight must the dis tinction be between the last that is visited, and the first that is overlooked ! How impossible to decide, where the rewarding angel shall stop, or the minister of death begin !
It is perhaps just conceivable, that a few extreme cases might be punished or rewarded,
* This may be considered as decisively established by Butler's chapter on the Moral Government of God, Anal, part i. ch. iii.
424 CONCLUSION.
without a total subversion of the present order of thing's. But this would establish the exist ence of God at the expense of the justice which it was intended to display. For, what justice would there be in rewarding- the small portion who had attained the highest rank of virtue, if the larger number were neglected, who were left, at different intervals, a short degree be hind ? Or if notorious vice were suddenly and visibly followed by disease, or pain, or death ; the dispensation would be no less imperfect, unless the degrees of punishment were made as various as those of guilt.
An immediate distribution, then, of rewards and punishments, could not be just, if it were not exact and universal ; but if it were exact and universal, it would be inconsistent with the purpose of our existence in this world as a state of preparation. If you interfere with re spect to a few, you add injustice to inequality ; if with respect to all, you raise divine justice on the ruins of human liberty and accountable agency, which requires the free exercise of
CONCLUSION. 425
reason ; while the free exercise of reason sup poses a motive sufficient to sway, but insufficient to constrain.
It does not need much argument to prove, that a course of virtuous conduct, preserving- its even tenour, as the present state of the world frequently demands, in spite of all hinderance from temporary obstacles, and con forming to what is believed to be the will of God, against pressing motives of immediate interest, really constitutes a character far supe rior in meritorious worth to one whose habits have been formed under a prospect of direct reward, or disciplined by the fear of immedi ately impending evil. If the thing required were merely the performance of a particular action or set of actions, to bring about a certain event ; then it is true, that the motive on which they were done would be a point of subordinate importance. But if the object is the trial and formation of moral character, as in the case of man's probationary state ; then the liohit, and not the action, becomes the prin-
4*2(3 CONCLUSION.
cipal concern : and under this view of the sub ject, he will not have looked far, or wisely, into human nature, who shall conclude that any advantage would be gained by overturning what experience shows to be the usual course of God's moral government, and substituting immediate retribution.
It is not asserted, that there would be no room for merit or demerit in human actions, if the divine superintendence were more sensibly exercised in this world. No motives exterior to the being on which they work, can render an agent absolutely passive. But they make him approach nearer to it, in proportion as they render his passions, rather than his reason, the motive to influence his election. For exam ple : the object of human legislation being mainly the prevention of crimes, it becomes comparatively of little consequence by what motive men are deterred from committing them. It is, therefore, the wish of the legis lator that the punishment should follow the offence, if possible, not only certainly, but
CONCLUSION. 4i27
speedily and visibly, because it is known to be then most effectual. Yet still, under the most arbitrary governments, or best administered police, it is impossible so strictly to watch the conduct of individuals as to hinder their being-, in the proper as well as literal meaning- of the phrase, free agents : whether they abstain from crime through fear of the penalty, or com mit it in the hope of eluding discovery. Reason has full opportunity to balance the contending motives, and decide between them. But if the officer and executioner were immediately pre sent, the one ready to consign the offender to the punishment which the other is equally at hand to inflict, the crime would certainly be prevented ; but such innocence could not be termed virtue, or the man a free agent, though the use of his limbs was not absolutely re strained. So, if the divine interference de scended immediately upon good or evil actions, little room would be left for moral probation. Under the present constitution of things, the conclusions of reason, the dictates of con-
428 CONCLUSION.
science, the prospect of future reward, of which the imperfection of earthly retribution affords one very ample testimony, propose a rational motive for the performance of virtue, and the rejection of illegal gratifications ; and a com pliance with these motives, in conformity to the supposed will of God, unites the virtue of faith to that of morality. But if a course of virtuous conduct were made the certain road to temporal prosperity ; or if it were as much the natural order of things for lightning to strike the guilty head, as for thunder to follow light ning, the springs of action would be deranged j the exercise of faith would be precluded j ser vile fear alone would deter from vice, and sel fish expectation become the leading motive to virtue. Even though there is some truth in the observation, that all virtue and vice is, ultimately, a balance of advantages, and that interest, more or less distant, is at the bottom of all our determinations ; yet no one can deny, that reason is more soundly and nobly exer cised in weighing future against present retri-
CONCLUSION. 429
bution, than if her determination were influ enced by the fear of immediate evil, or the certainty of temporal reward.
Should any one object, that the Hebrews, who are represented as a nation peculiarly favoured, were placed under the dispensations of temporal rewards and punishments, the cir cumstances of their history will explain this exception. The Hebrews were selected from the general mass of mankind, for the particular purpose of preserving- the doctrine of the unity and the records of the creation, till the wider promulgation of these and other important truths by the Messiah. Now, it is very evi dent, from what we know of the rebellious spirit of that people, and from the temptations and examples of idolatry with which they were surrounded, that the comparatively remote sanctions of a future state of retribution would not have sufficed to keep up that allegiance which the office intrusted to them required ; since such were the difficulties to which their faith was exposed, that their allegiance was
430 CONCLUSION.
scarcely maintained even by the immediate punishment inflicted upon their disobedience ; and the knowledge of a Creator and moral Governor was not less preserved by his visita tions of their offences, than by their observance of his laws. In proportion as the state of civil ization is low, and the moral habits are de praved, both severity and quick execution of punishment become necessary.* Both may be observed in the Jewish code ; the latter, in the extraordinary providence which super intended them, which avenged heinous wick-
* "The spirit and behaviour of the Israelites in the wilder ness is a very remarkable instance of the wretched effects of servitude upon the human soul. They had been slaves to the Egyptians about 140 years : their spirits were debased, their judgments weak, their sense of God and religion very low : their taste so mean and so illiberal, that the plenty of Egypt weighed more with them than all the divine assurances and demonstrations, that they should be raised to the noblest privileges, the highest honours and felicity, as a peculiar treasure to God, above all people in the world. Therefore the wisdom of God determined that they should not attempt to take possession of the promised land, till the generation of slaves, viz. all above twenty years of age, were dead and buried." — Taylor's Scheme of Divinity, Ess. ii. 7.
CONCLUSION. 431
edness on some occasions, and, on others, corrected the remissness of the civil magis trate:* the former, in the continuation of the punishment to the posterity of the offender ; " which the instinctive fondness of parents to their offspring" would make terrible even to those who had hardened themselves into an in sensibility of personal punishment."-|- This peculiar case, therefore, confirms the distinc tion I have drawn, between the performance of a prescribed action, and the exaltation of a moral character. In the single exception of the Hebrews, their accomplishment of the ob ject to which their nation was destined, was of importance paramount to their attainment of that higher tone of virtue which results from the pious exercise of the reasoning powers; and on this account, their religion was enforced by those temporal sanctions which were suited to the degree of mental civilization in that early age ; and more surely efficacious in stemming
* Deut. xxvii. 16. Prov. \\\. ] W;trl>urton's Div. Leg. v. 5
, .
CONCLUSION.
the torrent of corruption which flowed on every side of their narrow territory.*
II. The objections, however, which are founded on the want of a visible interference on the part of the Creator, to acquaint mankind with their duty, would be far more reasonable, if no records remained of his ever having inter fered at all. It has been shown that frequent interpositions would be subversive of man's highest and most rational probation, and there fore inconsistent with God's designs respecting him. But an interposition may be made once, and among a peculiar people, and in a single age, without either blunting the feelings of the bulk of mankind, or destroying the freedom of their moral energies j nay, it may even
* Mahomet succeeded in impressing the doctrine of a future life upon a very low degree of civilization. But the rewards and punishments promised by the Koran, are repre sented under images well adapted both to the dispositions and understandings of the people to whom it was addressed. It presupposes a state of some advancement, to look for re wards such as " neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor it " lias entered into the heart of man to conceive.''
CONCLUSION. ],).i
heighten, in a great degree, the perfection and purity of their moral trial. Such an interpo sition, recorded by the unexceptionable testi mony of those who first witnessed it, becomes, in effect, an interposition to all future ages : but then it is an interposition addressed to the reason, and not to the senses of mankind.* It has been remarked, with no friendly feelings towards Revelation, that circumstances, origi nally doubtful, become no more certain at last, though they have been long remembered : but the converse of the proposition must be equally admitted, that what was true two or three thou sand years ago, loses none of its authenticity
* " The dispensation among the Jews, like a piece of leaven which leaveneth the whole mass, was intended tor the benefit of all mankind : as by this means they became ex amples and instructors, while they remained in their own country, to all their neighbours ; and when in captivity or dispersion, as they carried with them the knowledge of God into the countries where they were dispersed, till the nations should, by this and other means of improvement, be prepared to receive the clearer revelation of the true God, and nt' eternal life, by the Messiah." — Taylor's Scheme of Divinity, Ess, xxvii.
VOL. II. l I
434 CONCLUSION.
by time. The existence of a superintending Creator, which was evident to the Jews, when, on the certainty of that fact, supported, as it was, by a series of fresh miracles, they esta blished their civil and religious polity, is ren dered no less certain to us by the uninterrupted annals of their history. The miraculous proof of Jesus's divine commission, which was sensibly evident to Peter and the other apostolical mar tyrs, is morally evident to us, and will continue so till it is disproved that they voluntarily sub jected themselves to oppression and death, in belief and attestation of the fact.
In truth, the mode of displaying himself which the Author of the universe has chosen, while it is free from the objections which would attend the placing all mankind under a visible theocracy, affords an unexceptionable oppor tunity of probation, adapted to exercise the highest faculties of a reasonable being. The divine plan, as far as we are able to trace it, exhibits a design of giving our faculties this exertion, and of making belief not a necessary
CONCLUSION.
assent of the mind, but, in a certain sense, a moral virtue. Throughout the sacred writings there is a remarkable absence of all endeavour to avoid, or meet, or satisfy objections. And that a sceptical mind, determined to reject what it cannot reduce to a pre-conceived standard of probability, may find, both in the Jewish and Christian revelations, things inscrutable to its limited powers, it would be either inconsiderate or hypocritical to deny. Free inquirers say, that they should expect the very contrary. I should expect the contrary, in an imposture ; or at least an attempt to obviate such objections : but if I find them in what indubitable evidence forces me to receive as revelation, then it be comes my business to inquire, whether no end could be proposed or answered by leaving things as they are.
Suppose, then, that the facts which Reve lation has declared respecting the creation and final destination of man were rendered as sen sibly clear to us as his existence or dissolution, a principal opportunity of making out their
F F 2
43C CONCLUSION.
probation and displaying their moral faculties would be taken away from half the civilized world. From the constitution of things, there must always be a large proportion of persons whom want of education or leisure incapacitates from inquiring into the grounds and evidence of their faith. The same may be observed of many in a higher class, whom youth and igno rance make too careless to doubt, and pleasure too giddy to inquire. These of necessity must be instructed in their faith from the conviction of others : and to act in conformity with the religious belief they thus adopt, is to them a sufficient trial. But there is still another class, not inconsiderable in number, whose rational desires are satisfied by enjoyment, and whom refinement of taste, absence of passion, love of personal character, or the noble resources of a cultivated understanding, withdraw from all temptation to irregular indulgences. Their probation is that of the mind ; which is re quired to subdue its pride and discard its pre judices, and with candour and simplicity to examine Revelation, and hold an impartial
CONCLUSION. 487
balance between moral evidence and specu lative objections.* For, as to the testimony on which it is to be received, Revelation has, from its first promulgation, appealed to human reason ; and only after that evidence is acknow ledged, refuses reason as a judge of its con sistency with the nature and supposed inten tions- of its Author. In points where human experience can afford no clue of direction, there Revelation requires submission to supe rior wisdom.
For example : the plurality of worlds has sometimes been employed as an argument against the truth of Christianity. Philosophy, it is urged, assures us how inconsiderable a speck in an immense system is formed by our globe : how then could it be esteemed so im portant as to give birth' to the plan of redemp tion ? how can we imagine that a design so profound would be limited to so insignificant a portion of an immeasurable whole ? This ob-
• Srt (Sutler, Anal. |>. ii. rh. \ i
438 CONCLUSION.
jection, and those of a similar nature as to the partial diffusion of Christianity, presume that man has a claim upon his Creator not only for what knowledge concerns his own personal con duct or interest, but for the development of all the mysteries of his counsels. This, therefore, though not the most rational objection to the Christian revelation, may serve to instance a very common species of error, which arises from an assumed notion, that a revelation in tended for our rule of life would be liable to no objections at all, but by the clearness of its evidence would enforce a belief almost as natural and intuitive, as we feel of our own existence.
If, however, we admit, that mental obedi ence is a very important mode of probation ; and that a moral habit of mind, well regulated to submission, is as requisite to the reception of certain truths, as to the observance of cer tain duties ; then we have not only the antece dent probability so ably set forth by Butler, that objections would appear against a scheme
CONCLUSION. 4-39
so partially disclosed to us as that of Revela tion ; but we also understand, that there seem wise reasons why God has not thought fit to give mankind either demonstrative or sensitive proofs of its truth, but such moral evidence alone as should constitute a sort of mental pro bation. To examine the antecedent probabi lity and the positive evidence which unite to establish Revelation, is the province of reason : but when the strength of this various testi mony appears, as surely it must appear, indis putable and incontrovertible, all irrelevant or intrusive inquiry must be regulated, if not sus pended ; and it becomes the duty of reason, with more of devout admiration, than of curi ous research, to submit to that superior wis dom which is implied in the creation of the world, and displayed in its intelligible pheno mena. To reject Revelation unexamined, or examined cursorily, is contumacy : to admit into the examination prejudice, or self-con ceived opinions, is pride. The true and prac tical morality of the mind consists in avoiding these errors : a virtue no less probationary, no
440 CONCLUSION.
less difficult perhaps to some men, in whom error has taken early root, than a correspond ence of their actions to their belief is found by others. The evidence of Revelation being that concerning- which w& are called upon to decide, is founded on what our experience en ables us to judge of; namely, on the nature of man, and on the excellence of the precepts which are enjoined as the rule of life : the objections, on the contrary, are founded on what is con fessedly beyond our experience ; namely, the counsels of God, their object, and final ex tent, and the best means of accomplishing them. Is it not then as inconsistent with rea son as it is with virtue, to permit a part of the subject which by the nature of thing-s is un fathomable to our faculties, to interfere with our conviction of what we can, and do under stand ? Can there be any thing venial in a scep ticism of which religion is the subject, which would be deemed contemptible in the unim portant inquiries of philosophy ?
If there is any justice in these observations,
CONCLUSION. 141
the practical question with which I set out is answered in the affirmative ; and there is a duty incumbent on mankind from the facts disclosed by natural religion and confirmed by Revela tion, which they are responsible for discharg ing- faithfully. Nor is it usual to find the main facts respecting the existence or attributes of a Creator and moral Governor of the world, soberly and seriously questioned. Trifling ob jections, however, and petty difficulties, if they recur to our frequent observation, like drops of water, supply by their frequency what they want in actual force, and have a tendency to undermine the solidity of conclusions which have even been once most securely built and firmly rested. The evils of natural and civil life are of this kind ; and are sufficiently various and evident to obtrude constantly upon our view It is for this reason that I have en deavoured to place them in their real light, by pointing out the important operations they effect ; and to reduce them to their just size, by showing the mitigations which accom pany them ; though 1 am well aware how much
442 CONCLUSION.
more striking a case might be proposed by a statement of the instances in which the divine benevolence is displayed, than by a review of the exceptions by which it seems to be opposed. That there are such exceptions, is a part of that evil which is blended with the whole sys tem, for reasons thus far discoverable to our selves, that we see they are connected with the probationary situation of man.
In this respect every thing is consistent. There is much excellence in the world, but no perfection. Human virtue may be carried far, but it can never proceed beyond the reach of danger : and it makes no progress at all, with out encountering difficulties and overcoming obstacles which stand on every side in the way of duty. Human happiness, again, has many pure and permanent sources : but a thousand circumstances interfere to prevent its being reckoned upon as certain, or enjoyed as per fect.* Human knowledge, too, is kept within
* " As God has given some certain knowledge, though limited to a lew things in comparison ; probably as a taste of
CONCLUSION.
1 !•:*
very narrow limits by the small number of subjects in which any individual can be pro foundly versed, and the comparatively few ac quirements which memory can retain. Yet we all instinctively aim at happiness ; and the ultimate imperfection of knowledge and virtue has never been considered as excusing us from making that progress in both, of which our fa culties admit, and our circumstances allow.
It need not then be thought surprising that the same narrow horizon which limits our view in all our concernments on earth, should con fine our prospect when it is directed towards heaven. If we search for the attributes of the Creator by the light which the natural world affords, we see the rays of goodness and justice emerging from his throne, though their lustre
what intellectual creatures are capable, to excite in us a de sire and endeavour after a better state : as in the greatest part of our concernment, he has afforded us only the twilight of probability here : the sense of this may be a constant admonition to us to spend the days of this our pilgrimage with industry and care, in the search and following of the way which might lead us to a state of greater perfection." — Locke on Understanding, b. iv. c. 14.
444 CONCLUSION.
is partially obscured by clouds and darkness. In proceeding from natural religion to Revela tion, we find enough to assure us of its cer tainty, but too little to satisfy our curiosity : we see but a part of the scheme in which we are included, its final object being enveloped in mystery. But this imperfection, instead of giving birth to sceptical murmurs, may be im proved to a beneficial purpose, if it has its in tended effect of reminding us, that the state we are now passing through is initiatory, not final ; is a trial, a warfare, a pilgrimage ; but that we must look upward, to an eternal habi tation, for that unclouded light which may be one of the purest rewards of constant and victo rious virtue.
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