then sets it at defiance, and by so doing spreads obnoxious doctrine ́ far more rapidly than it would have diffused itself had it been left un. molested. In proportion to the inefficacy of restraints on the publication of opinions, the objections which we have brought against them would, of course, be weakened or removed. If they did not succeed in their object, they would be no impediment to the progress of truth; but although they should be ultimately ineffectual, they would still beget positive evils by disturbing the natural course of improvement. In a country or community where no such restraints existed, it is obvious that no changes of opinion could well be sudden. Truth, at the best, makes but slow advances. Its light is at first confined to men of high station, learning, and abilities, and gradually spreads down to the other classes of society. The reluctance of the human mind to receive ideas contrary to its usual habits of thinking would be a sufficient security from violent transitions, did we not already possess another in the slowness with which the understanding makes its discoveries. Arguments by which prescriptive error is overturned, however plain and forcible they may be, are found out with difficulty, and, in the first instance, can be entered into only by enlarged and liberal minds, by whom they are afterwards familiarized and disseminated to others. Now all restraints on the free examination of any subject are an interference with the natural and regular process here described, and produce mischievous irregularities. The gradual progress of opinion cannot be stopped, but it is interrupted. We no longer find it so insensibly progressive that we can hardly mark the change but by comparing two distinct periods. Under a system of restraint and coercion, we see apparently sudden revolutions in public sentiment. Opinions are cherished and fed in the secrecy of fear, till the ardour with which they are entertained can no longer be repressed, and bursts forth in outrage and disorder. The passions become exasperated; the natural sense of injustice, which men will deeply feel as long as the world lasts, at the proscription or persecution of opinions, is roused into action, and a zeal is kindled for the propagation of doctrines, endeared to the heart by obloquy and suffering. Such ebullitions are to be feared only where the natural operation of inquiry has been obstructed. As in the physical, so in the moral world, it is repression which produces violence. Public opinion resembles the vapour, which in the open air is as harmless as the breeze, but which may be compressed into an element of tremendous power. When novel doctrines are kept down by force, they naturally resort to force to free themselves from restraints. Their advocates would seldom pursue violent measures, if such measures had not first been directed against them. What partly contributes to this violence is the effect produced by restraint on the moral qualities of men's minds. Compulsory silence, the necessity of confining to his own breast ardently cherished opinions, can never have a good influence on the character of any one. It has a tendency to make men morose and hypocritical, discontented and designing, and ready to risk much in order to rid themselves of their trammels; while the liberty of uttering opinions, without obloquy and punishment, promotes satisfaction of mind and sincerity of conduct. Bailey's Essays. 526. Titles and Nobility. The princes of Europe have found out a manner of rewarding their subjects, by presenting them with about two yards of blue ribbon, which is worn about the shoulder. They who are honored with this mark of distinction are called knights, and the king himself is always the head of the order. Should a nobleman happen to lose his leg in battle, the king presents him with two yards of ribbon, and he is paid for the loss of his limb. Should an ambassador spend all his paternal fortune in supporting the honor of his country abroad, the king presents him with two yards of ribbon, which is to be considered as equivalent to his estate. In short, while an European king has a yard of blue or green ribbon left, he need be under no apprehension of wanting statesmen, generals, and soldiers. 527. Gaming. Goldsmith's Citizen of the World. Constrained to quit his ancient lordly seat, And hide his glories in a mean retreat? Why that drawn sword? and whence that dismal cry? See my lord threaten, and my lady weep, And trembling servants from the tempest creep, Why that gay son to distant regions sent? What fiends that daughter's destined match prevent? O nothing, but last night-my lady play'd.-Young. 528. Exclusive Attention to one Subject.-A curious instance of the effect of an exclusive attention to one subject, appears in the reply of the Abbe D'Angeau. The study of grammar was his favourite pursuit. One day a person was expressing his fears that a great revolution was about to take place in public affairs. That may be," said the Abbe, "but let what will happen, I am extremely rejoiced that I have in my portfolio six-and-thirty conjugations perfectly completed. Reproof of Brutus. 529 A reserved man is in continual conflict with the social part of his nature, and even grudges himself the laugh into which he is sometimes betrayed.-Shenstone. 530. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.-Lady Gethin. That 531. Progress of Literature and Science.-Literature and science we have already adverted to. A progress in these must be accompanied by progressive changes in our social and political institutions. they have not arrived at perfection, the slightest glance at the misery around us is all that is requisite to prove. The supposition that they will not be subject to changes would imply, either that while other kinds of knowledge were daily advancing, the science of social happiness was as complete as the nature of the subject allowed, and therefore susceptible of no improvement; or that the happiness of communities admitted of no addition, their misery of no diminution, from the most thorough insight into the various causes which produced them. The history of every country proves that a knowledge of these causes is one of the most difficult of acquisitions; that on no subject is man more easily deluded, less capable of extensive views, guilty of grosser mistakes, and yet more inveterately pertinacious in thinking himself infallible. Nor is there any subject on which the correction of an apparently small error has teemed with such important benefits to the world.-Essays on the Pursuit of Truth. 532. Bodily Imperfections and Mental Graces.-We often see blemished bodies rare in mental excellences; which is an admirable instinct of Nature, that being conscious of her own defects, and not able to absterge them, she uses diversion, and draws the consideration of the beholders to those parts wherein she is more confident of her qualifications. For converse among men, beautiful persons have less need of the mind's commending qualities. Beauty in itself is such a silent orator, that it is ever pleading for respect and liking; and by the eyes of others is ever sending to their hearts for love. Yet even this hath this inconvenience in it, that it makes its possessor neglect the furnishing of the mind with nobleness. Nay, it oftentimes is a cause that the mind is ill. Unlovely features have more liberty to be good withal, because they are freer from solicitations. There is a kind of continual combat between virtue and proportion's pleasingness. Though it be not a curse, yet it is many times an unhappiness to be fair.-Feltham. 533. Loquacity.-Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice : his reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search. Shakspeare. 534. Pleasures of the Imagination. — As we ought not to make the gratification of our external senses the main end of life, so neither ought we to indulge our taste for the more refined pleasures, those called the pleasures of imagination, without some bounds. The cultivation of a taste for propriety, beauty, and sublimity, in objects natural or artificial, particularly for the pleasures of music, painting, and poetry, is very proper in younger life; as it serves to draw off the attention from gross animal gratifications, and to bring us a step farther into intellectual life; so as to lay a foundation for. higher attainments. But if we stop here and devote our whole time and all our faculties to these objects, we shall certainly fall short of the proper end of life. Priestley. 535. Refinement of Taste.-With respect to many persons, a great refinement of taste is attended with the same inconveniences as an addictedness to sensual pleasure; for it is apt to lead them into many expences, and make them despise plain honest industry; whereby they are frequently brought into a state of poverty, surrounded with a thousand artificial wants, and without the means of gratifying them. Ibid. 536. Antipathies.-What an unaccountable medley of strength and weakness is man! Lord Bacon, it is said, fell back inanimate at the occurrence of an eclipse. The astute and erudite Erasmus was alarmed at the sight of an apple. Bayle, the great lexicographer, swooned at the noise made by some water as it escaped, drop by drop, from a rock. Henry of France, the third of that name, though he had driven his enemies before him at Jarnac, trembled, from head to foot, at the sight of a cat. When a hare crossed the celebrated Duke d'Epernon's path, his blood stagnated in his veins. The masculine-minded Mary of Medicis fainted away whenever a nosegay was in sight. A shudder overcame the learned Scaliger on perceiving cresses. Ivan the Second, Czar of Muscovy, would faint away on seeing a woman: and Albert, a brave Field Marshal of France, fell insensible to the ground on discovering a sucking pig served up at his own table? 537. Armies have overturned the liberties of most countries, and all who are well affected to liberty have hated them. They are subject to an explicit obedience to their officers, and to laws of their own. They are so many lusty men taken from work, and maintained at an extravagant expense, upon the labour of the rest. They are many ways burthensome to the people in their quarters, even under the best discipline, especially in dear countries. They are a cause of undue influence in the hands of designing ministers.-Dr J. Arbuthnot. 538. Affections.—It appears unaccountable that our teachers generally have directed their instructions to the head, with very little attention to the heart. From Aristotle down to Locke, books without number have been composed for cultivating and improving the understanding: but few, in proportion, for cultivating and improving the affections.-Lord Kaimes. 539. Genius.—The only difference between a genius and one of common capacity, is, that the former anticipates and explores what the latter accidentally hits upon. But even the man of genius himself more frequently employs the advantages that chance presents to him. It is the lapidary that gives value to the diamond, which the peasant has dug up, without knowing its worth.—Abbe Raynal. 540. Ignorance of Citizens.-In cities, people are brought up in total ignorance of, and blameable indifference for, country affairs; they can scarce distinguish flax from hemp, wheat from rye, and neither of them from barley: eating, drinking, and dressing, are their qualifications; pastures, copses, after-grass, inning harvest, are gothic words there. If to some of them you talk of weights, scales, measures, interest, and books of rates; to others of appeals, petitions, decrees, and injunctions, they will prick up their ears. They pretend to know the world, and, though it is more safe and commendable, are ignorant of nature, her beginnings, growths, gifts, and bounties. This ignorance is often voluntary, and founded on the conceit they have of their own callings and professions: there is not a pettifogger, who, in his own sooty study, with his noddle full of wicked quibbles and destructive chicane, does not prefer himself to the valuable husbandman, who praises God, cultivates the earth, sows in season, and gathers his rich harvest; and if at any time the rich hears talk of the first men, or the patriarchs, of their rural lives, their order and security, he wonders how there could be any living without attorneys, counsellors, judges, and solicitors; whilst those of another cast think they must be queer mortals without billiards, operas, cards, balls, coffee houses, and ordinaries.-Bruyere. 541. Drunkenness.-A certain people among the Ancient Greeks (the Locrians I think) punished with double rigour any crime committed in liquor first and principally for getting drunk, and secondly for the crime committed: for certainly he who eradicates his reason deliberately, as drunkards do, is much more guilty of what is committed for want of that reason, destroyed by his own fault, than he whose reason is overcome by any accidental attack of passion.—Anon. 542. Virtue is the only nobility.-Seneca. |