by John Ruskin
CHAPTER V.
GOVERNMENT.
106. It remains for us, as I stated in the close of the last chapter, toexamine first the principles of government in general, and then those ofthe government of the Poor by the Rich.
The government of a state consists in its customs, laws, and councils,and their enforcements.
I. CUSTOMS.
As one person primarily differs from another by fineness of nature, and,secondarily, by fineness of training, so also, a polite nation differsfrom a savage one, first, by the refinement of its nature, and secondlyby the delicacy of its customs.
In the completeness of custom, which is the nation's self-government,there are three stages--first, fineness in method of doing or ofbeing;--called the manner or moral of acts; secondly, firmness inholding such method after adoption, so that it shall become a habit inthe character: _i. e._, a constant "having" or "behaving;" and, lastly,ethical power in performance and endurance, which is the skill followingon habit, and the ease reached by frequency of right doing.
The sensibility of the nation is indicated by the fineness of itscustoms; its courage, continence, and self-respect by its persistence inthem.
By sensibility I mean its natural perception of beauty, fitness, andrightness; or of what is lovely, decent, and just: faculties dependentmuch on race, and the primal signs of fine breeding in man; butcultivable also by education, and necessarily perishing without it. Trueeducation has, indeed, no other function than the development of thesefaculties, and of the relative will. It has been the great error ofmodern intelligence to mistake science for education. You do not educatea man by telling him what he knew not, but by making him what he wasnot.
And making him what he will remain for ever: for no wash of weeds willbring back the faded purple. And in that dyeing there are twoprocesses--first, the cleansing and wringing-out, which is the baptismwith water; and then the infusing of the blue and scarlet colours,gentleness and justice, which is the baptism with fire.
107.[54] The customs and manners of a sensitive and highly-trained raceare always Vital: that is to say, they are orderly manifestations ofintense life, like the habitual action of the fingers of a musician. Thecustoms and manners of a vile and rude race, on the contrary, areconditions of decay: they are not, properly speaking, habits, butincrustations; not restraints, or forms, of life; but gangrenes,noisome, and the beginnings of death.
And generally, so far as custom attaches itself to indolence instead ofaction, and to prejudice instead of perception, it takes this deadlycharacter, so that thus
Custom hangs upon us with a weight Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.
But that weight, if it become impetus, (living instead of dead weight)is just what gives value to custom, when it works _with_ life, insteadof against it.
108. The high ethical training of a nation implies perfect Grace,Pitifulness, and Peace; it is irreconcilably inconsistent with filthy ormechanical employments,--with the desire of money,--and with mentalstates of anxiety, jealousy, or indifference to pain. The presentinsensibility of the upper classes of Europe to the surrounding aspectsof suffering, uncleanness, and crime, binds them not only into oneresponsibility with the sin, but into one dishonour with the foulness,which rot at their thresholds. The crimes daily recorded in thepolice-courts of London and Paris (and much more those which are_un_recorded) are a disgrace to the whole body politic;[55] they are, asin the body natural, stains of disease on a face of delicate skin,making the delicacy itself frightful. Similarly, the filth and povertypermitted or ignored in the midst of us are as dishonourable to thewhole social body, as in the body natural it is to wash the face, butleave the hands and feet foul. Christ's way is the only true one: beginat the feet; the face will take care of itself.
109. Yet, since necessarily, in the frame of a nation, nothing but thehead can be of gold, and the feet, for the work they have to do, must bepart of iron, part of clay;--foul or mechanical work is always reducedby a noble race to the minimum in quantity; and, even then, performedand endured, not without sense of degradation, as a fine temper iswounded by the sight of the lower offices of the body. The highestconditions of human society reached hitherto have cast such work toslaves; but supposing slavery of a politically defined kind to be doneaway with, mechanical and foul employment must, in all highly organizedstates, take the aspect either of punishment or probation. All criminalsshould at once be set to the most dangerous and painful forms of it,especially to work in mines and at furnaces,[56] so as to relieve theinnocent population as far as possible: of merely rough (not mechanical)manual labour, especially agricultural, _a large portion should be doneby the upper classes_;--_bodily health, and sufficient contrast andrepose for the mental functions, being unattainable without it_; whatnecessarily inferior labour remains to be done, as especially inmanufactures, should, and always will, when the relations of society arereverent and harmonious, fall to the lot of those who, for the time, arefit for nothing better. For as, whatever the perfectness of theeducational system, there must remain infinite differences between thenatures and capacities of men; and these differing natures are generallyrangeable under the two qualities of lordly, (or tending towards rule,construction, and harmony), and servile (or tending towards misrule,destruction, and discord); and since the lordly part is only in a stateof profitableness while ruling, and the servile only in a state ofredeemableness while serving, the whole health of the state depends onthe manifest separation of these two elements of its mind; for, if theservile part be not separated and rendered visible in service, it mixeswith, and corrupts, the entire body of the state; and if the lordly partbe not distinguished, and set to rule, it is crushed and lost, beingturned to no account, so that the rarest qualities of the nation are allgiven to it in vain.[57]
II. LAWS.
110. These are the definitions and bonds of custom, or of what thenation desires should become custom.
Law is either archic,[58] (of direction), meristic, (of division), orcritic, (of judgment).
Archic law is that of appointment and precept: it defines what is and isnot to be _done_.
Meristic law is that of balance and distribution: it defines what is andis not to be _possessed_.
Critic law is that of discernment and award: it defines what is and isnot to be _suffered_.
111. A. ARCHIC LAW. If we choose to unite the laws of precept anddistribution under the head of "statutes," all law is simply either ofstatute or judgment; that is, first the establishment of ordinance, and,secondly, the assignment of the reward, or penalty, due to itsobservance or violation.
To some extent these two forms of law must be associated, and, withevery ordinance, the penalty of disobedience to it be also determined.But since the degrees and guilt of disobedience vary, the determinationof due reward and punishment must be modified by discernment of specialfact, which is peculiarly the office of the judge, as distinguished fromthat of the lawgiver and law-sustainer, or king; not but that the twooffices are always theoretically, and in early stages, or limitednumbers, of society, are often practically, united in the same person orpersons.
112. Also, it is necessary to keep clearly in view the distinctionbetween these two kinds of law, because the possible range of law iswider in proportion to their separation. There are many points ofconduct respecting which the nation may wisely express its will by awritten precept or resolve, yet not enforce it by penalty:[59] and theexpedient degree of penalty is always quite a separate considerationfrom the expedience of the statute; for the statute may often be betterenforced by mercy than severity, and is also easier in the bearing, andless likely to be abrogated. Farther, laws of precept have referenceespecially to youth, and concern themselves with training; but laws ofjudgment to manhood, and concern themselves with remedy and reward.There is a highly curious feeling in the English mind againsteducational law: we think no man's liberty should be interfered withtill he has done irrevocable wrong; whereas it is then just too late forthe only gracious and
kingly interference, which is to hinder him fromdoing it. Make your educational laws strict, and your criminal ones maybe gentle; but, leave youth its liberty and you will have to digdungeons for age. And it is good for a man that he "wear the yoke in hisyouth:" for the reins may then be of silken thread; and with sweet chimeof silver bells at the bridle; but, for the captivity of age, you mustforge the iron fetter, and cast the passing bell.
113. Since no law can be, in a final or true sense, established, but byright, (all unjust laws involving the ultimate necessity of their ownabrogation), the law-giving can only become a law-sustaining power in sofar as it is Royal, or "right doing;"--in so far, that is, as it rules,not misrules, and orders, not dis-orders, the things submitted to it.Throned on this rock of justice, the kingly power becomes establishedand establishing; "[Greek: theios]," or divine, and, therefore, it isliterally true that no ruler can err, so long as he is a ruler, or[Greek: archon oudeis amartanei tote hotan archon e]; perverted bycareless thought, which has cost the world somewhat, into--"the king cando no wrong."
114. B. MERISTIC LAW,[60] or that of the tenure of property, firstdetermines what every individual possesses by right, and secures it tohim; and what he possesses by wrong, and deprives him of it. But it hasa far higher provisory function: it determines what every man _should_possess, and puts it within his reach on due conditions; and what heshould _not_ possess, and puts this out of his reach, conclusively.
115. Every article of human wealth has certain conditions attached toits merited possession; when these are unobserved, possession becomesrapine. And the object of meristic law is not only to secure to everyman his rightful share (the share, that is, which he has worked for,produced, or received by gift from a rightful owner), but to enforce thedue conditions of possession, as far as law may conveniently reach; forinstance, that land shall not be wantonly allowed to run to waste, thatstreams shall not be poisoned by the persons through whose propertiesthey pass, nor air be rendered unwholesome beyond given limits. Laws ofthis kind exist already in rudimentary degree, but need largedevelopment; the just laws respecting the possession of works of arthave not hitherto been so much as conceived, and the daily loss ofnational wealth, and of its use, in this respect, is quite incalculable.And these laws need revision quite as much respecting property innational as in private hands. For instance: the public are under a vagueimpression that, because they have paid for the contents of the BritishMuseum, every one has an equal right to see and to handle them. But thepublic have similarly paid for the contents of Woolwich arsenal; yet donot expect free access to it, or handling of its contents. The BritishMuseum is neither a free circulating library, nor a free school: it is aplace for the safe preservation, and exhibition on due occasion, ofunique books, unique objects of natural history, and unique works ofart; its books can no more be used by everybody than its coins can behandled, or its statues cast. There ought to be free libraries in everyquarter of London, with large and complete reading-rooms attached; soalso free educational museums should be open in every quarter of London,all day long, until late at night, well lighted, well catalogued, andrich in contents both of art and natural history. But neither theBritish Museum nor National Gallery is a school; they are _treasuries_;and both should be severely restricted in access and in use. Unless someorder of this kind is made, and that soon, for the MSS. department ofthe Museum, (its superintendents have sorrowfully told me this, andrepeatedly), the best MSS. in the collection will be destroyed,irretrievably, by the careless and continual handling to which they arenow subjected.
Finally, in certain conditions of a nation's progress, laws limitingaccumulation of any kind of property may be found expedient.
116. C. CRITIC LAW determines questions of injury, and assigns duerewards and punishments to conduct.
Two curious economical questions arise laterally with respect to thisbranch of law, namely, the cost of crime, and the cost of judgment. Thecost of crime is endured by nations ignorantly, that expense beingnowhere stated in their budgets; the cost of judgment, patiently,(provided only it can be had pure for the money), because the science,or perhaps we ought rather to say the art, of law, is felt to found anoble profession and discipline; so that civilized nations are usuallyglad that a number of persons should be supported by exercise in oratoryand analysis. But it has not yet been calculated what the practicalvalue might have been, in other directions, of the intelligence nowoccupied in deciding, through courses of years, what might have beendecided as justly, had the date of judgment been fixed, in as manyhours. Imagine one half of the funds which any great nation devotes todispute by law, applied to the determination of physical questions inmedicine, agriculture, and theoretic science; and calculate the probableresults within the next ten years!
I say nothing yet of the more deadly, more lamentable loss, involved inthe use of purchased, instead of personal, justice--[Greek: "epakto parallon--aporia oikeion."]
117. In order to true analysis of critic law, we must understand thereal meaning of the word "injury."
We commonly understand by it, any kind of harm done by one man toanother; but we do not define the idea of harm: sometimes we limit it tothe harm which the sufferer is conscious of; whereas much the worstinjuries are those he is unconscious of; and, at other times, we limitthe idea to violence, or restraint; whereas much the worse forms ofinjury are to be accomplished by indolence, and the withdrawal ofrestraint.
118. "Injury" is then simply the refusal, or violation of, any man'sright or claim upon his fellows: which claim, much talked of in moderntimes, under the term "right," is mainly resolvable into two branches: aman's claim not to be hindered from doing what he should; and his claimto be hindered from doing what he should not; these two forms ofhindrance being intensified by reward, help, and fortune, or Fors, onone side, and by punishment, impediment, and even final arrest, or Mors,on the other.
119. Now, in order to a man's obtaining these two rights, it is clearlyneedful that the _worth_ of him should be approximately known; as wellas the _want_ of worth, which has, unhappily, been usually the principalsubject of study for critic law, careful hitherto only to mark degreesof de-merit, instead of merit;--assigning, indeed, to the _De_ficiencies(not always, alas! even to these) just estimate, fine, or penalty; butto the _Ef_ficiencies, on the other side, which are by much the moreinteresting, as well as the only profitable part of its subject,assigning neither estimate nor aid.
120. Now, it is in this higher and perfect function of critic law,_en_abling instead of _dis_abling, that it becomes truly Kingly, insteadof Draconic: (what Providence gave the great, wrathful legislator hisname?): that is, it becomes the law of man and of life, instead of thelaw of the worm and of death--both of these laws being set in changelesspoise one against another, and the enforcement of both being the eternalfunction of the lawgiver, and true claim of every living soul: suchclaim being indeed strong to be mercifully hindered, and even, if needbe, abolished, when longer existence means only deeper destruction, butstronger still to be mercifully helped, and recreated, when longerexistence and new creation mean nobler life. So that reward andpunishment will be found to resolve themselves mainly[61] into help andhindrance; and these again will issue naturally from time recognition ofdeserving, and the just reverence and just wrath which followinstinctively on such recognition.
121. I say, "follow," but, in reality, they are part of the recognition.Reverence is as instinctive as anger;--both of them instant on truevision: it is sight and understanding that we have to teach, and these_are_ reverence. Make a man perceive worth, and in its reflection hesees his own relative unworth, and worships thereupon inevitably, notwith stiff courtesy, but rejoicingly, passionately, and, best of all,_restfully_: for the inner capacity of awe and love is infinite in man,and only in finding these, can we find peace. And the common insolencesand petulances of the people, and their talk of equality, are notirreverence in them in the least, but mere blindness, stupefaction, andfog in the brains,[62] the first sign of any cleans
ing away of which is,that they gain some power of discerning, and some patience in submittingto, their true counsellors and governors. In the mode of suchdiscernment consists the real "constitution" of the state, more than inthe titles or offices of the discerned person; for it is no matter, savein degree of mischief, to what office a man is appointed, if he cannotfulfil it.
122. III. GOVERNMENT BY COUNCIL.
This is the determination, by living authority, of the national conductto be observed under existing circumstances; and the modification orenlargement, abrogation or enforcement, of the code of national lawaccording to present needs or purposes. This government is necessarilyalways by council, for though the authority of it may be vested in oneperson, that person cannot form any opinion on a matter of publicinterest but by (voluntarily or involuntarily) submitting himself to theinfluence of others.
This government is always twofold--visible and invisible.
The visible government is that which nominally carries on the nationalbusiness; determines its foreign relations, raises taxes, leviessoldiers, orders war or peace, and otherwise becomes the arbiter of thenational fortune. The invisible government is that exercised by allenergetic and intelligent men, each in his sphere, regulating the innerwill and secret ways of the people, essentially forming its character,and preparing its fate.
Visible governments are the toys of some nations, the diseases ofothers, the harness of some, the burdens of more the necessity of all.Sometimes their career is quite distinct from that of the people, and towrite it, as the national history, is as if one should number theaccidents which befall a man's weapons and wardrobe, and call the listhis biography. Nevertheless, a truly noble and wise nation necessarilyhas a noble and wise visible government, for its wisdom issues in thatconclusively.
123. Visible governments are, in their agencies, capable of three pureforms, and of no more than three.
They are either monarchies, where the authority is vested in one person;oligarchies, when it is vested in a minority; or democracies, whenvested in a majority.
But these three forms are not only, in practice, variously limited andcombined, but capable of infinite difference in character and use,receiving specific names according to their variations; which names,being nowise agreed upon, nor consistently used, either in thought orwriting, no man can at present tell, in speaking of any kind ofgovernment, whether he is understood; nor, in hearing, whether heunderstands. Thus we usually call a just government by one person amonarchy, and an unjust or cruel one, a tyranny: this might bereasonable if it had reference to the divinity of true government; butto limit the term "oligarchy" to government by a few rich people, and tocall government by a few wise or noble people "aristocracy," isevidently absurd, unless it were proved that rich people never could bewise, or noble people rich; and farther absurd, because there are otherdistinctions in character, as well as riches or wisdom (greater purityof race, or strength of purpose, for instance), which may give the powerof government to the few. So that if we had to give names to every groupor kind of minority, we should have verbiage enough. But there is onlyone right name--"oligarchy."
124. So also the terms "republic" and "democracy"[63] are confused,especially in modern use; and both of them are liable to every sort ofmisconception. A republic means, properly, a polity in which the state,with its all, is at every man's service, and every man, with his all, atthe state's service--(people are apt to lose sight of the lastcondition), but its government may nevertheless be oligarchic (consular,or decemviral, for instance), or monarchic (dictatorial). But ademocracy means a state in which the government rests directly with themajority of the citizens. And both these conditions have been judgedonly by such accidents and aspects of them as each of us has hadexperience of; and sometimes both have been confused with anarchy, as itis the fashion at present to talk of the "failure of republicaninstitutions in America," when there has never yet been in America anysuch thing as an institution, but only defiance of institution; neitherany such thing as a _res-publica_, but only a multitudinous_res-privata_; every man for himself. It is not republicanism whichfails now in America; it is your model science of political economy,brought to its perfect practice. There you may see competition, and the"law of demand and supply" (especially in paper), in beautiful andunhindered operation.[64] Lust of wealth, and trust in it; vulgar faithin magnitude and multitude, instead of nobleness; besides thatfaith natural to backwoodsmen--"lucum ligna,"[65]--perpetualself-contemplation, issuing in passionate vanity; total ignorance of thefiner and higher arts, and of all that they teach and bestow; and thediscontent of energetic minds unoccupied, frantic with hope ofuncomprehended change, and progress they know not whither;[66]--theseare the things that have "failed" in America; and yet not altogetherfailed--it is not collapse, but collision; the greatest railroadaccident on record, with fire caught from the furnace, and Catiline'squenching "non aqua, sed ruina."[67] But I see not, in any of our talkof them, justice enough done to their erratic strength of purpose, norany estimate taken of the strength of endurance of domestic sorrow, inwhat their women and children suppose a righteous cause. And out of thatendurance and suffering, its own fruit will be born with time; [_not_abolition of slavery, however. See Sec. 130.] and Carlyle's prophecy ofthem (June, 1850), as it has now come true in the first clause, will, inthe last:--
"America, too, will find that caucuses, divisionalists, stump-oratory,and speeches to Buncombe will not carry men to the immortal gods; thatthe Washington Congress, and constitutional battle of Kilkenny cats isthere, as here, naught for such objects; quite incompetent for such;and, in fine, that said sublime constitutional arrangement will requireto be (with terrible throes, and travail such as few expect yet)remodelled, abridged, extended, suppressed, torn asunder, put togetheragain--not without heroic labour and effort, quite other than that ofthe stump-orator and the revival preacher, one day."
125.[68] Understand, then, once for all, that no form of government,provided it be a government at all, is, as such, to be either condemnedor praised, or contested for in anywise, but by fools. But all forms ofgovernment are good just so far as they attain this one vital necessityof policy--_that the wise and kind, few or many, shall govern the unwiseand unkind_; and they are evil so far as they miss of this, or reverseit. Not does the form, in any case, signify one whit, but its_firmness_, and adaptation to the need; for if there be many foolishpersons in a state, and few wise, then it is good that the few govern;and if there be many wise, and few foolish, then it is good that themany govern; and if many be wise, yet one wiser, then it is good thatone should govern; and so on. Thus, we may have "the ant's republic, andthe realm of bees," both good in their kind; one for groping, and theother for building; and nobler still, for flying;--the Ducalmonarchy[69] of those
Intelligent of seasons, that set forth The aery caravan, high over seas.
126. Nor need we want examples, among the inferior creatures, ofdissoluteness, as well as resoluteness, in government. I once sawdemocracy finely illustrated by the beetles of North Switzerland, who byuniversal suffrage, and elytric acclamation, one May twilight, carriedit, that they would fly over the Lake of Zug; and flew _short_, to thegreat disfigurement of the Lake of Zug,--[Greek: Kantharon limen]--oversome leagues square, and to the close of the cockchafer democracy forthat year. Then, for tyranny, the old fable of the frogs and the storkfinely touches one form of it; but truth will image it more closely thanfable, for tyranny is not complete when it is only over the idle, butwhen it is over the laborious and the blind. This description ofpelicans and climbing perch, which I find quoted in one of our popularnatural histories, out of Sir Emerson Tennant's _Ceylon_, comes as nearas may be to the true image of the thing:--
"Heavy rains came on, and as we stood on the high ground, we observed apelican on the margin of the shallow pool gorging himself; our peoplewent towards him, and raised a cry of 'Fish, fish!' We hurried down, andfound numbers of fish struggling upward through the grass, in the rillsformed by the trickling
of the rain. There was scarcely water to coverthem, but nevertheless they made rapid progress up the bank, on whichour followers collected about two baskets of them. They were forcingtheir way up the knoll, and had they not been interrupted, first by thepelican, and afterwards by ourselves, they would in a few minutes havegained the highest point, and descended on the other side into a poolwhich formed another portion of the tank. In going this distance,however, they must have used muscular exertion enough to have taken themhalf a mile on level ground; for at these places all the cattle and wildanimals of the neighbourhood had latterly come to drink, so that thesurface was everywhere indented with footmarks, in addition to thecracks in the surrounding baked mud, into which the fish tumbled intheir progress. In those holes, which were deep, and the sidesperpendicular, they remained to die, and were carried off by kites andcrows."[70]
127. But whether governments be bad or good, one general disadvantageseems to attach to them in modern times--that they are all _costly_.[71]This, however, is not essentially the fault of the governments. Ifnations choose to play at war, they will always find their governmentswilling to lead the game, and soon coming under that term ofAristophanes, "[Greek: kapeloi aspidon]," "shield-sellers." And when([Greek: pem epi pemati])[72] the shields take the form of iron ships,with apparatus "for defence against liquid fire,"--as I see by latestaccounts they are now arranging the decks in English dockyards--theybecome costly biers enough for the grey convoy of chief mourner waves,wreathed with funereal foam, to bear back the dead upon; the massyshoulders of those corpse-bearers being intended for quite other work,and to bear the living, and food for the living, if we would let them.
128. Nor have we the least right to complain of our governments beingexpensive, so long as we set the government _to do precisely the workwhich brings no return_. If our present doctrines of political economybe just, let us trust them to the utmost; take that war business out ofthe government's hands, and test therein the principles of supply anddemand. Let our future sieges of Sebastopol be done by contract--nocapture, no pay--(I admit that things might sometimes go better so); andlet us sell the commands of our prospective battles, with our vicarages,to the lowest bidder; so may we have cheap victories, and divinity. Onthe other hand, if we have so much suspicion of our science that we darenot trust it on military or spiritual business, would it not be butreasonable to try whether some authoritative handling may not prosper inmatters utilitarian? If we were to set our governments to do usefulthings instead of mischievous, possibly even the apparatus itself mightin time come to be less costly. The machine, applied to the building ofthe house, might perhaps pay, when it seems not to pay, applied topulling it down. If we made in our dockyards ships to carry timber andcoals, instead of cannon, and with provision for the brightening ofdomestic solid culinary fire, instead of for the scattering of liquidhostile fire, it might have some effect on the taxes. Or suppose that wetried the experiment on land instead of water carriage; already thegovernment, not unapproved, carries letters and parcels for us; largerpackages may in time follow;--even general merchandise--why not, atlast, ourselves? Had the money spent in local mistakes and vain privatelitigation, on the railroads of England, been laid out, instead, underproper government restraint, on really useful railroad work, and had noabsurd expense been incurred in ornamenting stations, we might alreadyhave had,--what ultimately it will be found we must have,--quadruplerails, two for passengers, and two for traffic, on every great line; andwe might have been carried in swift safety, and watched and warded bywell-paid pointsmen, for half the present fares. [For, of course, arailroad company is merely an association of turnpike-keepers, who makethe tolls as high as they can, not to mend the roads with, but topocket. The public will in time discover this, and do away withturnpikes on railroads, as on all other public-ways.]
129. Suppose it should thus turn out, finally, that a true governmentset to true work, instead of being a costly engine, was a paying one?that your government, rightly organized, instead of itself subsisting byan income-tax, would produce its subjects some subsistence in the shapeof an income dividend?--police, and judges duly paid besides, only withless work than the state at present provides for them.
A true government set to true work!--Not easily to be imagined, stillless obtained; but not beyond human hope or ingenuity. Only you willhave to alter your election systems somewhat, first. Not by universalsuffrage, nor by votes purchasable with beer, is such government to behad. That is to say, not by universal _equal_ suffrage. Every manupwards of twenty, who has been convicted of no legal crime, should havehis say in this matter; but afterwards a louder voice, as he growsolder, and approves himself wiser. If he has one vote at twenty, heshould have two at thirty, four at forty, ten at fifty. For every singlevote which he has with an income of a hundred a year, he should have tenwith an income of a thousand, (provided you first see to it that wealthis, as nature intended it to be, the reward of sagacity andindustry--not of good luck in a scramble or a lottery). For every singlevote which he had as subordinate in any business, he should have twowhen he became a master; and every office and authority nationallybestowed, implying trustworthiness and intellect, should have its knownproportional number of votes attached to it. But into the detail andworking of a true system in these matters we cannot now enter; we areconcerned as yet with definitions only, and statements of firstprinciples, which will be established now sufficiently for our purposeswhen we have examined the nature of that form of government last on thelist in Sec. 105,--the purely "Magistral," exciting at present its fullshare of public notice, under its ambiguous title of "slavery."
130. I have not, however, been able to ascertain in definite terms, fromthe declaimers against slavery, what they understand by it. If they meanonly the imprisonment or compulsion of one person by another, suchimprisonment or compulsion being in many cases highly expedient,slavery, so defined, would be no evil in itself, but only in its abuse;that is, when men are slaves, who should not be, or masters, who shouldnot be, or even the fittest characters for either state, placed in itunder conditions which should not be. It is not, for instance, anecessary condition of slavery, nor a desirable one, that parents shouldbe separated from children, or husbands from wives; but the institutionof war, against which people declaim with less violence, effects suchseparations,--not unfrequently in a very permanent manner. To press asailor, seize a white youth by conscription for a soldier, or carry offa black one for a labourer, may all be right acts, or all wrong ones,according to needs and circumstances. It is wrong to scourge a manunnecessarily. So it is to shoot him. Both must be done on occasion; andit is better and kinder to flog a man to his work, than to leave himidle till he robs, and flog him afterwards. The essential thing for allcreatures is to be made to do right; how they are made to do it--bypleasant promises, or hard necessities, pathetic oratory, or thewhip--is comparatively immaterial.[73] To be deceived is perhaps asincompatible with human dignity as to be whipped; and I suspect the lastmethod to be not the worst, for the help of many individuals. The Jewishnation throve under it, in the hand of a monarch reputed not unwise; itis only the change of whip for scorpion which is inexpedient; and thatchange is as likely to come to pass on the side of license as of law.For the true scorpion whips are those of the nation's pleasant vices,which are to it as St. John's locusts--crown on the head, ravin in themouth, and sting in the tail. If it will not bear the rule of Athena andApollo, who shepherd without smiting ([Greek: ou plege nemontes]),Athena at last calls no more in the corners of the streets; and thenfollows the rule of Tisiphone, who smites without shepherding.
131. If, however, by slavery, instead of absolute compulsion, is meant_the purchase, by money, of the right of compulsion_, such purchase isnecessarily made whenever a portion of any territory is transferred, formoney, from one monarch to another: which has happened frequently enoughin history, without its being supposed that the inhabitants of thedistricts so transferred became therefore slaves. In this, as in theformer case, the dispute seems about
the fashion of the thing, ratherthan the fact of it. There are two rocks in mid-sea, on each of which,neglected equally by instructive and commercial powers, a handful ofinhabitants live as they may. Two merchants bid for the two properties,but not in the same terms. One bids for the people, buys _them_, andsets them to work, under pain of scourge; the other bids for the rock,buys _it_, and throws the inhabitants into the sea. The former is theAmerican, the latter the English method, of slavery; much is to be saidfor, and something against, both, which I hope to say in due time andplace.[74]
132. If, however, slavery mean not merely the purchase of the right ofcompulsion, but _the purchase of the body and soul of the creatureitself for money_, it is not, I think, among the black races thatpurchases of this kind are most extensively made, or that separate soulsof a fine make fetch the highest price. This branch of the inquiry weshall have occasion also to follow out at some length, for in the worstinstances of the selling of souls, we are apt to get, when we ask if thesale is valid, only Pyrrhon's answer[75]--"None can know."
133. The fact is that slavery is not a political institution at all,_but an inherent, natural, and eternal inheritance_ of a large portionof the human race--to whom, the more you give of their own free will,the more slaves they will make themselves. In common parlance, we idlyconfuse captivity with slavery, and are always thinking of thedifference between pine-trunks (Ariel in the pine), and cowslip-bells("in the cowslip-bell I lie"), or between carrying wood and drinking(Caliban's slavery and freedom), instead of noting the far more seriousdifferences between Ariel and Caliban themselves, and the means bywhich, practically, that difference may be brought about or diminished.
134.[76] Plato's slave, in the _Polity_, who, well dressed and washed,aspires to the hand of his master's daughter, corresponds curiously toCaliban attacking Prospero's cell; and there is an undercurrent ofmeaning throughout, in the _Tempest_ as well as in the _Merchant ofVenice_; referring in this case to government, as in that to commerce.Miranda[77] ("the wonderful," so addressed first by Ferdinand, "Oh, youwonder!") corresponds to Homer's Arete: Ariel and Caliban arerespectively the spirits of faithful and imaginative labour, opposed torebellious, hurtful and slavish labour. Prospero ("for hope"), a truegovernor, is opposed to Sycorax, the mother of slavery, her name"Swine-raven," indicating at once brutality and deathfulness; hence theline--
"As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed, with _raven's feather_,"--&c.
For all these dreams of Shakespeare, as those of true and strong menmust be, are "[Greek: phantasmata theia, kai skiai ton onton]"--divinephantasms, and shadows of things that are. We hardly tell our children,willingly, a fable with no purport in it; yet we think God sends hisbest messengers only to sing fairy tales to us, fond and empty. The_Tempest_ is just like a grotesque in a rich missal, "clasped wherepaynims pray." Ariel is the spirit of generous and free-hearted service,in early stages of human society oppressed by ignorance and wildtyranny: venting groans as fast as mill-wheels strike; in shipwreck ofstates, dreadful; so that "all but mariners plunge in the brine, andquit the vessel, then all afire with _me_," yet having in itself thewill and sweetness of truest peace, whence that is especially called"Ariel's" song, "Come unto these yellow sands, and there, _take hands_,""courtesied when you have, and kissed, the wild waves whist:" (mind, itis "cortesia," not "curtsey,") and read "quiet" for "whist," if you wantthe full sense. Then you may indeed foot it featly, and sweet spiritsbear the burden for you--with watch in the night, and call in earlymorning. The _vis viva_ in elemental transformation follows--"Fullfathom five thy father lies, of his bones are coral made." Then, givingrest _after_ labour, it "fetches dew from the still vext Bermoothes,and, with a charm joined to their suffered labour, leaves men asleep."Snatching away the feast of the cruel, it seems to them as a harpy;followed by the utterly vile, who cannot see it in any shape, but towhom it is the picture of nobody, it still gives shrill harmony to theirfalse and mocking catch, "Thought is free;" but leads them into briersand foul places, and at last hollas the hounds upon them. Minister offate against the great criminal, it joins itself with the "incensed seasand shores "--the sword that layeth at it cannot hold, and may "withbemocked-at stabs as soon kill the still-closing waters, as diminish onedowle that is in its plume." As the guide and aid of true love, it isalways called by Prospero "fine" (the French "fine," not the English),or "delicate"--another long note would be needed to explain all themeaning in this word. Lastly, its work done, and war, it resolves itselfinto the elements. The intense significance of the last song, "Where thebee sucks," I will examine in its due place.
The types of slavery in Caliban are more palpable, and need not be dwelton now: though I will notice them also, severally, in their properplaces;--the heart of his slavery is in his worship: "That's a bravegod, and bears celestial--liquor." But, in illustration of the sense inwhich the Latin "benignus" and "malignus" are to be coupled withEleutheria and Douleia, note that Caliban's torment is always thephysical reflection of his own nature--"cramps" and "side stiches thatshall pen thy breath up; thou shalt be pinched, as thick as honeycombs:"the whole nature of slavery being one cramp and cretinous contraction.Fancy this of Ariel! You may fetter him, but you set no mark on him; youmay put him to hard work and far journey, but you cannot give him acramp.
135. I should dwell, even in these prefatory papers, at more length onthis subject of slavery, had not all I would say been said already, invain, (not, as I hope, ultimately in vain), by Carlyle, in the first ofthe _Latter-day Pamphlets_, which I commend to the reader's gravestreading; together with that as much neglected, and still moreimmediately needed, on model prisons, and with the great chapter on"Permanence" (fifth of the last section of "Past and Present"), whichsums what is known, and foreshadows, or rather forelights, all that isto be learned of National Discipline. I have only here farther toexamine the nature of one world-wide and everlasting form of slavery,wholesome in use, as deadly in abuse;--the service of the rich by thepoor.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] [Think over this paragraph carefully; it should have been muchexpanded to be quite intelligible; but it contains all that I want it tocontain.]
[55] "The ordinary brute, who flourishes in the very centre of ornatelife, tells us of unknown depths on the verge of which we totter, beingbound to thank our stars every day we live that there is not a generaloutbreak, and a revolt from the yoke of civilization."--_Times_ leader,Dec. 25, 1862. Admitting that our stars are to be thanked for oursafety, whom are we to thank for the danger?
[56] Our politicians, even the best of them, regard only the distresscaused by the _failure_ of mechanical labour. The degradation caused byits excess is a far more serious subject of thought, and of future fear.I shall examine this part of our subject at length hereafter. There canhardly be any doubt, at present, cast on the truth of the abovepassages, as all the great thinkers are unanimous on the matter. Plato'swords are terrific in their scorn and pity whenever he touches on themechanical arts. He calls the men employed in them not even human, butpartially and diminutively human, "[Greek: anthropiskoi,]" and opposessuch work to noble occupations, not merely as prison is opposed tofreedom but as a convict's dishonoured prison is to the temple (escapefrom them being like that of a criminal to the sanctuary); and thedestruction caused by them being of soul no less than body.--_Rep._ vi.9. Compare _Laws_, v. 11. Xenophon dwells on the evil of occupations atthe furnace and especially their "[Greek: ascholia], want ofleisure."--_Econ._ i. 4. (Modern England, with all its pride ofeducation, has lost that first sense of the word "school;" and till itrecover that, it will find no other rightly.) His word for the harm tothe soul is to "break" it, as we say of the heart.--_Econ._ i. 6. Andherein, also, is the root of the scorn, otherwise apparently moststrange and cruel, with which Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare always speakof the populace; for it is entirely true that, in great states, thelower orders are low by nature as well as by task, being precisely thatpart of the commonwealth which has been thrust down for its coarsenessor unworthine
ss (by coarseness I mean especially insensibility andirreverence--the "profane" of Horace); and when this ceases to be so,and the corruption and profanity are in the higher instead of the lowerorders, there arises, first, helpless confusion, then, if the lowerclasses deserve power, ensues swift revolution, and they get it; but ifneither the populace nor their rulers deserve it, there follows meredarkness and dissolution, till, out of the putrid elements, some newcapacity of order rises, like grass on a grave; if not, there is no morehope, nor shadow of turning, for that nation. Atropos has her way withit.
So that the law of national health is like that of a great lake or sea,in perfect but slow circulation, letting the dregs fall continually tothe lowest place, and the clear water rise; yet so as that there shallbe no neglect of the lower orders, but perfect supervision and sympathy,so that if one member suffer, all members shall suffer with it.
[57] "[Greek: oliges, kai allos gignomenes]." (Little, and that littleborn in vain.) The bitter sentence never was so true as at this day.
[58] [This following note is a mere cluster of memoranda, but I keep itfor reference.] Thetic, or Thesmic, would perhaps be a better term thanarchic; but liable to be confused with some which we shall want relatingto Theoria. The administrators of the three great divisions of law areseverally Archons, Merists, and Dicasts. The Archons are the trueprinces, or beginners of things; or leaders (as of an orchestra). TheMerists are properly the Domini, or Lords of houses and nations. TheDicasts, properly, the judges, and that with Olympian justice, whichreaches to heaven and hell. The violation of archic law is [Greek:hamartia] (error), [Greek: poneria] (failure), or [Greek: plemmeleia](discord). The violation of meristic law is [Greek: anomia] (iniquity).The violation of critic law is [Greek: adikia] (injury). Iniquity is thecentral generic term; for all law is _fatal_; it is the division to menof their fate; as the fold of their pasture, it is [Greek: nomos]; asthe assigning of their portion, [Greek: moira].
[59] [This is the only sentence which, in revising these essays, I amnow inclined to question; but the point is one of extreme difficulty.There might be a law, for instance, of curfew, that candles should beput out, unless for necessary service, at such and such an hour, theidea of "necessary service" being quite indefinable, and no penaltypossible; yet there would be a distinct consciousness of illegal conductin young ladies' minds who danced by candlelight till dawn.]
[60] [Read this and the next paragraph with attention; they containclear statements, which I cannot mend, of things most necessary.]
[61] [Mainly; not altogether. Conclusive reward of high virtue is lovingand crowning, not helping; and conclusive punishment of deep vice ishating and crushing, not merely hindering.]
[62] Compare Chaucer's "villany" (clownishness).
Full foul and chorlishe seemed she, And eke villanous for to be, And little coulde of norture To worship any creature.
[63] [I leave this paragraph, in every syllable, as it was written,during the rage of the American war; it was meant to refer, however,chiefly to the Northerns: what modifications its hot and partial termsrequire I will give in another place: let it stand now as it stood.]
[64] Supply and demand! Alas! for what noble work was there ever anyaudible "demand" in that poor sense (Past and Present)? Nay, the demandis not loud, even for ignoble work. _See_ "Average Earnings of BettyTaylor," in _Times_ of 4th February of this year [1863]: "Worked fromMonday morning at 8 A.M. to Friday night at 5.30 P.M. for 1_s._5-1/2_d._"--_Laissez faire._ [This kind of slavery finds noAbolitionists that I hear of.]
[65] ["That the sacred grove is nothing but logs."]
[66] Ames, by report of Waldo Emerson, says "that a monarchy is amerchantman, which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, andgo to the bottom; whilst a republic is a raft, which would never sink,but then your feet are always in the water." Yes, that is comfortable;and though your raft cannot sink (being too worthless for that), it maygo to pieces, I suppose, when the four winds (your only pilots) steercompetitively from its four corners, and carry it, [Greek: os oporinosBorees phoreesin akanthas], and then more than your feet will be in thewater.
[67] ["Not with water, but with ruin." The worst ruin being that whichthe Americans chiefly boast of. They sent all their best and honestestyouths, Harvard University men and the like, to that accursed war; gotthem nearly all shot; wrote pretty biographies (to the ages of 17, 18,19) and epitaphs for them; and so, having washed all the salt out of thenation in blood, left themselves to putrefaction, and the morality ofNew York.]
[68] [This paragraph contains the gist of all that precede.]
[69] [Whenever you are puzzled by any apparently mistaken use of wordsin these essays, take your dictionary, remembering I had to fix terms,as well as principles. A Duke is a "dux" or "leader;" the flying wedgeof cranes is under a "ducal monarch"--a very different personage from aqueen bee. The Venetians, with a beautiful instinct, gave the name totheir King of the Sea.]
[70] [This is a perfect picture of the French under the tyrannies oftheir Pelican Kings, before the Revolution. But they must find otherthan Pelican Kings--or rather, Pelican Kings of the Divine brood, thatfeed their children, and with their best blood.]
[71] [Read carefully, from this point; because here begins the statementof things requiring to be done, which I am now re-trying to makedefinite in _Fors Clavigera_.]
[72] ["Evil on the top of Evil." Delphic oracle, meaning iron on theanvil.]
[73] [Permit me to enforce and reinforce this statement, with allearnestness. It is the sum of what needs most to be understood in thematter of education.]
[74] [A pregnant paragraph, meant against English and Scotch landlordswho drive their people off the land.]
[75] [In Lucian's dialogue, "The sale of lives."]
[76] [I raise this analysis of the _Tempest_ into my text; but it isnothing but a hurried note, which I may never have time to expand. Ihave retouched it here and there a little, however.]
[77] Of Shakspeare's names I will afterwards speak at more length; theyare curiously--often barbarously--much by Providence,--but assuredly notwithout Shakspeare's cunning purpose--mixed out of the varioustraditions he confusedly adopted, and languages which he imperfectlyknew. Three of the clearest in meaning have been already noticed.Desdemona, "[Greek: dysdaimonia]," "miserable fortune," is also plainenough. Othello is, I believe, "the careful;" all the calamity of thetragedy arising from the single flaw and error in his magnificentlycollected strength. Ophelia, "serviceableness," the true lost wife ofHamlet, is marked as having a Greek name by that of her brother,Laertes; and its signification is once exquisitely alluded to in thatbrother's last word of her, where her gentle preciousness is opposed tothe uselessness of the churlish clergy--"A _ministering_ angel shall mysister be, when thou liest howling." Hamlet is, I believe, connected insome way with "homely" the entire event of the tragedy turning onbetrayal of home duty. Hermione ([Greek: erma]), "pillar-like," ([Greek:he eidos eche chryses 'Aphrodites]). Titania ([Greek: titene]), "thequeen;" Benedict and Beatrice, "blessed and blessing;" Valentine andProteus, enduring (or strong), (valens), and changeful. Iago and Iachimohave evidently the same root--probably the Spanish Iago, Jacob, "thesupplanter," Leonatus, and other such names, are interpreted, or playedwith, in the plays themselves. For the interpretation of Sycorax, andreference to her raven's feather, I am indebted to Mr. John R. Wise.