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sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do till they have raised the price as high as is possible. And on the same account it is, that the other kinds of cattle are so dear, and so much the more, because that many villages being pulled down, and all country-labour being much neglected, there are none that look after the breeding of them. The rich do not breed cattle as they do sheep, but buy them lean, and at low prices; and after they have fattened them on their grounds, they sell them again at high rates. And I do not think that all the inconveniences that this will produce, are yet observed; for as they sell the cattle dear, so if they are consumed faster than the breeding countries from which they are brought, can afford them, then the stock must decrease, and this must needs end in a great scarcity; and by these means this your island, that seemed, as to this particular, the happiest in the world, will suffer much by the cursed avarice of a few persons; besides that, the raising of corn makes all people lessen their families as much as they can; and what can those who are dismissed by them do, but either beg or rob? And to this last, a man of a great mind is much sooner drawn than to the former. Luxury likewise breaks in apace upon you, to set forward your poverty and misery; there is an excessive vanity in apparel and great cost in diet; 40 and

40 The author of the "Fable of the Bees," and David Hume, undertake the defence of luxury; and their reasoning has certainly the merit of being very ingenious; and what is more, well suited to the spirit of their age, when in a great measure reli

that not only in noblemen's families, but even among tradesmen, and among the farmers themselves, and among all ranks of persons. You have also many infamous houses,41 and besides those

gion had lost its influence, and morals were inconceivably corrupt. A change for the better has since been effected. Few men, at least in England, would now venture, whatever they may think, to maintain the profligate doctrines of Mandeville or Hume; the former of whom contended that private vices are public benefits, while the latter considered adultery a more venial offence than drunkenness. Essays, p. 159, 4to. edition. Agreeably to this view of the vices he misrepresents the anecdote of Cato and Cæsar on the subject of Servilia's intrigues. "We know," says he," that Cæsar, during Cataline's conspiracy, being necessitated to put into Cato's hands a billet-doux, which discovered an intrigue with Servilia, Cato's own sister, that stern philosopher threw it back to him with indignation; and, in the bitterness of his wrath, gave him the appellation of drunkard, as a term more opprobrious than that with which he could more justly have reproached him." This forced interpretation does not exhibit any of Hume's usual subtlety and discrimination. Cato was ashamed of his sister's profligacy, and used the term sot instead of adulterer, (for both Cæsar and Servilia were married,) as less likely to excite the suspicions of the senate, who had beheld him receive and return the note, no doubt with much chagrin visible in his countenance.

41 Milton, Areopagitica, § 32, p. 208 f. points at these haunts of debauchery as more worthy the animadversion of government, tha printing of dangerous books. "What shall be done," says he, " to inhibit the multitudes that frequent those houses where drunkenness is sold and harboured?" It must at the same time be confessed, that he judged the political notions of Sir Thomas More, Plato, and Lord Bacon, even in points of this kind, altogether visionary and impracticable. quester out of the world into Atlantie and Utopian polities, which never can be drawn into use, will not mend our condition." 33. The only practicable remedy, in his opinion, is education, which may of course be seconded by the active inter

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that are known, the taverns and ale-houses are no better; add to these dice, cards, tables, foot-ball, tennis, and quoits, in which money runs fast away; and those that are initiated into them, must in conclusion betake themselves to robbing for a supply. Banish those plagues, and give order that these who have dispeopled so much soil, may either rebuild the villages that they have pulled down, or let out their grounds to such as will do it; restrain those engrossings of the rich that are as bad almost as monopolies; leave fewer occasions to idleness; let agriculture be set up again, and the manufacture of the wool be regulated, that so there may be work found for these companies of idle people, whom want forces to be thieves, or who now being idle vagabonds, or useless servants, will certainly grow thieves at last. If y you do not find a remedy to these evils, it is a vain thing to boast of your severity of punishing theft; which though it may have the appearance of justice, yet in itself it is neither just nor convenient: for if you suffer your people to be ill educated,42 and their manners to ference of the legislature. Sir Walter Scott describes our theatres, and describes them truly, as haunts of barefaced and incorrigible vice; (Life by Lockhart, vol. iv.) and in all ages taverns and bagnios have been synonymous terms.--Casaubon. ad Theophrast. Charact. p. 365.

42 Locke, who of all philosophers was probably the least likely to be carried away by his imagination, attributes no less influence to the education of youth. "The difference to be found in the manners and abilities of man, is owing more to their education than to anything else." Thoughts on Education, § 32, p. 44. This idea adopted by Helvetius, forms the basis of his treatise" de l'Homme," in which he undertakes to demonstrate "que

be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them?'

"While I was talking thus, the counsellor that was present had prepared an answer, and had resolved to resume all I had said, according to the formality of a debate, in which things are generally repeated more faithfully than they are answered; as if the chief trial that were to be made, were of men's memories. So he said to me You have talked prettily for a stranger, having heard of many things among us, which you have not been able to consider well; but I will make the whole matter plain to you, and will first repeat in order all that you have said, then I will show how much the ignorance of our affairs have misled you, and will, in the last place answer all your arguments. And that I may begin where I promised, there were four

l'homme n'est vraiment que le produit de son education.”— Euvres, &c. vii. 5. Milton was scarcely less sanguine in his opinions of education, but his lofty original mind had formed to itself a very peculiar idea of that system of training which merits such an appellation, "The end of learning," he says, “is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection." Select Prose Works, vol. I. p. 144. Plato, long before, had conceived a similar idea of what education should be, though, on some points, his ideas were necessarily more imperfect than Milton's. Republic. t. vi. p. 334-346. Edit. Bekk.

things'-' Hold your peace,' said the cardinal 'for you will not have done soon that begin thus ; therefore we will at present ease you of the trouble of answering, and reserve it to our next meeting, which shall be to-morrow, if Raphael's affairs and yours can admit of it. But, Raphael,' said he to me, 'I would gladly know of you upon what reason it is that you think theft ought not to be punished by death. ?43 Would you give way to it? or do you propose any other punishment that will be more useful to the public? For since death does not restrain theft, if men thought their lives would be safe, what fear or force could restrain ill men? On the contrary, they would look on the mitigation of the punishment as an invitation to commit more crimes.' I answered, 'It seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a man's life for a little money; for nothing in the world can be of equal value with a man's life:44 and if it is said, that it

43 On this subject the more humane and philosophical part of the world begin to adopt Sir Thomas More's opinion. It seems probable, moreover, that even in our own days, we shall in part see them acted upon,

44 The author of the "Utopia" was free, if ever any man was, from the influence of the debasing doctrine of castes, which, though openly maintained in the East only, is everywhere the genuine creed where hereditary distinctions of rank prevail. His humane and generous sentiments break forth on all occasions. He does not undervalue property, or counsel others to make light of it; but he refuses to consider any creation of man of equal value with the noblest of God's creations. He knew that taking away life for anything but murder is in itself murder, and that every one concerned in such an act will be judged as a murderer hereafter.

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