Sociability the effect of the necessity of mutual assistance. crowds towards the ship? They are, without doubt, amazed at the sight, they are struck with the novelty of our dress, our arms and implements. The appearance excites their curiosity. But what desire succeeds to this first sensation? That of possessing the objects of their admiration. They become less gay and more thoughtful; are busied in contriving means to obtain, by force or fraud, the objects of their desires; for that purpose they watch the favourable opportunity to rob, plunder, and massacre the Europeans, who, in their conquests of Mexico and Peru, gave them early examples of similar injustice and cruelty. The conclusion of this chapter is, that the principles of morality and politics, like those of all other sciences, ought to be established on a great number of facts and observations. Now, what is the result of the observations hitherto made on morality? That the love of men for their brethren, is the effect of the necessity of mutual assistance, and of an affinity of wants, dependent on that corporeal sensibility, which I regard as the principle of our actions, our virtues, and our vices. In persevering in my opinion on this point, I think I ought to defend the Treatise on the Mind against the odious imputations of hypocrisy and ignorance. CHAP. The love of women sometimes excites virtue in men. CHAP. IX. A JUSTICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES ADMIT- WHEN the Treatise on the Mind appeared, the theo- The fact, however, is notorious: their reproach, therefore, is ridiculous. If bread, it has been said to them, be a recompence for labour and industry, why not women *? Every object of desire may become an * If hunger be the principle of so many actions, and has so much power over men, how can we imagine that the desire for women can have no effect on them? At the moment a youth is heated with the first fires of love, let its enjoyments be proposed to him as the recompence of his application: let him be reminded, even in the arms of his mistress, that it is to his talents and his virtues that he owes her favours. The young man, docile, assiduous, virtuous, will then enjoy in a manner agrecable to his health, to his soul, and to the public good, the same delight that he would not enjoy, in another situation, without exhausting his strength, debasing his mind, and dissipating his fortune, by living in a state of stupid ebriety. Valour inspired by women in the barbarous ages. encouragement to virtue, when it is not to be obtained but by services rendered to our country. In those ages, when the invasions of the Northern nations, and the incursions of swarms of plunderers, kept the inhabitants continually in arms, when the women being frequently exposed to the insults of ravagers, were in continual want of protectors, the virtue then in highest esteem was valour. The favours of the women, therefore, were the recompence of the most valiant, and consequently every man ambitious of those favours, endeavoured to elevate himself to that enthusiastic courage, which about four centuries since animated the renowned knight-errants. The love of pleasure was therefore in those ages the productive principle of the only virtue then known; that is, valour. When the manners changed, and a more improved policy relieved the timid virgin from insult, then beauty (for in government all things depend on each other) less exposed to outrages of the ravagers, held its defenders in less esteem. If the enthusiasm of women for valour then decreased in preportion to their fear; if the esteem preserved to this day, for that sort of courage be only the esteem of tradition; if in this age the youngest, most assiduous, obsequious, and above all, the most opulent lover is commonly preferred, it is not surprising; all is as it ought to be. The favours of women, therefore, according to the changes that happen in manners and governments, ei ther The love of women not incompatible with virtue. ther are, or cease to be, the encouragements to certain virtues. Love in itself is no evil. Why should we regard pleasures as the cause of the political corruption of manners? Men have had in all ages nearly the samne wants, and in all ages have satisfied those wants. The ages, or the nations most addicted to love, have been those in which men were the strongest and most robust. Edda, the Erse poets, in short, all history informs us, that the ages esteemed heroic and virtuous, have not been the most temperate. Youth are strongly attracted by women: they are more eager after pleasure than persons of riper years; they are, however, commonly more humane and virtuous, at least more active, and activity is a virtue. It was neither love nor pleasures that corrupted Asia, enervated the manners of the Medes, the Assyrians, Indians, &c. The Greeks, the Saracens, and Scandinavians, were neither more reserved nor more chaste than the Persians and Medes, and yet the former have never been cited among effeminate nations. If there be a time when the favours of women can become a principle of corruption, it is when they are venal *; when money, far from being the recompence of merit and talents, becomes that of intrigue and flattery; in short, when a satrap or a nabob can, by * It may be asked by some, perhaps, when the time was that the favours of women were not venal? means Power of women to incite to virtue or vice. means of injustice and crimes, obtain from the sovereign the right of pillaging the people, and applying the spoil to his own emolument. It is with women as with honours, they are the common objects of the desire of men. If honours be the price of iniquity; if to attain them the great must be flattered; if the weak must be sacrificed to the powerful, and the interest of a nation to that of a sultan; then honours, so justly invented as a recompence and decoration of merit and talents, become the source of corruption. Women, like honours, may, therefore, according to times and manners, become the alternate incitements to vice or virtue. The political corruption of manners therefore consists only in the depravation of the means employed to procure pleasures. The rigid moralist who preaches incessantly against pleasures, is nothing more than the echo of his ghostly father. How can we extinguish every desire in man without destroying every principle of action? He who is affected by no interest, can have no motive to produce any action worthy of a man. CHAP. |