CHAPTER V.

*¢Inspicere tanquam in speculum, in vitas omnium Jubeo.” !—TERENT.
Be ERNEST MALTRAVERS still lingered at Paris: he gave up all notion of proceeding further. He was, in fact, tired of travel. But there was another reason that ‘chained him to that “N avel _ of the Earth”—there is not anywhere a better sounding-board to London rumours than the English guartiey between the
a Boulevard des Italiennes and the Tuileries; here, at all events, a he should soonest learn the worst: and every day, as he took up © _ the English newspapers, a sick feeling of apprehension and fear
came over him. No! till the seal was set upon the bond—till the Rubicon was passed—till Miss Cameron was the wife of — Lord Vargrave, he could neither return to the home that was so eloquent with the recollections of Evelyn, nor, by removing further from England, delay the receipt of an intelligence which he vainly told himself he was prepared to meet. :
He continued to seek such distractions from thought as were E within his reach ; and, as‘ his heart was too occupied for : pleasures which had, indeed, long since palled,—those dis- tractions were of the grave and noble character which it is a prerogative of the intellect to afford to the passions,
De Montaigne was neither a Doctrinaire nor a Republican—- and yet, perhaps, he was a little of both. He was one who thought that the tendency of all European States is towards Democracy; but he by no means looked upon Democracy. as a panacea for all legislative evils. He thought that, while a
3 I bid you leok into the lives of all men, as it were into a misrox,
;
content himself with marching by its side; that a nation could
writer should be in advance of his time, a statesman should
not be ripened, like an exotic, by artificial means; that it must 2 be developed only by natural influences. He believed that forms of government are. never universal in their effects. Thus,
De Montaigne conceived that we were wrong in attaching more
_ importance to legislative than to social reforms. He considered, for instance, that the surest sign of our progressive civilisation
cin se
_ is in our growing distaste to capital punishments, He believed,
3 not in the ultimate perfection of mankind, but in their progressive - _ perfectibility. He thought that improvement was indefinite;
; .
ae
/, an
ae ee ee
but he did not place its advance more under Republican than under Monarchical forms. “ Provided,” he was wont to say, “all
our checks to power are of the right kind, it matters little to
- what hands the power itself is confided.”
“ 7igina and Athens,” said he, “were republics—commercial ~ and maritime—placed under the same sky surrounded by the same neighbours, and rent by the same struggles between Oligarchy and Democracy. Yet, while one left the world an
immortal heirloom of genius—where are the poets, the philo-
sophers, the statesmen of the other? Arrian tells us of republics in India—still supposed to exist by modern investigators—but they are not more productive of liberty of thought, or ferment of intellect, than the principalities. In Italy there were common-
-_ wealths as liberal as the Republic of Florence ; but they did not
produce a Machiavelli or a Dante. What daring thought, what
_ giganti¢ speculation, what democracy of wisdom and genius, have sprung up amongst the despotisms of Germany! You cannot educate two individuals so as to produce the same results
from both; you cannot, by similar constitutions (which are the education of nations) produce the same results from different
‘communities. The proper object of statesmen should be to give every facility to the people to develop themselves, and every
facility to philosophy, to dispute and discuss as to the ultimate
objects to be obtained. But you cannot, as a practical legislator,
place your country under a melon-frame: it must grow of its
own accord.” I do not say whether or fot De Mmericne was wrong! but
Maltravers saw at least that fe was faithful fo his hearse! th all his motives were sincere—all his practice pure. He could not
but allow, too, that in his occupations and labours, De Montaigne | q
appeared to fee] a sublime enjoyment :—that, in linking all the |
powers of his mind to active and useful objects, De Montaigne a was infinitely happier than the Philosophy of Indifference, the q
scorn of ambition, had made Maltravers. The influence exercised — by the large-souled and practical Frenchman over the fate and — the history of Maltravers was very peculiar.
De Montaigne had not, apparently and directly, operated upon 4
his friend’s outward destinies; but he had done so indirectly, by | operating on his mind. Perhaps it was he who had consolidated — the first wavering and uncertain impulses of Maltravers towards literary exertion ;—it was he who had consoled him for the
4
mottifications at the earlier part of his career ; and now, perhaps %
- he might serve, in the full vigour of his infelert permanently to — reconcile the Englishman to the claims of life.
There were, indeed, certain conversations which Maltravers held with De Montaigne, the germ and pith of which it is necessary —
that I should place before the reader,—for I write the inner as 4 well as the outer history of aman ; and the great incidents of life —
are not brought about only by on dramatic agencies of others, but also by our own reasonings and habits of thought. What I
am now about to set down may be wearisome, but it is not —
episodical; and I promise that it shall be the last didactic conversation in the work. One day, Maltravers was relating to De Montaigne all that
he had been planning at Burleigh for the improvement of his _
peasantry, and all his theories respecting Labour-Schools and
Poor-rates, when De Montaigne abruptly turned round, and
said— “You have, then, really found that in your own little village
. 3
your exertions—exertions not very arduous, not demanding a 4
tenth part of your time—have done practical good ?” “ Certainly I think so,” replied Maltravers, in some surprise. “And yet it was but yesterday that you declared ‘that all
the labours of Philosophy and Legislation were labours vain; —
their benefits equivocal and uncertain; that as the sea, where it :
in one place, gains in another, so Gvilisation only Sereiy profits us, stealing away one virtue while it yields: another, and > leaving the large proportions of good and evil eternally the
>”
ame,
“ True ; but I never said that man might not relieve individuals
_by Pividual exertion: though he cannot by abstract theories— flay, even by practical action in the wide circle,—benefit the
_ “Do you not employ on behalf of individuals the same moral : ae that wise ene or sound ee would adopt | :
new, and I grant, excellent system of school discipline and teaching that you have established. What you have done in
_ Again, you find that, by simply holding out hope and emulation ~ ~ to industry—by making stern distinctions between the energetic _and the idle—the independent exertion and the pauper-mendi- ~ cancy—you have found a lever by which you have literally 3 moved and shifted the little world around you. But what is the
difference here between the rules of a village lord and the laws
of a wise legislature? The moral feelings you have appealed to 7 exist universally—the moral remedies you have pee are as open to legislation as to the individual proprietor.”
zs ; Yes; but when you apply to a nation the same principles _ which regenerate a village, new counterbalancing principles arise. _If I give education to my peasants, I send them into the world with advantages superior to their fellows; advantages which, not being common to their class, enable them to ow¢s¢rip their fellows. But if this education were universal to the whole tribe, no man _ would have an advantage superior to the others; the knowledge ‘they would have acquired being shared by all, would leave all ‘as they now are, hewers of wood and drawers of water: the principle of individual hope, which springs from knowledge, - would soon be baffled by the vast competition that universal knowledge would produce. Thus by the universal improvement
would be engendered a universal discontent.
264 ALICE; OR, THE MYSTERIE
“Take a broader view of the subject. Advantages given to the few around me—superior wages—lighter toils—a greater sense of the dignity of man—are not productive of any change
in society. Give these advantages to the whole mass of the —
labouring classes, and what in the small orbit is the desire of the individual to rise, comes in the large circumference the desire of — the class to rise ; hence social restlessness, social change, revolu- tion, and its hazards. For revolutions are produced but by the aspirations of one order, and the resistance of the other. Con- sequently, legislative improvement differs widely from individual amelioration; the same principle, the same agency, that purifies
the small body, becomes destructive when applied to the large ©
one. Apply the flame to the log on the hearth, or apply it to”
the forest, is there no distinction in the result ?—the breeze that _
freshens the fountain passes to the ocean, current impels current, — 4
wave urges wave, and the breeze becomes the storm.”
“Were there truth in this train of argument,” replied De
Montaigne—* had we ever abstained from communicating to the Multitude the enjoyments and advantages of the Few—had we shrunk from the good, because the good is a parent of the
change and its partial ills, what now would be society? Is there |
no difference in collective happiness and virtue between the painted Picts and the Druid worship, and the glorious harmony, light, and order of the great English nation?” _
“The question is popular,” said Maltravers, with a smile ; “and were you my opponent in an election, would be cheered on any hustings in the kingdom. But I have lived among savage tribes—savage, perhaps, as the race that resisted Czesar 3
ts
er
7. i“ ee eee
and their happiness seems to me, not perhaps the same as that _
of the few whose sources of enjoyment are numerous, refined, and, save by their own passions, unalloyed; but equal to that of the mass of men in states the most civilised and advanced. The artisans, crowded together in the foetid air of factories, with physical ills gnawing at the core of the constitution, from the cradle to the grave ; drudging on from dawn to sunset and flying for recreation to the dread excitement of the dram-shop, or the wild and vain hopes of political fanaticism,—are not in my eyes happier than the wild Indians with hardy frames, and calm
empers, seasoned to the privations for which you pity them, and uncursed with desires of that better state never to be theirs. The Arab in his desert has seen all the luxuries of the pasha in
his harem; but he envies them not. He is contented with his _ barb, his eae his desolate sands, and his spring of releshiae _ water.
- their pulpits—that the cottage shelters happiness equal to that — within the palace? Yet what the distinction between the
“Are we not daily told—do not our priests preach it from
peasant and the prince, differing from that between the peasant
and the savage? There are more enjoyments and more= _privations in the one than in the other; but if, in the latter case, the enjoyments though fewer, be more keenly felt,—if the ' privations, though apparently sharper, fall upon duller sensi- bilities and hardier frames,—your gauge of proportion loses
all its value. Nay, in civilisation there is for the multitude an
_ evil that exists not in the savage state. The poor man sees
_ behold a splendid aggregate:—literature and science, wealth and luxury, commerce and glory; but we see not the million a victims crushed beneath the wheels of the machine—the health _ sacrificed—the board breadless—the gaols filled—the hospitals reeking—the human life poisoned in every spring, and poured
daily and hourly all the vast disparities produced by civilised
society; and reversing the divine parable, it is Lazarus who from afar, and from the despondent pit, looks upon Dives in
the lap of Paradise: therefore, his privations, his sufferings, are
made more keen by comparison with the luxuries of others. : ‘Not so in the desert and the forest. There but small a distinctions, and those softened by immemorial and hereditary -usage—that has in it the sanctity of religion—separate the
savage from his chief. The fact is, that in civilisation we
forth like water! Neither do we remember all the steps, marked by desolation, crime, and bloodshed, by. which this barren
summit has been reached. Take the history of any civilized
state—England, France, Spain before she rotted back into
second childhool—the Italian Republics—the Greek Common-
wealths—the Empress of the Seven Hills—what struggles, what persecutions, what crimes, what massacres! Where, in the page
phos 5 MeFi 'y
“ALICE; OR, THE MYSTERIES.
of history, shall we look back and say, ‘ here improvement has —
diminished the sum of evil?’ Extend, too, your scope beyond ~
the state itself: each state has won its acquisitions by the
woes of others. Spain springs above the Old World on — the blood-stained ruins of the New; and the groans and ~ the gold of Mexico produce the splendours of the Fifth —
Charles!
“Behold England—the wise, the liberal, the free England —through what: struggles she has passed; and is she ee criminal invasions of Scotland and France—the plundered q people—the butchered kings—the persecutions of the Lollards —
4 ‘a ]
q e
contented? The sullen oligarchy of the Normans—our own
—the wars of Lancaster and York—the new dynasty of the — Tudors, that at once put back Liberty, and put forward — Civilization !—the Reformation, cradled in the lap of a hideous — despot, and nursed by violence and rapine—the stakes and — fires of Mary, and the craftier cruelties of Elizabeth :—England, — strengthened by the desolation of Ireland—the Civil Wars—the — reign of hypocrisy, followed by the reign of naked vice ;—the — nation that beheaded the graceful Charles gaping idly on | the scaffold of the lofty Sidney ;—the vain Revolution of 1688, — which, if a jubilee in England, was a massacre in Ireland—the ~ bootless glories of Marlborough—the organised corruption of —
Walpole—the frantic war with our own American sons—the exhausting struggles with Napoleon!
“Well, we close the page—we say, Lo! a thousand years of
incessant struggles and afflictions !—millions have perished, but Art has survived ; our boors wear stockings, our women drink tea, our poets read Shakspeare, and our astronomers improve on. Newton! Are we now contented? No! more restless than ever. New classes are called into power; new forms of government insisted on. Still the same catchwords—Liberty here, Religion there—Order with one faction, Amelioration with the other.
Where is the goal, and what have we gained? Books are — written, silks are woven, palaces are built—mighty acquisitions for the few—but the peasant is a peasant still! The crowd are — yet at the bottom of the wheel ; better off, you say. No, for — they are not more contented! The artisan is as anxious for
ee nD Er ey ee ey eT
hange a as ever ‘the ‘serf was; nd the steam- -engine has its victims as well as the sword. : “Talk of legislation; all isolated laws pave the way to wholesale changes in the form of government! Emancipate Catholics, and you open the door to democratic principle, that A Opinion should be free. If free with the sectarian, it should be _ free with the elector. The Ballot isa corollary from the Catholic 2 Relief-bill. Grant the Ballot, and the new corollary of enlarged __ suffrage. Suffrage enlarged is divided but by a yielding surface : Ee circle widening in the waters) from universal suffrage. Uni- versal suffrage is Democracy. Is Democracy better than the 3 aristocratic commonwealth? Look at the Greeks, who knew | _ both forms; are they agreed which is the best? Plato, Thucy- — - dides, Xenophon, Aristophanes—the Dreamer, the Historian, ; _ the Philosophic Man of Action, the penetrating Wit—have no sects in Democracy. Algernon Sidney, the martyr of liberty, allows no government to the multitude. Brutus died for a _ republic, but a republic of Patricians! What form of govern- ment is then the best? All dispute, the wisest cannot agree. The many still say ‘a Republic;’ yet, as you yourself will allow, Prussia, the Despotisin, does all that Republics do. Yes, but a _ good despot is a lucky accident ; true, but a just and benevolent » Republic is as yet a monster equally short-lived. When the People have no other tyrant, their own public opinion becomes pe No secret espionage is more intolerable to a free spirit _ than the broad glare of the American eye. _ “A rural republic is but a patriarchal tribe—no emulation, no _ glory ;—peace and stagnation. What Englishman—what French- _ man, would wish to be a Swiss? A commercial republic is but 4 an admirable machine for making money. Is man created for nothing nobler than freighting ships and speculating on silk and sugar? In fact, there is no certain goal in legislation ; we go on -colonising Utopia, and fighting phantoms in the clouds, Let us content ourselves with injuring no man, and doing good only in our own little sphere. Let us leave states and senates to fill the sieve of the Danaides, and roll up the stone of Sisyphus.” “My dear friend,” said De Montaigne, “you have certainly made the most of an argument, which, if granted, would consign
_ ALICE ; OR,
government to fools and knaves, and plange the communities of mankind into the Slough of Despond. But a very common- place view of the question might sufhce to shake your system. Is life, mere animal life, on the whole, a curse or a blessing ? aK
“ The generality of men in all countries,” answered Maltravers, “ enjoy existence, and apprehend death ;—were it otherwise, the — ‘world had been made by a Fiend, and not a God!”
“Well, then, observe how the progress of society cheats the ©
? rl 2
: 4
grave! In great cities, where the effect of civilisation must ba 4
the most visible, the diminution of mortality in a corresponding —
ratio with the increase of civilisation is most remarkable. In —
Berlin, from the year 1747 to 1755, the annual mortality was as
one to twenty-eight ; but from 1816 to 1822, it was as one to-
thirty-four! You ask what England has gained by her progress —
in the arts? I will answer you by her bills of mortality. In-
London, Birmingham, and Liverpool, deaths have decreased —
in less than a century from one to twenty, to one to lor
(precisely one-half !). Again, whenever a community—nay, a single city, decreases in civilisation, and in its concomitants,
activity and commerce, its mortality instantly increases. But if
civilisation be favourable to the prolongation of life, must it not be favourable to all that blesses life—to bodily health, to mental — cheerfulness, to the capacities for enjoyment? And how much — more grand, how much more sublime, becomes the prospect of —
gain, if we reflect that, to each life thus called forth, there is a ‘
soul—a destiny beyond the grave,—multiplied immortalities! —
What an apology for the continued progress of states! But — you say that, however we advance, we continue impatient and dissatisfied: can you really suppose that, because man in every — state is discontented with his lot, there is no difference in the | degree and quality of his discontent—no distinction between — pining for bread and longing for the moon? Desire is implanted — within us, as the very principle of existence; the physical desire
fills the world, and the moral desire improves it ; where there is" desire, there must be discontent: if we are satisfied with all things, desire is extinct. But a certain degree of discontent is not incompatible with happiness, nay, it has happiness of its own; what happiness like hope?—what is hope but desire?
ae ae
‘he European serf, whose seigneur could command his life, or insist as a right on the chastity of his daughter, desires to better
his condition. God has compassion on his state; Providence
calls into action the ambition of leaders, the contests of faction, the movement of men’s aims and passions: a change’ passes through society and legislation, and the serf becomes free! He desires still, but what?—no longer personal security, no q "longer the privileges of life and health; but higher wages, 4 greater comforts, easier justice for dieiaiahed wrongs. Is there no difference in the quality of that desire? Was onea greater
, torment than the otheris? Rise a scale higher:—a new class
is created—the Middle Class—the express creature of Civilisa- tion. Behold the burgher and the citizen, and still struggling, - still contending, still desiring, and therefore still discontented. - But the discontent does not prey upon the springs of life: it is the discontent of ope, not despair ; it calls forth faculties, energies, and passions, in which there is more joy than sorrow. It is this ; desire which makes the citizen in private life an anxious father, 7 a careful master, an actzve, and therefore not an unhappy, man. - You allow that individuals can effect individual good: this very _Testlessness, this very discontent with the exact place that he occupies, makes the citizen a benefactor in his narrow circle. Commerce, better than Charity, feeds the hungry, and clothes the naked. Ambition, better than brute affection, gives educa- _ tion to our children, and teaches them the love of industry, the pride of independence, the respect for others and themselves!” _ “Tn other words, a deference to such qualities as can best fit them to get on in the world, and make the most money !” é
a _ Take that view if you will; but the wiser, the more civilised
4 Z 3 the state, the worse chances fe the rogue to get on!—there may ~ a _ be some art, some hypocrisy, some avarice,—nay, some hardness 2
mae
of heart, in paternal example and professional tuition. But ‘what are such sober infirmities to the vices that arise from defiance and despair? Your savage has his virtues, but they are mostly physical—fortitude, abstinence, patience: mental and moral virtues must be numerous or few, in proportion to the range of ideas and the exigencies of social life. With the savage, therefore, they must be fewer than with civilised men;
0°tC—(“té“‘ LCE ORR, THI ee.
and they are consequently limited to those simple and rude elements which the safety of his state renders necessary to him. © He is usually hospitable; sometimes honest. But vices are necessary to his existence as well as virtues: he is at war with — a tribe that may destroy his own; and treachery without scruple, 4 cruelty without remorse, are essential to him; he feels their — necessity, and calls them virives/ Even the half-civilised man, — the Arab whom you praise, imagines he has a necessity for your money; and his robberies become virtues to him. But in civilised states, vices are at least not necessary to the existence of the majority; they are not, therefore, worshipped as virtues — Society unites against them; treachery, robbery, massacre, are 3 not essential to the strength or safety of the community: they — exist, it is true, but they are not cultivated, but punished. The — thief in St. Giles’s has the virtues of your savage: he is true to his companions, he is brave in danger, he is patient in privation ; 3 he practises the virtues necessary to the bonds of his calling — and the tacit laws of his vocation. He might have made an admirable savage: but surely the mass of civilised men are better than the thief?” a Maltravers was struck, and paused a little before he replied; and then he shifted his ground. “But at least all our laws, all our efforts, must leave the multitude in every state condemned ; to a labour that deadens intellect, and a poverty that embitters © life.” am “Supposing this were true, still there are multitudes besides : the multitude. In each state Civilisation produces a middle .class, more numerous to-day than the whole peasantry of a thousand years ago. Would Movement and Progress be without their divine uses, even if they limited their effect to the produc- tion of such a class? Look also to the effect of art, and refinement, and just laws, in the wealthier and higher classes. See how their very habits of life tend to increase the sum of enjoyment—see the mighty activity that their very luxury, the very frivolity of their pursuits, create! Without an aristocracy, would there have been a middle class? without a middle class, would there ever have been an interposition between lord and ‘slave! Before commerce produces a middle class, Religion
et
~e
ates one. The Priesthood, whatever its errors, was the curb ; to Power. But, to return to the multitude—you say that in all times they are left the same. Is it so? I come to statistics
- again: I find that not only civilisation, but liberty, has a pro- _ digious effect upon human life. It is, as it were, by the instinct
_ of self-preservation that liberty is so passionately desired by the —
multitude A negro slave, for instance, dies annually as one to five or six, but a free African in the English service only as one _ to thirty-five! Freedom is not, therefore, a mere abstract dream _ —a beautiful name—a Platonic aspiration: it is interwoven with
diminished? We have granted already, that since there are _ degrees in discontent, there is a difference between the peasant 7 and the serf ;—how know you what the peasant a thousand years
hence may be? Discontented, you will say—still discontented,
Yes; but if he had not been discontented, he would have been aserf still! Far from quelling this desire to better himself, we ought to hail it as the source of his perpetual progress. That - desire to him is often like imagination to the poet, it transports
him into the Future—
a 2
*Crura sonant ferro, sed canit inter opus ’—
it is, indeed, the gradual transformation from the desire of 4 Despair to the desire of Hope, that makes the difference between man and man—between misery and bliss.”
7 “And then comes the crisis. Hope ripens into deeds; the _ stormy revolution, perhaps the armed despotism; the relapse into the second infancy of states !”
Can we, with new agencies at our command—new morality _—new wisdom—predicate of the Future by the Past? In ancient states, the mass were slaves; civilisation and freedom 3 rested with oligarchies ; in Athens 20,000 citizens, 400,000 slaves! How easy decline, degeneracy, overthrow in such states—a hand- ful of soldiers and philosophers without a People). Now we have no longer barriers to the circulation of the blood of states. The absence of slavery, the existence of the Press; the healthful pro- ortions of kingdoms, neither too confined nor too vast; have
_ the most practical of all blessings, life itself! And can you say — fairly, that, by laws, labour cannot be lightened and poverty -
CES fal ie Ae END Pig 2 ey Sh Ey Wy
ALICE; OR, THE MYSTE
ee
created new hopes, which history cannot destroy. As a proof,
look to all late revolutions: in England the Civil Wars, the Reformation,—in France her awful Saturnalia, her military despotism! Has either nation fallen back? The deluge passes,
and behold, the face of things more glorious than before! —
Compare the French of to-day with the French of the old régime. —
You are silent ; well, and if in all states there iseversome danger
= ; ¥ 2 F. .
of evil in their activity, is that a reason why you are to lie down
inactive ?—why you are to leave the crew to battle for the helm ? a
How much may individuals by the diffusion of their own
thoughts in letters or in action regulate the order of vast 4 - events—now prevent—now soften—now animate—now guide! And is a man, to whom Providence and Fortune have imparted — such prerogatives, to stand aloof, because he can neither foresee _
the Future nor create Perfection? And you talk of no certain
and to God.” . “You have disturbed many of my theories,” said Maltravers, — candidly; “and I will reflect on our conversation; but, after all,
is every man to aspire to influence others? to throw his opinion | into the great scales in which human destinies are weighed ? —
Private life is not criminal. It is no virtue to write a book, or to — maxe a speech. Perhaps, I should be as well engaged in ©
returning to my country village, looking at my schools, and —
wrangling with the parish overseers——" :
“Ah,” interrupted the Frenchman, laughing; “if I have driven you to this point, I will go no further. Every state of | life has its duties; every man must be himself the judge of what 1 he is most fit for. It is quite enough that he desires to be active, and labours to be useful; that he acknowledges the precept, ‘never to be weary in well-doing.” The divine appetite | once fostered, let it select its own food. But the man who, after fair trial of his capacities, and with all opportunity for their full | development before him, is convinced that he has faculties.
ha 4
5
and definite goal! How know we that there is a certain and 4 definite goal, even in Heaven? How know we that excellence — may not be illimitable? Enough that we improve—that we — proceed. Seeing in the great design of earth that benevolence is’ q
an attribute of the Designer, let us leave the rest to Posterity —
oS
1 private life cannot wholly absorb must not repine that _ fuman Nature is not perfect, when he refuses even to exercise he gifts he himself possesses.” I
Now these arguments have been very tedious; in some places - hey have been old and trite; in others they may appear too” nuch to appertain to the abstract theory of first principles. Yet
om such arguments, pro and cov, unless I greatly mistake, are be derived corollaries equally practical and sublime; the irtue of Action—the obligations of Genius—and the philosophy
at teaches us to confide in the destiniés, and labour in the ervice, of mankind, . e