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discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web THOUGHTS ON MAN, 4 ■' HIS NATURE, PRODUCTIONS, AND DISCOVERIES.
INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE AUTHOR.
BY WILLIAM GODWIN.
Oh, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion, than to start a hare!
SUAKESPEAR.
LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE.
1831.
III .a mi *■ ■ *.
9 C / / PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR, PBINTSR TO THE VNIFSBBJTT OF LONDONf RZO LION COURT, FLZET STREET.
PREFACE.
IN the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and permanent form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my mind in the course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I published a volume, entitled, the Enquirer, — thoughts, which, if they have presented themselves, to other men, have, at least so far as I am aware, never been given to the public through the me^ dium of the press. During a part of this period I had remained to a considerable degree unoccupied in my character of an author, and had delivered little to the press that bore my name. — And I beg the reader to believe, that, since I entered in 1791 upon that which may be considered as my voca- tion in life, I have scarcely in any instance contri- buted a page to any periodical miscellany.
My mind has been constitutionally meditative; and I should not have felt satisfied, if I had not A 2 IV PREFACE.
set in order for publication these special fruits of my meditations. I had entered upon a certain ca- reer; and I held it for my duty not to abandon it.
One thing further I feel prompted to say. I have always regarded it as my office to address myself to plain men^ and in clear and unambi- guous terms. It has been my lot to have occasi- onal intercourse with some of those who consider themselves as profound, who deliver their oracles in obscure phraseology, and who make it their ))oast that few men can understand them, and those few only through a process of abstract re- flection, and by means of unwearied application.
To this class of the oracular I certainly did not belong. I felt that I had nothing to say, that it should be very difficult to understand. I resolved, if I could help it, not to " darken counsel by words without knowledge." This was my princi- ple in the Enquiry concerning Political Justice. And I had my reward. I had a numerous au- dience of all classes, of every age, and of either sex. The young and the fair did not feel deterred from consulting my pages.
PREFACE. V PREFACE. V It may be that that book was published in a propitious season. I am told that nothing coming from the press will now be welcomed, unless it presents itself in the express form of amusement. He who shall propose to himself for his principal end, to draw aside in one particular or another the veil from the majesty of intellectual or moral truth, must lay his account in being received with little attention.
I have not been willing to believe this: and I publish my speculations accordingly. I have aimed at a popular, and (if I could reach it) an interesting style; and, if I am thrust aside and disregarded, I shall console myself with believing that I have not neglected what it was in my power to achieve.
One characteristic of the present publication will not fail to offer itself to the most superficial reader. I know many men who are misanthropes, and profess to look down with disdain on their species. My creed is of an opposite character. All that we observe that is best and most excellent in the intellectual world, is man: and it is easy to VI PREFACE.
VI PREFACE.
perceive in many cases, that the believer in mys- teries does little more, than dress up his deity in the choicest of human attributes and qualifica- tions. I have lived among, and I feel an ardent interest in and love for, my brethren of mankind. This sentiment, which I regard with complacency in my own breast, I would gladly cherish in others. In such a cause I am well pleased to enrol myself a missionary.
February 15, 1831.
The particulars respecting the author, referred to in the title-page, will be found principally in Essays VII, IX, XIV, and XVIII.
CONTENTS.
Essay. Page.
I. Of Body and Mind. The Prologue 1 II. Of the Distribution of Talents 16 III. Of Intellectual Abortion 53 IV. Of the Durability of Human Achievements and Productions 73 V. Of the Rebelliousness of Man,. 93 VI. Of Human Innocence 112 VII. Of the Duration of Human Life 127 VIII. Of Human Vegetation 145 IX. Of Leisure 164 X. Of Imitation and Invention 181 XI. Of Self-Love and Benevolence 205 XII. Of the Liberty of Human Actions 226 XIII. Of Belief 243 XIV. Of Youth and Age 260 XV. Of Love and Friendship 273 XVL Of Frankness and Reserve 299 XVII. Of Ballot 314 XVIII. Of Diffidence 332 XIX. Of Self. Complacency 343 XX. Of Phrenology 357 XXI. Of Astronomy 376 XXII. Of the Material Universe 436 XXIII. Of Human Virtue. The Epilogue 456 ERRATUM.
Page 334, line 13, for "or that were thrown in my way," read " that were thrown in my way, or."
THOUGHTS, 8fc.
ESSAY I.
OF BODY AND MIND. THE PROLOGUE.
X HERE is no subject that more frequently occu- pies the attention of the contemplative than man: yet there are many circumstances concerning him that we shall hardly admit to have been sufficiently considered.
Familiarity breeds contempt. That which we see every day and every hbur, it is difficult for us to regard with admiration. To almost every one of our stronger emotions novelty is a necessary ingre- dient. The simple appetites of our nature may perhaps form an exception. The appetite for food is perpetually renewed in a healthy subject with scarcely any diminution: and 4ove^ even the most refined^ being combined with one of our original impulses^ will sometimes for that reason withstand a thousand trials^ and perpetuate itself for years. In all other cases it is required^ that a fresh impulse should be given^ that attention should anew be ex- B 2 OF BODY AND MIND. [fiSSAY citedj or we cannot admire. Things often seen pass feebly before our s^nses^ and scarcely awake the languid souL ^^ Man is the most excellent and noble creature of the world, the principal and mighty work of God, the wonder of nature, the marvel of marvels *."
Let us have regard to his corporeal structure. There is a simplicity in it, that at first perhaps we slightly consider. But how exactly is it fashioned for strength and agility! It is in no way incumber- ed. It is like the marble when it comes out of the hand of the consummate sculptor; every thing un- necessary is carefully chiseled away; and the joints, the muscles, the articulations, and the veins come out, clean and finished* It has long ago been ob- served, that beauty, as well as virtue, is the middle between all extremes: that nose which is neither specially long, nor short, nor thick, nor thin, is the perfect nose; and so of the rest. In like manner, when I speak of man generally, I do not regard any aberrations of form, obesity, a thick calf, a thin calf; I take the middle between all extremes; and this is emphatically man..
Man cannot keep pace with a starting horse: but he can persevere, and beats him in the end.
What an infinite variety of works is man by his corporeal form enabled to accomplish! in this re^ spect he casts the whole creation behind him.
What a machine is the human hand I When we I.] OF BODY AND MIND. S « analyse its parts and its use^, it appears to be the most c^Bsuipmate of our mem1;)ers. And yet there are other parts, that may maintain no mean rivals ship against it.
What a sublimity is to be attributed to his upright form! He is not fashioned^ veluti pecora, pue no- iura prona atque ventri obedtentiajinxit. He is made codi convexa tueri. The looks that are given him in his original structure^ are ^^ looks commercing with the skies."
How surpassingly beautiful are the features of his countenance; the eyes^ thse nbse^ the mouth! How noble do they appe^x in a state of repose! With what never-ending variety and emphasis do they express the emotions of his mind!, In the visage of man, uncoirnpted and undebased, we read the frankness and ingenuousness of his soul^ the clearness of his reflections, the penetration of his spirit* What a volume of understanding is unrolled in his broad^ expanded^ lofty Urow! hi his coun« tenance we see expressed at one time sedate coih fidenoe and awful intrepidity, and at another god-^ like condescension and the most melting tender-** ness. Who can behold the human eye, suddenly sufiused with moisture, or gushing with tears unbid^ and the quivering lip, without unspjeaPkable emotion? Shakespear talks of an eye, ^^whose bend could awe the world."
What a miraculous thing is the human com^ plexion! We are sent into the world naked, that b2 4 OF BODY AND MIND. [esSAY all the variations of the blood might be made visi- ble- However trite, I cannot avoid quoting here the lines of the most deep-thinking and philosophi*- cal of om* poets: We understood Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought. That one might almost say her body thought.
What a curious phenomenon is that of blushing! It is impossible to witness this phenomenon with- out interest and sympathy. It comes at once, un- anticipated by the person in whom we behold it. It comes from the soul, and expresses with equal certainty shame, modesty, and vivid, uncontrolable affection. It spreads, as it were in so many stages, over the cheeks, the brow, and the neck, of him or her in whom the sentiment that gives birth to it is working.
Thus far I have not mentioned speech, not per- haps the most inestimable of human gifts, but, if it is not that, it is at least the endowment, which makes man social, by which principally we impart our sentiments to each other, and which changes us from solitary individuals, and bestows on us a duplicate and multipliable existence. Beside which it incalculably increaseii the perfection of one. The man.Vho does not speaks is an unfledged thinker; and the man that does not write, is but half an in- vestigator.
Not to enter into all the mysteries of articulate 1.] OF BODY AND MIND. 5 speech and the irresistible power of eloquence, whether addressed to a single hearer, or instilled into the ears of many, — a topic that belongs perhaps less to the chapter of body than mind, — ^let us for a moment fix our thoughts steadily upon that little implement, the human voice. Of what unnumbered modulations is it susceptible! What terror may it inspire! How may it electrify the soul, and sus- pend all its functions! How infinite is its melody! How instantly it subdues the hearer to pity or to love! How does the listener hang upon every note praying that it may last for ever, that even silence Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might Deny her nature, and be never more^ Still to be so displaced.
It is here especially that we are presented with the triumphs of civilisation. How immeasurable is the distance between the voice of the clown, who never thought of the power that dwells in this fa- culty, who delivers himself in a rude, discordant and unmodulated accent, and is accustomed to confer with his fellow at the distance of two fields, and the man who understands his instrument as Handdi understood the organ, and who, whether he thinks of it OF no, sways those that hear him as implicitly as Orpheus is said to have subdued the brute CTca- tion! * From the countenance of man let us proceed to his figure. Every limb is capable of speaking, and 6 OF BODY AND MIND. [ESSAY telling its own tale. What can equal the magnifi- cence of the neck^ the column upon which the head reposes! The ample chest may denote an almost infinite strength and power. Let us call to mind the Apollo Belvidere^ and the Venus de Medicis, whose very "bends are adomings.^ What loftiness and awe have I seen expressed in the step of an actress^ not yet deceased^ when first she advanced^ and came down towards the audience! I was ravish- ed^ and with difficulty kept my seat. Pass we to the mazes of the dance^ the inimitable charms and pic- turesque beauty that may be given to the figure while still unmoved^ and the ravishing grace that dwells in it during its endless changes and evolu- tions.
The upright figure of man produces, incidentally as it were^ and by the bye, another memorable effect. Hence we derive the power of meeting in halls, and congregations, and crowded assemblies. We are found "at large, though without number,'* at solemn commemorations and on fe§tive occasions. We touch each other, as the members of a gay party are accustomed to do, when they wait the stroke of an electrical machine, and the spark spreads along from man to man. It is thus that we have our feel- ings in common at a theatrical representation and at a public dinner, that indignation is communi- cated, and patriotism become irrepressible.. One man can convey his sentiments in articulate speech to a thousand; and this is the nursing mother of I.] OF BODY ANP MIND. 7: oratory^ of public morality, of public religion, 91^ the drama. The privilege we thus possess, WPfifi^ indeed too apt to abuse; but man is scarcely ever so magnificent and so awful, as when hundreds of human heads are assembled together, hundreds of faces lifted up to contemplate one object, and hun* dreds of voices uttered in the expression of one common sentiment.
Bul^ notwithstanding the infinite beauty, the mar gazine of excellencies and perfections, that apper^- tains to the human body, the mind claims, and justly claims, an undoubted superiority. I am not going into an enumeration of the various faculties and endowments of the mind of man, as I have done of his body. The latter was necessary for my pur- pose. Before I proceeded to consider the ascen-? dancy of mind, the cbminion and loftiness it is accustomed to assert, it appeared but just to re* collect what was the nature and value of its subject and its slave.
By. the mind we understand that within us which feeb^and thinks, the seat of sensation and reason. Where it resides we cannot tell, nor can authori^ tatively pronounce, as the apostle says, relatively to a particular phenomenon, ^^ whether it is in the body, or out of the body.** Be it however where or what it may, it is this which constitutes the great essence of, and gives value to, our existence; and all the wonders of our microcosm would without it be a form only, destined immediately to perish.
8 OF BODY AND MIND. [ESSAY and of no greater account than as a clod of the valley.
It was an important remark, suggested to me many years ago by an eminent physiologer and anatomist, that, when I find my attention called to any particular part or member of my body, I may be morally sure that there is something amiss in the processes of that part or member. As long as the whole economy of the frame goes on well and with- out interruption, our attention is not called to it. The intellectual man is like a disembodied spirit. He is almost in the state of the dervise in the Arabian Nights, who had the power of darting his soul into the unanimated body of another, human or brute, while he left his own body in the condi- tion of an insensible carcase, till it should be re- vivified by the same or some other spirit. When I am, as it is vulgarly understood, in a state of motion, I use my limbs as the implements of my will. When, in a quiescent state of the body, I continue to think, to reflect and to reason, I use, it may be, the substance of the brain as the implement of my thinking) reflecting and reasoning; though of this ■ in fact we know nothing.
We have every reason to believe that the mind cannot subsist without the body; at least we must be very diiferent creatures from what we are at pre- sent, when that shall take place. For a man to think, agreeably and with serenity, he must be in some degree of health. The corpus sanum is no less 1.] OP BODY AND MIND. 9 indispensible than the mens sana. We must eat, and drink, and sleep. We must have a reasonably good appetite and digestion, and a fitting temperature, neither too hot nor cold. It is desirable that ve should have air and exercise. But this is instru- mental merely. All these things are negatives, con- ditions without which we cannot think to the best purpose, but which lend no active assistance to our thinking.
Man is a godlike being. We launch ourselves in conceit into illimitable space, and take up our rest beyond the fixed stars. We proceed without impediment from country to country, and frt>m cen- tury to century, through all the ages of the past, and dirough the vast creation of the imaginable future. We spurn at the bounds of time and space; nor would the thought be less futile that imagines to imprison the mind within the limits of the body, than the attempt of the booby clown who is said within a thick hedge to have plotted to shut in the flight of an eagle.
We never find our attention called to any parti- cular part or member of the body, except when there is somewhat amiss in that part or member. And, in like maQner as we do not think of any one part or member in particular, so neither do we con- sider our entire microcosm and frame. The body is apprehended as no more important and of inti- mate connection to a man engaged in a train of re- », than the house or apartment in which he 10 OF BODY AND MINP* [SSSAY dwells. The mind may aptly be described mider the denomination of the '^ stranger at home.^ On set occasions and at impropriate times we examine our stores, and ascertain the yarious commodities we hare, laid up in our presses and our coffers. like the gOTemor of a fort in time of peace^ which was erected to keep out a foreign assailant, we occasion- ally visit our armoury, and take account of the muskets, the swords, and other implements of war it contains, but for the most part are engaged in die occupations of peace, and do not call the means of warfare in any sort to our recollection. - The mind may aptly be described under the de- nomination of the ^^ stranger at home."* With their bodies most men are little acquainted. We are ^ like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, who beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is.^ In the ruminations of the inner man, and the dissecting our thoughts and desires, we employ our intellectual arithmetic, we add, and subtract, and multiply, and divide, without asking the aid, with- out adverting to the existence, of our joints and members. Even as to the more corporeal part of our avocations, we behold the external world, and proceed straight to the object of our desires, with- out almost ever thinking of this medium, our own material frame, unaided by which none of these things could be accomplished. In this sense we may properly be said to be spiritual existences.
I.] OF BODY ANX^ Af IND. 1 1 however iioperfect may be the idea we are enabled to affix to the:teria spirit.
Hence arises: the notion^ whidi has been enter*- tained ever sihce the birth of reflection and lo^cal discourse in the world, and which in some fiiint and confused degree exists probably even among savages^ that the body is the prison of the mind. It is ia this sense that Waller^ after completing fourscore years of age^ expresses himself in these affecting and interesting couplets* V^hen we lor age could neither read nor write^ The subject made us able to indite. < The soul's dar|c cottage, battered and decayed. Lets in new light by chinks that time hath made: Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become. As they draw near to their eternal home.
Thus it is common with persons of elevated soul to talk of neglecting^ overlooking, and taking smaU account of the body. It is in this spirit that the story is recorded of Anaxarchus, who, we are told, was ordered by Nicocreon, tyrant of Salamis, to be pounded in a mortar, and who, in contempt of his mortal sufferings, exclaimed, ^^Beat on, tyrant! thoti dost but strike upon the case of Anaxarchus; thou canst not touch the man himself.'' And it is in something of the same light that we must regard what is related of the North American savages. Beings, who scoff at their tortures, must have an idea of something that lies beyond the reach of their assailants. It is just however to observe, that some of the 12 OF BODY AND MIND. [essAY particulars here related^ belong not less to the brute creation than to man. If men are imperfectly ac- -quainted with their external figure and appearance^ this may well be conceived to be still more predi- cable of the inferior animals. It is true that all of them seem to be aware of the part in their struc- ture^ where lie their main strength and means of hostility. Thus the bull attacks with his homs^ and the horse with his heels^ the beast of prey with his claws^ the bird with his beak^ and insects and other venomous creatures with their sting. We know not by what impulse they are prompted to the use of the various means which are so inti- mately connected with their preservation and wel- fare; and we call it instinct. We may be certain it does not arise from a careful survey of their parts and members, and a methodised selection of the means which shall be found most effectual for the accomplishment of their ends. There is no preme- jditation; and^ without anatomical knowledge^ or any distinct acquaintance with their image and like- ness, they proceed straight to their purpose. Hence, even as men, they are more familiar with the fi- gures and appearance of their fellows, their allies, or their enemies, than with their own.
Man is a creature of mingled substance. I am many times a day compelled to acknowledge what a low, mean and contemptible being I am. Philip of Macedon had no need to give it in charge to a page, to repair to him every morning, and repeat.
I.] OF BODY AND MIND. 13 " Remember^ sir, you are a man." A variety of cir* cumstances occur to us, while we eat, and drinki, and submit to the humiliating necessities of nature^ that may well inculcate into us this salutary lesson^ The wonder rather is, that man, who has so many things to put him in mind to be humble and de-^ spise himself, should ever have been susceptible of pride and disdain* Nebuchadnezzar must indeed have been the most besotted of mortals, if it were necessary that he should be driven from among men, and made to eat grass like an ox, to convince him that he was not the equal of the power that made him.
But fortunately, as I have said, man is a ^^ stran-* get at home." Were it not for this, how incompre- hensible would be The ceremony that to great ones 'longs. The monarch's crown, and the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, and the judge's robe!
How ludicrous would be the long procession and the caparisoned horse, the gilded chariot and the flowing train, the colours flying, the drums beat* ing, and the sound of trumpets rending the air^ which after all only introduce to us an ordinary man, no otherwise perhaps distinguished from the vilest of the ragged spectators, than by the accident of his birth!
But what is of more importance in the tempo- rary obUvion we are enabled to throw over the re-* fuse of the body, it is thus we arrive at the majesty 14 OF BODY AND MIND. [esSAY of man. That sublimity of conception which ren- ders the poet^ and the mzn of great literary and original endowments '^in apprehension like a God^'* we conld not have, if we were not privileged occa- sionally to cast away the slough and exuvuE of the body from incumbering and dishonouring us^ even M Ulysses passed over his threshold^ stripped of the rags that had obscured him^ while Minerva enlarged his frame^ and gave loftiness to his stature^ added a youthful beauty and grace to his motions^ and caused his eyes to flash with more than mortal fire. With what disdain^ when I have been rapt in the loftiest moods of mind^ do I look down upon my limbs^ the house of day that contains me^ the gross flesh and blood of which my frame is composed^ and wonder at a lodgings poorly fitted to entertain so divine a guest!
A still more important chapter in the history of the human mind has its origin in these conside- rations. Hence it is that unenlightened man^ in almost all ages and countries^ has been induced^ independently of divine revelation^ to regard deaths the most awfrd event to which we are subject^ as not being the termination of his existence. We see the body of our friend become insensible^ and remain without motion, or any external indication of what we call life. We can shut it up in an apart- ment, and visit it from day to day. If we had per- severance enough, and could so far conquer the sepugnance and humiliating feeling with which the h] OF BODY AND MIND. 15 experiment would be attended, we might follow step by step the process of decomposition and pu- trefaction, and observe by what degrees the " dust returned unto earth as it was." But, in spite of this demonstration of the senses, man still believes that there is something in him that lives after death. The mind is so infinitely superior in character to this case of flesh that incloses it, that he cannot persuade himself that it and the body perish to- gether.
There are two considerations, the force of which made man a religious animal. The first is, his proneness to ascribe hostility or benevolent inten- tion to every thing of a memorable sort that occurs to him in the order of nature. The second is that of which I have just treated, the superior dignity of mind over body. This, we persuade ourselves, shall subsist uninjured by the mutations of our cor- poreal frame, and undestroyed by the wreck of the material universe.
16 OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. [essAY ESSAY 11.
OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS.
HoXv re dia<l>ep€iv oh ^el vo/ii^ecv 6.vdpiavov aydpuvoVf KpaTurrov ^k elyai oaris kv rdis avayKaiordrois irai^everai, SECTION I.
PRESUMED DEARTH OF INTELLECTUAL POWER. — SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH CONSIDERED. — THE BOY AND THE MAN COMPARED.
One of the earliest judgments that is usually made by those whose attention is turned to the characters of men in the social state^ is of the great inequality with which the gifts of the understanding are dis- tributed among us.
Go into a miscellaneous society; sit down at table with ten or twelve men; repair to a club where as many are assembled in an evening to relax from the toils of the day — it is almost proverbial, that one or two of these persons will perhaps be brilliant, and the rest ^^ weary, stale, flat and un- profitable."
Go into a numerous school — ^the case will be still more striking. I have been present where two men of superior endowments endeavoured to enter into a calculation on the subject; and they agreed that 11.] OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. 17 there was not above one boy in a hundred, who would be found to possess a penetrating understand- ing, and to be able to strike into a path of intellect that was truly his own. How common is it to hear the master of such a school say, *^ Aye, I am proud of that lad; I have been a schoolmaster these thirty years, and have never had such another! " The society above referred to, the dinner-party, or the club, was to a considerable degree select, brought together by a certain supposed congeniality between the individuals thus assembled. Were they taken indiscriminately, as boys are when consigned to the care of a schoolmaster, the proportion of the brilliant would not be a whit greater than in the latter case.
A main criterion of the superiority of the school- boy will be found in his mode of answering a ca- sual question proposed by the master. The majority will be wholly at fault, will shew that they do not understand the question, and will return an answer altogether from the purpose. One in a hundred perhaps, perhaps in a still less proportion, will reply in a laudable manner, and convey his ideas in per- spicuous and spirited language.
It does not certainly go altogether so ill, with men grown up to years of maturity. They do not for the most part answer a plain question in a man- ner to make you wonder at their fatuity.
A main cause of the disadvantageous appearance exhibited by the ordinary schoolboy, lies in what c 18 OF THS DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS. [ESSAY we dehominate sheepishness. He is at a loss^ and in the first place stares at you^ instead of giving an answer. He does not make by many degrees so poor a figure among his equals^ as when he is ad- dressed by his seniors.