Error of Mr Godwin is considering man too much in the light of a
being merely rational - In the compound being, man, the passions
will always act as disturbing forces in the decisions of the
understanding - Reasonings of Mr Godwin on the subject of
coercion - Some truths of a nature not to be communicated from
one man to another.
IN the chapter which I have been examining, Mr Godwin professes
to consider the objection to his system of equality from the
principle of population. It has appeared, I think clearly, that
he is greatly erroneous in his statement of the distance of this
difficulty, and that instead of myriads of centuries, it is
really not thirty years, or even thirty days, distant from us.
The supposition of the approach of man to immortality on earth is
certainly not of a kind to soften the difficulty. The only
argument, therefore, in the chapter which has any tendency to
remove the objection is the conjecture concerning the extinction
of the passion between the sexes, but as this is a mere
conjecture, unsupported by the smallest shadow of proof, the
force of the objection may be fairly said to remain unimpaired,
and it is undoubtedly of sufficient weight of itself completely
to overturn Mr Godwin's whole system of equality. I will,
however, make one or two observations on a few of the prominent
parts of Mr Godwin's reasonings which will contribute to place in
a still clearer point of view the little hope that we can
reasonably entertain of those vast improvements in the nature of
man and of society which he holds up to our admiring gaze in his
Political Justice.
Mr Godwin considers man too much in the light of a being
merely intellectual. This error, at least such I conceive it to
be, pervades his whole work and mixes itself with all his
reasonings. The voluntary actions of men may originate in their
opinions, but these opinions will be very differently modified in
creatures compounded of a rational faculty and corporal
propensities from what they would be in beings wholly
intellectual. Mr Godwin, in proving that sound reasoning and
truth are capable of being adequately communicated, examines the
proposition first practically, and then adds, 'Such is the
appearance which this proposition assumes, when examined in a
loose and practical view. In strict consideration it will not
admit of debate. Man is a rational being, etc.' (Bk. I, ch. 5; in
the third edition Vol. I, p. 88). So far from calling this a
strict consideration of the subject, I own I should call it the
loosest, and most erroneous, way possible, of considering it. It
is the calculating the velocity of a falling body in vacuo, and
persisting in it, that it would be the same through whatever
resisting mediums it might fall. This was not Newton's mode of
philosophizing. Very few general propositions are just in
application to a particular subject. The moon is not kept in her
orbit round the earth, nor the earth in her orbit round the sun,
by a force that varies merely in the inverse ratio of the squares
of the distances. To make the general theory just in application
to the revolutions of these bodies, it was necessary to calculate
accurately the disturbing force of the sun upon the moon, and of
the moon upon the earth; and till these disturbing forces were
properly estimated, actual observations on the motions of these
bodies would have proved that the theory was not accurately true.
I am willing to allow that every voluntary act is preceded by
a decision of the mind, but it is strangely opposite to what I
should conceive to be the just theory upon the subject, and a
palpable contradiction to all experience, to say that the
corporal propensities of man do not act very powerfully, as
disturbing forces, in these decisions. The question, therefore,
does not merely depend upon whether a man may be made to
understand a distinct proposition or be convinced by an
unanswerable argument. A truth may be brought home to his
conviction as a rational being, though he may determine to act
contrary to it, as a compound being. The cravings of hunger, the
love of liquor, the desire of possessing a beautiful woman, will
urge men to actions, of the fatal consequences of which, to the
general interests of society, they are perfectly well convinced,
even at the very time they commit them. Remove their bodily
cravings, and they would not hesitate a moment in determining
against such actions. Ask them their opinion of the same conduct
in another person, and they would immediately reprobate it. But
in their own case, and under all the circumstances of their
situation with these bodily cravings, the decision of the
compound being is different from the conviction of the rational
being.
If this be the just view of the subject, and both theory and
experience unite to prove that it is, almost all Mr Godwin's
reasonings on the subject of coercion in his seventh chapter,
will appear to be founded on error. He spends some time in
placing in a ridiculous point of view the attempt to convince a
man's understanding and to clear up a doubtful proposition in his
mind, by blows. Undoubtedly it is both ridiculous and barbarous,
and so is cock-fighting, but one has little more to do with the
real object of human punishments than the other. One frequent
(indeed much too frequent) mode of punishment is death. Mr Godwin
will hardly think this intended for conviction, at least it does
not appear how the individual or the society could reap much
future benefit from an understanding enlightened in this manner.
The principal objects which human punishments have in view
are undoubtedly restraint and example; restraint, or removal, of
an individual member whose vicious habits are likely to be
prejudicial to the society'; and example, which by expressing the
sense of the community with regard to a particular crime, and by
associating more nearly and visibly crime and punishment, holds
out a moral motive to dissuade others from the commission of it.
Restraint, Mr Godwin thinks, may be permitted as a temporary
expedient, though he reprobates solitary imprisonment, which has
certainly been the most successful, and, indeed, almost the only
attempt towards the moral amelioration of offenders. He talks of
the selfish passions that are fostered by solitude and of the
virtues generated in society. But surely these virtues are not
generated in the society of a prison. Were the offender confined
to the society of able and virtuous men he would probably be more
improved than in solitude. But is this practicable? Mr Godwin's
ingenuity is more frequently employed in finding out evils than
in suggesting practical remedies.
Punishment, for example, is totally reprobated. By
endeavouring to make examples too impressive and terrible,
nations have, indeed, been led into the most barbarous cruelties,
but the abuse of any practice is not a good argument against its
use. The indefatigable pains taken in this country to find out a
murder, and the certainty of its punishment, has powerfully
contributed to generate that sentiment which is frequent in the
mouths of the common people, that a murder will sooner or later
come to light; and the habitual horror in which murder is in
consequence held will make a man, in the agony of passion, throw
down his knife for fear he should be tempted to use it in the
gratification of his revenge. In Italy, where murderers, by
flying to a sanctuary, are allowed more frequently to escape, the
crime has never been held in the same detestation and has
consequently been more frequent. No man, who is at all aware of
the operation of moral motives, can doubt for a moment, that if
every murder in Italy had been invariably punished, the use of
the stiletto in transports of passion would have been
comparatively but little known.
That human laws either do, or can, proportion the punishment
accurately to the offence, no person will have the folly to
assert. From the inscrutability of motives the thing is
absolutely impossible, but this imperfection, though it may be
called a species of injustice, is no valid argument against human
laws. It is the lot of man, that he will frequently have to
choose between two evils; and it is a sufficient reason for the
adoption of any institution, that it is the best mode that
suggests itself of preventing greater evils. A continual
endeavour should undoubtedly prevail to make these institutions
as perfect as the nature of them will admit. But nothing is so
easy as to find fault with human institutions; nothing so
difficult as to suggest adequate practical improvements. It is to
be lamented, that more men of talents employ their time in the
former occupation than in the tatter.
The frequency of crime among men, who, as the common saying
is, know better, sufficiently proves, that some truths may be
brought home to the conviction of the mind without always
producing the proper effect upon the conduct. There are other
truths of a nature that perhaps never can be adequately
communicated from one man to another. The superiority of the
pleasures of intellect to those of sense, Mr Godwin considers as
a fundamental truth. Taking all circumstances into consideration,
I should be disposed to agree with him; but how am I to
communicate this truth to a person who has scarcely ever felt
intellectual pleasure? I may as well attempt to explain the
nature and beauty of colours to a blind man. If I am ever so
laborious, patient, and clear, and have the most repeated
opportunities of expostulation, any real progress toward the
accomplishment of my purpose seems absolutely hopeless. There is
no common measure between us. I cannot proceed step by step.. It
is a truth of a nature absolutely incapable of demonstration. All
that I can say is, that the wisest and best men in all ages had
agreed in giving the preference, very greatly, to the pleasures
of intellect; and that my own experience completely confirmed the
truth of their decisions; that I had found sensual pleasures
vain, transient, and continually attended with tedium and
disgust; but that intellectual pleasures appeared to me ever
fresh and young, filled up all my hours satisfactorily, gave a
new zest to life, and diffused a lasting serenity over my mind.
If he believe me, it can only be from respect and veneration for
my authority. It is credulity, and not conviction. I have not
said any thing, nor can any thing be said, of a nature to produce
real conviction. The affair is not an affair of reasoning, but of
experience. He would probably observe in reply, what you say may
be very true with regard to yourself and many other good men, but
for my own part I feel very differently upon the subject. I have
very frequently taken up a book and almost as frequently gone to
sleep over it; but when I pass an evening with a gay party, or a
pretty woman, I feel alive, and in spirits, and truly enjoy my
existence.
Under such circumstances, reasoning and arguments are not
instruments from which success can be expected. At some future
time perhaps, real satiety of sensual pleasures, or some
accidental impressions that awakened the energies of his mind,
might effect that, in a month, which the most patient and able
expostulations might be incapable of effecting in forty years.