Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness, and faction/Section 5

 

SECT.V.

 

Virtuous Manners and Principles the only permanent Foundation of civil Liberty.

 

WHAT, then, are the permanent Foundations, on which perfect Liberty can arise?—I answer, it can only arise on the Power of such a System of Manners and Principles effectually impressed on the human Mind, as may be an inward Curb to every inordinate Desire; or rather, such as may so frame and model the Human Heart, that its ruling Desires may correspond, coincide, or coalesce, with all the great and essential Appointments of public Law.

The Nature of Man admits of this Improvement, though not in a perfect, yet in a considerable Degree. He is born with Appetites suited to his own Preservation, and the Continuance of his Species: Beyond this, he is by Nature at once selfish and social; compassionate and resentful; docile, either to Good or Evil; and hence, capable of acquiring new Habits, new Passions, new Desires, either to the Welfare or Destruction of his Fellow-Creatures.

Virtuous Manners I call such acquired Habits of Thought and correspondent Action, as lead to a steady Prosecution of the general Welfare.

Virtuous Principles I call such as tend to confirm these Habits, by superinducing the Idea of Duty.

Virtuous Manners are a permanent Foundation for civil Liberty, because they lead the Passions and Desires themselves to coincide with the Appointments of public Law. The infant Mind is pregnant with a Variety of Passions: But it is in the Power of those who are intrusted with the Education of Youth, in a considerable Degree, to determine the Bent of the nascent Passions; to fix them on salutary Objects, or let them loose to such as are pernicious or destructive.

Here, then, lie the first Foundations of civil Liberty: In forming the Habits of the youthful Heart, to a Coincidence with the general Welfare: In checking every rising Appetite that is contrary to This, and in forwarding every Passion that may promote the Happiness of the Community: In implanting and improving Benevolence, Self-Controul, Humility, Integrity, and Truth; in preventing or suppressing the contrary Habits of Selfishness, Intemperance, Pride, Dishonesty, and Falsehood: In teaching the young Mind to delight, as far as is possible, in every Virtue for its own Sake: In a Word, in so forming the Pleasures and Displeasures of the opening Heart, that they may coalesce and harmonize with the Laws of public Freedom.

Above all, This will give Stability to civil Liberty, if the social Passions of Individuals can be so far extended, as to include the Welfare of the whole Community, as their chief and primary Object. This Affection is distinguished by the Name of public Spirit, or the Love of our Country; the highest Passion that can sway the human Heart, considered as a permanent Foundation of true Liberty.

But in some Minds the selfish Passions are strong, and the social ones weak or wanting: And in the best formed Heart incidental Temptations may arise, and overturn its pre-established Habits: Therefore it is a necessary Measure for the Security of private Virtue and public Freedom, that virtuous Principles be likewise implanted in the Heart. Such Principles, I mean, as may strengthen the good Habits of Thought and Action already contracted, by superinducing the Idea of Duty.

Of these there are but three, which can sway the Manners of Men, and confirm the Foundation of civil Liberty. These are Religion, Honour, and natural Conscience. The first has the Deity for its Object; the second, the Applause of Men; the third, the Approbation of our own Heart. The Frame and Situation of Man admits of no other Principle, from whence the Idea of Duty can arise.

The Principle of Religion tends to this End of confirming civil Liberty, as it induces the Idea of Duty; and urges the Performance of it, on the Belief of a just, omnipotent, and all-seeing God; who approves and condemns, will reward or punish, according as our Thoughts and Actions are Good or Evil.

But, as the Means of rendering Religion, a firm Ally and Support of Liberty, it is necessary that their Dictates should be coincident: That is, that the Thoughts and Actions which Religion prescribes as Duties, and forbids as Sins, should coincide with the Dictates and Appointments of public Law. In free Countries, this is the natural State of Religion; which commonly either bends to the established Laws of the Community, or moulds them into its own Genius and Complexion.

The Principle of Honour affords a concomitant Support of civil Liberty, when properly directed. It works by a powerful and universal Passion, "our Fondness for the Applause of Men:" But in free Countries, this Principle is much more liable to abuse than that of Religion: Because it is apt be be warped by the fashionable and ruling Manners of the Times: For whatever is fashionable is apt to draw Respect and Applause: Whatever is unfashionable is for the present intitled only to Contempt. Hence the Principle of Honour becomes fluctuating and uncertain in its Nature, and therefore in its Effects: A Regulation of this Principle, therefore, is of the most important Consequence; because, if left to its own fantastic Dictates, it will often endanger instead of strengthening the Foundations of public Freedom.

The third Principle, that of natural Conscience, which tends to confirm the Establishment of Liberty, is founded in the Approbation of our own Heart. This Principle is in one Respect independent on the other two, but in another Respect seems to stand intimately related to them. It is independent of them, as it neither looks out for the Approbation of God, nor the Applause of Men: It seems intimately related to them, because on a strict Examination of the human Frame, as well as the History of Mankind, it appears generally to be the Result of the one, or other, or both. We transplant the acknowledged Approbation of Heaven and the Applause of Men into our own Heart; and from this, through the fertile Power of Association, springs a new Principle of Self-Approbation and Self-Reproof, as an additional Regulator of our Thoughts and Actions.

'Tis true, many Writers have resolved the particular Dictates of natural Conscience into an unchangeable Principle of Right and Wrong, arising universally in the human Heart. There is no Doubt, but the general Principle of Self-Approbation or Self-Rebuke ariseth in an universal Manner, in some Degree or other: But as it appears from the History of human Nature, that the particular Dictates of this Conscience vary with the other received Principles of the Mind, it is not necessary to debate or dwell on this speculative Point: We may take it as a Truth confirmed by Facts, that the particular Dictates of natural Conscience will generally be founded on those of Religion and Honour.

Hence, then, it appears, that this Principle of Conscience stands in Need of a Guide, in the same Degree as those Principles on which it is founded. If it be founded on the Religion of a free State, it will generally coincide with the Principles of Freedom: If its Foundations are laid in the mere Principle of Honour, its Dictates will be fantastic as those of its Parent; and will therefore require a parallel Regulation.

Each of these Principles, singly taken, is of Power, in some Degree or other, to strengthen the Basis of civil Liberty. On their united Influence, added to the Force of pre-established Habits of Thought and Manners, public Freedom might seem to arise on immoveable and everlasting Foundations.

But as the Nature of Man, even in his most virtuous State, is imperfect and inconsistent; so, in Spite of the most salutary Institutions, some Defects will intrude. Hence, from an unavoidable Alloy of Vice, civil Liberty must ever be imperfect: A certain Degree of Licentiousness (that is, of private Will, opposing the Public) will always mix itself, and in some Degree contaminate the Purity of every Commonwealth.

Yet, while virtuous Manners and Principles clearly predominate in their Effects, a State may still be justly called free.

But in Proportion as these Manners and Principles decay, and their Contraries rise into Power and Action, public Freedom must necessarily decline. For in that Case, the Passions and Powers of the human Mind are all set in Conspiracy against the Dictates of public Law. Hence unbridled Passions will have their Course; every Man's Heart and Hand will be set against his Brethren; and the general Cement of Society, which bound all together, being thus dissolved; even without any external Violence offered, the Commonwealth through its internal Corruption must fall in Pieces.