Elements of Morals Part 27

It is not necessary to have lived to this present time to find these errors refuted. Before Aristotle, Socrates had already understood the dignity of labor, even of the productive labor insuring a livelihood; he had seen that work in itself was not servile, as the following charming account related by Xenophon, well proves:

"Socrates, observing, on one occasion, Aristarchus looking gloomily, 'You seem,' said he, 'Aristarchus, to be taking something to heart; but you ought to impart the cause of your uneasiness to your friends; for, perhaps, we may by some means lighten it.'

"'I am indeed, Socrates,' replied Aristarchus, 'in great perplexity; for since the city has been disturbed, and many of our people have fled to the Piraeus, my surviving sisters and nieces and cousins have gathered about me in such numbers, that there are now in my house fourteen free-born persons. At the same time, we receive no profit from our lands, for the enemy are in possession of them; nor any rent from our houses, for but few inhabitants are left in the city; no one will buy our furniture, nor is it possible to borrow money from any quarter; a person, indeed, as it seems to me, would sooner find money by seeking it on the road, than get it by borrowing. It is a grievous thing to me, therefore, to leave my relations to perish; and it is impossible for me to support such a number under such circ.u.mstances.' Socrates, on hearing this, replied: 'Are you not aware that Cyrebus, by making bread, maintains his whole household and lives luxuriously; that Demea supports himself by making cloaks, Menon by making woolen cloaks, and that most of the Megarians live by making mantles?'

'Certainly they do,' said Aristarchus; 'for they purchase barbarian slaves and keep them, in order to force them to do what they please; but I have with me free-born persons and relatives.' 'Then,' added Socrates, 'because they are free and related to you, do you think that they ought to do nothing else but eat and sleep? Do you find that idleness and carelessness are serviceable to mankind, either for learning what it becomes them to know, or for remembering what they have learned, or for maintaining the health and strength of their bodies, and that industry and diligence are of no service at all? And as to the arts which you say they know, did they learn them as being useless to maintain life, and with the intention of never practicing any of them, or, on the contrary, with a view to occupy themselves about them, and to reap profit from them? In which condition will men be more temperate, living in idleness or attending to useful employments? In which condition will they be more honest, if they work, or if they sit in idleness meditating how to procure necessaries?' 'By the G.o.ds,' exclaimed Aristarchus, 'you seem to me to give such excellent advice, Socrates, that though hitherto I did not like to borrow money, knowing that, when I had spent what I got, I should have no means of repaying it, I now think that I can endure to do so, in order to gain the necessary means for commencing work.'

"The necessary means were accordingly provided; wool was bought; and the women took their dinners as they continued at work, and supped when they had finished their tasks; they became cheerful instead of gloomy in countenance, and, instead of regarding each other with dislike, met the looks of one another with pleasure; they loved Aristarchus as their protector, and he loved them as being of use to him. At last he came to Socrates, and told him with delight of the state of things in the house; adding that, 'the women complained of him as being the only person in the house that ate the bread of idleness.' 'And do you not tell them,' said Socrates, 'the fable of the dog? For they say that when beasts had the faculty of speech, the sheep said to her master: "You act strangely, in granting nothing to us who supply you with wool, and lambs, and cheese, except what we get from the ground; while to the dog, who brings you no such profits, you give a share of the food which you take yourself."

"The dog hearing these remarks, said, 'And not indeed without reason: for I am he that protects even yourselves, so that you are neither stolen by men, nor carried off by wolves; while, if I were not to guard you, you would be unable even to feed, for fear lest you should be destroyed.' In consequence it is said that the sheep agreed that the dog should have superior honor. You, accordingly, tell your relations that you are, in the place of the dog, their guardian and protector, and that, by your means, they work and live in security and pleasure, without suffering injury from any one.'"[105]

If it is unjust to regard manual and productive work as servile, it is equally unjust to regard them as alone ent.i.tled to the name of work.

"There are," says a Chinese sage, "two kinds of work: some people work with their minds; some with their hands. Those who work with their minds govern men; those who work with their hands are governed by men.

Those who are governed by men feed men; those who govern men are fed by men."[106]

The same author shows further how divers functions are necessarily divided in society.

"The holy man said to his brother: Go and comfort men; call them to thee; bring them back to virtue; correct them, help them; make them prosper. In thus busying themselves with the welfare of the people, could these holy men find leisure to engage in agriculture?"

We must, therefore, admit that all activity usefully employed is work, and that all work, whether manual or intellectual, mercenary[107] or gratuitous, is n.o.ble and legitimate.

Work being taken in its most general sense, may be set down as being a _pleasure_, a _necessity_, a _duty_.

Kant, who, as we have seen, refuses to admit in morals any other principle but that of duty, would probably disagree with us when we say that work is a pleasure and a necessity. But if it be true, why should we not say so?

Is it necessary, in order that the duty of work be truly accomplished, that it be both painful and useless? Wisdom nowise requires this.

Providence having attached to work, whilst making it the necessary condition of our self-preservation, a certain pleasure, lightening thereby our efforts, morality nowise forbids us to enjoy this pleasure and accept this necessity.

It will be easily granted that work is a necessity; but it is more difficult to obtain from men the admission that it is a pleasure. Man, if he will not die of hunger, must work, unquestionably, they will say; but that it is a pleasure is quite another thing.

If the pleasure of work is put to question, no one at least will maintain that it is a pleasure not to work. For when does rest, leisure, recreation give us most pleasure? Everybody knows, it is when we have worked. Recall to mind any unusually heavy work, any hurried and necessary task, or even our daily or weekly duty scrupulously fulfilled: what joy is it not when the task is done to give ourselves a holiday!

Idleness brings with it satiety, weariness, disgust, disorder, the ruin of the family, the destruction of health, and other evils still more baleful. Work, on the contrary, makes repose enjoyable. Without the fatigue of the day's work, no pleasure in sleep, and even no sleep at all.

A manifest proof that Providence did not intend us for repose, but for action, for effort, for struggle, for energetic and constant work.

We should even go so far as to say that work is not only a stimulant, but that it is in itself a pleasure and a joy.

There is, in the first place, the joy of self-love. We all experience joy when we have accomplished something; when we have succeeded in a difficult work, and the more difficult it was, the prouder we are of it. Besides, the exercise which accompanies activity is in itself a great good. The unfolding of strength, physical or moral, is the source of the truest pleasures. Activity is life itself: to live, is to act. Work, again, gives us the pleasure which accompanies any kind of struggle: in working we struggle against the forces of nature, we subdue them, discipline them, we teach them to obey us. Unquestionably the first efforts are painful: but when once the first difficulties are overcome, work is so little a fatigue that it becomes a pleasant necessity. One is even obliged to make an effort to take rest. Yes, after having in childhood had trouble to get accustomed to work, what in the long run becomes the most difficult, is not to work. One is almost obliged to fight against himself, to force himself to recreation and rest. Leisure in its turn becomes a duty to which we almost submit against our will, and only because reason bids us to submit to it; for we know that we must not abuse the strength Providence has entrusted to us.

It is not necessary to dwell long on this point to fix in our memory that work alone insures security and comfort. Certainly it does not always secure them; this is unfortunately too true; but if we are not quite sure that by working we can provide for wife and children, and secure a legitimate rest for our old age, we may, on the other hand, be quite sure that without work we shall bring upon ourselves and our family certain misery. There have not yet been found any means whereby wealth may be struck out of the earth without work. This wealth which dazzles our eyes; these palaces, carriages, splendid dresses, this furniture, luxury, all these riches and others more substantial: machinery, iron-works, land produce, all this is acc.u.mulated work. Between the condition of savages that wander about famished in the forests of America, and the condition of our civilized societies, there is no other difference but work. Suppose (a thing impossible) that in a society like this our own, all work should all at once be stopped: distress and hunger would be the immediate and inevitable consequence. Spain, on discovering the gold mines of America, thought herself enriched forever; she ceased work; it was her ruin; for from being Europe's sovereign mistress, as she then was, she fell to the rank we see her occupy to-day. Laziness brings with it misery; misery beggary, and beggary is not always satisfied with asking merely--it steals.

Work is not only a pleasure or a necessity, it is also a duty; though painful and joyless, work is, nevertheless, an obligation for man; it were still an obligation for him if he could live without it. Work does not only insure security: it secures dignity. Man was created to exercise the faculties of his mind and body. He was created to act. I do not speak here of what he owes to others, but of what he owes to himself. "The happy man," says Aristotle, "is not the man asleep, but the man awake," and to be awake is to work and act.

CHAPTER XIII.

DUTIES RELATING TO THE INTELLECT.

SUMMARY.

=Duties relative to the investigation of truth.=--Of intellectual virtues: that there are such.

Of the three forms of the intellect: _speculative_, _critical_, _practical_. Hence, three princ.i.p.al qualities: _knowledge_, _judgment_ or _good sense_, _prudence_.

Of _knowledge_.--Refutation of the objections to knowledge: Nicole, Malebranche and Rousseau.

General duty to cultivate one's intellect: the impossibility of determining the full range of this duty.

_Good sense or judgment._--Errors committed in ordinary life: sophisms of self-love, interest, and pa.s.sion.--Other sophisms founded on false appearances.--Logical rules.

Of prudence or practical wisdom.--Can it be called a virtue?

Particular rules.

=Duties relative to telling the truth.--Lying.=--Two kinds of lies: inward and outward lying.

Inward lying.--Can one lie to himself? Examples.

Of the lie properly so-called.--How and why it lowers the mind.

_Of silence._--To distinguish between _dissimulation_ and _discretion_.

Duty of silence: in what cases?

Of the oath and of perjury.--Perjury is a double lie.

The different duties of man toward himself, considered as a moral being, are naturally deduced from the divers faculties of which this moral being is composed. Plato is the first, to our knowledge, who has employed this mode of deduction.[108] It is after having distinguished three parts or three faculties in the soul, that he attributes to each of them a virtue proper, "virtue being," he says, "the quality by means of which one does a thing well." It is thus that the virtue of wisdom corresponds to the faculty of the understanding; the virtue of courage to the irascible or courageous faculty, or to the heart; temperance, to that of desire or appet.i.te. To these three virtues, Plato adds another which is but the harmony, the accord, the equilibrium between these, namely, justice.

Cicero afterwards took up this deduction from another standpoint.[109]

In applying this ancient method to the present divisions of psychology, we shall admit, with Plato and Cicero, an order of virtues relative to the mind, and which we will call _wisdom_; and another cla.s.s of virtues relating to the will, and which would correspond with _courage_ or _strength_ of _mind_ (_virtus_, _magnitudo animi_). As to sensibility, if we take into consideration the appet.i.tes and physical desires, the virtue relating to them is _temperance_, of which we have already spoken. There remain the emotions, the affections of the heart which relate more particularly to the duties toward others. Yet they may, in a certain respect, be also considered as duties toward one's self, although language does not designate this kind of virtue by a particular name.[110]

=147. Duties relative to the investigation of truth.=--_Intellectual virtues._--There are two cla.s.ses of virtues which have been often distinguished: the _strict_ duties and the _broad_ duties: the strict duties to consist in not injuring one's faculties; the broad, to develop and perfect them; it is not easy to apply this distinction here; and, concerning intelligence, to separate self-preservation from self-improvement. In such a case, not to gain is inevitably to lose; he who does not cultivate his intellect, impairs it by that very fact.

One could not then, without pedantic investigation and subtlety, try to distinguish here, in one and the same duty, two distinct duties: the one prohibitive, the other imperative. They are both bound up in the general duty to cultivate one's intellect. It is not so with the relations existing between one's own intellect and the intellect of others; the expression of a thought gives rise to a strict duty: not to lie; which is the immediate consequence of the duty of the intellect toward itself, and which consequently should, by way of corollary, also belong to the present chapter.

The first question which presents itself to us is to know whether we should admit, with Aristotle, _intellectual_ virtues, properly so called, distinct from the _moral_ virtues, the first having regard to the intellect, the second to the pa.s.sions. It would seem that the various faculties pointed out by Aristotle under the name of intellectual virtues, are rather qualities of the mind than virtues: art, science, prudence, wisdom, intelligence[111] (not to mention the difficulty of determining the various shades of meaning of these terms), are natural or acquired apt.i.tudes, but which do not appear to have any moral merit: a scholar, an artist, a clever man, a man of good sense and good counsel are naturally distinguished from virtuous men. It would seem then that the intellectual virtues are opposed to the moral virtues, as the mind is to the heart: now, for every one, it is the heart rather than the mind that is the seat of virtue.

These difficulties are only apparent, and Aristotle himself gives us the means of solving them:

"In order to be truly virtuous," he says, "one should always act in a certain moral spirit: I mean that the choice of an action should be a free one, determined only by the nature of the acts one accomplishes.

Now it is virtue that renders this choice laudable and good."[112]

It is not the natural faculties of the mind then, no more than those of the heart and body, that deserve the name of virtues. It is those same faculties, developed and cultivated by the will: on this condition alone do they deserve esteem and respect. The intellect is in itself of a higher order than the senses, the appet.i.tes, the pa.s.sions: it is therefore inc.u.mbent upon us to give it the largest share in our personal development. "It is to that we are allied," says Pascal, "not to s.p.a.ce and time. Let our efforts then tend to think well; this is the principle of morality." The intellect presents two particular forms: it is either _contemplative_ or _active_, _theoretical_ or _practical_. The virtue of the contemplative intellect is _knowledge_; that of the practical intellect _prudence_. Finally a third virtue might be admitted: _judgment_ or _common sense_, which is a _critical_,[113] not a practical faculty, and which partakes at the same time of both sides of the understanding.

These subtle distinctions of Aristotle have not lost their correctness and application with time. One can, in fact, employ his mind in three ways: either contemplate absolute truth by the means of science;--or judge of events and men and foresee future things without contributing toward their occurrence;--or again deliberate as to what is to be done or not to be done to bring about actions useful to one's self and to others. Hence three kinds of men: the _wise_, the _intelligent_, the _prudent_.

_Knowledge._--Taking up again, one after the other, these three qualities, we ought to ask ourselves whether knowledge is a duty for man; if he is held to develop his mind in a theoretical manner and without any practical end. But before we examine whether it is a duty, let us first find out whether it is lawful.