History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume I Part 14

p. 211).

139 Thus e.g. the magnificent chapters of Helvetius on the moral effects of despotism, form one of the best modern contributions to political ethics. We have a curious ill.u.s.tration of the emphasis with which this school dwells on the moral importance of inst.i.tutions in a memoir of M. De Tracy, _On the best Plan of National Education_, which appeared first towards the close of the French Revolution, and was reprinted during the Restoration. The author, who was one of the most distinguished of the disciples of Condillac, argued that the most efficient of all ways of educating a people is, the establishment of a good system of police, for the constant a.s.sociation of the ideas of crime and punishment in the minds of the ma.s.ses is the one effectual method of creating moral habits, which will continue to act when the fear of punishment is removed.

140 An important intellectual revolution is at present taking place in England. The ascendency in literary and philosophical questions which belonged to the writers of books is manifestly pa.s.sing in a very great degree to weekly and even daily papers, which have long been supreme in politics, and have begun within the last ten years systematically to treat ethical and philosophical questions. From their immense circulation, their incontestable ability and the power they possess of continually reiterating their distinctive doctrines, from the impatience, too, of long and elaborate writings, which newspapers generate in the public, it has come to pa.s.s that these periodicals exercise probably a greater influence than any other productions of the day, in forming the ways of thinking of ordinary educated Englishmen. The many consequences, good and evil, of this change it will be the duty of future literary historians to trace, but there is one which is, I think, much felt in the sphere of ethics. An important effect of these journals has been to evoke a large amount of literary talent in the lawyer cla.s.s. Men whose professional duties would render it impossible for them to write long books, are quite capable of treating philosophical subjects in the form of short essays, and have in fact become conspicuous in these periodicals. There has seldom, I think, before, been a time when lawyers occupied such an important literary position as at present, or when legal ways of thinking had so great an influence over English philosophy; and this fact has been eminently favourable to the progress of utilitarianism.

141 There are some good remarks on this point in the very striking chapter on the present condition of Christianity in Wilberforce's _Practical View_.

142 See Reid's _Essays on the Active Powers_, iii. i.

143 I say usually proportioned, because it is, I believe, possible for men to realise intensely suffering, and to derive pleasure from that very fact. This is especially the case with vindictive cruelty, but it is not, I think, altogether confined to that sphere. This question we shall have occasion to examine when discussing the gladiatorial shows. Most cruelty, however, springs from callousness, which is simply dulness of imagination.

144 The princ.i.p.al exception being where slavery, coexisting with advanced civilisation, r.e.t.a.r.ds or prevents the growth of industrial habits.

145 See Mr. Laing's _Travels in Sweden_. A similar cause is said to have had a similar effect in Bavaria.

146 This has been, I think, especially the case with the Austrians.

147 See some remarkable instances of this in Cabanis, _Rapports du Physique et du Moral de l'Homme_.

148 Diog. Laert. _Pythag._

149 Plutarch, _De Profectibus in Virt._

150 Diog. Laert. _Stilpo._

151 Clem. Alexand. _Strom._ vii.

152 Cicero, _De Nat. Deorum_, i. 1.

153 Lactant. _Inst. Div._ i. 5.

154 "Pythagoras ita definivit quid esset Deus: Animus qui per universas mundi partes, omnemque naturam commeans atque diffusus, ex quo omnia quae nasc.u.n.tur animalia vitam capiunt."-Ibid. Lactantius in this chapter has collected several other philosophic definitions of the Divinity. See too Plutarch, _De Placit. Philos._ Tertullian explains the stoical theory by an ingenious ill.u.s.tration: "Stoici enim volunt Deum sic per materiem decucurrisse quomodo mel per favos."-Tert. _De Anima_.

155 As Cicero says: "Epicurus re tollit, oratione relinquit, deos."-_De Nat. Deor._ i. 44.

156 Sometimes, however, they restricted its operation to the great events of life. As an interlocutor in Cicero says: "Magna dii curant, parva negligunt."-Cic. _De Natur. Deor._ ii. 66. Justin Martyr notices (_Trypho_, i.) that some philosophers maintained that G.o.d cared for the universal or species, but not for the individual.

Seneca maintains that the Divinity has determined all things by an inexorable law of destiny, which He has decreed, but which He Himself obeys. (_De Provident._ v.)

157 See on this theory Cicero, _De Natur. Deor._ i. 42; Lactantius, _Inst. Div._ i. 11.

158 Diog. Laert. _Vit. Zeno._ St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, iv. 11. Maximus of Tyre, _Dissert._ x. (in some editions xxix.) -- 8. Seneca, _De Beneficiis_, iv. 7-8. Cic. _De Natur. Deor._ i. 15. Cicero has devoted the first two books of this work to the stoical theology. A full review of the allegorical and mythical interpretations of paganism is given by Eusebius, _Evang. Praepar._ lib. iii.

159 St. Aug. _De Civ._ vii. 5.

160 Plin. _Hist. Nat_. ii. 1.

161 "Nec vero Deus ipse qui intelligitur a n.o.bis, alio modo intelligi potest nisi mens soluta quaedam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione mortali, omnia sentiens et movens, ipsaque praedita motu sempiterno."-_Tusc. Quaest_. i. 27.

162 Senec. _Quaest. Nat._ ii. 45.

163 "Estne Dei sedes, nisi terra et pontus et aer.

Et clum et virtus? Superos quid quaerimus ultra?

Jupiter est quodc.u.mque vides, quodc.u.mque moveris."

_Pharsal._ ix. 578-80.

164 "Quaeve a.n.u.s tam excors inveniri potest, quae illa, quae quondam credebantur apud inferos portenta, extimescat?"-Cic. _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 2.

"Esse aliques Manes et subterranea regna ...

Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur."

Juv. _Sat._ ii. 149, 152.

See on this subject a good review by the Abbe Freppel, _Les Peres Apostoliques_, lecon viii.

165 Cicero, _De Leg._ i. 14; Macrobius, _In. Som. Scip._ i. 10.

166 See his works _De Divinatione_ and _De Nat. Deorum_, which form a curious contrast to the religious conservatism of the _De Legibus_, which was written chiefly from a political point of view.

167 Eusebius, _Praep. Evang._ lib. iv.

168 The oracles first gave their answers in verse, but their bad poetry was ridiculed, and they gradually sank to prose, and at last ceased.

Plutarch defended the inspiration of the bad poetry on the ground that the inspiring spirit availed itself of the natural faculties of the priestess for the expression of its infallible truths-a theory which is still much in vogue among Biblical critics, and is, I believe, called dynamical inspiration. See Fontenelle, _Hist. des Oracles_ (1st ed.), pp. 292-293.

169 See the famous description of Cato refusing to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon in Lucan, _Phars._ ix.; and also Arrian, ii. 7. Seneca beautifully says, "Vis deos propitiare? bonus esto. Satis illos coluit quisquis imitatus est."-_Ep._ xcv.

170 Cicero, _De Divin_. ii. 24.

171 Aulus Gellius, _Noct. Att._ xv. 22.

172 See a long string of witticisms collected by Legendre, _Traite de l'Opinion, ou Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de l'Esprit humain_ (Venise, 1735), tome i. pp. 386-387.

173 See Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_; Seneca, _De Brev. Vit._ c. xvi.; Plin. _Hist. Nat._ ii. 5; Plutarch, _De Superst.i.tione_.

174 "Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum, c.u.m faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum, Maluit esse Deum."

_Sat._ I. viii. 1-3.

175 There is a very curious discussion on this subject, reported to have taken place between Apollonius of Tyana and an Egyptian priest. The former defended the Greek fashion of worshipping the Divinity under the form of the human image, sculptured by Phidias and Praxiteles, this being the n.o.blest form we can conceive, and therefore the least inadequate to the Divine perfections. The latter defended the Egyptian custom of worshipping animals, because, as he said, it is blasphemous to attempt to conceive an image of the Deity, and the Egyptians therefore concentrate the imagination of the worshipper on objects that are plainly merely allegorical or symbolical, and do not pretend to offer any such image (_Philos. Apoll. of Tyana_, vi.

19). Pliny shortly says, "Effigiem Dei formamque quaerere imbecillitatis humanae reor" (_Hist. Nat._ ii. 5). See too Max.

Tyrius, Diss. x.x.xviii. There was a legend that Numa forbade all idols, and that for 200 years they were unknown in Rome (Plutarch, _Life of Numa_). Dion Chrysostom said that the G.o.ds need no statues or sacrifices, but that by these means we attest our devotion to them (_Orat._ x.x.xi.). On the vanity of rich idols, see Plutarch, _De Superst.i.tione_; Seneca, _Ep._ x.x.xi.

176 1 Lact. _Inst. Div._ vi. 25.

177 Dion. Halic. ii.; Polyb. vi. 56.

178 St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, iv. 31.

179 Epictetus, _Enchir._ x.x.xix.