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a
journal
of political
Winter
philosophy
1970
107
howard b.
130
Joseph cropsey
144
david lowenthal
white
bacon's
wisdom of
descartes'
on
the
design
discourse
of the
the
causes
romans and
169
thomas s. schrock
considering
233
marvin zetterbaum
self and pohtical order
H
martinus
on method
of montesquieu's
considerations on greatness
the ancients
crusoe : part
of the their
decline
II
nijhoff, the hague
edited at
queens college of of new york
the
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interpretation a
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thompson
107 ANCIENTS1
BACON'S WISDOM OF THE Howard B. White
Graduate
of the New School for Social Research
Faculty
Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients is very fact that it
was once presented
popular editions of
for
schoolboys.
Bacon
what
written
fables,
plus a
indicating fables do
philosophers write
to call
"acroamatic"
The
most acroamatic work.
in translations,
at
the
end of
book
once regarded as a
books for schoolboys, esoteric or writing is usually indicated. The
in
Latin, is an interpretation of old fables. There are thirty-one lengthy preface. Thus there are thirty-one or thirty-two units, less than the
somewhat
not
his
the essays, indicates that it was
If great
prefers
work,
perhaps
frequently
Jesus. Interpretations
number of
begin with Bacon. Yet he
charges
that many,
tions of their own, have tried "To usurp a hcense in
of old
introducing inven the fables".
traducing
We may leave for the moment the question of whether that is not what Bacon himself did, and concern ourselves with what he claims to have done. Bacon's title, De Sapientia Veterum, suggests a veneration for antiquity surprising in a man known for his attachment to novelty. Bacon
rather
followed Bruno in pointing was older
modernity
than
were unknown ancients.
They
quitas primaeva was shrouded
were
in
The
ancients who were
they
pre-Greek,
written
oblivion and
silence,
except
by
in
wise,
however,
were pre-historic. Anti-
poets, furnish the only penetration the first things from the historical things. If the
Fables, fables separates
that the true antiquity was modernity, for
out
antiquity2.
for Scripture.
of
the
veil
that
wisdom of
knowledge
the
of the
is first things, it follows that the discussion of creation in Genesis is incomplete. The wisdom of the ancients may well, therefore, be pre-scriptural, as well as required
ancients
order
to
supplement
the
scriptural
pre-Greek.
Pre-Greek wisdom, however, means a rejection of the sources of the fables generally known to us, hke Homer and Hesiod. And Bacon says, in his preface, that most of the fables do not seem to have been invented by those Hesiod."
The assumption, "who recited them and made them famous, Homer, preand it is difficult to see that it is more than an assumption, that there is a
Greek wisdom, finer than Greek wisdom, that is, closer to modern science, is an particularly in astronomy, algebra, and the scientific method in general, assumption by no means confined to Francis Bacon. I say it is an assumption.
1
I
must express
my
gratitude
to the
graduate students of
Political Science 302 S
and
reading The Wisdom of the Ancients at the New Philosophy 302 S School for Social Research. If I understand this text better than I once did, it is as much who spent a semester
because
of
the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of my
students as
because
of
any
efforts
p.
31 ; Bacon :
of mine. 2
Bruno, Giordano : Cena delle Ceneri, I, in Opere Italiene (Bari, 1927), I, I, 84.
Novum Organum
Interpretation
108 the evidence for
Much
of
Klein,
and a statement
certain non-Greek
It is the
tion.
pre-Greek science
like the
traits can
one
hardly
science or wisdom
Klein has brought forth
some
"That the
denied3", is
be
behind the of
presented
veil
obviously
that
by
Diophantus
makes
not an
in his book
Jacob
exhibits
assump
the assumption.
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
about pre-Greek wisdom
statements
has been science of
Century
Greek Mathematical
on
and the Origin of Algebra. Apart from Bacon himself, we have to mention the golden age of preGreek wisdom presented by two mathematicians, discussed in Klein's book:
Thought
Vieta (Francois Viete, 140-1603) and Simon Stevin (1548-1620). As I know nothing in Bacon's own work or elsewhere to connect his views of pre-Greek those of Vieta and
wisdom with
things said
Art, Vieta
by
Klein
and
his
Stevin, it In
subjects.
will
be
sufficient
Prefatory
a
to point out a few
Letter to his Analytic
wrote:
Behold, the art which I present is new, but in truth, so old, so spoiled and defiled by the barbarians, that I considered it necessary, in order to introduce an entirely new form into it, to think out and publish a new vocabulary .
According
Klein, Vieta's
to
relation
.
to the ancients was "typical for the
century5."
Vieta
sixteenth and seventeenth
learning, like
specific
in his
call
claim
place,
or
Stevin is
Klein, ....
extends
700
or
or pretended
He
that the
wise age
3
p.
"barbarians."
Stevin is very reconstructing is a
and others are
fail by
certain
signs,
although without
knowing
than
also more specific
It has become from
who
they were,
or
in
when.'
about
Vieta,
years
a matter of common usage
900
or a
at
least in the
in the conditions
of
ibid.
pp.
5
ibid.
p.
154.
6
ibid.
p.
187.
1
ibid.
318, 153.
age
that time which
and
of letters and sciences.
"barbarous"
age might
to call that a "'wise
"signs."
Greek Mathematical Thought
4
by
were :
to call the barbarous
imbeciles without the practice
consent
that of which we have
127.
passages quoted
they
thousand years up to about 150 years past, since men were for
wise, Stevin does not
with
he
the
Greek
which
says :
Admitting that times preceding the ly
by
on
eventually led to that something before and
to just when the barbarians lived and who
as
800
they believed
depended
and others
the study
the wise age that in which men had a wonderful knowledge of science, which we
recognize without what
Diophantus, for
to Diophantus had been lost
second wise age.
We
work of
algebra, but
symbohc superior
the
In
other
?
be styled relative
age"
in
comparison
words, the true barbarous
the Origin of Algebra
.
age
(Cambridge, Mass., 1966),
Wisdom of the Ancients "from the
extends
Stevin indicated
Greek wisdom, there is
Whether Vieta
some polemical
belonged to the barbarous
age.
known before the Greeks is
more
hierarchy with algebra and biology and metaphysics.
alchemy
Whether Francis Bacon
As far
plore. makes
little
as
his
or no use of
"to
conduct all
The
and
the
Stevin found
design in
important than
or
insisting
that
suggestion
The
signs
that of
what
what
invented
pre-
a
that the Greeks
may have been
the Greeks knew is a
logic,
pohtical
philosophy,
hierarchy
we shall
have to
rated above
accepts the same
relation
ex
is concerned, however, he of Stevin. He was interested in astronomy
to pre-Greek "signs"
and wrote two short pieces on was
present."8
to algebra, astronomy, and the development of alchemy,
Greeks.9
to the
Greeks to the
the
of
to traces in Greek works, as well as Arabic works,
relate
earlier wisdom as unknown
beginning
109
wisdom
astronomy, in
one of which
he
said
his design
things to a new trial of legitimate induction10. The ambi
guity of Bacon's relation to pre-Greek wisdom is further New Organon, where he says he does not care whether the
pointed out
in the
new world was
the
island of Atlantis or just now discovered.11 Of one thing, however, Bacon seems to have been certain : that he
would not share
the anonymity of the
pre-
Greeks.12
As far
as the
fables has
human things,
ly
Wisdom of the Ancients is concerned, each of the thirty-one Of these subtitles twenty-five appear to relate to the
a subtitle. and
only
six
to the natural things. No one fable relates explicit
Some, like "Pan,
to astronomy, algebra, or alchemy.
thought to
include the
One is that Bacon's The
is that
other
method of
relation
not
the New
subject matter of these sciences.
or
Nature''
Two things
may be
seem clear.
to pre-Greek wisdom is not the same as Stevin's. which
everything
Organon,
which
he
Bacon
sought
expected
to
do, including
the
to guide post-Greek wisdom,
traceable to the ancients.
was
One
must recall
the opening sentence of the
"Primeval antiquity, obhvion and
This
silence
work
clearly
except what we
silence; the
does
not
silence of
necessarily
connotes
have in
Wisdom of the Ancients : letters, is enveloped in
sacred
antiquity, the fables
connote
it. What the
of
the poets
escape."
wisdom, though the title
sentence
does is to
refer
of
the
to a kind of
wisdom, the wisdom of poets. The wisdom is also pre-Greek, because Bacon pretends
that nothing
were wise men.
(i.e. in
particular
also a pre-Greek of
human
8
10
good can come out of
Apart from the
polemical
Aristotelean) thought, way,
learning,
was closer
Bacon
Greece. Pre-Homeric poets then intention
of
destroying
Greek
there is the notion that another way,
to nature. In one of his numerous
elsewhere refers
"history
divisions
to the memory ; poesy to
188.
ibid.,
p.
ibid.,
pp.
188-189.
Description of the Intellectual
Heath, Boston, 1861 ff.), Vol. VII, 11
New Organon
12
ibid. 129.
I, 122.
Globe, Ch. 6. in Works, (edited by Spedding, Ellis, & p.
298.
Interpretation
1 10
history.13
poetry to be feigned
"feigned It is
history",
is,
that
as universal
assigns or pretends
(sapientia). He tables
the experiments which will of
may deal
On
a
reading
and
Bacon
of
mean
counsel one of
the
supposed
con's
things,
or
the first things?
philosophy,16
yet
same
may thing. For
and
Ancients, it is
fables
the
Many are
wine,
myth of
knowledge, feigned
human knowledge.
the Wisdom of the
bread,
the alphabet,
be.14
can or
the new induction. And since the method
develop
of
held
very hard to
which penetrate
antiquity from history. Consider
primeval
it
as
to the fables the quahty of wisdom
assign
with all areas of
the first
pretation of
is
history, history
the New Organon is intended for all areas of human
history
to
to
adds that
also regarded
occasionally in the New Organon to "my history and History, perhaps even feigned history, contributes to
refers
invention."15
of
He
Aristotle
that Aristotle
not at aU certain
Bacon
he means, "here", poetry as a kind of
reason."
the imagination ; philosophy to the
"Metis
a subtitle:
get an
inter
the veil separating or
Counsel". Is
the human
inventions, for example, Bacon to be historically anterior
by
Orpheus,
which
is included among the fables, Bacon.17 Ba
to present the most complete philosopher before
first things include the first human things,
and
indeed,
intended to
are
the assumption that complete philosophy might have developed
support
were it not for the intrusions of the Greeks, that is, in particular Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, Theophrastus.18 It was left to Francis Bacon
naturally, to do
what
Insofar
the hght
as the
are somewhat
They
are
of nature might
have
enabled pre-Greek wisdom
Wisdom of the Ancients deals
hke the first things
like the
state of
of
Hobbes
with
to do.
the first things at all,
and others who
nature, but the first postulates
they
followed Bacon.
of nature are not
presented, because Bacon considered them unknown. Of the subject matter of the thirty-one fables, five are natural, twenty-five human, and one sub-human. Man's conquest over nature is included among the human. Two
of
the human deal with human
concourse with
the
divine,
ten are political, the remaining thirteen are varied. Although only one fable deals with the sub-human, that fable is the sixteenth or central one in the
book. Of the ten fables harsher
terror,
side
no.
5
dealing
of politics. with oaths
(malicious rumor), the change from better to work
To
is pohtical, it is
understand
with
no.
19
worse
almost
something
of
with
violence,
stressed),
and no.
the first
fable,
and
Description of the Intellectual Globe Ch. 1 in Works
Aristotle: Poetics 1451 b.
15
New Organon
10
ibid.
7
22
23
deal
with the
number
with
war,
no.
3
9
with vicissitude
with
with with
(with
battle. Insofar
as
17
I have tried to
why it is
first,
a word or
VII, 285.
I, 117-121.
85.
Francis Bacon New
eight
Machiavelhan.
14
18
no.
no.
13
I,
pohtics,
with rebelhon,
(kept only by necessity),
rumor
the
specifically Number 2 deals
show
this in Peace among the Willows: the Political
(Nijhoff, the Hague, 1968) Organon I, 71.
p.
207.
Philosophy
of
Wisdom of the Ancients
111
two must be said about the preface. The assertions that primeval antiquity
is
in silence,
enveloped
wisdom,
that the fables of the poets, with their pre-Greek
and
that silence,
penetrate
quietly intruded
are
by
upon
another
that fabulous writing is the way to write. "Atque etiam nunc,
in
lucem humanis
ahquibus
& aspere,
that the way
clear
be
hardly
of
the fables is Bacon's
overstated.20
This
first fable. Whereas the
statement
deals
preface
One
with
non
incommode
significance of
hiding,
this can
supplemented
by the
the first fable deals
Outspokenness."
The first fable is "Cassandra, and completes the Preface.
more
The
way.
in the Preface is
reveahng.
confirms
veht, idque
insistendum est, & ad similitudinem auxilia This statement, one of the most important in Bacon, makes
prorsus eadem via
confugiendum."19
it
mentibus affundere
theme:
si quis novam
with
(Parrhesid). It
or
item from the Preface may be mentioned: "The wisdom of first fortunate (felix), great if through their industry,
centuries was either great or
they
made use of
trope and figure
feigned history itself, the use a style calculated ogy,"
to hide
of
What
"trope
more
Hegel, is a Whether he meant the
cisely the
non-capricious
pretended
Let
figure", implying
an ornate
use of style,21
"Mythol
acroamatic style.
imagination, but not of thing that Hegel did, it was pre
practice same
of
is the
great
of
the
imagination
which
Bacon either found or
to find.
turn to the first
us
quality
to be
seems
than it reveals, an
according to
caprice."22
and
"they say unqualified
fable, Cassandra. The fable begins
with
the words,
In the preface, a statement about the past opens the work, the assertion that "primeval antiquity is enveloped in obhvion and
The difficulty of knowing the earhest antiquity is affirmed without hesitation. The authority for the first fable, on the contrary, is nowhere nearly carries little conviction as to histor so positive. It is obvious that "they ical accuracy. Moreover, while the preface is concerned with hiding, the silence."
say"
first fable is The
concerned with
version of
divination". Yet the
judgement,
as
I noted,
words,
is
hiding,
that
is,
outspokenness.
acute and
to
Apollo,
as
the god
of
harmony,
modes and measures of things, as well as
grave,
the differences between the
even
The
ears."
and the most vulgar
of
reason
gift of
it is in Bacon's essay No matter how profound
divination,
not
"outspokenness."
men must submit
"they learn and observe the of
opposite of
subject matter
"Of Prophecies", but, their
the
the fable is not the Homeric one, for it includes "the
that
the tones
most skillful
why nobody beheved Cassandra's
19 Wisdom of the Ancients, Preface, "And even now, if anyone wishes to shed new light in any human minds, the same not incommodious and harsh, the same course must be instituted, and must take refuge in the help of similes."
20
Peace among the
21
It is
defect is with
a turgid and
tropes
and
Willows, to
inflated
figures,
pp.
108-110.
note a comment
apt
style.
The
to aim
at
by James Bryce, "The
rhetoric
is Rhodian
concealing poverty
rather
or
commonest
than
Attic,
Commonwealth, New York, 1908, II,
American
overloaded
triteness in thought
752.) History of Philosophy (Haldane translation, London, 1955). Vol. I,
(American 22
interesting
p.
p.
81.
.
.
Interpretation
112
prophecies was
about
that
they were
spoken
ears.23
to vulgar
Therefore the fable is
telling Machiavelli how to
parrhesia, not about divination. Bacon is
that the vulgar cannot hear. Before moving from the first fable to the middle fable, it should be pointed formulation for the opening of the fable is by no out that the "they means atypical. Following are the key subjects and verbs in the opening speak so
say"
from
sentences
the thiry-one fables :
each of
Narrant
4
they say
5
Narrant
poetae
the
Narrant
antiqui
the ancients say
1
it is handed down to be
5
Traditur fuisse
poets
say
Tradunt
poetae
the poets hand down
1
Tradunt
antiqui
the ancients hand down
1
Antiqui descripserunt
the ancients
Fabula
the fable is
Dicta
narratur
they
sunt a poetis
Antiqui
the
adumbraverunt
Fabulantur
poetae
1
the poets
1 1
2
poetae est narratio
the tale is
recall
it is
1
common
fable
a common
vulgatissimo transferitur
1
by
the poets gossip
Pervulgata Sensu
1
ancients represented
Memorant
vulgata
down
said
are said
the poets
Fabula
wrote
conveyed
1
(is)
in the
most common
1
sense
(Attributed to
no
4
authority)
31
Three
including the word "mem including the root
particularly interesting: those
groups are
"vulgata"
orant",
of which
(common),
bring older
and
rise above
their
23
these
are
Bacon, in
no authority.
If the
poets
in the Preface that the fables
of
these fables is clearly
of rumor must
be
pre-Homeric.
are
political
Also
pre-
high promise, who seek young There are three fables die early. and capacity men of
of
commonplace
"vulgar"
would
(I have translated the be too
strong).
"vulgata"
word
That Styx
means neces
stands
matter whether
hidden causes",
to
for philosophy, and that the Sirens refer to pleasur held to be commonplace. If a fable is really a commonplace,
sity, that Orpheus all
youthful
I think
One
underlined.
The fable
be the impatience
held to be
common, as
does it
is
with rumor.
must
which are attributed
memory, the argument
than the poets
deals
which are
es,
four
the
something to
Homeric to
and
two; the three
there are
it
stretches
back into antiquity
the essay mentioned, does
including
speak of what
the once famous prophecy of
when
the bonds of ocean shall be loosed
Even
when
.
.
.
another
he
Why is it
considers prophecies
Seneca, "There
Typhon
the new Typhon came, there were "vulgar
or not?
shall
ears"
disclose
a
"from
will come a year new worlds
Wisdom of the Ancients
Is it
commonplace?
self-evident?
trusted is that unbroken
by
opher, presumably the only
simply because he
self-evident that the
necessity?
Yet
Orpheus, the
complete philosopher
impatient,
was
Is it
was
1 13
certainly
to be
oath
only
"complete"
philos
before Bacon, who failed by Bacon a clear
considered
inference,
a clear testament to the weakness of the philosophy of the past. The last group is especially interesting. These include no "they or "the poets say", etc., but are taken to be facts. They are not, at least at the outset, say"
called commonplace. word
that
They
need no other apparent
they are true. They include the testimony
authority than Bacon's Icarus that, in pohtics,
of
the middle way is to be shunned, and the dangerous peering into secrets
Acteon and Pentheus. But did before him? It
what was
all,
Bacon
of
doing but what Acteon
to move from the first fable to the
seems to make sense
The title
after
fable.
middle
16th fable is "Juno's Suitor or Infamy (Dedecus.). It is interes that the title does not offer the name of the suitor, Jupiter. In other words, ting the fable does not deal with the King of the Gods as such, but simply with the
king
of the
the gods in wooing. For the purpose of wooing, the greatest
of
becomes the
they
queens and
between with
woo
queen and
their
woo
it is
not uncommon
the realm. In the kingdom of the proud, the
Bacon is speaking
and once again
one moves
subject that
to
to
"ears
and middle
of
the
Hera
ruler pretends
And
king their
woo
a certain
identify
of communication.
avoid the
from the first
twice; they
(cf. Fable 2) There is
realms,
and
realm,
telling Machiavelh how If
But kings
most abject creature.
analogy or
Juno
to be
base,
once again
he is
vulgar."
fables to the last fable,
one sees a
is apparently very different from the other two. The title is, "The Bacon's treatment of pleasure is severe and ascetic, and
Pleasure."
Sirens,
or
the severity of
rational
hedonism
can
hardly be
more
clearly brought
out.
Winged philosophy made pleasures contemptible. There are, Bacon concludes, three remedies for violent pleasures. One is represented stopped
his
ears ; another
to enticement. Both
Orpheus,
that of
of
is indicated
by Ulysses, who by discourse, which remains indifferent
these are considered philosophical.
whose
hymn to the
himself from
gods
drowns
But the highest is the
out
music
of
the
It is remarkably like Lucretius, in its praise of discourse for subduing violent pleasure. Though the title sug gests any pleasure, it is clear in context that Bacon is not talking about grow
Sirens,
and saves
ing roses. appears
hearing them.
Whatever the source, the
to
be that three things
Bacon's primary goal: severity in action. In turning to the
caution
terminal
treatment
of
the
fables,
fables
some word might
quotations
in the
work.
There
Latin, but
not all
from Latin
are
be
twenty-three
sources.
Two,
the
specify, may be found in Vergil, and one, also unspecified may be found in Ovid. Bacon seems to have intended not to make it too easy for the reader to find the sources of the wisdom of the an source of which
cients.
There
Bacon does
and central
necessary for the relief of man's estate, in speech, insignificance in appearance, and
more general
concerning the quotations, all quoted in germane
message of the
are
not
are six quotations
from Vergil
(including the
two unspecified),
Interpretation
114
five from the Bible
( three
from books
of which are
now or once attributed
to
Solomon, Bacon's Biblical hero24), three from Tacitus, two from Cicero, two Iphicrates,25 from Catullus, one each from Lucretius, Ovid, Seneca, Heracli tus. Fourteen of the twenty-three are from Latin authors, and nine of those
fourteen
are poets.
Primeval antiquity,
it does
while
include Homer
not
and
Hesiod, does include, interestingly enough, Vergil, Ovid, and Lucretius. There seems
to be
Greece. In
insufficient to of
attempt, quite a dehberate
an
they generaUy
elevate
was one of
Roman
But
Grecian
against
would
the
Bacon himself
learning.26
the great ages of
and
Rome
obviously be Jacobeans were fond
it
sympathized with
emulated the Roman Empire.
they
Rome's
that the Ehzabethans
acknowledge
the Roman poets, that
that
to
attempt
discussing a philosopher of Bacon's stature,
Trojans,
considered
Roman
who compares
The
and
that
Hellenic, thing which learning of politics. One the advantage is be to Rome, certainly compared, may justly could add law, but Bacon probably subsumed that under Yet, in or
with
art with
art?
one
pohtics.27
any literal sense, the first things
be the Roman things, nor,
could neither
broadly, the pohtical things. Looking at the Wisdom of the Ancients
more
fables
are
natural,
one
as a
and
whole,
is sub-human, two deal
recalling that five between the
with concourse
and the divine, ten are pohtical, and the remaining thirteen deal with human, but are varied. If the concourse between the divine and the human
human the
is
or
in
is
not
among the first things, the divine must be. It seems to make sense, things to deal with the remaining fables in this order:
discussing the first
divine-human,28
natural,
non-political
The divine-human fables rious",
and
"Diomedes,
human,
Zeal."
The first
or
political.
"Acteon
are entitled
of
and
Pentheus,
or
the Cu
dual fable, Pentheus is dehberate.
these fables is
a
for the curiosity of Acteon is accidental; that of Acteon sees Diana naked, and he has clearly some concourse but
nakedness
is
ceremonies, where he is
rehgious
that Acteon saw were
divine
24
The
scientific
called the
on
the other
not wanted.
The
mysteries.
fraternity
accidental
with the divine, hand, dehberately seeks the
Bacon tells
saw were royal or political secrets
the deliberate knowledge
is
Pentheus,
natural.
; the
knowledge
us
divine
of
the New Atlantis is called Solomon's
secrets were punished.
references see
Pentheus
of pohtical secrets and
of
English Solomon. For
that the secrets
secrets which
Peace among the
As to the dehberate
House; Henry VII Willows, pp. 48, 55, 60,
93, 121, 122, 144, 152-53, 162, 232, 245. It is interesting that Bacon should be so fond of an interesting commentary on the Ecclesiastes, "there is no new thing under the sun,"
Wisdom of the Ancients. 25
The
source of
but I have 26
not
the Iphicrates
quotation
Advancement of Learning
I, Section II,
New Organon I, 78. 27 The Advancement of Learning does learning. 28
is
not given.
It may be Xenophon
or
Plutarch,
found it to date.
Numbers 10
and
18.
par.
not
9 (Oxford paragraphing),
include law
as an
ibid., I,
vii,
independent category
4; of
Wisdom of the Ancients
knowledge
the
of political secrets and
accidental
Pentheus'
nothing is said. Certainly, however, ter. No one may seek to know the divine
115
knowledge
invasion
secrets.
Such
of
divine secrets, is the grea
of privacy
knowledge, if it comes
all, may come only by accident. That both Acteon and Pentheus are pun ished, the one by death, and the other by being driven to madness, is an at
indication that
even
the
That is
if we
refer
obvious
deahng
as
with
"royal
accidental
discovery
to Bacon's
specific
things is dangerous.
of secret
treatment of the Acteon
secrets."
But Diana is
not
she
only royal;
fable,
is
also
divine. The
other
fable
human
concerned with
Diomedes. Diomedes
wounded
Venus,
concourse with
the divine is that of
the instigation of Pallas Athene.
at
the goddess of wisdom by her Greek name. Usually he prefers the Roman name, if one is available (Jupiter, Juno, Venus, and inter etc.). In one fable, Bacon uses the names, changeably. Apollo is fully adopted, but Apollo was a Roman as well as a
Here
and
elsewhere29
Bacon
calls
"Dionysus"
"Bacchus"
Greek
god.30
in four is
not
the goddess
The fact that Bacon
mentions
Minerva in
insignificant. True, he does not rather than "Pallas
use
Athene,"
"Pallas"
following
name
his
sources.31
gone, Pallas is
still
instigated Diomedes to
fable,
Pallas
and
but he
definitely
makes
Bacon may have merely Vergil, Even with the specifically Athenian part of her
the goddess of wisdom Greek. So did
been
one
the full Greek name, calling
Greek,
wound
and
and
it
seems to
Venus. Bacon
be Greek
makes a
wisdom which
strong
point of
the
fact that Diomedes is the only mythical figure to wound a god. The sub-title of the fable is "zeal", and Diomedes is seen as warring upon a goddess out of rehgious zeal.
Knowing, however, how much Bacon despised rehgious Pallas, who instigated this warfare, was unwise, and the fable is
warfare,32
simply
either anoth
Greek wisdom, or there must be some other reason for finding wisdom in this fable. Most of Bacon's analysis is taken up with an attack on those who followed Diomedes, men made immoderate by zeal rather than er attack on
While this is eloquently put, it offers us nothing new beyond what said elsewhere. What is new is that the ancients, as Bacon claims, The wisdom of the ancients is had no experience of rehgious prophetic wisdom. There is a nice epistemological problem here, and it vice.
Bacon had
warfare.33
certainly limits the ancients ence of
the
(Greek
or
that, they
common
interpretation
pre-Greek)
could
know
other
things.
could
character of prophetic
rehgions,
29
Fables, 2, 7, 30. Vergil: Eclogues: Ovid: Metamorphoses
31
In Aeneid
32
Ovid
to
refer
refers
to Pallas
and
T, 208; VI, 448.
Cf. Rousseau: Contrat Social
IV,
as an empiricist.
-
the
to
If the
They
could
presumably know
is
unhkely.
mentions are numerous.
"Pallas", line 39. In
general, both Vergil
Minerva interchangeably.
See especially Advancement of Learning
Works 33
I, "Juno",
appear
"Hera"
not
Bacon
rehgious warfare without experi
without which religious war
30
and
of
know
viii.
II,
xxv
(Oxford numeration),
Essay 3;
and
Interpretation
116
Yet there between
such a
What
be
religious
cure
for
has,
on
as prophetic
thing
the
not so much what could
no
creation and
of religious war.
is
way for Bacon to know that somewhere in the veil history, there was genuine knowledge of the character
to be
seems
war, Bacon
knowledge,
ancients
to have
claimed
the contrary, to be taken seriously is that there
knew
known,
without
Concerning
that
That tells
Bacon knew. If the
it,
experiencing
know,
to
could claim
religious war.
even prophetic wisdom.
as what
without yet
prophetic
us
ancients
the character of
it,
experiencing
knowledge,
the
two things may
is that the knowledge is knowledge of something as yet un but created, something to be created. The other is that the cure for religious warfare is in some form a civil rehgion, replacing prophetic rehgion, such be
said.
as
is
to
The
one
available in the New Atlantis, but it is kept deliberately vague as details, for full knowledge could come only with its creation. This is
really
concourse of
to the
divine,
the human with the divine. While we may now be closer
have
we
moved
away from the first things to the final
or
future
things.
The two fables
deal
which
with
the concourse between the human and the
in tragedy. The first tragedy occurs because inquiry into the divine things is inquiry into secret things, suggesting that divine inquiries may end
divine
end
in destruction. The abetted
by
fables
turn to the six
occurs
because the human,
dealing
nature.34
with
sub-titled
The first
is the
and which
tion. As is well-known, the Biblical
creation
is the
his foundation in the New Atlantis "the college
calls
of
Pan is
things,
perhaps not
accidental.35
Some
of
these is the fable
of
sixth
fable in the
work of six days'
of six
its customary name is "Solomon's House". Since it Solomon's House to study all things natural, the choice fable
though
the
cannot seek
"nature,"
is
even
the divine. In seeking for the first
divine things, only the veil the divine from the historical. It is therefore proper that we
which separates
which
tragedy
also wounds
too far back. We
we cannot go
Pan,
other
divine,
the
was
of
collec
days. Bacon
work", though
the function of
of number six
for the
the other numbers of these
five fables may not be insignificant, since we know that Bacon used numerical The next fable deahng with nature is number twelve, "Coelum or symbols.36
Beginnings",
thz completion of with
fortune
Thirteenth
days'
work, or with may deal with the double of six the day. Both twelve and thirteen (Fable #13) may deal
and twelve
and
misfortune, Jesus
and the
As to the
number
importance in Pythagorean
number
Bacon and
man.
uses
or
simply the
tried to show its
suggest the relation
between health
Its meaning is derived from the number of Three groups of seventeen each were once alphabet. in the Greek of nature.
31
Nos.
35
New Atlantis (Gough edition, Oxford, 1924)
36
Consider the
6, 12, 13, 17, 21, 29.
body in Plato's 37
disciple,
elsewhere
symbolism.37
it in The New Atlantis to
the knowledge
consonants
twelfth
17, I have
use of
Laws
40 (the Biblical
minus
one, because
Peace among the Willows
pp.
number
a
pp.
24, line 6 ff.
for fate), 36 (the
majority was not
191-192.
needed
number of the ruling in Solomon's House).
Wisdom of the Ancients to have
said rean
stood at
the gates of
Haran,
1 17
Pythago
the one-time center of the
school.38
The
six
fables dealing
with nature
may be taken
unit, but that
as a
"Pan"
diminish their importance. The fable is also illustrate "parabolical in the Latin and enlarged not
used
by
should
Bacon to
poetry"
vancement
of
Learning.39
In
another work there
fables, "Coelum", Number 12, into
and
is
version of
the Ad
another version of
"Cupid", Number 17,
two
there combined
the foundation of that work, "Concerning the Principles These five fables really participate in the search for the first things. The poets, we are told, treat Coelum (Uranos) as the most ancient of one and made
and Origins."40
the gods. The poets (whether the same
Cupid
by
(Eros)
was the oldest of
the alleged existence of another
Perhaps
we can consider
first the
ancient
parabola sine
or other
Cupid,
first the two
as without parents
clear)
also
say that
may be the
the youngest of the
Neque
nihil
in hoc
Whether Cupid
greatest
Let
gods.41
us consider
ab antiquis sapientibus ponitur
sine causa.
maxima."42
scimus an non res omnium
not
most ancient gods.
Cupid : "Quare Cupido
parente, id est,
is
the gods. The problem is further comphcated
thing
of all.
est
was put
Bacon
in
; imo haud
in antiquity
claims not to
know. The attachment to the first things is clear. These fables really deal the first things, though there be may difficulty in identifying them. If,
with
however, Cupid is not the first thing, the alternative appears to be Coelum, heaven.43 or Uranos, the oldest Greek god, or Of this knowledge, of which Bacon claimed to be ignorant, future generations would have to be ignorant, since
they
could get not closer
to the first things that Bacon could. Whether
the statement of the possibility that the first things are the greatest things can
be
the statement elsewhere that the final things are the grea
reconciled with
test
things44
Perhaps
we shall
have to
look
we must
tion of the Wisdom of the
less detail, pretation
fable
and
then interprets it. Between the presentation and the inter
there is usually a
seems
later.
see
Coelum, and then back at Cupid. In the organiza Ancients, Bacon first presents a fable, in greater or
at
to be
.
.
transitory sentence,
In two
fables,
in twenty-two the formulation is
this
similar
such as
"The meaning of the to be equivocal, but
sentence seems
to "The meaning
seems
to be
.
.
.".
"seems"
is conspicuously absent, and Bacon is much less equivocal, saying, for example, "The meaning of the fable is of this In seven, the
word
nature"
38
Aristotle: Metaphysics 1093
Paul: Jabir Ibn 38
Works
40
Works
Hazzem, Vol. II,
a
29
Jabir
ff; Plutarch: Isis and Osiris 356 B, 364 C; Kraus, la Science Grecque, Cairo, 1942, pp. 207 ff.
et
II, 226-39. V, 289-346. 41 Fable 17, Works XIII, pp. 22-25. 42 Principles and Origins, Works V, p. 291. "Whereby Cupid was placed in the parable by the wise ancients without parents, that is, without cause. Nor is this nothing; no indeed, we
know 43
44
not whether
it be the
thing."
greatest
12, Works XIII, p. 15. New Atlantis p. 13, lines 1-2. Fable
Interpretation
118
is the formulation used in the Coelum fable.45 In other words, in a large majority of cases, Bacon seems to be content with a seeming interpretation, which
In
or with appearance.
those
cases, he
seven
include both Coelum
seven cases
claims a
knowledge
Cupid. The
and
of
reality, and the Coe
subtitle of
lum fable is Origines. That Coelum The fable tells Bacon
Uranos is the
Saturn,
...
the gods is generally supposed.
oldest of
son of
off his
Coelum, cutting
that this fable shows how
says
meaning
or
also of
nature."
is
of
Bacon therefore
this
seems quite sure
is the concavity or circumference that comprehends Saturn is matter itself. Saturn's cutting off the genitals has
no
father's
further
power of
begetting matter. This
view
is
all
that Coelum
matter, and that
suggests
Bacon
means that
matter,
not
that heaven
not original with
con, and he calls attention to the similarity of the fable and the Democritus.46
genitals.
things have their being. "The
all
Ba
teaching
of
the world, is eternal. For the
body of matter to achieve form, some appetite seemed to be needed. In this fable, Bacon refers to Venus ; in the other to Cupid. The birth of Venus, or the birth of Cupid, means the substitution of the prevalence of concord for the prevalence of discord.
Let
us
turn back to the fable of Cupid to see the alternative origins. Bacon
seems to
be equaUy
certain of each.
to and penetrates the cradle of not contain a
first thing, but,
Of Cupid he says, "This fable pertains A cradle is obviously not and does
nature."47
this is the seventeenth
as
fable,
there is some
for considering it close to nature. Actually the first thing is not love ; but love is an appetite belonging to matter. Thus the fables of Coelum and reason
Cupid
only apparently inconsistent. Whether there is
are
comprehending matter, and Bacon, as usual, view, there cannot be earth without matter passion of
love
In the Coelum
He
nent.
must prevail over
fable, Bacon
quotes
chaos rather
Lucretius
from
reason
from Francis Bacon,
happily
not strange
to
having
a circumference
to defer to the Biblical
an
is,
appetite, that
the
the passion or passions making for discord.
admits
that the
who pleads
than from the
one of
pretends
prevalence might not
be
perma
that we may know of the return to
thing itself.48. It is
the founders of the idea
a strange
of progress.
thought
It is
un
us.
Even if love is indigenous to matter, that is, even if Coelum precedes Cupid, need have no parents. Recalhng that Bacon has said that the knowl
Cupid
that Cupid has
edge
45
The
which
seven
the
no parents
formulation is "ea
usual
may be the
greatest
sententia videtur
thing, "For nothing has
esse", but the objective determinant
joins the twenty-two fables together is simply the word "Videtur", it seems. The fables where the absence of seeming appears to be decisive do not necessarily have
formulation
strong,
and
of
Coelum: Sententia fabulae huiusmodi est, but the
does not
suggest appearance or seeming.
Those fables
expression
are
Pan
is
least
at
as
(6), Coelum (12),
Juno's Suitor (16), Cupid (17), Achelous (23), Prometheus (26), Icarus volans (27). 46 Principles and Origins, in Works V, p. 290. Contrast Aristotle: De Caelo 277 b 27-30. .
47
"Fabula
48
Lucretius
ad cunabula naturae pertinet
V, 106-107.
&
penetrat".
.
.
Wisdom of the Ancients corrupted philosophy That means, as Bacon
for the
so much as the search goes on
1 19 parents of
Cupid."49
to say, that philosophers have not taken the
from nature, but from laws of disputation (including dialectics but also mathematics). In other words, the parents of only Cupid are unknowable, and the search for the unknowable is corrupting. What must be sought comes after Cupid, that is, the study of "six principles of philosophy
not
days'
work"; that
forget,
requires
experimental
faith in
faith is
that chaos came
Bacon, however, had philosophic reasons.
far back,
goes
first,
to have
The
sometimes
faith.
Bacon's authority for this fable who claimed
As Bacon's foUowers
experiment.
still
at
then earth, then
a second
least
eros, both for
parabohc reason
far
as
as
Hesiod,
eros.50
is that it is
for
parabolical and
known that the
well
customary httle naked chap with the arrow is not ungenerated, but the son of Venus. The philosophical reason is that something has not been accounted
for,
and
that something is species. Therefore there is another appetite, anoth species had to come, and the appetite in species may not
eros, for
er
be the same as the appetite in matter. Indeed it could hardly be the
for, if inorganic hfe has could not come
in
eros, it has
without species.
nus could not come without tion.51
up
Bacon
desire,
another cat
because
of
because
cats
to species,
and what
appetite analogous
Bacon knows
lonely figure It
to but
how,
not
must
be is
said
not
clear not
identical
of
func
Cupid fable, that Venus
stirs
veil
They
the fable ; he had to
Scripture. But
come
from
an
what
the first
hap
appetite,
the appetite of matter.
following
to
an
Created,
man stands a
things,
a
lonely
chaos.
first, the ungenerated Cupid, Moreover, it cannot be made fully
of
comprehensible.
not write
with
chaos, matter, eros,
the things
comprehensible, because of the scepticism about
with
sometime after
from the treatment
fully
to do
man?
sometime again revert
may
that nature
of
happens to
figure in the history who
that Ve
same
hardly satisfying to suggest that Venus, while a particular cat loves
Cupid. Still Bacon did
twist it to his purposes, as Satan is pens
said
to fulfill the
Cupid
Cupid individualizes. It is
love female
male cats
and she seems
thing,
same
younger
But in the Coelum fable it is
species,
gives an answer at the end of the
which
The
no consciousness.
the
separating it from history. The dogmatic
the parents of Cupid must lead us to give them up. Again
it may be questioned whether the Wisdom of the Ancients is really about the first things. There are a few things in the other fables deahng with nature which should
himself into
be
all
mentioned.
different
the Wisdom of the
49 60 61 62
Works
Ancients,
Bacon's fable
subtitle of
Proteus, Neptune's herdsman,
shapes.
of
and
He
also
he is
a
divined the past, prophet,
divining
Proteus is "Matter". It is
was able as
the
matter
V, 291. Theogony 116-122. Cf. Aristotle: Metaphysics 984 b 27-29.
Hesiod:
Works XIII Compare Fable #
p.
16
13, Works XIII,
with p.
pp.
25.
17-19.
to turn
Bacon does in future.52
The
then which is
Interpretation
120
he
repeats what
But
hke Proteus,
great,53
thrice
knowing
to that is the Protean
added
and
past, present,
future. Here Bacon
dweUs in the concavity of heaven. of matter, which can be turned into
says elsewhere: matter shape
many shapes. Bacon cannot very well claim, however, that Protean matter, or Protean nature, has knowledge of past, present, future. Therefore, there occurs one of the most remarkable statements of
sary, that he
the
comprehend
the future
and
parts and
to
kind
things,
sum of
besides;
singular
Two things what
and
those
it is
though
which
have been,
matter, should
not permitted
and which
is before nature,
and singularities.
particulars."56
history
that the
and
future
of matter are
comprehensible,
and is necessary to understand the Therefore study, if not the first things, the first things since Cupid.
comprehension
of matter.
And study
fully
also
the future things. If nature is not
fully
comprehensible, it is
conquerable.
Let
us
Pan, a fable that is also interpreted in the Latin Learning as an example of parabolical
turn to
the Advancement of
nature
has bred in
self-preservation.
all
One thing Bacon
is the
child of
But this is
...
when
he
fate."58
which
out that
the vulgar, and pleases only the hghter kind of
part of
the discussion admired
owed much.
The
"Fortune
philosophers."57
of fate, and Bacon distinguishes fortune Lucretius, he had no use for Epicurus, to passage about
fortune
and
fate
continues
only to bring in profane words, but even to be silly 'it is better to beheve in the fable of the gods than to assert
seems not
says
The
that to be silly is guiltier than to profane. To
passage suggests
fate is to be silly and fate to believe the fable of the gods is assert
ble. To
takes us beyond nature to the human
from the De Augmentis, Bacon points
version
Lucretius
"Epicurus
Pan
Panic terrors is that
a dread (formidinem) for hving things care and a foreshadowing of Hobbes and the state of nature.
fate. Though Bacon
whom
says about the
Here is
Yet there is that in the fable things. In the
version of
poetry.56
means universal nature.
53
and
"process"
"passions"
and
Just
Bacon means, it is hard to tell, especially when he What is meaningful for "descend to
of singularities
however, is
their
are,
to extend cognition to
things."54
are unknowable : what
urges that science must
us,
know the
who would
the work: "For it is neces
passions and process of
seems still
to be
equivalent
to
fortune,
whereas
to make the rehef of man's estate possi
Bacon, as to Machiavelli before him, fortune does not rule the
Bacon himself may be thrice great, "veluti ter maximum",
or the reference
world.59
may be to
Hermes Trismegistus. 54
"Necesse
earum quae partes
&
est
enim,
ut qui materiae passiones
factae sunt, &
quae
&
processus
noverit,
fiunt, & quae insuper futurae sunt,
rerum summum
comprehendat, licet
& ad
extendatur."
singularia cognitio non
66
New Organon
56
De Augmentis Scientiarum.
87
ibid.,
p.
I, 22. 102, 103, 118. II, in Works II,
230. "Nam Fortuna
58
ibid.
59
See Leo Strauss: Thoughts
citations therein.
vulgi
on
filia
est et
Machiavelli
pp.
226-239.
levioribus tantum
placuit."
philosophis
(Chicago, 1957) especially
pp.
205-221
and
Wisdom of the Ancients
Fates, however,
are the sisters of
What Bacon's
attack means
Pan,
is,
that
121
sisters of nature.
is that Epicurus
would not willingly accept anything that troubled the mind, and fate is more troublesome than fortune. This seems to be another way of saying that Epicurus accomodated his natu
philosophy to his
ral
Bacon,
moral philosophy.
of
course, does the opposite,
least methodologically. The mastery of nature does not accept the limits of fortune ; it may be compelled to accept those of fate. It is clear here that we are at
moving from the
Cupid
to the
natural
and moral philosophy.
Since
Coelum
human,
we
have
least to the
or at
mixture of natural
that Bacon associates
seen
the nature of
Venus,
as
things, his opening praise of Venus.60 As Leo Strauss says of teaching, "The Romans are descendants of the goddess Venus who alone things."61 guides the nature of A movement then from natural philosophy well as
and
with
we are reminded of Lucretius'
Lucretius
and
moral philosophy may be seen as a movement from Venus to Rome. Bacon does not move, as Lucretius did, from Venus to The order of
to
nature.62
speech
all.
in the Wisdom of the Ancients does
But the
understanding We have classified the fable
nature.
One
natural.
As it is
part of the
supposed
not move
seems to move
order of
of
Pan
fable, however, is
in
a comparable
from
nature
as one of those
definitely
deahng
related
If harmony
sense
Men create empire,
and
in
which
of
not man-created
insigne he clearly
to universal nature,
they are obviously
the appetite universal in matter is
and the seven reeds stand
relates
of empire
empire.63
natural.64
they may create harmony. Returning to Pan,
harmony,
harmony, but
God-made
for the
when
Bacon
speaks of
the
pipe
That
of
the "ambages
et
circuitus".
felicitous.65
ness
and
Juno's Suitor
in the
rule over
sing that the
(#16),
and we
seen
of
We
Cassandra
the importance of indirect
the empire of knowledge in the preface. It is not
passage which seems
rule should stress
have
is,
the other
to manmade harmony. The
harmony
is crooked, because
seven planets.
Likewise in human rule, pretext and obhque ways are most have seen the relation of indirectness and rule in the fables
(#1)
the
"all", that is not surprising. He has It for harmony, the other for
and empire seem related
in the
sheep-hook
with
to be connected with the
represents
course,
at
to the pohtical.
in his hands two insignia, the one would be hard to find more fitting insignia for Rome. not natural
way
to human
surpri
to furnish the transition from nature to
the secret character
of
nature,
or the
indirect
character of
rule.
Harmony pohtics
tion
is
and empire are related
seen
of the
Advancement of Learning,
60
1, 1-43.
61
"Notes
62
ibid.,
63
Bacon: Works
64
cf.
65
Lucretius"
on
p.
Works
however,
in Liberalism: Ancient
83.
XII, p. 445. V, pp. 63-64. XII, pp. 445^146.
Works
to pohtics, in the
ancient sense
as encompassing the human things. A study of the will
and
indicate Bacon's
Modern (New
in
which
organiza
demarca-
York, 1968),
p.
76.
Interpretation
] 22 tion of the
We
the moral.
pohtical and
When Bacon
cal.
must therefore
turn to the
"affections"
that Aristotle handled the
says
(that is number, but handled them in the wrong include Bacon to expect we affections, may ethics) place66
rhetoric rather
passions,67
virtues and vices together all
of the
Ancients
of moral philosophy.
to
write such a
for
to wish, it is to find
man
Consider the that
is
The
vice of
vice which
the to
is
whether
possible
to
what
to
it may
while
identify
the
exhaustive
treatment
Bacon deemed it
possible
current state of science
not
be
possible
it
vices which make
to know
more
difficult
wish.
vices predominant political
in the fables,
as
which must
vices,
Bacon
be
understands
understood
them,
differently.
Narcissus is self-love, and self-love is seen by Bacon chiefly as a science : "For that from which no fruit comes, but (hke ship in the sea)
path of a
and
the
again
to be an
impedes
passes and
to the shades and gods
consecrate
patience,
doubtful
it. Nevertheless
than the
other
fact, it is
not appear
than
as well as
Is the Wisdom
a work on moral philosophy.
work, for he thought that the then
would not permit what
In
in
It does
such a work?
non-politi
well, as to
glides, the
below."68
ancients were accustomed
The
stressed
vice
in the fable
of
Orpheus
vice of
Erichthonius,
was
im
Indeed, impatience
that is clearly a defect that impedes science.
and again
Bacon is
speaking of the effect of impatience on science. We may compare this with in one the description of Epicurus as "indulgens potius quam veritatisp fable.683 Acteon vice of hubris: the vice of Memnon is The version of the Pan
aliens"
and
Pentheus is that they
are
busybodies. The
vice stressed
in the Promethean
fable is perturbation, and, following Lucretius, Bacon sees philosophy as freeing the mind from perturbation. Added to these vices, there are two fables
deahng is that
and passion is, to Bacon a vice, for it means not all "affections", Bacon's term, but perturbed emotions. One fable The other is the fable of Dionysus, with the Tithon, or
with
emotions,
passion,
or
"satiety."
of
cupiditas or passion.
sub-title,
example of parabohcal version.69
The fable
"seems"
only morals
that
no parents
It is
perhaps
may be, it is
HA
67
"Affection"
ofL
included
also
the
"greatest thing",
least
at
a
XXII,
equal
slightly
as an
variant
which
par.
Fables,
possibility that
of
be
about
philosophy in
one of
6. "passion'
or affect us
differs from
or
cupiditas, as will appear.
Works
XII, p. 439. 68 a De Augmentis, Works II, p. 230. 69 De Augmentis, Book II, Ch. 13 in Works II, 70 ibid., p. 246; also Works XIII, p. 37.
pp.
245-250.
the
course, may be
moral
cannot
moral
natural philoso
tells us something
natural and moral philosophy. statement raises the
the knowledge
as
to the best in
to moral philosophy as Cupid is to
is invented. Moral philosophy therefore
68
68
not the
Moreover, it has been "invented",
difference between
general
Dionysus is
Advancement, in
Dionysus is particulary important. Although the fable "nothing better in the philosophy of
has been invented."70 While
invented, but
of
to pertain to morals,
Cupid has
philosophy. phy.
of
The fable
poetry, in the Latin
the first
Wisdom of the Ancients
things, but recalhng
that the
subtitle of
123
the fable of Dionysus is
"passions",
these may be among the first things. It is clear that the strictures against Aristotle's handhng of the passions in the Rhetoric, have been harkened to by
Bacon himself, for here the
passions are in moral philosophy. Indeed, they be, if not the whole, the best part of moral philosophy. To see whether
seem
to
there
are virtues
fables
independent
What is it which is
(for in this fable sents
of
the passions, we shall have to
consider other
as well.
passion,
one of the
best inventions
of moral philosophy?
the Greek and the Latin names are
or affection and
with perturbation
is the
perturbation,71
and
object of apparent good.
Bacchus
interchangeable)
the mingling
repre
of affection
Nothing here is
said about
Men may have appetites for real good: roses, Bacon discusses the disturbed passions, their
affection without perturbation.
friendship, justice,
wisdom.
to wine, to the
relation
seen.
It is
seem
to be asleep, and
all
affection, it.72
occasion revive
words,
not just
moreover, is ingenious
Affection,
and wise
in
wine as what most excites passion.
finding
In
other
it, but it is passion which finds wine. throughout the fable there is the distinction between affection and
all affection
Running
something of the nature of affection is passion, in Bacon's interpretation, which may extinct, but may be revived when the matter and the of passion
it. It finds
out what nourishes
to ivy.
Muses,
Yet in the discussion
finds
what nourishes
passion which
is
to tell why,
Bacon's terms,
on
at
Neither is virtue,
the
and
root of
the
Baconian morahty, but it is extremely difficult has any higher standard than passion.
affection
apparent
difference is the
presence or absence of
perturbation.
We cannot,
however,
neglect
the most difficult passage in the
that passage deals with affection, not necessarily passion : "It is
that
affection seeks and strives
one who
has been
augmenting or
loves,
or
servant and
for
what experience
indulgent to his
immensely the price
of
mastery,
knowledge,
or
any
glory
or
has
fable,
and
most certain
And every
rejected.
own affections should
learn,
that, whether honor, or fortunes,
other
things he seeks,
are
things that
have been abandoned, and, through all generations, and by most (people) dismissed and despised after a test."73 It is possible that this passage is Baco nian
tongue-in-cheek
calls
it
whose
a
life,
learning thing
particularly apart
for the
reflection on
the vanity of this world. However, Bacon It is unhkely that Francis Bacon, a man
noble allegory.
from his ambition,
rehef of man's
was
estate,
dedicated to the
would
have
for knowledge
to be
advancement of
considered
knowledge
as such a
a
thing.
despised, or even the affection failed, in the Orphic myth, or in Bacon's treatment of it, impatience for knowledge, and that may be intended here too. All
Where Orpheus was
in the
71
Works
perturb
XIII, p. 37. "natura Cupiditatis, sive affectus et is translated, as it sometimes is, "the nature of passion, affection, meaning is badly mangled. 72
ibid.
73
Works
pi.
38.
XIII,
p.
39.
If the
and
passage
perturbation", the
Interpretation
124
that I can further suggest, at the present stage, is that affection misleads, and knowledge, but curb one's affection, for the affection
that one should seek
may lead
to accept
us
(or testing)
what experience
rejects.
Leaving this admittedly incomplete interpretation of the Dionysiac myth, perhaps we can gain some clarity by turning to the question of virtue. The the subtitle of
Orpheus,
myth of
which
"Philosophy"
is
present an apotheosis of the contemplative
life.74
may be
expected
Indeed, Orpheus is
to
called a
"complete philosopher", and that is more than can be said of any actual, Bacon.75 Orpheus sought Eurydice. He looked historical philosophers, before behind him before he had
to the world, and, as a result, he lost
returned
her.
Orpheus then turned to subjugating beasts and stones, with his lyre. What Orpheus failed at, because of his impatience, was natural philosophy. What he succeeded at, the subjugation of beasts and stones, was pohtical philosophy. finally drowned out his lyre, the din of the Dionysiac women, was
What
rehgious strife.
The impatience
philosophy had led to
but
of men over
finding the completion of natural At this,
pohtical philosophy.
had
men
some
success,
philosophy had not resolved, the problem of reh The implication is that if natural philosophy is rooted in
one problem political
gious warfare.
Bacon's
method and
pohtical
philosophy
is patient, its and
success will
in turn lead to the
in the New Atlantis,
the cessation,
success of
of rehgious
warfare.
Orpheus is probably the link to pohtical philosophy. There is however, fable which should be discussed, before coming directly to pohtics,
one more
that of Prometheus. Prometheus signifies providence, an extremely bourgeois virtue.
The
Bacon,
the
important thing about the fable is, however, according to teaching "that man is like the center of the world as far as we look most
towards final
be
obscured
causes."76
if we do
The revolutionary character of this statement may that final causes, the good at which all things
not recall
far higher than
If
aimed,
were once
related
to final causes, then final causes are
not
in the
nature of
man.
man, but in man's
man not
work.
is the
in
center of the world as
Moreover, if man is
of the
world, the final causes are man-made final causes.
stood
by
God,
as
man, for the
God
made
man makes can
same reason
it. Bacon's
really be
that the
statement
understood.
universe
means,
The
but in man, that is,
nature,
They
may be
however,
search
can
the center
be
under
understood
by
that only the things
for the first things has
its limit. While it is true that something of the first things, like the knowledge that Cupid has no parents, is essential to pursue the final causes,
reached
the search stops there.
The
order of
future
exploration seems
further for the first things, for the common appetite. Yet scend
74 75 76
to be
natural
to particulars, with the aid of Bacon's
Works XIII, Discussed Works
pp.
XIII,
One
should not search
induction, before
we
11-14.
at greater p.
clear.
find something before matter and philosophy must do its work, must de
we cannot
44.
length in Peace among
the
Willows,
pp.
207-217.
may in fact
Wisdom of the Ancients turn to final causes.
philosophy, it
But,
can never
incomprehensibility
125
though natural philosophy must precede political
be
as comprehensible as pohtical
of nature contrasts with
philosophy, for the
the comprehensibility of
self-
created man.
The fable
longest
one.
Prometheus is, in Bacon's narration must be made, however, of the
of
Mention
titude. It is said that when Prometheus stole the this
and
virtue
ingratitude
in the study
they have,
made them more
of art and nature.
and
interpretation,
strange virtue of
fire,
men were
the
ingra
ungrateful,
bounties. Ingratitude is, to Bacon, a Men should be dissatisfied with what
seeking more. The accusation of art and nature brings science. Remember that this is the same Francis Bacon who held that inven tions deserved greater acclaim than the work of kings and ever
statesmen.77
Moreover, velli,
gratitude was the principal political
whom
science
generally,
for the
man
Bacon
often followed.78
is
gratitude
a
known that the the
irony in
are
doubtless
deserve
Ingratitude, however, is
gress to science.
the
Might
is
The fable
title, Daughters
of
in
the Sphinx takes
philosophy.79
us
The
political
things. Consider
the American Revolution. The members
so grateful to their ancestors that
of
and pohtical
glory, including, of course, virtue, because it brings pro
the same be true of politics? Bacon must have
not
The true revolutionary is dangerous ambivalence.
a
that, in inventions, or in who bring benefits to
eternal
also a
same ambivalence could exist
revolutions. such
virtue, according to Machia
one can see
virtue, because those
rehef of man's estate
Bacon himself.
Yet
they despise
ungrateful.
It
need
all subsequent
hardly be
said that
farther into the distinction between natural
riddles
(aenigmata)
Sphinx
of the
were of
two kinds: riddles concerning the nature of things, and riddles concerning the nature of Two kinds of empire (imperium) are offered to those man.80
them : the empire over nature, and the empire over man. The first
who solve
empire must overcome
the opposition of the
probably Bacon himself. It is the gained,
and
second
Schools,
kind
and
the
emperor
of empire which
is
Oedipus
the exemplar par excellence of that empire is Augustus Caesar.
Augustus Caesar, "in the course of his life, solved many new riddles concern This then is our just transition to the political fables. ing the nature of man."
There is the harsh dent
side of
pohtics,
and
there is the gentle side, as the
stu
Plato knows. Bacon is generally concerned with the harsh side of pohtics, except in The New Atlantis, where the ship of hope reaches the utopia of the future. In the Wisdom of the Ancients, pohtics is almost entirely harsh,
77
of
See among
others
I A of L
Daedalus # 19 in Works perverted
to
1, 129. This of
evil
ends,
79 80
VII,
pp.
1. It is
also
28-31, Bacon
a much stronger statement
may be accepted only
Bacon's method, 78
XIII,
on
true that in The Wisdom of the
than the more famous one, New Organon
the faith that
new
inventions
they will be controlled by Discourses I, 2. Compare Polybius VI, 6 ff. Works
ibid.,
XIII,
p.
57.
and that
pp.
54-57.
Ancients,
that mechanical inventions can be
grants
will
be salutary because
the Fellows of Solomon's House.
In terpretat ion
126
as
it is Machiavelh. Yet the Bacon's customary
with
expression
dealing
which are classified as
is
more
cautious, modifying harshness Of the ten fables
emphasis on serpentine wisdom.
specifically
with pohtics
(though
some others
include pohtics, as I mentioned, for example, in the discussion of the fable of Pan), seven deal either exphcitly or imphcitly with monarchy. The other
( # 2), Cyclops ( # 3), and Metis (30), the word rex (king) appears in the initial statement of the inter pretation. In the fable of Styx ( # 5) Endymion ( # 8) and Sister of the Giants (9) the word princeps appears in the same position. The fable of Nemesis three are open. In the interpretation of Typhon
does
( # 22)
include
not
such an
initial sentence, but it is
obvious
in
context
that it regards kings and princes.
The first
fable, Cassandra, has been discussed, but it
be
could
a pohtical
it is pohtical, its setting is the Roman repubhc, and the repub lican Cassandra is Marcus Cato. Cato saw the ruin of the Roman republic, fable. Insofar but he did "Cato
as
no good
in
Outspokenness is
mulus."81
it. Bacon
foretelhng
if he hved in the
spoke as
more
hkely
Cicero to the
quotes
Plato,
repubhc of
not
in the
that
effect
dung
of
Ro
to be characteristic of a repubhc
Rebels, the subtitle of fable # 2, and Ministers of Ter of fable # 3, are both related by Bacon to monarchy. Let us
than of a monarchy.
ror, the
subtitle
fables # 2 and # 3.82 Obviously, rebelhons are to monarchies. Bacon's treatment, however, sees kingdoms, look
briefly
at
not restricted regimes with
varying fortunes, where the king is wedded to the realm, as Jupiter was wed ded to Juno. Kings who neglected their kingdoms became tyrants, as Jupiter
did
he both bore
when
begot Pallas, without the cooperation of Juno. monster Typhon out of earth. Typhon made
and
Thereupon Juno brought the war on
Jupiter. Bacon,
who
distrusted the
policies of
kings,
and who
helped
to teach them evil arts, and who wanted to subvert so much of the ancient
ways, both
sides.
Christianity
of
Yet he
civil war.
knew,
was
in
great
fear
by
of
both
plebeians."83
indicates that he may
than populus or vulgus people of
Rome. Bacon
to the "invidious uses the
tions from
uses similar
and mahgnant
word,
civil war was
disposition
beians. Yet he
also
of
vulgus rather than plebs.
seems
great,
refer
to
and
speak of
rightly
knew
who
so.
it
specifically to the
terms in the fable
Rome, but includes Troy and
is concerned, it
The
tradition,
obviously, that civil wars are often caused
Kings became tyrants, yet he refers to the "depravity and mahgnant The very fact that Bacon uses the word plebs rather
nature of the
Bacon
the Socratic
and
of
Nemesis,
the common
That fable
as well.
rebelhon, Roman
was who put
down the
takes illustra
As far as Typhon
style.
Therefore he feared the
referring Here
people."84
also
"Ethiopia"
common
Bacon's fear
of
action of the ple
plebeians.
is continued in fable # 3. In this fable, according to Bacon, Jupiter is supposed to have treated the Cyclops much as Cesare monarchical emphasis
81
Works
82
Works XII,
p.p.
83
Works XII,
p.
84
Works
XII,
p.
XIII,
p.
434. 434-437.
435. 34.
Wisdom of the Ancients
121
Borgia is supposed, according to Machiavelli, to have treated Remirro de Kings employ ministers of terror. Then, knowing they can get more
Oreo.85
such
instruments, leave
undeserved.86
Bacon does
anything, Bacon is
far
not go so
Remirro
as
law, friends,
the
or
people.
terrorists, they perish,
say that kings
should not
For this, the late than
rather
employ terrorists. If
terrorists, and, while he does MachiaveUi in citing the execution and dismemberment of to be
to the fate
apphes
not
teaching kings
as an example
served"
of
to employ
imitated,
the
"rather late than
phrase
the extraordinary prince. The latter is Cesare destroyed his minister of terror.87 Bacon, who
prince with that of
ordinary
who employed and
knew Machiavelli well, was not unaware of this distinction. We have seen that the first fable is partly political, and that the
fables
are
Considering
silence of primeval
and
writings,
pohtical.
wholly
break the sion, that
by
only
sacred
should
be
made
pohtical, but, indirectly, it is and
antiquity,
writings,
next
that the fables are intended to which
we are
is
otherwise
faced
with
broken
by
two
help
sacred
the starthng conclu
sacred writings are silent about pohtics.
Mention
tary
unde
the minister, not to that of the king. Leo Strauss
that one compare in Machiavelli's Prince the description of the
suggests
Borgia,
them to the
the kings. As for the
people acclaim
and
private,
in passing
of
an attack on
fable # 4,
Narcissus.88
It is
not
the apolitical. Narcissus was soli
Narcissus, in Bacon's
version,
comfits,
both. The fifth fable is linked to the
was either
Aristotle,
or
third, because it too, though in a different way, suggests ruthless conduct for princes to imitate. The allegory is of the river Styx, and the subject is of oaths. We know from elsewhere that Bacon distrusted oaths. "Children are to be deceived with
Epicurus,
or
men with
oaths."89
The
second and
statement is attributed
to Lysander. But there
kept. That pledge is necessity, allegorized an River Styx. invocation to the Styx, the wise ancients realized, the Only by was a rehable oath. Princes make treaties, but their words are not to be is
one pledge
depended proper
cally,
that an oath will be
on.
prop
of
Only
necessity binds
faith ; it is
a sub-terrestial or
a prince.
not a celestial
"There is only one true and In fact it is, at least allegori-
deity."90
infernal deity. Bacon knew
what an oath meant
to a
Christian. Yet in this case, Bacon goes farther than Machiavelli. He forgets Regulus. He forgets the repubhc, at a time when a Roman's word was abso
lutely of
the 85
86 87
Citizens, said Machiavelli, remained in Italy because of they were forced to take. That was, according to Machiavelli, a result
to be trusted.
an oath
rehgion of
Numa.91
Bacon
was cynical about
the sanctity of treaties,
Prince Ch. 7. Works
XII,
Thoughts
22
of
on
p.
437.
Machiavelli,
p.
60;
also
the
reference
to Cesare Borgia on p. 58. Chapter
the Prince deals with the ordinary prince, chapter 7 with the extraordinary
prince. 88 89 90
91
Works
XII,
pp.
438-9.
Learning, Book II, XII, p. 440. Discourses I, Ch. 11. Advancement of
Works
xxii, 45.
(Paragraphing from Oxford edition.)
Interpretation
128
in general, but it must be granted that the oaths were monar chical. In the New Atlantis, something of a republic, oaths are taken seriously. The seventh fable, that of Perseus, deals with war. Since Bacon's definitive and of oaths
teaching deals is
there
with
peace, that
presents
is the
since seven
be
must
just
no more
Machiavellian, be
about
the
Jupiter,
who
Bacon to revealed
most
ministers.92
to their
actions
the argu
that,
overthrow of of
Metis,
while
there is
tyranny. There is which
is
attribute aU
used
to
distaste
Metis, being with child, was eaten up by Pallas, armed. This fable is said by
thereupon bore and begot
(arcanum)
contain a secret
by
However,
winning favor, but
a cause
kings. There is the fable
Bensalem,
the seventh fable
and asserts
that kings demand all honors for themselves, and
show
they
should
and pious cause of war than
more, especially
ful
war, it
a cause of
peaceful regime of
arguments of
number of convention.
ment of the seventh fable is completely
there
the
to how definitive the
some question as
are, especially
is,
Bacon. Kings
call on
The secret,
of government.
however, is
their councils. When a matter has been al
take it away from their councils, and make it look as if did the whole thing themselves. Bacon does not say that kings are ty
they
resolved,
rants.
But they tend to become tyrannical. He is certainly aware of their vani fable, # 16, which has already been discussed. Here
ty. There is the central
is abjectness, the
Yet,
while
pohtical method of
mate republicanism comes out
ately
inchoate)
posthumously,
proud and
critical of
the mahgnant.
monarchies, his
ulti
only in the New Atlantis, his inchoate (deliber
There are two very short pieces, which were pubhshed may help us here. They are called "The Civil Image of Caesar."93 The latter is the "Civil Image of Augustus
utopia. which
Caesar"
Juhus
wooing the
the Wisdom of the Ancients is
and
Caesar, Bacon wrote, "For neither father kinship, nor friendship held back his Further, "He cultivated dignity and fame, not for themselves, but
apparently incomplete. Of Juhus
land,
nor
religion,
destiny."94
as
instruments
is
accompanied
Caesar
"the
as
Caesar is
nor
services,
(potentia).'"*5
of power
by
nor
measured
praise,
This
accusation of such
among natural less measured. "A greatness
most excellent
much
Bacon
and elsewhere men."96
The
of mind
lust for
power
refers
to Julius
praise of
Augustus
belonged to Augustus
If the to any mortal, undisturbed, serene, and Wisdom of the Ancients may be said to have a hero, the hero must be Augus
Caesar, if
well-ordered."97
tus Caesar. In the fable
of
Nemesis, Bacon
happiest.98
tells us that he thought Augustus
comes in when Bacon finds, in Pliny, references to the miseries of Augustus. In spite of that, however, Augus tus had a mind "neither swollen, nor hght, nor soft, nor confused, nor
Caesar
of all people
the
Nemesis
melan-
62
Works
93
Works
94
ibid., pp. 27-28. ibid., p. 28. De Aug in Works III, Works XII, p. 33. Works XIII, p. 33.
85 96 97
98
XIII, pp. 62-63. XII, pp. 27^14.
p.
45. Compare II A
ofL
XXII, 13.
129
Wisdom of the Ancients choly."
In the fable
Caesar had the nature of
man.99
of
the
sphinx as
Just
as
Sphinx, his
told that
as noted
above,
we are
He
solved
riddles,
emblem.
Machiavelli learned from
Augustus
riddles about
the
Chiron, half-man and half-
beast,100
Augustus, and Bacon after him, learned from a monster of many forms, learned at great risk, for the monster, undefeated, would destroy them. And in one sense Bacon is here deahng with the ancient fact that new thoughts, unless brought in quietly, can be self-destructive. Just before the praise of Augustus, in Bacon's allegory of the Sphinx, there is a quotation from Vergil, reminding the Romans to rule their empire. "These
be
will
As
arts."101
your
we
have seen,
quotations
from the Romans
frequent in the work, and those from Vergil are more frequent than those from any other writer. The relation between Vergil and the star are the most
of
Augustus is
peUed, I
known
well
believe,
to
and requires no elaboration
conclude
that,
as
far
as
here.102
One is
com
the Wisdom of the Ancients is
concerned, Rome is the most admired part of antiquity, but it is not so much republican
Rome,
so much admired
by Machiavelh,
as
the Rome of Augus
tus. It is ironic that the philosopher who expects nothing great to come from
Homer
find
and
Hesiod,
one part of
the
and pretends
wisdom of
the
to look
antiquity,
an epoch much
claims
to
later than Ho
Hesiod.
mer and
however, is
This conclusion,
subjected
to a very grave objection. Despite
the warlike people who play so great a
Bacon's
at remotest
in
ancients
role
in his
provisional
teaching,
is peace, foreshadowing Hobbes. Like Machiavelli, he religion, but the religion of Bensalem is peaceful, and its
ultimate goal
sponsored a civil gods seem rather
to be Isis and Osiris than Juno and the peaceful
everyone accept
rehgion of
Bensalem,
Jupiter.103
and
the
Yet how could
rule of a
science,
remote, and to the plebs, incomprehensible? Bacon knew that. But Caesarism
had
Otherwise, have
99
Unhke the
overcome patriotism.
peace which
Bacon
why
engines of
ibid.,
p.
revered could
would
peace of
be brought
the fellows of Solomon's
destruction
which
they
never
only
used?104
57.
78.
100
Leo Strauss: Thoughts
101
VI, lines 851-852. Aeneid VI, lines 790 ff; VIII, lines 678-681.
102
who followed, the by imperial power. House, in the New Atlantis,
Hobbes,
about
Machiavelli,
on
p.
Aeneid
103
Peace among the Willows,
104
Of course, they that
unlikely.
could
be
pp.
used
168-79.
for defense, but the
remoteness of
the island makes
130 DESCARTES'
ON
DISCOURSE ON
METHOD*
Joseph Cropsey of Chicago
University Descartes maturity,
his
also
containing the famous
The first
essays on
"preface"
the
of
opinions
world.
does
on
the
Method,
and meteors.
The full title
of
method of conducting one's reason
sciences."
into
the Discourse is divided begins with the
which
reasoning.
One knows this because
hardest to satisfy in every that they possess. It is not follows is that
his full volume
on
Good sense, or reason, which is the power of distinguishing the true from the false, is the best distributed
following judging weU and the
as
geometry, optics,
is "Discourse
six parts
famous
thing in
in French in 1637
seeking truth in the
well and
a work of
the prefatory essay in a
born in 1596. The Discourse
was
was pubhshed
reason not
all
men,
those who are the
even
other
respect, are content with the amount of it
likely
that
is naturally
signify that
all are mistaken
in
equal
all men.
in this. Rather,
Thus the
diversity
what
of our
some men are more reasonable or rational than
but only that we conduct our thoughts along diverse paths and thus take different things into account. What is important is not the natural equip others
ment
but the
It is sense
they
right application of
it does
are
it,
the
right road or method
that from the fact that all
obvious
not
equally
follow that
for the
mind.
their good
men are content with
equally endowed with it. Whether be determined empirically. Descartes himself
all men are
endowed must
denies throughout the Discourse that men are equally endowed. His argument here in fact means that if men judge badly about their judgment, they will beheve their judgment to be good, let us say, to overstate the case,
and
in fact this is
"unanimously."
judgment,
there is
what
they do beheve
Being deceived
about
anything else they may not be deceived that nothing but Descartes or his not
hardly
"method,"
would appear
their
about.
It
even the
philanthropy of God, stands between mankind and wholesale deception. His vindication of the method, apparently based on a flattery of mankind, is
in fact based
on
the unflattering
notion
that between himself and the
rest
there is a colossal inequahty. If that cannot
be
a method
in the
simple
inequality is sufficiently great, his method sense : the more it is a true description of
the way in which his mind moved, the less can it prescribe the way in which other men's minds might move.
Method does self,"
that
bears
on
not
teach
I
a method
shall
Descartes'
caution against
the meaning
introductory
of
the
try
in the
scientific
to
maintain
that the Discourse
simple sense of
"how to do it
mistaking his teaching for project,
and
that the
such a
on
your
thing
Descartes'
irony of
thought is characteristic of his expression throughout the Dis
course.
*
paper was read at St. John's College, Annapolis, on April 10, 1970. 1 Mary Pollingue for her helpful comment on the draft.
This
to Miss
am grateful
Interpretation Descartes'
tacit
accepted as
generally
the
reproval of
decision to doubt, i.e.,
131 his famous
common opinion will animate
least provisionally, everything obvious and true. Aristotle's notion that the common opinion is not reject at
to be simply wrong is accepted by Descartes in the one context that shows it at its worst: the common opinion favoring common opinion. Des
hkely
the thought that all men are equally endowed with
cartes now confirms
by appeahng to "the common opinion of the i.e., the Scholastic Aristotehans, who teach that the essence ofa species is in its entire philosophers,"
reason
ty
in
present
each member of the species.
The
Descartes'
success of
project
be measured, however, by the effectiveness with which that project dis credits and supplants the Aristotelian-Scholastic conception of essences to which he here appeals. His ironic appeal to it is part of the foregoing rejection wiU
to which it seems to lead, and helps to prepare the elabora his intellectual autobiography, the core of which is his criticism and rejection of the sciences and arts as handed down to his time. of
the
tion
conclusion
of
Descartes
now opens the
better than the
with what appears
if it
were a
theme
of
his
method as the means
vain and useless enterprises of almost all
to be
He
much modesty.
the story of his hfe as it through the common
will show
people's opinions about
picture, gathering
to something
men, but he does so
("bruit commun"), from which he will gain instruction. (This modest submission can be understood by juxtaposition with the state of his mind as
clamor
expressed
in Part Six,
where
across
some examples
as rather
of
reason,
on
ness,
fables
as
his
only
of
the
of a
to
or rather
ensuing
in the
"story"
to
or
Discourse,
men
knowledge,
to beheve impossi
contain
distortions that
to beheve that Descartes
for his dissatisfaction
As
soon as
great
studies was
the
he
could
made while still a student
book
unlettered phase of
in the
leading
a
adversaries,
with
the
world of
learning of men is full of untruth and useless
cultivate no other science
and
about
In the sequel, devoted to
dogmatists, his contemporary
given the reasons
decision
disjunctive, studied
the
epigoni.
contradiction and pretense.
resolved
now characterizes
fable in which, "among perhaps be found some
or a
follow."
came
rigorous or
that exceed their powers. There is at least some
books. In general, the
the basis
Descartes
story
harmful in
history
and
conceive projects
Descartes has or
to
the basis of Part One of the
also of
letters
reason not
be possible;
was apprehensive not
but
be
will represent
to
a
less
the value and the defect of each branch of received
events to men
hke
advantages of writing
not seem either
that people can imitate there will
others which there will
lead
himself the
there that he "almost never
[his] opinions who did [himself].") At any rate,
ensuing autobiography
showing Descartes
with
admits
critic of
any
less balanced than
ble
he debates
publishing his thoughts. He
and
of
his
the
-
he
leave
school
abandoned
than what he could find "in
world."
As he
hfe, he
shows
proceeds
-
thus on
books
and
[himself],
to describe the
that the preceding
"or"
was
that the order in which he enumerated the two unlettered reverse of
great
book
the order in which he cultivated them.
of
the world
-
as one might
First, he
say, seeking to learn
the human things from and through conversing with men. His resolve
Descartes'
On
132 to follow this
the
course conflicts with
too much study of the
against
Discourse
reason
in
travel,
of
the
name of
own
he
in the
made
us
how to
name of good
learning. He
a
few
pages
earher,
study is hke too much Descartes tells us that he went
the tension between his criticism
resolve
citizenship,
was not averse
land. More generally, he
was perhaps not
he gave,
by their actions prove themselves really to
to learn what men
order
beheve. He thus informs
Method
ancient writings : such
travel ; it estranges one from his own country. abroad
on
and
his
becoming
to
to his
the pohty. Less generally,
put science above
What he
regime of his own country.
devoted to the
travel, done in
actual
a sort of stranger
might
is, I beheve, faintly indicated by the fact that, in the clo sing passage of Part One, where he speaks of his travels, he uses the expres which he uses once more, at the end of Part Three, to sion "great have
preferred
to it
peoples"
describe the Dutch. His description of the Dutch regime is laconic but weighty, and as close to enthusiastic as he allows himseff to become. However this of
might
the country, is
behalf
of
be,
the earher
replaced
knowledge :
by
an
objection against
apparently
no amount of travel
truth. The practices of men are as confused
inclination among men to pursue it. What he does say is that he
an
in
men and
solitude.
began to
seek
Apparently, in
it "in
order
to
objection,
good and avoid
evil, he
up the
quest
himself,"
which proves
understand
anything
opinion,
of
the
pretension
behalf
made on
to equal bon
says
nothing
for knowledge
to
mean
literally the
about man and
world, it is necessary to withdraw from the world of man, of common
made on
helped Descartes to any certain as their theories. If he discovered
now gave
about
among
travel,
more serious
is the
which
sens with which
world
Part One
began. Part Two,
which contains
Descartes'
remark
the famous rules of the method, opens with
that he was in
Germany because
the
war
known to
us as
him"
there. His expression in the Latin Thirty Years War had "called translation is more emphatic: he was there because of "[his] curiosity to see the
the
war."
He
makes a point of
trinal and pohtical, over
detachment
will
which
become
cessation of active
his
the
perfect
war was
At any rate, during the winter himself in complete isolation in the
clearer presently.
fighting he found
celebrated poele or stove-heated chamber.
first things to
occur to
ductions consisting
detachment from the issues, doc being fought. The meaning of this
him
was
There, for
some
reason,
one of
the
that generally there is less perfection in pro
of several parts and made
by
several makers
than in the
things on which only one maker has worked. He gives examples : buildings ; cities
; constitutions
that of
Sparta;
These
including
sciences;
examples are
and
that
of
finally
the true
man
noteworthy in
religion
legislated
by
God
and
himself.
several particulars.
In the first place,
there is something resembhng facetiousness in praising the unity of design
in the
constitution of
wars of
Sparta
the true
the Reformation.
because, framed by
rehgion so soon after a reference
Further, Descartes one
man,
they
all
goes on
to the terrific
to praise the
laws
tended to the same end.
of
Next,
speaking of man, Descartes is forced to acknowledge that, because we are not born with the full use of reason and must therefore be children before we are
133
Interpretation
inevitably pulled in
we are
men,
preceptors, to the
opposite
directions
impairment
permanent
of our
by our appetites
a
bold
God. First, accord born perfect and en
God in the image
the creation of man
by ing to Scripture, Adam was not made a child but was tire. Any defects in his judgment had to arise otherwise reflection on
and our
judgment. Imphcit is of
than
Descartes'
by
account, if childhood is inseparable from that account. But perhaps childhood
is
not
flict
necessary to the impairment
preceptors?
do
of
judgment. Descartes
of appetites and preceptors responsible more
makes the con
directly. Did Adam have
He surely had one; or two, depending on the status of Eve. We ask if he had appetites. How can we doubt that Adam's
have to
not
appetites
him in
led him in
another?
The laws
of
one
He did
direction not
and the precept of
his very
creator urged
tend toward a single end.
Sparta had just been described
Is it imaginable that the fatal
as
tending
opposition of ends
toward a single end.
introduced into
man's
life
the war between appetites and preceptors could be overcome? Could
by
mankind
for
be directed toward
a single
end,
as
the Spartans apparently were
time, by a grand constitution that reconciles precept with appetite once for all? In Eden, man's appetite for knowledge was put in conflict with
a
and
the precept that commanded obedience as the price of
Two, indeed the rest of knowledge under rather than
of
a
the
Discourse,
human
Sparta. If there is
promises a
way
life. The
of making
constitution which resembles
a pohtical
rest of
that of Holland
teaching in Descartes,
and
in the scientific project of the modern age, this thought appears^to be
Precisely for
Part
life the result
this reason, it surprises us not at all that the next
therewith at
its root.
paragraph
Descartes'
earnest disclaimer of any intention to any pubhc affairs. He uses a striking argument to prove that he truly has no desire to meddle with pubhc institutions. He says that he is merely recounting his own experiences and reporting the method that has worked of
the Discourse contains
reform
for him, advising most men will be
no one
to imitate him. He goes further. He beheves that
unable
to imitate him.
would
themselves more
would
Others, "having
enough
reason, or modesty, to judge that
to distinguish the true from the false than can
Some, believing
imitate him in rejecting the received opinions and they are, remain in confusion forever after, incapable of discovering the truth.
gifted than
be taught,
ought rather
to be
than to seek for better ones
others
the vain and the modest are almost
they
are some other men
satisfied
are
less
able
by whom they
to follow the opinions of those
themselves."
all
But according to Descartes of mankind. His proof that he has no
for reconstituting the world seems to prove rather that if he had such a project, it would be based on a regime of which he might be the autocrat as well as sole maker, with perhaps no imitators but only a multitude of subjects. This bears heavily on the possible meaning of the method which is the chief project
burden
of
this Part of the Discourse.
Descartes docile or
had
out
now affirms
part of mankind not observed
that he
would
if he had had but
have been among the modest and a single teacher ("un seul maitre")
the differences that divide the learned. But things fell
otherwise; and moreover on
his travels he learned that the differences
On
134
Descartes'
peoples and nations are so
among
profound, that
conclusion
that a man alone is more
they
whole
multitude, that he himself
figure
by
which
he
can
man
taught entirely
immense himself
likely
is,
and perhaps can
others.
The
a
in the docile
freed from confusion; the
frees
walker who
anticipation of
striking, and compels us to wonder, parentheticaUy, how
Rousseau is
Rousseau's
deep
the scientific project really went.
criticism of
Next, in
the
the search, and that the
environment; a solitary
lead the
on
truths than is a
following features :
a single master and thus
effect upon us of our
He is driven back
come upon
the
sketch are
by
to
a man who walks alone and
Descartes'
dark. Conspicuous in
the effects of custom and
calculate.
must undertake
be described
Method
on
far-reaching,
hard to
example so
are
Discourse
immediately precedes the statement of the four
the paragraph that
method, Descartes refers to the three arts or sciences that he had which seemed as if they might contribute something to his project :
rules of the studied
logic, geometry, and algebra. Each has merits and defects. Logic is merely didactic, at worst sophistic, never heuristic. It contains many good things he does
not mention
by
any
described
are
as
Geometry
symbols as to
practically useless, geometry
must
be
find his
few
so
bad
algebra, in their then state,
hmited to figure
as
to
over
an obstacle rather
than an instrument for the mind. Thus
own
which,
method,
one
these three, will be exempt from their a
are so confounded with
and
the imagination and algebra so bound to particular procedures and
strain
he
but these
name
things that the whole is unusable.
pages
later,
speaking
of
his
"comprising
the advantages of
defects."
method
It is necessary to observe that, which has then been exposed to the
reader, Descartes says that he has "borrowed the best of geometric analysis algebra."
He has
and of
its
power
either not
borrowed
to explain to others what one
borrowing in logic
what
knows,
or
is
good
he did
in logic, namely, really find any
not
the only part of philosophy that he regarded in any respect promising; or perhaps both. There is some reason to beheve that Descartes beheved that his combination of geometrical and algebraic
thing
worth
-
as
reasoning
in
Part Four in
is
reasoning simply, replacing philosophy in general and logic What this would do to metaphysics, to which he devotes all of
was
particular.
order
to
prove
the existence of God and of the immortal soul, to in this paper ; but it deserves consideration.
a question we shall not get
In any case, he declares that he has "taken one single time to observe [the four
fail of
a
firm
and constant resolve not
to
rules.]"
the traditional formula
With this vow,
defining justice that
so reminiscent
one wonders whether
obeying
these rules is not the only obhgation of justice he will acknowledge, he now enters on the enumeration of the famous rules themselves.
The first
of
what presents
The
second
these is to accept as true only what is evidently so, namely,
itself to his
mind
is to divide every
clearly
and
distinctly.
difficulty into
as
many
parts as
is
possible
and necessary.
The third deals and
thus the
order
with
the order of thinking: begin with the simplest objects
ones easiest
to know. Ascend to the most composite.
among things if there is
not a natural order.
Suppose
an
135
Interpretation
The fourth is to avoid
leaving
make
things out
These rules,
so
thorough
enumerations
and surveys
in
order
to
of account.
economically presented, receive an important elaboration of Part Two. To begin with, Descartes asserts that
in the remaining few pages
the example of geometrical reason led him to imagine that all truths are hnked together in a
indefinitely long chain, so that none is too Everything is knowable. I beheve it is fair to say that this truth, manifested to imagination, does not in any apparent way emerge from the four rules. Rather, it points in the direc long,
perhaps an
too concealed to be
remote or
uncovered.
Descartes'
tion of the remark that he makes in the succeeding paragraph, namely, that
in his
concrete
afterwards
in
"every
studies,
finding
truth that I found was a
others."
What this
means might
rule
be
that served
say if
easier to
me
we
take note more particularly of what he thinks his method makes possible.
In the first place, impressed by the
they do
not
deal
achievement of mathematicians,
he reahzes
any specific material but with "relations and pro among things. He desires in effect a universal science bound to nothing particular and therefore true of everything. That science must be a
that
with
portions"
science of proportions.
irreducible more
element
distinctly
relations or
As for any
is the line : there
to his imagination
proportions,
particular
proportion, the
was
and
that he
else
nothing his senses. To
however, he had
to
work with a number of
to symbols. Thus he
resort
borrowed the best from geometry and algebra, as was said What does this mean? Can we not say that the element science
is
is
what
most clear
simplest or
could represent
earlier. of
the
universal
to the imagination and to the senses, or that the
primary and irreducible can be represented by what is visible and thus imaginable? This will be contradicted in Part Four, where the exphcit inten tion is to
prove
ther can be
that God and the
understood
Descartes here (at the reduction
bears
a
by
end of
Part
to the
Two)
gives us
to
understand
that this
to an imaginable is the very core of the universal science,
similarity to what he will elaborate as physics (Part
seems to conflict with what
doubt
incorporeal, and that nei imaginable, namely, body. Yet
soul are and are
reduction
about
he treats
Descartes,
not entertain as often as
master's admonition
to doubt
all
Five) Evidently this
as metaphysics.
the so-called duahsm of
Descartes do
things
they at
a
would
least
but
doubt that
if they
which
which
raises a
students of
respected
their
once.
In summary, Part Two begins by praising the superiority of things made a single maker, shows the defectiveness of man and his condition, and presents a plan for uncovering every truth in the world, thus acquiring the
by
power to
remedy those defects.
In Part Three, Descartes
enunciates
the "three or
four"
maxims of
the
morahty, described as provisional because, presumably, a final cannot be understood before the system of knowledge as a whole morahty has been brought to perfection. In fact, however, it is not clear that the provisional
"provisional"
best be
morahty is
considered after
we will return
to it.
not
in
principle a
final morality too. This
point can
the maxims themselves have been considered, and
Descartes'
On
136 There is
link
a tacit
or transition
Part Two, precipitancy
end of
Discourse
Method
on
between Parts Two
Three:
and
at the
held up as the great Part III, irresolution is
and prejudgment are
offenses against philosophizing.
At the
beginning
of
held up as the offense against action that Descartes most desires to avoid. I beheve that the text bears out the following thought : the prevailing way of hfe is defective in promoting premature conclusion, dogmatism, or immobility and wavering, inconstancy, or fluctuation in practice. The three
in theorizing; or
four
moral maxims will
turn; to of
the alternative
be
seen
to be rules for
less figuratively,
speak more or
flexibility
a presentation of
and constancy in morality in terms
morahty to physics, very
of motion and rest : a reduction of
speaking.
generally The first of
maxim
is to
rest quiet
in the laws, customs, religion,
and opinions
interestingly, he will Aristotle, which finds
the people and authorities with which he hves. More
His
avoid excesses or extremes.
the
reason
is
to be means, but is a version
virtues
not
of
that of
the
reason of
Machiavelli : if he
happens to be the wrong one, he will be further than if he had temporized. (At this point it becomes clear
chooses an extreme which
from the
right road
that the perfection of right
the
extreme,
identical
abdicates
ment.
any
will enable
him
infallibly
to choose the
having
rule
content.) More particularly, all promises by which one his liberty are extremes and to be avoided. Of course he
of
things as legal contracts. His point is
promise
and
is to improve his
retraction of
the
that, like
flux, especially his judgment is that he makes to himself, i.e. the one
a state of
The
movable,
knowledge
transform the provisional rule into a final
moral
excludes such
himself in
and will
first
understanding.
part of
things, he is
all
to improve
subject
unbreakable or un
This is, incidentally, the
effectual
this maxim in which he pledged allegiance to
the prevailing opinions.
The once
second maxim
he has
edge.
He says, "this
remorse
rejection of
One may
own
makes
avows
the mean
notice
actions
it
possible to relieve me of all the repentings and
here has
in the first
Christian morality,
a reflection on
The
maxim
had
maxim moves
rather
his
a reflection on pagan morahty.
back to the theme
must conquer
of change or
provisionahty.
the
goodness of
himself rather than fortune
and change
More generally, he must learn his understanding lets him know to be possible,
than the order of the world.
to adjust his desires to what
is the
as
that the final perfection of knowledge would if anything
flexibility. He
his desires which
unchanging in his
and
resolute,
this maxim and estabhsh its intention beyond all
The third his
firm,
that agitate the consciences of weak and vacillating minds
constancy that he
confirm
is to be
the best decision he can in the present state of his knowl
made
natural
tendency
that if we were to regard
of our will anyway.
In this
all goods outside ourselves
(i.e.
context
not our
he
asserts
thoughts)
as
equally beyond our power, we would no more desire to be well, being sick, than to have incorruptible bodies or wings like the birds: But our thoughts, which
he
says are
formation
of
wholly
within our power,
impossibles into
about resurrection of
the
possibles
body
and
;
have
a great effect on the
and whatever
he
might
trans
have thought
immortality, he certainly believed
that
137
Interpretation medicine was subject to vast
himself
improvement, making it
to desire health. What then does he
sick people
need not
desire to
context, he say, due to
change the order of the world or of nature.
mortality,
He
In the
present
birth,"
or as one might
limit himself to
might
changes, through changing his thoughts, within the How far does that order itself limit us? Until we have ex
all possible
producing
order of nature.
hausted the knowledge it limits
or perhaps our nature.
for
change
his thoughts, of course he
change
done sufficiently,
to the limitations on us "due to our
refers
our
which
quite reasonable
by resolving to
Perhaps to
rather than the order of the world?
the only things wholly in our power;
mean
of
do
we
nature,
not
know
where
it limits us,
how
or
desires. Our understanding and our will are eventually one and the same, coextensive with the utter hmits of nature. Man appears in the image of God. The third moral maxim is superficially provisional but in its our
intention it
regards eternity.
The fourth
is
maxim
a review
This, I beheve, is why Descartes four"
rules, the last
such
The
proper.
leading
theme
specifically the
more
sweetness and life"
he
as
of
that there are "three or
higher level
than the three maxims
on a
the
rule
is
of
philosophic
life ;
ways of
Descartes'
way
hfe : the
of
the happiness it brings beyond all others "in this
"ever"
first
"provisional"
fourth
excellence of
innocence
says
being
the grounds of the preceding three.
of
says at the outset
and
as
he
says soon thereafter.
He plainly
avows
that the three maxims are entirely in the service of his philosophizing, and his
happiness. As are
they
such
are neither provisional nor
the declaration of his freedom to move
impressive
sign that
science were ways of
It
his
of
tude. He
for
of
his knowledge of
in
-
whole plan aimed
ving
earth
and modern
the ultimate subordination of
the
man whom no one or almost
that speaks to the life of the multi
wandering in the
only
at
his
the poele, and tells of world while
doubting yet avoiding irresolution.
"my
are an
to Part Three shows, his claim of
conclusion
sojourn
nine years of
of error, always
They
morality is perfectly idiosyncratic, a freedom to do everything needful and
not without an echo
to his
They
moral.
own.
in the interest
imitate. As the
reverts
its
Descartes'
virtue
freedom for himself is solitude
with
for the increase
no one can
its loftiest state, modernity
classic and
own unboundable
to intellectual
to rest.
the notion that science is impotent to judge of the
that
appear
declaration moral
of
life, beginning
might
possible
in its
innocent
essentially
by appearing
giving
me
he
Now his
certainty,
and at
leaving
cleared
his
words are
that
mind
these:
rejecting the
mo
mouvante) and the sand in order to find bedrock and The Latin translation omits the words, "reject the moving Perhaps the Latin translation is bolder in eliminating the intimation
(la
terre
ground."
solid
earth."
that
Descartes'
project aims at
overthrowing the doctrine for
troubled in ways that led to the
which
publication of
Galileo
this very
troubled, book rather than Le Monde. In any case, Part Three closes with account of his withdrawal to a new solitude, one which takes the place and
was
Descartes'
poele.
His
retirement was
continuance of
the
war
to "a country
has led to
such
[namely Holland]
institutions that the
where
of
the
the
long
armies one
en-
Descartes'
On
138 counters seem
only to
more
and where,
securely,
more careful of
active, and
le's, lacking Parts Two
their own
closed within
brackets
the
a
unity
as
in the
most
peop
cities, I was
populous
wastes."
forsaken
the vehicle of the four rules of
being
opening that speaks of war and sohtude and a and sohtude. The war is the rehgious and civil
of an
also speaks of war
war of western
Imperial
curious about other
the four rules of morahty. As a whole, these two Parts are en
method and
closing that
business than
withdrawn as
Three form
and
midst of
the conveniences of the most
none of
to hve as sohtary and
able
Method
on
to enjoy the fruits of peace so much the the crowd of a great people, very
enable one
in the
Discourse
Christendom. The first
desert,
the only
where
Descartes draws (I beheve
sohtude
is the hteral
the
sohtude of
the famous stove to which
convenience was
ironically) such extraordinary
attention.
The
sec
is civilized, convenient indeed, animated by the freedom and justice imphcit in everyone's minding his own business, and consequently conducive to philosophizing. One is almost reminded of the transition from sohtude
ond
City
the
of
tween the
Pigs to the
poele and
freedom that he
claims
commercial society.
Europe that the
of
As Parts Two Five form common
Four
has
a
his
and
in the
is
his
of
I beheve it his
soul,
The
of
be directed first
proof of this
sustain
body,
feigns
will assert
and
sider
words
so
in Part
many but only the to
thoroughly questions
order of
overlook
than his
in the
that he
the
the
possibil
metaphysics
other
-
-
because
Part Four, of all
to
Descartes'
metaphysical
finding
on which
an
indubitable truth
he
ahghts
is that he
opposite without absurdity.
things, chiefly
that
he has
no
that he is not in any place; but he says
value of such reader must
feigning
look
following
or
ahead
that clear and distinct ideas
to that other place just
conceptions come
in
unwise
a number of
no world and
nothing about what is the indicate the problem, the
Descartes
says
is that he cannot feign the
this point, he
that there is
Five have in
and
and more serious.
to the early passages and must
Parts Four
presented as metaphysics
be
but only
the princes mind.
unity, so also do Parts Four and
metaphysics
would
assure
thing far from his
plan.
physics more
one case
his desire to
a
thus a perfectly certain one. The truth
exists.
To
protected
is primary
According
a certain
different
and the
foundation
physics.
answers
physics
God
is
their states
on a
hospitably ensconced in a tolerant,
Physics in Part Five. Descartes
in his
enterprise
of
most
understand
Three form
whole, but
ity that he has exposing
Convenience. In the Discourse, the road be Amsterdam is the method of Descartes. The
for himself is
reform of
and
presented the
questions
of
It is easy to
the subjects
and as
City
the city of
the meaning of it. To to the place at
are as such
where
true
which
a "general
he holds that his false
to him out of nothing. Descartes does not explicitly con
the possibihty that
feigning myself to have no body is
to feign an absurd
ity. He does later say, while proving the incorporeal soul, that man is a composite being, i.e. composed of body and soul; but to avoid the blas phemy
of
identifying man with
God he
affirms
that the perfection of simplic
ity belongs only to God, while to man belongs the dependence to which all compositeness testifies. He does not say much about that dependence. He
Interpretation
leaves
in doubt
one
the whole
now
as to whether each component
depends
component, or most portentous in the the other. If this latter, then it is of the essence
on each
component on
ting
139
the scholastic usage into
which
on
the whole,
context of man
each
(adop
he falls in Part Four) that his
soul
his
body depend on each other, which is the tendency of Part Five, i.e. his physics. If body and soul depend on each other because we are not simple, i.e. not God, then to feign that we have no body is no more conducive to any and
truth than to feign that we do not exist; for in fact to feign that we have no body is to feign that we have no soul and no power to feign.
Descartes
now reflects on his doubting, finds it the sign of an imperfection himself, and sees that knowing is more perfect than doubting. How then did he, the imperfect being, obtain the power to conceive the perfect one? He explains that every conception of a thing less perfect than he is, is a depend
in
of
ency
his nature, while his conception of something more perfect than him depend on that more perfect being. Why this is so need not concern
self must
for the present purpose, although it is quite important to bear in mind that, in Part Six, he will describe the truths of his science as consequences and dependencies not of more or less perfect beings but simply of more primary principles. What does concern us here is the formal argument employed by us
Descartes to
sustain this proof of the existence of God : false ideas proceeding from the truthful God but from nothing, if my idea of God's existence were false it would have to come from nothing. But ideas are real things, he says. Therefore it is as absurd that the idea of a perfect being proceed merely not
from
a
less
proceed
pends on
Let
being
perfect
from
as
This
nothing.
that more proceed from less or that something remarkable proof of
the self-evident absurdity of creation ex
us consider one more attempt of
the
existence of
God de
nihilo.
Descartes to
come
to the aid
of
Scripture. He in the
alone
knows, from recognizing his imperfections, that he cannot be world. Something more perfect than himself must also exist and
indeed must have been his to the
he
existence of
would
having being God's
have
God?
desirable
principally,
of
ommipotence
seems to
himself
made
all those
How does he
creator.
move
from his imperfections
By the simple reasoning that if he had made himself, not
imperfect but
course, freedom from doubt.
into
question
on
the contrary perfect,
that conduce to happiness and
attributes
in the
well-
Having clumsily brought
one proof of his
existence, Descartes
bring his philanthropy into question in order to strengthen that proof
with another.
But Descartes of
the
ters,"
which
in
ly all
all
he
to
go on
God. He begins
directions
with parts
This is his
own example
at all that
angles must equal
any triangle being, the
of a perfect
other
exists
does
truths, in fact to further proofs
considering "the
by
divisible
of geometers
triangle, its
to
conceives as a continuous
the reasoning
exists.
a
wishes now
existence of
object of
the geome
body or a space extending indefinite
and movable.
Now he
not constitute proof
to illustrate his
meaning:
observes
that
that their object
If
one supposes
two right angles ; but this gives no assurance
in the
existence of
world.
that
Whereas if
being
one entertains
is imphcit in the idea
the idea of
it
as
On
140
Thus the
perfect.
Descartes'
existence of
God is
Discourse
at
least
on
Method
as certain as
be
demonstration. In this reasoning there seem to
some
geometrical
any
difficulties, however.
First, his thought apparently drifted from the object of the geometers to such particular objects as triangles and spheres. What he proves to be questioning if they exist in existence of the latter, which merely have their being former. Second, he seems to adopt the view that triangles exist ("are the definition of a outside") in extension or not at all. But is it not true that
is the the
figure
triangle as the of
the triangle? The
ly,
with angles
existence of
perhaps carries with
figure
that any
it the
clear and
distinct
reflection on
guarantee rests on
in the mind, the clear cannot be clearly and
and
existence
conception of
the
great space
a part presupposes
the object of the geometers
this thought: there are some things whose
definition. The
is the
right angles
in the way that
as such presupposes
If this is true, then
whole.
equalling two
the triangle in the mind, clearly and distinct
is
existence
this: the existence
distinct definition
of
of
guaranteed
the
it is its
the
leads to
by
their
thing being wholly
real
being. But if it
distinctly known, i.e. if it cannot be perfectly known, its existence is to say the least jeopardized. Drawing the existence of God into this region of demonstration raises or at least seems to raise large questions. The
nominal subject of
Descartes he does offer
says that
not wish
he
Part Five is the
sun and stars as
the questions of physics.
his
physics
because
to become embroiled with the learned. What Descartes does
to do is to give a brief summary
published under
order of
will not present the substance of
different
of what
he
wrote and would
have
First, he explained hght; then the of it; then the heavens, which transmit it;
circumstances.
the sources of most
the planets, the comets, and the earth which reflect it ; and especially all the
bodies and
on
the earth
finally
substantive
important six
because they are
man as the spectator of
here, but he has let
and we
therefore
either
colored, transparent,
it. He fulfills his
us understand
give attention
things or classes of things
promise
that the
or
order of questions
"explained,"
beginning
with
light
To this extent, the sketch just presented is reminiscent but it has a defect that the account in Genesis does not have : it
living
any
or
growing
thing
is
to that. We notice that there are
with man.
of
luminous ;
to say nothing
It has
as such except man.
and
of
ending Scripture ;
says
nothing defect
another
which, if one may say so, it shares with the Scriptural account of the begin ning:
its
it
own
of most stars.
makes no mention of
fire. Like the
account
way to fire : Descartes described the
sun and
in Genesis, it
alludes
in
the stars as the sources
light ; the Bible simply has light created before the sun, moon, and place of fire in the order of things will soon prove to be impor
But the
tant, because fire introduces heat and heat is indispensable to the Cartesian explanation of hfe which will take up most of Part Five. If I am not mistaken, the first reference to flame in the Bible is in the verse describing the flaming sword
threatening death
should offend
world of
further
by
Descartes. As
to Adam
if,
punished
seeking hfe. Fire
we are about
will
to see, he
for seeking
have
a
knowledge,
different
will present
place
he
in the
the matter again,
immediately, in different parts and in a different order, this time including fire, heat, and life. Perhaps the time has come to remind ourselves of the four
141
Interpretation
his
principal rules of
believe nothing
method:
distinct; divide beginning with the simple is none by nature ; and make not clear and
the matter into the right parts ; look to the order, or
irreducible,
constructing
careful enumerations to see
Cartesian
if there
"Biblical"
the
correction of
an order
that nothing has been left out. I believe that the account of
to
shade all
think about
without
among the
disputes
and
God
will
these things a
them,
received
it
describe
the world and its replacement
by
the
is the only illustration of the applica tion of the method in its entirety in the Discourse. Descartes abruptly commences again with these words. "All the same, in order
that I
one
to
that
[i.e.
set
in
imaginary
world
space enough matter
in motion] variously
and without order
to compose a chaos,
matter so as
it to
construction
in
operate
according to the laws he has
act
has this
such a
forming
order: mere
.
.
and
.
to their
to compose the various
thereafter to do
no
all
be ahke) ; the
and some
comets,
from planets
and comets
he
makes clear
of
it
worlds
God
might
(which create,
that matter into
into
towards earth.
heat. Now he
seeming to
;
able
things into
reflection
shows
an
to produce in things. It melts some
words:
interlude,
smoke;
and
"this transmutation
[admirable] in describing
wonderful
particular pleasure
at last, fire. Fire leads hght, as well as light with that fire, apparently through
without
ashes and
Descartes'
to be as
Now there is Descartes
its
features and,
the transformations
hght, is
converts
Now
me
nature, I took
notices
than its
others
of those ashes.
and
tend toward the center of the Earth. Now such affairs
that there is sometimes heat
rather
the heavens
of
Then, among other important things,
as tides and air currents and geological remark
Earth, some going into Next he introduces light,
a sun and stars.
that he does not suppose any heaviness in matter, yet the parts
nevertheless all
hardens
many
arrangement of most of
especially, its instantaneous traverse
its heat
The Cartesian
of nature
the heavens ; some parts of it composing an
planets and
to the
established."
matter; motion; the laws
regardless of how
way that,
those worlds must
out
the opinions
than to lend his ordinary [i.e. non-miraculous] concurrence to nature
and allow
and
refute
this whole
abandon
freely what I
to say more
to follow or
obhged
learned, I decided
now created somewhere
more
httle, and to be able
being
to speak exclusively of what would take place in a new one if
and agitated
parts of
next
as
any
in
an
which also serves as a
instant
but supposing the latter
or acquired
makes
its
glass
into
glass
of ashes
other
that occurs in
it."
connection, in
that it makes no difference to the honor
world was created
and
finally forms
of
God
which
whether
the
present appearance
graduaUy ; For this reason he
understanding easier. their development.
explains the nature of things through
The
next
attention
he
claims
theme is animals and, especially, man.
way
one of
just drawn
reason
assuming that God made him all at once, out of the described, but without a reasonable soul to begin with,
by
Having
for explaining things in terms of their development, to be unable to enter on the discussion of man except through
to his
of a nutritive or sensitive soul except
those "fires without
by
hitherto anything
the exciting in his heart of
hght"
already
same matter and without
referred
to. We may be permitted
On
142
to
for
pause
a moment
to
Descartes'
reflect on
present context.
First there
the heat of
a change that
he does their
fire,
(as
the coming into
his hfe his of
the
we would
the articulation of the passages in the of ashes
impressed him
say)
being of man,
Method
on
"transmutation"
Then the thought that
not give.
evolution
was
Discourse
immensely
explanations of
into
glass
a reason
by
that
things in terms of
to be rejected as impious. Then
ought not
whose mere
for
hfe
as
such, as distinguished from
for the moment, is explained through the animation of warmth. Scripture has it that "the Lord God formed man
qua rational
by
mere matter
the dust
of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
became
and man
a
transmutation
natural
that
same power :
and
hfe.
Five in
Descartes
by heat,
of ashes
heat is the
great
Descartes'
conviction of
which
he
his
elaborates
shows us
and
then the animation of man
transmuter, the
this
the
circulation of
by
between death
mediator
inform that large
will
notion of
hfe;
the wonderful but wholly
soul."
hving
section of
Part
the blood and the
the animal spirits as thermal phenomena. The replacement of the
action of
"Biblical"
enumeration
There is
he has
has been in fact the
one more point
in this
replacement of
hght
by heat.
that is crucial. Descartes
regard
insists
his soul, that thing thinking, distinct from the body whose nature is only to think. Of course, the immortal ity of a man's soul requires that there be the disjunction between body and that
soul which
nor therefore
not explained man's
Descartes is here
Descartes'
maintaining.
this : there is a principle of animation in
heat
or
anything
reduced, say, the
more
that accounts for whatever
nothing
the many
of
In
of particles.
principle contributes
hving
as
such,
fundamental than heat to
motion
mysterious principle
the
position
body
irrational
which
is therefore
that principle is
heat itself
can
thought,
and
this
second
to hfe as such, as is demonstrated
animals.
be
there is a completely
addition
reason or
and
The earthly death
of a man
by
is thus
the cessation of whatever hfe as such means ; and the survival of nothing but his reason. Immortality of the rational soul means the survival of a man's
reasoning or thinking although his life itself does not continue. Men have Descartes' found it easy to accept famous duahsm, but I find it difficult to
its
reconcile
this theme,
uninterpreted
turn
we
According
to
imphcations
directly
with reason.
In
order
to progress
on
to Part Six.
Descartes'
prefatory synopsis of the Discourse, Part Six "those things he beheves necessary for moving further in the inves tigation of nature than has been done, and what reasons impelled him to concerns
write."
He begins by alluding to the troubles
which hover around him because denies having any desire to reform the manners, pohtics, or rehgion of men. But the beneficent power of his physics is so great that he could not suppress that knowledge of his without sinning against the of
his
behefs,
law that there is things
and again
commands us all
to
respect
the good of mankind. For he sees that
way to make use of everything in the world "to make us as masters and possesssors of
a
-
stars, heavens, all He holds out the
nature."
-
vision of man's
enjoyment,
the fruits
earth;
of the
on which not
without
and more
only life but the
any
effort or pain
important, health,
excellence of
(sans aucune peine),
the well-being
the mind
of the
of
body
itself depends. What he
143
Interpretation
holds up to
is
view
a new and
better Eden,
things without pain and trouble not enjoyment also of
the fruit
of
under
the tree
of
in
one
which man will
all
enjoy
the condition of ignorance but in
knowledge:
a philanthropic
Eden
last.
at
He
far
goes so
as
to give hope
of
resisting the
through the application of his physics
he
the conduct
connects
imposed
upon them
by
accomphshments with
of
all
his
brevity pubhc: "joining of
own
enfeeblement
of old age
say for how long? And then
own studies with
the
the
many men, that we may
his
who can
the term
inevitably
hfe. Thus he
to be
his
must share
together the lives
and
labors
together go farther than any individual might
of
do."
He undoubtedly expected his project to survive him by a great deal. He for himself the metaphor of the general in command of armies,
adopts
winning the battles of science and life by directing the strivings of subsequent generations. He says with perfect openness that no one is as hkely to be able one is tempted to say something and make it if one discover or invent
to perfect his project as he himself is ; for it is his product
his creation if
one's own
it
[invente]
and one
he says "one cannot so learn it from
himself."
in the interest
discovery;
of
and
well conceive
someone else as
He discloses that he
will
be
parsimonious with
his truths
truth ; in order not to deprive other men of the pleasure of
to disciphne his
successors
through hard work. Even the
philanthropically in the emer ging Eden, without any animus to depreciate its denizens in comparison with its inventor although their inferiority to him is real and probably incurable. Descartes refers more than once to his need for the help of other men. He obstacles
shares a
depend
in the way to knowledge
bit
on
are planted
of wisdom with respect
their
good will
but
on
xim, the perfect paradigm for Adam that guides
Descartes'
to the gaining
of men's assistance:
do
not
their desire for gain. I beheve that this ma
Smith, might be understood as the thought
presentation of his vast project as a whole
to the
world.
So writing and so publishing as to charm mankind to a Mechanical Jerusalem, he achieves that conjunction of learning at the end of Part Three in his praise
and politics which we saw anticipated of commercial
Holland. Henceforth
the city may love the scientist and may help him on his way for the most dependable because the lowest of reasons. In the new Eden it becomes diffi cult to
It is
distinguish the Lord from the clear
that Descartes
reason, to hve
on
in the
serpent.
his project, hence his thought and his lives of untold generations. In this way,
expected
minds and
perhaps, his rational soul lives on and on, long surviving the extinction of that invisible heat which for a brief time quickened the ashes whose glory
it
was
to harbor the
audacious mind of
Descartes.
144
THE DESIGN OF MONTESQUIEU'S CONSIDERATIONS
Considerations on the causes of the greatness decline* of the Romans and their David Lowenthal Boston College
Introduction Montesquieu's between his
two
the Romans appeared in
on
work
other
works, Persian Letters
great
1734,
(1721),
(1748). Like them, it was pubhshed outside The preface to the first speaks of a "secret
the Laws
about
and
midway The Spirit of
France,
of
and ano
chain"
linking its parts.
nymously.
The
preface
"design only
to the third begs the
of the
the
after
reader
has become
reader
Yet both
before the
prefaces pretend
has had
reader
"design."
They
or
that
purpose
These
an
Beneath their
work on
anywhere within statement of
Does it which
guously
like
Romans has
intent? Does it
dangerously
part,
also a
greatness and
than
rather
Eastern
a
no
should
nature.
from
Not
some are summations of causal
title, did
the work
require
Purpose chapters condition
can show
have
such
itself in a
immediately
into
all
and
proffers
is
to be a causal
meant
ends with
to the other
the
is,
at
ana
least in
the collapse of the
with
pure and simple.
many
chapters
kind, however: Why, given the
as well as causal chapters? relation
on
But why Rome?
the chapters are of this
its
unambi
"considerations
the text shows that it
one
prefatory
no preface?
two
other
their
work
a
Perhaps its title
none?
The title may
to the purpose of the work,
"design."
overall plan or
eleven chapters on the
part of a
things
Do these twenty-three
design? The twelfth chapter, dealing with Rome's after Caesar's death, serves to divide the work as a
Paradoxically, however, This essay is
be denied
decline'"
and
analysis,
historical
be expansive, but its meaning, are far from self-evident.
It
Rome's origin,
at
alone
than the titles of the
Romans
and proceeds
plainly historical in
it
hence tolerate
and
a glance at
history. It begins
Empire,
any
conveyed.
withhold
boldly and hence require
decline? And if the
history,
however,
esoterically
he deeper, unstated ones. preface ; nor is its purpose announced
proclaims the purpose of the work.
its
openly announce,
on a message
the works themselves
Why
more expansive and clear
Why lysis,
*
and
speak more
causes of the greatness of the
whole
fully
stated purposes
the text itself.
speak more
is
the
that links them to
chain
the purpose of each work
announce
depends for its fulfillment
reader.
Only the
to
in the
themselves
will reveal
opportunity to think his way to its "secret
cannot
prefaces must therefore
from the
"the
aware of
others."
chain"
to truths that
and again refers
"design"
to seek the author's
Roman
the empire
larger
work on
financial assistance, hereby gratefully
republic and eleven on
chapters
do
not all
Montesquieu's early
treat
writings
acknowledged, from the Relm
of
the empire. the Roman
begun in 1965
Foundation.
with
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations
Empire. Toward the for the
beginning of chapter 2 1
beyond that
empire
point
told that the correct name
we are
"Greek"
is the
145
Empire. But why three
Montesquieu takes pains to call the Greek Empire in a work explicitly devoted to the Romans alone? And if the Greek Empire, down to the fifteenth century, is a fitting portion of the subject, why not the Holy chapters on what
Roman Empire
f
the West as it became estabhshed under Charlemagne as
early as the ninth century? If we examine the work causal
chapters, the
with an eye
repubhc
to the distribution
half has five
the former
of
of
historical
(1, 4, 5, 7, 1 1)
and
the
and
remaining six causal, while the empire half has only one purely causal (18), and two mixed (21, 22), with the remaining eight or nine (if one includes
12) historical. By this calculation, the causal chapters are slightly more in the republic half but heavily outnumbered by the historical
chapter
numerous
in the
chapters makes
reasons unknown
eleven republic chapters sums
up the
became great;
the
18
of
"maxims"
or rules of conduct
dividing point
between the
its
began,
corruption
five chapters, the
rules of conduct
one,
just
as
3, is devoted
number
9 (causes
(causes
the fall of the Roman Empire).
by following chapter 18
chapter
18,
so
does
Empire, point
An intricate yet
causes of
republic's
Rome's
fall),
Moreover, just so
new
on
22,
chapter
the
ruin."
(causes
the
of
and number
as chapter
does the
ruin
(the
chapter
18
10 deals cor
directly
the very mention of which is
effect of the spread of
the central chapter of the empire
"Greek"
what
the
Epicureanism),
than a general cause
for Rome's decline, the
of
with a similar subject
from its title, namely the
omitted
particular rather
up the
to "How the Romans
than a general cause of the repubhc's
the spread of
deal
the Romans
also serves as a
turn out to be numbers 3 and 6
causal chapters
with a particular rather
"Two
9) examines
greatness),
ruption wrought
which
the middle chapter of the five devoted
repubhc's of
whole,
deahng with the Roman republic before deahng with its inner decay. And of the first
number
their
to the corrupt repubhc (number
key
a
chapters
power,"
The
by
eleven empire chapters sums
causing Rome to fall. Chapter 6
and those
middle
were able to extend
half
republic
history of the republic, whereas the filling in the history of the empire.
the two halves further divide it. Chapter 6 of the
middles of
chapter
to us, the
to fill in the
twenty-three chapters divides the work as
as the middle of the
do the two
so
attempt
half is primarily devoted to
empire
Just
half. For
empire
relatively httle
Christianity
i.e.,
a
the empire's dechne. And just as
half,
conveys
the
general reasons
middle chapter of
the section
on
to the deepest cause of that empire's corruption.
basically simple
symmetry
seems
is the design behind the design? Perhaps
to inform this
we can
work:
but
learn something from
important theoretical teaching in the work, located, as we might chapter 18's analysis of the empire's fall. It is a general teaching about causation, in a work explicitly devoted to the discovery of "causes. "We the
most
expect, in are
told :
It is
not chance that rules
which act
the world
in every monarchy, elevating
.
.
it,
.
There
are general causes, moral and
maintaining
it,
or
hurling it
to the
physical,
ground.
All
Interpretation
146
by
accidents are controlled
We the
these causes
this thesis, but not the
are given
"world"
refer
word
trend draws with
it
all
causes, and
"particularity"
"accident,"
all go
"physical"
causes
and
how
and
consist,
the principle stated here wiU have to be
things in the uni
all
"particular"
and
"moral"
tainly
main
to itat least not plainly. Does
key
distinguished from
as
are
"chance,"
why do do
word, the
a
only to the human world or to
"general"
What
verse?
In
...
accidents.1
particular
are
understood
together? Of what
they
related?
Cer
to appreciate both
the causal analysis of Rome's greatness and dechne and the design of the work
in
all
its aspects, from its non-existent preface, its title, and its layout of content. The work and the principle will serve to eluci
chapters, to its inner
date
each other.
We have already
seen enough
to
tesquieu's other two major works,
the
surmise that
contains parts
Considerations, hke Mon
linked by
a
"secret
chain"
or
story helps Letters, hide the design : its preface could alert the reader to a deeper message. Perhaps
hidden design. In Persian the
Considerations,
the
unadorned
by
of the romance
fictional form speak of
this question in a preliminary way, we
answer
or
standing more starkly, What need to conceal? To
and
"risk?"
But why
could not risk a preface.
form
must not
neglect
unthinkingly
the fact that the work was pubhshed anonymously, and in
France. As eighteenth
we
century France teachings.2
advocacies or
criticism; the
destiny,
HoUand, not learn from Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu's biographer,
and
that of his
books,
literary
the writer in
by
aware
could
from
(in
a
the past we
totalitarianism,
have who
and
favored
forms. How
1734, Montesquieu
Rome
repubhcan
well aware
he
was of one
rather
dangers
made
could
than its early or later such as
these can be
place, that "men are never more
than when their ceremonies and practices are
footnote)
been
again
found themselves
oppressive scrutiny.
evading
from the text itself. He tells us, in
offended
to
and an author's personal
trouble over a work that praised pagan Rome, as distinguished
Christianity,
shown
to all
open
easily be determined by factors having Of this perennial problem
only the French environment of
anticipate
monarchical
hberal society,
figure;
non-hberal societies of
the phght of authors under
Considering
a
and church were still quite sensitive
merit or marketabihty.
compelled to re-discover ways of
easily
precisely
censor was still a powerful
nothing to do with
facing
was not
Monarchy
flouted."
that he is fearful of conflicting with "ecclesiastical
He
allows
in
authors"
pertaining to piety. He points sharply at the crime of lese-majesty or high treason that Tiberius applied not only to actions but to "words, signs matters
and even
He
thoughts
Justinian's tyranny, pubhshed works.
1
might
shows that
have
Finally, he
Page 169 (references
are
he
appreciates
written a
gives evidence of
to my translation of the
University 1965). R. Shackleton, Montesquieu (Oxford, 1961),
under
History contradicting his being acutely aware of the
Considerations, Free Press
nell 2
how Procopius,
Secret
pp.
153-4.
and
Cor
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations
dangers
of
regicide,
even while
evincing
147
interest in the
an unusual
problems
conspirators.3
of
I Roman Greatness
Decline
and
Montesquieu's message must be sought in the body text. Chapter l's account
We
mysterious or even prepossessing.
from: they
could
have been
of his
Rome's beginnings does
of
almost
are not
any
told
where
No
people.
not
carefully
wrought
on
rely
anything the Romans came
act of
foundation
by
the
gods, or by Romulus, forms part of the story : Rome's traditional interpreta tion of itself seems to be put to one side. Montesquieu refers, it is true, to the that soon appeared in its public edifices, and to
greatness
early to build "the eternal
in his first footnote is the not
lowly
does
or
earthly
city"
nal
dulity
seem
of
work cited
Tarquin (and
Jupiter, for
example) : evidently, great things But Montesquieu's reference to "the eter
origins.
traditional
thing. This full
such a
Nevertheless,
its commencing
the only public
sewerage system constructed under
Tarquin's first temple
have very
city."
and
about other eternal cities
as
uncritical,
acceptance of pagan
about
if Rome did in fact
produce
Rome, however, implies incre
Jerusalem
and
Christian Rome. It
may even suggest some continuity between pagan Rome and the eternal Rome of Christianity, still powerful in the eighteenth century. The reference
is therefore entirely untraditional from the and institutions in his own day. We the
should proceed more slowly.
first
Rome
paragraph
as a
city hke those they see in their not hke present
Earhest Rome, then, is
to
comes
dominant beliefs
Montesquieu introduces his
by warning his readers
contemporary city that
standpoint of
mind.
that
they
in
subject
must not picture earhest
day, except for Crimean cities. Rome, which is of course the first Above all, it is not Christian, not own
in aura, not complex. But neither were the first Romans like the first humans in Genesis, living in some direct relation to the Lord. Like the spiritual
Crimean cities, Rome was first built to "hold booty, cattle and the field." the Why did these have to be held? The earhest cities seem to
crude
fruits
of
have been after
protective
sanctuaries, owing their very
referring to Rome's
houses,
internal physical characteristics lus
and
his
citizens,
Montesquieu explicitly
Sabines when
without a word about
he traces the
"flocks
8
origin of
Yet he
rape of
the triumph of the
he is too
p.
164,
note
and
p.
211,
note
13;
pp.
own
129-30;
fact,
to its
that Romu
union with
the
the Sabine women, and
bringing back
his
i.e.,
their neighbors "to
p.
to the city
of
source, Dionysius
of
126,
note
its implications for textual interpretation, The Art of Writing (Free Press, 1952).
general problem and
Persecution
9;
gentle :
admits
Rome's
mentions
the renowned
grain"
and sheaves of
Pages 108-9;
On the
wives and
to war. In
and works
successors were almost always at war with lands."
obtain
existence
squares, edifices
1;
see
pp.
199, 190. Strauss,
Leo
Interpretation
148
Hahcarnassus,
speaks
of
back "spoils
bringing
Montesquieu
Only much later does
and conquered
peoples."4
the fact that in all their wars the
confide
these early paragraphs he and to paint the Romans too war, early ferocity inhumane how the reader from they really were. favorably, conceahng As a city, Rome originates out of war, perpetuates itself through war,
Romans took
seems
to
understate
number of slaves.
the
by means
grows great remain
large
a
of
of war.
the overriding
Thus, in
Its
wars
form the
topic
second
first
throughout the
consideration
in
1
chapter
and
seven chapters
if
that, for the Romans, foreign policy is merely instrument for achieving conquest and subjugation. In these chapters, Rome's internal structure and domestic affairs receive little atten tion, and then, for the most part, only when they have some direct bearing on foreign affairs. What is more, the chapters that deal with the repubhc between
an extension of
we understand and an
war,
its
origins and
great
leaders,
domestic
its
This
affairs.
Pyrrhus, Hannibal them, in
contrast
belongs to the
Instead, as
it
pay
is borne
Mithridates
all
deahng
to the chapters
hardly
any
to Rome's
attention
their influence was most felt in foreign or
by
out
with
the
the
are
last days
of
Only
titles.
chapter
captains
enemy
named
the
in
republic
The glory of Roman republican greatness, it would seem, such, rather than to any of its individual
repubhcan system as
Yet
we
learn relatively little about that system until chapter 8. to follow, and be fascinated by, the Roman juggernaut
we are asked
from
moves
the end of
war
to war, in conquests
7. Chapter 1 had
chapter
pubhc
is to
greatness
culminated
mentioned
by
Rome's
those of
Pompey at
houses, early build
("ouvrages"), but it is the aggrandizing work wrought by Rome and brought to its completion by
ings, ("ouvrage") of greatness Pompey that dominates the scene and
Rome's
10)
observation
and
and with the empire.
members.
(2 to
collapse
regardless of whether
works
thereafter.5
And since to
understand the antagonists and obstacles
figure
enemies sometimes
more
largely
understand
Rome's
it had to overcome,
in these early
than
chapters
Rome itself.
As
a politic observer of pohtical
are compelled
definition
find that greatness, come and subdue.
building depend
of
on
durable
military
more available
to
But
empire.
it has
repubhcs
to
most
the ability to coerce,
clearly in
greatness
thus
over
successful warfare and the
understood
does
not
merely It is
moral and pohtical prerequisites as well.
It depends
patriotism,
on
the
agricultural
widespread existence
obedience
to
law,
coinage,
in the
honesty,
in short, on civic virtue, and on prudent leadership as well, con In this sense, the greatness of nations, measured in terms of
simplicity
applied.
Roman
never attempts
or
than to monarchies, and more to
republics.
nation of such qualities as
greatness,
itself
shows
skill:
of
to its core, is power
reduced
It
than to commercial
stantly
affairs, Montesquieu
indeed any definition at all. We to infer the definition from his use of the term. In so doing we
present a scientific
Antiquities, II, 34; IX, 35. pp. 24, 81, 95 on
Compare
"work.''
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations size, depends
power and
in terms
ured
Montesquieu does tues
are
are ends
the greatness of the
on
of virtues such as not
in themselves,
virtue must
raise
bodily forjudging nations cannot be power, choiceworthy than
be
command and
in this latter direction
imphcitly defined in
ness"'
sacrificed whenever
The
the path first taken
terms
life,
to adduce, in Rome's
or
bearing
on
to
favor,
its
influential philosophies
the work
standard.
Thus,
to civiliza
those achievements
power.
in
The only Roman art of war. He knew that
is the only one it studied, as he claims : the art Roman letters were an outgrowth not of the vigorous and of the republic grown corrupt
the maintenance
relate cities
studies
but
invol
Machiavelli. "Great
by
power, is the political
of
the arts and sciences that have no
he
goods,
which
overall complexion of
makes no outward effort whatsoever
tion or the good
If they
or external
hand, if power is the crux of national greatness, then moral
bend to its
Montesquieu
the question as to whether these vir
as means to national greatness.
only
or extension of power requires vice.
points
meas
to other nations. This was the view of Plato and Aris
ves an external relation
totle. On the other
or
and more
then the ultimate standard
composing them,
these.
exphcitly
desirable in themselves
men
149
healthy repubhc
through imperialistic expansion. And when
of the repubhc and empire are
mentioned, it is
for
not
themselves but for their baneful or beneficial effects on Roman greatness or power.6
The pohtical counterpart to
it,
was civic
harmony. This
seven chapters
learn
we
moral
notion
is
virtue,
as classical philosophy conceived
also rejected
by Montesquieu. In the first internal
about a number of the
prerequisites
of
Rome's repubhcan greatness. These include its annual consuls, its mode of dis
tributing booty, its
lands, its
equal partition of
favoring poverty
custom
and
morals, its giving pubhc preference to virtue, its allowing preeminence to the senate, and its great love of country and obedience to law. For the strict
first time in chapter 8, however, we are told of internal dissensions that raged in the repubhc from its aristocratic beginnings and changed it into a popular state.
The
antagonism
between
to one between the common mained
gradually
the nobles, though the
gave
way
senate re
the bastion of power for the non-democratic element throughout.
Montesquieu
by
plebeians and patricians
people and
enumerates the various techniques employed
the people in their own behalf. He goes
the censors,
and
its
role
in preserving
old
on
by the
senate and
to describe the magistracy of
Roman
ways and
reducing threats
to the commonwealth, especially from the people.
Chapter 8
comes as
something
about either greatness or of
Roman
power.
In fact, it
it is not clearly a chapter explicitly linked to a consideration
of a surprise:
decline ; it is
not
makes one wonder
with dissension could steadily triumph over
its
how
a repubhc so
enemies
in the
fraught
manner
de
scribed in the earlier chapters ; and it returns, in its opening paragraphs, to a point
in
time
derstand the 6
appropriate
to
chapter
most powerful republic
Epicurianism,
p.
97; Stoicism,
p.
145.
1
.
But
chapter
the world
has
8
was necessary.
ever
To
un
seen, one must know
Interpretation
150
its internal
about
structure and
in
and
working,
particular about
its
conten
ding parts. In the same way, Rome's internal corruption and breakdown, leading to the Caesars and ultimately to a great alteration in its external power,
presuppose some
bation
by
conquest
understanding
itself. But the
its
of
role of
civil struggles and
dissension in this
their exacer
great repubhc also
has theoretical importance, as Montesquieu himself tells us in the very next chapter : "We only hear in the authors of the dissensions that ruined Rome, seeing that these dissensions been there and always had to
ways
dissention
was a
A kind
internal
be."
accompaniment of
necessary
along with Chapter 9 finds the causes of Rome's
and
of
war went
Roman
unity.
But it
of
internal dissension in
it
allows
a
Montesquieu to
Thus, just as
chapter
accepts
free
Roman
power and greatness.
external war.
in the
ruin
greatness of the empire
i.e., in the manifold effects
the greatness of the city of Rome
size on
necessary to it, that they had al Far from a pohtical vice, Roman
were
without
of increased
the Machiavellian view of the necessity
dedicated to military expansion,
republic
and
generally of pohtical union as such. important chapter on the weU-constructed
speak quite
6 is the
most
foreign policy, so chapter 9 serves not only to treat Rome's ruin but in the process to declare the internal nature of pohtical union. For "What is called union
in a
are not
body politic is a very equivocal
to be
avoided
if they
discords
much as musical
order,
reaction to
contribute
be
pohtic must
bodies pohtic,
it
and
must
to
harmony,
or action and
bodies. In this way, the problem in mechanics. A body
heavenly a
have unity
and coherence.
But the
their modes of coherence, do not seem to be
deter
"authors"
is "a very equivocal The its internal conflict, but their pohtical common
nature: pohtical union
blamed Rome's
is
can contribute
is likened to
body
stresses and strains
thing."
by
mined
a single
Internal
to the overall working of the pohtical
the orderly movement of the
essential problem of pohtics
ends of
thing."
ruin on
sense
With Montesquieu, the possibilities for obtaining pohtical union enormously expanded in the direction of that which in fact works regard
mistaken.
are
less
of what
Copernican
common
revolution
sense
in
expects.
Again
following Machiavelli,
this
politics opens the
tional government founded on
possibility of modern constitu the institutionalized conflict of dissentient
interests. Chapters 8 to 10 convey an excellent picture of the framework of Rome as and of how conquest led to the disintegration of the city's unity. But whereas the first two of these deal mainly with what are properly the general a
city,
causes of
Rome's greatness, chapter 10 introduces a particular Montesquieu does not explain what "the sect of
he
seems
to be extremely
reluctant
the connection between morals,
to mention its hedonism
rehgion and patriotism
the central paragraph in the chapter,
in the
entire work occurs
keeping
to the "fear
lished"
and
ever,
Epi
cause:
Epicurus"
cureanism.
"fought
one wonders
in
a
footnote
hell"
of
and
a
and atheism.
in Rome
from Polybius
fear which Polybius thinks is today."
why the censors,
whose
Judging from
job
was
;
But
occupies
the only direct reference to
quotation
without reason
was
"hell"
linking "wisely estab
chapter
oath-
8, how
to reform everything that
The Design of Montesquieu
s
151
Considerations
"the heart or mind of the did not succeed in repressing doctrine that "contributed much toward tainting the heart and mind of the Romans." The answer seems to be given immediately after the paragraph on citizen,"
could change a
in
rehgion were a
an
reanism
only
it
seem,
would
10: the
chapter
necessary
enormous riches
derived from Rome's
and general cause of the republic's
auxihary
Changes in
and particular cause.
are made possible
by
corruption,
prior changes
in
greatness
Epicu
and
ideas,
accepted
non-intellectual condi
tions.
Chapter 1 1 deals mainly of
Caesar's
with
seizure of
power, transformation
the repubhc, and assassination, chapter 12 with the events
leading
to
Octavius Caesar's supremacy, and chapters 13 to 17 with the empire from Augustus to Valens. The longest continuous stretch of historical treatment in the
work occurs
pation with
tic affairs
beginning
matically from
dred
one ruler
7 there
taken against
are
11 to
chapter
Sulla
17. It
reveals a new
mihtary
pre-occu-
domes
elements of
ending with Valens, and proceeds syste to the next for the entire period of some four hun and
one observes that after the account of
few descriptions
them,
chapter
and certain political and
with
Similarly,
years.
chapter
from
individuals
Rome's
of
Mithridates in
enemies and the wars under
the most noteworthy exception
being Trajan's war against
the Parthians.
II Rome Montesquieu takes his collapse under
is
Arcadius
not a single reference
observation
account of and
and purpose.
As
the Western Empire up to the time
birth,
career and
another:
although references
vals of time abound.
to
refuses
death
of
account
of
its
there
Jesus Christ. This
throughout the work not a single date
beginnings,
we shall now
Montesquieu
Judaea
Honorius (c. 400 A.D.). In this
to the
may be linked to
is mentioned,
and
ends,
sequences and
inter
show, these omissions have a ground
to take his bearings
by Christian chronol
does everything in his power to cause the reader to forget Christian ogy, things. This is not merely a pedagogical device, for there is an intrinsic anti thesis between Roman things and the things of the Bible, Jewish and Chris and
tian. A
sympathetic
an attack on the
Montesquieu
He
respect
simple.
Josephus, military
of repubhcan and
its
Rome
is, in fact, by its
peoples.
To
He
far
as
to suggest a
to the role of the
barely
namely, the
to
"sacred"
natural explanation of
"the
But the
nature
Rome,
history. sacred."
Jews in Roman history his problem is relativ
takes notice of them. In footnotes to chapter
the Jewish leader who deserted the
might.
very for
win approval
must engender obhvion of and opposition
must even go so
With ely
study
Bible, its leaders
Jews,
to
testify
2, he
uses
to Roman
immediately following this passage in Josephus of Jerusalem by Vespasian (78 A.D.) go unno
events
destruction
ticed in Montesquieu's text.
In
a
footnote to
chapter
Roman aggrandizement), Montesquieu cites the
6 (on the techniques
apocryphal
Book
of
of
the
Interpretation
1 52 Maccabees for against
Syria
height
at the
of
with the
then accorded the title of ally
the Romans. The final
Jews,
who
had
revolted
by Rome. In other words,
the Roman period, the Jews
during
their military prowess
of
dependents
were
Rome
by
made
treaty
a
and were
to the Jews is the only
reference
in the body recounting how to sword and laws Christian used his emperor, destroy various Justinian, the Jews,7 non-Christian and Christian sects, including the Samaritans and the to
one
who
appear
had
preserved
the Jews
Thus,
rise
their
by
The
in
a passage
their conquest
rehgion even after
by
pagan
their ruin through
mark
original conquest
in short, their
Vespasian
in
occurs
into the text only to
persecution, whereas their
passed over
It
of the text.
by Pompey
and
later
Rome.
Christian
repression
the hands of the Romans
sufferings at
are
silence.
conditions that prepared
Rome for
Christianity
must
be
understood
against
the background of the conditions prevailing under the repubhc.
Roman
senate and people
to submit to the rule
and were compelled footnote8
Greeks even
Montesquieu tells
person who
hardly in his
first
adheres,
own
if
to many
establishes a
as well.
hands
of one
but that
of
utter
the
dependence
the senate and vileness
in
all
its
early, the
of
a usage
people
and
began to
Montesquieu shows how
rapidly destroyed
on one man caused
under
Augustus
increasing
the
past,
and
servility the
integrity
rule of
the
replaced
and
day.
attach all
their loves and hopes to the person
after the
death
of
and
baseness self-
Very
of one
Germanicus (who lived in Jesus
indicates.9
practice of
deifying
Montesquieu's account, sister be regarded by the Caracalla
that only the
to which he himself
to the manner in which he employs
military functions. Virtue,
of the
desolation
as their
Christ's time)
imply
the people, especially once the latter was
pohtical as well as
became things
reliance
by
man,
emperor was
of
The
would
tyrant
a
a
tyranny, as did the a democracy. But,
it impossible for a European king fact, he applies the term with great frequency of the emperors, beginning with Augustus but going far Tyranny, then, must have some relation to the scope of
not most
Tiberius. This
man
correct, it
tyranny is
as well as to the possible origin of such power.
all power
i.e. to tyranny. In
the word
and which would make
the powers in the
them,
force
someone who overthrows
historically
were
of
reserves
to turn tyrant. In
day
beyond him
he
us that
Romans, for
the
and
if this definition
The
lost their participation in self-rule under the empire
and
Caligula,
public as
Macrinus
both
a
to have
begun, according to sophistry insisted that his human and a goddess. It was used
close relatives seems
with
whose
as a means of
placating the
hostility
aroused
by
they committed. Later, out of a desire to be worshipped hke the Persia, Diocletian (or Galerius) ordered that the living emperor be
the murders
kings
of
deified. But armies,
7
and
even
before,
when
the armies were
Page 191.
8
Page 126,
9
Pages 132-3.
note
7.
the emperors had begun to be chosen
recruited
from
all over
by the the empire, Rome be-
The Design of came used
to each emperor
his origin,
and
gods
the impoverishment
taxation made them either take personal servitude of some
internal degeneration and
institutions
Roman
Christianity's
from his
Roman
empire
place of
replace all of
Rome's
the people through
of
dependence
utter
to the
religion which was most adverse
Romans
empire prepared the
to
or submit
climate, wholly derived from the itself and its reversal of the mores
take root and spread. The subservience engendered
republic could universal
such a
of the
153
among the barbarians
refuge
kind. In
the republic, the
of
and customs
to go so far as to
wanted
Finally,
own.
Considerations
s
introducing laws
Hehogabalus
his
with
Montesquieu'
by
the
and their subjects alike
for
god, its universahsm, its appeal to the
on one
the meek, and its other-worldly promises. As to any admiration
poor and
that the Christians might have evoked through courage in martyrdom, moral and strange
purity,
not chosen
can
asceticism, nothing
to mention, let alone depict
or
be said,
since
Montesquieu has
praise, how early Christians lived
died.
or
Another way in ity is through his
.
.
and who was
.
annals of
"the
And
Marcus Aurelius is
have been brought forth
brings forth in
imagine
"sects."
tion is
Juhan,
for
honoring
emphasize
places the
tried to
his
Nor do
attempt
we
hear,
to the Stoic sect,
na
heavens have
against
the em
which seemed
itself, "hke
seen."
One
never
to
those plants the can
hardly
to the distinction between natural and super emperor
restore
Montesquieu lauds
without reserva
morals,"
for himself the "old
to restore the entire system as
war
best Roman
nature"
and whose
heroism drove back the barbarians. But we learn nothing or of
human
Trajan's dissimila
successfully waging
attributed
And the third
who
if to
also praised as one of the
by "human
a clearer reference
natural
as
most
"all the
Montesquieu does nothing but depict the
overcome
perors, and his excellence is
earth
(the
called
peace,"
Trajan had to
Parthians.10
toward Christian
one who possessed
man most suitable
divine."
and
obstacles
attitude
Trajan is
history,"
in the
representing the from the "prince of rity ture
his
reveals
praise of certain emperors.
accomplished prince
virtues
Montesquieu
which
of Juhan's
apostasy,
of pagan rehgion and morals.
in The Spirit of the Laws, that Julian
was a
Stoic
and
hence among those Montesquieu had earher called the best of the Roman emperors. But perhaps the most beautiful and most complete evidence of Montesquieu's
19,
view
is
in his reference, at the beginning of chapter shown "that the city of heaven was different the ancient Romans, for some human virtues,
supplied
to Saint Augustine's
having
from this earthly city in which had received rewards that were
as
could not agree more
with
completely
virtues."
he differs only in assessing them. To Montesquieu, the tyrannical Roman Empire to
contrast
his
Pages 141-2.
as
St. Augustine
reign of
Montesquieu
these as
Justinian is
to the alternatives;
a transition
from the
the West to the Greek Empire of the East. He takes pains
the Christian
of Behsarius,
19
of
vain
general.
spirit of
Justinian
with
the
ancient
Roman
And for the first time in the entire work he
spirit
mentions
Interpretation
154
those Justinian directed at non-Christians as
rehgious persecutions
Christians he
at the
considered
heretics. As for the Greek Empire
in the two
condition
is
speaks of
its disorders, the
emphasized
chapters
second of
its
indicating its
character :
Its disorders
weakness.
well as
itself, its the first
consisted of
caused by heresies, changes of ruhng fami lies, the slackening of punishments, and superstition, with the result that loyal perfidies"
"revolts,
ty
to the
chapters on
important. To
most
Empire is directed
from "a
tion
non-existent, and
prince was
Of the three
ending.
is the
seditions and
as
such,
author"
(Pascal)
celebrated
that "... sickness is a Christian's true as
to
ism
on
its suffering is
Montesquieu tells
laziness
us a
condition."11
and
indolence
we must recall were
Christian
beginning
or
Greek
the quota
to the effect
Montesquieu
goes so
far
here)
persecution
as well as
Therefore,
(by
when
Pascal
"the faintheartedness, blending into rehgious devotion
and speaks of of
and also
origin.
Asia
bear in
Bigotry,
and crude superstition combined
involving
undergoing
martyrs occurs
empire,"
the nations
of
both Asian in
pohtical nation
made
few pages later that "a universal bigotry benumbed the
the whole
itself,"
mind
that Judaism and Christi
smallmindedness, faintheartedness
to make the Greek Empire probably the
that ever existed. Montesquieu dwells upon the struggle
the worship of icons or images and the striving of the monks for
ever-increasing and of endless one
Eastern
remember
the hands of the Mohammedans.
at
spirit and enervated
In
only
toward its
including its
greatest
exphcit mention of
imphcation) defeat
least
middle one
one need
the inroads
this statement to
when
(the first
anity
the
critique of the
never-
on weakness
by early Mohammedan justify this Christian empire: the Christian rehgion is at the height of its
use
glory
its
prove that
Christianity
at
Greeks,
the
for overthrowing him
schemes
power.
He
speaks of
theological disputes
the monstrous pretensions of patriarchs,
and schisms
place, he praises the Latin clergy
Greek counterparts, but
one need not
embroihng the
and popes
know too
by
entire nation.
comparison with their
much of
Western
history
to
that the same pretensions were plentiful in the West. And in speaking of the attitude a prince should take toward theological disputes, he is perfect
reahze
ly
general :
"One
can no more put an end to their
to their subleties than one could abohsh duels
refining cates
upon
the
point of
bears equally
on
"secular"
power must ancient
Romans,
who
honor."
Greek be
and
Finally,
estabhshing
no separate
schools
for
the solution Montesquieu indi
Latin Christianity: but in the
distinguished,
had
involvements by listening
by
clergy
"ecclesiastical"
and
manner employed
by
the
and whose pontiffs were also
senators.
Ill
Historical Causation The rather
11
work on
the Romans gives the
appearance
of
being
a
theoretical
than a practical work. Its very title draws attention to the problem
Page 201.
of
The Design of Montesquieu
s
explaining, or finding the causes of, Rome's greatness have seen, the fundamental theoretical teaching of the chapter 18:
It is
that rules the
not chance
Ask the
world.
Romans,
who
in every monarchy, elevating it, maintaining it, dents are controlled by these causes. act
To say that "It is
not chance
or
is
set
we
forth in
a continuous sequence
uninterrupted sequence of
moral and
.
physical,
which
to the ground. All
hurling it
that rules the world
dechne. As
and
work
had
they were guided by a certain plan, and an they followed another. There are general causes,
of successes when
reverses when
155
Considerations
that some
means
.
acci
thing else rules it. But what are the alternatives? The one Montesquieu draws attention to is "a i.e., conscious design or purpose. Another, but one plan"
he does chance,
not name plan and
A
experience.
necessity, a
and
the
for
on
years.
"plan."
ever, in
For
connection with
than men
other
going to the marketplace he should meet Now in explaining human affairs one must the three kinds of causes. A comphcation arises, how that
accidental
not seen
role of
sheer necessity. No other possibihty than Each is first discovered in ordinary human his action, but his getting hungry occurs by
exists.
man can plan
it is
friend he had
ascertain
in any way, is
necessity
affairs, and, in purposes
to
more powerful
fact, "rule the
nature
And
itself. To say, is to leave
the
natural
teleology, human to
effort
particular, any
must reckon with
the
as
open
explain
Montesquieu or
action,
have
is
attributed
that "chance does
does,
necessity do
plan and
rule
the
action,
world.
In
the causes of Rome's greatness and dechne
According
for,
to the Romans them
and watched over
Roman destiny. Ac
the destruction of Roman greatness
elevation and maintenance
human
some effect on
some philosophers
rehgious possibihty.
Christians,
thought that beings
long
have
the possibihty that divine
plan and
selves, the gods planned, provided
cording to the
have
gods
world."
world"
not rule
men
beings,
what
rather
than its
the one God provided for.
We have already seen evidence to prove that Montesquieu rejects the Bibheal tradition, whatever his metaphysical reasons for doing so, and it is clear that he rejects pagan polytheism as well. If, then, neither chance nor divine the world, the question remains as to whether
providence rule
logy, human must
any,
plan and
be
allotted
or
purpose, to
chance
rule
necessity,
in the
it,
and as
complex of
natural
teleo
to what role, if
ruhng
causes.
What
physical"
Montesquieu actually declares is that "general causes, moral and rule the world, and he makes clear, immediately afterward, that he terms ably.
"chance,"
"General
Now the
"particular
accidents,"
and
"particular
causes,"
we are
told,
control
the fate of
"monarchy"
word
comes as a surprise
uses
the
interchange
causes"
monarchy."
"every
in this
He
context.
is,
one that is all, propounding a perfectly general theory of causation meant to hold for all the stages of Roman history, monarchical or repubhcan,
after
and
for
all non-Roman societies as well.
peculiar usage come societies.
to mind. One is that
Two
possible explanations
"monarchy"
Monarchies give the impression
of
being
is the test
ruled
by
for this
case
the
for
all
mind and
Interpretation
156 of one particular
purpose
things
in
kind
other
by general but by fact ruled by general causes is
particular causes.
ruled not
chies are
is
of regime
Montesquieu may
because
have
also
the
and all rule patterned on
But
monarchies are
general
causes,
Montesquieu's
a
even monar
fortiori,
that every
moral and
physical,
rule of
causes,
God, is
papacy
and even such
by such causes. being subject to that engender and end it, is a corollary of ground
its
and
that papal
course, the Christian
of
general
human rule,
of
God through
the Bibhcal
The
that of the
hurled to the
It follows
explicit assertion.
by
to monarchies
attention
tradition.
of Gode.g.,
governed
every form
of
them,
and with
is
to draw
in the Bibhcal
maintained and
elevated,
presumed rule of
end,
wished
rule
even such rule
The impermanence
To say that
to maintain,
so ruled.
of their special significance
monarchical.
them in the category of
which would put
man,
predominance and
the
men on earth must monarchies of
necessarily Europe. "general"
Up to this point we have not supphed precise definitions of either "particular,"
do so,
tions
and their
in the
offered
and particular
There
Others
animate
the "general
Thus,
gathered
e.g., their passions, or human
nation,
spirit
those
involving
or
cause.
Thus, "Many
spirit,
and
Again,
the art
event,
kind
can
others
from different forms
of government.
it,
"particular"
By
one
causes
contrast,
specific
individual. Yet many
lead to the formation
precedents established
in
a
nation
of a general
form its
its manners, which rule as imperiously of war as it existed among the Romans after a
create
as
its
general laws."12
certain point
in
series of particular causes :
cause, but it was built up through a the experiences derived from constant warfare.
Similarly, Montesquieu
say
their
history
cess was that
find
functioned
nature.
derive from
society are, for
of a given
situation
and
one specific
particular causes of the same
Still
of a given climate.
spirit"
a given
concrete explana
those that are general are of equal generality.
all
animate all men:
in
from the
the text. As for the distinction between general
inhabitants
the
be
causes, even though particular to it.
general
are
that
institutions,
the
must
meaning
course of
causes, not
are causes
Montesquieu himself does
and
or of
and not
"physical."
"moral"
its kings
as a general
can
of
Rome that "One
were all great men.
Nowhere
of
the causes
else
an uninterrupted succession of such statesmen and
leads to
a
further
individuals, is leaders
in
of
history
captains.13
its
suc
can you
And this
point : the
not
efficacy of particular causes, or of the actions of the same in all situations: "At the birth of societies, the
of republics create
that form the leaders
the
institutions; thereafter, it is
the institutions
republics."
of
In short, the
role of
founders
who are
be very great indeed, although the circumstances in which they act must lend some support to their action. The role of individuals can again increase once republican institutions break down, or amid monar chical institutions, but general causes will still place limits on what they can
particular causes
can
do. The Roman Republic had to
12
Page 198.
13
Page 25.
perish around the time of Caesar.
No human
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations
being
have
could
life,
renewed
although
it did
way, the Roman Empire
same
bad, but
emperors and
it
given
Caesar's hand. In the
it
no one could alter
a republic or even a stable
monarchy,
have to be
by good
would
become
the power of the
general
radically that it
so
such was
perish at
ruled
could
from its
that empire
not
157
(deriving history size) working for disorder. In short, "It is an error to believe that any human authority exists in the world which is despotic in all respects. There never has been one, and
causes within
never will
be, for the most immense power is always confined in some
It may be difficult to power
of
and
beforehand
predict
Russia "regenerated the
nation and
individual's
what the extent of an
to cause changes may be. Montesquieu speaks
introduced
of
way."14
the fact that Peter I
more changes
in the
state
introduce in those they Nevertheless, there were undoubtedly limits beyond which even Peter could not go. It would therefore seem that the latitude or power of general causes is not he
usurp."
than conquerors
governed
fixed, and neither, therefore, is the latitude or power of particular causes. Accident, or particular causes in general (which include the foresight and force of individuals) do not rule the world, as Montesquieu says, but neither is their
the world of uniform strength.
effect on
The distinction between difficult to but it is the
easy to
not
instance of
elucidate.
as a consequence of
Asia
.
of
causes, both general, is
given of the
definition
responsible
capacity.
He
clearest
Montesquieu
speaks
moral characteristics
the practice
of
polygamy
the climate there. He distinguishes between
East, generally to the latter's detri "faintheartedness, laziness and indolence of the na
In addition, he has recourse to the effects of geography in peoples from each other. Finally, the availabihty or
.
isolating
or
non-availabihty of natural resources, including such elephants, is undoubtedly a kind of physical cause.
If
also
of causes,
The
and relation.
for the
cites
two types
the West and the
to the
and refers
protecting
being
for their military
the military prowess
of
readily be
establish their precise
in Macedonia
climate
in the East
tions
can
of physical causes are climate and geography.
of its people and
ment,
moral and physical
Examples
all general causes are either physical or
physical are moral.
This
gives
the
moral,
animals as
all
horses
those that are
"moral"
realm an unusual
and
non-
amplitude, for it
bad,
pertain
merely to
and must
be
to cover all things that have their origin in the mind of man,
in ideas,
rather
ceases
to
used
implies that
not
standards of right and
than in physical nature.
only the
wrong,
good and
etc.
Thus, Montesquieu's dichotomy
mores and general spirit of societies
but
all
their
institutions (political, military, economic, technological, etc.) are to be regard ed as causes. This has a twofold effect: first, it narrows the meaning "moral"
"physical,"
of
and
thereby
nature of man and "moral"
and
that
originate
14
Page 210.
morahty
thereby loses in the human
matters are now
severs
to be
the classical connection between the
whole
; second, it broadens the meaning of morality as such in the welter of things
as such
sight of mind
; thus,
what
had hitherto been called
regarded and explained
in
no other
"moral"
way than those
Interpretation
158
"moeurs"
becomes nothing but to society,
The
Morahty itself
rehgious, pohtical, technological, economic, etc.
are
that
i.e.,
moral
customs, changing from society
time to time. The one true
and
place where physical and moral causes
itself. There both his
be
must
some connection
join is
between
human
within
nature
makeup and instinctive needs,
man's physical
Men have
conscious experience and action.
"religions."
becomes
rehgion
certain
hke animals; they have passions, which Montesquieu tells us, in the very first chapter, are the same at all times. They have some power of speech (as to
places
in Rome
they
create
things
were given
thought:
by
Instincts,
nature.
the
its beginning); they have
at
e.g.,
buildings,
which
and cities
speech and thought must
passions,
that
some power of
have
do
not exist
some
basis in
But exactly how they are so based, and the degree to direct physical foundation in man, Montesquieu does not
nature of man.
which
they have
We
say.
cannot
a
discover from this
Spinoza, he beheves
er with
different
work whether
that
material and
aspects of one substance.
being who creates the world,
or
world over and
his nature,
physical or
But
we can
he is a materialist,
say that the no place
beyond anything with
otherwise,
and
this
or wheth
mental attributes are
is its final end, has
"moral"
creates a
by
"names"
to in the very first paragraph of the work through the
referred
only
divine
in the work. Man he is
which
has its
world
notion of a
own
endowed
laws, its
own
causes, both general and particular. This much is clear, consistent with the first Book of The Spirit of the Laws, properly
physical and moral
and
it is
fully
interpreted. Compared to it, the resolution of the relation between man's mind and body is of lesser
problem as
to the
exact
consequence.
We should inquire in general, whether notions of natural teleology, attributing purpose or plan to nature, pervade the work. Of the various "nature" and though infrequent uses to which Montesquieu puts the words "ordaining"
"natural,"
only very
one
end of chapter
tical and secular reason and
speaks
22,
he
of nature
asserts
power"
...
nature,
anything.
is founded
not
on rehgion
only
that really separate things
which ordain
Toward the
that the great distinction between ecclesias
but
also on
things that can
confounded."
endure
is
only
meant to
does
so
in
a whole.
by being separate should never be bring to the reader's mind the old notion
such a
way
as
to
reveal
Montesquieu does
have been difficult to
prove
not
that
how httle that
try
notion
The wording law, but it
of natural
is
used
in
the work as
to prove his assertion : certainly it would
"rehgion"
(he does
not
say Bibhcal rehgion,
"nature"
can be said to do Christianity) can serve as its foundation, while only by virtue of its independence of any kind of supernatural hegemony.
or
so
And it is true to say that the notion of natural law as a moral law discovered by reason occurs in no other place, and is, in fact, replaced, on the one hand,
by
the idea
of
the actual
sophic moral standard
by
"mores"
of
nations, and, on the other,
that is the product of reason without
by a philo being required
nature.
This
can
be demonstrated
by an analysis
nations."
the term "law
of
first, it was "a kind
of
uses
There
law
are
of
the way in which Montesquieu
three such uses.
According
to the
nations"
of
for the early
repubhcs of
Italy that
the
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations treaties
they
in
that "... there
the repubhcs
all
king
made with a
second states
of
had
someone who
did
not
bind them toward his law
was a certain
Greece
Italy
and
159
of nations
according to
successor.
The
an opinion
held
the assassin of
which
usurped sovereign power was regarded as a virtuous
man."
And the third
speaks of
Sulla's practicing
on
the Romans themselves
the same fierce law of nations the Romans had practised on conquered nations.
All three
is simply other
an opinion
held
that it
example shows
short, it is
have in
by
not
some
part of
need not
really morally
societies,
kind
involve
justice, deahng
nations, that
to be prescriptive,
and
the nature of man, place
him
in this
work.
by
ferocity
of
the
natives
equip
almost all
But the
among nations or It was meant
with
human
societies were
Montesquieu's
man with a sense of
in the
There
justice."
to "natural
what can we expect
state,
not
is, indeed,
It is
view of
from
on
justice,
he
when
them: "When
attributes the nations
justice?"15
to the
in the
civil
From
what
we are cruel
natural gentleness and
bind
or
one place where
European
colonies of modern
constantly inflicted
punishments
moral or not.
In
but
all or most nations.
Consistently
applicable moral rules. refer
really
at all.
strict sense
was that of a set of written or
either with relations
to
And the third
the heart of the traditional conception has no
however,
Nature does
universally Montesquieu does
are
demonstrate that
to
nature reasonable and moral.
action.
morahty demands
to nations in the
nations"
were common
nations"
of
either about their relations to
domestic
what
their mores, whether these
unwritten rules of
by
of
prescriptive
traditional conception of the "law of
actions within
the fact that the "law
common
or about some special
nations,
simply
usages
Montesquieu tells us about the earhest Romans, however, there is nothing to indicate that they, or any other men, are moved by some natural inclination to be gentle or just. In fact, one would conclude from the work that only a severe working on human nature through ideas and institutions is capable of traits in men,
engendering
such
sphere only.
In short, the
and even
nature of man
then within a hmited political
does
not
itself furnish
a sufficient
potency for the working of decent societies, and if man is naturally by anything hke gentleness he is moved even more by self-love and
guide or moved
the desire for self-aggrandizement. As Montesquieu puts it in his discussion of
the
overthrow of
sires all
In
the republic: "... we must blame it on man
keeps increasing the only because he already possesses
whose greed
for
power
he has
of
it,
a
being
and who
de
much."16
several places scattered
throughout the work, Montesquieu
of metaphors
drawn from
dissensions to
volcanoes that can
of
more
physical nature.
be
excited
He
into
activity.
makes use
Rome's internal
compares
The development
tyrannical power under Augustus and Tiberius is compared to
a river
that
first slowly undermines and then violently overthrows the dikes erected against it. The growth of the Stoic sect is likened to the growth of "those at
plants the earth
brings forth in
15
Page 136. For the
18
Pages 107-8.
passages on
places
the heavens have never
"the law
nations,"
of
see pp.
24.
And in
seen."
110, 136.
Interpretation
160
the
last
sentence of
that of the
Rhine,
Apart from the
to
reference
beings)
than a brook when it loses itself in the
no more
ocean."
deformed human
Greek Empire is likened to
the work, the ending of the
"which is
shortly, these are the ways in which
as monsters
emperors
certain
(i.e.,
to which we shall turn
and one other metaphor external nature
is
used
for the
sake of
comparison.
There is
from
power of
the
Stoics
in
i.e.,
Only
one metaphor
optimistic, and even it derives its
discussion
the context of a
quieu contends that states
The
the sun.
without
and of attrition.
slow,
apphcations.
sounds at all
situation, where plants grow (in caves) without the
a rare
heavens
quick or
in these
a certain sombreness
the one about the
The
others are metaphors of
exception
to this rule occurs in chapter
of the causes of
may enjoy
help
violence,
Rome's
pohtical union even
9,
There Montes
ruin.
though their parts
in dissension, and chapter 8 had begun other, through the metaphor of the internal dissensions Rome's to by referring volcano. But a political union of seemingly dissentient parts is possible, says seem
to be at odds
or
with each
Montesquieu in
chapter
hnked together
by
9 : "It is
as with
the parts of the universe, eternally others."
the action of some and the
This
reaction of
is the
metaphor, drawn from Newtonian physics and cosmology,
most gran
diose in the work, and, seemingly, the most optimistic, since it contemplates a stable universe, even though it does not include any reference to God as the source of
this
stabihty.
political subject under
i.e., impermanent, and,
of states
ent
in
metaphor should
universe, perhaps the
on that of the
Certainly
tained.
But the
chapter
this
be
discussion. If the
view
18's theory
is
more
of
viewed
in the hght be
of
harmony harmony of the universe is also hke in the long run, incapable of being
in
of states can
keeping with
history,
where
the
modelled
that sus
the general outlook inhe-
all pohtical orders are said
to
fall. In short, we can learn the nature of the universe through the study of the human world, and not simply vice versa. Improvident change and impermanence rule both, and the task of the legislator is to use and rise and
contain
the antagonistic forces as
long
as
possible,
fully
aware
if he is
philosophically wise that he cannot contain them forever. When Montesquieu tells us that chance does not rule the world, he
means
that some combination of human providence and bhnd necessity (natural or
human) does.
The
model of collective
foresight
and providence "maxims."
senate, constantly acting in accordance with wise were not, in their origin, the work of a moment, just
as
is the Roman
These
maxims
the art of war among
the Romans did not spring into their minds all at once. But even the senate
did
not
about
foresee that the very
the
overthrow of
success of
its
conquests would
ultimately
bring
the republic. And when Montesquieu later attributes
the dechne and fall of the empire to the change in
"maxims"
that it intro
consciously exaggerates the degree to which purely mental changes decisive within this process. On the contrary, he himself shows conclusiv
duced, he were
ely that there
were
different kind the change
in
necessary forces
of pohtical order
at work within
from the
"maxims"
of which
he
the empire that made it a
repubhc and
speaks.
hence brought
In the face
of such
about
forces,
only
161
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations accidents or particular causes could graph of chapter
Empire,
16
the empire going. The last para
keep
shows what the effect of luck was
in sustaining the Western
beginning of chapter 23 is dedicated to showing what partic ular causes sustained so inherently weak a government as the Eastern Em pire. Circumstances, or a certain concatenation of particular causes, can, in
fact,
the
and
to endure
cause governments
have
would
beyond the
long
they
point at which
collapsed under their own weight.
IV The Practical
At first historical
one suspects
that the work on the Romans is merely an exercise in
explanation
operating
well-documented
history.
constitutes an attempt analysis
Montesquieu
Newton,
cartes and
human thought. To
to,
which are akin
in
supphed
the
Teaching
to
on a renowned
with an
society
unusually
According to such an interpretation, the work bring to bear on human history the kind of causal in the
admired so much
he
and which
show
fully
was
that human
philosophy of Des began a new epoch in
natural
aware
have their
affairs
general
causes,
though not identical with, the general laws of nature
physics, would be the work's purpose. And, paralleling in physics, as little reliance as possible would be placed on final causes, and as much rehance as possible on efficient and
modern
revolution
formal
and
material
causes,
whether moral or physical.
purpose, blind necessity,
In the process,
and chance would each receive
conscious
its
proper
human weight,
thus rendering the whole completely intelligible. Montesquieu would have
shown, thereby, how modern philosophy could be extended into an area which till then had either been abandoned to chance or accident, as in Descartes and
Pascal,
or
dominated
by
divine providence,
as
in Bossuet.
This may be Montesquieu's foremost purpose, but it is not his only one. His stance is far from that of a neutral bystander, for whom the choice of Rome of
his
as
Rome's
and
subject was
arbitrary,
greatness and
imphcit,
dechne,
or
and
merely technical. The title itself speaks the
dients,
together with their
understood
As
we
if the
modification of
pohtical
Machiavelli
Christian traditions. But and of
relation
whole of
have seen, the
philosophy?
evaluations,
exphcit
constituting Roman history, as well as and imphcit, for his own times. It contains
pohcy recommendations, exphcit ingredients of both pohtical philosophy
be
work contains
of the various elements
What
was
and
and
statesmanship,
to the historical or
Montesquieu's
and
these ingre
teaching, must is to become clear.
causal
purpose
philosophy incorporated into this essentially
what practical
Montesquieu's
opposed
lessons
were
estimate of
work
is
a
to both the classical and to be drawn from this
the times in which he
hved,
their political possibihties? These are the questions to which we now
turn. Let
us
begin
with an assessment of
hfe, judged by the term distinguished from modern
standards
the
strengths and weaknesses of
inherent in the
"ancient,"
"Modern"
work.
"ancient"
and
clearly
refers
to the
is
a
pagan
Interpretation
162
world of
antiquity, the world of the
particular.
Another way in
which
Greeks, Carthaginians
Montesquieu refers to
"We"
speak
"modern"
for the
stands
But it is
not apphed
to the Greek
today is
the work on what
called
Empire,
One
gets
the impression, in
a period
west
weaken
the once
during in
modern
is
httle
so
(Early
comment
Middle
Ages)
in
that
had
supremacy
of
in the kinds began to
experienced a rebirth
of various
Christian
to trans
rehgion and
the post-Roman period.
period, in the latter sense, contains many antithetical elements.
Europe is dominated
trary
that
the term properly includes those eras.
innovations
which secular
rudeness of
gather
that Montesquieu uses it mainly for those
which civilization
unchallenged
form the barbaric
The
fact,
and there
can
we
the Roman Empire.
coUapse of
the Dark Ages
one remains unclear about whether
recent centuries
the
period since
times is to
(or sometimes,
to mean "we in the first person plural: "we Europeans.")17 From these facts
French,"
"we
Romans in
and
"modern"
by
monarchies.
than the Roman emperors:
Monarchs
they do
are
not wield
less
absolute and arbi
judicial
kill the
power or
wealthy in order to confiscate their property. They are also more stable than the Roman Empire, and have far fewer revolutions than the Greek Empire,
largely, it
would
spiracies so
seem, because modern technological conditions make con
difficult. Europe is letters,"
the
revival of
religious wars and civil wars.
sciences,
a series of such
going ships,
guns and
dominated
also
by Christianity, though, "with leading to many
the unity of the church was shattered,
With
"letters"
came a resurgence of the arts and
technological innovations as the compass, ocean postal
cannon,
service, the exchange, printing,
Marine technology, both mihtary
ing
and
has
reached a pitch of perfection unknown to
newspapers.
powers, both
commercial
empires the world
But the
liberty (in
and
spite of
its
is
engrav
non-military,
the ancients, and European
non-commercial, have estabhshed
colonial
over.18
virtue of ancient repubhcs
as such
and
rare.
Of
such
monarchical
is
overlay),
to be seen, and
nowhere
hberty, England whereas
seems to
repubhcan
be the best
the repubhcs of
example
Italy,
proud
duration, "have no more hberty than Rome had in the time of the decemvirs."19 Modern monarchies contain within themselves elements of the of
their
feudal system,
which was weak and
decentralized,
and which
depended
enormous economic and social gulf between nobles and commoners. quieu has little to say directly of the nobility indicating his opinion of them. Their luxury, their lawless concern for the punctihos
which
by
itself is
"feudal"
contrast
cavalry in
the aristocracy.
17
18 19
"honor"
of
modern armies
is
Similarly, his lauding
infantry is
a means of
Pages 87-8.
way
of
stand
in
marked
excessive
again undoubtedly a thrust against Roman infantry by comparison to
praising the democratic
Pages 34, 53 (note 15) 136-7, 198-9, 216. Pages 107, 121, 198-9, 204.
a
tendencies, their
to the virtues of the Roman patriciate. His criticism of the
reliance on
modern
or anarchic
on an
Montes
element
in the
ancient
Montesquieu'
The Design of repubhcs,
which was
based
themselves, it
monarchies
to which their power was
fiscations dwells
still
with such emphasis
letter- writers public
in his
used
moderately
the crime
in
own
lying
omnipresence of
on which
Tiberius
its
uses
active use
to
to the fear of such
control of
the
postal service
the age to which he traces the
politeness"
of
may have itself been partly
caused
by
the exercise of
surveillance.
ultimate source of modernity's greatest
defects, however, would
to be neither monarchy nor nobihty but Christianity.
ferocity
Con
Montesquieu
in
was
day may have been primarily due
power, which, as he later tells us,
despotic
and without arbitrariness.
majesty
connection with
to detect conspiracies ; the "false
The
of lese
the lack of truthfulness that Montesquieu attributes to
Indeed,
still criticism.
property-owning citizen-soldiers. As for the that Montesquieu exaggerates the degree
appears
and
occurred,
on
163
Considerations
s
seem
Christianity spawns the
warfare among Christians and of the Christian heathen peoples abroad. While encouraging civil strife on among encourages that excessive obedience to church and it also grounds,
both
of
internecine
conquests rehgious
sovereign serfdom
bulwark
in
in
rehgious and secular matters
particular and
of modern
formidable
more
its
occurred
control of
condemnation of
makes
to
and was able
monarchy,
stabihty in the West than
that
for the
continuation of
servility to despotism in general. It
heresy
make
for
is, in fact,
the
greater pohtical
in the Greek Empire only because of its at least prior to the Reformation. And
both tyrannicide
and
each of which
suicide,
had
high
so
among the Romans, closed still another avenue to the assertion freedom. In fact, it has generally lowered the level of pubhc-spiritedness
a moral status of
(or patriotism)
and
courage,
so
that the much-vaunted power of Europe rests
more on technological advantages than on
short, it seems to have ism impossible.
Amid
such
the
spectacle of
man
Repubhc
empire.
dedication. In
something hke Roman republican
In
chapter
15
does Montesquieu im
we are called upon
human,"
things
which shows
how
all
of pohtical
to
confront
the efforts of the Ro
in nothing but the despotic rule of monsters 19, after the Western Empire has
ended
At the
moral-pohtical
is first tempted to draw hes in the direction
one
quietism or non-involvement.
"the
revival of
what practical counsel
circumstances,
The lesson
part?
made
end of chapter
under the collapsed
curiosity"
for the fate of the city barbarian attack, we look "with sad of the Greek the collapse in pitiable. and find it And, marking Rome,
under of
Empire, Montesquieu I do
not
under
have the
to
speak of
the last emperors, the empire
like the Rhine,
Is
courage
concludes
not
the
which
is
the
years
later,
followed. I
to
will
only say that,
to the suburbs of Constantinople when
it loses itself in the
encourage a
from the study
pohtical studies
with
these words :
calamities which
than a brook
and perhaps even
Montesquieu's own
work with
reduced
effect of such passages
from pohtics, thirteen
no more
his
continued,
ended
ocean.
melancholy
withdrawal
of pohtical matters?
and reached
Yet
their apogee,
the pubhcation of The Spirit of the Laws. And that
Interpretation
164
work gives even much more manifest evidence of interest
improvement. Perhaps the
Let
thing but
ly
begin
us
pecuhar
with
in its
to the
branches, is
other
of the river quieu uses
case of
the Rhine is that it breaks up into several
shght
indeed. The
is the Greek Empire,
it to
the
represent
speaking, irrelevant to
some
branches,
Rhine,"
compared
is hkened to this
empire that
part
have already shown that Montes impact of Christianity in its purest
and we
pohtical
chapters on the
a work on
"the
called
"Greeks,"
form. The three
There is
is a brook when it reaches the ocean broadest when they reach the ocean. What actual the Rhine
empty into the ocean; the branch
all of which
in practical pohtical
can tell us why.
the concluding paragraph quoted above.
metaphor :
most rivers are at their
happens in the
Romans
work on the
as "Romans."
the
he calls them, are, strictly Their significance, and their
inclusion in the work, derives from something they tell us about the Romans. What they do, in the first place, is to show us the deep inner antagonism between Roman Christian Roman
power, which was at
But, in
power.
church and "Latins."
to as the
its height
they
addition,
are a
its followers in the West
For the
of
the repubhc, and
telhng
the people
Rome, but
refers
not
auspices of
Greek Empire is, therefore, at the things that have continued to
the
church.20
The
same
time a treatment
wield
influence in the
"Roman"
of those
us about the
Montesquieu
its essence, has continued of the Catholic church and in the name of the
name of
in the West, both in the name Holy Roman Empire founded through the treatment of the
during
way
West, but upon which direct comment was highly imprudent. Hence, to speak of the dechne of the Rhine into its smallest branch, is to refer obhquely to those branches of
Christianity
have not yet lost their pohtical influence,
which
and, in particular, to the Cathohc church. It is, in lesson of chapter 18, to the effect that all
fact, to recall the general
"monarchies,"
papacy,
The
power
Cathohc the work
of the
dechne.
"Roman"
or
in the West, and of all its derivative branches of Christianity, What at first appeared to be a deeply pessimistic conclusion to
is, in
chapter
independent
reahty,
meant
to be optimistic.
22, Montesquieu refers incidentally to strength of
two ways of affecting the
the church. One is to subject it to pohtical disciphne
and
alteration, as had Czar Peter I in Russia
tion
of
ate
such
empire
will also end.
In
including that
dechne. It is to look forward to, and encourage, of the Greek Empire has ended; the power of the
must
when
he
observed
the degenera
the Christian rehgion and sought, through despotic means, to regener
the nation.
occurred after
The
"the
other
is to
occasion sphts within
letters"
revival of
when men
"who
the church, as had
were
bold but insuffi
it."
In this way, ciently docile shattered the Church instead of reforming the Erastianism of enlightened despots and the divisions brought about by the Reformation work toward the same end,
independent influence
of
pohtical needs of society.
Christian
In the last
chapter
cular causes can support governments
20
Pages 205-6, 215-16,217.
i.e.,
toward ehminating the
subordinating them to the Montesquieu shows how parti
churches and
that are
intrinsically bad,
such as
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations
165
that of the Greek Empire. He adduces three current examples of the same
1) some European nations maintaining themselves, in spite of by the treasures of the Indies ; 2) the temporal states of the pope maintaining themselves by the respect in which their sovereign is held; 3) the corsairs of Barbary enduring because of the utihty their disturbing the
phenomenon:
their weakness,
commerce of small nations offers to the great
nations.21
This is
a singular and
daring setting in which to view the power of the pope : the respect that sup ports him is likened to the effect of ravaged treasure, on the one hand, and acts of useful
is
a
"bad
only
the
on
piracy,
much
as, originally, it
for the
be
what can
thing upholding it in
To discuss this
21
Greek Empire. Most
22,
we must
laws."
ly as its a
"general
to
ambition,
and create
very
But the term "great revolutions,
"great like
a
is
they
a most unusual
and we wonder whether
or
double
whose
Why
are
reminder
innumerable
is
given
only led to
times
"great
devolves
the
life. In short,
in
what
why "great
"the
ancients."
"ancients"
revolutions can
to the
hardly be called Something
resulted
one, of the Christian Greek replacing the old, the other of
reader :
new emperors
tyrants that had taken
in the
place
more
difficult "with
the technological and
learning
of
their
in the ancient
estabhshment of repubhcs.
conspiracies are more
ways of people
formed that led
way of referring to conspir in question are
enterprises"
upon
engages
were with
a
the Greeks and Romans of pagan antiquity.
earher conspiracies against
world and at
swer
than
and
show
us"
enterprises,"
revolutions which
those
difficult "with
laws,
in
imperious
precedents
He tries to
enterprises"
the Christian Greeks
"revolts, itself,
religion
which rule as
Montesquieu then
queer series of comments.
are more
dealing with the
precedents estabhshed
that were stronger than the
enterprises"
atorial
"Many
its manners,
In the Greek Empire, in fact, these rebelhous and manners
a
respect
to be the answer, and revolution became a
seem
there. We are told that
spirit"
hke
the
take note of a similarity in the
from the Christian
deriving
endless overturnings of government.
reads
diminish this
that point) was subject to so many
at
Causes
form its general spirit,
nation
pope
Again,
22 is devoted to explaining why the Greek
perfidies."
of tradition
what will
the
of
that can diminish
a respect
two of the three final chapters
of chapter
seditions and
kind
rule
vast spiritual rule?
"respect"
to grow. But
adequately
and
Empire (a term introduced
combined with
his
authority in Christendom?
question
endings of chapters
said of
the world is
was able
greatest spiritual
And if the temporal
other.
government,"
us"?
Montesquieu's
an
commercial conditions of modern
easily detected; there are many more But the case he makes seems very
existence.
limited indeed. In the first place, it says nothing about the great respect with which authority is regarded today; in fact, the statement about the "general spirit"
of nations
imphes that traditions
equally man-made, equally for example, right of kings,"
of disobedience and of obedience are
a matter of precedent.
The idea
"respect"
wayside.
21
But,
Page 214.
as we
of
the "divine
popes, for that matter, simply drops by the that upholds papal later learn, it is nothing but or of
Interpretation
166
rule, and,
Western
beginning
the
as suggested at
have
monarchies
a
of
this very chapter, the subjects "the loyalty owed to
of
princes."
strong idea
of
Secondly, Montesquieu's technological analysis is itself strangely inadequate. He
stresses
bombs.
Finally,
have existed,
his
ates
technology of communications, but he has nothing to say technology of war i.e., about guns, cannon and
the new
whatever about
the new
Montesquieu does that
or even
approval
they may
that conspiratorial attempts
be justified. In
by indiscriminately
them
of
deny
not
sometimes
fact, he exagger
calling them "great
enter
prises."
We The
Greek and
meet with a similar predicament toward
body it
of the chapter
church and rehgion contributed concludes not
only
by
nature or
hmits
to the
various ways
weakness of
stating, in Montesquieu's
the misfortunes
most vicious source of aU
knew the
the end of the next chapter.
is devoted to showing the
in
own
Empire,
name, that "The
the Greeks is that
of
which the
the Greek
they
never
but
of ecclesiastical and secular power
by
up the ancient Romans as a society that knew this distinction well, although it would seem that they lacked an independent clergy and vested
holding
decisions in high
rehgious
ter and its conclusion,
Between the
pohtical authorities.
however,
a
mystifying
paragraph
body of the chap teUing
appears,
us
that no human authority exists which is despotic in all respects, since the power of each such
and
authority is based
on
the "general
spirit"
in
each nation
therefore cannot shock this spirit without weakening itself.
The topic
immediately
discussion had been the way in which rulers By this point in the chapter, the reader has
under
treat religious disputes.
should
become
so
indignant
over
the various evils caused
by
the Christian
rehgion
in the Greek Empire that he is ready to call for the most extreme forms of action. The paragraph before us begins as if Montesquieu has anticipated the very thought he has carefully desire to wipe away all traces emperors use main
the
force to
reader's mind
Why
of such a rehgion.
estabhsh
their supremacy
Montesquieu
unspoken question
in the
estabhshed
answers
did
an
over rehgion?
by insisting
angry
the Greek
not
This is
that no human spirit"
be completely despotic: in other words, the "general of the nation, which attributed great importance to rehgion and rehgious men, would have made it very difficult if not impossible for the emperors to assert
authority
their
can
hegemony over the clergy to end
fortunes
of
the Greeks
.
himself had adduced the the Greek Empire and
he
.
.
example of Czar
with respect
Peter "regenerated the
governed
mum,
Yet,
"the
most vicious source of all
much earher
Peter I
nation and
say that, just
as an exact parallel to that of
to the degeneration of the Christian rehgion,
introduced
than conquerors introduce in those
one must
as chapter
21
more changes
spirit"
of
suppression of
doing,
rather than
law. And the "general
state
At the very mini
ends
by tempting 22
the reader to
ends
by tempting
the church. And in both cases it is the "general
the nations involved that
stacles to so
in the
usurp."
they
conspiracies against emperors and monarchs, so chapter
him to the
the mis
in the chapter, Montesquieu
must
be
any decree
counted
at
great ob or natural
human thing, the
product of
spirit"
is
among the
deriving from divine
least partly
a
The Design of Montesquieu's Considerations
human forces,
various
including precedent.
a matter of attitude and
minimum,
then,
in the "general
be
even
e.g., the
other
part
of
his
even
mainly
the work on the Romans is to effect
spirit"
of
European
nations.
this "general
spirit"
against
the
deriving from natural man against the part deriving from And the example
of Peter
I
suffices at
least to
show
that
very far in effecting transformations. From these and the book one must conclude that Montesquieu wanted the to assist
readers
into thinking effect
it is
some places
power can go
related parts of
best
In
these can change and be changed. At the
possible to use one part of
supernatural rehgion.
despotic
and
a major practical aim of
changes
salutary It may
behef,
167
of
transformations,
such
and
actuaUy
enticed
them
the most extreme actions that might be taken in order to
Only in this way could they be completely emancipated from the
them.
thralldom of an empire founded on belief and
"respect"
than arms.
rather
Montesquieu, following in the footsteps of Machiavelli, conceives of himself as taking part in a war, a great war of ideas against the spiritual forces of
Christianity We
above all else.
must still ascertain
tions as a
practical matter.
readily favor the
not
certainly until we
how seriously Montesquieu meant these tempta A man so devoted to moderate government would
extension of even enlightened
not counsel aimless regicide.
discover Montesquieu's
But
despotism,
and would
we cannot judge these matters well
estimate of pohtical possibihties
for Europe.
In particular, was an actual revival of Roman-style republicanism possible? One indication of Montesquieu's answer is given in his view of the canton of
Bern, and
which
it is
he
says might
slowly
a pathetic example
Europe. Beyond this, in Europe, where
ing
all
develop
seems
into
a great
repubhc.22
It
the major prerequisites for repubhcan hfe are miss
conditions are much closer
to those prevailing
the Roman Empire than the Roman repubhc. To restore vigor to
kings Agis
and
Cleomenes had to have
Montesquieu is
which
work.23
How
silent when
much more
terror
he
recourse
to terror
by
presented
would prevent their asserts
the
would
size of
developing
a terror about
their achievement early in the be needed to originate repubhcan
Yet
another prob
the great European nations, which itself
a system
that the Roman Repubhc
under
Sparta,
mentions
conditions where no repubhcan tradition whatever exists.
lem is
alone
to symbolize repubhcan prospects in
could
hke that
have
of
Rome. Montesquieu
maintained
itself had its
con
been hmited to Italy alone, and shows that the city of Rome became corrupt through the later extension of citizenship to other Latin and Itahan quests
cities.
This
suggests a solution
that was to arise in the next century: repubh
(i.e., Itahan, French, etc.) and hand, but the work gives Moreover, England was not based
can representative government on a national nationahstic
basis. The
no evidence of on
its
example of
being used in
this way.
Roman-type virtue, and it is
tative
repubhc can
22
Page 94.
23
Pages 40-1.
England
at
least
was at
questionable
how far
a represen
imitate Rome. In addition, there is little to inform us
even
Interpretation
168
of
working for to
in short,
likely destinies of the monarchies of Europe
the
their maintenance or
destruction. These
about
reasons
may
the forces also serve
why Montesquieu pays little attention to the founding and develop of the Roman Repubhc: guiding those of his contemporaries who wish
explain
ment
to imitate Rome does not seem to preoccupy him
One
can
only
to have immediate
both
minds
that Montesquieu's
conclude
practical consequences.
in
as colleagues
necessary to preparing for such prospects
only
and
commerce
all, it
England than
are opposed
Roman-type
whatever opportunities
wane :
it
with
its
so
modern combination of
encouragement
Rome. But if these
of non-commercial
based
comfort
contributes
tion, it does
the best
spiritual warfare
they
are
hardly
modern
less
forces
opposed
to
a
whole, then, the form of Montes the Romans is appropriate to its pohtical outlook. It is
republics
It takes
not meant
win
and
predominantly theoretical, real.
in the
to
the future may bring. Of
to loom large: the
to Christian other-worldliness,
quieu's work on
seeks
of worldly interests, liberty. If Europe has any repubhcan future at hkely to follow the lines of ancient Carthage and
technology,
would appear more
modern
teaching is
Instead, it
wisdom and as allies
one seems
humanity
enlightenment,
seriously.
radical
on virtue.
As
and geared
in the
a
to a past the greatness of which was that
assurance
Christianity's influence
must
to this waning. And insofar as it prepares for pohtical ac
in the
name of an as yet undescribed
regime, which, hke the
Roman republic, will be founded on some modification of self-love and em ploy some kind of internal dissension. Writing at a time of increasing enlight enment,
have
secularism and rehgious
confidence
acceptance of
enfeeblement, Montesquieu
was able
to
that the general conditions receptive to the widespread
his thought
provided the conditions
were
for its
already in
spread of
existence.
Christianity
If the Roman Empire and
the long-sustained
supremacy of the Christian Romans, the changes of the last two centuries in Europe almost guaranteed the ultimate victory of some form of post-Chris tian world. But the much
less
depend
precise nature of
that world,
clear than that of its ancient and
on
those who, like
prise"
of overthrowing
"At the birth
of
Montesquieu,
judging
Christian
from this work, is Much will
predecessors.
undertake
the very "great
enter
the old order through their ideas and founding the new :
societies, the
leaders
of republics create
thereafter, it is the institutions that form the leaders
the
institutions;
republic
of
169
CONSIDERING CRUSOE: PART II Thomas S. Schrock
A. The Law of Nature A
Raging Wave, Mountain-like, came the Coup de Grace. In a word, it
expect
.
one another
What is
...
I thought it
a-stern
rowling .
[ed]
separat
of
and
us
us as well
Safety is another Man's Destruction [I, 216]. Life, which we must be always oblig'd to be killing [Ill, 129].
preserve
By fostering
a
.
.
deadly
The
memoirs.
unites rather
opposition of
interests,
indirectly
nature as a whole
by
the wave. This is one
Early in
other
is that nature,
or at
any
rate
the law of nature,
than separates men.
the Farther
Adventures, Crusoe
his nephew, sailing from
and
England for the East-Indies, and driven off course into the rescued from hfe boats the passengers and crew of a French
burned and
This is the way Crusoe justifies to be the Good-Samaritan : The Laws
Boats full
God
of of
and
People in
Nature
such a
would
have forbid that
distress'd
Condition,
and
widespread
between
men
Crusoe
of
in
and
of
we should refuse
the law of
unfortunate
.
.
.
.
oblig'd
[II, 133-34]. thus understood,
nature as
proviso
is necessary because for the situation
of nature prescribes
Good Samaritan is incapable
himself. And though Crusoe doubtless
those
.
especially where, as in the case one party is able to help the
detriment to himself. The
which the would-be
.
to take up two
Thing
Frenchmen,
do not know what if anything the law
and
that had
alone a considerable mehoration of relations
straightened circumstances
these
other without serious
we
knowledge
from that
Atlantic,
vessel
the Nature of the
to set them on Shore somewhere for their Deliverance
Supposing
north
departing from his itinerary
sunk.
one might expect
in
our Fellow-
two opposed views of the human condition that can be extrapolated from
of
Crusoe's
us
us
from
.
the direct separation of men effected
reduplicates
as
...
was a sad
Creatures to
bad
plainly
from the Boat,
[I, 49].
Man's
one of
.
of
saving both the other importance of
acknowledges the
"normal,"
for non-necessitous, considerable lengths to avoid the
moral precepts appropriate
stances, he
will also
go
sentimentality in his morals. Indeed, he seems to Crusoe uses the term "law of
relish
circum appearance of
talking
about
the
nature"
twice,
extreme situation. employment
is in
a context
that compels our further
more competitive circumstances spire to
leave
Honesty,"
makes an
1
men.
That
which
begins
honest
man a
Serious Reflections,
p.
33.
in
context
the
second
consideration of
those
which nature and chance sometimes con
is the Reflection
entitled
"Of the Trial
of
misleading "Necessity It is misleading because the intent of the
with a somewhat knave."1
and
epigram:
Interpretation
170
essay is to excuse, if not to justify
is
of
not
easy to
desperately hungry
David
sity
of which
and
to
not
surely
David knew that
God,
used
here in discussion
the problem
see
condemn as
knavery
"necessity."
by
men affected
nature"
The term "law
is
by
taken
stringent measures
the neces
of an episode
being that we do
not
know how
was.
the
commanded
who
be eaten,
shew-bread should not
had,
however, commanded him by the law of Nature not to be starved, and therefore, pressed by his hunger, he ventures upon the commandment. And the Scripture is very remarkable hungry."2 in expressing it, "David, when he was an We
shaU
by
that only
see
interpretation
pharisaical
"knavish."
David's eating of the of Crusoe's
shew-bread appear
"legalism"
the possible apphcations of the
some of
[commands one] men are more
to their
tians,
boat
a
of
an example
at
to kill one
be something
ceremonial
same
stances, Crusoe
Ibid.,
not
starved."
I Samuel 21
Crusoe
:
and
men
resolving
him?"4
Crusoe
to preserve mine ; 'tis murder, .
.
There is
.
initially
and
no other
it
seems
"pre
that the
plain no palliation at all.
For,
Honesty,"
of
speaking
easy to derive from the
that "David knew that God
3
say to five
together,
again of necessitous circum
that
writes
40. It is
p.
which
that "'twas robbery and murder; 'twas rob
First,
crime,"6
2
shall we
a council
themselves for the others to feed on, and eat
in the "Trial
all, in
compelling, at least to Chris
context, "what
tense, but necessity, to palhate the palhation is not only insufficient, but just on
after
the moral impediment
which
more
bing him of his hfe, which was his property, by taking away the life of an innocent man
further
from appreciating "law of nature
law.3
provision, calhng
two things to them.
says
in
and
from the
without
sea, of
the
"hungry,''
make
the pecuhar
that the
proposition
Situations do occur,
than merely
item
Indeed, us
starved."
to be
preservation might
than an
To take in
not
distracts
presentation almost
Crusoe
can
3-6
.
.
says
.
had
.
.
biblical
relevant
verses
him by the law the law of nature
commanded
.
nothing either about
of
the
proposition
Nature
not
to be
or about starvation.
occasion for which our blessed Lord Himself quoted [i.e., cited] this 3-6], is very remarkable, viz., to prove that things otherwise unlawful lawful by necessity (Serious Reflections, p. 40). But that is an Matt. xii.
says
"the
text [I Samuel 21 :
may be
4"
made
-
exceedingly broad
for plucking
construction of
grain on
"things"
about
of
made
the
"made lawful by Sabbath, in
Sabbath"
for man,
and not man
Serious
6
Ibid., Ibid.,
6
Reflections,
p.
36.
p.
35.
p.
seems
:
he
less intent
8);
regarded as
or, in the
for the Sabbath:
35.
reproach of the
to the on
than in putting a what
(Matthew 12
Sabbath."
4
retort
the Sabbath. Jesus
that relating to the
lord
Pharisees'
Jesus'
its
proving any part of
the ceremonial
proper place:
words of
so that the
Mark 2 Son
Disciples
vague proposition
:
"the Son
law, i.e.,
of man
is
27, "the Sabbath was
of man
is lord
even of
the
171
Considering Crusoe The
guilt of a crime with respect to
its being a crime, viz., an offense against God, is not by the circumstance of necessity. It is without doubt a sin for me to steal another man's food, though it was to supply starving nature; for how do I know whether he whose
removed
food I
steal
be in
not
may
danger
as much
of
starving for
want of
it
as
I? And if not, 'tis
taking to my own use what I have no right to, and taking it by force or fraud; and the question is not as to the right or wrong whether I have a necessity to eat this man's bread or no, but whether it be his
or
manifest contempt of God's
Thus,
as
to
God has
God,
law,
"Thou
and
;
He has
first; which, bread, is called the "law of
another
which
other
say among
"Thou
law
is
which
which
shalt not eat
sometimes at odds with
mention of
nature"
;
will.7
murder,"
learned from the
as we
it
shalt not
shew-bread"
the
what
laws,
or sets of positive
steal,"
shalt not
the
a
steal."
the crime is evident, let the necessity be
a positive
things, "Thou
own? If it be his, and not my own, I cannot do it without law, and breaking the eighth article of it, "Thou shalt not
my
"commands
David
the
and
[us] not to be
shew-
starved"
;
perfectly a breach of the other law. Crusoe is thinking of when he passes his second judgment on the four men in the
and which palhates
the law of nature
boat: "All that
be
can
said
that necessity makes the highest crimes law
is,
ful."8
Indeed, if Crusoe is
not
writing
sheer
nonsense, he must have in mind
other than the positive law when he calls "crimes a certain crude
but
of
manner of
"legal"
God's
which overrules
is,
some
after
all,
So that, if the homicide in the boat is a crime "lawful." The death in the same legal system be
by law.
same time and
the fifth man is
There
truth to the proposition that a crime is an act
unavoidable
or omission proscribed
it cannot at the
lawful."
then in virtue of God's
law in
positive
the overruling, it is no
other
cases of
law, the law of nature, And, as for the
necessity.9
mere specification of an
excusing condition,
is it simply a justification: the law of nature does not merely permit David : it commands him. to eat the shew-bread and therefore to avoid man the boat. He may towards the fifth in a hard hne Similarly, Crusoe takes nor
"starvation"
not consent
to a lot: "No
When
the
with
given
man
application
has
the command against starvation, would
"high
of
Contrary
soft-headed
misfortune, it turns
9 9
sede
Ibid., Ibid., For
pp.
p.
out
remarks
.
.
.
coupled
so-called
their lives was rather an
we may have carried away from in the wake of the Frenchmen's
the
of nature would not of
The basic imperative
of
that law is
41-42.
36.
positive
the beasts for 10
hfe
to mean that the
save
that knowledge of the law of men.
right of nature, and the law thereof, super Locke, Two Treatises of Government, I, 39, 86-88 (slaughtering compare, Ibid., I, 56 with Ibid., II, 11 (capital punishment).
a roughly parallel
God's
own
impression
"separation"
repair
away his
of nature obhgation.
to any
Crusoe's deceptively easy-going itself
give
seem
the four who ate the fifth to
crime"
inescapable law
7
to
a right
its generality requires, this proposition,
law,
food);
intimation that the
see
and
Serious Reflections, p. 36.
Interpretation
172 "preserve
thyself"
be
men will
:n
that in all
which means
at each other's
throats
and
truly
necessitous circumstances
not
merely because of a desire The four men
this
for life, but also because supervening and the fifth man are commanded by the same law to fight to the death for moral obhgation.
of a
hfe.
B. Man-Power Although the law stances of
of nature exacerbates
necessity, those
circumstances
that law. The primary evil is the
dence
cosmos, is better
The about.
solution
if
what, in the setting
spoken of as nature's
be
of
indifference to
is
to obviate
not
own preservation.
having
an
increase in the
competition
And,
is
off
a
conquers nature
frequently
the improvi secularized
man.
necessities of
among
life
bring
sufficient to
that, for example,
so
men
without
course, Robinson Crusoe is the hoped for "economic
jeopardizing
well
known for
miracle."
How he
though not always adequately told tale. Crusoe
because his logistics
out-flank certain moral
first,
of
performed a prototype of
brought it
called
Crusoe's
needed"
every traveler may be free to act the Good Samaritan
his
circum
amehorating
to the problem is as easy to visuahze as it is hard to
"All that is
minimize
of
result of what could
Providence, but
of general
instead
themselves cannot be blamed on
are superb and
impediments. The logistical
because he learns how to be
scenario can
though Crusoe's playing it out to the end had to
sketched
await resolution of
the
moral problem.
We have already noted the great importance Crusoe attached to the tools fire-arms he brought ashore from the ship in the first days of his
exile.12
and
But, despite the high estimation in which he held technology, he learned soon enough that it was no substitute for the availability of numerous fellowlaborers. He yards,
as
such as
it
experienced a man-power shortage most
were
; for example,
the Natives boat13
of
when
acutely in his ship
he tried to build "a
Canoe,
those Chmates make, even without
or
Perigua,
Tools."
Crusoe
however, "considering the particular Incon veniences which I lay under, more than the Indians did, viz., Want of Hands to move it, when it was made, into the Water, a Difficulty much harder for builds
me
such a
without,
to surmount, than all the Consequences of Want of Tools could be to
them"
(I, 145).
Crusoe lacked
"hands"14
not
only to hew
logs,
move
boats,
raise and store
foodstuffs, but also to hold weapons. Crusoe needed an army as well as a work-gang. But assembling men for either purpose is not a step one should take lightly.
11 12
13 14
So,
although
many
pages of
his
narrative
dwell
See Locke, Treatises, II, 6. In Part I, Section C, this study.
See, Part I, note 8. See Locke, Treatises, II, Chapter
V passim, especially Section 42.
on
Crusoe's
173
Crusoe
Considering
long-unrequited desire for society, he also I was hke to have too thing but Society,
said
pation of
that, hardly wanting "any (I, 172). This is an antici
much"
...
the coming of the cannibals, the enemy from without. But
together apparent
friends
the island for some 25 years, and when, at a certain point it
to import
bringing
be risky. After Crusoe had been improving
can also
a work-force of white men
(some Spaniards
seemed possible
marooned on
the
mainland) who might have built and moved his boats, the beloved comrade and leader of those men, who had already come to the island, "started an
Objection,
which
in
well satisfy'd
for
rades, [The
at
had
it;
so much
least half
Spaniard]
saw
by
and
Prudence in it
.
.
that I could not but be very
.
his Advice, put off the Dehverance of his Com As Crusoe says, "the Case was
Year."
a
evidently
thus:"
Stock
what
of
Corn
and
Rice I had laid up ;
it
which as
for myself, so it was not sufficient, at least without good Husband four:15 But much less would it be ry, for my Family; now it was encreas'd to Number if his who as he fourteen still alive, should come over sufficient, Countrymen, were, said, was more than sufficient
.
So he told me, he thought it cultivate some more
another
Harvest,
should come
"His Caution
be
more
as much as
I
might
a
Supply
of
Seed to
and
sow
;
the two other, that
and
seasonable,
but be very well pleased with his One could say that nature has
Difficulty
and
to
disagree, or not another [II, 36].
his Advice
so
when
they
good, that I
could not
proposal"
(I, 36).
"separated"
without,
permit them the enjoyment of
justly
apprehensive of
competition of
this
labor
for the
"too
.
to think them
men16
to
enough
make
them
"room"
suspicious of one another
.
dig and
we should wait
Corn for his Countrymen
Temptation to them to
than out of one
otherwise
was so
be
advisable, to let him
could spare
that we might have a
; for Want
delivered,
selves
Land,
would
their
however, leaving separation. Man, who
sufficient
needs
much."
The
scarce means of
stinginess of nature places men
survival,
condition each man needs armed
to
society, is
in
and yet against the symptoms
power; for the
condition
itself,
the
many hands. But the circle is vicious because every work-gang or army assembled will be driven to plunder and cannibahze itself unless there is achieved for it a generous and stable proportion between appetite and of
enjoyment, demand which
Crusoe found
develop
when one
and supply. as
necessary
is skulking
16
The four
Cf. Machiavelli, Discourses, 1, 2;
tenth 17
it is
about
16
were:
This is to say nothing as
insufficient,17
trying
to
technology,
of a
and which
avoid an
is hard to
ambush.18
Crusoe
Crusoe, Friday, Friday's father, and the Spaniard. and Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapter XIII, especially the
paragraph.
and tools; tools and labor: "I was full two and forty Days making me a Board long Shelf, which I wanted in my Cave; whereas two Sawyers with their Tools, and a [W]hat might Saw-Pit, would have cut six of them out of the same Tree in half a Day be a little to be done with help and Tools, was a vast Labour, and requir'd a prodigious Time to do alone, and by (I, 132-33). 18 If Crusoe's alleged reliance on God was the first casualty of the footprint (see Part I, Section B), continued development of a technology was the second (I, 194).
for
Labor
a
.
hand"
.
.
Interpretation
174
underscores what
the human
from his
race's escape
salvation a success.
friendly
him,19
the mystery
regarded as
nature,
by dwelling
of
the part a
on
accidents played
curse, for it was that
as a mixed
only be
state of
in making his own project for That is, he learned to view (1) his long enforced isolation
two
combination of
account can
from the
interval, during
kept
which other men were
he from them, that afforded him the opportunity to put (2) the technology embodied in the ship's goods to work building a store with which to supply the men with whom he eventually associated. from
Crusoe
ingly, he
and
could not achieve a clear-cut and supportable
His hope
tion.
to remedy his uneasy isolation
endeavored
was
by
that "the Evil which in it self we
separation; accord
fallen into it, is the most dreadful to us, Door of our Dehverance (I, 210). In
this
or
.
delivered, first, that those
They
are,
otherwise
indeed "think themselves second, that Crusoe
delivered"
with
from
(1) timing
to
Crusoe
the
to realize
associates must
Difficulty into
associates must
(2) logistics. At
later
ively,
the conditions of
want
to look at problems imphcit in each of these conditions.
and
and
be]
least "one Difficulty"; and, These we may caU, respect
at
"dehver."
must continue
Crusoe
than out of one whom
[will
.
of which are adumbrated
persons with whom
"think themselves
not
two
.
order
.
hope, Crusoe had to meet three conditions,
in the Spaniard's insistence that
.
of connec
to shun,
seek most
which when we are
very Means
kind
some
a
stage we shaU
Presently, how
ever, the third prerequisite calls for our attention most urgently. It is what we can call
(3)
the
the condition Crusoe had to
moral condition
he was, he
situated as
could even appear
meet
before,
to dehver anybody.
C. A Preceptual Dilemma In Part I
looked
we
possible object of shall see
at
Crusoe the way he
at
first
viewed
himself
as a
the various modes of God's deliverance. In this Part we
him in the
God's
opposite role
role one could
say
Saviour
rather
than Saved.
It is
no small accomplishment
Crusoe
credit
disguises the self-serving accomphshment, successful escape
from
lesser
and
men
regarding
19
the
and
dilemma,
either
and which would
horn
freedom,
was
of which could
orientation which
upon
condition of men who
it of a contingent
the
hardly be
helped him
Island,
"now they had,
and who
as
had to
I may say,
a
endure
hundred
devour every Thing they could come at, yet could (II, 215). Consider also the advantages the Venetians
which would
themselves"
we
self-
the dilemma.
later inhabited his island
of restive savages :
come at
the English (and
evade
his
have
have rendered pusillanimous
than he. It is perhaps not needless to say that it was his basic
Compare the
Wolves
a moral
immobilized him,
presence on
very
side
that gave him great if not God-hke
one
impaled
to dissemble one's humanity. We must
for the way he simulates omnipresence and of his philanthropy. But perhaps his greatest
with real genius
Americans) have been traditionally thought to enjoy in
their comparative inaccessibility.
virtue of
Considering There
are over
twenty instances
narrative volumes.
Life
of actual or alleged
doctrine
official
that obviously derives from the Highest
was
life-saving
in the two
is obviously a great Crusoean theme. to involve no moral problem for Crusoe.
preservation
And, initially at any rate, it seems Indeed, he has what we can call an the
175
Crusoe
on
the subject, a
Authority, being
teaching
a specification of
Golden Rule, a restatement of Good Samaritanism. In the Crusoe text it first enunciated by the Portuguese captain whose rescue of Crusoe off
the Coast
of
Africa is
recounted
early in the Adventures. That worthy had
told Crusoe:
he
take nothing from me, but all I had should be deliver'd safe to me when I
would
glad
Brazils, for says he, "I have sav'd your life on no other Terms than I would be myself, [and] if I should take from you what you have, you will be starved then I only take away that Life I have [I, 36].
to the
came
to be
saved
given"
there,
The
and
captain's remarks
himself
repeats
obviously
the lesson almost
word
in connection
the Farther Adventures we
made a
have already mentioned. We
deep
for
with
have
shall
impression
word
in
on
Crusoe, for he
similar circumstances
in
the plight of the French mariners
occasion
later20
to mark the degree
consistency with which Crusoe honors this teaching. Presently, though, we shall be observing how, in particular circumstances, it may conflict with
of
doctrine, one which Crusoe penultimately adopted in response to his discovery that men came to his island for "inhumane Feastings upon the Bodies of their (I, 190). This discovery initially provoked Crusoe to such a pitch of abhorrence another
Fellow-Creatures"
that he plotted the destruction of "some of these Monsters in their
bloody
Entertainment"
sufficiently to reached was
(I, 194). At length, however, he
reflect on the
twofold.
morahty
First, he
of
observed
his
proposal.
composed
The
cruel
himself
conclusion
he
that "these People had done me no
Injury. That if they attempted me, or I saw it necessary for my immediate it" Preservation to fall upon them, something might be said of (I, 198). And, second, he that I
argued:
was as yet out of
Design
sequently
no
That this
would
upon
justify
their me;
Power, and
and
they really had
therefore it could
the Conduct
of the
not
Spaniards in
no
Knowledge
be just for all
me
of
me, and con
to fall
upon
them.
their Barbarities practis'd in
America, where they destroy'd Millions of the People, who however they were Idolaters and Barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous Rites in their Customs, such as sacrificing human Bodies to their Idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent People; and that the rooting them out of the Country, is spoken of with the utmost Abhorrence and Detestation, by even the Spaniards themselves [I, 198-99]. Of the Spaniards and able was
the
In Sections
who spoke out against these
Dominican, Victoria, who
D, K,
and
L.
atrocities, the
wrote a
most
treatise that
famous
contained a
Interpretation
176
detailed
repudiated wars whose sole objective
"outside
call
would
we
of what
critique
is to
intervention."
punish offenses against
Victoria
the
law
of
According to Victoria's works on Spanish-Indian relations, violence is employed legitimately for only three and (b) by constituted purposes : (a) for individual and collective or (c) to avenge authority for restraint and punishment of errant morals"
"against
nature
say.21
as we might
self-defense22
subjects23
the
its
state and
Intervention
immoral;
by
it
which
rather
would and
which
they
ernour of
war
like
relief of victims of abominations
heathen
new-found
Crusoe had
of
the
law
natural
countrymen of converts
as
try
being
such,
to terrorize
faith.27
calmed
down, he began
to ply himself with a
argument :
As to the Crimes they them ;
enforcing morality is itself is itself unjust. Victoria seems
sake of
just
this offense is no transgression
once
foreigners.24
Indis26 he only mentions one occasion on any rate, in De be proper for outsiders to intervene on behalf of victims of an
them away from their
Victoria-like
for the
the hands of
at
the case in
Now,
wrongs suffered at
merely for the
ruled out wars
cannibalism;25
offense,
outsiders
for
one version of the so-called
to have
even
subjects
were
National
Nations,
and
were
and
of towards one another,
guilty
I
ought
I had nothing to do
with
is the
Gov-
to leave them to the Justice
knows how by National Punishments to
of
God,
make a
who
just Retribution
for National Offenses [I, 200],
But there is
in this :
a rub
Friday
was one of
those natives, and Crusoe is
generally thought to have rescued him, and to have done so by killing his pursuers, as presumably he was required to do by the Portuguese Captain's
21
Victoria, De Indis Relectio Prior, 11,1 5-16. (The cited works of Victoria are reproduced
in the
volume on
him in James Brown Scott [ed.], The Classics of International Law [1917],
and
in James Brown
and
His Law of Nations [1934]). In
frequently
Scott, The Spanish
Origin of International Law: Francisco de Vitoria
present
day
parlance,
crimes
crimes."
also called
Cannibalism does
"victimless
not
"against
morals"
are
fit very conveniently
under
the latter rubric. 22
Victoria, De Indis Relectio Posterior, sive De lure Belli Hispanorum in Barbaros, 3. See, e.g., Ibid., 13. 24 Ibid., and Victoria, De Bello (commentary on St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIIT, Q. 40), 3. 25 De Indis Relectio Prior, II, 15-16. For recognition of a right and in some cases a duty in an outsider to protect innocent victims of human sacrifice and cannibalism, see Suarez, De Triplici Virtute Theologica, Fide, Disp. XVIII, 4; and Ibid.. Charitate, Disp. XIII, 5 23
(available in James Brown Scott [ed.], 777e Classics of International Law: Selections from Three Works of Francisco Suarez, S. J. [2 vols.; 1944]). 26
But
see
Victoria,
De
Bello, 6,
Indian customs, Victoria does behalf 27
of
innocent
subjects
affirm
being
where, without mention of the
the propriety of intervention
treated unjustly
De Indis Relectio Prior, III, 12.
by
by
their own ruler.
issues a
raised
foreign
by
the
prince on
111
Considering Crusoe
life-saving
precept that
Crusoe had
earlier
endorsed.28
It
would seem
then
that Crusoe was in something of a dilemma, bound both to intervene and not to intervene on Friday's behalf bound to be damned by one or the other of
his
Either the Portuguese Captain's theory of life-saving limitation on life-taking would convict
official precepts.
Crusoe's
or
version of Victoria's strict
him. I beheve it
might
be
shown
from the dilemma he had thus point of
he did
his
whole narrative.
But I
the dilemma. He
escape
that an intellectual event
posed
Crusoe's
escape
for himself
shall
is the dramatic turning limit myself to showing how in fact it
escaped
teachings; Crusoe delivered himself from
overthrowing both
by
official
all moral constraints whatsoever.
Crusoe's decision against meddhng with the natives appears to have issued from humble religious reflection. "What Authority or call had I to pretend .
to be Judge
and
Executioner
had thought fit for
upon
these Men
many Ages to
so
as
Criminals,
suffer unpunished
.
.
.
.
Heaven
whom
But it is hard
to keep this humility separate in Crusoe's narrative from tolerance for bestial than we do to kill an ity ("they think it no more a Crime to kill a Captive .
Ox;
nor
to
eat
mere concern against me
.
.
.
.
Mutton"
human Flesh, than we do to eat [I, 198]), or from for his dear self ("how far were these People Offenders .
"these People had done
.?";
Injury"
me no
is hard to distinguish from
of self-effacement
[I,
.
.
198]). This kind
self-enhancement.
Still, it
can be said for Crusoe's doctrine of minding his own business that balance it is salutary, because its adherent, helping none, has at any rate few temptations to harm any. The non-intervention thesis generates no on
Vietnams,
as
it
were
;
and
that consideration was surely one argument that
it to Victoria. Furthermore, while the doctrine of non-inter is in its adherent's consciousness, it performs a holding-action,
recommended
vention
wouldmaking time for re-enforcing arguments to come forth and prevent the be intervener from hurting himself. For example, after Crusoe had concluded
that it would
not
have been just for him to
slaughter
the natives, he
reports
that, on
the
other
Hand, I
argued with myself
that this attacking the Cannibals really
was
the
deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy myself; for unless I was sure to kill every one that not only should be on Shore at that Time, but that should ever come on Shore, afterwards, if but one of them escapes to tell their country People what had happened,
Way not
they
to
by thousands to revenge the Death of their Fellows, and I bring upon myself a certain Destruction, which at present I had no Manner of
would come over again
should
only
Occasion for.
28
Crusoe told the Frenchmen
aforementioned
"that
we
had taken them up in their
Distress, it was true ; but that it was our Duty to do so as we were Fellow-Creatures, we would
desire to be
so
deliver'd if we
done nothing for them but
what we
were
in the like
believed they
or
would
any
other
Extremity;
have done for us, if
and as
that we had
we
had been
ours"
in their Case, and they in (II, 132). I take the portion I have emphasized to Crusoe would want an on-looker would consider the on-looker duty-bound -
vene
note
if Crusoe's
100,
infra.
"Extremity"
were a
mean -
that
to inter
threat upon his life from another human being. Cf.
Interpretation
178 Upon the Whole I to
other
Religion joined in out of
perfectly
innocent
my
Creatures,
But, if, in
Duty
.
.
in Principle
nor
in Policy I
was
by
when
Prudential, I
was
innocent
and
laying as
to
all
I
Way or
Means to
bloody
situations, adherence to
it may impose
intolerable
an
that was governing his conduct toward the
of
emphasis supplied].
keeps the
non-interventionism
example, take Crusoe's own circumstance. We
was
Schemes for the Destruction
[I, 199-200;
me
now, anyway, that I
was convinced
my
to commit suicide, in
clean and supports a prudent reluctance
other circumstances
ought one
all possible
.
this
mean
some
hands
actor's
with
I
neither
in this Affair. That my Business
from them
conceal myself
that
concluded
concern myself
him. For
quietude upon
keep
natives:
in
mind the
imperative
"that if they
attempted
it necessary for my immediate Preservation to fall upon them, me, The danger must be more than conjectur might be said of it something al: it was not enough that, given the coming and going of the natives, Crusoe fall into the Hands of the was in considerable danger that he "might I
or
saw
"
.
.
Barbarians"
(I, 200;
emphasis supplied).
to anticipate, all danger from the
not
"immediate."
His
"Preservation,"
much what alive.
staying
it
by
was
broad
literally
"immediate,"
means
the continuation of existence,
enough so
long as
Crusoe's
the problems of merely remaining in one piece
escaping unaided). But when he began "pouring conceived] Means and Possibility of my escape from this
(or
simply to avoid,
that was not
the term
would mean unmodified :
This meaning
occupied with
was
native quarter
as modified
pretty
.
"Business"
of
upon
on
mind was
the island
...
[a newly
place,"
had to be ignored, the substantive "I looked back upon my present Condition as the
be;
could
redefined.
most miserable
called worse
.
(I, 229). He therefore
.
to the mainland, even though to do so would
place
him
on
thought of going
the home-ground
the very natives he had made up his mind to avoid : "if the
I
could
but
die,
which would put an end
once"
(1, 229). If his life was
it that
could
Crusoe's
be done to
explanation
really has to be
[M]y
only
Way
that
that I was not able to throw myself into anything but
possibly Death that could be
the worst,
modifier
"Preservation"
"immediate"
of
the
as
to
all
worse came
to
these Miseries at
death, then all could be done to remedy death, to preserve mere existence. conclusion he drew, and how he drew it,
bad
as
prevent mere of
the
quoted and savored:
to go about an Attempt
for
an
Escape,
was, if possible, to
get a
Savage
into my possession ; and if possible, it should be one of their Prisoners, who they had condemn'd to be eaten, and should bring Thither to kill ; but these Thoughts still were attended
Difficulty, that it was impossible to effect this, without attacking a whole Caravan and killing them all; and this was not only a very desperate Attempt, and might miscarry; but on the other Hand, I had greatly scrupled the Lawfulness of it to me; and my Heart trembled at the thoughts of shedding so much Blood, it was for my Deliverance. I need not repeat the Arguments which occurr'd to me against this, they being the same mention'd before; but I had other Reasons to offer now, (viz.) that those Men were Enemies to my Life, and would devour me, if they could ; that it was Self-preservation in the highest Degree, to deliver my self from this Death of a Life, and [that I] was acting in my own Defence, as much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like, I say, these with of
this
them,
tho'
tho'
tho'
Considering Things were
for it,
argued
Crusoe
179
the Thoughts of shedding Humane Blood for my
yet
very Terrible to me,
I
and such as
could
by no Means
reconcile
self
my
Deliverance,
to, for
a great
while.
However, at last, after many secret Disputes with my self, and after great Perplexities the eager prevailing Desire of Deliverance at length master'd all the rest ; and I it,
about
.
.
.
resolved, if possible, to
get one of
those Savages into my
Hands,
cost what
it
would
[I, 231-32].
justifying
the great
Manifesting
these last few hnes describe the
dilemma; they we
begin to
also mark the
turning
for Robinson Crusoe the
of no return
get
desire for self-preservation, Crusoe's preceptual
power of the
resolution
in
practice of
point of
the novel, as well as the point
And from the
character.
whole passage
the feel of the state of nature, as we are made to understand
that men who do not even know of another man's existence are nevertheless
"Enemies to
know
.
.
.
his
Life,"
is more, that this
what
and,
unknown man
them, and may be thinking that, by merely existing, they threatening to his existence as they would be in the act of of
"assaulting"
Seeing how Crusoe could with so little effort to innocent savages, the
of mind
we understand somewhat
unknown men who
lurked in the
become
a
may
are as
him.
deadly threat
better why he believed all of his imagination were threats
shadows of
to him.
Let
for
us
be clear about what is afoot. Crusoe "had other Reasons to Blood"
"shedding so much by his new plan.
an escape
now"
offer
that he didn't have before he decided to attempt
He
mentions two:
first, "that
Enemies to my Life and would devour me if they the cannibals did not know any more of his existence
those Men
were
could"
changed
"that it
his
was
mind
they did before. The
than
Self-preservation, in
this Death of a
Life,
and
I
the highest
though, "now"
second reason
Degree,
he
of
course,
that he had offers now
is
to dehver myself from
acting in my own Defense as much as if they But this truth had not been obvious to Crusoe,
was
me."
were
a
actually assaulting
reasonably
alert
man,
state of nature was
Crusoe
until
it
occurred to
to capture a
repudiates
both the
official
theories that had
dilemma for him. First, he simply jettisons of cannibalism as such or of against all
him that the way to
escape
the
man.
punishing
created
his "just
war"
even the pretense of saving victims
cannibals as such.
Instead, he
plots
the natives, eaten and eater alike ; he becomes the threat to hfe and
liberty. Second, he transforms the Victorian rationale for not kilhng into rationalization of killing. Crusoe's revised theory of justifiable homicide is prescription
for
was
was an unknown cannibal
making his plans, there
hving
on
eat other cannibals.
I
man
he
that my
Shore
was now
on
.
.
"He"
Friday had formerly been among the Savages who used to of the Island, on the same Man-eating Occasions that [I, 249].
the farther Part
brought for
"Friday."
was no
the mainland who occasionally came to
Crusoe's island to
understood
a
murder.
1. At the time Crusoe
come on
a
.
Interpretation
180
At
he
some point
it
that
were such
and
his
was
he,
than one of
rather
At the time Crusoe
cooked.
into battle, the fortunes of which his enemies, that nearly got his decision to lie in wait, he was plotting
tribesmen went
made
"Friday"
as against
as much against
became
been luckier in
Friday
war
any other cannibal. Had the man who he might have been killed by Crusoe, "Friday,"
man, less
another
while
lucky,
have become
could
or maybe
"Monday."
Crusoe's plotting was strictly impersonal. Both the captive and the captors had life. The one had a hfe which Crusoe could use; the others had lives which stood in the way of that use. Standing in the way of his use of
for
the captive, the captors presented themselves
because
the circumstances and the plan
of
adapted
an
employment
which,
to those circumstances,
exactly the same order and urgency as the intended use of the incipient Friday. Dead or alive, the natives give their lives to Crusoe. The erstwhile captors, dead, have the same status as sacrifices to Crusoe's self-preservation
was of
Friday,
as
Friday his
We
alive.
did. If there is
say that the captors befriended Crusoe just as to be given, it must go equally to Friday and to
might credit
captors.
However, Crusoe"s
usage reminds us of
"befriending."
He
the expression,
bals, "were Enemies
to my
says
the
Life"; and him, but
this
were
acting "as if they
Men,"
was
"devour"
because they would facilitate Crusoe's escape
incongruity in this context of i.e., all of the canni
that "those
and would not
also
so, presumably, not just
because any
men who could
tender themselves for that
purpose
assaulting"
were
him. Just
actually
as the captors would
"friends"
if we are going to talk that have to be included in the category of if we are way, so the captive must be included in the category of much at with the incipient talk that way. Crusoe was as war Friday going to "enemies"
as
he
was with the would-be
But the
reference
But,
anger.
while
Crusoe
service of a passion
is indifferent to the life has
no
anger
The
bearing
had
eager
2.
By
on
given
or
death
way to his
get one of
of
Deliverance
at
Friday
length
those Savages into my
Crusoe lops
The desire for
men, so
long as
self-preservation
their
living or dying
was rescued after
Crusoe's
greater passion.
thus acknowledging the
Dehverance,"
by
the generalship of prudence and
anger.
of other
accompanied
indignation, he generally fought in
under
distinct from
the safety of the self.
prevailing Desire
if possible, to
was capable of
blood29. He fought
the coolness of
in the
Friday-eaters.
to war is also misleading. War is usually
off
mastered all
Hands,
sanctifying
cost what
the rest, and I resolved,
it
prevalence
would.
of
the "Desire of
the other horn of his dilemma. He
engages
in
that, if undertaken for moralistic, punitive, or compassionate reasons, he would agree with Victoria in condemning. But precisely because his motives are not other-regarding or lofty does he think his conduct,
conduct
29
See
The apparently impassioned
also references
in
note
rescue of the
85, infra.
Spaniard is
a possible exception: see
II, 21
.
Considering
181
Crusoe
be censurable, is not. Crusoe argues in immediate self-preservation is at best truncated and at intelligible as an end because it may be nothing but conserva
which on those other motives would
effect that mere or
hardly
worst
tion of pain, penury, or terror: the end must be "comfortable self-preserva tion."30
Crusoe equivocates,
preservation out of
shape,
thereby
seeming to
entirely from Victoria's
departing
actually
ria's self-defensive restriction on war was
proscribed wars of victims of
doctrine reason,31
that model
to the
and who
taking
become
himself to
"guilty"
and
the
that
while
for Victo
and pubhc spirited:
more often than not
for
he
relieving the just war
greater atrocities than
the other
hand, for
those
totally private
a
therefore liable to execution only be
virtually
because he has decided that his
man
homicide,
motive
supposed purpose of
Crusoe, in his
moral restraint
manipulate other men and
profiteth
on
The
from
the sovereign individual so
humane
for the
self-
justifiable homicide from the meeting of persons he himself first insists are inno
of
of hves
rationale.
a pretext
Crusoe,
This dehverance from
erable.
even
simply
the concept
cretion, deems them
how it
was
or punished.
expands
aggression
he,
intervention,
atrocity, because he thought that
on
being prevented
cause
bring
notion of
the proposed conduct
the precincts of Victoria's definition of justifiable
within
cent,32
Victorian
and stretches the strict
wins
thereby
the
dis is intol
untrammeled
own situation
is Crusoe's way of empowering the world. We shall have to see
world
this way.
D. The Rescue
Having cept,
and
said
Crusoe
the Portuguese Captain's
repudiated
life-saving
pre
that he transformed Victoria's proscription of non-self-defensive
life-taking, I must now concede that the argument thus far made in support of the former proposition has left something to be desired. The question unan swered
is this :
faithful to his
Why cannot it be said that in intervening as he did, official
theory
of
life-saving? On
what ground
Crusoe
do I
assert
was
that,
in rescuing Friday, Crusoe replaces the Golden Rule with a different and inconsistent principle of action? In fact, is not the rescue of Friday a perfect confirmation of
the
proposition
30
n.
that the saving or serving of another can
furtherance
compatible with the
of one's
own
interests? If Crusoe
be
saves
See Locke, Treatises, I, 87, and Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (1953), p. 228, label for the same end is "commodious (Leviathan, Chap. 13, last
92.
living"
Hobbes'
paragraph). 31
But
a private reason
implications for "the
vast
mount to
pusillanimity
that,
as
Crusoe says, "masters
the
all
rest,"
and
public."
and
If,
Machiavelli argued,
as
is therefore
a great
enemy
moral
the public
of
therefore has
scrupulosity is tanta
interest,
Deliverance"
intensely private "eager prevailing Desire of tation by compelling men to do what is necessary, friend 32
the
of
-
"cost
which overcomes
what
it
[will]" -
perhaps
the
deadly hesi
is the long-lost
the public interest.
He had
mens rea
argued not
they
are
merely that
innocent
they
simply.
are
"innocent as to
me"
See Part I, Section D.
(I, 200), but
that
lacking
Interpretation
182
Friday's life
by-product
and as a
in
worked a revolution
friend33, he has surely not thereby
gains a
the Golden Rule and the ratio
morals or rejected
descendendi of the case of the Good Samaritan. Other things being equal, there
is nothing wrong with benefiting he can only "do well by doing
And if one is
oneself.
so circumstanced
good,"
why, "the more's the
that
plenty."
The fact
Crusoe's primary motive was the "eager prevailing Desire of Deliver does not derogate fatally from the morahty of the act, which in itself
that
ance,"
was
surely
saving
If, however, it
did
pursuers
not
to say that a against
in fact
Samaritan, but
was not a
have
is
that Crusoe rejected Victoria's strictures
raised
the name,
along assumed it was, i.e., a i.e., if the killing of Friday's of Friday, then we would have all
saving act,
contribute to a rescue
presumption
life-taking in
Nearly
?/it was as we
commendable
act.
the Portuguese Captain or the Good
not of
of some other authority.
a year and a
half
"that my only way to go get a Savage into my
after the ruminations
about an
Attempt for
culminating in the thought Escape was, if possible, to
an
possession,"
two
over
.
.
thirty
While they
prisoners.
the other Victim was left standing my
.
feast, brought
natives, relishing a
were engaged
himseif,
in
till
butchering they
that very Moment this poor Wretch seeing himself a little at
should
the one,
be ready for him. In
liberty, Nature inspir'd him
of Life, and he started away from them, and ran with incredible Swiftness along directly towards me I was dreadfully frighted, (that I must acknowledge) when I perceived him to run my Way; and especially, when as I thought I saw him pursued by the whole Body, and now I with
Hopes
the Sands
expected
that
he
...
Savages
other
tion,
....
would
would .
.
him,
and still more was
exceedingly in running,
Hour, I There
saw
easily he
swim
necessarily
and gain'd would
between them
was
over,
and
when
and
in my Grove [and perhaps] that the find him there. However I kept my Sta .
I found that there
I encourag'd,
Ground
when
.
of
fairly get my Castle,
the Creek
Wretch
would
.
.
.
.
was not above
I found that he
them, so that if he away from them all.
or the poor
thither, he
shelter
him thither,
my Spirits began to recover,
and
that follow'd
an
certainly take
pursue
.
and
could
three Men
outstrip'd
them
but hold it for half
this 1 saw plainly, he
be taken there: But
when
must
the Savage
tho'
the Tide was then up, but plunging in, Thirty thereabouts, landed and ran on with exceeding Strength and Swiftness; when the Three Persons31 came to the Creek, I found that Two of them could Swim, but the Third cou'd not, but went no further; and soon after went softly back again, which as it happen'd, was very well for him in the main.
escaping
came
thro'
in
swam
made
nothing
Strokes
about
of
it,
or
.
.
.
I observ'd, that the two who swam, were yet more than twice as long swimming over the Creek, as the Fellow was, that fled from them : It came now very warmly upon my Thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was my Time to get me a Servant, and perhaps a Compan ion, or Assistant ; and that I was call'd plainly by Providence to save this poor Creature's
33
When
a
threat to his
ship
wrecked off
his coast,
life, Crusoe thought
of
and after
venturing
out
the sea had to the
hulk,
calmed so
moved
that there might be yet some
but
might
34
by
posed no
living Creature on board whose Life I might not only Life, comfort my own to the last Degree (I, 219). significance to the fact that, on the day Crusoe rescued "good
saving that
Is there any
"Three
that it
by "the Possibility
.
save,
.
Friday,"
Persons"
proved
impotent
or were eliminated?
Considering
183
Crusoe
[I therefore] clapp'd my self in the way, between the Pursuers, and the Pursu'd; Life; hallowing aloud to him that fled, who looking back, was at first perhaps as much frighted at me, as at them; but I beckon'd with my Hand to him, to come back; and in the mean time, I slowly advanc'd towards the two that follow'd; then rushing at once upon the fore most, I knock'd him down with the Stock of my Piece; I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear; though at that distance, it would not have been easily heard, and being out of Sight of the Smoke too, they wou'd not have easily known what to make of it: Having knock'd this Fellow down, the other who pursu'd with him stopp'd, as if he had been frighted; and I advanc'd a-pace towards him; but as I came nearer, I perceiv'd presently, he had a Bow and Arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me; so I was then neces sitated to shoot at him first, which I did, and kill'd him at the first Shoot; the poor Savage who fled, but had stopp'd ; though he saw both his Enemies fallen, and kill'd as he thought ; ...
yet was so
frighted
ther came
forward
Fire, and Noise of my Piece; that he stood Stock still, and nei he seem'd rather enclin'd to fly still, than to backward, come on; I hollow'd again to him, and made Signs to come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way, then stopp'd again, and then a little further, and stopp'd again, and I cou'd then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken Prisoner, and
tho'
or went
has just been to be kill'd
and gave
and
the
with
him
nearer,
all
as
his two Enemies
were.
I beckon'd him
kneeling down every Ten or Twelve steps in srruTd at him, and look'd pleasantly,
saving his Life: I at
nearer; and
length he
laid his Head
Head;
this it
Even
upon
him,
and
token of acknowledgement for my
beckon'd to him to
and
come still
then he kneel'd down again, kiss'd the
Ground,
gained
and
him
by
all
I
could
the swim,
[I, 234-36].
Friday
all."
But the
forces
by
river put additional a
third,
would
have
"fairly [got]
distance between him
leaving him,
a
"lusty
timing35
him. The
terest. It was after
upon
a
very warmly my Time to get me
indifferently
poor
depended decisively endowments36
.
.
advantage upon advantage
the
upon
.
cannibals.
(emphasis added). Crusoe plotted
.
But his success,
the courage, alertness,
of nature.
The "poor
even
his activation,
and exceptional physical
that enabled this cannibal, the incipient
nobly to the inspiration
in
that "it
.
Creature's Life
against all
they
of some
my Thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now and that I was called plainly by Provi Servant,
came now
this
Crusoe's intervention is thus
Friday had heaped
was
save
of
and
Fellow"
strong
to contend with only two opponents in the unlikely event that
would corner
dence to
to come to me,
taking me by the Foot, set my Foot upon his in token of swearing to be my Slave for ever; I took him up, and
and encourag'd
and cut their
(II, 29),
to me,
Ground,
the
the time
without
away from them them
came close
seems was
made much of
again
the Signs of Encouragement that I could think of, and he came nearer
Creature"
Friday,
to
respond so
had saved his own hfe. Escape"
Elsewhere, Crusoe speaks of the time "when Friday made his (II, 19). But Friday did not have the benefit of Crusoe's reveahng narrative. Not watching from a hill, he was running scared. Given his disoriented percep-
35
One
become 36
I
of
the three
"prerequisites"
a savior of men
Crusoe
was
later to
(II, 28); "for
saw"
we noted -
see
Crusoe would have to fulfill if he
Section B, supra,
remark
sure never
that
Man
at
the
wanted
to
end.
Friday was "the swiftest Fellow of his Foot that ever or Horse run like (II, 30). him"
Interpretation
184
tions, it
easy for Crusoe to
was
make
himself
out as a rescuer.
Therefore,
in saying that, when in the aftermath Friday came "kneeling down every Ten or Twelve We must steps [it was] in token of acknowledgement for my saving his Crusoe does
totally
not
Friday's
misrepresent
state of mind
Life."
in
keep
fear,
make
because
did
Crusoe's
Crusoe,
not rest until
fear,
he had
worked
transcended his
He
the savior's mantle.
confusion,
taking full
while
psychological rock
never
to the point where he could question the
assumption of
this ascent because his
Friday
relationship.
and gratitude
confusion,
of
validity
mind, for it was the
state of
Crusoe built their
upon which
initial
Friday's initial
mind
of
advantage
in
Friday
was unable
to
hindered him, and this initial (/^orientation,
and gratitude
a reorientation.
As Crusoe said, speaking of the failure of other white-men to manage some savages, "they did not take their Measures with them as I did by my man
Friday,
instruct them in the
and then us
to begin with them upon the Principle of having sav'd their
viz.
look
rational
Principles
of
Life
.
Lives,37
(II, 172). Let
.
Friday in the rational plainly by Providence to save
the early measures Crusoe took to instruct
at
life. Crusoe
principles of
approached
he "was
said
Life,"
this poor Creature's
his
and
called
explanation of
Friday's
Crusoe is that this behavior "was in token Life."
for my saving his we decide how big
a
Very
well, that
may have been
into
we should put
part,
relief a
"kneeling"
as
he
of acknowledgment
part of
feature
it. But before the occasion
of
Friday
made
Crusoe's
When Crusoe
came
into sight, Friday "was at first perhaps as much And how did Crusoe allay this fear? He knocked
on which
frighted
them."
at me as at
down
one pursuer
the poor Savage
thought,
and neither came
trembling,
Then
.
.
frighted
forward
.
the other, whereupon,
though he saw both his Enemies fallen and
.
with
the Fire and Noise of my
backward,
or went
if he had been taken
as .
and shot
[Friday]
yet was so
mies were
acquaintance.
.
prisoner and
.
.
and
I
could
.
.
killed,
as
he
that he stood Stock still
Piece, .
that he stood
perceive
had just been to be killed
as
his two Ene
.
Friday
came
down
"kneeling
...
in token [Crusoe
interpolates] for
Life"
(emphasis added). But when Friday knelt or when he "set my saving his Foot upon his Head in token of swearing to be my Slave he my might also have been saying in his awkward way, "spare and if you my life, forever,"
.
do, I
shall
Friday case. and
37
forever."
received assurances
"smil'd
at
him
When Crusoe
much
.
your slave
Crusoe "gave him
Friday's
Life,
be
.
and
and
Love you: He
he
that this would
looked
pleasantly"
him. "No, no,
meant
he
would make
indeed be the disposition
of
the Signs of Encouragement that I could think
; and,
Friday discussed
people might eat
and so
all
would
after
Friday
he,
me make
they
no
tell them how I had kill'd his
them love me
had slept, he
going to the mainland, Crusoe
says
.
.
(II, 11).
his
of,"
Eat you;
suggested
Enemies,
and
that
they sav'd his
me make
185
Considering Crusoe to put his head
was allowed
Master,"38
say
forebear to after
I
the
Crusoe's foot again, and "taught kindnesses. But Crusoe did
under
.
and showered with other such
opportunity to awe the Crusoe sighted two kids.
use one more
"rescue,"
hold
Two
savage.
or
.
.to
not
three days
Friday, hold says I, stand still; and made Signs to him not to stir, my Piece, shot and kill'd one of the Kids. The poor Creature who had at a Distance indeed seen me kill the Savage his Enemy, but did not know, or could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surpriz'd trembled, and shook, and look'd so catch'd
immediately I
of
presented
amaz'd, that I thought he perceive
found, and
it, but
presently thought I
see
would
have
ripp'd
up his Wastcoat to feel if he
sunk
down. He did
to kill
was resolv'd
Knees,
embraceing my
easily
I
I had kill'd
said a great
him; for he
the Kid I shot at, or
not see
was not
came and
many Things I did
wounded,
and as
I
kneel'd down to me,
not understand
; but I
could
that the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.
found
convince him that I would do him no harm, and taking him up by him, and pointed to the Kid which I kill'd, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did ; and while he was wondering and looking to see how the Creature was kill'd, I loaded my Gun again, and by and by I saw a great Fowl sit upon a Tree within Shot; so to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I call'd him to me again, pointed at the Fowl and to my Gun, and to the Ground under the Parrot, to let him see I would make it fall, according I fir'd and bad him look, and immediately he saw the Parrot fall, he stood like one frighted again, notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I soon
way to
a
the Hand laugh'd
at
...
.
found he
.
.
.
.
.
was the more amaz'd
thought that there must able
to kill
created
let him, he would have touch it for
answer'd
him,
not
or
Thing
any
not see me put
Fund
of
worshipp'd me and
was
any
Thing into the Gun ; but Thing,
Destruction in that
and
and
the Astonishment this
long Time; and 1 believe, if I would have
my Gun : As for the Gun it self, he would
Days after; but
by himself;
Death
near, or far off,
as could not wear off for a
several
he
when
because he did
some wonderful
Man, Beast, Bird,
in him was such,
much as
it
be
which,
as
I
to
talk to
pointed to
him to
afterwards
not so
it, as if it had learn'd of him, was to desire
it,
and
would speak
to kill him.
Well,
after
his Astonishment
the Bird I had shot,
was a
little
over at
this, I
run and
fetch
he did, but stay'd some Time; for the Parrot not being quite good way off from the Place where she fell; however, he found
which
dead, was flutter'd away a her, took her up, and brought her to me; and as I had perceiv'd his Ignorance about the Gun before, I took this Advantage to charge the Gun again, and not let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other Mark that might present [I, 244-46]. ...
Crusoe apparently judged that, his
pupil's
a
elementary
pedagogical
necessary Crusoe had to
even
38
make of
before the
Crusoe had
aid,
and
himself
cannibals were
planned
at
the time the cannibals made their exit,
education was still
"to
get a
incomplete. Continued fear
the only outside
a source of
dispatched.
Savage into my
source
having
being
withdrawn,
fear. He began playing this role Appearing suddenly in a garb
Possession"
(1, 231); indeed, "I fancied
One, nay Two or Three Savages, if I had them, my self able to do whatever I should direct to to Slaves me, (I, 232). entirely manage
them"
so as
to
make
them
Interpretation
186
he was as frightful to Friday as were Friday had had the capacity to run from the natives, he was mesmerized and petrified by Crusoe. But, he also knew that Crusoe had to
outlandish enough
the
Whereas
cannibals.
The ambiguity of Crusoe's posture toward Friday made stimulate Friday's gratitude while continuing to play
killed his
enemies.
it
for Crusoe to
possible
on
By establishing himself from
his fears.
from
dangers, Crusoe
outside
fear,
Crusoe
assuaged
in
;40
beginning as
the
a source of
himself latitude to
gave
source of danger
simultaneously as a which
man,39
scare a white
in response to
which
Friday
proportion as
present
safety
himself
Friday expressed the desired
manifested
thralldom.41
39
"Had any one in England been to meet
frighted them, presented
or rais'd a great
deal
himself to Englishmen
such a
Laughter"
of
who
Man
(1, 1 72) ;
Figure that I
just going to 40
fly from
made.
had been brought to
me
.
.
They made (II, 45).
no
Answer
at
Accordingly he
man,"
in
put
have
when
they
saw
me, and the
all, but I thought I perceiv'd them
When Cesare Borgia took the Romagna, he found it
need of good government.
must either
later, when Crusoe actually the island, "they started up at
the Noise [of his voice], but were ten times more confounded uncouth
I was, it
as
and
dissolute, disorderly,
Messer Remirro de Oreo, "a
and
in
cruel and able
"This man, in
a short time, was highly successful in rendering the country Borgia] knew that the harshness of the past had engendered some amount of hatred, [and] in order to purge the minds of the people and to win them over completely, he resolved to show that if any cruelty had taken place it was not by his orders, but through the harsh disposition of his minister. And having found the opportunity
orderly
charge.
and
he had him
united,
.
.
in half
cut
[But
.
morning in the public square
and placed one
ferocity of this spectacle caused the people both satisfaction and The 11
Prince, Chap. VII [Ricci
trans.]).
Crusoe had previously
practised
source of
danger
The
and of safety.
the
art of
at
Cesena
....
(Machiavelli,
presenting himself simultaneously
earlier episode was
in
The
amazement"
some ways more
taxing
as a
on
his
resources, since in it there was no third party from whom he could even appear to save his "beneficiary.''
Crusoe had been taken and
nimble,
Business"
"trusty."
penal parlance
prov'd
that sometimes he would send me with a the
Maresco,
as
they
Crusoe
occasion
by a Moor of Sallee. "Being young (I, 20), Crusoe became what in American
prisoner and made a slave
fit for his [the Moor's] is called a "I
and
call'd
him,
to catch
very dexterous in catching one of
him"
a
spirited some extra provisions aboard.
Then,
when
the three of them had
distance from shore, Crusoe tossed the older Moor into the colloquy between Crusoe and this fellow went as follows: "I presented sailed a
him,
Fish; insomuch
his Kinsmen, and the Youth [Xury] Dish of Fish for (I, 21). Prior to one such
Moor,
sea. ...
Part [a
of
the
Fowling-
him, I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do I, you swim well enough to reach to theShoar, and the Sea is calm, make the best of your Way to Shoar and I will do you no harm, but if you come near the Boat I'll shoot you the Head; for I am resolved to have my Liberty; so he turn'd himself about and swam for the Shoar, and I make no doubt but he reacht it with Ease, for he was an Excellent (I, 24-25). piece]
at
him none; but
and told said
thro'
Swimmer"
The Crusoean gratuity sequel,
Moor
which
could swim or ha'
could
at
the
end of
the passage is
however does indicate that Crusoe did
been
not,
content
to
and
ha'
neither confirmed nor
not
especially
indicates further that the lesson
taken this Moor with me,
ha'
and
denied in the
care whether
was not
lost
the older
Xury. "I drown'd the Boy, but there on
Friday
187
Crusoe
Considering
by himself. And yet Crusoe never allowed him freedom-giving knowledge but on the contrary used
escaped entirely
this precious life-
and
every opportunity to
remind
him
he had been in
of the peril
and of
Crusoe's
redeeming power; thereby making Crusoe appear to Friday as the indispen sable condition to every bit of Friday's subsequent being. This had the effect
Friday what Crusoe said he wanted, Friday "his Man Friday."42
of rendering
making
E. A Commonwealth At the
beginning
in
Friday
of
Section D
faithful servant; that is,
a
Acquisition
by
Crusoe
we asked whether
a manner consistent with
if not
of
prompted
by
acted toward
the Golden Rule and
Good Samaritanism. We know by now that the answer is rather emphatically,
No. Neither Crusoe's ship to his
expanded notion of
act
itself
motive nor
was exploitative rather than
to
I turn'd to the
me
I'll
will not stroak your
Face to be true to me, that is,
Beard, I
you
must
cently that I
throw
could not mistrust
him;
and swore
(I, 25). As for making Xury "a
with
(I, 37). Crusoe
never confessed
Boy, who they call'd Xury, Man, but if you
make you a great
by Mahomet
swear
in my Face to be faithful to me,
into the Sea too ; the Boy
smil'd
Man,"
me"
World
shghtest positive relation
beneficial.
was gone
him, Xury, if you.will be faithful
to
bears the
act
Not only did he act on the basis of his self-preservation, and not for altruistic reasons ; but his
venturing to trust him : When he
was no
and said
his
hfe-saving precept.
official
great
that he may have
Crusoe
sinned against
and
his Father's
and spoke so
inno
and go all over
the
him into slavery this boy who indeed sold
having Xury with him on later (I, 39, 144). 42 Crusoe flatters himself into "believ[ing] [Friday] lov'd me more than it was possible for him ever to love any Thing (1, 248). Crusoe may have seen reason to doubt this when he witnessed Friday's great unfeigned display of love for his father (II, 26-28). And, indeed, he had experienced a siege of doubt about Friday even before that. One clear day proved most
faithful to him. He did however
occasions when
he felt the
repent not
"hands"
need of
before"
Friday caught sight of the mainland. He expressed so much emotion that Crusoe asked him "What was the Matter? O joy! says he, O glad! There see my Country, there my Nation! I
extraordinary Sense of Pleasure appear'd in his Face, and his Eyes sparkled, his Countenance discover'd a strange Eagerness, as if he had a Mind to be in his own
observ'd an
and
Country again; and this Observation made me at first not so easy about my new Man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt, but that if Friday could get back to his own Nation again, he would not only forget all his Religion, but all his Obligation to me ; and [his countrymen], and make a come back perhaps with a hundred or two of
would
Feast
.
.
.
.
upon me
.
.
....
[A]s my Jealousy encreased, and held me some Weeks, I familiar and kind to him as before
and not so
While my Jealousy
if he
was a
little
more
circumspect,
....
would
of
discover any
every thing he
him of
said was so
lasted,
the new
Honest,
may be
sure
I
was
Thoughts, Innocent,
I
suspected were
you
which
and so
every
Day
pumping him to
in
see
him; but I found
that I could find nothing to
nourish
my Suspicion; and in spight of all my Uneasiness he made me at last entirely his own again, nor did he in the least perceive that I was Uneasie, and therefore I could not suspect him Deceit"
of
(II, 10-11).
Interpretation
188 Crusoe's
respect.
In the
for intervention between
opportunities
Spaniard43
and
victims,
executioners and putative
intervention is in fact beneficial to the latter. On
and each
saves a
Friday is, however, unique in the narrative for its Adventures, Crusoe is presented with two other
of
capture
purity in this
Friday's father from
sure
death;
one
occasion, he
on
another, he
from marooning their deposed captain on Crusoe's island. But, though different from the Friday episode in this important respect, these later episodes follow the pattern estabhshed
Friday in every
with
Enghsh
mutinous
some
prevents
sailors
other pertinent
detail. Crusoe
non-existent44
alternately omnipresent and of the bereft ; and he capitahzes ciaries
It is
; he
again contrives
again celebrates
by
on that emotion
to appear
the gratitude
subjecting his benefi
him.45
to
easier
label,
to
pattern of subjection.
justify or explain is, I beheve, "commonwealth by
than to
The
Hobbes'
pattern
acquisiti
provement on
Hobbes had distinguished between two civil society: one
he
why Crusoe adhered to, this best characterized as an im
caUed
modes of
"commonwealth
by
beginning or augmenting
institution"
meaning
thereby
the situation in which dispersed individuals enter into the social contract, and as
it were,
hands up
all come out of
the
until
their fox-holes simultaneously,
is
sovereign
This development
appointed.
keeping their originates
in
"real,"
"volun equahty of condition and involves the kind of consent we call or We find it acceptable, whereas we repudiate out of "legitimizing."
tary"
hand the
by
which
Hobbes
where a stronger
party,
or a
or civil
society
induces to the
augmentation, "commonwealth
other mode of origination or
acquisition"
conquest,
another
"uncle,"
to say
and
in
meant
party
return
any
with a
by
situation outside of
temporary advantage,
for life, to
promise obedience
victor.46
According mate as
to
Hobbes, the latter For, he argued,
the former.
it is
ours and we can therefore
not
promising
and of
duress, because
mode of
be held
suffering the
responsible
The
44
Of course, Crusoe did
same mentioned
in Section B
and
not reserve
his
as
legiti
promise,
for it. We had the choice of
consequences.
that plea bespeaks the
43
acquiring authority is
since we and no other make the
mistaken
It is
no excuse
notion
to
plead
that the normal
to be discussed in Section L. powers
only for the
persons
he
saved :
"In
all
landing on the Island, it was my constant Care to prevent them making the least Discovery of there being any Inhabitant upon the Place; and when by any Occasion they came to know it, they felt it so effectually, that they that got away, were scarce able to give any Account of it, for we disappear'd as soon as pos the Discoveries I had made of the Savages
sible, nor did ever any that had
to tell any one else, except
[etc.]"
(II, 166). father); II, 45-46 (the rescue II, 21-24, of the English Captain) ; and for the most spectacular demonstration of alternating ubiqui ty and evanescence, II, 46-66 (the disarming of the mutineers and the capture of the ship they controlled, wherein Crusoe's employment of Friday is reminiscent of Prospero's use 45
of
seen
Ariel). 46
me,
escape
147 (the rescue of the Spaniard
Leviathan, Chaps. 18
and
20.
and
Friday's
Considering
defeated
thing as "will"
"will"
the
condition of
by duress,
"free-will"
which makes
being simply
is
this normal condition is
There is, in
no such
the term
appetite or aversion.
that promises induced
binding
by aversion are less by appetite. and that by acquisi
than the same prompted
the commonwealth
the operative aversion is
for their last
fact,
will,"
the upshot of either appetite or aver
always
prove
therefore less
Furthermore, in both tion,
will
an expression we use
voluntary motion sion, and it is impossible to
voluntary
and that "unfree."
the
but only persons free to do or refrain "as they
Action
and
"free,"
is to be
189
Crusoe
fear, in
by institution
the general apprehension
one
of
insecurity in the war of all against all, in the other fear of immediate death. Accordingly there is no relevant distinction between the two forms of consent. Covenants
any kind
made under
duress
of
are
obhgatory in the
state of
nature.47
And yet, manifestly, the commonwealth by acquisition is not palatable. about it. Imagine the skepticism the victim of a conquest
We bridle, reading or a
hold-up
feel
must
about
the proposition that promises of submission
duress bind sempiternally It was this skepticism that Crusoe's tactic was meant to overcome. The trick is to obscure blunt clarity to dissemble one's position and aims the situation so the by manipulating :48
made under
Hobbes'
threat seems to come from a third party, so you can appear in the role of
benefactor
than conqueror. According to the appearances then, the is by benevolence and not conquest. The commonwealth by deceitful benevolence will be far stronger than the commonwealth by acqui rather
commonwealth
sition
for the
that the victim is
simple reason
proposition, the
honoring
not presented with a cold ethical
of which would require a
fanatical
contra-
and
; he is rather softened up by fear, overwhelmed by grati kept in line ever after by incipient guilt, instrumentahzed by the
natural moralism
tude, and benefactor.
This then is with whom
what
he
the text so far examined tells us Crusoe does to the people
comes
in
contact.
Crusoe has
supplied an explanation of the
grip on the conquered that Hobbes did not furnish, and he presents to us a far more thorough tyranny than any Hobbes described. In fact, one can say, Crusoe prefigures the way from the Hobbesian sovereign conqueror's
Hobbes,"
47
Ibid., Chaps. 6, 14, 21 ; and see A. G. Wernham, "Liberty and Obligation in in K. C. Brown (ed.), Hobbes Studies, pp. 117-139. 48 On the other hand, consider this from Voltaire, A, B, C (in Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary [Gay trans.] [1962], Vol. II, pp. 550-51): Let's suppose I find myself in America, engaged in an action against the Spaniards. A Spaniard has
wounded
man, don't kill me,
I feed him what
and
me, I
I'll
what can
garlic and onions
I
reproach
of a
him
ready to kill him. He says to
you."
harm is there in that, I
more out
am
I
serve
; in the evening, ask you?
with?
bargain than
accept
If I
As the
at
his proposal, I
bedtime, he reads
surrender
emperor
what you put
me:
give
to a Spaniard
Justinian
into it.
says :
"Brave English
him this pleasure, me Don Quixote
on
-
the
same
You don't
terms,
get
any
Interpretation
190
insidious,
to the
manipulative,
tyrannies of the twentieth
brain-washing
century.49
Species"
F. "To Have Seen One of My Own Thus far in this what
fear
want and project
endemic
root
to the
state of nature
for overcoming that
together in numbers and a
security to the
essay we have (1) shared Crusoe's experience of human condition the mutuaUy exacerbating
second
he takes to be the
living
short of a
from
"critical
nature
moral and psychological
strategy
(2) tried to visualize his bringing men
that involves
but
have
(3)
still sufficient
given
his
doing
detailed
Crusoe
and tactics
to the propriety of their
self and others over
have
we
mass"
and we
;
;
a plan
condition
used
to
wrest
attention
to win him
bidding by manning his
project.
Now, however, it is time to concede that the account so far given abstracts from the complexity of the original. Although our rendition is probably accurate as far as it goes, it has been too easy, especially as it has ignored passages concerning society that lie awkwardly with the purely instrumental hne
of
thought we have
things
other
different
sketched. So, we shall retrace our steps, and among Crusoe's project, this time, however, with a slightly in mind. Whereas we have been concerned with society
reexamine
question
only for the
it affords,
man-power
it both
we shall now consider
instrumen-
be asking what more, beyond a cessation tally of starvation and fear, does Crusoe need, want and get from or in society. What is the relationship between the desire for self-preservation (simple or and as an end
extended)
in itself. We
Crusoe's
and
to be
proclaims
that this renewed
other
"considering
Crusoe the
man
lead into
will
Crusoe,"
when
the desire he most often
desires, especially
human beings? It is
with other
inquiry
shall
to say
perhaps needless
a question we must after all attend
namely, what happens to the "project
himself? Where does his
deliverance
pursuit of
or
to
director,"
happiness
take him?
We turn tionships
to the most revealing and developed
again
"acquired"
over
eignty
from
of
Crusoe's
that with Friday. Crusoe never explicitly relinquishes the
Friday. But there
are a
few
passages
in
rela
sover
the narrative
infer that their relationship may have evolved from despotism into something more like partnership or even friendship; 49
which
Just as,
one
by
conceiving the
he harks back to
Prince, Chaps.
could
Machiavelli,
VI
and
IX ["men
under a greater obligation which
his
political
and
then
1, 2; II, 23, 32), but
.
moral than
from
who refrained
Novak, Defoe
and
from moralizing it
by
grace
"psychological"
whom
of gratitude
they
expected
terms
(see Tlie evil, feel
wise prince will seek means
by
things have
his
condition of
him"
they will
in
the potency
; "a
.
in every possible always be faithful to
tent show of gratitude for benefits also
who receive good
to their benefactor
subjects will always and
government,
See
bond less in
who was also aware of
need of
(Ricci trans.)]
-unlike
his fourth law
the Nature of Man, Chap. V.
and The Discourses, Hobbes, who made a consis
of nature
(Leviathan, Chap.
15).
191
Considering Crusoe as when
Crusoe
singular
Satisfaction in the Fellow himself; his
appear'd
to
Creature"
that "besides the Pleasures
says
me more and more
(I, 248). If this
every
remark were
Day,
of
him, I had a Honesty,
to
I began really to love the
and
typical of
talking
simple unfeign'd
Crusoe's
expressions about
have to say that theirs was no ruler-subject, let alone mas ter-slave, relationship. Consider also the description of the religious hfe Crusoe shared with Friday. Crusoe modestly admits he had "more Sincerity
Friday,
we should
Knowledge, in all the Methods I took for this But, withal, he converted Friday. He was
than
poor
Creature's Instruc
tion."
Instrument
made an
Providence to
under
bring him
Savage,
Doctrine,
that he might know Christ
and
these
reflected upon all
frequently rejoyc'd most
dreadful
Things,
that ever I
In this thankful Frame I
the
Life,
and
of
for
ought
Religion,
I
the Soul
knew,
and of
the Christian
Jesus, to know whom is Life eternal. I say, when I Joy run through every Part of my Soul, and I brought to this Place, which I had so often thought the
a secret
was
Afflictions that
of all
save
to the true Knowledge
of a poor
could
continu'd all
possibly have befallen
the Remainder of my
me.
Time,
and
the Conversation
Friday and I, was such, as made the three Years which we liv'd there together perfectly and compleatly happy, if any such Thing as compleat Happiness can be form'd in a sublunary State. The Savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I ; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted, restor'd Penitents; we had here the Word of God to read, and no fardier off from his Spirit to instruct, than if we had been in England [II, 6].
which employ'd
There is
no reason
that I know
spiritual
soe's
fellowship
descriptions
of
with
his
may have
it.50
put
experienced
feehng
in his
about
conversion nor
The issue is instead the depth social and religious quoted are
fellowship
from
claimed
that after his conversion,
my Soul
sought
nothing
of
think
of
it;
It
acted
in
When alone, Crusoe 50
This is
not
he
show
to
put
deny,
of
See Part I, Sections B
is
Crusoe
the satisfaction
Crusoe
of
with
Friday.
Crusoe's
presentation
in Part I. Recall Crusoe's
was
nothing; I did
having
not so much as
pray to be
Consideration in Comparison to this
show
that the sohtary Crusoe ever
this proposition, acted
course, that Crusoe's motives for converting
study. 61
Cru
and conversely that it is (and frequently thought) to the dehverance into the company of men higher on the
a manner consistent with
easy to
by
the use to which
a stratum of
was all of no
We discovered how difficult it is to rather
raised
that the issue raised
God, but Deliverance from the Load of Guilt that bore down
my Comfort: As for my solitary Life it or
was a genuine con
issue is
an
Friday, but
which we paid considerable attention
deliver'd from it, [I, 111].
Friday
that conversion, and about
Friday. I beheve that
association with
The descriptions just
all
to doubt that
the authenticity of Friday's
neither
to
of
What is in doubt is Crusoe's
vert.
his
the Hours between
and
C.
contrary.51
Friday deserve
Interpretation
192
urgency than dehverance from
scale of
We
sin.
have to
shall now
see what
consistency he is able to maintain between his deeds and desires on the one hand and, on the other, his claim made in the Friday context that, "we hv'd there together perfectly and compleatly happy, if any such Thing
kind
of
as compleat
Happiness
can
is,
interested to see, that
State."
be form'd in
whether
Crusoe
a
sublunary
had his
still
We
shaU
be
mind on other possible
states.
sublunary
Crusoe does
not
specify civil, organized,
large,
or
society
when
he
recounts
his dissatisfaction with sohtude. Rather, merely "to have seen one of my own Species, would have seem'd to me a Raising me from Death to Life, and the
Blessing
greatest
that Heaven it self,
next
to the
supreme
Blessing
of
Salva
bestow"
(I, 181). Presumably, then, Friday would be the answer to his cries, the completion of his bliss. Not of course, Friday the slave, but Friday the fellow- worshipper and joyous companion. We are dismayed, then tion could
(or
would
be if Crusoe had
observe that
diverted
despite his
by
and absorbed
of more man-power
led
not
us
through a similar experience earlier), to
encomiums on
intelhgence
in the
companionship, gained
Crusoe's
from Friday
attention
is
on the presence
neighborhood.
Sometime in the "three Years [in which] we hv'd there perfectly and com pleatly Friday told him of a group of white men who were hving happy,"
with natives on the mainland.
This Part
of
Friday's Discourse began to
entertain'd some
Escape from this Place ;
relish with me
that one Time or other, I might
Hopes,
that this poor Savage
and
very well,
find
might
be
and
from this Time I
Opportunity to make my Means to help me to do it
an a
[I, 250]. From this time I with
confess
Bearded-men,
these
ting but if I
I had
who
could we might
I
a
Mind to
made no
find
some
venture
doubt
Method to
Continent, and a good Company together; better the Shore, and alone without Help [II, 12].
And so, during these three was "fix'd upon my Design
They
put
of
in "a Month's hard
and another
and see
if I
going
possibly joyn
or
than I could from an Island 40 Miles off
over with
him to the
Labour"
shaping
by Inch,
could
Portuguese; not doub Escape from thence, being upon the Spaniards
years of perfect and complete
to get her along as it were Inch
(LT, 14),
over,
were
a
happiness, Crusoe (II, 12).
Continent"
boat, "a Fortnight's
upon great
Rowlers into the
two months on a mast and sails. The
time
Water"
result was
that
Crusoe had great
Hopes
Impression
...
upon
of
being effectually, and speedily deliver'd; for I had an invincible Thoughts, that my Deliverance was at hand [II, 16-17].
my
Crusoe's impression he had
mainland as planned.
flowed,
proved
not anticipated.
and
Crusoe
prophetic, although he was
In the first place, he
Before they
rescued
the
and
could set out
Spaniard,
dehvered in a way Friday did not go to the
the cannibals came, blood
who confirmed
Crusoe's
statement
band
that there was a thought
they
.
.
.
done"
Spaniards ("this
"I
mainland.
asked
him how he
Proposal from me, which might tend towards [the Spaniards] were all here, it might not be
would receive a
Escape; and whether if (II, 34). After making
an
the
of white-men on
193
Crusoe
Considering
for the coming
great preparations
of
the other
Work, being the first Measures used by me in view of my Dehverance for now 27 Years [II, 39]), Crusoe sent the first Spaniard and Friday's father to fetch them. Crusoe, twice-blessed with was a chearful
.
.
God
and other men
wants more.
conversation or rehgious
Crusoe takes
there. On the basis
we should
be
isolated human
find,
to specify
being,
most grievous.
been "in
never
pand on
the
he
what
him to his island
us with
underwent
able
And
wants more of
is
not mere
communion.52
or at
and subjects us
to the isolation he
of our vicarious experience and
any
Robinson
rate
his commentary
those deprivations that
with some exactness
Crusoe,
would
find
or
an
did
Before reading Crusoe's narrative, the student who has or himself might feel incompetent to ex
solitary"
"cut-off"
isolation. But, presumably, Robinson Crusoe
phenomenon of
will, if any book can, build that competence. It
should make
clear,
by making
concrete, the evil incidents of the single existence.
Crusoe has disappointed into
Yes, "in
the
isolation from
separation
out, Crusoe has 52
a
through a futile dialectic of misapprehensions:
is isolation from
main problem
comparison"
God,
in
our expectations
dead-ends,
a series of
Nor, way is
men
is
not
one must
discovered God,
add, does he
surprising.
opportunity for
crave an
that the
us
Soul,"
and
Measure"
further when
of
that Crusoe had
occasions
for
at
such
he had told Crusoe
last found his true
joy. But
of the
finding "some Method
we come
to find
more
missionary work,
Friday had
conversion of
real
which
"a
made
that the knowledge of what he had done
"Calling"
the
consider
No,
exist, and, yes, the
(II, 6). Given this enthusiasm, one might (I, 15), and that he would seek time, shortly
"Bearded-men"
on
to Escape from
not
that
all, for Crusoe found
abstract."53
God does
or
For Crusoe had told
Joy run through every Part of my for Friday comforted him "beyond
No, Crusoe discovered
men.
no problem at
from Whom is "hell in the
secret
suppose
Yet, so far at any rate, for clarity. Instead, he has led us
thence"
after
the mainland. This
(II, 12),
and
he
Friday's conversion, fired Crusoe's hopes
and
Friday talked about
how they would go to the main, and what they would do when there. Friday's idea was that Crusoe would do "great deal much good, you teach wild Mans be good sober tame .
know God, pray God, the Foundation of his Desire to go to his
Mans; all
to the
you
tell them
People,
my self,
so
and
I had
his Hopes
not
of
my
.
.
and
live
own
Life"
new
Country,
doing them good;
the least Thought
or
Intention,
a
or
was
(II, 13). In laid in his
thing which
Desire
of
as
short, "I found
ardent
I had
no
Affection Notion
undertaking it. But
of
still
I
found a strong Inclination to my attempting an Escape founded on the Supposition that there were seventeen bearded Men there (II, 13-14). (On a similar occasion,Cru.
.
soe was
later
asked
.
.
.
.
.
.
by a priest "how you can pass such an Occasion of doing Good, life"
is really worth the Expence of a Man's whole 53 Serious Reflections, p. 111. "I gave humble
which
[III, 24]).
hearty Thanks that God had been be more happy in this Solitary Condition, than I should have been in a Liberty of Society, and in all the Pleasures of the World. Thpt he could fully make up to me, the Deficiencies of my Solitary State, and the pleas'd
to discover to me,
even
that it
and
was possible
I
might
Interpretation
194
preoccupation
is
Species,
have
would
than their
wanted more
basic
mere end of
to
isolation
sense what ailed
It may be
by the be, it
that isolation as such was Cru our principal error.
inadequate solace, then in fact
was
to
unlock
was considerate
Crusoe's
enigma
But, seeing how
narrative volumes.
isolation
yet
have
we
For, if not
the
begun
Crusoe.
possible
of Crusoe to
solely
sions there as we go on
trying
with material supphed
troublesome those
comment
thematically
society in the Serious Reflections. We
and
Except
and
companions
several
own
my
Life."
company.
inquiry by assuming That, presumably, was
malaise.
seen one of
from Death to
me
We began this latest soe's
"to have
yes
companion
real
a
And
Raising
to me a
seem'd
found
Crusoe
that,
with men after all.
shall
books
draw
to
prove
the topics
on
on
of
the discus
to unravel the puzzle of the narrative volumes. "against"
We note, to begin with, that the Serious Reflections seem to be isolation ; in these essays Crusoe is at any rate utterly scornful of those, hke St. Hillary,54 or perhaps certain predictably impressionable readers of Robin
Crusoe,
son
who
two
distinct
answers.
the sohtary hfe. There
commend
would
Reflections
question on which the
divided
seem
to oppose any celebration of isolation. One
appeal
to those people persuaded agree with the
by argument,
or
offered will
rationale
inchned through tempera
tradition of social thought stemming more or less
from Aristotle. The
directly
a
They seem to differ on what is the more sohd ground on
which
ment, to
is, however,
themselves, giving
against
second will appeal
to adopt the Hobbesian- Lockean
to those persuaded or
"revision"
inclined
the doctrine that man is
of
by
nature a social animal.
The former takes conversation, of rule and uent of a
being
social
also joint
ruled)
full human
with a view
life
as such
hfe;55
gangs
a
criticism, and
necessary
suggests instead
Humane
nature, human
Society by his Presence,
supporting, comforting,
and
and
encouraging hereafter"
involving
conceived
mutual
and edification
of
hope for his Eternal Presence
64
to be
the latter
to the enjoyment
for the overcoming
want of
and
(generously
dehberation,
not
only
and the experience
the crowning constit
that men
associate
less
to be gained from one another's
company, speech, example, or orders, than to
mere
Soul,
but
form
armies and
work-
non-human.56
and
the Communications of his Grace to my me
to depend
upon
his Providence here,
(I, 129).
Serious
Reflections, p. 13. See, for example, Aristotle, Politics, 1252b-1253a and 1280a-b; St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, I, Q. 96, Art. 4, and III, Q. 94, Art. 2; Calvin, Institutes, II, ii, 13; Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, I, x, 1. 66 Hobbes, De Cire. Ep. Ded., I, 2, VI, 6; and Leviathan (Oakeshott edition), pp. 64, 65, 87, 109, 111. Locke, Treatises of Government, II, Chap. IX; and see An Essay Concerning Toleration (quoted in H. R. Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke, I [1876]), noting espe 55
cially the maker
they the
passage at p.
181
hath nothing to do
are subservient
passage at p.
of
to the
185,
Bourne that
runs:
"However
with moral virtues and vices
to the
.
.
.
strange
it may seem, the law
and otherwise
than
barely
good and preservation of mankind under government effect
that "force and compulsion
.
.
.
brings that
as
;"
and
upon a man
Crusoe
Considering In
Reflection
a
I may be
more
case
for man
as the rational
thus :
particularly
tion], having been
Crusoe puts the
on conversation
and social animal
195
so
sensible of
effectually
the benefit and
mortified with
the
of
pleasure of
.
.
.
[conversa
the want of it. But as I take it to be one of
the peculiars of a rational life that man is a conversable creature, so it is his most complete
blessing in life
If,
he
as
are
.
.
be blessed
with suitable persons about
says, conversation is "that
also
distinguished from the
.
condemned
on
simply
Crusoe
.
.
.
[rest
the grounds that,
as
converse
life
part of
the]
of
him to
world,"58
by
with.57
which mankind
then isolation stands
such, it frustrates human
And
when
and
therapeutic effect, we are persuaded that his quarrel with
based
conversation, its
nature.
corrective
isolation is
any rate traditional notion of what it means to be In the Serious Reflections Crusoe tells us how disingenuous he had
been in the island the Wickedness
Lust
adds to the sheer enjoyment of
on a profound or at
a man. '
to
of
Eye,
the
There may be
narrative
of
brag that in sohtude he
to
the World here. I had
or
the Pride of
as much
adultery
Life"
committed
neither
(I, 148). On in
a
"was
remov'd
the Lust of the
from
Flesh,
all
the
the contrary:
monastery,
where a woman never
comes,
in any other place, and perhaps is so It was a great while after I came into human society that I felt some regret at the loss of the solitary hours and retirements I had in the island ; but when I came to reflect upon some
as
.
ill-spent time, several
ways,
.
in my solitudes, I found reason to see that a man may sin alone subject of repentance for his solitary crimes as well as he may in the
even
and
.
.
.
.
find
midst of a populous city.
In
solitude a man converses with
that he does ways
not converse with
among his
Now
and as a wise man
said, he is
good
not always sure
company is
sure
to be
al
friends.59
Crusoe's
consider
acknowledge
himself,
his enemy; but he that is in
that it does
alternative plea
not come
to
for
society.
sight as a
To begin with,
mutually excluding
tive to the one first adumbrated; it rather appears as
a
we
alterna
complementary,
and
logical contrariety in the propo sitions that man fulfills himself through conversation, and that he needs the help of other men to feed, clothe, and shelter himself. The only question is not an
opposed, line
not
lead to
conquest
there
is
There is
no
the emphasis that Crusoe places on society as a source of security
whether
may
of thought.
such a preoccupation with other men as
over nature as
to
obhterate
instruments
them as interlocutors
not what we can call a psychological
of
or whether
contrariety between the two
emphases.
which, that he wealth, viz.,
might
be freed from, is the only reason why he is a member of the common For, were there no fear of violence, there would be no government in
violence.
it."
the world,
nor
57
Serious
58
Ibid.
59
Ibid.,
any
need of
Reflections,
pp.
8-9.
p.
66.
Interpretation
196
"instrumental"
In taking up the
that Crusoe makes for man's
argument
be resuming a hne of thought we natural in Section B. of Crusoe's under the explored have already heading On this point the Reflections do not undercut, they rather confirm and sche matize one of the basic theses of the island narrative, namely, Crusoe's sociality in the Reflections,
we shall
"logistics"
on
his
on civilization.
rehance
uninterrupted
He
own resources.
Crusoe
forced to
was never
never
was
the
assume
thrown
role of the
entirely Hobbes
myself"
ian
"stripp'd naked
wretch
.
.
(III, 106).
help
nothing to "impure
[with]
.
"pure"
solitaire,"
He
was rather what we can call an
"true"
be
type to
life,
and
Man is
bereft
so
and vulnerable as
taking
the
to quahfy only
for
or a
"brutish
it is
not good
or a miraculous sustenance.
formed for society, that it may
a creature so
only be
not
said that
for him to be alone, but 'tis really impossible he should be alone. We are so continually in need of one another, nay, in such absolute necessity of assistance from one another, that those who have
them, one
.
.
.
are
to give us the lives and manners of the solitaires, as
pretended
drudgery
they
call
bringing the angels down from Heaven to do for them, forming imaginary miracles to make the life of a true
frequently put or another
to the trouble of
solitaire possible.
[I]n the
deserts
solitude of
springs, they had every
and
wandering
day their food,
lives, from
such as
it was, to
devotion
whence all our monkish
seek, or the
load
of
it to carry,
and
is said, they put Providence to the operation of a miracle to furnish it, they had frequently difficulties enough to sustain life; and if we may believe history, many of them were starved to death for mere hunger or thirst except where, as
.
Which
Crusoe's saying that "I had been fed
recalls
as great as
.
the
Elijah
feeding
(I, 152-53). The primary
by
miracle
ravens
is
; nay,
by
in
witnessed
a
even
by Miracle,
even
Miracles"
Series
long
of
a passage with which we are
already familiar, where Crusoe compared his condition with what it would have been "if the good Providence of God had not wonderfully order'd the
Ship I
to be cast up near to the
spent whole
Hours, I how I
lively Colours, not
have
so much as got
I found any
like
a meer
way to flea
but
of them,
them,
it
with
of
this
must gnaw
nothing
out of
Fish
and
Turtles ;
and
Food,
except
have perish'd first. That I
condemnation of
tale, indeed
the turtles he
or part
my
Teeth,
a
Goat,
and pull
Ibid.,
pp.
it
with
line
long
of
11-12, 14.
Why
that
and
the
as
it
most
long before
was
Bowels,
a
or
to
on
so
be
the
a
cut
no
it up;
Beast [I, 150-51].
that it is Crusoe's last mistake,
word
of
in
however, for
casual reference
long? And,
bountiful supply of it? a
in the
have liv'd, if I had not perish'd,
my Claws like
thought, hangs
in finding.
self
the Ship. How I could
Foul, by any Contrivance, I had
Skin,
conclude would
point, why after he had discovered turtle meat did he not avail himself 60
or a
passage might suggest
was so
should
the Flesh from the
isolation. So to
a whole
representing to my
got
any
must
Days, in
that
reports
have acted, if I had
Savage. That if I had kill'd or open
The finality a
I
whole
may say
must
he
: and where
here to
even more
readily
to the
available
Considering Crusoe G. In the third which
far
and
Terror
of his exile, Crusoe found young pigeons tell, the first provision of the island besides
(December)
month
so
were,
Of Turtles
197
as one can
drinking water that he got without a gun. Through the ninth month he was still living from hand-to-mouth still making daily hunting trips. Having cut himself down to one biscuit a day on the last of the seventh month (April), we find him in June with no food at all being forced to go hunting while sick.
Nevertheless, by July Crusoe apparently felt adequately time-off for exploration of the island could
find.61
Savanas,
Within two
his home, he
"to
wild,
and
a great and
for want
and
very strong
of
came across
"many
and cover'd with
plain, smooth, Stalk"
grew
supplied
Cultivation,
beyond the
he
imperfect"
to take
"Productions"
he
other
Grass."
Meadows;
or
miles of
to see what
pleasant
Tobacco
"Sugar Canes, but 113). He found even greater
saw several
(1,
in the woody country. Here there were "Mellons upon the Ground in great Abundance and "Clusters of Grapes
productions
meadows
;"
.
just
.
.
rich"
in their Prime, very ripe and (I, 113-1 14). He ventured farther on through an opening and out into country that "appear'd so fresh, so green, so
now
flourishing,
everything
being in a constant Verdure, Garden"
that it looked hke a planted dance,"
"cool
(I, 1 14). The
appear
porting the gathering of grapes at home he remembered "with
in his
Spring,
account
abun
before he turns to
re
fruits for the trip home. And when the "Fruitfulness of that Valley, and
and other
Pleasure"
the Pleasantness of the
of
"pleasure,"
refreshing,"
and
Flourish
or
words
Situation"
"that
pleasant
fruitful Part
of
the
Island"
(1,116). Crusoe's travels in
October, 61
freed
Professor Hunter and equipped
paralyzed with
than two weeks
fear
his
and
had
Survey of
the indulgence of a
of its
"Crusoe's
conversion
is
they ending Beyond the
"provisions'-
are what .
.
.
dramatized
by his
itself. Until conversion, he had been almost only a small part of one side of his island. But less
environment explored
he has
new strength and
the Island itself
.
confidence,
(J. Paul
.
and
he begins to take
Hunter, The Reluctant Pilgrim,
this
one
2) Hunter here reminds us tations
that Crusoe's new-found spiritual
shore.
observation is two-fold : 1) We are puzzled how Crusoe could be day and yet furnished with a material surplus adequate to support survey only two weeks later (but see I, 90 for a possible explanation).
merit of
absolutely destitute
the rains of August ; but
by
the way to the opposite
go exploring:
after conversion
a more particular
171). The
go all
suggests
him to
altered conduct toward
p.
interrupted
were
he decided to
intention
and
that the Christian religion, in
effect,
encourages
its
at
adherents
least
some prominent
to accept this
world as
interpre
they find
it, while they are preparing for the next. (See the the following notes to Part I of this study : 18, 23, 26; and Part II, note 62, infra.) The difficulty with Hunter's suggestion is, on the other hand, just what I am at pains to point out here in Section G of the text, namely, that
environment"
Crusoe's allegedly was either
dictated
illusory
trusting attitude toward nature and "his transient; for his subsequent crucial decision on where to live
new and more or
by nothing but the profound distrust
which persisted unabated after
the
of nature
"conversion."
he brought
with
was
him to the island,
Interpretation
198 point of
his first discoveries, he found more "open or Savanna Fields sweet, Flowers and Grass, and full of very fine (I, 125). He Woods"
adorned with
"Productions"
by
was enraptured
the
of
the
country.
Food, and of that which was very good too; especially these three LeadenSorts, viz.. Goats, Pidgeons, and Turtle or Tortoise; which, added to my Grapes, Hall Market could not have furnish'd a Table better than I, in Proportion to the Company; and my Case was deplorable enough, yet I had great Cause for Thankfulness, that I was not driven to any Extremities for Food; but rather Plenty, even to Dainties [I, 126], I had
no
Want
of
tho'
He reports that before arriving at the "much as
soon as
on
the
I
worst
Turtles,
opposite shore
he had found the country
mine"
to the Sea
came
Side
Shore, I
was surpriz'd
to see that I had taken up my Lot
the Island ; for here indeed the Shore was cover'd with innumerable
of
the other Side I had found but three in a Year and half
whereas on
Crusoe had
(I, 125). And,
than
pleasanter
written
[I, 126].
in his journal that the first turtle he had found
on
his
island had been the "most savoury and pleasant that ever I tasted in my Life, having had no Flesh, but of Goats and Fowls, since I landed in this horrid (I, 98). One would expect, then, that other things being and three turtles equal the disproportion between "innumerable side of the
Place"
Turtles"
might
I
have induced him to
confess
this Side of the
least Inclination to and
I
seem'd all
remove
change
Country
was much pleasanter than
; whereas, I
the while I was
his home-site. Crusoe
was
here,
raised
the
question :
mine, but Yet I had
not
the
Habitation, it became natural to me, it were upon a Journey, and from home
fix'd in my
to be as
[I, 127]. An Enghshman, even one with a "foolish Inclination (1, 42), is no doubt attached to his home. But we may be
ing this casual rejection
of a
abroad"
of
wandring excused for consider
Leaden-Hall Market in the
in favor
wilderness
barren shore, three turtles, a few fish, and an occasional pigeon, per verse. Though Crusoe often made trips to the bountiful shore, he never made of a
it
an
important
source of
food. We
must
try
tionality this voluntary exile from Eden. It is clear that what we are studying is an 62
Perhaps the
shared
it turns
out
that
(Sec. 43), and to himself, for "the far greatest part poignant contrast with
tion of nature penned
Leo
Strauss, Natural
passage
(page
or rather of
the
This
nature.62
attitude toward nature
property in the Second Treatise of Government,
is beholden to
nature
to the labor
of
for "the
Materials"
almost worthless
the "Industrious
the value of things we enjoy in this
this depreciation
of nature
(and
of
Rational"
and
World"
Nature's
(Sec. 34),
(Sec. 42). A
God) is
most
the apprecia
by St. Ambrose in the Hexameron. (The comparison is suggested by Right and History [1953], p. 247, n. 124). Consider the following
reference
to Volume 42
The divine Wisdom
they do
man
chapter on
toward
attitude
most systematic and relentless expression of
by Crusoe is Locke's
wherein
to explain this apparent irra
not sow or
of
The Fathers of the Church [1961]):
utters these words
reap
or gather
in the Gospel: "look
into barns,
yet your
at
the birds
of
the air,
heavenly Father feeds
them.
Crusoe
Considering attitude
infects Crusoe's acts, thoughts,
ginning,
and causes
therefore
and
199
and narrative
Crusoe to implicate the
reader
in
from the very be the island
a slander of
of nature.
The early part of the narrative is unfair to the island because the reader judges the whole island by his first impression, which was of the "worst The distortion occurs primarily because of Crusoe's pecuhar immobili Part."
the first ten months.
ty during
Having been landing
the whole island soon after his
veyed
led to believe that Crusoe and
sur
that he found it barren as a
(I, 59),
the reader does not discover until the narrative of the tenth that, because Crusoe had not made a complete survey, the impression false. The reader suffered with Crusoe a penalty for the latter's self-
whole
month was
imposed
provincialism.
within a
two-day stroll,
been
a mere vanity.
that
expects
a capital
In hght
of
the fact that
the ten-month
struggle
Having discovered
a veritable paradise existed
for
the very least Crusoe will admit that his
at
have
survival appears to
the lush side of the
island,
failure to
the reader
explore was
to be repaired with alacrity. But Crusoe does not acknowl
blunder,
edge the mistake,
and
he decides
without much
deliberation to stay
on
the
poor side.
In
to understand the original dehnquence and the subsequent
order
decision
we must get closer
to Crusoe's thoughts on his situation
the first ten months. We may find within his
behavior that His initial
last
reaction
may be
Hope
a rationale
for
irrational. sheet:
quoting the first debit
by
capitulated
famous balance
credit of the
Island, in
now appears
during
"island-view"
"I
am cast upon a
and the
horrible desolate
Recovery"
; "But God wonderfully sent the Ship Shore, that I have gotten out so many necessary things supply my Wants, or enable me to Supply my self even as long
void of all
of
near enough to the
as will either as
I
the
he
hve"
(I, 75). The ship
day after the wreck, "save
might
some
was
the very first
and without
any
thing he
other
necessary things for my
noticed upon
awakening
thought he turned to it
so
that
use,"
"for my present Subsist the first thirteen days (I, 63) "plundering"
ence"
(I, 54). He
spent eleven of
the ship, with the consequence that he had little time for exploration: "I resolv'd
to
set all other
that I could expressed
[I]t
get"
in the
occurr'd
to
Things apart, 'till I got every Thing out of the Ship rationale for this schedule of priorities is best
(I, 60). The
following
me
early
again, how
well
passage :
I
was
furnish'd for my Subsistence,
and what would
have been my Case if it had not happen'd, Which was an Hundred Thousand to one, that the Ship floated from the Place where she first struck and was driven so near to the Shore that I had time to
get all
these Things
been to have liv'd in the Condition in of
Life,
or
Are
Necessaries to supply
out of which
of
God,
I
and procure
you not of much more value
kindness
her: What
than
at
first
them?
they?"
would
have been my Case, if I had shore, without Necessaries
come on
Particularly,
said
93-94, 101-102.
(tho'
to my
If these have their food through the
then no one ought to pride himself on his own
ability [87-88]. See also pp.
I aloud,
industry and natural.
Interpretation
200
self)
ha'
I
what should
any thing,
to
make
of
Covering Crusoe
done
to
Gun,
without a
work
with,
without
Ammunition,
without
Clothes, Bedding,
any Tools
without
Tent,
a
or
any manner
[?] [1,71].
.
..
or
he had early "given over looking out to Sea to see if I (I, 76), but he did not give over looking to civilization to because he had to cut On April 30 his "Heart [was]
claims that Ship"
could
a
spy
heavy"
supply his needs. himself down to
largely
the ship's
made with ever were
I
Pins,
and
one
Spade, Pick-Axe,
Thread;
.
.
.
His first thought
This
want of
all
Tools
the aid of civihzation portion of
he
that I had
made
months were spent
a cave and enclosure
every
together,
now
that
these, Earth, Needles, Work I did go heavily [I, 73-74]. amass'd
dig
and of
.
.
.
the
or remove
...
the island could do for
from the
Kinds
of all
(I, 62). Nevertheless,
Shovel to
and
was never what
could or could not squeeze
The
Man"
laid up, I beheve, for
one, as also
was
95). The early
securing it in tools. "I had the biggest Magazine ship's store and
many things, notwithstanding
wanted
Ink
day (I,
one sea-biscuit a
in removing the
him, but
remnants of civilization
he
what
or what with
do to the island.
could
the first ten months that was not applied to
heaping up the devoted first to securing him
daily hunting trip "accomodatfing] my way of Living, and to mak[ing] things as (I, 76). These objectives were accomphshed with easy to me as I "great Pain and a work which (I, 58), "with infinite Labour fatigu'd me very (I, 64), with "a great deal of Time and "with infinite (I, 67), "with very labourious and tedious "with infinite Labour", (I, 74), "with Labour, Application and "with a prodigious deal of Time and (I, 77), to select from only to the
ship's goods and self and then
was
to
could"
Difficulty"
...
Labour,"
much"
Work"
Labour"
Contrivance,"
Labour"
twenty
As
pages.
a
rule, things
came
the
island's
on
objectives, the completion of
would
materials
indulge the
partially
luxury
particular objecthes, nor
part of the
63
One
island
travel. But it does not explain why he set those why he assumed they would be done as well on that
as on the
is that many
recalcitrance of
why Crusoe consumed ten months which he required of himself before he
of
other.63
possible extenuation of
opposite shore
hard for Crusoe. The
explains
of
Crusoe's
He
might
sin of
have taken that
ingratitude for the
recalcitrance
gift of riches on
them (turtles, grapes, melons, etc.) are
higly
the
perishable
in
"his"
their natural state, whereas the grain good.
And the degree
besieged
by
pp.
in Leo Strauss
446-48, for
a
Locke's doctrine someone who
supply
hidden
a
of
of property).
lived
as
the
a crucial consideration
native
easily
Joseph
and
discussion
prepared
or
island is
Cropsey (eds.), History
a
durable
one who expects
illness
food. (See Robert A.
significance of some
The limits
for
invasions, injuries,
the
of Political
-
to be
who, that
Goldwin,
is,
"John
Philosophy (1963),
consequences of
of this extenuation are at
perishability for least two-fold: 1) For
did, in a very mild climate and as the only consumer of a vast durability consideration derives its cogency from the expectation
Crusoe
of perishables, the
of siege.
store of
side of
was raising on
perishability is
unfriendly accidents, like
thinks he needs Locke,"
of
he
But the propriety
of
that expectation, or the extent to which one's
"life-style"
Considering that the island
as a sign
hewing"
and
been
at such
have,
without
things
"Pain
.
.
We may
catch
by
conundrum
Difficulty"
and
better to
him in the first
201
exploration
not yet explained
"hacking
than to
why Crusoe
have
should
"secure"
to
looking for ease native to
easy"
.
would respond
(I, 132). We have
Crusoe
himself, nor why he should the island, worked so hard "to make
(I, 76). the gist
Crusoe's marvelously detailed presentation of this first, his response to 'an earthquake that disturbed of his island stay, and second, a coincidence connected of
noting, month
his final decision to abstain from Eden. Crusoe frequently personalized his struggle
with
"the Sea
.
.
with
for example,
nature:
[was] as furious as an Enemy which I had no Means or Strength (I, 50) ; and later on, his crop was endangered by "Enemies
.
with"
to contend
sorts"
(I, 133). These
of several of nature's
When,
constituents. rock
"very (I, 51),
on a
suddenly out-crop
Crusoe's
are precise expressions of Island"
microcosm, "this horrid flat"
shore the sea
the tone
view
(I, 72), its
environs, and its "dashed" Crusoe against a
The
of the experience was set.
sea
the land were two arms of an enemy that would crush Crusoe. But the enemy had more than two arms when thunder, lightning, and rain terrified and
him from above, Crusoe buried himself in the earth. But the very Crusoe was left facing the penultimate hor "the Fear of being swallow'd up ahve, made me that 1 never slept in
and pelted
earth crumbled and cracked and ror:
quiet,
the Apprehensions
and yet
almost equal to pen
it
.
(I, 94). In
.
of
lying
abroad
fact, however,
the
without
fear
any Fence
was
hap
of what might
to him
on the outside was more than equal to it. "When I look'd about how every thing was put in order, how pleasantly conceal'd 1 was, how safe from Danger, it made me very loath to (I, 94). The
and saw and
remove"
danger from in the
which
mean time
it
he
to be safe was on the outside.
most wished
occurr'd
to me that it
would require a vast
deal
of
And,
time for
me
to do
this
[i.e., to remove], and that I must be contented to run the Venture where I was, till I had form'd a Camp for my self, and had secur'd it so as to remove to it [I, 94]. But he "was
Loss
Tools"
his axes and hatchets dull (I, 94). So he took time out, with the world hanging over his head speak, to devise a grindstone ("this Machine cost me a full Weeks at a great
about
my
were so
to
Work"
[I, 95]). And, when the remnants of the ship reappeared ("done by the [I, 96]), "this wholly diverted my Thoughts from the Design of (I, 96). Earthquakes budged him no more than removing my abundance beckoned, for the same reason. Earthquake"
Habitation"
should against
by it, is really the question at issue. 2) Precisely when Crusoe decided living in Eden he was just beginning to build up the store of seed grain on which
be dictated
his later large harvests
handfuls)
in
one
pocket,
house-keeping around
would
any
other
it
on
was
comparison,
but
were
might
have hauled his total
the fertile coastal plain he had
the granaries that
"Arable Land [on his side] almost
depend. He
planted
would soon
stock
discovered,
(about
six
and set
up
have burgeoned there. As it was, the
small"
(I, 133), and the climatic distinctly inferior to Eden (see,
conditions, e.g.,
I, 90
good
and
by
120).
Interpretation
202
stay in his cave was to court burial, Crusoe stayed. This irrational as his later disdain of the far shore. In fact it is surprising, because his fear of burial was more powerful than his that to
Knowing inertia
seems as
even more
desire for
higher priority to not being buried than to And yet not even the danger of burial moved
he
plenty:
attached a
eating turtles by the seashore. him. On the contrary, the very inhabitant susceptible to burial
it
Men"
being of
beneath a
a cave
cliff
rendered
its
commended
the danger without, of "wild Beasts
93).M
(I.
or
its
to the ultimate fear
as an antidote
Crusoe's home that
qualities of
every other concern and desire to the dictates of his Its pre-eminency explains most fully his gratitude for the ship: the guns, powder, and lead he had saved from it made up his more intimate line of defense; cables woven through stakes cut with the ship's tools were his secondary defense. The sahency of his fear of beasts and men
Crusoe
subordinated
magisterial emotion.
intelligible the infinite
also makes
the
he took in constructing his
pains
the misery and dissatisfaction he suffered before it was
as well as
he felt
consternation
it began to take without caused
when
it
was
it
shape and when
his
greatest
fear,
and
fortress, finished,
threatened, and his satisfaction when was finished and reliable. The enemy
safety from it
was
his
greatest satisfac
tion.
But
did Crusoe have that there
what evidence
During
the months he
his
worked on
was an
fort, Crusoe did
without?
enemy
not see a sign of man.
Furthermore, his own prior experience could have suggested to him that any he might meet would be innocent and helpful rather than malevolent
savages
treacherous.65
Crusoe's susceptibihty to the fear of violent death at the is surely some sort of confirmation of or lampoon on dictum. And it is hard to decide which it really is. For now I shall say only and
Hobbes'
hands
of man
that Crusoe marooned was
seemed
him,
as
to borrow trouble. In the very center of the storm that
later from
the bowels of the quaking earth, Crusoe all our Lives been saved, as to the
within
anticipating trouble from man: "had
Sea,
we were
rather
in Danger Country"
returning to our own
of
being
devoured
(I, 47). Yet, he
was
by Savages than ever declaring a probability
the hands of savages
on
the contrary, he had experienced nothing but kindness from the natives
with
which rested on no previous adverse experience at
whom
his
previous travels
needed no experience
tory,
and self-sufficient
on the
04
For
hands 65
island
a
had brought him in
Hobbesian fear that
so complicated and miserable.
preliminary discussion
of man
Crusoe's
in the
by
some
much as
the place
and
Crusoe's first
made
It
this fear
was
occupied
to "wild Beasts or
of men
by
Crusoe,
ten
months
which made
him
the fear of violent death at the
see
Part I, Section
B,
this study.
Men"
,
"friendly
Barking, Roaring,
But his fear
(1, 93) had occurred during his trip in company with Xury (see note 41 supra). They were helped on their
sole exposure
Negroes"
way
of
experience and thought of
down the African coast
contact.
to induce or exacerbate it. It was this a priori, ambula
Howling
bared its teeth
at
(I, 34),
of
them.
Wild
and
they indeed heard "dreadful Noises
Creatures"
(I, 26\
not one of
which,
of
the
however, so
Considering
203
Crusoe
chance a live burial over a night in the open. It was this fear which, even when it abated enough to allow him free passage about the island, always made him
happy
to return home.
paradise, Crusoe I
cannot express
Concerning his
feelings
what
Satisfaction it
a
to
was
me
to
come
down in my Hamock-Bed. This little wandring Journey, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own House, as I Settlement to
me compar'd
to that ;
and
it
rendred
that I resolv'd that I would never go a great to stay on the Island
He had fessed"
after
the
into my
old
without settled
call'd
everything
Way from it again,
through
Hutch,
Place
of
and
lye
Abode,
it to myself,
was a perfect
about me so
comfortable,
while
it
should
be my Lot
when
he "con
[I, 128].
experienced this sentiment earlier on the same
that the far shore was "much pleasanter than
er, that he "had
journey
remarks
not
coincidental
diately
after
adding, howev
the least Inclination to move; for as I was fix'd in my
Habitation, it became merely
trip
mine"
natural
to
me
.
(I, 117). And it
.
was not after all
that this sentiment was particularly pronounced imme
he had
sighted
"the Savage
land
off
this
pleasanter shore
land that he
between the Spanish
Country and Brazils, which are indeed the worst of Savages; for they are Cannibals, or Men-eaters, conjectured was
and
fail
Hands"
he
not
coast
to murder and devour
(I, 125). Some
of all people
might
was a
all
the Human Bodies that fall into their
think Crusoe declined to move simply because
home-lover, or wanted his whole store of goods with
him. However, it so happened that the most prominent feature of the home he loved was safety. It was not simply his own ; it had a pecuhar excellence : it defense against the enemy, the enemy
was a
of which
Crusoe was
reminded at
the very time he decided against moving from his own to the lush opposite shore.
We began from Crusoe's
casual observation
he discovered the island's turtle
population.
dilatory in exploring the island, and why, after
that it was a
long
time until
why Crusoe was so discovering Eden on the oppo
We
asked
site shore, he did not encamp for it. The primary explanation was in both cases his abiding fear of man. This fear, even more than hunger and cold, is the root of Crusoe's (or man's) sociality in the secondary or instrumental sense. Man or at any rate a man like Crusoe associates with men to defend himself
from
real or
men
imagined. H. Civil
We to
are now
explain
aside
in
a position
why Crusoe
for the
moment
himself to
regard
them. Crusoe
began to be
so
to the
question raised
it
Friday's
in Section
F, i.e.,
Leaving question of Crusoe's capacity for friendship in suffices to observe that Crusoe could not bring
situation as optimum when
company.
there were just the two of
very pleasant to talk to [Friday] ; and now my Life easy, that I began to say to my self, that could I but have been Savages, I cared not, if I was never to remove from the place
says
safe from more
his
recur
was not satisfied with
the
optimum circumstances,
to
Society
"it
was
Interpretation
204
more
lived"
I
where
(1, 244; emphasis
supplied).
Friday did not afford Crusoe much
security than did God. And without the
Crusoe was
no more able
composure
that follows security,
to enjoy his company than he had been able to enjoy
God's. Indeed, Crusoe aUowed his preoccupation with insecurity to poison the present relationship with Friday, just as he had aUowed the same uncertainty to
his
poison
experience of
God. If Crusoe is any example, we can indeed say does echpse the conversation model:
the work-gang/army model of sociahty as
viewing men interlocutors.
instruments
does tend to
of salvation
Crusoe
it
halts his
Accordingly, Friday in midsentence when he hears from the latter as
were
of
obhterate
them as
conversation with
the white men on the
mainland.
Before Crusoe had opportunity to go to the Spaniards, one of them, and father, were brought to Crusoe. He rescued them and almost imme
Friday's
diately felt
more secure.
Having now Society enough, and our Number being sufficient to put us out of Fear of the Savages, if they had come, unless their Number had been very great, we went freely all over the Island, where-ever we found Occasion [II, 37; emphasis supplied]. But the latter
it
being subject, be
could
And,
caveat should not
be
shrugged off.
After all, Crusoe felt himself
to unfriendly accidents. Neither he nor for that matter God
subject
so
that vast
sure
far
as
I
see, Crusoe's island behavior was always
can
the
be remembered, to supra-providential controls hordes of natives would not descend on the island.66
must
affected
by that
Crusoe's nightmare; it was what stood between the island dweller Crusoe and God, between him and Friday, between him residual possibihty.
It
and
of noninstrumental
any possibihty
human
emotion
was
but fear. It
socializing; between him
was what made
society, the kind
where
the armies are
once about violent
death
at
of
antithesis of
the state
Crusoe
big
and
every
long for a particular kind
enough
to let
a man
forget for
the hands of men. Crusoe longs for the true
of nature.
He
wants
the whole protective periphernaha
of civil society.
/. Solitude in
It may very
well
be that security
that association
for
and edification.
But this
66
must
Society
be
protection must come
This actually happened
can
after
hardly be Crusoe had
given
first priority,
before
association
and
for
therefore
enjoyment
the end of the story. We still wish to
made
his
to wage an extended war of attrition against 250 savages
escape:
Crusoe's
(II, 206 ff.). We
"colonists"
had
cannot say then
that Crusoe's fear of men was simply
bootless (cf. note 65, supra). (His fear of beasts is also in the Pyrenees [II, 96ff.]). Determination of the extent to which Crusoe's ensnarement by the "Fear of (III, 1 39) is intended as a reductio ad absurdum
vindicated
-
by
wolves
Man"
of Hobbes will
soe and
for the
Defoe
have to -
cannibal
who
await a
is,
after
study,
all, in
not attempted
here,
invasion (and for the
wolf pack).
the relationship between Cru for Crusoe's attitude as well as
of
some sense responsible
know
which reason
for
has the
association
Crusoe thinks
what
ply,
confines of civil
205
Crusoe
Considering
greater
of the prospects
dignity,67
for human
More simply still,
or security.
and,
more sim
relations within
we would
the
like to know
society how Crusoe himself got along with and treated people when he was freed from the stress of perpetual emergency. I shall explore these questions, first,
by observing his behavior with various acquaintances, mostly upon his return to civil society, and secondly, by completing my presentation on the treat in the Serious Reflections.
ment of solitude
It
do to
will not
assert
numerous people put
flatly
that Crusoe had no friends. On the contrary,
themselves
for him in
out
But the
on ground of genuine affection.
ways unaccountable except
is
question
Crusoe's
about
not
charisma, of which there seems to be no
reciprocating
tedly
consideration and
attached
doubt, but rather his capacity for affection. Friday, for example, was undoub
to Crusoe. But what of Crusoe's attachment to him? We have
that question under the mode of emergency : "I began to say to
considered
myself, that could I but have been was never to remove now
in
words
and
his
return
Savages, I
cared
not, if I
Consider the same question
to the island. It is
after their return
when, shortly
island, Friday
was
We
were now under
Sail again; but I
Man
Friday,
Crusoe's
was
the most disconsolate Creature alive, for want
have been very glad to have gone back to the Island, to have [of the natives] from thence for my Occasion [III, 75]. 68
Crusoe's relationship
also
Crusoe
note
departure from
second
and would
taken one of the rest
Consider
to
sufficient
to and
killed.
the
saved
more
hved."
setting free of stress. We may overlook the fact that Friday dis from the narrative of the seven year interval between Crusoe's first
departure from
of my
from
a
appears
parting
safe
from the place where I
the Coast
off
of
Africa,
the Portuguese Captain who
with
and who acted
for
third
a
of
Crusoe's
his faithful property custodian. When Crusoe visited the Captain in Lisbon after his exile, he made generous expressions of appreciation for those
hfe
as
services.
talk
But,
the
none, that
on
any
subject other
than money. On that subject, to be
sure, Crusoe becomes intensely emotional when he tain's presence, the full extent of his fortune. It is impossible to
found old
all
Man
Nature,
67
run and
fetch'd
Aristotle said
of
life"
Xury,
who
had
here the Flutterings
about me
I had dy'd
sake of a good 68
express
my Wealth
and
heart-to-heart
narrative contains no mention of a simple
is,
me a
upon
...
In
a
Cordial, I believe [II, 81].
.
.
.
in the
especially
sick;
the sudden Surprize of
while
it
grows
and
had
Joy had
Cap
when not
I
the
overset
for the sake
have
afforded
of mere
life, it exists for the
trans.).
been taught to love Crusoe,
might
Heart,
pale and grew
while
the Spot
the polis "that
also
my very
word, I turned
(Politics, 1252b; Barker
for the man-power he
of
learns,
(see
note
in his
absence
supra; see also Appendix
1, infra).
was
41,
likewise
regretted
Interpretation
206 Crusoe's also
wife
his
father,
mother, children,
and
tell us something about the heart of our man Crusoe. Of them all,
parents were
to suffer
made
probably
though perhaps
hard,
"relations"
his
with
relations
justifiable,
bitterly by Crusoe.
most
the last son, went to sea,
he,
that
It
was
leaving
on similar excur elderly parents who had already lost their other two boys sions. It was something else again that never, during the considerable interval
between his initial departure
and
his ship-wreck,
he
when
was
in England, did he so much as send On returning to England after his exile, he
cation with other people l).69
(I,
ahve
in
word
communi
that he was
down into Yorkshire; but my Father was dead, and my Mother, and all the Family extinct, except that I found two Sisters, and two of the Children of one of my Brothers; and as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no Provision made for me; so that in a Word, I found nothing to relieve, or assist me [II, 74]. went
So
.
much
.
.
for Crusoe's filial
One has to say that poignant, because
unhke
But if he
the mistreatment
his children,
least
the parents are at
text,
piety.70
"perhaps"
whom
of
his
parents was most
he abandons under a similar pre
allowed an expression of grief
was a cruel son and a
faithless
father,
he
in the
narrative.
have been
seems to
to his sisters and nephews, the latter of whom Crusoe took into his
It
was
when
in a ship outfitted for he left his children to
one of the nephews
"Elegy upon
.
.
.
[his]
by Crusoe that Crusoe sailed
go around the world.
This leaves Crusoe's wife, for tender regard. Without
good
care.71
whom
he tells
he had real
us
admiration and
disbelieving this, the reader can only say that his (II, 117) and the description of their relationship
Wife"
in a context of such exquisite moral ambiguity that the reader has a hard time actually keeping his mind on what Crusoe says. The situation was this. Crusoe was now a rich man with a family and a country estate. After a occur
69
This is
slight exaggeration: prior
to his first
trip
to
Africa,
and while still
in England,
Crusoe "mustered [40] together by the Assistance of my Relations whom I corresponded with, and who, I believe, got my Father, or at least my Mother, to contribute so much as that to my first (I, 18-19). Adventure"
'0
says
Perhaps it nothing
exile.
So far
Catholic 71
-
should also
about
as we
know,
us
mentioned
in
connection with
attendance or affiliation
convenience of
he
it (II, 84, 103).
the nephews were the sons of one
of
his brothers
Gentleman"
elder] as a
the subject of piety that
during his stay in England after his
the only denominational affiliation he ever professed was Roman
in Brazil, for the
He tells
be
any church
and made a ship's captain of
the
and
younger
that he "bred up [the
(II, 105). But,
assuming
brothers, both of whom are said to have died or disappeared before Crusoe left home (I, 1), any offspring they might have left in England would have been at least 33 years old by the time he returned from his island sojourn. This would seem that Crusoe had only two
to be
a simple mistake on
We
are not
Defoe's
told how the
acteristics one would expect
infra,
and
III, 99-100).
part.
gentleman nephew
to find in
one
turned
"bred
out.
The
ship's captain
by Crusoe. (See,
up"
took
e.g., text
on char
at note
93,
period of
into
.
.
one
his
Peace
of
be
might
Gentleman"
Country
disposition"
wandring struggle the parallel
(II,
from his
youth.
thro'
which
Enjoyment in the Fulness
and
(II, 116), he had a "Relapse it, recalling in the
117). He fought
think, that after thirty-five Years Affliction, and a Variety of unhappy few Men, if any ever, went before, and after near seven Years
would
Circumstances,
"meer
as a
[his]
.
throes of
Any
life
207
Crusoe
Considering
of all
to have had Experience
allowed me
Things;
of
to make a Man compleatly
which was most adapted
grown
every State
and
old,
happy : I
say,
when, if ever, it
Life,
of middle
after all
have thought that the
and
to know
this, any one Account of in
native Propensity to rambling, which I gave an Setting out into the world, to have been so predominant in my Thoughts, should be worn out, the volatile Part be fully evacuated, or at least condens'd and I might at 61 Years of Age have been a little enclin'd to stay at Home, and had done venturing Life and For tune any more [II, 111]. would
my first
In
other
tion
of
(I, 225)
we
words,
have here in the Farther Adventures
the temptation of
leaving his
and moral crisis
the parents
failed;
bidden fruit
of
his
parents
difference between the two she
in fact
playing their
wife
episodes
prevailed on
Crusoe to
in the
reprise.
The
wife succeeded where abstain
from the for
wandring Fancy": "I
[his]
Sin"
struggled
I believe it, my Imagination, People may always do in hke Cases, if they will ; and, in a Word, I conquer'd (II, 115). Good triumphs; Crusoe does the right thing and stays at his (cf. I, 2 ; I, 225). The sinner proves he is indeed reformed. with
the Power
role
is that Crusoe's
travel. Crusoe "corrected
an apparent repeti
that preceded his "Original
of
reason'd myself out of
as
it"
"Station"
The he
difficulty with this appraisal is that every day Crusoe stays in England is, just by remaining there, perpetrating a sin and perpetuating unspeaka
ble misery back on the island. One wonders whether he ever told his wife the situation in which he left certain Spaniards when he embarked from the island for home. One
being
are
used
by
husband to stay perpetrating by will. It surely is
Our pects
that she and the
children
Does
she
only her death will free him to right the wrong he is his absence from the island free him to right it, that is, if he some
kind
commentary that the
of
believably
has been this: What is "human
genuine
price of
affectionate relationships
continued perpetration of one of
question
for
aware
home,
at
of one of the most
lifetime is the
is
for prolonging the separation of other know that, once she has persuaded her
as an excuse
families?72
from their
men
wonders whether she
Crusoe
his
the
continuance
Crusoe forms in his
greatest sins against men.
our authority's opinion on the pros
relations"
non-calculating
enjoyment of and
benefit from the company of one human being by another? Initially we were led to ask this question because Crusoe insisted on looking beyond Friday to
"more"
society 72
then
"I
that"
of
considered
great with
(II,
my
Child
115).
despite the fact that he
said
that I had a
Wife,
new
Engagement,
of another ;
.
.
.
and
Friday
Child born, and my Wife Duty to go, I had no Notion
one
that it should be my
was an excellent
Interpretation
208 And
companion.
our
Serious Reflections
for the
arguments
Thinking expected
fillment. But
sociahty
and the
Crusoe to take the
we also noted the
being
neither
possibility,
because
they
sufficient
for human ful the fact of the
since confirmed as
man, like
conversation with
composure of soul
than two, or most any finite
nature, can generate out of their own
has for
need a man
by
conquering
other men
prospects
for
conquest.
We have just
in the
prayer
So, to
wilderness
of
portant relationships
is spotty, indeed. It can be argued, of course, that
we
and
in the
state
requires more
in the
state of
pinning down the him escape that state
we
turned
in the
finally
to the that
aftermath of
the more im
review of some of
cursory
Crusoe's life,
God,
after
help
nature
respectful and affectionate relations
concluded a
to
number of men
resources.
especially human
nature and
we
complement
matter, that the work-gang or army mentahty necessarily prevails of nature
of man.
paradigms, that
understandable position
necessary conditions,
one another as
natural
"work-gang"
"conversational"
the
about
the juxtaposition in the
by
was reinforced
curiosity
two distinct
of
have found his
friendship
record
hardly
indication
have
presently see, he
is
experience
strain of
own
ilhisoriness
goes out of
be the
or
saying that
man
for
men
by nature
protection against men would
the
is that discourse
and
deliberation
are
community the element in which he thrives. Instead, essay of the Serious Reflections Crusoe seems to rule as eligible objectives of
affliction, seeing seems
to
And
what
me
that
as much wondered
upon
life in
general
it, far from
is,
have nothing
78
of
and
the
his
proper activities,
however, in the lead out friendship and
human striving :
why
or ought
.
.
[isolation]
.
the
thing I
Serious Reflections,
to
be, but
what solitude
really
those which are generally people
themselves into deserts
cells, monasteries,
an
should
be any
grievance or
like,
2.
in the
is; for
I
must confess
understood
.
.
,73.
primitive
times,
I have different
in the world, and since
they
in them,
call nor
and
far from
that also, acted;
and unfrequented places, or confined
retired, as
call solitude
p.
one universal act of solitude
"solitude?"
those notions upon which those
who separated
by
understand as
I desire to be heard concerning
all
relieved
the whole view of the stage of life which we act upon in this world it
does Crusoe
notions about
be
true, deeper, meaning of the saying "man
and
Sometimes I have
own
armed-camp sociahty is paradoxical. But social because nature forces him
social"
community
to
shall
is naturally
additional acknowledgement that
is
seems
experience of men as men.
"secondary,"
to associate with
friendship. Indeed, Crusoe
of
for in the Serious Reflections, as we his way to insist that something like his
that argument,
or should
Instrumental, the
Crusoe's
at all of the
anticipated
intensely egoistic experience is friendship as such are rare or unlikely, autobiography is hardly decisive, is indeed one man's
conversation and
therefore that
and
no
that
proof
themselves to
it, from
the world. All which, I think,
do they
answer
any
of
the true ends of
209
Considering Crusoe much
solitude,
less those
ends which are pretended to
talked most of those retreats
As for
confinement
not at all amiss.
I
from human
except
was
so,
and
that
my forced
a
retreat
very
little,
as
society.
my
sought after
by
those who have
there for this very end, it were
scene was placed
there was
But
all
confinement
readers well
from the
the
enjoyments of
that was no solitude; indeed no part of it
that which, as in my story, I applied to the
but
was
be
world.
island, if the
an
must acknowledge
and restraint
world,
in
from the
know,
contemplation of sublime
to
compared
what a
length
things,
of years
lasted.74
is truly paradoxical, for it turns out that sohtude, which we along assumed to be a great bane of human beings, is, properly understood, their summum bonum. And society, i.e., civil society, is not desir
The
upshot
had
all
able
for the community or pubhc life it might be thought to afford, but for life it secures. Civil society makes possible the enjoyment
the radically private the life which is
of
civil
by
nature, the hfe
will man enter
society
his
of
natural
coming into
Only by
true sohtude.
state;
the "state
of which
nature,"
of
it is a state of isolation, is emblematic, but only emblematic. "That [i.e. Crusoe's island experience] was no sohtude", because true solitude requires which in turn requires that the "thoughts or means a "retired [be]
as
soul,"
.
in
.
.
.
composure suitable
find this
condition;"75
to a retired
"composure,"
the soul
nor
"retire,"
if they
but the thoughts or
it is
occupied
Hence, only in the security of civil society where we "may be we please, in the greatest apparent hurry of business or
.
.
cannot
by fear.
alone whenever
company,"
hve
lives
our
be, but
to
It is
not
for
they ought, by nature,
solitude."
then
that,
I
as
see
island,
what
; so I can affirm, that I enjoy
greatest collection of mankind could
nothing but
is far from being
in the forced
retired
the thoughts being in no composure suitable to a retired condition
a great while
than ever I
will we
to be lived: "life in general is, or ought
one universal act of
evident
retreat of an
as
say I
much more solitude
in the world, I mean,
enjoyed
in
at
London,
in the
while
I
am
years'
eight and
confinement
twenty
no, the
middle of
writing
this,
to a desolate
island.76
Still, 74
we
have
not allowed
Serious Reflections,
the island narrative,
and
p.
3. The last
discussed
society
are prerequisite.
In the
course of
these 75
the
argument assumes that
following discussion
I take to be
this passage
the
subject of
reiterates a point made
in
a solipsistic
and
of them
in
there
are
"sublime
things"
some meaningful sense
especially in Section
and
is possible.
J, infra, I shall be
tendency in Crusoe's thought does
asking
not undermine
assumptions.
One
solution
suppose me
to the
is literally to
"retire,"
to be arrived, after a
scene of
and not
life
we call old age
long
p.
104).
Serious Reflections,
p.
4.
i.e.,
go
course of
to the
old people's
infinite variety
on
home :"Youmay the
stage of
now
the world,
In the beginning of this life of composure (for now, live, that is to say, a sedate and composed life
till now, I may say that I began to
(Serious Reflections, 76
This
sentence of
position on
length in Part I, Sections B and C, i.e., that prayer, composure for which in turn security and therefore
"contemplation"
that under secure conditions
whether what
at
require
conversation, contemplation, civil
Crusoe to convey his
.
.
Interpretation
210 sohtude and
the full intransigence he intends. He is
with
society
to say merely that a
content
sohtude of some sort
that
form
of sohtude
is inevitable, the only
"true"
be is
friendship for the
a good metaphor
and
...
tions.
I find it is
Everything
ourselves.
We judge
of
the various scenes
all
in
revolves
of
by
our minds
life
I say,
He
that the island
separated
human
by its
suiting
innumerable
or not
circular
suiting our own inclina
centering in
all
motions,
joy and sorrow, poverty, riches, and we judge of them by ourselves. Thither we bring them
and of
prosperity
or
an
to judge of happiness
natural
every man, every
isolation.77
island, though not entire of himself, isolated, to himself; and there is no main. is
man
radically private, radically
yet
community
condition of
being. Crusoe believes every
fearful
impossible,
are
by no means
wants us to see
being whether it will
question
or a chaotic and
solitude,
a composed and
wants to say that
is desirable. He
affliction,
home, as meats touch the palate, by which we try them; the gay part of the world, or the heavy party; it is all one, they only call it pleasant or unpleasant, as they suit our taste. The world, I say, is nothing to carried
home,
properly
and our
to be
said
reflections which
that
is irksome
What
in the
alone
he
self
makes are
and grievous
with
solid reflection
by
as
one
midst of
the
it is
more or
in the
crowds and
hurry of men
by his
is
Crusoe's
the power
AH that
of
he
egoistic
business. All the
embraces
for himself;
Something
ourselves.
Our
meditations are all solitude
we
love,
desires;
the
end
is
we
hate,
we
covet,
in perfection; enjoy, all in
we
those things to any other is but for their
home: the enjoyment, the
at
we
enjoy,
and
for
contempla
ourselves we
suffer.78
psychology dovetails conveniently with his ethics The latter legitimates the heedless pursuit
is inevitable. Crusoe's psychology is, doctrinaire denial of the sense and viability of
than a
all
may be
we
self-preservation.
more
is
may be
own palate.
we communicate of
pursuit of our
and
reflection
man
sympathy, and a secret turn of the affections ; but all
in retirement;
happiness that the former all, little
pleasant
All
our relish.
living. Hence
end of
tion, is all solitude and retirement; it is for ourselves
expanded
less to
respect, the
all that
himself;
to
is directed to
and solitude.
assistance
but
is tasted but
our passions are all exercised
privacy
us
is, in
the sorrows of other men to us, and what their joy?
are
touched indeed
the
dear
assumes
of of
after
other-
regarding moralities. At the very least it supplies no grounds for restraining, if it does not actually encourage, the exploitation of others in the service of one's own comfortable self-preservation.
is
What
more should
meant
to transcend Crusoe's autobiography, but one is excused for doubt
ing that it does so. a
psychology
ence with
77
in his the
I
am
made of
Crusoe's doctrine is,
of
a puzzle.
course,
On the contrary Crusoe seems merely to have extrapolated from his experience, and then glossed that experi
the doctrine thus derived. At any rate, since we are given no
not
in
so
many
words
draw
volunteering the distinction to
otherwise somewhat
suggested
It
or metaphysic
Crusoe does
tion."
be
distinction,
I
a
bring
distinction between out what
baffling presentation. And am of the
belief that
may be
whether or not
somewhere
thought, solitude collapses into mere isolation. 78 Serious Reflections, pp. 2-3. See Watt's useful
"solitude"
an
and
argu-
"isola
underlying coherency
Crusoe
along the line
would accept
of
Crusoe's life
and
and on
remarks on
the passage
the subject of individualistic isolation generally (Rise of the
Novel,
here
quoted
pp.
88-92).
ment
for the truth
data,
and
the
of
211
Crusoe
Considering
back to Crusoe's
we are thrown
teaching,
personal
Sohtude"
before turning to the Reflection "Of with the advantage, however, of having now before us our author's stated conclusion on what life his anyway is all about. Thus fortified, we may to the
place we were
to the narrative
now recur
if
and see
or
how Crusoe lived the doctrine he
preached.
/. Boredom
There
was
him from how
be,
nothing in
becoming
a
"relish"
is simply the Crusoe's particular
not
free
of sexual
abnormal yen see
clearly
lust,79
for
where
and
doctrine
he
in
clearly,
the
dishes
and
is the
seems
Excesses
in
by
a
or
pleasant and
form
to
that the
That, however,
to have been remarkably
gluttony
nor with
any
was able
to
happiness takes its devotees,
empty
fled from
upon
"palate"
the
beverages. Indeed Crusoe
rate could
might also eventuate
perate than that suffered
He
sensual pursuit of
vile
any
good
to prevent
depending
"taste"
more elemental senses.
or
propos'd still
or at
to the
was afflicted with neither
the merely
because the End they not see so
of
"propensity."
particular
"squandring
namely,
references
say Crusoe teaches that the
pleasant
is
takes his
metaphorical one
one could
"ethics"
Crusoe's psychology or his jaded sensualist. On the contrary, either
Pleasures, miserable, (II, 117). What he did .
.
.
them"
do nothing] about, was that his own of hopelessness other and more des
ordinary jade. Crusoe's pursuit, like the
your
solitude"
and is never-ceasing "all in privacy and The difference is that the mere because it is, in Crusoe's term, sensualist's addiction is at least susceptible of some kind of description
sensualist's, takes
place
"circular."
because he knows state, if only he
and we can
learn the
object of
it is that
his desires. We him. We
are able
to
feel, say intelligibility, for example, that he has one of the traditionally recognized vices. With Crusoe, on the other hand, it is next to impossible for what gives a us to specify what it is he "loves, hates, covets, to his And, what is more lamentable, Crusoe himself does not seem can
what
preoccupies
can
with
considerable
"relish"
enjoys"
"palate."
what he is after. His pursuit is not only endless, but the object of it is less specifiable, less lucid, than that which inspires the mad pursuit of the
to know also
mere sensualist.
To
avoid
misunderstanding
soe's aims seems clear
enough,
we must
and
acknowledge,
first,
that
one of
Cru
by referring to the sensualist of familiar appetites that might
second, that
have obviously not exhausted the number have gained the ascendancy in Crusoe's soul. we
79
Crusoe's
from
abstraction
eros would
be heroic if it were
"circularity"
malaise
-
with
meandering
the
Mahdi,
great medieval
on
on
the
one
his island (I, 160-62)
his
hand, Crusoe's
and of
the globe
the other, the love-inspired circular motions of
Hayy ibn Yaqzan, in Ralph Lerner Philosophy (1963), p. 134, at 149.
anticipation,
Medieval Political
not part and parcel with
his life. Compare,
and unerotic circumnavigation of
(Farther Adventures, passim) with,
Crusoe's
of
aimless
and
Muhsin
Interpretation
212
1
That
.
the narrative concerned solely with the conquest of
segment of
nature, or dehverance from the state of nature,
have the pellucidity of And, narrow definition of self-preservation, he necessity.80
objectives capable of
he is trying to
long as the
The
ment of
the
"Whatever
a
definite
another place
that
narrative
civil
society, or at any
something
the
in
with
rate
his hfe
hfe lived
motivational crisis
civil
the other seg
after the escape where
has
the ambit of
It is here that the
("Why
so
(the island ;
does he do
him to do that?") and that Crusoe becomes in presenting himself.
prompted
comfort,
(England; home;
connection with
to
the
bothering Crusoe
or condition
are abated.
of a
and
"place"
"necessities"
and
or seems
abandoned
security
is
what
or condition
has to do
which
Crusoe
still sought
We know
problem of vagueness arises
been made, life in choice is extended, experiences
from
escape
nature) to
of
state
society).
description.81
has
frequently
even after
reader this?"
even more
ambiguous and covert
2.
that Crusoe was unerotic
Observing
take note of the possibility that two other
"non-gustatory,"
we
and
famihar
did
not
objects of passion
money may have compelled his attention. It would be as foolish to deny that Crusoe derived satisfaction from lucre and exploitation as it would be and power
silly to
he
claim that
qualified as either a
going tyrant. He was
businessman
successful amateur,
and
how to
payoff; but he lacked the on
eight
Sterling in Money, Pounds
thousand
And he
could preen
enlightened
Island
My
The
reason
I
appropriate.
It
must
G,
holds
of
people.
than
...
Estate
of
in the
Brazils,
Lands in
on and show a sense of
is that Crusoe's hostile
cooperation
humor
of above a
England"
(II, 82).
playing the
about
attitude
that issues from
it,
toward nature,
are not
of that attitude and of
and
the pro
self-evidently, "neces
the priorities
predicated on
"expanded"
(see
have,
or are able
to persuade themselves
cannot
do
the delibera
they have, radically different
thres
"necessity"
a circumstance of
present condition
necessity, the reasons for
accustomed
"comfortable''
or however, that Crusoe's doctrine of Section C, supra) injects a large dose of subjectivity into
intolerability. And if
believe he
Estate
be admitted,
As Rousseau
becomes
an
as sure as an
(See the discussion
individual decides his name of
of
...
supra).
self-preservation
tions. People
twentyany attention on his part for his youth swollen to a sum "of above
I
equivocate
sarily,"
81
Year,
the
might swoon
without
and
himself
He
self very rich in Subjects; and it was a frequently made, How like a King I look'd. First of all, the whole own [meer] Property ; so that I had an undoubted Right of Dominion. were perfectly subjected: I was absolute Lord and Law-giver; they all
which
of conquest rather
it in Section
goods
peopled, and I thought my
now
was
Country was my 2dly, My People
ject
highly
He knew how to invest in
despot:
merry Reflection
89
a
thorough
occasional, and
was capable of sporadic enjoyment of
years, a modest investment
5,000
capitahst or a
relentlessness of the professional.
discovering that,
suddenly
and tyrant.
men, and he
subdue
dedicated
rather what we should call an
arises whenever
is intolerable, then many
which will not seem
actions will
the sovereign
be taken in the
especially compelling to
other
becoming necessities. The man who to servants, finery, drugs, drinks, having his own way, etc., may really observed,
without
luxuries have
them.
a
way
of
Considering their Lives to me,
owed of
it, for
It
me.
lay down their Lives, if their had been Occasion Subjects, and they were of three
ready to
and were
was remarkable
too,
213
Crusoe
had but three
we
different Religions. My Man Friday was a Protestant, his Father was a Pagan and a Canni bal, and the Spaniard was a Papist : However, I allow'd Liberty of Conscience throughout my Dominions
But
his
[II, 30-31].
for any
as
fortune, he
would
well, "Trade
land-lord,
Element"
was none of
his ill-gotten island be characterized
rule
important
work"
"put his money to
serious attempts to
my
109).82
Indeed, Crusoe
empire.83
respect
or
(III,
as an absentee
to increase
And neither
could
absentee
in every
father,
son,
tyrant.
and
To be sure, such a description is hardly any characterization at all, being a list of the roles Crusoe failed to fulfill. It tells us some of the things he
only was
or was not
not,
characterization
consistently,
does
hard,
come
rather
he
than what
hard
so
Yet,
was.
is inclined to
one
a positive
speculate that
there is a clue to Crusoe's character in that very difficulty. Perhaps every effort to capture his essence in a positive statement is wrong-headed; indeed,
it may
reveal a misapprehension even
to do
terization
"vagrant."84
82
In the
Desires
For
same
and call
after
explaining that "I
was rich
charac
"delinquent"
Crusoe
a
these terms suggests the existence
one of
context,
to pursue the mode of negative
is tempted
as one
enough,
or a of a moral or
nor
had I any
legal
uneasie
Money"
(III, 110), Crusoe engages in some helpful self-charac terization: "My Eye, was still more desirous of Wand'ring and Seeing; I was come into a Part of the World, which I was never in before; and that Part in particular, which I had about
more
getting
.
heard
much
say, I had
Crusoe's
of;
.
and was resolv'd
seen all
yen
.
the
to
World, that
see as much of as
I could,
then I thought, I
and
might
seeing"
(III, 110-1 1). After seeing the
was worth
for novelty led him to
project a voyage
in
space
("A Vision
of
world,
the Angelic
World,"
Serious Reflections, pp. 237 ff., [especially p. 260]). Crusoe seems always to haveconducted himself under the slogan that "there are no secret things belonging to God, and which as such we are our
inquiries
83
forbidden to inquire into, but what also are so
we cannot arrive at "colony"
his
the knowledge of
preserved
in secrecy that by all pp. 176-77).
(Serious Reflections,
in Section L), Crusoe acknowledges that least, acted like a Man of common sense ; but I was possest with a wandring Spirit, scorn'd all Advantages, I pleased my self with being the Patron of those People I placed there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty majestick Way, like an old Patriarchal Monarch ; providing for them, as if I had been Father of the whole Family, as well as of the Plantation: But I never so much as pretended to plant in the Name of any Government or Nation, or to acknowledge any Prince, or to call my People
Speaking
"had I
.
.
.
of
staid
(of
them"
there my self, I
which more
had,
at
Subjects to any one Nation more than another ; nay, I never so much as gave the Place a Name ; but left it as I found it, belonging to no Man ; and the People under no Discipline or tho'
Government but my
own
had
Power,
no
Authority
Consent
mov'd
enough; but 84
...
or
came
to do but to
I
rambl'd
to
saunter about and
alive"
or
from them,
provides at
London,
in God's Creation ; dead
I had Influence
...
like
it is
least
I had an
no
or
stay'd
there no
there,
more
Relish to the Place,
Farthing
and
Benefactor,
other, farther than voluntary
.
would
.
one good characterization of
idle Person,
not one
(II, 118-119).
this, had I
and came
Father
over them as
to Act or Command one way
them to comply. Yet even
Although Crusoe
"When I
; who
no
have done
well
(Ill, 80-81). himself as the latter:
Employment in
it,
nothing
it may be said, he is perfectly useless Matter to the rest of his Kind, whether he be
of whom
Interpretation
214
"station"
"place"
to be in delinquence of; the
order
belongs in. But order, or
Crusoe,
fundamental Crusoean
a
propriety
place,
premise seems
Indeed, if
exists.
his basic
we care
to be that no such
to pass
judgement
on
is his apparently invincible Crusoe is willful, but there is no
problem
moral and a social order.
to a
obtuseness
of
say that
can
we
one
or
other a social
rebellion, guilt, remorse, tension, or drama in his willfulness. For him, the impulse is tantamount to the act ; the desire or curiosity a sufficient condition
to its
I
try.
shall not
to
own words
he
nothing but "a
was
mad
rambhng
111).86
(III,
I doubt that this I
In his
gratification.85
Boy"
feeling
the
adumbrate
be improved
self-characterization can
propose now
simply to
heap-up
In any case, Crusoe's phrases
upon.
enough of
that came over him from time to time and precipi
at any rate his travels, if not also some of his other irrational conduct. predescription of the feeling does not vary from youth to age or from His to post-conversion. Crusoe had a "propension of nature tending directly
tated
to
.
.
.
Life
[a]
inclination"
Misery,"
a
of on,"
ill Fate
push'd me
also
"mere wandring characterizing it as "a
that hurries us on to be the Instruments
he
says
it
was
"my
apparent obstinate
Destruction"
says "an
(I, 14). Or,
adhering to my foohsh inclination
pursuing that
abroad and
(I, 2); he
over-ruling Decree
of our own
Inclination"
wandring "restrain
secret
(I, 42); he
simply
of
could not
Designs"
(I, 44) ; but rather "obey'd bhndly (I, 45). Crusoe [his] [his] Fancy rather than death of his and after the "native to had a (II, 111); Propensity wife he went "into a deep Relapse into the wandring Disposition, which, as I may say, being born in my very Blood, soon recover'd its hold of me, and like the Returns of a violent Distemper, came on with an irresistible Force .
.
[his]
.
the Dictates of
upon me;
.
.
.
.
rambling
.
.
.
.
.
me"
that nothing could make any more Impression
so
upon
(II, 117). These run.
are some of
They
selves
they
ever taken
are
Crusoe's
Crusoe's last
of course
together
hardly
they
Is Crusoe telling the really
beheve that is tion
we
have
Crusoe
response
85
86
pp.
was
far
of
that, if it is
a
the
question of
problem, it is
obvious
or
language
a victim of the
See
also
37-38, for
him
in them
Perhaps how
at
his
motivation
any
mysterious
is
rate a most
as
ordinary
quoted to reduce
it
affliction
boredom? I
we call
to the
all
conjecture, because it brings us back to the ques
barely raised, of cosmos
namely, the
effect on
Crusoe
of
his
apparent
metaphysical, moral, social. What
If anything, the older, post-conversion, Crusoe e.g..
made
though
of conjecture.
than an aimless search after spectacle and
See,
feeling that
Crusoe,
explanation at all.
line
that the so-called
being as forcing the
a worthwhile
so
to any
problem,
disbelief in any kind
self.
amount
reader
boredom? Would it be statement that
descriptions
suggest a useful
no question at all ; or
common-place
own
word, so to speak, on
other
novel sensations should
was more willful
than his
younger
Ill, 81-82. 88, 178 ff. Maximilian E. Novak, Economics some useful observations on
and
the
Fiction of Daniel Defoe
the same theme.
(1962),
Considering
215
Crusoe
from a man for whom the world, if it is anything more than a series and a accidents, "is nothing to us but as it is more or less to our man for whom "all that we communicate to any other, is but for their assistance in the pursuit of our desires?"87 Is it not plausible that a man hving
we expect
relish;"
of
...
eventually find it tedious? If I believe that I or rather my appetites and aversions are the reference point of the whole, so that to be is to be a satisfaction or disappointment of a solipsism must
my appetites, then I am indeed doomed to boredom. It will be impossible for me to appreciate anything for itselffor example a beautiful island or to have any real conversation or conflict with any other person. The other is
his
sapped of all
or
its vitality
and
capacity for surprising, delighting, inspi
ring, opposing; which means that I am deprived
or
depriving
myself of sur
delight, inspiration, and opposition. This is to say nothing of those profound experiences I deny myself, like worshipping God, obeying the things,"88 moral law, "contemplating the divine taking my place in a commu prise,
nity, or relating appropriately to whatever beings there are which, merely
by being independent of the appetites and the ego, might structure things and draw hnes between the
self and the
other, between
insanity and sanity, be human, and the
tween the base and the noble, between the sub-human, the
distinctions which in turn make it possible for me to feel guilt, shame, and love. No external world, no external lines,
divine
revulsion; admiration, awe,
Crusoe felt, namely, vagueness, loneliness. And that is just an elaborate way what
means
feeling that cle and
drove
novelty,90
Serious
88
Cf.
89
In Chapter II
aimlessness,
describing boredom, the Crusoe around the world looking for or contriving specta all of which palled sooner or later, as every mere state of
one's own appetite and mind must
87
placelessness,89
Reflections, 74, supra.
pp.
of
pall.91
2-3.
note
of
Economics
and the
Fiction of Daniel
that Robinson Crusoe is a Puritanical defense
imperative
religious
of
the
"calling"
"station."
or
lines, but that it is safer to say
Defoe,
Professor Novak
of a pre-individualistic version of the
argues
politico-
I believe he is thinking along promising
the book is an exposition
of certain natural consequences of
for community, place, station, calling. Novak simply does not succeed in showing that Crusoe ever got beyond paying lip-service to the notion that of leaving home. his ship-wreck, etc., was divine punishment for his so-called "Original the
neglect of
the human
need
Sin"
Crusoe had practically no text a showing that Crusoe on
is
of a subtler sort
Novak's
experienced a penitent awareness of
"punishment"
the ludicrous. The
ness
consciousness of sin and
to
deserved
punishment verge
elicit
for Crusoe's incorrrigible individualism
than any direct
and palpable
divine
from the
attempts
retribution.
That
or placeless
punishment
is
his restlessness, boredom, placelessness itself: "I say this, with Respect to the impetuous Desire I had from a Youth, to wander into the World, how evident it was, that this Principle was preserv'd in me for my Punishment "individualism"
Crusoe's
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(Ill, 81). 90
See Appendix
91
So,
after
2,
infra.
exhausting terrestial novelties, Crusoe had as it were to undertake
voyages
(see
note
he
was
in the "Extasies
when
82,
supra).
Crusoe's imagination Vapours"
of
was
heavenly
apparently fecund enough,
(II, 1 1 3) or caught
up
by some "brain-sick
at
least
fancy"
Interpretation
216
It is in the Farther Adventures that Crusoe finally surrenders to his "propen and lives out the logic of his doctrine. Here he comes fully into his own
sity"
Boy,"
"mad rambhng
as a
meandering
tedium
by following his
learned
about
Crusoe in
every
the world
over
caprice.92
whim and
most episodes of the
book,
to
trying
relieve
the
There is something to be but we shall have to hmit
our treatment to two from early in the narrative. They are especially ehgible for discussion because they hark back to the Adventures, because they involve similar outcomes, and because of some ironical interplay between
them.
The first is the
case of
the Bereft
Bristohtes,
the second that
of
the Sad
Spaniards. K. The Bristol
Crusoe had been into
Ship,
a good
.
come
.
.
China"
to
along,
119). And the
(II,
with
nephews
that he had "put him
(II, 105). Sometime after the death of approached by "some Merchants of his Ac sea"
him to
Crusoe's wife, the nephew was quaintance [who proposed that he] and
his
so pleased with one of
and sent
Ship
go a
nephew
Voyage for them to the East Indies
in turn
the understanding that the
prevailed upon
itinerary
set
by
Crusoe to
the "Charter-
(contract) with the merchants, which called for them to go on the first journey directly across the Atlantic to Brazil with express per mission to stop on the way only at Crusoe's island in the Caribbean (II, party"
leg
their
of
119-20, 133). Crusoe tells had
not such
that he
us
bad Luck in this Voyage
as
I had been
used
to meet with ; and therefore
Reader, who perhaps may be inpatient to hear how Matters went with my Colony ; yet some odd Accidents, cross Winds, and bad Weather happen'd, on this first setting out, which made the Voyage longer than I expected it at first [and I] began to think ill Fate still attended me ; and that I was born to be never contented with being on Shore, and yet to be always unfortunate at Sea [II, 123]. have less Occasion to interrupt the
shall
.
.
.
...
the
Mostly
problem was
the "bad
Luck"
and
"odd
Accidents"
other people
experiencing at sea. Fifteen days out from Ireland, and having been blown out of their course to the westward, Crusoe's vessel ran across the survivors of a French ship that had burned and sunk. These persons created
were
a
difficulty for
along in hopes upon
Crusoe of
and
his
running into
to take them ; and,
nephew. a
The first
failing that,
to
way to the East Indies. (No
explanation
(Serious Reflections,
otherwise
To him leisure
Life;
and
making 92
p.
247). But
tantamount to
indeed I thought I
me a
Cf.
was
references
in
note
85,
island]"
supra.
his
keep is
to take them
might
be
prevailed
them aboard, perhaps all the
given as
to why the possibihty of
mental and spiritual
life
was
impoverished.
Idleness is the very Dregs of more suitably employ 'd, when I was 26 Days a (I, 119).
idleness,
was much
Deal Board [on the
proposal was
Europe-bound ship that
and
"A State
of
Considering
Crusoe
217
leaving
them in the West Indies or in Brazil was not considered.) But the Frenchmen begged Crusoe to take them instead to Newfoundland.
I thought this
but
Voyage
should refuse
Nature
on
their
carry this
Part, and therefore I enclin'd to Company to the East-Indies, People, but would be ruining our
whole
an intolerable Severity upon the poor by devouring all our Provisions ; so I thought it no Breach of Charter-Party
to
we were
say
Request
consider'd that to
Accident
what an unforeseen
could
on
a reasonable
only be
would not whole
but
was
it; for indeed I
agree to
blame; for
made
absolutely necessary to us,
the Laws
to take up two Boats full
of
of
God
and
People in
Nature
such a
and
in
have forbid that
would
distress'd
,
which no one
Condition,
and
we
the
the
Thing as well respecting our selves as the poor People, oblig'd us to set them for their Deliverance; so I consented that we would carry Newfoundland [II, 133-34].
of
Shore
them to
some where or other .
And this
.
.
in fact what he did, spending
was
perhaps
two weeks in the
process
(II, 134). Afterwards,
directed
we
twenty Days together, upon,
.
.
our .
deplorable
almost as
Course for the West-Indies, steering away S. by E. for about Subject for our Humanity to work
when we met with another
as
that before
[II, 134].
Superficially, this other subject was indeed less deplorably situated than Frenchmen, for the ship was at least afloat when Crusoe and his nephew
the
came upon
it. It
was a
Bristol, bound home from Barbadoes, but had been blown out of the Road at a few Days before she was ready to sail, by a terrible Hurricane, while the Cap tain and the Chief Mate were both gone on Shore, so that beside the Terror of the Storm, they were but in an indifferent Case for good Artists to bring the Ship home: They had been already nine Weeks at Sea, and had met with another terrible Storm after the Hurri cane was over, which had blown them quite out of their Knowledge to the Westward, and
Ship
of
Barbadoes
in
they lost their Masts
which
Almost
starv'd
Crusoe tells
for us
want of
.
.
.
But that
which was worst of
Provisions, besides
the Fatigues
all, was, that they
they had
undergone
that "the Sight of these Peoples Distress was very
(II, 137). But there was, after all, the problem of the in fact by the delay on behalf of the Frenchmen.
compounded
Bristol
mariners were a severe embarrassment to
him to
expects
ding Barely
pages of
see
them to safety, if for
before, in
recalled
the Portuguese of
Crusoe,
in
captain.
stolen
the
no other reason
account of
considerable
Africa, Crusoe had had
Crusoe. But
the Farther Adventures have been full
ten pages
Crusoe had Coast
were
135].
moving"
"Charter-Party,"
to him
tan,
[II,
the
detail the
of
In short, the
one of course
than that the prece
Good Samaritanism.
rescue of
conduct of
the
Frenchmen,
his Good Samari
When that worthy had picked Crusoe up off the offered to repay him with a gift of the goods he,
from his captors, the Moors. But the Portuguese had
replied
he
would
came
take nothing from me, but that
to the
Brazils, for
says
he, I have
all
I had
sav'd your
should
life
be deliver'd
on no other
safe to me when
Terms than I
would
I
be
Interpretation
218 glad
to be
sav'd
Condition; besides, Country, if I
it may one time or other be my Lot to be taken up in the same I carry you to the Brazils, so great a way from your own he, take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then I
my self,
and
when
said
should
only take away that Life I have
given
[I, 36].
And here, in connection with the Frenchmen, Crusoe had "recollected my former Circumstances and in what Condition I was in, when taken up by Portugal Captain ; and how much more deplorable the Circumstances of the Creatures
poor
belonging (II,
them"
Company
with
to this
Ship
must
be, if they had
no other
Ship
in
125).
captain had come to Crusoe and his nephew shortly after they brought aboard, "and told us, that as we had saved their Lives, so all they had was little enough for a Return to us for that Kindness (II, 131-132).
The French
were
received"
My Nephew was for them
afterwards
Shore in me at
accepting their
but I
and
took all I had for my
the Brasils
Money at first Word, and to consider what to do with Part, for I knew what it was to be set on
him in that
overrul'd
Country;
a strange
and
so,
;93
if the Portugal Captain that took
Deliverance, I must have starv'd,
me or
up
at
Sea had serv'd
have been
I therefore told the French Captain that
we
had taken them up in their
nothing for them but
Case,
be
Fire
The
a
therefore I
foregoing
[A]s their it
them on Shore and leave
set
and
were
Barrel
Things
.
.
lie
of
two Hogsheads
And
about
;
and
fully
to appreciate
mind
Crusoe's
condition
of Bisket and a
we
it
the
them to
the outcome of
Crusoe.
taking three Casks
Satisfaction,
plorable"
left them
.
earlier suggestion
.
Proportion
Sugar, [II, 141].
of .
of
we
of
did,
Beef,
Peas, Flour, and what other Rum, and some Pieces of
some
that the Bristohtes
were
in less "de
than the French: well, consider that when Crusoe
to England years later he
could never
learn that the Ship came to Bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost at Sea, a Condition and so far from any Land, that I am of Opinion, the first
disabled
"For it is
enough
to
ask a man
to give up his arms, without
killing him with them; after you have the arms in hand, then (Machiavelli, Discourses, I, xliv [Detmold, trans.]).
them"
and abandon
...
them for
so
drowning,
.
Pork,
and of
that this would be first to save them from
[leader] begg'd of us to help him to set up a Main-Top-Mast, by him for three of four Days, and then having given him five Barrels
of
93
had done
have done for us, if we had been in their
let the least thing be taken from them [II, 132].
encounter with
Eight
being in
would not
be kept in
must
we could spare
returned
them;
mariners'
the Bristol
as
would
then kill them our selves; save them from
and
starving;
believed they
a most
then
and
Death,
what we
as we would we
they in ours; but that we took them up to save them, not to plunder them; barbarous thing to take that little from them which they saved out
and
Slave
a
Distress, it was
true; but that it was our Duty to do so as we were Fellow-Creatures, and desire to be so deliver'd if we were in the like or any other Extremity; that
would
...
....
telling him that you intend you can
do
your will with
219
Crusoe
Considering Storm
she met with afterwards, she might founder in the Sea, for Damage in her Hold when we met with her [II, 142].
One is
doubt
"Charter-Party."
the
appropriate comment on
given a color of
But
Is there a
Whoever
these Memorandums
shall read
night at a
a
Journey into
tho'
and
could
carry
There
no
charitable
the
Place. Our Business
them;
this episode. The
strict construction of
does Crusoe justify
a strict con
in the earher, virtually identical, Bristol-ship case, quota on Good Samaritanism? Does one charitable turn ab
further
like
had
and
and not
solve a person of
are not
justifiability by
on what principle
in the
struction case?
loss for
somewhat at a
upshot was no
leaky,
she was
Country,
was
duties?94
be desir'd to consider, that Visits at Sea People stay A Week or a Fort
must
where sometimes
Crew, but not to lie by for
to relieve this distressed Ship's
they were willing to steer the same Course with us for some Days, Sail to keep Pace with a Ship that had no Masts [II, 141]. .
.
yet we
.
to interpret these words. The interpretation that
are several ways
Crusoe obviously prefers is that which ascribes a real necessity to the situa tion, one which presumably involves more compulsion than what might derive from the mere contract with the merchants. We note that his lame ex for not slowing down to accommodate the diminished speed of the Bristol ship (lack of slow sail) does not explain his fundamental and unques tioned prior decision not to alter his "Course."95 The reason for that decision cuse
94
However
one understands
the status of charity under the Roman Catholic
doctrine
(see Summa Theologica, IIII, Q. 184, Art. 3, wherein, we note incidentally, St. Thomas mentions as a counsel directed to the removal of things that hin der charity, the cessation of worldly business), it is clear enough that for Calvin, Good of
the "consilia
evangelica"
Samaritanism is
lar,
no mere counsel.
See, in
general,
Institutes, II,
viii,
49-59,
and
in
particu
the following:
Our Saviour having shown, in the neighbour comprehends
of
precept
pestilential
love to
the
our
respecting revenge
to obey
or
were made more righteous
A
....
the love
of enemies
than ordinary
36), that the term for limiting the
no reason
Wherefore,
or wickedness of
could
nothing
be
more
the Schoolmen in converting the .
.
.
into
confining the necessary observance
disobey,
binding
and
the Samaritan (Luke x,
stranger, there is
own connections
than the ignorance
precepts
voluntarily
parable of
most remote
of
counsels which
it
was
them to the monks,
Christians, by the simple [Ibid., 55-56],
free who
circumstance of
themselves to obey counsels
communication of offices
between
members
is
not regarded as at all
gratuitous, but
being due by the law of nature it were monstrous to deny. For this reason, he who has performed one kind of duty will not think himself rather as
the
payment of
that which
thereby discharged, as is usually the case when a rich man, after contributing some what of his substance, delegates remaining burdens to others as if he had nothing to do with them. Every one should rather consider, that however great he is, he owes himself to his neighbours, means. ridge 95
The
extent of
and
these
that the only limit to his beneficence is the
should regulate
that of his charity
[Ibid., Ill,
failure
of his
vii, 7 ; Beve-
trans.].
Nor does it
West Indies.
explain
why he did
not even consider
taking the Bristolites along to
the
Interpretation
220
"Business"
is presumably implied in the notion of was so pressing that it necessarily, obviously, But just exactly
inflexible
compelled such an
supply
of
it
as
might occur
the state of nature, and that petty charity ought not
or sea-rescues
giving
trade"
of
Needless to say, this persuasive in Crusoe's
be
case
not
told us
to
an argu
overcome
the
objective.96
be only somewhat that "Trade was none
would
pecuhar argument
if he had
in
whether, e.g., alms
to interfere with that
allowed
of which
wants the reader
is the long-term hope to
ment to the effect that commerce
penury
the urgency
Perhaps Crusoe
course?
hke the "necessities
a phrase
deviation, if not delay.
transcending business,
this
what was
he invokes. His business
ruled out
more of
my
Element."
The
problem of spuriousness
is hard for Crusoe's
to avoid
reader
because
for Crusoe. Indeed, Crusoe's rationalization for abandoning the Bristohtes can be read in the light of that and the related problem of boredom. One suspects that the bored person is not so much in
it
was such a pervasive problem
as
need of spectacle and
excitement,
we can call a sense of
authenticity,
he is
of one's own whims and contrivance. a sense of realness as
long
he is
as
of
something truly precious,
a sense of not
As
being the
which
mere production
in Section J, Crusoe feels his resources against
we noted
fearfully deploying
necessity in his struggle for survival on the island. But that is the only setting in which his actions are easily intelligible to himself and to his reader, because
for the
most part
being
necessary
as we
beheve they have to be
and not
But in most every other of the many situations in which we find the action could have been otherwise. So in the case of the Bristol
capricious.97
Crusoe,
mariners :
there was
suie, Crusoe's
for Crusoe
no good reason
but insufficient
some plausible
nephew
had
and
a schedule and
anxiously awaiting Crusoe himself
island dwellers been
suffered
where
;
yet
he
could
for
keep
few
a
at
rationalizations.
there were in fact
longer, having already
no unambiguous obhgations else of
importance in the
world at
the expense of these helpless wretches from Bristol. Anyone who is so
in
such a
hurry
resembles
importance he has
trying
to
necessity.
ty, the
recover
He
had
of trade or
since
he
But
business,
admits
this
he
analysis seems
one of a series of instances
Cf.
being
that Crusoe was on
the island of
by manufacturing an ersatz necessi
a
necessity
which
in Crusoe's
case
is
was never what one could even call an
businessman."
If, however,
97
trying to acquire a sense of
the difference
for authenticity
gest that the reader should
96
with
the authenticity he had in fact experienced
"necessity"
"authentic
the day-dreamingjuvenile
never
now strives
twice spurious,
busy or
that he cannot slow down to save hves must surely be "for
real!"
Crusoe
To be
some persons
the island. But the anxiety of those
to puff up his own sense
chose
to see them to safety ; only
weeks or months
Crusoe had
seven years.
not
therefore culpable
note
31,
see note
supra.
80,
supra.
simply
in
to be
more
than the text
which
Crusoe
shows
his
will
bear, I
sug
Bristol
sailors as
consummate
talent for
view the episode of the
Crusoe
Considering rationahzation and moral evasiveness
tives to fit his impulse
Indeed,
we can
mariners could
it
of
impera
manipulation of moral
the moment and the requirements
of
his convenience.
leave the explanation of his behavior in the case of the Bristol at the level of contractual interpretation. For a man who
simply
justify staying away from
was no problem
trading
for
221
contract.
his island
on grounds of a marriage
contract,
justifying going to the island without delay on the basis of a And it
should perhaps not
apparently bothered little
by
be surprising that Crusoe
was
the fact that staying away from the island for
then going with indecent haste to it, both caused unspeak After all, this was the same Crusoe who justified murder to facile reinterpretation of the term
seven years and able suffering.
himself
by
a
"self-preservation."
L. Spanish Sorrow
We have heard Crusoe hear how soean
that the
"perhaps may be impatient to
reader
Colony"
[the]
(II, 123). This is
typically
a
Cru-
saying that Crusoe himself should have been vastly more im than he had been for seven long years to see how "matters of
way
patient
allow
matters went with
went"
especially for those Spaniards to whom I have alluded as possibly standing to benefit by Crusoe's return to the island. The story of Crusoe and the Spaniards is somewhat longish, but well worth the recounting for the inferences it affords us about Crusoe's malaise. So, we shall begin at the there
beginning. I have noting ever, I
mentioned
commonwealth sequent
all
had
by
acquisition,
planned
put to
ask'd
Spaniard,
Freedom,
I fear'd mostly their
ways square their
Treachery
Deliverance,
where an
and
English Man
that
they
Proposal from me,
ill Usage
and
they had
would
to be
be devour'd alive, than fall into the
with so
many
Hands, build
a
of
me, if I of
Bark large
was
Iberians, very
sore
which might
tend
.
.
.
Sacrifice,
my Life in their nor
did Men
al
they did by I should be the Instru their
what
Prisoner in New
Necessity,
or what
be deliver'd up to the Savages, Claws of the Priests, and be carry'd into rather
persuaded, if they
enough
put
Man ;
receiv'd, so much as
be very hard, that
made a
merciless
the Inquisition. I added, That otherwise I
in any
(II, 33).
should afterwards make me
was certain
natives
here, it might not be done? I told him with
Accident so-ever, brought him thither: And that I had and
could appear
Savages, but
inherent Virtue in the Nature
the Advantages they expected. I told him it ment of their
Life"
all
the Obligations
by
the
with
would receive a
was no
Dealings
Crusoe had despatched the
the Spaniard told of 16 fellow
indeed for
and
him how he thought they
Hands ; for that Gratitude
the sub
about
the latter "looked up in my face with
"at Peace indeed
it for Necessaries
nothing
Thankfulness that
and
towards an Escape? And whether, if they were
Spain,
Spaniard,
rescue of one
said next to
which
(II, 29). Afterward,
on the mainland
have
and
battle in
to eat the
the tokens of Gratitude
living
Crusoe's
sovereign and subject.
aftermath of the
Countenance"
I
another connection
deahngs between
In the who
in
the way the Spaniard's enormous gratitude. In that account, how abstracted from Crusoe's report of the exact terms of this particular
by
to carry
us all
were all
away
here,
....
we
might,
But that if in
Interpretation
222 Requital they should,
People, I
their own than it
He
I had
when
might
be ill
answer'd with a great
deal
of
pleased, he about
it
.
Here
would go
.
it,
Man [Friday's
old
his
Ingenuity"
stranger,
he
[H]e
father],
also
would make under
Condition
and
was so
the thought
that, if I
and
discourse
with
them
Conditions
be,
susceptible
barely veiled assault on the by no means blind to human
was
Protestant Enghshman to impugn
Accordingly, he
in the interest
of
replied with
himself and his fellows
anticipatory accusation, the Spaniard
open
to a
request
by
Crusoe for
a
perfect
further
assurance:
with
as
man would
final deliverance. But the bait
than a person ordinarily makes to a
left himself
my Leading,
any
countrymen.
Stung by Crusoe's
First the initial
commitment.
absolutely
their
would abhor
Crusoe's
allow a
than
and
volunteered more assurances and
he
his dear Catholic
have.
was as
The Spaniard
neither could
of
"Candor
should
they
Crusoe did surpassingly, namely, to encourage him to over-commit
of a more
passions was
comrades.
but
the reliability
he
his
engaged
of
weakness;98
more
worse
and
vulnerabihties
another's
himself. The recently rescued Spaniard
integrity
my Case
to their Deliverance ;
should contribute
to them with the
to the blandishment Crusoe held out that really
Ingenuity, That
and
that he believed
we witness a specimen of what
upon
seize
and make
34-35].
[II,
.
Candor
were so sensible of
they
and
using any Man unkindly that
of
Hands, carry me by Force among
for my Kindness to them,
before.
was
miserable,
Weapons into their
put
used
Oath, That they should be Captain; and that they should
them upon their solemn
their Commander
and
the Holy Sacraments and the Gospel, to be true to me, to go to such Christian Country, as that I should agree to, and no other; and to be directed wholly and absolutely by my Orders, 'till they were landed safely in such Country, as I intended; and that he would bring a Contract from them under their Hands for that Purpose. Then he told me, he would first swear to me himself, that he would never stir from me as long as he liv'd, 'till I gave him Orders; and that he would take my Side to the last Drop of his Blood, if there should happen the least Breach of Faith among his Country-men. He told me, they were all of them very civil honest Men, and they were under the greatest Distress imaginable, having neither Weapons or Cloaths, nor any Food, but at the Mercy and Discretion of the Savages; out of all Hopes of ever returning to their own Country; and that he was sure, if I would undertake their Relief, they would live and die by me. Upon these Assurances, I resolv'd to venture to relieve them, if possible, and to send the swear upon
Savage
old
As
this Spaniard over to them to treat
and
the Spaniard's
rash as
offer
is, it is
[II. 35].
not
entirely
oblivious of a quid pro
Though the Spaniard virtually offers himself as a hostage and surety for the honesty of his fellows, the oath proposed for them seems to imply some quo.
form
98
for
In this very
one
and
growing
"Want
supra).
The terms
of reciprocity.
...
context
season
be
a
of
the Spaniard
lest
the
suggested agreement are
suggested
their supply of grain
Temptation to
.
.
.
that
his trip to the
mainland
be inadequate for fourteen
[his comrades] to
disagree"
indeed
(II, 36;
be delayed
new
see
not
appetites,
Section B,
Crusoe
Considering
223
worded as an alert and suspicious negotiator might
the unilateral commitment of "they should swear
Christian Country,
to such
go
rected
...
person
by
I
as that
my orders, 'till they were landed in have conditioned his agreement
from Crusoe to
endeavor
time. But
within a reasonable
leading
even
to
such on
specified
(consider
be true to me,
to,
should agree
would
promise
have
...
.
.
.
Country"), for an
express
and to
to be di
and
such a
reciprocal
them to some Christian country
if the Spaniard had thought it
advisable
Crusoe himself after all had previously suggested as the main joint objective (the safe return of all these white-men to Christendom) he had been put too far on the defensive by Crusoe's opening ploy to risk offending to
repeat what
his
host
savior and
request
by making
the Spaniard was so
fact, came
for him to
go
ungentlemanly99
request
thoroughly in Crusoe's
power
to the mainland, he had to
accept
version of the proposed
oath,
were
that excluded
a version
Crusoe's
a reciprocal obhgation on
iards
an
for specificity
a
that might have been taken as an aspersion on Crusoe's integrity. In
all
that
amended
language from
be inferred. The
part could
the time
when
Crusoe's
other
to be reduced to the absolute bondage already assumed
which
Span
by
the
first Spaniard: And
now
Leave to
having
full Supply
a
to the
go over
there. I gave him
Main,
of
to
Food for
see what
Charge in
all the
he
could
Writing, Not
Guests I expected, I
do
with
gave
the Spaniard
those he had left behind him
any Man with him, who would Savage, That he would no way injure, fight with, or attack the Person he should find in the Island, who was so kind to send for them in order to their Deliverance; but that they would stand by and defend him against all such Attempts, and where-ever they went, would be entirely under and subjected to his Commands [II, 38-39]. not
first
swear
a strict
in the Presence
.
It
would
.
of
himself
to
and of
bring
the
old
.
be entirely
understandable
if the
reader who
far in Crusoe's
narrative were
to the wording
of oaths and amended oaths?
had
gotten
only this
to ask, what is the point of all this attention
Indeed it
could even
be
said
plausibly on the basis of a thorough familiarity with the whole story that the exact dimensions of the agreement are only of marginal interest. The inten tion
of
the parties is clear enough, and even
the wording, ordinary moral principles proper construction of the agreement.
been
were
would
that intention
be
obscured
a sufficient guide
Nevertheless,
by
to the
the same could have
Bristol ship : the morals of that situation there we saw Crusoe invoking the terms of
said about the episode of the
were also clear
the contract
enough,
with
inconvenience
created
pected were also
and yet
the merchants as one of his rationalizations for evading an
by unforeseen circumstances. What if something unex
to happen in the
While the Spaniard
and
case of
Friday's father
the Spaniards?
were
away
on
their errand, "it was
less than eight Days I had waited for them, when a strange and unforeseen Accident interven'd (II, 39). This was the coming of an Enghsh ship, no
99
I
Crusoe
met with
says
in my
this
Spaniard, "was (II, 216).
Life"
the
most
gentlemanly generous-minded Man as
ever
Interpretation
224
the control of mutineers who proposed to
under
Crusoe's island. Crusoe
Yet,
ship.
Crusoe had
although
their captain on
maroon
together
rescued the captain and
they
island, he
else whom
he
from him
that the captain be entirely under Crusoe's orders on the
"that
and
.
.
.
(II, 47). The
you will
he had
captain performed as
Spaniards
the
conditions
island
England, Passage Crusoe (with
engaged and
their return, and
on
free"
Friday)
three murderous mutineers to
taking
him
with
a great sum of
Spanish ship, indeed the ship of he had led to believe he would rescue (1, 218, 222;
he had looted from
part of which
money,
carry
only two
exacted
my Man to
and
me
immediately for England, leaving
embarked greet
the
encountered on
the
recovered
the captain as he had everyone
enthralled
the very Spaniards whom
a
II, 9, 33, 73). What
have here
we
sailors,
i.e., by saving
guese captain's 36]).100
He
he
and what
pure and simple
course, a
of
in the
life-saving
(not "to take away the Life I have the Golden Rule, the Good Samaritan precept,
given"
precept
contravenes
"Laws
called the
of
Nature"
God
difference
is,
them
of
iards felt the Calvin
writes
considered as of
comes, to refrain
assist
Promise,
...
to defend
pessimism
sampling
in
.
.
a
[the
Sixth]
kind
of
vigilant
To be
....
.
body
.
commandment
unity, the safety
prohibited.
in warding
of our
is,
them.101
that since the
of all ought
to be
injustice, and every Accordingly, we are
of
when
murder, it is
according to
not
neighbour, to
harm, and,
off
the crime
clear of
upon
all violence and
suffers, is
[I]f you do
.
the Span
importantly,
you violate
promote
the danger
not enough
to
your means and oppor
the
law"
(Institutes, II,
not
feel themselves
exonerated of
never
their obligation to obey Crusoe
admits) that he "[had made and broken a]
away"
(III, 81). They did
relieved
them
the burden
of
authorities
not seem of
they
their
might
to believe his
promise
have
non-perfor
to him. Did their
consulted?
A cursory
it did.
none would
tion once it became
clear
conditioned upon
the alleged contract
suspicion
aban
making no
trans.).
to fetch them
To be sure,
.
by
lies to defend the life
us
have any foundation in the
presumably
to say
maneu
Crusoe's
justify
irrelevancy,
and most
In general, therefore,
they believed (what Crusoe
suggests
first,
his safety, by that inhumanity
that promise
mance of
that,
what
in removing it
The Spaniards did though
pressly
each.
of
race
tranquility, to be
39-40; Beveridge
101
even
human
from shedding man's blood
tunity study viii,
whole
which our neighbour's
tends to his
whatever
want
Crusoe
which
literal wording Crusoe had imposed
that "the purport
to do
faithfully
is twofold :
makes
intrusted to
harm from
required
to
construed
of course, the most contemptible
weight of the
Lord has bound the
kind
into
oath
whatsoever.
The difference it
100
(II, 133). We
and
the Spaniards and which might be
donment
down
hardly
gloss seems
both, he contravenes the Portu
then abandoning
and
that that is the fact and that any contract or vered
double-cross
legal
presence of which a
tolerable. Crusoe treats the Spaniards exactly as he had the Bristol
needed or
[I,
is,
treachous conduct,
right
means
deny that
Crusoe had
his
the Spaniards no
intention
performance.
having been
Hobbes
made
would of
would
in the
his, if their
indeed
state of
voidable) from the moment the
that Crusoe might not perform
have been freed
meeting
go a
of
their obliga
promise was ex
step farther
and
say
nature, it would be void (he
Spaniards
(Leviathan, Chap. 14
conceived a reasonable
[Oakeshott edition,
p.
89]),
225
Considering Crusoe As
conscious as
table, their it
on
they may have been that they honor
acute sense of
reinforced
"taken"
bargaining barely veiled attack
Crusoe's
by
the
at
were
tied them to the least favorable interpretation
their oath.
of
Second,
the quasi-legal apparatus Crusoe put together gives a faint color of
Crusoe's
just
conduct
in the narrative, if not in his arguments
conscience.
Crusoe,
stick against
perfidy
Crusoe has
him to
enough to enable
So that, in
to
right
glide over the moral
issue
to make a charge of
order
the reader must pause to overcome a series of
made available to
himself for
purposes of justification
obfuscation.102
by
The
But, fact
the story is
rest of
Spaniards
the
so
far
almost
tell, the promises given were syntactically independent, and that have been decisive for some though not all authorities. For example, if
as one can
alone would
the issue between the Spaniards
Crusoe's (or Defoe's) time, he the
long drawn-out and for During Crusoe's seven year absence from
enough, though
simple
interminable.
non-performance of
have
said
the Spanish promise
1773, in
tion. It was not until
Crusoe had been
and
would
Kingston
and conditional
But
in
a common
lawyer
cause of action
of
for
lifting a finger to fulfill his own obliga 684), that the inferrable inten holding there that reciprocal promises
without
by
the
form
grammatical
to be deemed dependent
are nevertheless
substance.
that the
one suspects
explanation of the moral ported
in
and absolute
to
Preston (2 Doug.
v.
tion of the parties was given legal effect
independent
presented
that Crusoe might have a
that promise
terms
absolute
bind in
which
the
of
Spaniards'
promise was not
Although Hobbes for
with an oath.
the sole
they conceived themselves to be. For they had sup one
denied that
an oath adds
any
binding force to a promise (Leviathan, Chap. 14, end), Grotius for another thought it could. And he dent
intended
II, XIII, iii, 3-5, and
concerning the
equivocates
covenants
and
effect an oath might
by the parties
ibid.,
xvi, 1 ;
as
mutually
grammatically indepen (See De Jure Belli et Pacis,
on
Pufendorf, De Jure Naturae
and see
et
Gentium, IV, II, 6
8).
102
Crusoe
acquisition.
was
the first Spaniard's
Therefore,
at
least
on-again
(and,
might
issue
by
him,
their obligation to
e.g.,
of
first
in shifting the focus away from the undertaking to deliver them, two forms of an succeeded
Crusoe
could point out
vis-a-vis
them, i.e., he
that, if he
was
alleged agreement was
was not
to them really
clausula rebus sic stantibus.
a
did
not appeal
second, simply have that the
endeavor
to fasten their
as one
note.
And if they then
nevertheless
their promise, to Crusoe's alleged
old
would
ploy
unexpected
If, however, for
prince
be
to him.
available
is to
coming
Machiavelli that
where
for the
of
to his
Accordingly, implicitly, the
the English ship was a
that
sense of
there is a
First,
of nature
another.
some reason
arrogance or
prince who wants a colorable excuse
the
covenant"
effect of
independent
sufficiently to Crusoe's
by
need
attention on
their sovereign, then he was in a state
And surely the
noted with
Crusoe
(Hobbes, Leviathan, Chap. 20, para.3).
treaty. But treaties contain, explicitly or
most radical change of circumstances. ment
silenceable:
embroiling them in the "independent
in the preceding
and oath complications sketched
is
promise, because the Sovereign
alleged
Injury"
Subjects'
"cannot be accused, by any of his As for the other Spaniards, Crusoe of
to be sure, off-again) sovereign
one possible plaintiff or accuser
only forbid the first Spaniard to discuss Crusoe's
the
have
conditional.
will
particular argu
humor, he
might,
there is a way, and
non-fulfillment of
his
promise will
Prince, XVIII; but see Discourses, III, XI). See Vol. II, p. 497 ff.): also, Voltaire, A, B, C(in Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary [Gay trans.]
generally find
more
than one at hand (The
"Twelfth Conversation: Of the Code
Perfidy"
of
(p. 574 ff.).
Interpretation
226 the
the Spaniards not only
island,
suffered at
the hands
the criminals to
of
whose mercy Crusoe left them, but also had to fight for their hves against the great Cannibal invasion that Crusoe had always feared. In the meantime,
have seen, Crusoe had reahzed substantial wealth from his Brazihan (augmented by the funds he had lifted from the Spanish ship
as we
plantation
he had
and
wreck) ;
married and
set-up
as a
But,
gentleman.
country
as we
long by "a strong Inchnation to go abroad of seeing my new Plantation in the the Desire again [and] particularly Island and the Colony I left there, run in my Head continually. I dream'd of also
.
it
all
he
saw, before .
was affected
.
Night
my Imagination
and
run upon
Day"
it
(II, 112).
all
[I]n this Kind of Temper I liv'd some Years, I had no Enjoyment of my Life, no pleasant Hours, no agreeable Diversion, but what had some Thing or other of this in it; so that my Wife, who saw my Mind so wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one Night, That she believ'd there min'd me engag'd
to
to
was some secret powerful
thither again ;
go
a
Wife
and
looks
Impulse
of
Providence
upon
me,
which
had
that she found nothing hindred my going, but my
deter-
being
Children (II, 114).
There follows then makes what
and
amusing httle
an
the
at
beginning
in
exchange
Crusoe's
which
wife
to be an offer to let him go, but which
turns out to be a proposal that she go with him. This entirely unexpected proposition
"brought
[Crusoe]
a
httle
the
out of
to stay home after all. Was it because "the old perhaps
intercede
with
any case, Mrs. Crusoe allowed
"there is
will also make
it
it"
on
behalf
of
proved quite a
his
and
he decided
would spoil
his fun? Or
nice
Spanish friends?
prophet, for in her
Well, in
peroration she
resisting it ; and if Heaven makes it your Duty to go, he to go with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that I may
no
mine
(II, 114-15). As
not obstruct
band, freeing
him
Vapours"
lady"
him to
we
have noticed, his nephew,
go abroad with
she pre-deceased
her hus
by
unencumbered
female
company.
As Crusoe
came ashore of
fix'd my Eye upon, should
would
his island the
second
time, "the first Man I
be
and
145). One
sav'd"
the Spaniard whose Life I had
(II,
then simply let Crusoe recount the reunion in his
reveahng It
was
own
inimitably
concealing fashion.
endless
to take Notice of all the Ceremonies and Civilities that the Spaniards
Spaniard, who, as I said, I knew very well, was he whose Life I Boat, attended by one more, carrying a Flag of Truce also; and he did not only not know me at first, but he had no Thoughts, no Notion of its being me that was come, till I spoke to him : Seignior, said I in Portuguese, Do you not know me? At which he spoke not a Word; but giving his Musket to the Man that was with him, receiv'd me with.
had sav'd; he
The first
came
towards the
threw his Arms abroad,
forward,
and
and embrac'd
that he had once seen, as of
very handsome
ing
telling
of an
Tilings,
to the Person that
saying something in Spanish, that I did not perfectly hear,
me,
me
he
was
inexcusable,
Angel from Heaven sent to
as a well
attended
bred Spaniard
him, bad him
not
save
always
his Life : He
knows
go and call out
comes
to know that Face again,
how;
said
and
Abundance
then beckon
his Comrades. He then
Considering ask'd
I
me, if I would
could no more
many
Trees,
walk
them in
and plac'd
ask'd
them what
put
was
Need
enough of
it,
He told me, he
was gone:
he heard that I
was gone
never
I
walk'd
along
so thick and close
to
alas
planted so
one another
these Fortifications? He told me, I
all
him; but
with
been there ; for they had
would
....
say there
they had given me an Account how they had pass'd their Time
Island,
the
so
...
Posture,
such a
them upon
when
Arriving in
their
Habitation,
find the Place again, than if I had
I
since
to my old
227
Crusoe
could not
away in
some
Ship,
a good
they had the Misfortune to find that I
after
especially
but have
Satisfaction in my
and
good
Satisfaction;
to my
Fortune,
when
that he had
and
Perswasion, that one Time or other he should see me again : But noth Life, he said, was so surprising and afflicting to him at first, as the Disappointment he was under when he came back to the Island, and found I was not 146-48].103 there [II, often-times a
ing
strong
that ever befel him in his
This
is probably
account
accurate as
far
it goes, but it
as
abstracts
from
a
thought that must have been on the Spaniard's mind. To be sure, Crusoe the narrator gives
his
own
his
anguish of
the past,
the
to that
to say anything
reader of
To
discovery
island
second
home
go
mind.
he had brought
although amidst
strances
of
the
future;
though we may surely
last! He did
not
forget
us after all!
knows, rescuing the Spaniards going to maintain the "Colony",
of
He
was
huge
a
store of provisions
Crusoe's intentions
must
for his
have been
colonists.
a shock
to
the approximately 140 pages of narration devoted to
Crusoe does
stay,104
they may have
at
the narrative already
Crusoe had in
end
Spaniards'
them, his
refusal
now gone stale.
as
was not what
The
back to the past, acknowledging
and
that a present deliverance was as much on the Spaniard's mind as
suppose
Yet,
by harking
allowing the Spaniard to convey the disappointment. But this acknowledgement comes at a
great
Crusoe's
price:
and
away something
treachery by implication,
Indeed,
made.
not manage
the only
to let us in on any remon
thing he tells
us
in
relation
to
the subject foremost in the Spaniard's minds is that
I have
now
done
ing Condition, and
the Island
with
and went on
twenty days among them;
came
to remove them, I
possibly find
an
:
I left them all in
board my Ship
opportunity
.
they
and as
promis'd .
.
again
good
the
Circumstances, and in a flourish of [May], having been five
[fifth] day
were all resolv'd
to stay
upon
to send some further relief from the
the Island 'till I
Brazils, if I
could
(Ill, 70; brackets original).
And in Brazil, For my more
Spaniards, Women, but I
...
the rest had Wives
All this Cargo
I
three Portugal Women to go,
tho'
of
their own,
arriv'd
103
On the
subject of
104
Crusoe
and
there half
engag'd
remember'd, that
his
safe,
the
.
in
there
Spaniards'
were
another
and as you
nephew were on
of which could
.
.
but five
...
of the
I could have procured
Spaniards that
wanted
;
Country.
may easily suppose, very
welcome
to my old
disappointment, see also Appendix 3, infra. the island 25 days, few of which had to be
easily have been devoted for
example
to saving the Bristol
spent mari-
Interpretation
228 Inhabitants,
I found Letters
...
London from them
at
by
all
Way
the
[T]he last letters I had from any
of
them,
from my Partners means;
was
tho'
sent another
Years
after
Stay there
.
it .
Place,
to the
Sloop
was written
[T]hey begg'd
.
of
Word,
and who sent me
; that they
fetch them away, that they
went on
him to
write
but poorly,
Lisbon,
Country
of
again
ness, but two enjoyed
Crusoe,
not
when
I
who afterwards
the Letter till
Male-content
were
to me, to think
might see their own
I had
with
five
long
their
the Promise I had made, to
before they dy'd
am not sure what one should make of this gratuitous
I
of
back to England.
came
[III, 79-81].
display of heartlessOne is that Crusoe
obvious possibihties suggest themselves.
mortifying these ridiculously overscrupulous Spaniards. imprisoned in the formlessness and aimlessness of his own hfe, had a
teasing
and
affections"
that let him take some momentary pleasure in
"secret turn of the
making other beings miserable, much lieve the tedium of their incarceration
as some other prisoners
re
allegedly
cruelty toward rats,
with
insects,
and
fellow inmates. The Savior
possibihty is, during his first stay
of one
filled
expect
from the Second
105
I
other
with scorn or
am prepared
Robinson Crusoe is
Chap. V). the
of on
the
island,
was
who
and
telling
any
tells
a
"pilgrim
tells two: one
isolation,
of sorts
being Crusoe's
and
the
other
that
the
(The Reluctant Pilgrim,
own perverse pilgrimage Spaniards'
futile
into
and pathetic
to escape the Wilderness in which their deliverer had abandoned them. of
the Spaniards abounds
with
both Old
the primary
of
their characters or events in their lives
and
New Testament
Adam, Abraham, Moses,
'types'
paralleled
'antitype'
purer
ver'd out of
Egypt,
theft of their
of
Wilderness"
hosts'
trusting
obliged not
friendly Savages, a Fishing, or for
and
aspects of
toward a promised
land,
sin and promised them a
(ibid., pp. 99-100). So, the first Spaniard assimilates his Israel, [who] though they rejoyc'd at first for their being deli
yet rebell'd even against
Bread in the
As
are re
grave"
life beyond the
want
allusions.
David
(Christ) because
Moses, for example, led his people out of human bondage and as Jesus through his death freed men from their bondage to
brethren to "the Children
and
the New Testament accounts of Jesus.
just
they were
1)
allegory"
rate
garded as prefigurations or
to
us what we can
to concede to Professor Hunter (see Part I of this study, note
or at
Hunter says, in Puritan literature "men like
came
a veritable
out the animus
Coming.105
Indeed, I believe it
The story
better,
had been
simply playing
hatred for Christianity,
wilderness of modern secular
endeavor
Crusoe,
course, that
property:
God himself that deliver'd them,
(II, 36). He
and
"Their first Business
to stick so much upon the honest Part to borrow two large
Canoes,
or
when
his fellows imitate the
they
Israelites'
to get Canoes; and in this it, but to trespass upon their
was of
Periagua's,
on
Pretence
of
going
out
Pleasure"
fight and
a war of attrition
this
Part,
note
(II, 151). (Cf. Exodus, 3 : 21-22,11 : 2-3,12 : 35-36). And they against their own Canaanites, the cannibals (cf. Part I, Section D,
66).
Who is Crusoe in the story of the Spaniards? Does he play God to the first Spaniard's Moses? Or is he himself a kind of mindless Moses who abandons his followers on the way to the Promised Land
taking
he hardhearted Pharaoh
Savior goings
his
who will not
sort of a capricious
leave
off on
Christ
sempiternal gloom.
let
whose
Chase"
(III, 81)? Or, again, is Surely he is the first Spaniard's Comings bring momentary comfort and whose
own
"Wild Goose
a people go?
Appendix 1
229
Crusoe
Considering : a note on slave-trading.
Crusoe doubts the fairness
Reflections,
Ill;
p.
and
of
God's dispensation for the heathen (Serious
see, Part
this study); and he argues
I, Section D,
persistently, almost monotonously, that
favorably
compare
natives
with
human beings. Needless to say then, the commentator would be derelict if he refused to accept the invitation held out in the Crusoe text to apply Crusoe's standards of ethical criticism to his own conduct toward Europeans
as
Having
natives.
his treatment
said enough about
of
Xury
and
Friday,
wanting to examine every encounter with "underdeveloped the Farther Adventures, (but see references in note 85, 1 shall only
and
peoples"
in
not
reader of
the kind
of voyage
The Portuguese Captain
Crusoe
was on when
his ship
Crusoe had
who rescued
the
remind
wrecked.
him to Brazil
carried
he had built up (cf. even going to a prosperous plantation. Having land a-plenty Crusoe and his fellow note 62, supra, and Locke, Two Treatises, II, 42) where within
four
years and
despite
a chronic
labor
shortage
"waste"
Servants"
for nothing so much as (I, 43). Slaves were in short supply because for humanitarian and/or venal reasons the King of Portugal had made the slave trade a crown monopoly, sparingly used planters
"were
straighten'd
(I, 43). Accordingly, smuggling see
to
only way Crusoe's
was the
neighbors could
their requirements : "as it was a trade that could not be carried
meet
they could not publickly sell the Negroes when they came home, desired to make [a] Voyage, to bring the Negroes on Shoar they and divide them (I, 43-44). Because privately, among their own Crusoe had been to Africa before (actually twice, once with Xury, and, on an on, because so
...
Plantations"
earher
voyage, to
a
requisite mercantile planted
expertise
(and,
the notion in their minds),
Super-Cargo in the
Guinea? And they groes without
Ship
one
offer'd me
therefore presumably had the
add, because he artfully
should
they asked him "whether I
to manage the that I
providing any Part
good an offer to
and
slave-trading port),
of
should
the
resist, especially as it
Part
Trading
in,
and
for
which
the very Middle advised me to
to my
Genius,
and
their
the Coast
of
have my equal Share of the Ne (I, 44). This was simply too
Stock"
promised
to
alleviate another
Crusoe's Brazilian situation, namely, that he "was ment quite remote
would go
upon
into
defect
of
Employ directly contrary to the Life I delighted gotten
an
I forsook my Father's House nay, I was coming into of low Life, which my Father .
Station, or upper Degree (I, 39). Slave trading
before"
.
.
appealed
to Crusoe's
"Genius,"
a plantation. So, any rate promised to relieve the tedium of tending avowed behef in the deed his away Crusoe went, to break the law, to deny by
or at
nondespotic treatment, i.e., to violate the pre found fault with God. later cept according to which he commentators who take Crusoe's conver those convenient for It would be
right of native populations
sion more
to
response to the foregoing seriously than I if they could point out in saw the ship-wreck as God's punishment for his attempt at
that Crusoe
slave-smuggling, that
in the
intentions toward the
Africans,
course of
his
and that
conversion
the
he
repented
egahtarian standard
his
by
evil
which
Interpretation
230 he later defended the heathen There
rehgious point of view.
1)
tion:
that Crusoe never
repents
er repents or even acknowledges
intention
first
in
his parents) ; differs httle in spirit
3)
his slave-trading intentions (indeed he nev wrongful [as distinct from mistaken]
leaving England in
sense, but he does
that Crusoe's
or result
post-conversion
with such a sugges
any
some vague
2)
caused
and
least three difficulties
toward any man: he admits that
or conduct
place was a sin
his
was part and parcel with
are at
not repent
/wsf-conversion exploitation of
from his /jre-conversion
the
the pain he
Friday
exploitation of
Xury;
in Part I, Section D, the motive for the post-conversion of a quahtative parity between Europeans and natives
that as noted
Crusoe's
assertion
to have been in part at any rate his need for a premise from which to God to account for His disparate treatment of the two populations:
seems call
Crusoe's
Appendix 2: Crusoe In trying to the first
in
as
speak,
If he is
country.
[Detmold,
"prospect"
match
a stranger
and
Life"
the "Middle Station
all
.
Blessings attending the
World,
.
.
assigned
itself equally in those
men get tired of prosperity, of
change, then, so to
they
run after
him
.
(The Discourses, III,
.
of
by his father, a
Life
of
Ease
Inclination."
of
my Fortune
"raising
Pleasure"
and
The
elder
(I, 2)
Crusoe
to Robinson because "Peace and
by
was no
commended
Plenty
were
[it and] Temperance, Moderation, Quietness, Health, agreeable Diversions, and all desirable Pleasures, were the
the Hand-maids of
fight fire
.
This love
reverse.
to Crusoe
out
Industry, with for Crusoe's "wandring
Society,
For,
who are not.
as much
trans.]). Perhaps this passage suggests why it was that the
held
Apphcation
by
which manifests
novelty,
the
Spain, Machiavelli
way to every one who takes the lead in any innovation in
opens the
any
of
in those
are afflicted
xxi
the humane Scipio in
as
"the love
reason
they
for the fact the ferocious Hannibal had
Italy
who are well off and
just
Entertainer.
as
account
pohtical success as
is itself impious.
moral position
and
with a
.
.
[it]
.
.
.
this
Way Men
comfortably out fire which did
it
of
not
.
thro'
went
(I,
.
silently and smoothly 3). Crusoe's father tried to
ignite. He tried to
combat
Crusoe's
craving for novelty and change with a time-worn vision of dull and predictable prosperity which promised neither excitement nor dignity. Trying to over appetite, Crusoe's father
come one
hedonism the
against each other
futility
argument.
of argument so much as
The Machiavellian
pursuit of novelty
is
not
hallowed tradition ; he (and
not just
the
to
suggested of
pitting forms of did not prove
another
outcome
the need for another kind of propertied
have
contentment
made an argument
of manning one's
and we are
and moral obtuseness was
the
it
alternative
might also
"smoothness")
persuasiveness on
pandered
he failed. But the
exhaustive; Crusoe's father might have
business. But he did not,
duct.
and
left to
truly invincible
part of
those
who
appealed
for the
or
to a
Tightness
station, or sticking to one's
Crusoe's social insufficient moral
wonder whether
or
just
a sign of
tried to influence
his
course of con
Considering
231
Crusoe
In any case, Machiavelh's mention of the people's craving for novelty also hmits of his own assertion that whenever the Prince "does not
reveals the
the property
or honour of the generality of men, they will live con (77je Prince, Chap XIX [Ricci trans.]). In other words, one learns from reading the Discourses that the successful Prince will go beyond being the mere protector of his people to become their entertainer (cf. note 40, supra). And it would be useful, I think, to consider Crusoe momentarily in the role
attack
tented"
of entertainer.
in
(For suggestive remarks
certain modern analyses of
pohtics,
Politischen'
Begriff Des
on the place assigned see
Schmitt,"
by Carl [1965], pp. 331-51,
Critique of Religion Crusoe's doctrine
of
i.e., his
egoism,
345-47).
at pp. claim
that "all we communicate
to any other is but for their assistance in the pursuit of our
Reflections,
p.
3),
by
If this
were
how he
less
no
audience as an occasion
hinder
desires"
.
.
.
(Serious
from viewing him as an entertainer. For authority than Hobbes to think of every to gratify the entertainer's vain-glory (De Cive, I, 2).
need not
we are encouraged
to entertainment
Leo Strauss, "Comments on 'Der reprinted in Strauss, Spinoza's
us
an
Crusoe's relationship to his audience, we us, his readers, to assist in the
would want
could
easily determine his desires.
pursuit of
Presumably, he would want flattery, which we could supply by participating in his imaginations, conceits, deceits, and impieties, and by absorbing his propaganda and perhaps even
On the
hand,
other
we
may
imitating prefer
his
actions.
to believe that not every
thing Crusoe
It may in fact be the case that when he entertains us he breaks away from (and thereby furnishes a counter-instance to) his egoistic theory of human conduct. Maybe he is
does
and says
is
with a view
capable of selflessness.
our
delectation
may be too
to his
Perhaps, for
and edification
own gratification.
example, his
memoirs are a
gratitude
free
return.
gift
for
Crusoe
requiring only to be a princely entertainer, but surely
a
much of an absentee
private man can also contribute to the pubhc weal
catering for our "love hint of this in a passage
by
especially if he is a novelist. There is a decision to travel on around the world
novelty,"
of
justifying Crusoe's to Europe
in
at
the
conclusion of
his
second visit
rather
than return
to the island: "had I gone
.
.
.
many things to be thankful for, and you had never Part of the Travels and Adventures of Robinson
[home], I had never had
so
Crusoe"
heard
the
of
second
(III, 82). Appendix 3: Crusoe Balances the Equities. Spaniards'
grief: only half the were in all three Weeks absent, and in that Time, unluckily for them, I had the Occasion offer'd for my and to get off from the Island, leaving three of the most impu Escape, harden'd ungovern'd disagreeable Villains behind me, that any Man
Finding Crusoe had abandoned them was "They [the first Spaniard and Friday's father] .
.
.
dent,
could
ment,
desire to you
meet
may be
Spaniard, they]
all
with, to the poor Spaniards great Grief and Disappoint (II, 151). "As to the three Barbarians [said the first
sure"
thought themselves much
better among the Savages, only
Interpretation
232 that their
Number
vation, to disarm content with
in
so
them,
being
(II, 148). But, them
was so
.
.
[W]e
.
they disarmed them,
be
our
be
Murtherers"
though the Spaniard "told
and of
his
own .
would use
them with all possible
this heroic (and ridiculous) restraint,
by
an
could
anachronistic
hardly
have
Country, he
Spaniards,
the
Men
any Nation whatsoever,
less,
would
in turn
.
.
.
(II, 176). And
immunity for
all of a piece with
Crusoe says, "I
of whom
.
Lenity"
of vicarious
was
.
the greatest provocation and
under
rationale
cared
acter of
of
Preser
them,"
Dehverance, he
Crusoe
would
our own
who would not
still, "as they were Enghshmen, and [as] it was to the Kindness of an Englishman that they all ow'd their Preservation
generous
justified
Subjects,
Masters, but
our
moderately
though
oblig'd, for
were
them our
many words, That if they had been
have hang'd
and
small,
and make
who were so
which
the char
never met with seventeen
Modest, Tem
universally
Courteous
as these Span Good-humour'd, of in their had it Cruelty, they nothing very Nature, no Inhumanity, no Barbarity, no outrageous Passions, and yet all of them Men of great Courage and (II, 195).
Virtuous,
perate,
iards ;
and as
so
and so
very
to
Spirit"
In short, Crusoe
in his the
finest
immoral with
men
as at
he
then proceeded without hesitation to place at their mercy
note
what
leg-up
Crusoe
it
English
(II, 68),
captain
all, it
was
accord with what
standing of
of
were
these evil
to Crusoe's shore.
what
Yet,
he
emotion;
along
and perhaps
giving
on occasion one should attend more
says.
It is
understandable
to
that for public
to thank God (II, 68), or the (II, 39), for his dehverance. But, (II, 154, 171) who steered the escape vessel think of it, this impious suggestion is in
to
says at
least
once
or
any
rate with
the under "pubhc"
Crusoe's dehverance reflected in that most of his narrative. The full description of the book
the cause of
places, the title page
perversely
by Crusoe,
Accident
"Brutes"
come
a moral
act was not so
supposed
should prefer
or even
Crusoe
is
the Spaniards was his way of showing the
on
he felt toward them. Maybe
Crusoe does than to
the latter
gratitude
supra), to be
49,
consumption as
after
perhaps
For
appears.
the mutinous sailors a gratitude
But,
ever met.
first it
Hobbes (see
the Enghsh captain from the meanest men described
saved
narrative and
we
have been reading is The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on
the
Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men
of Oroonoque; Having been perished
but himself. With
by Pyrates.
an
Account how he
was at
last
as
strangely deliver'd
233 ORDER*
SELF AND POLITICAL
Marvin Zetterbaum of California, Davis
University It is of
contemporary thought that the traditional sources have been successively under modern philosophical inquiry, by the impact or mass
a commonplace of
religious, moral, governmental
authority
by
mined
society,
logic
the
of
by the effects
and
of
technological
revolution.
At the
same
time, it is
that the profoundest impulse of man is toward the realization or ful
alleged
fillment
"self,"
the
of
a self
that more often than not is seen as something
existing apart from and even threatened by the wider community or political order. The wearing of masks and the assumption of roles are looked upon
behavior
as the
be
thought to
of
the
"authenticity"
market place
destruction
of
consider
only the
compatible with each
The
is
incongruity
one of
the
Whether this is
determine :
person"
are
The
these two movements
confluence of
the
the traditional sources of authority and the concentration
upon and elaboration of
altogether.
"being a
only to those who have withdrawn from the
states accessible
social or political community.
and
;
of
threatens the
self
for
cause
alarm
persistent
"doing his
existence of political order
or celebration we cannot yet
demands for
"genuine"
a
community
thing."
own
the demands of self and the demands of political order
finding its
the oldest themes of political philosophy,
in the dialogues
earliest
formal
Plato. The allegory of the cave in the Republic underscores the necessity for the individual who is to achieve his true poten tial to leave the market place, the home of political society. But Plato's
expression
the
resolution of
political
of
human
and
problem
a resolution
that entails
the coincidence in the same person of the power to rule and the love of
is itself
philosophy all, is
ruling; it is
The
ment.
demands
more apparent than real.
to descend
compelled not a
again
into the
The philosopher-king, after burden of
cave to assume the
task he would voluntarily undertake in his own self-fulfill
contamination of
the authentic self
of social and political
life, is
by
the mass
the theme also, in
or
crowd,
our own
by
the
time,
of
Heidegger among others. Nietzsche, for exam his disciples to shun "the flies of the market by fleeing
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche,
and
place"
exhorts
ple,
into
solitude.1
tions, of
For the moderns, the
actors and
images
acting,
and opinions
baseness, in
market place
and
place of
is the locus
conformism, and
reality
as
of representa
for Plato it is the locus
truth. For
Plato, however,
the
self, properly the soul, finds its authentic fulfillment in its participa tion in or identification with an order of things that exists outside itself and or more
in the *
An
creation of which
it
abbreviated version of
plays no part.
this paper was
American Orthopsychiatric Association in San 1
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake
But this
sense of an external and
presented at
the annual meeting of the
Francisco, March 24, 1970. Zarathustra, I, 1 2.
Interpretation
234
eternal order of
in
things
which man
may be
to locate his natural
said
home
the authority for his self-quest is not a part of the shared consciousness of
and
man.
contemporary
history by natural
Still,
It is
to
possible
simply taking
study is
published
an
die
"The
is completely
man who
The
goal of a
recently
Far from
selves.
looking
upon
the
to the individual's quest for authenticity, Amitai
to
Society restores
society has
active
and
self.
nor wither away.
and opposition of public and private
Etzioni in The Active
thought
society that would obviate the division
authentic
market place as an obstacle
centuries of
the fact that for modern man his
home, indeed his only home, is his old aspirations neither
three
condense
cognizance of
life :
us a vision of classical political
written on
its door the Greek
private
The
motto: would
active
An idiot is
be
closer
a
than
society society to the city-state in the intensity and breadth of its political This welcome, if unexpected, resolution of the problem under discus .
.
.
modern life."2
sion
for
by means of a return to what has long history texts, justifies and necessitates
the most
regarded as matter
excursion
direct
access.
It
we give no
be
should
clear
address ourselves
The tale is
faculties
simple.
Prior to the
it,
by Socrates
rather, in order to
emergence of mortal creatures on
appropriate
for their
survival
particular choice of subordinates race.
Plato,
to the questions it raises about authority and political order.
to Epimetheus and Prometheus the task of
assign
fit only
classical
that we are not here explicating a
thought to the way the myth is received
to its place in the dialogue as a whole. We turn to
gods
into the
the sophist Protagoras in the dialogue of that name, provides
by
Platonic text ; nor
an
the requirements of political order. The earliest myth of
conception of recounted
been
Prometheus (we have to
his
distributing
to each particular species.
very nearly
assume
earth, the
proves to
the
This
be fatal for the human
mind was on other
things)
agrees
to let his absent-minded and somewhat less than astute brother handle the
distribution
while
rally enough,
he, himself, is
Epimetheus
to inspect the job upon completion. Natu
runs out of raw
materials,
and man
is discovered
defenseless. In desperation, Prometheus (he never quite lives up to the meaning of his name) steals fire and mechanical arts from the gods and
naked and
turns them over to man. For the short run, this suffices: man's technological prowess
provides
whatever
is necessary for the
Prometheus has generally been regarded fiery crucibles man forges the instruments own
transcendence over nature.
still proclaim are
the
hopeful if
Today,
salvation of man
not confident
and social requirements
;
that
in
and
of life. Indeed, benefactor; in the
support
as man's great
furnishes the testimony to his A few voices
we are not so sanguine.
unlimited
technology
technological progress ; some
can
more strident voices call
be
subordinated
for
dismantling
to moral the entire
of the myth, the gift of fire is necessary but not sufficient. does not solve the problem of community. Although armed, man Technology is no match against the beasts as long as he remains in isolation. Gathering edifice.
In terms
together into cities, the better to defend themselves against their enemies, 2
Amitai Etzioni, The Active
Society,
(New
York, Free Press, 1968,)
p.
7.
Self and Political
235
Order
fall to quarreling and abusing one another ; the common defense vanishes.
men
War
be fought if men have
cannot
have
been taught the
not
entire race would
first learned the
not
art of government or
Fearing
that the
thus perish, Zeus dispatches his messenger to men
"bearing
requirements of pohtical order.
justice to be the ordering principles of cities and the bonds of A divine law is promulgated to the effect that friendship and "he who has no part in reverence and justice shall be put to death, for he is a reverence and
conciliation."
state."3
to the
plague
Protagoras draws from the
for there to be
a
virtue of a man
(the term has
city
at
myth the conclusion that
each citizen must partake of one
all,
the
quality
ring about it), or the sum of justice, that every form of private and pubhc in
an archaic
temperance, and holiness and be undertaken with a view to promoting this virtue. We do not go about teaching each other to be flute players, but we constantly admonish each other that this is just, that unjust; this holy, that unholy; this good, struction
imperative is the
that evil. So when
[youth]
the
to learn the
and not after their own
Evidently, to
each and
observation
noble, the when a
the
laws,
living in It is
times,"5
after
the pattern which
understood as
is
implying
conception of justice.
cities or nations are
by
of men are gripped
this perception,
not
be
often
differing
their
A community
appropriate.
olden
live
the identical
every to remark that
least, is
at
and
myth cannot man
body
and when
It
a common conception of justice
they furnish,
that the gods gave
It takes very little and are dis
held together
conceptions of
the
just,
the
may be said to exist perception in these matters,
or pohtical order
by their
inscribed
shared on
holy tablets by "good lawgivers
regarded as authoritative
for the
citizens
thereof.
the classical conception.
impossible to apply this teaching to contemporary democracy.
be maintained, for example, that freedom is the fundamental value political order; it is the common aspiration that serves to define us
can
our
that
fancies."4
tinguished from one another
So,
for
need
the work of parents and schools is completed the state "again compels
And it may easily be
a people.
seen
of as
that this principle is different in kind
from every other principle that may be said to give a regime its specific character. Such principles, say communism, fascism, or nazism, strive to shape the citizens of the regime into one mold ; they aim at conformity and similarity.
Freedom
as a principle acts
in
a
contrary direction. To the
extent
that it succeeds, citizens will be dissimilar one from the other ; freedom is the
only
principle
the widest
that is not only compatible
diversity
of
with
human types. The
but
also
principle of
positively encourages freedom extends even
to the internal reaches of the individual. As Socrates understood, an
in
a
democracy
is
not one
day he is
colors."
One
many a psychologist.
the possibility element.
3
The
The
a political
proliferation of so
of still greater
scientist, another a
many human types,
fragmentation,
ambiguous character of
Plato, Protagoras, 322d.
individual
man, but many, as he pleases ; he is a "fair man of
4
the
Ibid., 326d.
robs
a
third each,
the regime of any unifying
principle of
5
lecturer,
and within
Ibid.
freedom
generates a
Interpretation
236
displacing
centrifugal effect
society from its
common center.
Nor does that
center, freedom itself, enjoy the status of a privileged sanctuary, to be
only
upon pain of
the
rejected
death.
to a less abstract
level,
ignoble,
the painful, the noble and the
ingenuity
rapidity
with which we
likely
by
the most casual center; far from
we seem to vie with one another
forth
bring
since
Nor is it
likely
together"
upon which
the terms of the myth,
But if those
or the guitar
is just, holy,
and good.
is inscribed the
thirty
are
of good
"created"
equal
I believe
appeal
to
credible
acknowledge
hostile to man,
own
mind
certain
and
altogether
say
the
of
seven?"
nothing
they have heard, dead."
that "God is
message
The
is, furthermore, incomprehensible
by the belief that the universe is either indifferent devoid
more.
truths is now charitably
eighteenth
what shall we
twice "four score and
to men in the academy;
Nietzsche's
to the laws of nature
to a generation encapsulated or
regime; in
living in the olden
the majority of Americans, the assertion that men are
of
is scarcely
nature or
lawgivers
already suspect,
authoritative status of those who are more than
Whatever the beliefs
embar
campaign
common principles of our
it is "the invention
over
of
than we are to ad
The very terms
oratory to "bring us Independence may be said to be
that the promises of
The Declaration
will succeed.
the tablet
and
both
in the
novel perceptions and
discard them. A very small measure of the distance Protagoras is revealed by the fact that we are far more
monish one another on what
times."
the unjust, the pleasurable and
and
to teach each other to play the flute
rass us.
confirm
may
with which we
have traveled
we
that has
sense of a common
we
glance that we in America have lost any sharing the same perceptions of the just
in the
breached
regarded as a regime
Zeus.
gift of
Descending
may be
Democracy
of meaning,
Finally,
understood as
century; far from expressing
or,
best,
at
his
a construct of
the resort to the self-evidency of
simply the
universal
views of men of
truths, these
the
reveal
nothing historical
but the "ideology", the prevailing intellectual horizon, of a given period. The situation is indeed not very far from what Henry Kariel describes
in
a work with the
acknowledge
tradition, and no
.
no
.
.
ironic title. The Promise of Politics: "We
that there is no place to
drop
anchor, that
.
no
.
have to
.
history,
inventory
of consumer pleasures can
certify [our
finally
ideals]
just, that literally all we have is ourselves and the ground on which we Protagoras declares that selves,
no
society
But
are we
disclose truly the disavowal
prerequisites
we might
studies on consensus.
consensus on
6
exist, nor can men maintain them the things to be revered and
of
political
order?
For
confirmation
turn to the vast and growing literature of
These have, indeed, turned up
fundamentals
condition with alarm.
Henry Kariel, The
as
stand."6
to accept the myth itself as authoritative? Does it
times conflicting findings. While this
can
without some common conception of
respected.
no
metaphysics, no minority, no majority, no group pluralism,
some
scholars
or
empirical
some novel and some
confirm
that
no
genuine
in America, they do not necessarily view As one study concludes, "A democratic society exists
Promise of Politics, (Englewood Cliffs,
Prentice-Hall, 1966,)
p.
10.
Self and Political despite
can survive
and constitutional values.
flourishes
system survives and even
Other
misunderstanding and disagreement The American political
widespread popular
basic democratic
about
237
Order
under
precisely these conditions do have agreement, .
.
studies point to quite opposite conclusions: we
and
the agreement is essential for the maintenance of the system itself. Easton
and
Dennis maintain, for example,;that the basic values of our society are and more or less permanently internalized as a result of the normal
suitably
processes of acculturation.
The inculcation
of at
least
one
fundamental
norm
the regime, the expectancy of political efficacy, may very well be decisive : "... childhood socialization may thus have central significance for the
of
persistence of a
democratic
It
regime.
provides a reservoir of
diffuse
support
the system can automaticaUy draw both in normal times, when members may feel that their capacity to manipulate the political environment upon which
is
living
not
up to their expectations,
popular participation
may
fail to measure up to insistent So brief and scarcely adequate an
puts
studies
cannot,
the myth
of course suffice
nor was
it
so
the
cern of
spirit of
special periods of
pure
illusion
demands."8
excursion
into the labyrinth
to reach
appear
For, it
opposite
remark
conclusions, are
be remembered, the primary
will
con
the myth is the preservation of the species and, to that end, the pre
servation of political order.
regime,
Virtue, justice, holiness
and not vice-versa.
Similarly,
are
themselves primarily to the stability
question whether
democracy
agreement upon cern with political
fundamental
stability
apathy
can survive norms.
of those who
least
of
to be
on
the regime, to the
have noted, this
bizarre
proportions.
share or comprehend the
these individuals are least
service of the
the real or apparent absence of
some critics
or survival sometimes reaches
and constitutional values can come since
As
in the
empirical studies
contemporary
consensus address
regime,
of empirical
to prove or disprove the basic contention of
they
the myth.
when
stress,
or when political out
intended. What is instructive, I think, is to
that these studies, even where within
in
and
to be
appear
The
basic democratic
salutary feature
regarded as a
likely
con
of the
to rock the boat. From a dif
ferent perspective, however, the same phenomenon might appear as a national scandal, and the transformation of the politically apathetic into morally responsible citizens might
Where some, then,
flict,
others
their
attachment
which
take their
I have
be
regarded as
are concerned with
the first order of national
stability
are, I
believe, in
and
concern.
the avoidance of
stand with personal growth and
to the primary values of survival
alluded
and
human
con
excellence.
In
stability, the studies to
the same tradition as the myth of
Protagoras. We order
7
8
cannot
is
turn away from these
studies without
not a closed system unaffected
by
those
noting that the
who make
political
it their primary
Politics,"
in American McCloskey, "Consensus and Ideology in American Political Science Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, 1964, p. 376. David Easton and Jack Dennis, "The Child's Acquisition of Regime Norms : Political in American Political Science Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, 1967, p. 38. Herbert
Efficacy,"
Interpretation
238
field
of
inquiry. A century ago, Alexis de Tocqueville observed, "Among the political sciences give birth or at last form to those
all civilized peoples
the facts with which politicians have to
general concepts whence emerge
and the
laws
concepts] form a
both
deal,
they beheve themselves the inventors. [These general kind of atmosphere surrounding each society in which
of which
have to draw intellectual breath, and whence both groups derive the principles of
rulers and governed
often without
realizing it
Those
who
fail to
confront
confidently
action."9
assert
the stabilizing effect of the socialization process
the ancient question of who
is teaching the teachers. Those
study the American system of beliefs often look upon it as something merely given, a datum, and they scarcely conceive of themselves as prospec who
tive authors of beliefs and values "myth"
"ideology"
terms as
or
concepts and values
in point. To
case
one
comprise
question of
ting
us
our commitment
been
remarked
We
ly
behef. So to
the status of our
from the
loyalty
speak of
to
loyalty. The
and
perhaps
equally
them necessarily raises the
beliefs
separa
questioning that status undermines
mankind,
the authority of, the values themselves. It has often
that
and
teaching is myth of
a subversive activity.
Protagoras,
political order.
application, each city was free to
ular code
life may be taken as a is to suggest that they
to an arbitrary system of
and
which, if we
The
that Zeus gave to all men was not, as we actual
of
"ideology"
to,
the problem of
posed
The popularity of such
rest of
back to the
are
things as an
many possible, equally elaborate,
alternative systems of
valid,
study.
to describe that comprehensive system of
comprising the American way
speak of these
of
they shall later
which each of
conflict
its
between
have
erect
consider
of
law
citizens owed unqualified and
what men owe
themselves
justice In the
seen, self-enforcing.
its own table
the city and what
on
carefully,
sense of reverence and
the
partic
unquestioning
they
owe other
to surface.
they scarcely In turning to consider what it is that men believe they owe themselves, turning from political order to self, we recognize at once a different order of and even what
men
owe
in
priorities.
In this
sche; his
conception of
to our
own.
each self
as
The
so
many
other
areas,
particular emphasis
is derivative from the What
and a
"I"
or with
it is
do
well
to begin with Nietz
that we place
uniqueness of each with one
upon
the
body. The body, Nietzsche
sense,
toy
the
an unknown
of the
"self."
sage,
a
we
normally
a war and a peace, a
body's "great More
mighty
understand as reason
The
precisely, the self
ruler.10
ferreting
9
10
out whatever
is
is but
an
reason."
body
dwells
is identical
within the
Nietzsche initiates the
search
the liberation of this great sage, wiser than reason. The search on
similarities
uniqueness of
shepherd."
and a
instrument the
we
the self may be shown to have striking
tells us, is "a great reason, a plurality
herd
allowed
was
with
body;
for
and
concentrates
a man's own, the characteristic sign of which
is
Alexis de Tocqueville, address before the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, 1853; cited in Marvin Zetterbaum, Tocqueville and the Problem of Democracy, (Stan ford, Stanford University Press, 1967,) p. 143.
Nietzsche, Zarathustra, I, 4.
that to it society attaches the
In
society.
declares man
to share
come
all
common
teaching
on
passions or
just,
ferentiates him from every For
What is
traditional
desires to be his be it
with all other men
the
specific conception of
"evil."
label,
of the
individual
a man's
may
inversion
a total
239
Order
Self and Political
the good, and the
is the
other man
If a
is
(e.g.,
one passion
looks
virtues.
but that
holy
source of
Not
what a
discourse,
rational
the subjectivity this may suggest, Nietzsche is
an egalitarian.
is good, says morahty, Nietzsche or a
which
dif
the only true morality. neither a
democrat nor
himself and finds only one passion, if he I-am-a-power-seeker), he is fortunate in that his lot in
man
within
life is easier; he suffers no contrary passions or cross-purposes. At the same time, to have many passions, especially warring ones, is a sign of distinction. To be a battleground for one's passions, to sustain the conflict wherein each
(reason, which
lust, etc.,)
power,
these are the marks of
tiplicity, in his value and
the
many things his
rank of
moral
iar to to
relish
form,
option,
truth of our
But
cing
take
no
a person's
"range
how
himself, how far
of our
much and
[can]
one
and
how
extend
the refusal
desires are phenomena famil
our conception of a self.
As Benjamin De
the decade just completed, ".
We behave
and mul
determines the
philosopher
accordance with
upon
to the least
portrait of
of self.
.
.
we've come
though impatient or bitter at every
as
convention and practice
that edges us toward singleness of
that forces us to accept this or that single role as the whole
being."13
Nietzsche's
message
has
at
last been heard.
What has occurred, particularly in America, has democratization and perhaps even a vulgarization of Nietzsche's
it has
teaching. We have a
and
fact, they define
or
of course
a
A
This craving for kaleidoscopic experience
in his
plurality
structure, view or
been
In
observes
Greatness lies in
by
one
single passion
manifoldness."
individuals "in
grounds) to say
us all.
Mott
in
bear
[can]
responsibility."12
(on
himself, to give the victory to no
nobility.11
wholeness
one
be the
strives to overcome the rest and to
the individual defines
doctrine
of
that such is the
not.
to the totalization
sought access
freedom
"natural"
or of
"letting
state of man.
Little
by embra by the belief
of experience
go"
oneself
buttressed
support
for this
view can
be
found in Nietzsche. On the contrary, he maintains that almost everything of value of life virtue, art, music, dance, reason, spirituality, ethics, even government
in
arises
only through "obedience over a long period of time The rigor and subtlety of the European mind, for exam .
.
.
direction."
a single
ple, was honed through its
subservience
anti-rational"
presuppositions of
to
"capricious, hard,
thought. The
"tyranny
laws"
is indispensable, and Nietzsche concludes "in all probability is by no means small that precisely this is
gruesome,
seriousness"
that
12
"the
'natural'
'nature'
11
and
of such capricious
and
Ibid., I, 5. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good
and
Evil,
trans. Walter
Kaufmann, (New York,
Revolution,"
in The New York Times
137.
Vintage, 1966,) "Benjamin Demott, "The Sixties: A Cultural p.
Magazine, December 14, 1969,
p.
30.
Interpretation
240 that laisser
and not
ophers of
His
the
discipline
arduous
Nietzsche
aller."u
those
the
to
Whereas Nietzsche drew from his doctrine need
for
have been less
others
experience of nazism
is
by
to his cause "the philos
dint
they
of
long training and
were not of the
herd.
everyman.15
implications (other than the from the herd),
enlist
who
to demonstrate that
were able
doctrine for
was not a
sought
"overmen,"
future,"
all
of
the
cautious
self no specific political
to hold themselves aloof
overmen
in applying his teaching. The democracy is
too familiar. The application to
certainly less familiar but not impossible if certain modifications are under Henry Kariel's world in The Promise of Politics is Nietzsche's world
taken.
tradition or transcendence. But this world is made to seem com
one without patible
world,
indeed the very
and
with,
politics
is
"roles"
various
in
an effort
various parts of themselves.
Kariel's
for the individual, "that of
of
not
Kariel
Where Nietzsche's
its
self shuns
greatest
good.16
the market place,
The
ultimate value
is the "comprehension of the greatest the best society is an open or democratic one
and
foreclose individual
retains
choices, that will nurture alternative styles
the aristocratic overtones of the Nietzschean self in emphasi
achievement of
self-mastery,
even
time, democratic
self-awareness,
if these
are
overtones make
Kariel resolutely insists
recognition of
hmits,
and
ultimately
to be sought in the political arena. At the same
role-playing and the search for roles, but scrupulously avoid
15.
out
life."18
zing the
14.
try
unexpectedly,
experience."17
will not
In this
politics.
to discover their true selves or to integrate the
self regards political order as
diversity
of, democratic
condition
conceived as a process or as a stage on which men
their
appearance
alternative styles of
identified
becoming
upon a
thoroughgoing
in the
emphasis upon
life. Men with
assume various one
any
skepticism
of
them.
that refuses to
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pp. 100-102. Cf., however, the concept of self that emerges in Theodore Roszak's The Making of a Counter Culture, (Garden City, Anchor, 1969), pp. 235-6. Like Nietzsche, Roszak has a vision of a
"whole
and
human variety genuinely with
fying
"the
fullness."
and of
as
needs
the
his
own
The task
integrated
in
person
there is manifested a sense of the
he believes
and
personality thrusts of
forging
a
upon
as a sculptor shapes
his
stone
.
be
.
also that a person must reckon
him in its
"comprehensive
raw materials of experience must
cunningly
whom
experienced,"
fullness,
in its terri
often
life"
style of
out of
these
needs
undertaken"
as
...
At the
same
time, the
laboriously
and
genuine growth
discipline, intellectual or otherwise: "The expansion of by special training, but by a naive openness to Referring to those illuminating moments by which a life is quite sud denly deepened and enlarged, Roszak adds, "The homely magic of such turning points waits for all of us and will find us if we let it. What befalls us then is an experience of the of
the person is not a matter of
the personality is nothing that is achieved experience."
personality suddenly swelling beyond to become a greater
(Italics mine.) 16. Kariel, p. 25. 17. Ibid., 18. Ibid.,
p.
31.
p.
35.
and nobler
all that we
identity
had
once thought
to be
than we had previously
'real', swelling
believed
possible."
Self and Political
Order
24 1
any given role as appropriate, final, or definitive. He recognizes the danger implicit in this : "Committing himself to play the roles of his choice, affirm
[the
individual] is, it
the question
braces than
of
is true,
always
in danger
rejects the
losing his
of
self, giving rise to Yet Kariel rather em
is."19
who, if truth be told, he really
indeed, it defines for him
ambiguity;
the nature of the
the human condition. His view "accepts the ultimately irreconcil able character of our roles, and therefore defines as mature whoever has the self and of
capacity for playing diverse parts and remaining an unreconciled being In such a context, to speak of self-mastery or ultimate tense, nervous, civil."20
integration is meaningless, for these the correlative ideas
role-playing leaves acting to self, and when one
or
unanswered whether
indeed,
be
concepts cannot
The
of completion or resolution.
there is
a
way to
really knows
whether one
is not. Kariel's reassurances
understood without
confusion of self with
progress
from play
is play-acting are scarcely convincing: "... how when one
feels himself to be threatened, he can yet preserve his distinctive identity by recognizing that his dedication to the role he plays is quite delib erate. He is no mere role-player, but at core a discriminating being who ever man
picks and chooses
from
available roles.
Drawing
on
his
primordial animal
Yet energy, he interprets them, transforms them, and creates new in the condition of fluidity that characterizes Kariel's world there is nothing ones."21
to suggest that this tense, nervous, can
have
"core"
a
to discriminate. Nor
with which
reservoir of "primordial animal
transforming
evaluating,
The democratization
by jettisoning self and
whatever
and
of
can we
immediately
many
satisfies
a
creating
the requirements of choosing,
roles.
the Nietzschean self is accomplished, I
is the lineal descendant
believe, of
ideals,
and responsibihties
formerly embraced Nietzschean
Socrates'
"fair
of
man of
In neither the one instance nor in the other is there thepossibility
the appearance of a genuine self constituted
and
how
comprehend
energy"
finality or fixity is thought to reside in the concept
role-player
colors."
sions,
being
to substitute in its place the concept of man as role-player. Kariel's
democratic
of
unreconciled and unreconcilable
that remains fixed enough to provide him with principles
in the
into
concept of
by
a meaningful
"character."22
characterization of political order as
the
organization of pas
whole,
or
into
Kariel does
what was
not
deny the
the locus of role-playing
representation; but if in the final analysis there is no possible appeal to a then nothing is more natural than to look upon political order
genuine self
"Ibid., i0
Ibid., 21 Ibid., 22
p.
27.
p.
26.
p.
28. See
That the evident
also
Ibid., fn. 7,
concept of character
from the
preface
is
p.
29.
still
intelligible to
at
to David Cecil's Melbourne
least
one
(London,
contemporary
Reprint
writer
is
Society, 1955),
sections : "The first, extending from life, describes the formation of [Melbourne's] character; the second gives an analysis, illustrated by references both to his earlier and subsequent history, of this character when set into middle life; the third tells how this character exhibited itself in action during his later
p. v.
Cecil
childhood
notes
into
that his book divides into three
middle
years."
Interpretation
242
as the indispensable arena for playing out the drama of human existence.The flight from society cannot be justified in the name of genuine self-fulfillment. It would be tempting but unwise to dismiss Nietzsche, perhaps even Ka
riel, as
exotic
thinkers outside the mainstream
of contemporary social science.
have only to turn at last to the work which, To see that this is not the case, promised to end the split between self and society. In noted as I earher, we
Society, Professor Etzioni
The Active century
from
existence apart
In
society.
"Man,"
self."
that of the "social
he is depends
irrevocably
on
his
bound to
he
what
the very being his irreducible self
of an
capable of
having an
concept, he offers
he tells us, "is and what he
his
makes of
not unless
makes of
himself."23
The
the individual ; it forms a
of
"~* .
if it is
place of this outmoded
being,
social
penetrates to views as model
rejects the seventeenth and eighteenth
notion of the objectivization of the self as
he is social; social
what
being
is
entity itself "part of what he
social
For this reason, Etzioni finds the Greek congenial to his own
.
all-embracing, all-encompassing society
the classical conception of political order took as its model the
thought.
Still,
order of
the cosmos
itself,
an
which political order
eternal, natural order
tried to approximate on the human level. The classical understanding of self or soul also classical
derives from
disposition to
agreement with
the social self
they
social structure
key
the self as
is
not
primarily because
itself fixed
goals of
citizens and
the
Etzioni's It is
23
that we
p.
If
.
if that
by changing their
creator."25
are the
to
final
"fuller
chapter of his
reach some
clarity
Etzioni, does
in intrapsychic phenomena but
Etzioni,
.
of
its
authentic, educated expression of an unbounded
inauthenticity, Alienation, (which, according or
and
then we can locate "the
immutable,
society
not until the
tion and
flict
following the
his fundamental
structure,
in the ability of men, themselves, to be the
"active"
"uninhibited,
membership."26
and
of a social
man
combinations, to change
The
Far from reveals
thought of as a self able to reset its own code
are
to a secular conception of
social
fixed,
of man.
Etzioni
the notions of modernity that we have already rehearsed:
"may be
men are what
unchanging idea
an
regard
rather
not
has its
book, devoted to about
these
aliena
aspirations.
he in interpersonal real roots
"in the
con
societal
2.
24
Ibid., p. 3. 2i Ibid., p. 4. 26 Ibid., pp. 12-13. It is impossible to follow here Etzioni's attempts, ultimately unsuccess ful, to steer a path between the Scylla of absolutism or objectivity and the Charybdis of relativism or subjectivity. On the one hand, his study of the active society purports to be wholly neutral : he wishes to investigate how any society attempts to realize its values.
the
On the
other
realization of
hand, he recoils from
the
values of societies
the possibility that such as
Nazi
his study
Germany
Such societies, he
finds, are repressive rather than responsive, inauthentically mobilized "in support of unethical
might
and
facilitate
South Africa.
and the members thereof
positions."
are of
"oppressive,
""educated,"
"unethical,"
the absence of some objective criteria
any
appeal
to
"authentic,"
and
an
"absolute
by which to
reach
these judgments.
values"
set of
(p. 13.) His frank use be meaningless in
would
Yet, he
rejects
thought to be available to social scientists,
Order
Self and Political structure,") is defined
and political
243
the "unresponsiveness
as
of
the world to
the actor, which subjects him to forces he neither comprehends nor
guides."
Inauthenticity is tution,
seen as a subcategory of alienation: "A relationship, insti society is inauthentic if it provides the appearance of respon while the underlying condition is To avoid the charge
or
siveness
alienating."27
that a society which was responsive to just any needs of its citizens could not then be regarded as alienating, Etzioni has recourse to the concept of basic
human needs,
arising from society
neither
Only those societies, then, truly
characterized as
is contrary to human nature basic human It is clearly the
structure
tentative spirit,
evidently beyond the
subject
scope of
depends as
The are
his
on
if these
social
in
case that the
and
he
being,
described
degree to
of
basic needs is prof and
verification,
it is
Etzioni has
which
solved
to and impervious to social penetration. "autonomous."
as
the needs produced
by
[the
They are needs "which individual's] relationship to
transcend
either
the values of the
themselves or of the subjects of their study. He seeks to
social scientists
the dilemma
list and
Still, if man is a social being, if what he is then it is difficult to speak of basic human needs
rejects as well a social science unable to
individual resolve
of
testing
nature.29
question are
independent
not allow
this paper and the competence of this writer
constituted a core external
needs
does
to further
to evaluate that list and so determine the the problem of man's
society, one "whose the satisfaction of
of a
and
needs."28
a
"deviant"
the concept
version of
fered in
societal approval.
in meeting these needs can be Etzioni thus adopts what he calls
active and authentic.
"moderate"
a
to
nor subject
which are successful
analysis"
by recourse to a "transcendental
which
"can be conducted
building on the values to which the social unit under study is actively committed but disregarding the parochial, tribalistic limits within which it expresses them Universalizing the values of the subjects provides an Archimedial standpoint for a openly,
.
science."
(p. 34.) This
critical yet objective social
following difficulties : One ralizing from the
identify
ultimate
chial,
a universal value
values of a particular social unit under
conception of what even
procedure
"induce"
cannot
is universally
valid.
Without
quantitative
measure,
hence, subjective, if held only by one or a few,
and
Etzioni
supplies
ing American is
(p. 661 fn. 34) ,
sociological
on
the necessity
the concept
tradition,
role
is
least the
and gene
has
a prior
for their "role."
Nor,
unless
a value
is
the
paro
that it becomes valid or objec
and
of
say that
relevant confirmation of
resolution
He tells
a positive concept
us
in
a remark
the
that
that "in the prevail
; in the European one, it
person."
a negative
essential
(as
universalize on
the basis
of
of self
tially tribalistic,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
pp. p.
If, in seeking to
concept, constricting the
it is
ing
27
and of
unless one
tribalistic.
can we
tive if universally shared. There is a curious but extremely
difficulties involved here
study
open to at
abstracting
.
some such conception one could not
the parochial and tribalistic as parochial
test of validity is some
is
by
.
618-19.
p.
have
seen
above) to
624.
attain some understand
assess the value of
role, shall we
the one tradition or the other? Which view of role
the American or the European?
623.
"See Ibid., fn.,
we
is
essen
Interpretation
244 the
societal structure
.
can the apparent ambiguity be resolved by formal requirements whose substantive content as
Nor
.
defining basic human needs may be variously filled by different societies. Etzioni's emphasis upon activity seems
to
way
perhaps
his
emphasize
in their
people gain a share members
be
are
.
they advance along with the socie Mankind is continually redefining itself of this difficulty (I believe there is none), there .
.
hesitancy in declaring
no
between
make-up
themselves are also transformed ;
that
can
fundamental interaction of
a more
as a result of the
process of societal activation, not
they changing Whatever the final solution
ty
in
men change
only do more in society, thereby reconstituting its structure, but the
"In the
man and society.
that
conviction
constituent
self and
society is
that the
accomplished at
resolution of
the
.
the alleged conflict
expense of a
total depreciation
is only, or is primarily, a social being receiv ing and creating the definition of himself through society, the final para graph of Etzioni's book is, fittingly, a paean of praise for the public self. In of
the private self. Because
man
the inauthentic society most men are trapped in a private
selves and public roles
citizens
"manage
by treating like,
counseling, and the
from
which
their neuroses
w
conflict
is
there
between their
ith drugs, alcohol,
thus reinforcing the
These
no real escape.
inauthenticity
professional
of the
society
malaise."
Some few
their
which caused
somewhat more authentic public selves which
they
In these lie the hope for
They
society.
are
a private world which
initiation
basis
of societal action.
of the transformation of the
inauthentic
ones."3-
vision of
the authentic society responsive to the genuine
of the neuroses generated
vate need and public responsibility,
by
the spht
between
itself. The
....
The
social embodiment of values
also enables each member
anew the normative
"dynamic
upon a
fabric
a return
liberty,
sought to
"man may be
30
Ibid.,
p.
Ibid.,
p.
15.
Ibid.,
p.
655.
"Ibid.,
p.
15.
31
32
order
only thing
have
has an element of objectivization, but
of
each
society
morning
.
.
Society
then
rests
contract"
that provides and requires "a changing
social .
What Etzioni has
.
the endless redefinition of
holiness. Political some
in
tablets
achieved,
then,
to the myth of Protagoras but on the plane of modernity.
and
which the
social
to lift himself. Human beings cannot reweave
normative and pohtical consensus
is
of
require
redefinitions of man that are formulated
the interchange between man and society must be "recorded in
it
pri
continually evolving fresh definitions
the self, Etzioni is not unmindful of the more narrowly conceived ments of political order
is
those who evolve new
are
collectivize and make the
an
citizens, free
to
for them. "Finally, there
the active
In setting forth his needs of its
retreat
622.
man replace
is held together
certain
is that it
by
will
an ephemeral portrait of
be different
determine the degree
enabled
Life, justice, temperance, and
and
on
man, of
the morrow. While
the conditions
under which
to tolerate more chaos in the belief systems around
Self and Political him,"34
social
we
have still to inquire whether
tablets are erected
There is
no need
by
characterized
on
the
be
political order can
of sandstone
to dwell
245
Order
in
sustained where
place of granite.
attractiveness of a concept of self that
autonomy; experimentation; freedom from
is
singleness of
purpose, occupation, or role; release from the stultifying conformism of mass society; and the capacity for self-correction and growth that arises from the
opportunity for redefinition.
integrative these
of
believe,
self
The story
ends.
those
of
the liberation
inaugurated has
modern era
I
Nevertheless,
have
we
principle of self upon which we could
to pick and choose from among the which are congenial
to our own
elements of
tastes,
and omit
inegalitarian. It is sobering to reflect that demanding dignity of pohtical order by populating it with individual or
ened with
the
self
into
a social self where we
make-up of the one or the Because the concept of about
cannot solve
faction
self
it through the
is
those that are too
we
may
restore
the
threat
role-players
love,
security,
reduces politics
order, in this view,
no
about
certainty
the
the
attempt
to reach some
basic human needs, either pre-social appeal. However, the resort to basic needs
identity,)
of
The
political order.
together
loneliness,
for the
quest
and
But
we
with
the
satis
need
or
separation-
insecurity;
emotional
scarcely
to political
appeal
alienation, anomie,
to the alleviation of
comforts man.
have the capacity
have
have been tentatively identified, (the need for approv
order as a means of overcoming
men
indistinct,
so
discovery
the problem of self and
of such needs as
al, affection,
anxiety,
facile,
other.
trans-social in nature, has wide
or
It is
the Nietzschean
the loss of self altogether. It is unreasonable to contemplate the
absorption of
clarity
an
the self that the
or meaning.
ending
for
vain
accomplishment
and celebration of
no unambiguous
in
sought
rely for the
political
to be reminded that
the willingness to transcend basic needs, often at
the sacrifice of comfort and security. A concept of self that made no provision
for reverence, nobility, honor, justice, responsibility, be a diminished self; that is, it would not be a self at
basic
only to
human
of
is not, then,
needs
content
meet
equivalent
these
to the
and
all.
realization of
minimum requirements
do
generosity,
The
self;
would
satisfaction of
regimes
not elicit
that are
the full
range
potentiality.
Man's fundamental impulse, we are told, that which gives meaning to his self-realization. If this is conceded, then the only legitimate pur
existence, is
pose of political order, and the
authority
such order
only justification for
requires, is the
provision of
the
recourse
to
whatever
appropriate conditions
institutions whereby men may be aided in the accomplishment of this fundamental aspiration. But this proposition prejudges the issue, for until and
we
have
some
certainty about the self we cannot assume that any particular selfany form of authority facilitates rather than frustrates
pohtical order or realization.
If
man's
home is hospitable art, nature, 34
or
only home is his self, we need to inquire whether this not, whether the fulfillment of the self is the result of
or
nurture, and also
whether
the
self-realization of one
Christian Bay, The Structure of Freedom, (New York,
Atheneum, 1965,)
individual
p.
81.
Interpretation
246
is
in short, how the those of political order, if at
compatible with that of another
fulfillment
articulate with
less than to nothing to edge
understand
which we
that the
self
is
requirements of all.
We
need
self-
nothing
the meaning of self, and although there seems to be
have
more
intimate access,
even more elusive
we
have
finaUy
than pohtical order.
to acknowl
