Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

"That I might not anticipate the reader, I have delayed pointing out until this period the striking fimilarity this adventure of Cámarupa's bears to the ftory of the celebrated Sinbad the Sailor, fo pleasantly related in the Arabian Tales; it is indeed word for word with that; and if Cámarúpa be taken from the original Sanfcrit, (of which it bears fuch ftrong internal marks, as well of names as of local allufions,) we fhall not, on this occafion, hesitate to yield the merit of invention not to the Arabian, but to the Indian author."

We are very strongly inclined to dispute the validity of this fuppofition, nor fhould we be without good arguments on our fide, though the ingenious tranflator fhould fatisfy us, which would be not a little difficult, that, bating the ftrong internal evidence which the Arabian Nights carry with them of authenticity and originality, the reprefentations which they give are thofe of ancient Hindu, and not of more modern Mahometan manners. There are parts alfo of this tale which will ftrongly remind the reader of a story in the popular tales of the Germans, which is called the Three Sifters.

We hope that Mr. Franklin will proceed in the ingenuous purfuits he has fo fuccefsfully commenced, and that from the fertile fource of Perfic literature, with which he feems fo intimately acquainted, he will continue to amufe and inftruct his countrymen.

ART. XII. An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on general Virtue and Happiness. By William Godwin. 2 vols. 4to. 11. 16s. Robinsons.

HEN we meet a man who frequently and violently extols

WHEN

his own wisdom, knowledge, and fagacity, the obvious, and almoft infallible conclufion, is, that he is fhallow, ignorant, and foolish. Experience daily fhows that this conclufion is not in the least too harsh; and reason fully justifies it, by pronouncing, that no wife man could be fo ill-informed, either of his own imperfections, or of the comparative merits of others, as to be guilty of fuch empty boafting. The reason extends equally to a whole age; and we live in an age which is fo perpetually vaunting its own illumination and knowledge, that a confiftent reafoner can have little doubt, even from this fingle fymptom, that it must be the most vain, fhallow, foolish, and impertinent age, that ever the revolution of time has yet brought into exiftence. The caufe of this abfurd vanity is as ridiculous in this cafe as in any other. Having been fortunately directed, by a more thinking age, into the right method of investigating facts in natural philofophy, the prefent gene

Y 4

ration

ration in Europe, (for of Europe only we speak) has taken fome pains in pursuing that method, which is matter of curiofity and entertainment; has collected a great number of facts; and has drawn the natural conclufions from them: and, for this reafon, it has very wifely concluded itself to be a most enlightened generation. But fetting afide natural and experimental philofophy; which, for the reasons just suggested, has been the hobby-horse of these times, it would have been an odd, and very extraordinary inftance of good fortune, if the prefent race of Europeans had poffeffed more wisdom than all others, fince it most remarkably neglects all methods of acquiring it. Intenfe ftudy and indefatigable application are almost unheard of; the patience of former ftudents, in fearching out whatever could be known on any subject, is held almost incredible; or if not incredible, ridiculous: fince it has been found, it feems, that a casual thought upon an abstruse subject decides it better than a profound enquiry; and that wifdom and knowledge come, to enlightened ages, like Sir Andrew Aguecheek's reading and writing, by nature. All this is fo evident, that few pretend to deny the prefent to be an indolent and fuperficial age, though at the fame time they will extol it as informed and enlightened; putting these detached affertions together, we shall have fomething very like the truth; which is, that it is an indolently informed, and fuperficially enlightened age: defpifing all former wisdom, chiefly from not knowing it precifely; and free in affertion rather than enquiry, merely from that impudence which ignorance alone produces, and from a childish love of novelty, unchecked by fear of confequences, or veneration of any principles. Hence is it that a few fpecious, but not found, metaphyficians, with not much higher talents, for fuch purposes, than thofe of faying bold things in an original or witty manner, and of giving a falfe colour to paradoxes (which are either new, because they never were before thought worthy to be advanced, or, being old, were given up as too nonfenfical to be supported) have been dignified with the title of philofophers, conferred, as is ufual in fuch cafes, by themfelves; but conceded, as is very wonderful, by many others. There is much reafon to apprehend, that if this enlightened age thould be fucceeded by times of real wisdom and of found research, the general laugh of pofterity will attend thofe high pretenfions which a few have uttered with fuch courage, and multitudes have admitted with fuch levity.

But, of all the ridiculous circumstances which these propenfities have yet produced, there are few more remarkable, than that there fhould have arifen a perfon fo wildly extravagant as to write and publish, and even one or two to commend, fo perfectly

perfectly chimerical a book as that which is the subject of this article. The author, full of that importance which makes him suppose he shall attract prodigious attention, and excite vast movement, flatters himself he thall become the fubject of perfecution; and works himself up to a spirit of martyrdom that he may support all the evil this formidable book thall draw upon him. But alas! a much heavier fate than perfecution awaits him, and one for which perhaps his mind is not equally prepared; the worst fate that can attend ambitious authorthip, and fyftemmaking, neglect. Two bulky quartos contain too much reading to be popular; and one pound fixteen is too ferious a fum for any man to give, merely to fee Mr. Burke's ironical fatire upon civil fociety,* and Swift's exaggerated descriptions of the depravity of man, advanced into a grave system, gravely intended at least, for the conduct of the world.t Secure in these great pledges of obfcurity, full many a copy have we seen with its title page expofed in a window, with its leaves uncut, till flies and duft had defaced its open front, and many an one, perhaps, thall fee defcending from the flies above to those of fubterraneous London, guiltlefs of having feduced one wavering mind, or excited even a wifh to profecute, much less to persecute, the author. In the few that, by fome ftrange contingency, may read the book, or a part of it, the indifcriminate fatire thrown upon all ranks and claffes of fociety, as it now exifts in the world, will effectually reprefs the feelings of each individual for his own: and the general benevolence of fentiments expreffed, with the mildness of method recommended by the author, (though he does in one paffage own, that he thinks the introduction of his fyftem would be cheaply purchased by a maffacre, p. 876) will induce the candid reader to regret the mifapplication of fo much time, and of talents fo confiderable.

Talents we fay, without referve, for we would not be fo difhoneft as to fay, or to imply, that the author is deficient in natural powers. His malady is furely not imbecility of nature, but that which imbecility has been faid completely to prevent. A weak man cannot produce a long work of connected fubtilty and argument. It is the property of a very different ftate of mind to take for granted one or two extravagant abfurdities, and then

* Published originally in 1756, and called A Vindication of Natural Society; reprinted in a fet of Fugitive Pieces, published by the Dodfleys in 1761. Written in ridicule of Bolingbreke, on the fuppofition, that the principle which forms the ground-work of Mr. Godwin's book was too abfurd to be maintained a moment.

Both these authors are quoted in pp. 9 and 10.

to

to reafon juftly and correctly from them, as if they were undoubted truths. Such is the origin and conduct of this book, which affords a ftriking example to what exceffes of extravagance a man may proceed, who difcards all revealed truth, to adopt the reveries of writers like the author of Syfteme de la Nature, Helvetius, and Rouffeau. Beyond thefe, who are his profeffed teachers, Mr. Godwin has taken an unmeasurable flight, on the waxen wings which they inftructed him to fabricate; and before the conclufion of his book is perfectly in the clouds, to fall, like Icarus, as we shall show when we confider the laft chapters.

Nothing can be more eafy, for a person who has read a book of this nature, than to convey a full and just notion of it in a very few pages. Detached extracts alone, in the greatest number, could not do it; and could only ferve to diffeminate the poifon, without conveying the antidote, which is, the knowledge of the unfubftantial bafis on which the whole is founded. But as the whole is clearly enough deduced from a very few principles, to fhow what they are, and in what manner purfued, with a very few specimens of the mode of execution, will put every reader in poffeffion of the real merits of the cafe, without the toil, which, we confefs, is not a fmall one, of going through the volumes.

The principles then, taken for granted as axioms, on which the whole is founded, are thefe; 1. The omnipotence of truth;

2. The perfectibility (as it is expreffed) of man; probably by means of this omnipotent truth ;-3. That man is a mere machine; and, 4. That his actions, as well as every thing that happens in the univerfe, are the refult of abfolute neceffity. Granting these things, there is certainly much acuteness and confift ency in the mode of drawing the deductions from them; denying any one of them,-and what reasonable man will not ftrenuously deny them all?-the whole fabric crumbles into duft, or vanishes into lefs than air; it is merely xave oxia: and though there may be interfperfed many found, and fome valuable remarks, the whole, as a fyftem, ftands on nothing.

It is true, that the principles are not regularly and openly laid down as a foundation for the reft, but they are every where taken for granted. The doctrine of neceffity, in particular, does not make its appearance fairly till we arrive at the 5th chapter of book iv. and the reafon there affigned for that delay, will give a full idea of the artifice employed by the author, in keeping whatever might be deemed offenfive out of fight, till he thinks he has, by cautious fteps, prepared his reader to receive it :

"None of thefe principles feems to be of greater importance than that which affirms that all actions are neceffary.

"Moft

"Most of the reafonings upon which we have hitherto been employed, though perhaps conftantly built upon this doctrine as a poftulate, will yet, by their intrinfic evidence, however inconfiftently with his opinion upon this primary topic, be admitted by the advocate of free will. But it ought not to be the prefent defign of political enquiries to treat the questions that may prefent themselves fuperficially. It will be found upon maturer reflection, that this doctrine of moral neceffity includes in it confequences of the higheft moment, and leads to a bold and comprehenfive view of man in fociety, which cannot poffibly be entertained by him who has embraced the oppofite opinion. Severe method would have required that this propofition thould have been established in the firft inftance, as an indifpenfible foundation of moral reafoning of every fort. But there are well-difpofed perfons, who notwithstanding the evidence with which it is attended, have been alarmed at its confequences; and it was perhaps proper, in compliance with their mistake, to thew that the moral reafonings of this work did not stand in need of this fupport, in any other fenfe than moral reasonings do upon every other fubject." P.285.

The latter affertion in this paffage certainly was not dictated by the omnipotence of truth, fince, if moft of the reasonings "are constantly built upon this doctrine as a poftulate," it cannot be true, that they do not ftand in need of this fupport. It is infinuated, indeed, that all moral reafonings whatever do require it; but this may fafely be denied, and at beft is only, in this place, begging the queftion. This ftudiously obfcure paffage, with the caution prefixed in a note, that readers, indifpofed to abftrufe fpeculations, may pafs over the remainder of this book, affords no bad fpecimen of the Jefuitifm of this votary of truth.

1. With respect to the principles in queftion, that of the omnipotence of trath is no where exprefsly laid down as a fundamental point, but it meets us perpetually in the form of an affertion. In page 250, it firft occurs (if we mistake not) in full ftrength, "What a cowardly diftruft do reafonings like these "exhibit of the omnipotence of truth!" Again; "Both these " errors have a common fource, a diftruft of the omnipotence of "truth." P. 385. "There is not in reality the finalleft "room for fcepticism refpecting the omnipotence of truth." 452. And it is, therefore, faid as a reproach to monarchy, that it worships an idol "in lieu of the divinity of truth." We cannot, he fays, "bow the head in the temple of Rimmon, with"out, in fome degree, apoftatifing from the divinity of truth." P. 45!.

Hearing all this, we may well afk, with more reason and fincerity than Pilate, What is truth? Why truth is, after all, only the agreement or difagreement of the terms of a propofition, which we may collect to be the author's definition of it, from the following paffage," the knowledge of truth lies in the

perceived

« ПредишнаНапред »