[Footnote 1: Proverbs i 20-22.]
[Footnote 2: Homo homini Lupus. Plautus Asin. Act ii sc. 4.]
* * * * *
No. 125. Tuesday, July 24, 1711. Addison.
'Ne pueri, ne tanta animis assuescite bella:
Neu patriæ validas in viscera vertite vires.'
Vir.
My worthy Friend Sir ROGER, when we are talking of the Malice of
Parties, very frequently tells us an Accident that happened to him when
he was a School-boy, which was at a time when the Feuds ran high between
the Roundheads and Cavaliers. This worthy Knight, being then but a
Stripling, had occasion to enquire which was the Way to St. _Anne's_
Lane, upon which the Person whom he spoke to, instead of answering his
Question, call'd him a young Popish Cur, and asked him who had made
_Anne_ a Saint? The Boy, being in some Confusion, enquired of the next
he met, which was the Way to _Anne's_ Lane; but was call'd a prick-eared
Cur for his Pains, and instead of being shewn the Way, was told that she
had been a Saint before he was born, and would be one after he was
hanged. Upon this, says Sir ROGER, I did not think fit to repeat the
former Question, but going into every Lane of the Neighbourhood, asked
what they called the Name of that Lane. By which ingenious Artifice he
found out the place he enquired after, without giving Offence to any
Party. Sir ROGER generally closes this Narrative with Reflections on the
Mischief that Parties do in the Country; how they spoil good
Neighbourhood, and make honest Gentlemen hate one another; besides that
they manifestly tend to the Prejudice of the Land-Tax, and the
Destruction of the Game.
There cannot a greater Judgment befal a Country than such a dreadful
Spirit of Division as rends a Government into two distinct People, and
makes them greater Strangers and more averse to one another, than if
they were actually two different Nations. The Effects of such a Division
are pernicious to the last degree, not only with regard to those
Advantages which they give the Common Enemy, but to those private Evils
which they produce in the Heart of almost every particular Person. This
Influence is very fatal both to Mens Morals and their Understandings; it
sinks the Virtue of a Nation, and not only so, but destroys even Common
Sense.
A furious Party Spirit, when it rages in its full Violence, exerts it
self in Civil War and Bloodshed; and when it is under its greatest
Restraints naturally breaks out in Falshood, Detraction, Calumny, and a
partial Administration of Justice. In a Word, it fills a Nation with
Spleen and Rancour, and extinguishes all the Seeds of Good-Nature,
Compassion and Humanity.
_Plutarch_ says very finely, that a Man should not allow himself to hate
even his Enemies, because, says he, if you indulge this Passion in some
Occasions, it will rise of it self in others; if you hate your Enemies,
you will contract such a vicious Habit of Mind, as by degrees will break
out upon those who are your Friends, or those who are indifferent to
you. [1] I might here observe how admirably this Precept of Morality
(which derives the Malignity of Hatred from the Passion it self, and not
from its Object) answers to that great Rule which was dictated to the
World about an hundred Years before this Philosopher wrote; [2] but
instead of that, I shall only take notice, with a real Grief of Heart,
that the Minds of many good Men among us appear sowered with
Party-Principles, and alienated from one another in such a manner, as
seems to me altogether inconsistent with the Dictates either of Reason
or Religion. Zeal for a Publick Cause is apt to breed Passions in the
Hearts of virtuous Persons, to which the Regard of their own private
Interest would never have betrayed them.
If this Party-Spirit has so ill an Effect on our Morals, it has likewise
a very great one upon our Judgments. We often hear a poor insipid Paper
or Pamphlet cried up, and sometimes a noble Piece depreciated, by those
who are of a different Principle from the Author. One who is actuated by
this Spirit is almost under an Incapacity of discerning either real
Blemishes or Beauties. A Man of Merit in a different Principle, [is]
like an Object seen in two different Mediums, [that] appears crooked or
broken, however streight and entire it may be in it self. For this
Reason there is scarce a Person of any Figure in _England_, who does not
go by two [contrary Characters, [3]] as opposite to one another as Light
and Darkness. Knowledge and Learning suffer in [a [4]] particular manner
from this strange Prejudice, which at present prevails amongst all Ranks
and Degrees in the _British_ Nation. As Men formerly became eminent in
learned Societies by their Parts and Acquisitions, they now distinguish
themselves by the Warmth and Violence with which they espouse their
respective Parties. Books are valued upon the like Considerations: An
Abusive Scurrilous Style passes for Satyr, and a dull Scheme of Party
Notions is called fine Writing.
There is one Piece of Sophistry practised by both Sides, and that is the
taking any scandalous Story that has been ever whispered or invented of
a Private Man, for a known undoubted Truth, and raising suitable
Speculations upon it. Calumnies that have been never proved, or have
been often refuted, are the ordinary Postulatums of these infamous
Scriblers, upon which they proceed as upon first Principles granted by
all Men, though in their Hearts they know they are false, or at best
very doubtful. When they have laid these Foundations of Scurrility, it
is no wonder that their Superstructure is every way answerable to them.
If this shameless Practice of the present Age endures much longer,
Praise and Reproach will cease to be Motives of Action in good Men.
There are certain Periods of Time in all Governments when this inhuman
Spirit prevails. _Italy_ was long torn in Pieces by the _Guelfes_ and
_Gibellines_, and _France_ by those who were for and against the League:
But it is very unhappy for a Man to be born in such a stormy and
tempestuous Season. It is the restless Ambition of artful Men that thus
breaks a People into Factions, and draws several well-meaning [Persons
[5]] to their Interest by a Specious Concern for their Country. How many
honest Minds are filled with uncharitable and barbarous Notions, out of
their Zeal for the Publick Good? What Cruelties and Outrages would they
not commit against Men of an adverse Party, whom they would honour and
esteem, if instead of considering them as they are represented, they
knew them as they are? Thus are Persons of the greatest Probity seduced
into shameful Errors and Prejudices, and made bad Men even by that
noblest of Principles, the Love of their Country. I cannot here forbear
mentioning the famous _Spanish_ Proverb, _If there were neither Fools
nor Knaves in the World, all People would be of one Mind_.
For my own part, I could heartily wish that all honest Men would enter
into an Association, for the Support of one another against the
Endeavours of those whom they ought to look upon as their Common
Enemies, whatsoever Side they may belong to. Were there such an honest
[Body of Neutral [6]] Forces, we should never see the worst of Men in
great Figures of Life, because they are useful to a Party; nor the best
unregarded, because they are above practising those Methods which would
be grateful to their Faction. We should then single every Criminal out
of the Herd, and hunt him down, however formidable and overgrown he
might appear: On the contrary, we should shelter distressed Innocence,
and defend Virtue, however beset with Contempt or Ridicule, Envy or
Defamation. In short, we should not any longer regard our Fellow
Subjects as Whigs or Tories, but should make the Man of Merit our
Friend, and the Villain our Enemy.