growing worse?" Many of the facts we have cited seem to imply that they
are. And yet there are many other facts which point as distinctly the
other way. In weighing the evidence, we must bear in mind, that the much
greater public attention at present paid to such matters, is itself a
source of error--is apt to generate the belief that evils now becoming
recognised, are evils that have recently arisen; when in truth they have
merely been hitherto disregarded, or less regarded. It has been clearly
thus with crime, with distress, with popular ignorance; and it is very
probably thus with trading-dishonesties. As it is true of individual
beings, that their height in the scale of creation may be measured by
the degree of their self-consciousness; so, in a sense, it is true of
societies. Advanced and highly-organised societies are distinguished
from lower ones by the evolution of something that stands for a _social
self-consciousness_--a consciousness in each citizen, of the state of
the aggregate of citizens. Among ourselves there has, happily, been of
late years a remarkable growth of this social self-consciousness; and we
believe that to this is chiefly ascribable the impression that
commercial malpractices are increasing.
Such facts as have come down to us respecting the trade of past times,
confirm this view. In his "Complete English Tradesman," Defoe mentions,
among other manoeuvres of retailers, the false lights which they
introduced into their shops, for the purpose of giving delusive
appearances to their goods. He comments on the "shop rhetorick," the
"flux of falsehoods," which tradesmen habitually uttered to their
customers; and quotes their defence as being that they could not live
without lying. He says, too, that there was scarce a shopkeeper who had
not a bag of spurious or debased coin, from which he gave change
whenever he could; and that men, even the most honest, triumphed in
their skill in getting rid of bad money. These facts show that the
mercantile morals of that day were, at any rate, not better than ours;
and if we call to mind the numerous Acts of Parliament passed in old
times to prevent frauds of all kinds, we perceive the like implication.
As much may, indeed, be safely inferred from the general state of
society.
When, reign after reign, governments debased the coinage, the moral
tone of the middle classes could scarcely have been higher than now.
Among generations whose sympathy with the claims of fellow-creatures was
so weak, that the slave-trade was not only thought justifiable, but the
initiator of it was rewarded by permission to record the feat in his
coat of arms, it is hardly possible that men respected the claims of
their fellow-citizens more than at present. Times characterized by an
administration of justice so inefficient that there were in London nests
of criminals who defied the law, and on all high roads robbers who
eluded it, cannot have been distinguished by just mercantile dealings.
While, conversely, an age which, like ours, has seen so many equitable
social changes thrust on the legislature by public opinion, is very
unlikely to be an age in which the transactions between individuals have
been growing more inequitable. Yet, on the other hand, it is undeniable
that many of the dishonesties we have described are of modern origin.
Not a few of them have become established during the last thirty years;
and others are even now arising. How are the seeming contradictions to
be reconciled?
We believe the reconciliation is not difficult. It lies in the fact that
while the _great_ and _direct_ frauds have been diminishing, the _small_
and _indirect_ frauds have been increasing: alike in variety and in
number. And this admission we take to be quite consistent with the
opinion that the standard of commercial morals is higher than it was.
For, if we omit, as excluded from the question, the penal
restraints--religious and legal--and ask what is the ultimate moral
restraint to the aggression of man on man, we find it to be--sympathy
with the pain inflicted. Now the keenness of the sympathy, depending on
the vividness with which this pain is realised, varies with the
conditions of the case. It may be active enough to check misdeeds which
will cause great suffering; and yet not be active enough to check
misdeeds which will cause but slight annoyance. While sufficiently acute
to prevent a man from doing that which will entail immediate injury on a
given person, it may not be sufficiently acute to prevent him from
doing that which will entail remote injuries on unknown persons. And we
find the facts to agree with this deduction, that the moral restraint
varies according to the clearness with which the evil consequences are
conceived. Many a one who would shrink from picking a pocket does not
scruple to adulterate his goods; and he who never dreams of passing base
coin, will yet be a party to joint-stock-bank deceptions. Hence, as we
say, the multiplication of the more subtle and complex forms of fraud,
is consistent with a general progress in morality; provided it is
accompanied with a decrease in the grosser forms of fraud.
But the question which most concerns us is, not whether the morals of
trade are better or worse than they have been, but rather--why are they
so bad? Why in this civilised state of ours, is there so much that
betrays the cunning selfishness of the savage? Why, after the careful
inculcations of rectitude during education, comes there in afterlife all
this knavery? Why, in spite of all the exhortations to which the
commercial classes listen every Sunday, do they next morning recommence
their evil deeds? What is this so potent agency which almost neutralises
the discipline of education, of law, of religion?
Various subsidiary causes that might be assigned, must be passed over,
that we may have space to deal with the chief cause. In an exhaustive
statement, something would have to be said on the credulity of
consumers, which leads them to believe in representations of impossible
advantages; and something, too, on their greediness, which, ever
prompting them to look for more than they ought to get, encourages the
sellers to offer delusive bargains. The increased difficulty of living
consequent on growing pressure of population, might perhaps come in as a
part cause; and that greater cost of bringing up a family, which results
from the higher standard of education, might be added. But all these are
relatively insignificant. The great inciter of these trading
malpractices is, intense desire for wealth. And if we ask--Why this
intense desire? the reply is--It results from the _indiscriminate
respect paid to wealth_.
To be distinguished from the common herd--to be somebody--to make a
name, a position--this is the universal ambition; and to accumulate
riches, is alike the surest and the easiest way of fulfilling this
ambition. Very early in life all learn this. At school, the court paid
to one whose parents have called in their carriage to see him, is
conspicuous; while the poor boy, whose insufficient stock of clothes
implies the small means of his family, soon has burnt into his memory
the fact that poverty is contemptible. On entering the world, the
lessons that may have been taught about the nobility of self-sacrifice,
the reverence due to genius, the admirableness of high integrity, are
quickly neutralised by experience: men's actions proving that these are
not their standards of respect. It is soon perceived that while abundant
outward marks of deference from fellow-citizens, may almost certainly be
gained by directing every energy to the accumulation of property, they
are but rarely to be gained in any other way; and that even in the few
cases where they are otherwise gained, they are not given with entire
unreserve; but are commonly joined with a more or less manifest display
of patronage. When, seeing this, the young man further sees that while
the acquisition of property is quite possible with his mediocre
endowments, the acquirement of distinction by brilliant discoveries, or
heroic acts, or high achievements in art, implies faculties and feelings
which he does not possess; it is not difficult to understand why he
devotes himself heart and soul to business.
We do not mean to say that men act on the consciously reasoned-out
conclusions thus indicated; but we mean that these conclusions are the
unconsciously-formed products of their daily experience. From early
childhood, the sayings and doings of all around them have generated the
idea that wealth and respectability are two sides of the same thing.
This idea, growing with their growth, and strengthening with their
strength, becomes at last almost what we may call an organic conviction.
And this organic conviction it is, which prompts the expenditure of all
their energies in money-making. We contend that the chief stimulus is
not the desire for the wealth itself; but for the applause and position
which the wealth brings. And in this belief, we find ourselves at one
with various intelligent traders with whom we have talked on the matter.
It is incredible that men should make the sacrifices, mental and bodily,
which they do, merely to get the material benefits which money
purchases. Who would undertake an extra burden of business for the
purpose of getting a cellar of choice wines for his own drinking? He who
does it, does it that he may have choice wines to give his guests and
gain their praises. What merchant would spend an additional hour at his
office daily, merely that he might move into a larger house in a better
quarter? In so far as health and comfort are concerned, he knows he will
be a loser by the exchange; and would never be induced to make it, were
it not for the increased social consideration which the new house will
bring him. Where is the man who would lie awake at nights devising means
of increasing his income in the hope of being able to provide his wife
with a carriage, were the use of the carriage the sole consideration? It
is because of the _éclat_ which the carriage will give, that he enters
on these additional anxieties. So manifest, so trite, indeed, are these
truths, that we should be ashamed of insisting on them, did not our
argument require it.
For if the desire for that homage which wealth brings, is the chief
stimulus to these strivings after wealth, then is the giving of this
homage (when given, as it is, with but little discrimination) the chief
cause of the dishonesties into which these strivings betray mercantile
men. When the shopkeeper, on the strength of a prosperous year and
favourable prospects, has yielded to his wife's persuasions, and
replaced the old furniture with new, at an outlay greater than his
income covers--when, instead of the hoped-for increase, the next year
brings a decrease in his returns--when he finds that his expenses are
out-running his revenue; then does he fall under the strongest
temptation to adopt some newly-introduced adulteration or other
malpractice. When, having by display gained a certain recognition, the
wholesale trader begins to give dinners appropriate only to those of ten
times his income, with expensive other entertainments to match--when,
having for a time carried on this style at a cost greater than he can
afford, he finds that he cannot discontinue it without giving up his
position: then is he most strongly prompted to enter into larger
transactions; to trade beyond his means; to seek undue credit; to get
into that ever-complicating series of misdeeds, which ends in
disgraceful bankruptcy. And if these are the facts--the undeniable
facts--then is it an unavoidable conclusion that the blind admiration
which society gives to mere wealth, and the display of wealth, is the
chief source of these multitudinous immoralities.
Yes, the evil is deeper than appears--draws its nutriment from far below
the surface. This gigantic system of dishonesty, branching out into
every conceivable form of fraud, has roots that run underneath our whole
social fabric, and, sending fibres into every house, suck up strength
from our daily sayings and doings. In every dining-room a rootlet finds
food, when the conversation turns on So-and-so's successful
speculations, his purchase of an estate, his probable worth--on this
man's recent large legacy, and the other's advantageous match; for being
thus talked about is one form of that tacit respect which men struggle
for. Every drawing-room furnishes nourishment, in the admiration awarded
to costliness--to silks that are "rich," that is, expensive; to dresses
that contain an enormous quantity of material, that is, are expensive;
to laces that are handmade, that is, expensive; to diamonds that are
rare, that is, expensive; to china that is old, that is, expensive. And
from scores of small remarks and minutiae of behaviour, which, in all
circles, hourly imply how completely the idea of respectability
involves that of costly externals, there is drawn fresh pabulum.
We are all implicated. We all, whether with self-approbation or not,
give expression to the established feeling. Even he who disapproves this
feeling, finds himself unable to treat virtue in threadbare apparel with
a cordiality as great as that which he would show to the same virtue
endowed with prosperity. Scarcely a man is to be found who would not
behave with more civility to a knave in broadcloth than to a knave in
fustian. Though for the deference which they have shown to the vulgar
rich, or the dishonestly successful, men afterwards compound with their
consciences by privately venting their contempt; yet when they again
come face to face with these imposing externals covering worthlessness,
they do as before. And so long as imposing worthlessness gets the
visible marks of respect, while the disrespect felt for it is hidden, it
naturally flourishes.
Hence, then, is it that men persevere in these evil practices which all
condemn. They can so purchase a homage, which if not genuine, is yet, so
far as appearances go, as good as the best. To one whose wealth has been
gained by a life of frauds, what matters it that his name is in all
circles a synonym of roguery? Has he not been conspicuously honoured by
being twice elected mayor of his town? (we state a fact) and does not
this, joined to the personal consideration shown him, outweigh in his
estimation all that is said against him: of which he hears scarcely
anything? When, not many years after the exposure of his inequitable
dealing, a trader attains to the highest civic distinction which the
kingdom has to offer; and that, too, through the instrumentality of
those who best know his delinquency; is not the fact an encouragement to
him, and to all others, to sacrifice rectitude to aggrandisement? If,
after listening to a sermon that has by implication denounced the
dishonesties he has been guilty of, the rich ill-doer finds, on leaving
church, that his neighbours cap to him; does not this tacit approval go
far to neutralise the effect of all he has heard? The truth is, that
with the great majority of men, the visible expression of social opinion
is far the most efficient of incentives and restraints. Let any one who
wishes to estimate the strength of this control, propose to himself to
walk through the streets in the dress of a dustman, or hawk vegetables
from door to door. Let him feel, as he probably will, that he had rather
do something morally wrong than commit such a breach of usage, and
suffer the resulting derision. And he will then better estimate how
powerful a curb to men is the open disapproval of their fellows; and
how, conversely, the outward applause of their fellows is a stimulus
surpassing all others in intensity. Fully realising which facts, he will
see that the immoralities of trade are in great part traceable to an
immoral public opinion.
Let none infer, from what has been said, that the payment of respect to
wealth rightly acquired and rightly used, is deprecated. In its original
meaning, and in due degree, the feeling which prompts such respect is
good. Primarily, wealth is the sign of mental power; and this is always
respectable. To have honestly-acquired property, implies intelligence,
energy, self-control; and these are worthy of the homage that is
indirectly paid to them by admiring their results. Moreover, the good
administration and increase of inherited property, also requires its
virtues; and therefore demands its share of approbation. And besides
being applauded for their display of faculty, men who gain and increase
wealth are to be applauded as public benefactors. For he who as
manufacturer or merchant, has, without injustice to others, realised a
fortune, is thereby proved to have discharged his functions better than
those who have been less successful. By greater skill, better judgment,
or more economy than his competitors, he has afforded the public greater
advantages. His extra profits are but a share of the extra produce
obtained by the same expenditure: the other share going to the
consumers. And similarly, the landowner who, by judicious outlay, has
increased the value (that is, the productiveness) of his estate, has
thereby added to the stock of national capital. By all means, then, let
the right acquisition and proper use of wealth, have their due share of
admiration.
But that which we condemn as the chief cause of commercial dishonesty,
is the _indiscriminate_ admiration of wealth--an admiration that has
little or no reference to the character of the possessor. When, as very
generally happens, the external signs are reverenced, where they signify
no internal worthiness--nay, even where they cover internal
unworthiness; then does the feeling become vicious. It is this idolatry
which worships the symbol apart from the thing symbolised, that is the
root of all these evils we have been exposing. So long as men pay homage
to those social benefactors who have grown rich honestly, they give a
wholesome stimulus to industry; but when they accord a share of their
homage to those social malefactors who have grown rich dishonestly, then
do they foster corruption--then do they become accomplices in all these
frauds of commerce.
As for remedy, it manifestly follows that there is none save a purified
public opinion. When that abhorrence which society now shows to direct
theft, is shown to theft of all degrees of indirectness, then will these
mercantile vices disappear. When not only the trader who adulterates or
gives short measure, but also the merchant who over-trades, the
bank-director who countenances an exaggerated report, and the
railway-director who repudiates his guarantee, come to be regarded as of
the same genus as the pickpocket, and are treated with like disdain;
then will the morals of trade become what they should be.
We have little hope, however, that any such higher tone of public
opinion will shortly be reached. The present condition of things appears
to be, in great measure, a necessary accompaniment of our present phase
of progress. Throughout the civilised world, especially in England, and
above all in America, social activity is almost wholly expended in
material development. To subjugate Nature, and bring the powers of
production and distribution to their highest perfection, is the task of
our age; and probably of many future ages. And as in times when national
defence and conquest were the chief desiderata, military achievement was
honoured above all other things; so now, when the chief desideratum is
industrial growth, honour is most conspicuously given to that which
generally indicates the aiding of industrial growth. The English nation
at present displays what we may call the commercial diathesis; and the
undue admiration for wealth appears to be its concomitant--a relation
still more conspicuous in the worship of "the almighty dollar" by the
Americans. And while the commercial diathesis, with its accompanying
standard of distinction, continues, we fear the evils we have been
delineating can be but partially cured. It seems hopeless to expect that
men will distinguish between that wealth which represents personal
superiority and benefits done to society, from that which does not. The
symbols, the externals, have all the world through swayed the masses;
and must long continue to do so. Even the cultivated, who are on their
guard against the bias of associated ideas, and try to separate the real
from the seeming, cannot escape the influence of current opinion. We
must, therefore, content ourselves with looking for a slow amelioration.
Something, however, may even now be done by vigorous protest against
adoration of mere success. And it is important that it should be done,
considering how this vicious sentiment is being fostered. When we have
one of our leading moralists preaching, with increasing vehemence, the
doctrine of sanctification by force--when we are told that while a
selfishness troubled with qualms of conscience is contemptible, a
selfishness intense enough to trample down every thing in the
unscrupulous pursuit of its ends, is worthy of all admiration--when we
find that if it be sufficiently great, power, no matter of what kind or
how directed, is held up for our reverence; we may fear lest the
prevalent applause of mere success, together with the commercial vices
which it stimulates, should be increased rather than diminished. Not at
all by this hero-worship grown into brute-worship, is society to be made
better; but by exactly the opposite--by a stern criticism of the means
through which success has been achieved; and by according honour to the
higher and less selfish modes of activity.
And happily the signs of this more moral public opinion are already
showing themselves. It is becoming a tacitly-received doctrine that the
rich should not, as in by-gone times, spend their lives in personal
gratification; but should devote them to the general welfare. Year by
year is the improvement of the people occupying a larger share of the
attention of the upper classes. Year by year are they voluntarily
devoting more and more energy to furthering the material and mental
progress of the masses. And those among them who do not join in the
discharge of these high functions, are beginning to be looked upon with
more or less contempt by their own order. This latest and most hopeful
fact in human history--this new and better chivalry--promises to evolve
a higher standard of honour; and so to ameliorate many evils: among
others those which we have detailed. When wealth obtained by
illegitimate means inevitably brings nothing but disgrace--when to
wealth rightly acquired is accorded only its due share of homage, while
the greatest homage is given to those who consecrate their energies and
their means to the noblest ends; then may we be sure that along with
other accompanying benefits, the morals of trade will be greatly
purified.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 47: From "Essays: Moral, Political and Aesthetic," 1864.]
ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE[48]
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
In order to make the title of this discourse generally intelligible, I
have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the scientific name of
the substance of which I am about to speak, by the words "the physical
basis of life." I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is such a
thing as a physical basis, or matter, of life may be novel--so widely
spread is the conception of life as a something which works through
matter, but is independent of it; and even those who are aware that
matter and life are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for the
conclusion plainly suggested by the phrase, "_the_ physical basis or
matter of life," that there is some one kind of matter which is common
to all living beings, and that their endless diversities are bound
together by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first
apprehended, such a doctrine as this appears almost shocking to common
sense.
What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one another,
in faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various kinds of living
beings? What community of faculty can there be between the
brightly-coloured lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral
incrustation of the bare rock on which it grows, and the painter, to
whom it is instinct with beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds with
knowledge?