being the sense of the most agreeable, and arising from the correlation
of the object and the sensitivity; it follows that every motive and
every action comes under, and cannot but come under, the one idea of
gratification or enjoyment. According to this system, there can be no
collision between principle and passion, because principle can have no
power to determine the will, except as it becomes the most agreeable.
Universally, justice, truth, and benevolence, obtain sway only by
uniting with desire, and thus coming under conditions of yielding the
highest enjoyment. Justice, truth, and benevolence, when obeyed,
therefore, are not obeyed as such, but simply as the most agreeable; and
so also injustice, falsehood, and malignity, are not obeyed as such, but
simply as the most agreeable. In this quality of the most agreeable, as
the quality of all motive and the universal principle of the
determinations of the will, intrinsic moral distinctions fade away. We
may indeed _speculate_ respecting these distinctions,--we may say that
justice evidently is right in itself, and injustice wrong in itself; but
this judgement has practical efficiency only as one of the terms takes
the form of the most agreeable. But we have seen that the most agreeable
depends upon the state of the sensitivity in correlation with the
object,--a state and a correlation antecedent to action; and that
therefore it is a necessary law of our being, to be determined by the
greatest apparent good or the most agreeable. Utility, therefore, is not
only in point of fact, but also in point of necessity, the law of
action. There is no other law under which it is conceivable that we can
act.
VII. It follows from this system, again, that no individual can make an
effort to change the habitual character of his volitions,--and of course
cannot resist his passions, or introduce any intellectual or moral
discipline other than that in which he is actually placed, or undertake
any enterprise that shall be opposite to the one in which he is engaged,
or not part or consequent of the same.
If he effect any change directly in the habitual character of his
volitions, he must do it by a volition; that is, he must will different
from his actual will,--his will must oppose itself in its own act: but
this is absurd, the system itself being judge. As, therefore, the will
cannot oppose itself, a new volition can be obtained only by presenting
a new motive; but this is equally impossible. To present a new motive is
to call up new objects and circumstances in relation to the actual state
of the mind, touching upon some principles which had been slumbering
under the habitual volitions; or the state of the mind itself must be
changed in relation to the objects now before it; or a change must take
place both of subject and object, for the motive lies in the correlation
of the two. But the volition to call up new objects and circumstances in
relation to some principle of the mind that had been slumbering,--for
example, fear, must itself have a motive; but the motive to call up
objects of fear must preexist; if it exist at all. If it preexist, then
of necessity the volition to call up objects of fear will take place;
and, it will not be a change effected by the man himself, out of the
actually existing state of mind and objects. If there be no such motive
pre-existing, then it would become necessary to present a new motive, to
cause the choice of objects of fear; and here would be a recurrence of
the original difficulty,--and so on, ad infinitum.
If the problem be to effect a change in the state of the mind in
relation to existing objects, in the first place, this cannot be
effected by a direct act of will, for the act of will is caused by the
state of mind, and this would be an effect changing or annihilating its
cause.
Nor can it be done indirectly. For to do it indirectly, would be to
bring influences to bear upon the state of mind or the sensitivity; but
the choice and volition of these influences would require a motive--but
the motive to change the state of mind must pre-exist in the state of
mind itself. And thus we have on the one hand, to show the possibility
of finding a principle in the state of mind on which to bring about its
change. And then if this be shown, the change is not really a change,
but a new developement of the long chain of the necessary causes and
volitions. And on the other, if this be not shown, we must find a motive
to change the state of mind in order to a change of the state: but this
motive, if it exist, must pre-exist in the state of mind. If it
pre-exist, then no change is required; if it do not; then we must seek
still an antecedent motive, and so in endless retrogression. If the
problem be to change both subject and object, the same difficulties
exist in two-fold abundance.
The grand difficulty is to find a _primum mobile_, or first mover, when
the very act of seeking implies a _primum mobile_, which the conditions
of the act deny.
Any new discipline, therefore, intellectual or moral, a discipline
opposite to that which the present state of the mind would naturally and
necessarily bring about, is impossible.
Of course, it is impossible to restrain passion, to deny or mortify
one's self. The present volition is as the strongest present
desire--indeed, is the strongest present desire itself. "Will and desire
do not run counter at all." "A man never in any instance, wills anything
contrary to his desires, or desires anything contrary to his will." (p.
17.) Hence to restrain a present passion would be to will against
will--would be to desire opposite ways at the same moment. Desires may
be relatively stronger and weaker, and the stronger will overcome the
weaker; but the strongest desire must prevail and govern the man; it is
utterly impossible for him to oppose any resistance, for his whole
power, activity, and volition, are in the desire itself.
He can do nothing but will; and the nature and direction of his
volitions are, at least in reference to any effort of his own, immutable
as necessity itself.
VIII. All exhortations and persuasions which call upon the man to bestir
himself, to think, to plan, to act, are inconsistent and absurd. In all
such exhortations and persuasions, the man is urged to will or put forth
volitions, as if he were the author, the determiner of the volitions. It
may be replied, 'that the man does will, that the volitions are his
volitions.' But then he wills only passively, and these volitions are
his only because they appear in his consciousness. You exhort and
persuade him to arouse himself into activity; but what is his real
condition according to this system? The exhortations and persuasions do
themselves contain the motive power: and instead of arousing himself to
action, he is absolutely and necessarily passive under the motives you
present. Whether he be moved or not, as truly and absolutely depends
upon the motives you present, as the removing of any material mass
depends upon the power and lever applied. And the material mass, whether
it be wood or stone, may with as much propriety be said to arouse itself
as the man; and the man's volition is his volition in no other sense
than the motion of the material mass is its motion. In the one case, the
man perceives; and in the other case, the material mass does not
perceive--but perception is granted by all parties to be necessary; the
addition of perception, therefore, only modifies the character of the
being moved, without altering the nature of his relation to the power
which moves him. In the material mass, too, we have an analogous
property, so far as motion is considered. For as motive cannot determine
the will unless there be perception, so neither can the lever and power
move the mass unless it possess resistance, and cohesion of parts. If I
have but the wisdom to discover the proper correlation of object and
sensitivity in the case of individuals or of masses of men, I can
command them in any direction I please, with a necessity no less
absolute than that with which a machine is caused to work by the
application of a steam or water-power.
When I bring motives before the minds of my fellow-beings in the proper
relation, the volition is necessarily produced; but let me not forget,
that in bringing these motives I put forth volitions, and that of course
I am myself moved under the necessity of some antecedent motive. My
persuasions and exhortations are necessary sequents, as well as
necessary antecedents. The water must run through the water-course; the
wheel must turn under the force of the current; I must exhort and
persuade when motives determine me. The minds I address must yield when
the motives are properly selected.
IX. Divine commands, warnings, and rebukes, when obeyed and yielded to,
are obeyed and yielded to by the necessary force which they possess in
relation to the state of mind to which they are addressed. When not
obeyed and yielded to, they fail necessarily, through a moral inability
on the part of the mind addressed; or, in other words, through the want
of a proper correlation between them and the state of mind addressed:
that is, there is not in the case a sufficient power to produce the
required volitions, and their existence of course is an utter
impossibility.
Divine commands, warnings, and rebukes, produce volitions of obedience
and submission, only as they produce the sense of the most agreeable;
and as the will of the creature can have no part in producing this
sense, since this would be producing a volition by a volition, it is
produced in a correlation antecedent to will, and of course by a
positive necessity. This is so clear from all that has gone before; that
no enlargement here is required.
When no obedience and submission take place, it is because the divine
commands, warnings, and rebukes, do not produce the sense of the most
agreeable. And as the will of the creature can have no part in producing
this sense, since this would be producing a volition by a volition; and
as it is produced in a correlation antecedent to will, and of course by
a positive necessity; so likewise the will of the creature can have no
part in preventing this sense from taking place. The volition of
obedience and the volition of disobedience are manifestations of the
antecedent correlations of certain objects with the subject, and are
necessarily determined by the nature of the correlation.
Now the Divine Being must know the precise relation which his commands
will necessarily hold to the vast variety of mind to which they are
addressed, and consequently must know in what cases obedience will be
produced, and in what cases disobedience. Both results are equally
necessary. The commands have therefore, necessarily and fitly, a
two-fold office. When they come into connexion with certain states of
mind, they necessarily and fitly produce what we call obedience: when in
connexion with other states of mind, they necessarily and fitly produce
what we call rebellion: and as all volitions are predetermined and fixed
by a necessary and infinite wisdom, and are therefore in their time and
place the best, it must follow that rebellion no less than obedience is
a wise and desirable result.
The consequences I am here deducing seem almost too shocking to utter.
But show me, he that can, that they are not logical deductions from this
system? I press the system to its consequences,--not to throw any
reproach upon those great and good men who unfortunately were led away
by a false philosophy, but to expose and bring to its close this
philosophy itself. It has too long been consecrated by its association
with the good. I know I shall be justified in the honest, though bold
work, of destroying this unnatural and portentous alliance.
X. The sense of guilt and shame and the fear of retribution cannot,
according to this system, have a real and necessary connexion with any
volitions, but must be regarded as prejudices or errors of education,
from which philosophy will serve to relieve us.
Edwards labours to prove, (part iv. sec. 1,) that virtue and vice lie
essentially in the volitions themselves, and that of course the
consciousness of evil volitions is the consciousness of guilt. I will,
or put forth volitions. The volitions are mine, and therefore I am
guilty. This reasoning is plausible, but not consequential; for,
according to this system, I put forth volitions in entire passivity: the
volitions appear necessarily and by Antecedent motives in my
consciousness, and really are mine only because they are produced in me.
Connected with this may be the perception that those volitions are
wrong; but if there is likewise the conviction that they are necessary,
and that to suppose them different from what they are, is to suppose
what could not possibly have been,--since a series of sequents and
antecedents connect these volitions which now appear, by absolutely
necessary relations, with a first and necessary cause,--then the sense
of guilt and shame, and the judgement I ought to be punished, can have
no place in the human mind. It is of no avail to tell me that I will,
and, according to the common judgement of mankind, I must be guilty when
I will wrong,--if, at the same time, philosophy teaches me that I will
under the necessary and inevitable governance of an antecedent motive.
The common judgement of mankind is an error, and philosophy must soon
dissipate the sense of guilt and shame, and of moral desert, which have
hitherto annoyed me and made me fearful: and much more must such a
result ensue, when I take into consideration, likewise, that the
necessity which determines me, is a necessity which takes its rise in
infinite and necessary wisdom.
What is true of guilt and retribution is true also of well-doing and
reward. If I do well, the volitions being determined by an antecedent
necessity, I could not possibly have done otherwise. It does not answer
the conditions of the case at all, to say I might have done otherwise,
if I had willed to do otherwise; because the will to do as I actually am
doing, is a will that could not have been otherwise. Give me, then, in
any action called good, great, noble, glorious, &c. the conviction that
the choice of this action was a necessary choice, predetermined in a
long and unbroken chain of necessary antecedents, and the sense of
praiseworthiness, and the judgement I ought to be rewarded, remain no
longer.
Merit and demerit are connected in our minds with our volitions, under
the impression that the good we perform, we perform in opposition to
temptation, and with the power and possibility of doing evil; and that
the evil we perform, we perform in opposition to motives of good, and
with the power and possibility of doing good. But when we are informed
that all the power and possibility of a conduct opposite to our actual
conduct is this,--that if we had put forth opposite volitions, there
would have been opposite external acts, but that nevertheless the
volitions themselves were necessary, and could not have been
otherwise,--we cannot but experience a revulsion of mind. We perhaps are
first led to doubt the philosophy,--or if, by acute reasonings, or by
the authority of great names, we are influenced to yield an implicit
belief,--the sense of merit and demerit must either die away, or be
maintained by a hasty retreat from the regions of speculation to those
of common sense.
XI. It follows from this system, also, that nature and spirit, as causes
or agents, cannot be distinguished in their operations.
There are three classes of natural causes or agents generally
acknowledged 1. Inanimate,--as water, wind, steam, magnetism, &c.; 2.
Animate, but insensible,--as the life and affinities of plants; 3.
Animate and sensitive, or brute animal power.
These all properly come under the denomination of _natural_, because
they are alike _necessitated_. "Whatever is comprised in the chain and
mechanism of cause and effect, of course necessitated, and having its
necessity in some other thing antecedent or concurrent,--this is said to
be _natural_; and the aggregate and system of all such things is
_nature_." Now spirit, as a cause or agent, by this system, comes under
the same definition: in all its acts it is necessitated. It is in will
particularly that man is taken as a cause or agent, because it is by
will that he directly produces phenomena or effects; and by this system
it is not possible to distinguish, so far as necessary connexion is
considered, a chain of antecedents and sequents made up of motives,
volitions, and the consequents of volitions, from a chain of sequents
and antecedents into which the three first mentioned classes of natural
agents enter. All the several classes have peculiar and distinguishing
characteristics; but in the relation of antecedence and sequence,--their
relation as causes or agents producing effects,--no distinction can be
perceived. Wind, water, &c. form one kind of cause; organic life forms
another; brute organization and sensitivity another; intelligent
volition another: but they are all necessary, absolutely necessary; and
therefore they are the co-ordinate parts of the one system of nature.
The difference which exists between them is a difference of terms
merely. There is no difference in the nature of the relation between the
terms. The nature of the relation between the water-wheel and the
water,--of the relation between the organic life of plants and their
developement,--of the relation between passion and volition in
brutes,--of the relation between their efforts and material
effects,--and the nature of the relation between motive and
volition,--are one: it is the relation of cause and effect considered as
stated antecedent and sequent, and no more and no less necessary in one
subject than in another.
XII. It follows, again, that sensations produced by external objects,
and all emotions following perception, and all the acts of the
intelligence, whether in intuitive knowledge or in ratiocination, are as
really our acts, and acts for which we are as really responsible, if
responsibility be granted to exist, as acts of volition. Sensations,
emotions, perceptions, reasonings, are all within us; they all lie in
our consciousness; they are not created by our volitions, like the
motions of the hands and feet; they take place by their own causes, just
as volitions take place by their causes. The relation of the man to all
is precisely the same. He is in no sense the cause of any of these
affections of his being; he is simply the subject: the subject of
sensation, of perception, of emotion, of reasoning, and of volition; and
he is the subject of all by the same necessity.
XIII. The system of punishment is only a system accommodated to the
opinions of society.
There is nothing evil in itself, according to this system of necessity,
as we have already shown. Every thing which takes place is, in its time,
place, and relations generally, the necessary result of necessary and
infinite wisdom. But still it is a fact that society are desirous of
preventing certain acts,--such as stealing, adultery, murder, &c.; and
they are necessarily so desirous. Now the system of punishment is a mere
collection of motives in relation to the sense of pain and the emotion
of fear, which prevent the commission of these acts. Where these acts do
take place, it is best they should take place; but where they are
prevented by the fear of punishment, it is best they should be
prevented. Where the criminal suffers, he has no right to complain,
because it is best that he should suffer; and yet, if he does complain,
it is best that he should complain. The system of punishment is good, as
every thing else is good. The system of divine punishments must be
considered in the same light. Indeed, what are human punishments, when
properly considered, but divine punishments? They are comprehended in
the pre-ordained and necessary chain of being and events.
XIV. Hence we must conclude, also, that there cannot really be any
calamity. The calamities which we may at any time experience, we ought
to endure and rejoice in, as flowing from the same perfect and necessary
source. But as calamity does nevertheless necessarily produce suffering
and uneasiness, and the desire of relief, we may be permitted to hope
that perfect relief and entire blessedness will finally ensue, and that
the final blessedness will be enhanced just in proportion to the present
suffering.
The necessitarian may be an optimist of a high order. It he commits what
is called crime, and remorse succeeds, and punishment is inflicted under
law, the crime is good, the remorse is good, the punishment is good, all
necessary and good, and working out, as he hopes, a result of pure
happiness. Nothing can be bad in itself: it may be disagreeable; but
even this will probably give way to the agreeable. And so also with all
afflictions: they must be good in themselves, although disagreeable,
--and will probably lead the way to the agreeable, just as
hunger and thirst, which are disagreeable, lead the way to the
enjoyments of eating and drinking. All is of necessity, and of a
necessary and perfect wisdom.
XV. But as all is of necessity, and of a necessary and perfect wisdom,
there really can no more be folly in conduct, or error in reasoning and
belief, than there can be crime and calamity, considered as evils in
themselves. Every act that we call folly is a necessary act, in its
time, place, and relations generally, and is a necessary consequence of
the infinite wisdom; but a necessary consequence of infinite wisdom
cannot be opposed to infinite wisdom; so that what we call folly, when
philosophically considered, ceases to be folly.
In any act of pure reasoning, the relations seem necessary, and the
assent of the mind is necessary. This is granted by all parties. But it
must be admitted, that when men are said to reason falsely, and to yield
their assent to false conclusions, the relations seem necessary to them;
and, according to this system, they necessarily so seem, and cannot seem
otherwise: and the assent of the mind is also necessary.
The reasoning, to others, would be false reasoning, because it so
necessarily seems to them; but to the individual to whom it seems
different, it must really be different, and be good and valid reasoning.
Again: as all these different reasonings and beliefs proceed necessarily
from the same source, they must all be really true where they seem true,
and all really false where they seem false. It would follow, from this,
that no one can really be in a false position except the hypocrite and
sophist, pretending to believe and to be what he does not believe and
what he is not, and purposely reasoning falsely, and stating his false
conclusions as if they were truths. I say this would follow, were we not
compelled by this system to allow that even the hypocrite and sophist
cannot hold a false position, inasmuch as his position is a necessary
one, predetermined in its necessary connexion with the first necessary
wisdom.
XVI. Another consequence of this system is fatalism,--or, perhaps, more
properly speaking, the system is itself a system of fatalism.
This, indeed, has already been made to appear substantially. The word,
however, has not yet been used. I here, then, charge directly this
consequence or feature upon the system.
Fatalism is the absolute negation of liberty. This system is fatalism,
because it is the absolute negation of liberty.
No liberty is contended for, in this system, in relation to man, but
physical liberty: viz. that when he wills, the effect will follow,--that
when he wills to walk, he walks, &c. "Liberty, as I have explained it,
is the power, opportunity, or advantage, that any one has to do as he
pleases, or conducting himself in any respect according to his pleasure,
without considering how his pleasure comes to be as it is." (p. 291.)
In the first place, this is no higher liberty than what brutes possess.
They have power, opportunity, or advantage, to do as they please.
Effects follow their volitions by as certain a law as effects follow the
volitions of men.