Nothing, here, occupied my heart--a heart to which it was necessary to
love and admire. I had suffered myself to be irritated--the tumult of my
spirits did not easily subside--I was mortified at the reflection--I had
believed myself armed with patience and fortitude, but my philosophy was
swept before the impetuous emotions of my passions like chaff before the
whirlwind. I took up my pen to calm my spirits, and addressed myself to
the man who had been, unconsciously, the occasion of these vexations.--My
swelling heart needed the relief of communication.
TO MR FRANCIS
'I Sought earnestly for the privilege of addressing you on
paper. My mind seemed to overflow with a thousand
sentiments, that I had not the courage to express in words;
but now, when the period is arrived, that I can take up my
pen, unawed by your penetrating glance, unchecked by your
poignant reply, and pour out my spirit before you, I feel
as if its emotions were too wayward, too visionary, too
contradictory, to merit your attention.
'Every thing I see and hear is a disappointment to
me:--brought up in retirement--conversing only with
books--dwelling with ardour on the great characters, and
heroic actions, of antiquity, all my ideas of honour and
distinction were associated with those of virtue and
talents. I conceived, that the pursuit of truth, and the
advancement of reason, were the grand objects of universal
attention, and I panted to do homage to those superior
minds, who, teaching mankind to be wise, would at length
lead them to happiness. Accustomed to think, to feel, to
kindle into action, I am at a loss to understand the
distinction between theory and practice, which every one
seems eager to inculcate, as if the degrading and melancholy
intelligence, which fills my soul with despondency, and
pervades my understanding with gloom, was to them a subject
of exultation.
'Is virtue, then, a chimera--does it exist only in the
regions of romance?--Have we any interest in finding our
fellow creatures weak and miserable?--Is the Being who
formed them unjust, capricious, impotent, or tyrannical?
'Answer these questions, that press heavily on my mind, that
dart across it, in its brightest moments, clouding its
sun-shine with a thick and impenetrable darkness. Must the
benevolent emotions, which I have hitherto delighted to
cherish, turn into misanthropy--must the fervent and social
affections of my heart give place to inanity, to
apathy--must the activity of a curious and vigorous mind
sink into torpor and abhorred vacuity?
'While they teach me to distrust the existence of virtue,
they endeavour to impose on me, in its stead, a fictitious
semblance; and to substitute, for the pure gold of truth, a
paltry tinsel. It is in vain I ask--what have those to do
with "_seeming_," who still retain "that which _passeth
shew_?" However my actions may be corrupted by the
contagious example of the world, may I still hold fast my
integrity, and disdain to wear the _appearance_ of virtue,
when the substance shall no longer exist.
'To admire, to esteem, to love, are congenial to my
nature--I am unhappy, because these affections are not
called into exercise. To venerate abstract perfection,
requires too vigorous an exertion of the mental powers--I
would see virtue exemplified, I would love it in my fellow
creatures--I would catch the glorious enthusiasm, and rise
from created to uncreated excellence.
'I am perplexed with doubts; relieve the wanderings of my
mind, solve the difficulties by which it is agitated,
prepare me for the world which is before me. The prospect,
no longer beaming with light, no longer glowing with a
thousand vivid hues, is overspread with mists, which the
mind's eye vainly attempts to penetrate. I would feel,
again, the value of existence, the worth of rectitude, the
certainty of truth, the blessing of hope! Ah! tell me
not--that the gay expectations of youth have been the
meteors of fancy, the visions of a romantic and distempered
imagination! If I must not live to realize them, I would not
live at all.
'My harrassed mind turns to you! You will not ridicule its
scruples--you will, at least, deign to reason with me, and,
in the exercise of my understanding, I shall experience a
temporary relief from the sensations which devour me, the
suspicions that distress me, and which spread over futurity
a fearful veil.
'EMMA.'
I walked to the next market town, and left my letter at the post-house,--I
waited impatiently for a reply; my mind wanted _impression_, and sunk
into languor. The answer, which arrived in a few days, was kind, because
it was prompt, my sickly mind required a speedy remedy.
TO EMMA COURTNEY.
'Why will you thus take things in masses, and continually
dwell in extremes? You deceive yourself; instead of
cultivating your reason, you are fostering an excessive
sensibility, a fastidious delicacy. It is the business of
reason to compare, to separate, to discriminate. Is there no
medium--extraordinary exertions are only called forth by
extraordinary contingences;--because every human being is
not a hero, are we then to distrust the existence of virtue?
'The mind is modified by the circumstances in which it
is placed, by the accidents of birth and education; the
constitutions of society are all, as yet, imperfect; they
have generated, and perpetuated, many mistakes--the
consequences of those mistakes will, eventually, carry with
them their antidote, the seeds of reproduction are, even,
visible in their decay. The growth of reason is slow,
but not the less sure; the increase of knowledge must
necessarily prepare the way for the increase of virtue and
happiness.
'Look back upon the early periods of society, and, taking
a retrospective view of what has been done, amidst the
interruptions of barbarous inroads, falling empires, and
palsying despotism, calculate what yet may be achieved:
while the causes, which have hitherto impeded the progress
of civilization, must continue to decrease, in an
accelerated ration, with the wide, and still wider,
diffusion of truth.
'We may trace most of the faults, and the miseries of
mankind, to the vices and errors of political institutions,
their permanency having been their radical defect. Like
children, we have dreamt, that what gratifies our desires,
or contributes to our convenience, to-day, will prove
equally useful and satisfactory to-morrow, without
reflecting on the growth of the body, the change of humours,
the new objects, and the new situations, which every
succeeding hour brings in its train. That immutability,
which constitutes the perfection of what we (from the
poverty of language) term the _divine mind_, would
inevitably be the bane of creatures liable to error; it is
of the constancy, rather than of the fickleness, of human
beings, that we have reason to complain.
'Every improvement must be the result of successive
experiments, this has been found true in natural science,
and it must be universally applied to be universally
beneficial. Bigotry, whether religious, political, moral, or
commercial, is the canker-worm at the root of the tree of
knowledge and of virtue. The wildest speculations are less
mischievous than the torpid state of error: he, who tamely
resigns his understanding to the guidance of another,
sinks at once, from the dignity of a rational being, to a
mechanical puppet, moved at pleasure on the wires of the
artful operator.--_Imposition_ is the principle and support
of every varied description of tyranny, whether civil or
ecclesiastical, moral or mental; its baneful consequence is
to degrade both him who is imposed on, and him who imposes.
_Obedience_, is a word, which ought never to have had
existence: as we recede from conviction, and languidly
resign ourselves to any foreign authority, we quench the
principle of action, of virtue, of reason;--we bear about
the semblance of humanity, but the spirit is fled.
'These are truths, which will slowly, but ultimately,
prevail; in the splendour of which, the whole fabric of
superstition will gradually fade and melt away. The world,
like every individual, has its progress from infancy to
maturity--How many follies do we commit in childhood? how
many errors are we precipitated into by the fervour and
inexperience of youth! Is not every stable principle
acquired through innumerable mistakes--can you wonder, that
in society, amidst the aggregate of jarring interests and
passions, reformation is so tardy? Though civilization has
been impeded by innumerable obstacles, even these help to
carry on the great work: empires may be overturned, and the
arts scattered, but not lost. The hordes of barbarians,
which overwhelmed ancient Rome, adopted at length the
religion, the laws, and the improvements of the vanquished,
as Rome had before done those of Greece. As the stone,
which, thrown into the water, spreads circles still more
and more extended;--or (to adopt the gospel similitude) as
the grain of mustard seed, growing up into a large tree,
shelters the fowls of heaven in its branches--so will
knowledge, at length, diffuse itself, till it covers the
whole earth.
'When the minds of men are changed, the system of things
will also change; but these changes, though active and
incessant, must be gradual. Reason will fall softly,
and almost imperceptibly, like a gentle shower of dews,
fructifying the soil, and preparing it for future harvests.
Let us not resemble the ambitious shepherd, who, calling for
the accumulated waters of the Nile upon his lands, was, with
his flock, swept away in the impetuous torrent.
'You ask, whether--because human beings are still
imperfect--you are to resign your benevolence, and to
cherish misanthropy? What a question! Would you hate the
inhabitants of an hospital for being infected with a
pestilential disorder? Let us remember, that vice originates
in mistakes of the understanding, and that, he who seeks
happiness by means contradictory and destructive, _is
emphatically the sinner_. Our duties, then, are obvious--If
selfish and violent passions have been generated by the
inequalities of society, we must labour to counteract them,
by endeavouring to combat prejudice, to expand the mind,
to give comprehensive views, to teach mankind their true
interest, and to lead them to habits of goodness and
greatness. Every prejudice conquered, every mistake
rectified, every individual improved, is an advance upon the
great scale of virtue and happiness.
'Let it, then, be your noblest ambition to co-operate with,
to join your efforts, to those of philosophers and sages,
the benefactors of mankind. To waste our time in useless
repinings is equally weak and vain; every one in his sphere
may do something; each has a little circle where his
influence will be availing. Correct your own errors, which
are various--weeds in a luxuriant soil--and you will have
done something towards the general reformation. But you are
able to do more;--be vigilant, be active, beware of the
illusions of fancy! I suspect, that you will have much to
suffer--may you, at length, reap the fruits of a wholesome,
though it should be a bitter, experience.
'---- FRANCIS.'
I perused the letter, I had received, again and again; it awakened a
train of interesting reflections, and my spirits became tranquillized.