PROFESSIONAL DUTIES.
SUMMARY.
=Professional duties:= founded on the division of social work.
=The absence of a profession--Leisure.=--Is it a duty to have a
profession? Rules for the choice of a profession.
=Division of social professions.=--Plato's theory; the Saint Simonian
theory; Fichte's theory. Resume and synthesis of these theories.
=Mechanic and industrial professions.=--Employers and
employees.--Workmen and farmers.
=Military duties.=
=Public functions.=--Elective functions; the magistracy and the bar.
=Science.=--Teaching.--Medicine.--The arts and letters.
=93. Division of social work.=--Independently of the general duties to
which man is held, as man or member of a particular group (family,
country), there are still others relating to the situation he holds in
society, to the part he plays therein, to his particular line of work.
Society is, in fact, a sort of great enterprise where all pursue a common
end, namely, the greatest happiness or the greatest morality of the human
species; but as this end is very complex, it is necessary that the parts
to be played toward reaching it be divided; and, as in industrial
pursuits, unity of purpose, rapidity of execution, perfection of work,
cannot be obtained except by _division of labor_, so is there also in
society a sort of _social division of labor_, which allots to each his
share of the common work. The special work each is appointed to
accomplish in society is what is called a profession, and the peculiar
duties of each profession are the _professional duties_.
=94. The absence of a profession--Leisure.=--The first question to be
considered is, whether a man should have a profession, or if, having
received from his family a sufficient fortune to live without doing
anything, he has a right to dispense with all profession and give himself
up to what is called _leisure_. Some schools have condemned _leisure_
absolutely, have denounced what they call _idlers_ as the enemies of
society. This is a rather delicate question, and concerning which one must
guard against arriving at a too absolute conclusion.
And, in the first place, there cannot be question here of approving or
permitting that sort of foolish and shameful leisure to which some
young prodigals, without sense of dignity and morality, are given, who
dissipate in disorder hereditary fortunes, or the wealth obtained by
the indefatigable labor of their fathers. It is sometimes said that
this does more good than harm, because fortunes pass thus from hand to
hand, and each profits by it in his turn. But who does not know that
to make a good use of a fortune is more profitable to society than
dissipation? However that may be, nothing is more unworthy of youth
than this nameless idleness, where all the strength of the body and
soul, the energy of character, the life of the intelligence, all the
gifts of nature are squandered. There have been sometimes seen
superior souls who rose from such disorders victorious over
themselves, and stronger for the combat of life. But how rare such
examples! How often does it not, on the contrary, happen that the
idleness of his youth determines the whole course of the man's life?
Sometimes, it is true, one may choose a life of leisure designedly,
not with an idea of dissipation, but, on the contrary, with that of
being free to do great things. Certain independent minds believe that
a profession deprives a person of his liberty, narrows him, fastens
him down to mean and monotonous occupations, subjects him to
conventional and narrow modes of thinking--in short, that a positive
kind of work weakens and lowers the mind. There is some truth in these
remarks. Everybody has observed how men of different professions
differ in their mode of thinking. What more different than a
physician, a man of letters, a soldier, a merchant? All these men
thought about the same in their youth; they see each other twenty
years later; each has undergone a peculiar bent; each has his
particular physiognomy, costume, etc. Not only has the profession
absorbed the man, but it has also deadened his individuality. One may
conceive, then, how some ambitious minds may expect to escape the yoke
and preserve their liberty in renouncing all professions. To be
subject to no fixed and prescribed occupation, to depend upon no
master, to nobly cultivate the mind in every direction, to make vast
experiments, to be a stranger to nothing, bound to nothing, is not
that, seemingly, the height of human happiness? Some men of genius
have followed this system, and found no bad results from it. Descartes
relates to us in his _Discours sur la Methode_ (Part I.), that, during
nine years of his life, he did nothing but "roll about the world,
hither and thither, trying to be a spectator, rather than an actor, in
the comedies played therein." He tells us further, that he employed
his "youth in traveling, in visiting courts and armies, in associating
with people of various humors and conditions, in gathering divers
experiences, in testing himself in the encounters chance favored him
with, etc." That this may be an admirable school, a marvelously
instructive arena for well-endowed minds, no one will doubt; but what
is possible and useful to a Descartes or a Pascal, will it suit the
majority of men? Is it not to be feared that this wandering in every
direction, this habit of having nowhere a foot-hold, may make the mind
superficial and weaken its energy?
He who renounces being an actor, to be only a spectator, as did
Descartes, takes too easy a part; he frees himself from all
responsibility: this may sharpen the mind, but there will always
remain some radical deficiency. Force of character, however, and
personal superiority may set at naught all these conclusions--sound as
they in general are in theory.[64]
It may, therefore, be doubtful whether a life of leisure, with some
exceptions, be good for him who gives himself up to it; but what is not
legitimate, is the kind of jealousy and envy which those who work often
entertain against those who have nothing to do. There is a legitimate
leisure and nobly employed. For example, a legitimate leisure is that
which, obtained through hereditary fortune, is engaged in gratuitously
serving the country, in study, in the management of property, the
cultivation of land, in travels devoted to observation and the
amelioration of human things, in a noble intercourse with society. It is a
grievous error to wish to blot out of societies all existence that has not
gain for its end, and is not connected with daily wants. Property and
riches are true social functions, and among the most difficult of
functions. Those who know how to use them with profit, fill one of the
most useful parts in society, and cannot be said to be without a
profession.
=95. Of the choice of a profession.=--If it is necessary in society to have
a profession, it is important that it be well chosen. He who is not in his
right place, is wanting in some essential quality to fill the one he
occupies:
"If the abbe de Carignan had yielded to the wishes of Madame de
Soissons, his mother, what glory would not the house of Savoy have
been deprived of! The empire would have been deprived of one of its
greatest captains, one of the bulwarks of Christianity. Prince Eugene
was a very great man in the profession they wished to interdict him;
what would he have been in the profession they wished him to embrace?
M. de Retz insisted absolutely that his youngest son should be an
ecclesiastic, despite the repugnance he manifested for this
profession, despite the scandalous conduct he indulged in to escape
from it. This duke [M. de Retz] gives to the church a sacrilegious
priest, to Paris a sanguinary archbishop, to the kingdom a great
rebel, and deprives his house of the last prop that could have
sustained it."[65]
One should, therefore, study his vocation, not decide too quickly, get
information on the nature and duties of different professions; then
consult his taste, but without allowing himself to be carried away by
illusory, proud, inconsistent fancies; consult wise and enlightened
persons; finally, if necessary, make certain experiments, taking care,
however, to stop in time.
=96. Division of social professions.=--It would be impossible to make a
survey of all the professions society is composed of: it were an infinite
labor. We must, therefore, bring the professions down to a certain number
of types or classes, which allow the reducing of the rules of
_professional morality_ to a small number. Several philosophers have
busied themselves in dividing and classifying social occupations. We shall
recall only the principal ones of these divisions.
Plato has reduced the different social functions to four classes, namely:
1, _magistrates_; 2, _warriors_; 3, _farmers_; 4, _artisans_. The two
first classes are the governing classes; the two others are the classes
governed. The two first apply themselves to moral things: education,
science, the defense of the country; the others to material life. This
classification of Plato is somewhat too general for our modern societies,
which comprise more varied and numerous elements: these divisions,
nevertheless, are important, and should be taken account of in morals.
Since Plato, there is scarcely any but the socialist Saint-Simon who
attempted to classify the social careers. He reduces them to three groups:
_industrials_, _artists_, and _scientists_ (savants). The meaning of this
classification is this: the object of human labor, according to
Saint-Simon, is the cultivation of the globe--that is to say, the greatest
possible production; but this is the object of productive labor; it is
what is called _industry_. Now, the cultivation of nature requires a
knowledge of nature's laws, namely, _science_. Science and invention are,
then, the two great branches of social activity. According to Saint-Simon,
work--that is to say, industry--must take the place of war; science, that
of the laws. Hence no warriors, no magistrates; or, rather, the scientists
(savants) should be the true magistrates. Science and industry, however,
having only relation to material nature, Saint-Simon thought there was a
part to be given to the moral order, to the _beautiful_ or the _good_;
hence a third class, which he now calls _artists_, now _moralists_ and
_philosophers_, and to whom a sort of religious role is assigned. It will
be seen that this theory is absolutely artificial and utopian, that it has
relation to an imaginary system, and not to the order of things as it is:
it is an ingenious conception, but quite impracticable.
One of the greatest of modern moralists, the German philosopher Fichte,
assigned, in his _Practical Morality_, a part to the doctrine of
_professional_ duties; and he began by giving a theory of the professions
more complete and satisfactory than any of the preceding ones.
Fichte makes of the special professions two great divisions: 1, those
which have for their object the keeping up of material life; 2, those
which have for their object the keeping up of intellectual and moral life.
On the one side, _mechanical labor_; on the other, _intellectual_ and
_moral labor_.
The object of mechanical labor is _production_, _manufacture_, and
_exchange_ of produce; hence three functions: those of =producers=,
=manufacturers=, and =merchants=.
The moral and spiritual labor has also three objects: 1, the
administration of justice in the State; 2, the theoretic culture of
intelligence; 3, the moral culture of the will. Hence three classes: 1,
=public functions=; 2, =science and instruction=; 3, =the Church and the
clergy=. Lastly, there is in human nature a faculty which serves as a link
between the theoretical and the practical faculties: it is the _esthetic
sense_; the sense of the beautiful; hence a last class, that of =artists=.
This theory is more scientific than that of the Saint-Simonians, but it is
still somewhat defective; it is not clear, for example, in a moral point
of view, that there is a great difference of duties between the producers,
manufacturers, and merchants: they are economical rather than moral
distinctions. Plato's division is better, when he puts the farmers in
opposition to the artisans. It is certain that there are, especially in
these days, interesting moral questions, which differ according as the
workmen live in the city or in the country. We therefore prefer on this
point Plato's division; and we will treat, on the one side, _industry_ and
_commerce_, and on the other _agriculture_; and in each of these divisions
we will distinguish those who direct or remunerate the work, namely,
contractors, masters, proprietors, capitalists in some degree, and those
who work with their hands and receive wages.
In characterizing the second class of careers, those which have moral
interests for their object, we will again borrow of Plato one of the names
of his division, namely, _the defense of the State_. As to the
administration of justice in the State, it is divided, as we have already
said, into three powers: the _executive_, _legislative_, and _judicial_
powers. Hence three orders of functions: _administration_, _deputation_,
and the _magistracy_, with which latter is connected the _bar_.
As to science, it is either _speculative_ or _practical_.
In the first case, it only concerns the individual; we have spoken of it
under individual duties (ch. iv.). In the second case, it has for its
object _application_, and bears either on _things_ or on _men_.
Applied to things, science is associated with the industry we have already
spoken of. Applied to men, it is _medicine_, in respect to bodies;
_morality_ or _religion_, in respect to hearts and souls.
Lastly, along with the sciences which seek the true, there are the letters
and the arts which treat of and produce the beautiful. Hence a last class,
namely, _poets_, _writers_, _artists_.
Such is about the outline of what a system of social professions might be.
A treatise of professional morality which would be in harmony with this
outline, would be all one science, the elements of which scarcely exist,
being dispersed in a multitude of works, or rather in the practice and
interior life of each profession. We will content ourselves with a few
general indications.
=97. I. Mechanical and industrial professions.=--1. _Employers and
employees._--The professions which have for their object the material
cultivation of the globe, and particularly _industry_ and _commerce_, are
divided into two great classes: 1, on one side, those who, having capital,
_undertake_ and direct the works; 2, those who execute them with their
arms and receive _wages_. The first are the _employers_; the second the
_employees_. What are the respective duties of these two classes?
=98. Duties of employers.=--The duties of all those who, by virtue of their
capital legitimately acquired, or by virtue of their intelligence,
command, direct and pay for the work done by men, are the following:
1. They should raise the wages of the workmen as high as the state of the
market permits; and they should not wait to be compelled to it by strikes
or threats of strikes. Conversely, they should not, from weakness or want
of foresight, yield to every threat of the kind; for in raising the wages
unreasonably high, one may disable himself from entering into foreign
competition, or may cause the ruin of the humbler manufacturers who have
not sufficient capital.
2. Capitalists, employers and masters should obey strictly the laws
established for the protection of childhood. They should employ the work
of minors within proper limits, and according to the conditions fixed by
the law.
3. Their task is not done when they have secured to the workmen and their
children the share of work and wages which is their due, even when they
are content to claim nothing beyond justice. They have yet to fulfill
toward their subordinates the duties of protection and benevolence; they
must assist them, relieve them, be it in accidents happening to them in
the work they are engaged in, or in illness. They must spare them
suspensions of work as much as possible; in short, they must, through all
sorts of establishments--schools, mutual-help societies, workmen-cities
(_cites ouvrieres_), etc.--encourage education, economy, property, yet
without forcing upon them anything that would diminish their own
responsibility or impair their personal dignity.
=99. Duties of workingmen.=--The duties of workingmen should correspond to
those of the employers.
1. The workingmen owe it to themselves not to cherish in their hearts
feelings of hatred, envy, covetousness, and revolt against the employers.
Division of work requires that in industrial matters some should direct
and others be directed. Material exploitation requires capital; and those
who bring this capital, the fruit of former work, are as necessary to the
workingmen to utilize their work as these are to the first in utilizing
their capital.
2. The workingmen owe their work to the establishment which pays them; it
is as much their interest as their duty. The result of _laziness_ and
_intemperance_ is _misery_. We cannot enough deplore the use of what is
called the _Mondays_--a day of rest over and beyond the legitimate and
necessary Sunday. It is certain that one day of rest in a week is
absolutely a necessity. No man can nor ought (except in circumstances
unavoidable) work without interruption the whole year through. But the
week's day of rest once secure, all that is over and above that, is taken
from what belongs to the family and the provisions against old age.
3. Supposing that, in consequence of the progress of industry, the number
of hours of rest could be increased--that, for example, the hours of the
day's work could be reduced--these hours of rest should then be devoted to
the family, to the cultivation of the mind, and not to the fatal pleasures
of intoxication.
The workingmen have certainly a right to ask, as far as they are worthy of
it, equality of consideration and influence in society; and all our modern
laws are so constituted as to insure them this equality. It rests with
them, therefore, to render themselves worthy of this new equality by their
morals and their education. To have their children educated; to educate
themselves; to occupy their leisure with family interests, in reading, in
innocent and elevating recreations (music, the theatre, gardening, if
possible), it is by all such pursuits that the workingmen will reduce or
entirely remove the inequality of manners and education which may still
exist between them and their superiors.
4. Workingmen cannot be blamed for seeking to defend their interests and
increase their comforts; in so doing they only do what all men should do.
They have also the right, in order to get satisfaction, to attach to their
work such conditions as they may reasonably desire: it is the _law of
demand_ and _supply_, common to all industries. In short, as an individual
refusal to work is a means absolutely inefficacious to bring about an
increase of wages, it must be admitted that the workingmen have a right to
act in concert and collectively to refuse to work, and, collectively, to
make their conditions; hence the right of strikes recognized to-day by the
law. But this right, granted to the principle of the liberty of work, must
not be turned against this principle. The workingmen who freely refuse to
work should not stand in the way of those who, finding their demands
ill-founded, persist in continuing to work under the existing conditions.
All violence, all threats to force into the strike him who is opposed
thereto, is an injustice and a tyranny. This violence is condemned by law;
but as it is easily disguised, it cannot always be reached; it is,
therefore, through the morals one must act upon it--through persuasion and
education. The workmen must gradually adopt the morals of liberty, must
respect each other. For the same reason they should respect women's work;
should not interdict to their wives and daughters the right of improving
their condition by work. Unquestionably it is much to be desired that
woman should become more and more centred in domestic duties, the care of
her household and family. This is her principal part in the social work.
But as long as the imperfect condition of the laboring classes does not
permit this state of things, it may be said that the workmen work against
themselves in trying to close the field of industry to women.
The tendency toward the equality of wages, as the ideal of the
remuneration of work, is also to be condemned. Nothing is more contrary to
the spirit of the times, which demands that every one be treated according
to his work. Capacity, painstaking, personal efforts, are elements that
demand to be proportionately remunerated. Let us add, that it is the duty
of head masters, in the case of a good will, succumbing to physical
inability, to conciliate benevolence and equity with justice; this,
however, is only an exceptional case. But, as a principle, each one should
be rewarded only for what he has done. Otherwise there would be an
inducement to indifference and idleness.
=100. Workmen and farmers.=--Having considered workmen in their relations
with their masters, let us consider them now on a line with farmers; for,
according as one lives in the city or in the country, there is a great
difference in manners, and consequently in duties. The workmen who live in
the city are for that very reason more apt to acquire new ideas and
general information; they have many more means of educating themselves;
the very pleasures of the city afford them opportunities to cultivate
their mind. Besides, living nearer to each other, they are more disposed
to consider their common interests and turn them to account. Hence
advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are, the superiority of
intellectual culture, the greater aptitude in conceiving general ideas, a
stronger interest in public affairs; in all these respects, city-life
presents advantages over country-life. But hence also arise great dangers.
The workingmen, quite ready to admit general ideas, but without sufficient
information and political experience to control them, abandon themselves
readily to utopian preachings and instigations to revolt. Further, very
much preoccupied with their common interests, they are too much disposed
to think only of their own class, and to form, as it were, a class apart
in society and in the nation. Hence for the workmen a double duty: 1, to
obtain enough information not to blindly follow all demagogues; 2, to
learn to consider their interests as connected with all those of the other
classes and professions.
Farmers are indebted to the country-life for certain advantages, which
carry with them, at the same time, certain disadvantages. The farmer is
generally more attached to social stability than the more or less shifting
inhabitants of the towns; he thinks much of property; he does not like to
change in his manners and ideas. He is thereby a powerful support to
conservatism and the spirit of tradition, without which society could not
live and last. He has, moreover, had till now the great merit of not
singling himself out, of not separating his interests from those of the
country in general. Thus, on these two points--opposition to utopias,
preservation of social unity--the countryman serves as a counterpoise to
all the opposite tendencies in the workmen. But these very qualities are,
perhaps, the result of certain defects: namely, the absence of information
and enlightenment. The countryman sees not very much beyond his
church-steeple; material life occupies and absorbs him wholly; individual
and personal interests are absolutely predominant in him. He is but little
disposed to give his children any education; and he is disposed to look
upon them as so many instruments of work less expensive than others. The
idea of a general country, general interests surpassing private interests,
is more or less wanting in him. What it is necessary to persuade the
countryman of, is the usefulness of education. He should be inspired with
a taste for liberty, which is a security to him and his family, as well as
to all the other classes of society. The workman in becoming better
informed, the farmer more informed, they will gradually blend with the
middle classes, and there will then be no longer those oppositions of
classes and interests so dangerous at the present day. (See Appendix.)
=101. II. Military duties.=--We have already considered military duties, as
the duty of citizens toward the State; we have now to consider here
military duties in themselves, as special duties, peculiar to a certain
class of citizens, to a certain social profession.
1. It is useless to say that the peculiar virtue and special duty of the
military class is _courage_. We have but to refer the reader to what will
be said further on (ch. xiv.) touching the virtue of courage, in regard to
the duties of man toward himself.
2. _Patriotism_ is a duty of all classes and all professions; but it is
particularly one with those who are commissioned to defend the country: it
is, therefore, the military virtue _par excellence_.
3. _Fidelity to the flag._--This duty is implied in the two preceding
ones. The duty of courage, in fact, implies that one should not flee
before the enemy: it is the crime of _desertion_; that one should not
pass over to the enemy: it is the crime of _defection_ or _treason_. This
latter crime has become very rare, and has even wholly disappeared in
modern France. Formerly there was seen a Conde, the great Conde fighting
against the French at the head of Spanish troops; and so great a fault
scarcely injured his reputation; in our days, a simple suspicion, and that
an unjust one, blackened the whole life of a Marshal of France.[66]
4. _Obedience and discipline._ (See above, _Duties toward the State_,
preceding chapter.)
=102. III. Public functions--Administration--Deputation--Magistracy--The
Bar.=--The public functions are the divers acts which compose the
government of a State. We even include the _elective_ functions
(deputation, general councils, town councils, etc.), because, whilst they
have their origin in election, they are, nevertheless, functions, the
purpose of which is the _common weal_, _public interests_. For the same
reason, though the bar is a free profession, it is so connected with
magistracy, it is so necessary a dependency of the judicial power, that it
is thereby itself a sort of public power.
=103. Functionaries.=--We call _functionaries_, more particularly, those
who take part in the administration of the country and the execution of
its laws. This admitted, the principal duties of functionaries are:
1. The _Knowledge of the laws_ they are commissioned to execute. Power is
only legitimate as far as it is guaranteed by _competency_. Ignorance in
public functions has for its results _injustice_, since arbitrariness
takes then the place of the law; administrative _disorder_, since the law
has precisely for its object to establish rules and maintain traditions;
_negligence_, since ignorant of the principles by which affairs ought to
be settled, conclusions are kept off as much as possible. But one must not
defer obtaining administrative information till called to take a share in
the administration. A general information should be acquired beforehand;
for, once engaged in administrative affairs, there is then no longer time
to acquire it.
_To go to work_ is, therefore, the first duty of those who would be
prepared for public functions; and this duty of work continues with the
functions; for after general information has been obtained, comes the
special and technical information, where there is always something new to
learn.
2. The second duty of functionaries of any degree, is _exactitude_ and
_assiduity_. The most brilliant qualities, and the largest and amplest
mind for public affairs, will render but inefficient service--at any rate,
a service very inferior to what could be expected of them, if these
qualities are counterbalanced and paralyzed by negligence, laziness,
disorder, inexactness. One must not forget that all negligence in public
affairs is a denial of justice to some one. An administrative decision,
whatever it be, has always for its result to satisfy the just, or to deny
the unjust, claims of some one. To retard a case through negligence, may
therefore deprive some one of what he has a right to. There are, of
course, necessary delays which arise from the complication of affairs, and
order itself requires that everything come in time; but delays occasioned
by our own fault are a wrong toward others.
3. _Integrity_ and _discretion_ are also among the most important duties
of functionaries. The first bears especially upon what concerns finances;
but there are everywhere more or less opportunities to fail in probity.
For example, there is nothing more shameful than to sell one's influence;
this is what is called _extortion_. An administrator given to extortion is
the shame and ruin of the State. As to discretion, it is again a duty
which depends on the nature of things. It is especially obligatory when
persons are in question, and still more so in certain careers--as, for
example, in _diplomacy_.
4. _Justice._--The strict duty of every administrator or functionary, is
to have no other rule than the _law_; to avoid _arbitrariness_ and
_favor_, to have no regard to persons. This duty, it must be said, whilst
it is the most necessary, is also the most difficult to exercise, and one
which requires most courage and will. Public opinion, unfortunately,
encourages in this respect, the weaknesses of officials; it is convinced,
and spreads everywhere this conviction, that all is due to _favoritism_,
that it is not the most deserving that succeed, but the best recommended.
Everybody complains of it, and everybody helps toward it. There is
unquestionably much exaggeration in these complaints. Favor is not
everything in this world. It is too much the interest of administrators
that they should have industrious and intelligent assistants, and that
they should employ every means to choose them well; and in public affairs,
the interests of the common weal always predominate in the end. It is,
nevertheless, an evil that so unfavorable a prejudice should exist; and it
is absolutely a duty with functionaries to uproot it, in showing it to be
false.
=104. Elective functions--Deputation--Elective councils.=--There is a whole
class of functionaries, if it be permitted to say so, who owe their origin
to election, and who are the mandataries of the people, either in
municipal councils, or in general councils, or in the great elective
bodies of the State, the _Senate_ and _House of Representatives_. (See
_Civil instruction_.) The principle of the sovereignty of the people
requires that for all its interests, communal, departmental or national,
the country have a deliberative voice by means of its representatives. The
duties of these mandataries are generally the same in any degree of rank.
1. _Fidelity to the mandate._--The representative is the interpreter of
certain opinions, of certain tendencies, and although the majority which
have elected him comprise very diverse elements, there exists an average
of opinions, and it is this average which the deputy represents, or should
represent. He would, therefore, fail in his duty if, once elected, he
passed over to his opponents, or, if wishing to do so, he did not tender
his resignation. However, this fidelity to the mandate should not be
carried so far as to accept what is called the _imperative mandate_,
which is the negation of all liberty in the representative, and makes of
him a simple voting machine. The representative is a representative
precisely because he is empowered, on his own responsibility, to find the
best means to carry out the wishes of his constituents.
2. _Independence._--The deputy, senator, municipal, or departmental
officer should be independent both in regard to the authorities and in
regard to the electors. From the authorities he should receive no favors;
he should not sell his vote in any interest whatsoever; from the electors
he has to receive advice only, but no orders. Outside their office as
electors, the electors are nothing but simple individuals. As such they
may try to influence representatives, but they have otherwise no other
title before the representatives of the electoral corps. The
representative should, above all, avoid making himself the servant of the
electors, for the satisfaction of their private interests and passions. It
is often thought that independence only consists in resisting courts and
princes; there is no less independence, and sometimes even is there more
merit and courage required to resist the tyranny of the masses, and
especially that of popular leaders. The deputy should, we have said, be
faithful to his trust--that is to say, to the general line of politics
adopted by the political party to which he belongs; but within these
general limits it is for him to assume the responsibility, for it is for
this very reason that he is elected a representative. Let us, moreover,
add that fidelity to opinions should not degenerate into party spirit, and
that there is an interest which should supersede all others, namely, the
interest of the country.
3. The spirit of _conciliation_ and the spirit of _discipline_.--Political
liberty, more than any other political principle, requires the spirit of
concession. If each, indeed, fortifies himself in his own opinions,
without ever making a concession, all having the right to do the same, it
is evident that no common conclusion can be arrived at. The consequence of
the _liberum veto_,[67] pushed to excess, is paralysis of power or
anarchy. Nothing is done; and in politics, when nothing is done, all
becomes disorganized, dissolved. It is, therefore, necessary that whilst
preserving their independence, the representatives sent forth by the
electors should endeavor to render government possible; they should not
overstep the limits of their trust by confounding legislative power with
executive power; they should try to harmonize with the other bodies of the
State--in short, they ought each to sacrifice the necessary amount of
their individual opinion to bring about a common opinion. In a free
government it is no more a duty to belong to the _majority_ than to the
_opposition_, since the opposition may, in its turn, become majority; but
whether belonging to the one or to the other, the representative should
subordinate his particular views to the common interest; otherwise the
parties scatter, which, in the long run, can only be profitable to
despotism.
=105. Judicial power.--The magistracy and the bar.=--The judicial power is
exercised by magistrates called _judges_: it is they who decide about
quarrels between individuals: this is what is called _civil justice_; they
also decide about the punishments inflicted on criminals who have made
attempts upon a life or property; and this is _penal justice_. The duties
of the magistrate are easily deduced from these obligations.
1. _Impartiality and neutrality._--The judge must necessarily remain
_neutral_ among all parties; he should have no regard to persons, should
render equal justice to the rich and to the poor, to the high and to the
low. _Equality before the law_, which is one of the principles of our
modern institutions, should not only be a principle in the abstract; it
should also be a practical principle, and be brought before the eyes of
the judges as one among the first of their obligations.
2. _Integrity and disinterestedness._--No less strict a duty for the
judges, and which it is scarcely necessary to point out, is integrity. The
magistrate should be free from all suspicion of venality. Under the old
_regime_, as may be seen in Racine's comedy of _The Pleaders_, the judges
were not always free from such suspicion. Of course, it is but a comedy;
but such a comedy could no longer be written nowadays; it would no longer
be understood; our morals are too much improved for that. The obligation
should, nevertheless, be pointed out.
3. Impartiality and integrity concern above all civil justice. The duty
which more especially concerns criminal justice, is _equity_; namely, a
moderate justice, intermediary between a dangerous lenity and an excessive
severity. In truth, in most cases, at least in the graver cases, the judge
has scarcely anything more to do than to apply the law. It is for the
jury, a sort of free and irresponsible magistracy, to decide upon the
culpability or innocence of the prisoners. It is for the jury to find a
just medium between harshness and lenity. But the juryman who, above all,
judges as a man, and often recoils from responsibility, should fear the
excess of lenity: the judge, on the contrary, accustomed to repression,
and above all preoccupied with the interests of society, should rather
defend himself against excess of rigor and severity.
4. _Knowledge._--What is for most men but a luxury, becomes in such or
such a profession a strict duty. _The knowledge of the laws_, for example,
is, for the magistrate, as the knowledge of the human body for the
physician, a strict obligation. He who wishes to enter the magistracy,
should therefore carry the study of the law as far as his youth permits
it; but he should not stop his studies the moment he has entered upon his
career. He has always something to learn; he should keep himself informed
of the progress jurisprudence is making. It is useless to say that,
independently of this general work, the special and thorough study of each
case brought before him is for the judge a duty still more strict.
Alongside of the magistracy, and co-operating with it, is placed the
_bar_, which is charged with the defense of private interests from a civil
or criminal point of view.
From a civil point of view, the trial is between two citizens, each
claiming his right in the case; they are what is called _pleaders_, and
the trial itself is called a _law-suit_. The pleaders, not knowing the
laws, need an intermediary to explain and defend their cause, bring it
clearly to the comprehension of the magistrates and enforce its reasons.
This is the part of the lawyers.
From a criminal point of view, the trial is not between two individuals;
but between society and the criminal. Society, to defend itself, employs
what is called a _public prosecutor_; the criminal needs a _counsel_. The
part of a counsel belongs again to the lawyers.
The duties of lawyers are varied according as the cases are civil or
criminal cases.
In civil law-suits, the absolute duty is the following: not to take up
_bad cases_. Only it is necessary to understand well this principle. It is
generally believed that a bad case is the losing one, and a good case the
winning one. Thus would there in every law-suit be a lawyer who failed in
his duty: the one, namely, who lost the case. This is a false idea, which
very unjustly throws in many minds discredit upon the profession of the
law.
Certainly there are cases where the law is so clear, jurisprudence so
established, the morality so evident and imperious, that a suit having the
three against itself, may be called a bad case; and the lawyer who can
allow his client to believe the suit defensible, and who employs his skill
and eloquence in defending it, fails in his professional duty. But this is
not generally the case. In most cases, it is very difficult to tell
beforehand who is right, who wrong, and precisely because it is difficult,
are there judges whose proper function it is to decide. Now, in order that
the judge may decide, he must be acquainted with all the details of the
case; all possible reasons from both sides must be laid before him.
Everybody knows that one can never of one's own account find in favor of a
solution or conclusion, all the reasons which the interested party can;
now, it is just that these reasons be set forth: this is the business of
the lawyers. One must not forget that in every law-suit there is a pro and
a con. It is for this very reason there is a suit. The lawyers are
specially here to plead for the pro and con, each from his own standpoint.
One could very well understand, for example, that the court should have at
its disposal functionaries commissioned to prepare the cases and plead for
the contending parties: one would take up Peter's cause, the other,
Paul's; this is just the part of the lawyers, with this difference, that
the choice of the lawyer is left to the client, because it is but just
that a deputy be chosen by him he is supposed to represent.
In criminal cases there are equally very delicate questions. How can a
lawyer defend as innocent one who is guilty? Were it not an actual lie?
And yet society does not allow that any accused, whoever he be, be left
without counsel; and when none present themselves, it provides one,
charging him to save the life of the accused if he can. It is the interest
of society that no innocent person be condemned, and that even the guilty
should not be punished beyond what he deserves; in short, it takes care
that all the reasons that can be brought forth to attenuate the gravity of
an offense be well weighed, and even set forth in a manner to arouse pity
and sympathy. Such is the business of the lawyers.
It is evident that these considerations, which show the lawyer's
profession to be one so legitimate and exalted, should not be improperly
understood. These general rules must be interpreted with delicacy of
feeling and conscience.
=106. IV. Science--Teaching--Medicine--The letters and arts.=--Beside the
_social powers_ which _make_, _execute_ and _apply_ the laws, there is
_science_, which instructs men, enlightens them, directs their work, and
which even, setting utility aside, is yet in itself an object of
disinterested research. Side by side with the sciences are the letters
and arts, which pursue and express the _beautiful_, as science pursues the
_true_. Finally, to science and art are added _morality_ and _religion_,
whose object is the _good_. The moralists, it is true, do not constitute a
particular profession in society, or at least their part is blended with
teaching in general; religion has its interpreters, who find in their
dogmas and traditions the rules of their duties. It is not the business of
lay morality to teach these. Let us, therefore, content ourselves with a
few principles concerning the sciences and letters.
=107. Science--Duties of Scientists.=--Science may be cultivated in two
different ways and from two different standpoints: 1, for itself; 2, for
its social advantages--for the services it renders to men. There is but a
small number of men who have a natural taste for pure science, and the
leisure to give themselves up to the love of it; but those who choose such
a life contract thereby certain duties.
The first of all is the _love of truth_. The only object for the scientist
to pursue is truth. He must, therefore, lay aside all interests and
passions antagonistic to truth; and, above all, personal interest which
inclines one to prefer one theme to another, because of the advantages it
may bring; this is, however, so gross a motive, that it would not be
supposed to exist with a true scholar; yet are there other causes of error
no less dangerous--for example, the interest of a cause--of a conviction
which is dear to us; the interest of our self-love, which makes us persist
in error known to be such; the spirit of system, by which one shows his
peculiar forte, etc. All these passions should give way before the pure
love of truth.
=108. The communication of science--Teaching.=--The principal duty of those
who are possessed of science is to communicate it to other men. Certainly,
all men are not called to be scholars; but all should in some degree have
their intelligence cultivated by _instruction_. Hence the duty of teaching
imposed upon scholars; but this duty brings with it many others.
1. The masters who teach others should themselves first be educated.
Hence the duty of intellectual work, not merely to acquire knowledge,
without which one cannot be a teacher, but to preserve and increase it.
The teacher should, therefore, set an example to his pupil of assiduous
and continuous intellectual work.
2. The teacher should love his pupils--children, if he is called upon to
teach children; young men, if he is to address young men. The teacher
should not only think of the science he teaches, but of the fruits his
pupils are to reap from it; one can only be interested in what he loves. A
teacher indifferent toward the young, will never make the necessary effort
to lead and educate them.
3. The teacher, in teaching, should unite in a just measure _discipline_
and _liberty_. Instruction naturally presupposes one that knows and one
that does not know; and it is necessary that the one should direct the
other; hence the necessity of discipline. But the purpose of instruction
is to teach to do without the master--to be one's own master in thought
and conduct; hence the necessity of liberty. This liberty should grow
along with the instruction, and, of course, proportionately to age; but,
at any age, one should take advantage of the faculties of a child, and
make it as much as possible find out by itself what is within its reach.
4. The teacher should not separate _instruction_ from _education_. He
should not only communicate knowledge--he should above all form men,
characters, wills. Instruction is, besides, already in itself an
education. Can one instruct without accustoming young minds to work, to
obedience, to correct habits of thought; without putting into their hands
good books; without giving them good examples? It is most true that one
does not form men with pure and abstract science alone,--it is necessary
to add the letters, history, morality, religion. The teacher, besides,
should study the character of his pupils, should, through work and moral
and physical exercises, put down presumption, correct unmanliness, combat
selfishness, anticipate or restrain the passions.
=109. Applied science--Industry--Medicine.=--Science may find its
application in two ways, either to _things_, or to _men_. Applied to
things, it is called _industry_; applied to men, _medicine_. There are no
special duties concerning industrial pursuits. Engineers, private or in
the service of the State, employed in civil or military works, have no
other duties then the general duties of functionaries, military-men,
employees, etc. It is not the same with medicine. There are here
obligations of a special and graver nature.
=110. Duties of the physician--His knowledge.=--Knowledge is an obligation
in every profession; everywhere it is indispensable to know the thing one
is engaged in; but, in medicine, ignorance is of a much more serious
character: for it may end in _manslaughter_. How can any one attend the
sick if he knows nothing of the human body; if he is ignorant of the
symptoms of a disease? He has, it is true, the resource of doing nothing;
but might not this also be manslaughter? Does he not then take the place
of him who knows and might save the patient?
2. _Secrecy._--The physician is above all held to secrecy. He must not
make known the diseases which have been revealed to him. This is what is
called _medical secrecy_. This obligation may in certain cases give rise
to the most serious troubles of conscience; but, as a principle, it may be
said that secrecy is as absolute a duty for the physician as it is for the
father-confessor.
3. _Courage._--The physician, we have seen, has his _point d'honneur_,
like the military-man; he often runs equally great dangers: he must, if
necessary, devote himself and risk his life. He requires also a great
moral courage, when he is brought before a serious illness where, at the
moment of a dangerous operation, when his hand must be as firm as his
mind, he needs all the self-possession he can command.
4. Duties toward the sick: _Kindness_ and _severity_.--The physician
should be firm in the treatment of his patients; he should insist that his
prescriptions be unconditionally followed, for his responsibility rests
on this: he should rather give up the case than consent to a dangerous
disobedience. At the same time he must encourage the patient, raise his
strength by inspiring him with confidence, which is half the cure. He must
also, without deceiving it, uphold the courage of the family. In some
cases it may be necessary to tell the patient the danger he is in.
=111. Writers and artists.=--The morality of writers and artists is, as in
all the preceding cases, determined by the object these persons devote
their lives to. The object of the writer and artist is the realization of
the _beautiful_, either in speech or writing (literature), or through
color and lines (painting, sculpture), or through sound (music). In all
these arts, the leading thought should be the interests of the art one is
cultivating. One should as much as possible beware turning it into a
trade--that is to say, into a mercenary art, having gain only for its
object. Certainly one must live, and it is rare that writers, poets,
artists, have at their command resources enough to do without the
pecuniary fruit of pen or hand; but the attainment of the beautiful should
be preferred to that of the useful: study, the imitation of the great
masters, contempt for fashion, striving after all that is delicate, noble,
pure, the avoiding of all that is low, frivolous, factitious: such are the
principles which should regulate the morality of artist and writer. It is
useless to add that they should seek their success in what elevates the
soul, and not in what corrupts and degrades it. Coarseness, brutality,
license, should be absolutely condemned. Better to devote one's self to a
useful and humble profession than employ one's talent in depraving morals,
and degrading souls.
The duties of the poet have been eloquently expressed by Boileau in his
_Art poetique_.
1. It is a duty to devote one's self to poetry and the fine arts only when
one has a decided vocation for them.
"Be rather a mason, if that be your talent."
2. The poet should listen to good advice.
"Make choice of a solid and wholesome censor."
3. The poet and artist should, in their verses and works, be the
interpreters of virtue.
"Let your soul and your morals, depicted in your works,
Never present of you but noble images."
Love, then, virtue; nourish your soul therewith.
"The verse always savors of the baseness of the heart."
4. They must avoid jealousies and rivalries.
"Flee, above all, flee base jealousies."
5. They must prefer glory to gain.
"Work for glory and let no sordid gain
Ever be the object of a noble writer."