Of Virtue. CHAP. XII. OF VIRTUE. THE Word Virtue, equally applicable to prudence, courage, and charity*, has, therefore only a vague signification. However it constantly recals to the mind the confused idea of some quality useful to society. When qualities of this sort are common to the greatest part of the citizens a nation is happy within itself, formidable without, and worthy of imitation by posterity+. Virtue, always useful to man and consequently always respectable, ought, at least in certain countries, to reflect power and consideration on its possessors. Now it is the love of consideration that *Virtue, says Cicero, is derived from the word vis: its natural signification is fortitude. It has the same root in Greek. Force and courage are the first ideas that men could form of virtue. + Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be. Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree, POPE. man Virtue is not loved merely for its own sake. man takes to be in him the love of virtue. Each one pretends to love it for itself. This phrase is in every one's mouth, but in no one's heart. What motive makes the monk fast, wear a hair cloth, and flog himself? The hope of eternal happiness: the fear of hell, and the desire of heaven. Pleasure and pain, those productive principles of monastic virtue, are the principles of the patriotic virtues also. The hope of rewards makes them flourish. Whatever disinterested love we may affect to have, without interest to love virtue there is no virtue. To know man, in this respect, we must study him; not by his conversation, but his actions. When I speak I put on a mask: when I act I am forced to take it off. It is not, therefore, by what I say, but what I do, that men are to judge me; and they will judge me rightly. Who preaches up the love of humility and poverty more than the clergy? And what proves the falsity of that love more strongly than the history of the clergy itself? The elector of Bavaria, it is said, has not, for maintaining his troops, his police, and his court, so large a revenue as the church has for maintaining its priests. Yet in Bavaria, as every where else, the clergy preach up the virtue of poverty. It is therefore the poverty of others they extol. To know the real esteem in which virtue is held, let us suppose it banished to the dominions of a monarch. where it can expect no grace or favour. What re 4 spect Power is always honoured, never despised. spect will be paid at his court to virtue ?. None. Nothing can be there respected but baseness, intrigue, and cruelty, disguised under the names of decency, wisdom, and firmness. Does the vizir there give audience. The nobles, prostrate at his feet, can scarcely vouchsafe to cast a look upon merit. But it will be said, the homage of these courtiers is forced; it is the effect of their fear. Be it so. More respect then These courtiers, it is paid to fear, than to virtue. will be added, despise the idol they worship. No such thing. Men hate the powerful; they do not despise them. It is not the wrath of the giant, but of the pigmy, we despise. His impotence renders him ridiculous. Whatever may be said, we do not really despise him, whom we dare not despise to his face. Secret contempt proves weakness and what men pretend to in this case, is nothing more than the boastings of an impotent hatred (35). The man in power is the moral giant; he is always honoured. The homage rendered to virtue is transient, that to force eternal. In the forest, it is the lion, and not the stag, that is respected. Force is every thing upon earth. Virtue without importance becomes insignificant. If in the ages of oppression it has sometimes shone with the greatest lustre, if when Thebes and Rome groaned under tyranny, the intrepid Pelopidas, and the virtuous Brutus, arose and armed, it was because the sceptre then shook in the hands of tyranny: because virtue could still open a passage to grandeur and power. When Virtue despised in the East. When it can no longer make its way, when tyranny, by the aid of luxury and baseness, is seated firmly on its throne, and has bowed down the people to slavery, then no longer are seen those sublime virtues, that, by the influence of example, might still be so useful to mankind. The seeds of heroism are suffocated. In the East, a masculine virtue would be a folly, even in the sight of those who still pique themselves on honesty. Whoever should there plead the cause of the people, would pass for seditious. Thamas Kouli-Khan entered India with his army; rapine and desolation followed him. A bold Indian stopped him "O Thamas, said he, if thou art a god, "act like a god. If thou art a prophet, conduct us "into the way of salvation. If thou art a king, cease "to be a barbarian; protect the people, and do not destroy them." "I am not, replied Thamas, a god, "to act like a god; nor a prophet, to lead you to sal“vation; nor a king, to make you happy: but I am a "man, sent by the wrath of heaven to chastise these "nations (36)." The discourse of the Indian was regarded as seditious (37), and the answer of Thamas applauded by the army. If there be on the theatre a character universally admired, it is that of Leontine. Yet in what esteem would such a character have been in the court of a Phocas? His magnanimity would have alarmed the favourites, and the people, ever at length the echo of the great, would have condemned his noble boldness. Four VOL. I. Y Manner in which most Europeans consider virtue. Four and twenty hours residence in an Oriental court would prove what I here advance. Fortune and authority are there alone respected. How should virtue be there esteemed, or even known? To form clear ideas of it, we must live in a country where (38) public utility is the only measure of human actions. That country is yet unknown to geographers. But the Europeans, it will be said, are at least in this respect very different from the Asiatics. If they be not free, they are at least not entirely degraded to slavery. They, therefore, may know what virtue is, and esteem it. CHAP. XIII. OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE GREATEST PART OF EUROPEANS CONSIDER VIRTUE. THE HE greatest part of the people of Europe honour virtue in theory: this is an effect of their education. They despise it in practice: that is an effect of the form of their governments. If the European admire in history, and applaud on the theatre, generous actions, to which the Asiatic is frequently insensible, that is, as I have just said, the effect of his instruction. The study of the Greek and Roman history, forms a part |