DIALOGUE LORD SHAFTESBURY. Not a formal debate, but a free conference; for which we seem to have leisure enough; and the subject is, besides, of real importance. I may presume to answer for our friends here, that they will not be displeased to assist at it. I am aware, as you said, that the practice may be sometimes inconvenient, as it is commonly managed, on the side of morals; and I would not be thought to have benefited so little by yours, and the instructions of my other masters, as not to lay the greatest stress on that consideration. But, after all, these inconveniences may be pretty well avoided, by the choice of an honest and able governor. Such an one it will not be impossible to find, if the persons concerned be in earnest to look out for him: I do not say in Cells, for a Pedant without manners; and still less, you will say, in Camps, for a mannered man, without principles or letters; but, in the world at large, for some learned and well-accomplished person, who, yet, may not disdain to be engaged in this noblest office of conducting a young DIALOGUE gentleman's education. Under such a Governor, as this, the danger, to which a young man's morals may be exposed by early travel, will be tolerably guarded against; and to make amends for the hazard he runs in this respect, I see, on the other hand, so many reasons for breeding young men in this way, so many benefits arising from it at all times, and such peculiar inducements with regard to the present state of our own country, that, I think, we shall hardly be of two minds, when you have attended to them. VII. MR. LOCKE. We shall see that in due time. For the present, the serious air, you assume, so dif ferent from your wonted manner, secures my attention. LORD SHAFTESBURY. I cannot tell what may be the opinion of others; but ignorance and barbarity seem to me to be the parents of the most and the worst vices. Conceit, pride, bigotry, insolence, fero VII. DIALOGUE city, cruelty, are the native product of the human mind, kept uncultivated. Self-love, which makes so predominant a part in the constitution of man, that some sufferers by its excesses have mistaken it for the sole spring of all his actions, naturally engenders these vices, when no care is taken to controul its operations by another principle. On this account, wise men have had recourse to various expedients; such as the provision of Laws; the culture of Arts and Letters; and, in general, all that discipline which comes under the notion of early tutorage and education. But none of these has been found so effectual to the end in view, or is so immediately directed to the purpose of enlarging the mind, and curing it, at once, of all its obstinate and malignant prejudices, as a knowledge of the world acquired in the way of society, and general conversation. To say nothing of the solitary sequestered life, which all men agree to term Savage, look only on those smaller knots and fraternities of men, which meet together in our provincial towns and cities, and, without any larger commerce, are confined within the narrow enclosure of their own walls or districts. In as VII. much as this condition is more social than the DIALOGUE other, it is, without doubt, more eligible. Yet see how many weak views are entertained by these separate clans, how many fond conceits, and over-weening fancies! The world seems to them shrunk up into their own private circle; just as the heavens appear to children to be contained within the limits of their own horizon. Extend this prospect of mankind to still greater combinations, to states, kingdoms, nations, and what we call a whole people. By this fréer intercourse, indeed, their thoughts take a larger range, and their minds open to more generous and manly conceptions. Yet their native barbarism sticks close to them, and requires to be loosened and worn off by a more social habit, by the experience of a still wider and more thorough communication. Tribes of men, although very numerous, yet, if shut up within one territory, and held closely together under the influence of the same political constitution, easily assimilate, as it were; run into the same common sentiments and opinions; and presently take, in the whole extent of their community, one uniform prevailing character. DIALOGUE Hence the necessity of their still looking be yond their own, into other combinations and societies; that so, as the mind strengthens by this exercise, they may be enabled to shake off their local, as we may say, and territorial prejudices. ށ Those other societies may not be without their defects, which it will be equally proper to keep clear of. But, by this free prospect of the differences subsisting between different nations, each naturally gets quit of his own peculiar and characteristic vices; and those of others, presenting themselves to our unbiassed observation, are not so readily entertained, or do not cling so fast to us, as what have grown up with us, and, by long unquestioned use, are become, as we well express it, a second nature. Thus, by this near approach and attrition, as it were, of each other, our rude parts give way; our rough corners are insensibly worn of; and we are polished by degrees into a general and universal humanity. EXTERNI nequid valeat per læve morari, to use the poet's words, though with some small difference, I believe in their application. |