This book is included in the US Government: Educational, Informational & Motivational section.
Introduction
ALTHOUGH, from the very constitution
of human nature, the life of man on this earth must ever be a mixture of
good and evil, perfection and imperfection, yet it is obviously the
interest, if not the duty, of man to exert all of the wonderful powers
with which he is endowed (and they are more vast and extensive than is
generally believed) to make his condition as happy and as perfect as he
possibly can. To effect that desirable result is the legitimate and
ostensible purpose of all societary institutions; but whether they
succeed or not must naturally depend upon the amount of truth, wisdom,
and justice comprised in them. That the principles hitherto ruling
society are defective, is evident from the general fact, that the
aspirations for human welfare felt by the philanthropist, the moralist,
the religionist, and even by the honest political economist and
statesman, have never been fulfilled by the societary arrangements of
any country, ancient or modern. It may, indeed, be asserted that these
arrangements have always been more or less inimical to man's true
interests; and that, but for the peculiar faculty of physical adaptation
to existing circumstances possessed by man, and the innate moral
goodness of his nature, the race would, ere now, have become extinct;
or; a large portion of it transformed into something less dignified, and
less happy, than the irrational animals - a result which is, indeed, to
some extent, actually accomplished in the present day, before our eyes.
We need but refer to Ireland for an example of the process by which bad
social and religious institutions can, in the first place, deteriorate
the character of the people almost beyond the hope of redemption, and
then exterminate hundreds of thousands of them by lingering starvation.
Even in this boasted metropolis of the world there are thousands of our
fellow-creatures whose true interests, rights, and liberties are less
cared for than are horses and dogs, and have fewer guarantees that the
most ordinary means of preserving a comfortable state of being shall be
afforded them, from day to day, than those animals possess*
* 'Does it not appear a strange result of the
terrible statistics of society,' says the
Times' leader of the 23rd May last, "that upon
the average, 1 person out of 20 of the inhabitants of this luxurious
metropolis is every day destitute of food and employment, and every
night without a place for shelter or repose?' Not at all strange to
those who can trace the workings of bad government, land monopoly,
usury, and profit-mongering. And yet the same paper, perhaps the same
writer, only a few weeks afterwards, tells us that "Every young man in
this metropolis, if he will only attend to his business,
whatever it is, and keep
out of scrapes, is a rising man, and has all the prizes and honours of
the nation before him - if not for himself or his children, at least for
his childrens' children!' How consolatory to a poor man - say a lawyers
clerk, struggling to exist upon twenty shillings a week - to be told
that he may one day be Lord Chancellor; or, at any rate, that one of his
descendants may! To be sure, the chances are somewhat against him -
perhaps a million to one; but then, life is proverbially a lottery! But
the ordinary blessings of life ought not, and need not, be made a
lottery of. The honest and industrious ought to be
sure of a rational
competence. Yet, as society is now governed, the contrary is generally
the case: virtue suffers, and vice is rewarded.
How society can be reorganized, so as to prevent those appalling evils -
how, in short, it can be made to produce a condition of human life that
shall render man, not only satisfied and contented with his position in
the universe, but glorying in it, thereby vindicating the justice,
wisdom, and beneficence of his Creator - is the greatest problem he can
have to solve; and, being the greatest, it comes among the latest in the
order of progress. As a rational, not an instinctive being, man has been
left to work out his own salvation - to learn knowledge and wisdom by
experiencing the evils of ignorance and folly; and reason tells us that
any other mode of teaching men would derogate from his dignity as a free
and responsible agent in creation, not the mere instrument of an
imperious necessity. When we have discovered that society is based on a
wrong foundation, and constructed on bad principles - and when,
moreover, we perceive that we possess the power of reorganizing and
reconstructing it, the fault is our own if we neglect to exert those
powers for our own benefit. Man has no right to blame God, Providence,
or nature, for the existence of evils which he himself can remove.
If Sociology, or the doctrine of social
life, is not a positive science, it is an art to be perfected by
scientific rules; and man has but to search diligently in order to
discover those rules. In such discoveries, time is not to be measured by
the life of an individual, or even by the life of a nation. The progress
of discovery in even the physical sciences is slow. The elastic force of
steam was unnoticed for thousands of years; and its application to the
purposes of man is still in its infancy. And the law of gravitation
which unfolded so many of the mysteries of nature was not demonstrated
till Newton wrote his 'Principia' a century
and a half ago. That the true system of society is yet practically
undemonstrated is therefore no proof that it never will be demonstrated
and acted upon - especially when it may reasonably be assumed that a
high state of advancement in the physical sciences is necessary before
the moral and social sciences can be properly understood, and fully
carried out. Thus it happens that, although the world is now, according
to scriptural reckoning, 5612 years old, a satisfactory definition of
human rights, obligations, and interests, is still a desideratum in
popular literature. The present little work is a humble contribution
towards supplying that deficiency, by enunciating, in a consecutive and
condensed form, such important and natural truths, in relation to the
well being of human society, as have been made known to us by the
experiences of the past, or as are the logical inductions of the most
advanced minds that have been employed in elucidating the highest
interests of man.
The compiler lays no claim to literary skill in his task, and has sought
after perspicuity and concentration, rather than elegance of diction or
ornament of style. The motives which have actuated him in the
compilation are an intense hatred of falsehood and tyranny, and an
inextinguishable love of truth and justice. Personally, he desires the
reign of truth and justice, because he wishes to enjoy freedom. He knows
and feels the degradation to which he is subjected by being robbed of
his rights, and compelled, for a mere subsistence, to become a
wages-slave, with the contingency, too, of not finding employment even
on those terms, having then no alternative left him but starvation or
suicide; and, while life remains, he will never cease to protest against
the system which commits this injustice upon him. All he wants are his
rights - his political and social rights as a human being: he desires no
privileges. No man can be privileged without intrenching on somebody
else's rights; and he desires to receive no privileges at the expense of
his fellows. He protests, too, against the ignoble doctrine, that a man
may, if he chooses, bargain away his birthright of freedom for the mess
of pottage which a bastard and corrupt civilization can give him. No man
has a right willingly to sell himself into slavery; because, as it
encourages tyranny and deteriorates the race, it is unjust to his
fellows and to posterity, whatever temporary advantages it may give
himself.
In concluding this short introduction, the compiler expressly deprecates
any insinuation that this pamphlet is published with a treasonable
design against the peace and order of society, or with a view to incite
to the slightest infraction of the laws of his country. He merely avails
himself of free press to advocate reforms and propagate opinions which
he conscientiously believes are calculated to avert the most serious
national calamities, and which could be adopted without real injury or
spoliation to a single individual, high or low. But, unless sanctioned
by the public opinion of the majority of the people, they could not be
carried into effect; and until then, therefore, they must be considered
by the reader as strictly in nubibus.
Contents
Introduction
The Origin and Purpose of Society
Of the Government, Political, and Legislative Departments
Of the Religious, Moral, and Intellectual Departments of Society
Of the Social, Industrial, and Commercial Departments
Objections Answered - Concluding Remarks
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