第68章

The third of the great events referred to, the evils and dangers arising to the ancestors of the present inhabitants of Europe, from their former brethren of the north and east, when the strength of their accumulative principle led them to put off the barbarian, and employ themselves in giving to the materials within their reach the capabilities for the supply of the wants of futurity which art showed that they possessed, were felt for many centuries.The change they were then undergoing, though it added very greatly to the total numbers of the several nations, lessened the numbers of the warriors.The instruments they formed being of the more slowly returning orders, though the whole income from them was much greater, the labor necessary to produce it was more than proportionally greater, and the portion of the population left free for the purposes of warfare was consequently less.

It were foreign to our purpose farther to allude to this cause of commotion and revolution, than to observe, that the mischiefs and dangers arising from it, seem to have been moderated by the very gradual manner in which the change took place, and to have been counteracted, and finally overcome by the additional power acquired through the progress of invention in the arts of civilized life.

The next example I shall adduce, of the influence of the accumulation principle, will be that of the Chinese Empire.All accounts agree in ascribing to the people of this Empire, a peculiarity running through the whole structure of their social and domestic life, by which alone perhaps its mechanism can be well explained, and which seems to form its great governing and sustaining principle.Their moralists and legislators appear to have successfully endeavored to give to the feelings, naturally springing from the parental and family relations, an influence and authority, far superior to what these possess among other nations, -- the power and unity of a regular system of duties and obligations.A father, as the immediate, though secondary cause of existence, is regarded with much of the.feelings that are elsewhere reserved for the infinite and eternal fountain of all existence, power, and perfection, and, consequently, claims, as a sacred right, a measure of love, reverence, and obedience, that to us seems perfectly unnatural.

Both while alive, and after his death, he is reverenced, we might say adored.

His descendants form a little distinct society bound together by the strongest ties, a system apart from all others, having a common centre of action of its own.What is conceived to be a reality in families, is metaphorically applied to the whole empire, and its several parts.The emperor is the father of his people, his affection for them as his children is held to be the animating principle of his actions, implicit obedience to him as their parent, who can only command what is good, is the first duty of his subjects.Each inferior magistrate is also regarded as the father of those over whom he.rules.

The result has been so far happy, that the harshness of despotism is somewhat tempered by the mildness of the paternal character.We are so constituted, that no part can be assumed, and habitually acted, without, in some degree, moulding our nature to its form, and making that a reality, which may at first have been only a fiction.It has also been happy in the strength it has given to the connexions and affections of those belonging to the same family, or springing from the same stock.A man must be strongly excited to good, and deterred from evil, by being aware that his actions and fortunes are the objects of solicitude to every member of the little community to whom he is bound by the ties of blood and kindredship; that they rejoice at whatever he accomplishes that is honorable and happy; and are afflicted and disgraced by his imprudencies and errors.

But, viewing the system on another side, we may perceive that evil has sprung out of it.The blending of the characters of parent and lord, and thus making of each head of a family an absolute master, the judge of right and wrong, places man in a situation dangerous to his weakness.It may encourage, at all events, it enables him to gratify without fear, whatever vice or immorality is not necessarily open or declared, but may have a veil, however thin, of outward decorum thrown over it.Besides this, the absolute submission and unreflecting obedience, which it inculcates, are much opposed to the expansion of the intellectual and moral powers.When all impulses are from without, it is impossible that the mental eye should turn steadily on the divinity within, or promptly and resolutely execute, what it dictates.