A

JOURNAL

OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

January
1

1986

Volume 14 Number 1

Lessing
Leo Strauss

Ernst
a

and

Folk, Dialogues for Freemasons:

with

Translation

Notes

by

Chaninah Maschler

51

"Exoteric
edited

Teaching"

by

Kenneth Hart Green

and

61

Ronald

Hamowy

Progress

Commerce in Anglo-American

Thought: the Social Adam Ferguson

Philosophy

of

89

David

Levy

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith's "Pernicious Opinion":

Hermetic Social

Study Engineering
a

in

Review Essays
115 Will

Morrisey

Shakespeare Studies

and

his Roman Plays:

Piatt
and

by Cantor,
the Seal
on

Blits

135

Stephen H. Balch

Setting

Marxist Criticism

Book Reviews
145

Stewart

Umphrey

The

Being

of the Beautiful:
and

Plato'

"Theaetetus,"

"Sophist,"

"Statesman"

translated

with a

commentary 147

by

Seth Benardete

Will

Morrisey

The Politics of Moderation: an Interpretation s Republic by John F. Wilson of

Plato'

150

W. Warren Wagar

Arnold Toynbee

and the

Crisis of the West

by

Marvin

Perry

interpretation
Volume 14
number 1

Editor-in-Chief

Hilail Gildin Seth G. Benardete Gildin

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Editors

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Interpretation

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Lessing's Ernst
A Translation
with

and

Ealk, Dialogues for Freemasons

Notes

Chaninah Maschler
St. John
s

College, Annapolis

Translator's Introduction

I
Lessing's Dialogues for Freemasons
pretation

should

be

of

interest to

readers of

Inter

for

at

least three

reasons:

Even if they have heard about Lessing's theological writings, they may be lieve that Lessing's thoughts on matters of religion are summed up in his On the
I
.

Education of Mankind (viii. 489!!. ).' Since that essay claims that the Old Testa ment is superseded (paragraphs 51-53) and speaks more than slightingly of the
people of

Israel

as

the "crudest and least

quite

manageable

of peoples all the more

(paragraph 8),
"saves"

Jewish

readers

have found it
about

ofl-putting;

if they're sufficiently
the
and paragraph

knowledgeable

churchly

matters

to notice that paragraph 73

doctrine

trinity, 75 the doctrine of vicarious atonement through the Son, as though to underwrite the Confessio Augustana of the Lutheran Church. Christian readers, if they don't
paragraph care

of the

74 the doctrine of original sin,

too

much about

how the

articles of

their faith are saved or how Paul's words

essay.

in Galatians
what
wont

3:23^ are put to

work, take comfort from Lessing's

From is

I've

seen of

the secondary

literature, I

gather

that neither

kind

of reader

to pay

attention

to the warning superscript of the essay, a quotation

from
some

Augustine's Soliloquies: "All these things are, for identical reasons, true in
respects and

false in

respects."

some

And

even

supposedly less

partisan

"philo

sophic"

readers of

the essay, those who know

having read Hegel's Early Theo

how greatly Hegel is indebted to Lessing's On the Education of Mankind for the idea of writing mankind's spiritual history as though it were a
logical Writings
gigantic

Bildungsroman,
and

tend to

overlook

how

enigmatic

Lessing's essay

is.2

1.

Here

throughout roman numerals refer to volume, arabic to page

in the Carl Hanser in

edi

tion of Lessing's Werke

(Munich,

1979).

Henry

Chadwick's Lessing's Theological Writings (Stan

and

ford

University Press)

contains a translation of

the Education

is,

as of this writing, still says about

print.

2.
and

Learned may Summa Theol. I. ii.Q. 106,107. But

readers

notice resemblances
what

between

what

Lessing

God

as

teacher

original context

the prefatory

passage

resemblances, seeing that in its from Augustine's Soliloquies has Reason (Augustine's inter
one to make of these

is

locutor)

speak of

histrionics?

May

one not suspect

as

Lessing himself of play-acting? All the

more when

one notices

that

Lessing

identifies himself

the mere publisher or editor of the essay, not as

its

au-

Interpretation
which

The Dialogues for Freemasons,

more above

deal openly in riddles,

with

are

somewhat

board.
with

2.

Acquaintance
a

Lessing, especially
of
not

his theological pieces,

which

constitute

roughly Leo Strauss. By this I do

rather, I
when mean

fourth

his aeuvre, is bound to illuminate the writings of mean that it is nice to know who influenced whom; for
Strauss'

that the
gratitude

manner and motives

work

become

clearer

Strauss'

to

Lessing
1970,

is taken

seriously.

As far

as

I know, Strauss (The College,

refers to

Lessing

at greatest

length in "A
p. 3).

Giving

Accounts"

of

Annapolis, Maryland, April

The
classic

He

writes:

document I began

of the attack on a

Treatise.

...

fresh study
elbow.

of

is Spinoza's Theologico-Political orthodoxy it. In this study I was greatly assisted by

...

Lessing, especially his

at

theological writings, some of them with

forbidding

titles.

Lessing was always at my

the distinction between

This

meant

that I

learned

more

from him than I knew

out about

that time. As I came to see

later, Lessing had

said

exoteric and esoteric speech

everything I had found and its

grounds.4

thor

(Preface,
of

vn.489).

My
that

present opinion of

On

the

rendering tise. The

the

title) is

it is

warmed-over

Spinozism,

Education of the Human Race (Chadwick's culled from the Theologico-Political Trea

teacher is to
rules

that Revelation is to Reason as being taken in hand by a analogy of the essay being self-taught is so sketchily made out that the issue whether Chance or Providence human history is left undecided: Are we being taught that some human
central
prophet-legislator-

philosopher

lems

so

graciously provided the Bible as a that even duller students might acquire the
to think that there really is something

"textbook"

with

"correct

answers"

to arithmetic prob
vii.506)?
steers

art of calculation

(paragraph 76,
of

Or

are

we meant

wonderful about an

the

Bible, because it

toward,

and promises

(Revelations 14:6; Jeremiah 31:31),

given the narrative

Eternal Gospel

time,

records the spiritual travails through which a portion of mankind

Inwardness and, in the mean has passed so that we, the

predecessors

heirs, by being

for study,

need not repeat

the experience of our

but

may more efficaciously advance to spiritual manhood? Or, finally, is there neither a Moses and Christ (or Mohammed) nor a tradition-under-God which for our betterment: The course that the
"provides"

nations traveled

they had to travel, and the seemingly encouraging sayings that in everything, including our (Preface, vn.489) and that "the shortest line isn't necessarily the straight (paragraph 91. vm.509) means merely that the spiri tual and moral realms are as determined as the physical?
is the
course

that

"God's

superintendance

is

errors"

shown

one"

3.

Part

11 of the

Translator's Introduction

gives some of

the passages to which

Strauss here cryp

tically
4.

refers.

Upon
after

reflection

it

seems as a

Strauss,

explaining why

important to supply the reader with the context of this citation. young man he believed that Heidegger's critique of Husserl had to

stand, reports that what made him turn away

from Heidegger

was

his

moral

teaching.

"

Despite

his disclaimer, he had

any indication as to what are the proper objects of In the next paragraph, Strauss brings up the resurgence, in Germany, of theology. The middle term, I take it, between the Heidegger and the theology para graphs, is supplied by essay on Carl Schmitt's The Concept of the Political (a translation of
resoluteness."

such a

teaching. The

key

term is resoluteness, without

Strauss'

which appears as appendix

to the

English

Strauss'

edition of

tonishingly
the
souled

vivid rhetoric of

the essay on

Schmitt is

gives even an

Spinoza's Critique of Religion). The as innocent American an experience of

appeal of

Nazi

ideology

for

someone who

made

to feel that life

is

contemptible without

whole-

dedication but

who can no and with

longer take

religion seriously.

up

anew with

theology,
and

Spinoza's how the

critique of

That is, I imagine that Strauss took orthodoxy (Jewish and otherwise) because he
than philosophic answer to
themselves."

wanted

to

examine whether and

religious rather

stand.

Schmitt

the Nazis

recognized

that people want to be "taken out of

Schmitt could Patriotism

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

in the "Correspondence

3
Modernity"

Lessing

is

also mentioned

Concerning
i. pp. 105L).
side
ancients'

with

Karl Lowith (Independent Journal of Philosophy iv. ranked, with Swift, as "the greatest exponent of the

There he is
querelle

in the

between Ancients

and

Moderns"; Strauss

claims and

that the real theme of the quarrel

and

is antiquity

Lessing Christianity
that
.

and
.";

Swift "knew

and that

Swift

bility."

Lessing held that "ancient, that is, genuine philosophy, is an eternal possi The Dialogues for Freemasons themselves are spoken of in Persecution
A third Art of Writing (see index entries under "Lessing"). reason for taking an interest in the Dialogues for Freemasons is is
another name

and the

3.

this:

Freemasonry
The

for the international society

program of

of men of

letters

which sought
man."

to carry out Bacon's

of which

"conspiracy"

establishing "the kingdom of d'Alembert spoke in the Preliminary Dis

course

to the

Encyclopedia,

and of which

he

said

Descartes had been

Ages.5

one of

the

leaders, is
over good

the Masonic conspiracy to undo the Middle

were also social
not

The fact that Masonic lodges

clubs,

drawing

men

together

food

and good

drink, does
to the

take away from other

facts: Freema
true through

sonry

was a counter order

Society

of

Jesus. (This

remained

Thus, in Tolstoy's War and Peace, they're shown to split the territory: The Jesuits get Ellen, the Masons get Pierre!) Its leading intellectual
the nineteenth century. members, men like

Diderot, in serving

as advisors

to princes, hoped to exert the

kind
had

of

influence

over rulers

that the Jesuit father confessors to Catholic princes

in the

opinion of such as

Leibniz (Riley,

p.

136)

abused or and

failed to

use.

The lodges

were

gathering

places

for the transmission

dissemination

of

the

is

one

way;

religion

another; the search for truth a third. If religion is passe and the search for truth is

for the few, what is left except patriotism? The fact that Barth, who had the honor of being fired by Hitler, is mentioned in connection with orthodoxy, confirms this reading. Compare Kant's footnote
"respect"

on

of the Metaphysics of Morals),

in the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (a title better pp. 17L of the Bobbs-Merrill LLA ed.
ed.
,

rendered as

The

Founding

Bobbs-Merrill LL A

p. 50:

"He

can

be thought

of as a

leader

of conspirators

who, before
a re

anyone

else, had the courage to rise against a despotic and arbitrary power and who, in preparing
more

sounding revolution, laid the foundations of a In Discourse was not able to see

established."

11

happier government, which he himself (Gilson ed. p. 11), Descartes mentions that he did
and
over" emperor,"

just

had brought him. He also his meditating while in Germany, where the wars "that still are not without calling that mentions, in passing, that he was returning from the coronation of "the emperor by name. It was Frederick of Bohemia, the Protestant rival of the Catholic Duke Maximilian
of

Bavaria for the throne

of the

Holy

Roman Empire. The

war

that

Descartes is talking

about

is the
to

Thirty
to

Years War. Isn't it his

queer that

young, Jesuit-educated Descartes left his Catholic

homeland
come

serve

the Protestant heir to William the

offers services to

Germany,
and settles

the Catholic
to

Silent, Maurice, as army Maximilian; yet later, he

the Princess

engineer, but then,

returns to

Protestant Holland
eldest

down in Leiden "in

order

be

near

Elizabeth

of the

Palatinate,

daugh dedi

ter of the unfortunate Elector Frederick"? Elizabeth

is the Princess to
of

whom

the Principles

are

cated,

and who

is

referred

to

with all

her titles in the Letter

Dedication.

Frances

Yates'

I know that has tried to

The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972) is the only book make sense of this queer string of facts (the facts themselves are reported in

Baillet's Vie de Monsieur Descartes). Frances Yates even wonders whether Descartes joined Queen Christian of Sweden's court in order to plead Elizabeth's case there.

Interpretation

Copernican astronomy, alchemical-chemical lore, mathematics, Newtonian mechanics. The Masonic lodges were used to collect funds for the
new sciences

furtherance

of scientific projects.
writings of

Even though

a pantheist substitute religion was

brewed from the

sonic

Jakob Boehme

and

from Hermetic tracts

against

under

Ma be

auspices, nevertheless, the fight

against

superstition,

"the

world

witched,"6

was one of their grand undertakings.

mentioned

All

of

the activities

are, in

sons also

have

direct hand in

political

selves participate

in the

overthrow of

broad sense, educational. Did the Ma uprisings, did they advocate and them rulers? They have been so
a
accused.7

There is
over8

no single

answer, partly because there

are all

kinds

of political turn

over yield

partly because, despite broad agreement among Masons the world that the Kingdom of Darkness (see Leviathan Part IV) must be made to
and

to the Kingdom of

Light, diiferent
of

tactics and even different

were endorsed at given

interpretations
times in given
to

of what constitutes

the Kingdom

Light

6. So
translate.
7.

runs

the title of a book

by

the Dutch author Balthasar

Bekker,

which

Lessing intended

In

have been
and

masons.

letter to Washington dated June 22, 1798, John Adams writes: "Many of my best friends Such examples would have been sufficient to induce me to hold the Institution
. . .

Fraternity

in

esteem and

honor

as

favorable to the

support of civil authority.

The

public en

gagement of your utmost exertions

in the

cause of your

country

and

the offer of your services to pro

tect the

fair inheritance
of

of your ancestors are proofs

parts of

that you are

,

not chargeable

to those designs the

imputation
lic

which, in other

the world [e.g.

mind with

the real views of your

society"

Holland] has embarrassed the pub (quoted in Philip A. Roth, Masonry in the Formation of
and
"moderate"
"radical"

France

and Government, Wisconsin, 1927, p. 51). On the differences between Freemasonry (roughly, George Washington vs. Tom Paine), see Margaret C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons, and Republicans (George Allen & Unwin, Boston, 198 1) and, for a brief summing up, Jasper Ridley, Garibaldi (Viking, New York, 1976), pp. 47f. For an
our

elaborate statement and

"made''

defense

of

the thesis that the American as

well as

the French Revolutions

1680-

1800 (Little, by Freemasons, see Bernard Fay, Revolution and Freemasonry: Brown, 1935). That Freemasonry was involved in the Decembrist Uprising in Russia of 1825 is briefly indicated in J. N. Westwood's Endurance and Endeavor: Russian History, i8l2-ig8o (Ox ford University Press, 1981). That something like the communist party's "cell was attrib novel The Woman in White; cf. G. K. Chester uted to Masonic societies is shown by Wilkie
were
structure"

Collins'

ton's short story,

"The Man
the Jew as
and

Thursday."

who was
on

1966)

shows

how those intent

"modernity"

staving
are one

off

Norman Cohn's Warrant for Genocide (Harper, fused fears of a Masonic with
"conspiracy"

older myths about

anti-Christ.

The

pseudo-document that was

held to

"reveal"

that

anti-

Christ, Freemasonry,
again

Jewry

the so-called

in

circulation

such nonsense could

in the Middle East) have acquired so

is

Protocols of the Elders of Zion (which are blatant forgery. What needs explaining is the fact that
the imagination
goes
of

much power over

Russians, Frenchmen,

Americans, Englishmen, Spaniards, Germans. Cohn's book

planation.

far toward

furnishing

such an ex

But he does not, perhaps, sufficiently attend to the fact that it is quite true that the shared Masonic creed so dilutes Christian doctrine that the distance between Jew and Christian (or, for that

Moslem) is lessened "in Portrait of Newton (Harvard University Press, 1968,

matter,

Jew, Christian,
(Keynes
so

principle."

and

As Frank E. Manuel observes in his

are passages

p.

373), "there

in the Irenicum

manuscripts

ms.

3, folio 5

of

Newton's theological

writings at the

King's College

Library

at

Cambridge)

latitudinarian that the distinction between the Mosaic

and the

Christian dispensation is

abolished."

virtually 8. Certainly Edmund Burke,

tion vigorously and
argued

who was a

Mason,

thought so: He supported the

against

the French Revolution (see

Reflections

on

American Revolu the Revolution in

France, Bobbs-Merrill,

1955).

Ernst

and

Folk, Dialogues for Freemasons

diverse individual
"Freemasonry,"

5
present opinion

countries and at
eighteenth words

lodges.9

My

is that early
the society)
of

century British
and

Freemasonry

(which is where, in

a certain sense of the

of

"begin"

one must
conservative.

begin the

history

was royalist and

socially

It

was royalist

because the leaders

the society were

servative
Ulysses'

fearful

of a return

in that the
speech

men who

Cromwell; it was socially con designed the Masonic society were mindful of
to any sort of
and

(in Shakespeare's Troilus

Cressida i.iii)

about the conse

quences of

"shaking
in
a

degree

or

taking it

away."

But these two

opinion,
ter,"

choices

the political and the socioeconomic

were, in my

made

committed to
and

Hobbesian spirit, by men who thought they knew and were teaching that heaven and earth are made of the same "catholic mat
as

that just

there is no
so there

"quintessential"

difference between

superlunar

and sublunar

bodies,

is

"natural"

no

distinction between

rulers and ruled.

Support
gime

of

kingly

rule would

then

mean support of a postfeudal centralized re

sufficiently strong to

prevent reversion

to

theocracy (Roman Catholic, Cal

vinist,

or any other) on the one hand, or to the state of nature and perfect leveling death) on the other. Everything I've said so far about the Masons sounds (whether one approves or disapproves) straightforwardly rational. But what about the rumor of all manner

(in

of

mystery-mongering in Masonic lodges? What is

one

to make of the weird ini

tiation rites that Goethe and others describe? How does the mumbo-jumbo of Isis
and

Osiris,
hatred

of which we

the

of

hear in the Magic Flute, fit in with the new science and superstition? The story becomes murky because the world (which
,

after

all, includes human beings) is murky,

not

just because information hasn't

been thoroughly assimilated. On the one hand the Masonic lodges fight fire Maimonides say Moses did ing superstitions for more
sacrificial ram when

with

fire,

as some readers of and

he

substituted
with

less dangerous

less debas

the tabernacle

empty throne for the calf, the

ruled

for the
those

child.

Religion

was

deemed necessary to cultivate, in

and rulers

both,

restraints upon

the passions, but also, those ambitions and

that confidence,

without which

there cannot be a stable social and political order.

reached

The Grand Masters behind the Grand Masters

been

back for

spiritual exer of which

cises, stories, and symbols of non-Christian provenance

made available

(many

had

by

Ficino's translations

cause of their vivid memories

Hermetic writings) partly be of the terrible sufferings caused by the Christian re

of

ligious wars; but also, I suspect, because they deemed the Christian
man
9.
are

vision of

inherently
By

at odds with politics.

tactics"

"different

discussed

by

Hilail Gildin in "Spinoza

I mean, for instance, those differences between Hobbes and Spinoza that and the Political (Marjory Grene, ed., Spinoza,
Problem"

Doubleday,

1973).

By

"different interpretations

of what constitutes the

kingdom

light"

of

mean

that

some made a monarchist and others a republican choice.

10. This opinion is chiefly based on reading the Anderson Constitution of 1723, Heinrich Jacobs' The Newtoni Schneider's Quest for Mysteries (Cornell University Press, 1947), Margaret C.
ans and the

English Revolution,

1689-

1720

(Cornell

University Press,

1976).

Interpretation
other

On the
Newton
and

hand, it

seems also to

be true that

some

in the
of

circle around

who

figured in the

organization of the

Grand Lodge

London in 17 17

thereafter,

including

Newton

himself,

were not uncomplicated atheists who

strictly as an instrument of social control but complicated here kept the Church of England going because they held that it fostered they obedience and unanimity among the ruled and a sense of limitation in the rulers.
valued religion

tics:

But they
one.

also

believed that there is

some religious

truth

other

than the official

II
In
1770

Lessing had accepted

a call

from Duke Charles

of

Brunswick to

come

to Wolfenbuttel there to superintend the Ducal

Library,

the

Herzog-August-

Bibliothek, famous
A few days
after

throughout Europe.

his

arrival

in Wolfenbuttel, he

came upon

the

manuscript of a

major medieval work on

the sacrament of the eucharist

Berengard

of

Tours 's

De Sacra Coena
port

adversus

Lanfrancum (ca. 1070)

which seemed

to give sup

to a Lutheran interpretation of the eucharist (though contemporary scholars that Berengard's was more nearly a Zwinglian understanding of the Lord's
.

claim

Supper) Lessing
October 25, Catholic
ate

published an annotated edition of

it in the fall

of

that year. On

1770

he

writes a
which

Vienna, from
with

letter to his fiancee (Eva Koenig), then residing in some have inferred that Lessing sought to ingrati

himself
On the

the religious authorities:

of

next

Vienna Index idea

what a

Prohibited Books
odor of

you will no

doubt find the title listed.

lovely orthodoxy I am acquiring among the Lutheran theologians here. You had better be prepared to hear me proclaimed a veritable pillar
no of the church.

You have

Whether that
will show.

quite suits

me, and whether I may not soon lose their

approval, time

But
more

Lessing was hardly very clever in his own behalf. So it seems to be much likely that he was, being a genuine scholar, excited to find so important a
He took his job
as

manuscript. outside

scholars, solicited their letters

librarian seriously, consistently so: He welcomed of inquiry, and in 1773 started a scholarly
and

journal
Ducal

Contributions to
at

History
in
the

Literature: From he

the

Treasures of

the

Library

Wolfenbuttel

which

would write answers to such que

ries

as well as make available

large.1

library's

manuscript

holdings

to the reading

public at

In the first "Theological

1.

and second

issue

of

the new

journal, he

published some

heretofore
of

unknown writings of

Leibniz'

Leibniz'

dissenting

"Preface"

to

Ernest Soner's
the

and

Philosophical Demonstration that Eternal Punishments

of

See

V.556L

for Lessing's description in it between 1773

the Journal's

purposes and V.948L

for

list

of the

materials published

and 1781.

Ernst

and

Folk, Dialogues for Freemasons

God's Justice but
means of
rather

1
Injustice"
Leibniz'

Impious do

not prove

His

and

"De

fense

of

the

Trinity by
who all

New Logical
of

Observations"

(the latter

reply to

Andreas
ers,"

Wissowatius'

"Critique

the Doctrine

of

the Trinity").

Lessing,
"pleas in
1576):

his life had

a penchant

had in the

1750s

begun to

write what

for protecting and defending "outsid he called Rettungen or

("rescues"

defense")
works

of even

wildly

unorthodox

authors, like Cardanus

(1501-

His brother Karl

reports with

that

Lessing intended
pieces of

to publish some of
and

Cardanus'

along he now, in the 1770s, publish Why Leibniz-in-the-role-of-bulwark of the old-time religion?
(vn. 726). 2
would

selected

Bruno's

Campanella's in behalf
of

and argue

The
I
am

question

may be

answered

in

preliminary way

when

Lessing

writes:

who

is

directing attention, not so much to the truth that is being defended, as to the man defending it, his attitude of mind and his reasons. Both have been misinter
(vn.176).3

preted and misjudged

It is Lessing's

even-handedness

that has confused his admirers: He judges men

according to the
writes,
albeit

reasonableness of their plans and of an open

arguments,

which

is why he

in behalf

heretic,

not

Leibniz:
the
out

If

results are

taken to constitute the soul of

appraised

history, if everything preceding

might

come

is to be

pense with

history

strictly (vii.261).

by

the outcome, why then we

just

as well

dis

Here,
gians:

now, is Lessing's brief in Leibniz's behalf

against

the liberal theolo

2.

Cardanus, like Jean Bodin,

several
men mentioned

wrote a

dialogue in

which a

Pagan,

Jew,

Christian,

and a

Mos

lem discuss their

of

religions, inconclusively. For a splendid discussion

of

the works and hopes

the three

Bruno, Campanella,

and

Cardanus

see

Frances Yates, Giordano

"endeavor,"

Bruno
3.

and the

Hermetic Tradition, Vintage, 1969. The idea of identifying and ranking human beings in terms
the

of

their

their

"ruling

passion,"

direction

of their

"will"

is

hardly distinctive of Lessing.

How

might one

in

what

erlosen"

way this differs from Goethe's romantic "Wer immer strebend sich and from Heideggerian Entschlossenheif. The place to begin is Republic 1 x (the description

learn precisely bemuht, den konnen wir

of the tyrannic man and of the choice among the three ruling passions); next comes Spinoza's On the Improvement of the Understanding; last a passage such as this from Lessing:

Not the truth, in possession of which a man is or deems himself to be, but the honest effort that he has vested in finding it out constitutes a human being's worth. Because it is not the having but the the expansion of his powers seeking for truth that enlarges his powers, and it is in this alone
that
proud.

his continually growing

all

perfection consists.

Possession

makes a man

quiet, sluggish,

If God held
with

truth

in his right hand I

would at

and

the addendum that

any time

would you

devoutly

alone"

grasp his left hand and say: (from Lessing's first reply to Pastor Goeze, vm.32f.;

one ever-active passion for truth, albeit for eternity err, and spake to me I "Father, give! Truth unadulterate is for no one except

in his left the

and

"Choose!"

cf.

Diogenes

Laertius'

Lives,

vm. 8).

Observe that the

Lessing's way, if

usual
made

citing

of

this famous passage transforms a choice that necessarily falls out

rationally, into Sturm und Drang.

Interpretation
search

Leibniz, in his
firm

for truth,

never

conviction that no opinion could

from the deferred to prevailing opinions. But perspec some be embraced unless it were, from have the courtesy to twist
all the
and

tive and in some sense, true

opinion until gible.
.

he

would often

turn an

he

succeeded

in

disclosing

this perspective and making this

ancient philosophers

sense

intelli
exo

He did

no more and no

less than did

in their

teric disquisitions: He had regard for the kind of caution for

which our most recent phi

losophers have become

tried to
want

much

too wise. He willingly put his

own system aside and

lead any individual to the truth

via the path on which

he found him.

Do I
am

to cast the worse suspicion upon

him,

that

he

was

dissembling
trying

orthodoxy?

Or

I seriously,

and to the exasperation of our now philosophers,

to

make

him

come

out orthodox?

Neither! I

admit that

Leibniz treated the doctrine

of eternal

damnation

very exoterically

and that

ently

on the subject.

esoterically he would have expressed himself quite differ But I do not want this to be thought of as anything except a divers

ity of didactic modes. I do not want Leibniz to be accused of self-contradiction con fessing to eternal punishment verbally and in public while secretly and at bottom denying it. That would have gone too far: No didactic politics, no desire to be all
things to all men, would

have

rendered

it

excusable.

On the contrary, I

am convinced

demonstrate) that Leibniz was willing to put up with the vulgar doctrine of damnation, defended by the exoteric arguments for it, to which he was
(and I believe I
can even cord with a great truth of

willing to add, because he recognized that this doctrine was more nearly in his esoteric philosophy than was the contrary doctrine.
must
.

ac

But I
What

indicate

what great esoteric truth

it

was

in

consideration of which

Leibniz believed that

else

support of the common

doctrine

of eternal
world

damnation is

salutary.

than the pregnant sentence that nothing in the

is insulated, nothing is

without consequences,

nothing is How

without eternal consequences?

If,

then,

no sin can
can pun

lack consequences, ishment fail to be (vii. 180-8;

1776). cf.

and these consequences are the punishments

can

for sin, how

eternal?

the consequences ever

Liberty,''

stop
,

having

consequences?

Jerusalem's essay "On

vm.427ff.

published

by Lessing

in

Leibniz

wasn't

in the least

intending
his

to support the

doctrine

of the

trinity by
it

means of

new philosophic arguments of

accusation of

own.

He only

wanted to protect

against the
reason.

being
as

contradictory

internally

or with undeniable

truths of

He

only
are

wanted

to show that such a mystery

(Geheimnis)

can stand

up

against all sophistic

attack so

long

it is treated
to

as a mystery:

A supernaturally

revealed truth which we

unintelli-

intended

not

understand

gibility.

One

hardly
into

needs the

is completely shielded from attack by its very dialectic strength and agility of a Leibniz to ward

off

the opponent's arrows

by

means of such a

buckler (vn.216).
plebs

They
the

turn him

realm of

they say
rather

obsequious, self-seeking demagogue, who natters the only in order to rule them tyrannically. 'Surely he could 'have been unaware that reason stands with the small suppressed
an

in

truth

not'

minority
the the

reigning church. But to make sure he'd be he pleaded its case. He didn't believe a word of majority, world to be persuaded must they
than with the
...

supported
what

by

he

wanted all

believe.'

Believe! Did
a thing.

not

Why

should

himself believe! Suppose, for a moment, Leibniz didn't believe he, on that account, be less capable of considering the several
as so

opinions about

Christ

many different hypotheses according

to which the several

Ernst

and

Folk, Dialogues for Freemasons

Christ
are to

9
interpretation? Does
these
opinions

scriptural passages that speak of

be

given a coherent as

that prevent

him from
at

issuing

a reasoned

judgment

to

which of

is

preferable, because

bottom he isn't

convinced of

any

of them?

(vn.219).
just-

My
at

guess

is that

much of what

Lessing
trying

says

in Leibniz's behalf in the Lessing's

own

cited passages should

be

used when

to explicate

writings,

least those

of

his

writings

that

were composed after

he had begun to immerse

himself in the Leibniz

papers which

he found in the Wolfenbuttel

generations or so earlier).
with and

Leibniz had been head librarian three

one time

have

shared the

liberals'

disgust

distrust

of

may at Leibniz the diplo

Leibniz'

Library Lessing

(where

mat, Leibniz the courtier, but

more

intimate

acquaintance with

work,

including his
sion

behind-the-scenes

political

to the

he
the

were

fellow

Catholic fold (vm.543), workers for the education

maneuvering to prevent Britain's rever brought Lessing to realize that Leibniz and
of mankind

but that

Leibniz'

might

be

wiser

strategy.4

Besides,

the dominant Leibnizian metaphor of point of

view

must

have been extremely congenial to Lessing, the dramatist: The sense of fel lowship with Leibniz through this idea of perspectivalism may have opened Lessing's
eyes to

the logical

difficulty

of

rationally persuading
life.5

believer in

re

vealed

truth to let go of the mainstay of his

year after

The

the Leibniz

Rettung, Lessing
"On

published

two further pieces bear

ing

on religion

in his Wolfenbuttel
Neuser"

tion about Adam

sents

and

Library Tolerating

Journal

"Some Reliable Informa

As before,

Deists."

Lessing

pre
with

previously

unavailable manuscript materials

accompanying the texts

editorial comments

in his

own name.

Adam Neuser
vinced of

was a sixteenth

the

falsity

of

century Lutheran pastor who had become con Trinitarianism and had come to doubt that Christian Sa

Scripture is any more sacred than the Koran (vii.269). Even Leibniz thought that Neuser had become a traitor to the Elector Palatine (Frederick), whose min
cred

ister he was,

by

going

over

to the Turk (vii. 234^,267).

Lessing

found

letter

of

Neuser's, dated Constantinople

Neuser played
with

1574, from

which

he

concluded

the

idea

of political

defection,
not

and was

that, though condemned for high

until after

treason, the
cial ruling.

verdict was unjust.

Neuser did

actually defect

the judi
with

But the court,

so

Lessing
its

complains, identified religious

ruler.

heresy

high

treason against the state and

case

up the
4.

Lessing's implicit warning, in taking that is (I Adam of think), Neuser, precisely men of conscience will be

See Patrick Riley, The Political Writings of Leibniz (Cambridge University Press, 1972). description of Louis XIV's expansionist politics, in Mars Christianissimus, is especially Unknown Corre noteworthy. Riley, on p. 202, refers to a book of Raymond Klibansky
Leibniz'

Leibniz'

spondence with

English Scholars

cure

the throne of

as throwing light on Men of Letters Great Britain for the Electors of Hanover and to arrest the and
Leibniz'

Leibniz'

efforts to

"se

expansionism of

Louis

XIV."

The Nouveaux Essais,

ing,
5

came out

in

1765.

am

Philalethes (Locke) in
.

para.

of and reply to Locke's Essay on Human Understand for instance, that, (Leibniz's) long answer to suggesting 4 of chapter xvi of Book IV must have weighed heavily with Lessing.

study

Theophilus'

For

Lessing

the chief

function

of

tragedy is

to enlarge our moral

imagination

and

instruct our

powers of

sympathy

by

giving them opportunity to

try

out

diverse

"perspectives."

10

Interpretation

strongly tempted to leave their intolerant fatherland for countries where they would not be obliged to hide their convictions from neighbors and relatives and
where

they
are

would not

be

obliged

to send their children to

schools where

the

young

drilled

on opinions

that seem, to their

father,
plea

"blind

and corrupt super

stition"

(vm.316).

By
which

publishing Neuser's letter along with the I quoted, Lessing manages to convey the
Theologico-Political Treatise. He
example makes

message of chapter xx of

for tolerating deists from Spi because he

uses

noza's a

it

more vivid and

historic

to which

he

gives the

immediacy

drawing

power of a

tragedy.

So far I have

not mentioned an

important,
of

and somewhat

distracting, fact:
The
subtitle

Lessing
of

withholds

the name of the author

"On

Tolerating

Deists."

the essay runs "Fragment

ambiguous as

by

author,"

an unidentified

with

the past participle

(ungenannt)
But in the from
of

to

whether

second paragraph of

his

Lessing won't or can't name the author. introductory editorial note, Lessing claims
that the pages he publishes are culled
on the

that he has to guess at the author's

identity,

an untitled manuscript of unknown

provenance; that strictly

basis

Schmid"

internal evidence, he imagines "the Wertheimian translator must be the

author."

of

the

Bible,

been

Wolfenbuttel, Lessing had Apology or Defense of Rational Worshippers of God. Its author (a friend of Lessing's father), Hermann Samuel Reimarus, Professor of Oriental Languages at the Gymnasium in Hamburg, had
seems to
otherwise. given

The truth

be

Before coming to

the manuscript for a book entitled

allowed

it to

circulate

privately, but had expressly

days"
Reimarus'

advised against publication

(as is truthfully admitted by Lessing in AntiGoeze vn, Werke vm.247f.). After death, his daughter, Elise Rei showed the manuscript to whether at her initiative or Les marus, Lessing and,
more enlightened

"until

sing's, the two

get

of

them

(they became

very

close

friends)
paid

seem to

have

plotted

to

the book published. Berlin publishers refused to take on the

of Brunswick-

job. But

as

Li

brarian to the Duke

censors!7

Wolfenbuttel,

to glorify the Ducal House

was protected against

by exhibiting its scholarly treasures to the world, the Hence the scheme to publish
vealed

Lessing

Reimarus'

detailed

critique of

Re

Religion in
an

"fragments"

After
and

interval

of

ostensibly found in the Ducal Library. three years, the fourth issue of Contributions to
given over to

History
Pa-

Literature appears, entirely

"Further Selections from the

6. Schmid (J. Lorenz Schmidt, 1702- 1749) also translated what has been called the Bible of English Deism, namely, Matthew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation, and Spinoza's Ethics. As Lessing mentions in the passage where Schmid's name is cited, the then Duke of Brunswick had
man asylum: Schmidt died under an assumed name in Wolfenbuttel. I give these de how conscientiously Lessing lies when he does lie: In terms of their opinions, Schmidt and Reimarus are very close. Schmidt is at peace. Reimarus left a daughter and a son. Only the daughter wanted her father's book published.

given the

hunted

tails to

show

7.

The document exempting

Lessing

from the

obligation

to submit materials to the

Censor

prior

to publication is copied

at vii.799.

Ernst
pers of son

and

Folk, Dialogues for Freemasons

Pulpit,"

11
against

the Unnamed

Author, concerning Revelation": "On Ranting

"On the

Rea

from the

impossibility
was not

of a

Revelation in

which of

All Men
the Red
and

might
Sea,"

Believe

on

Rational

Grounds,"

"On the

Israelites'

Crossing
a

"That the Old Testament

Narrative."

Written to Reveal He

Religion,"

"On

the

Resurrection As usual,

Lessing
the

supplies editorial comments.

Reimarus'

calls

them "Counter
and

Prop

ositions

by

Editor."8

immensely
Spinoza's

learned
critique

densely

argued

pieces, manifestly

much

affected

by

of revelation

in the

Theologico-Political Treatise, to the New Testament.

steer toward

applying Spinoza's type

secretive

of critique

Why does Lessing,

Reimarus'

so sympathetic to

Leibniz'

ways,

now publish

outright attack on

Holy

Scripture? I do
chief

not think

that

Lessing is
writes:

merely

being

coy when, in reply to his

critic, Pastor

Goeze,

he

to an almost superstitiously high regard for any handwritten book, in when I see that the author wanted to teach or give delight manuscript, only to the world. I immediately react as would any human being deserving of the name if he came upon a foundling (vm.239).

I admit, I
available

am prone

But clearly, this is not a sufficient answer. Still, it may lead in the right direction, precisely in speaking personally and in terms of the passions:
I promise, I never again even intend to stay cold and indifferent about certain issues. If a human being is not permitted to become warm and partisan when he perceives clearly that
permitted

reason and the written word are

partisan?

being

manhandled,

when and where

is he

to be

(vm.

101).

As far
reason,

as

can

see, this

means

that those

who

have

an

interest in the life

of

must take an

tactics given
who

interest in protecting that life. This may call for different different circumstances. In Lessing's judgment, not the orthodox,
stand on

genuinely take their

faith, but

the

"neologians"

of

his

day

(the lib

eral protestantism against which potent enemies.

was no sional

Barth later

fought) had become

changed since

reason's most
wrote.

In Lessing's view, times had

Reimarus

It

longer fashionable openly to decry reason from the pulpit. The God-mongerers knew which side their bread is buttered on: "They
only to put it to
of
sleep"

profes elevate

reason

(vii.461).
be from like the following:

propositions''

8. The tenor "Much

might

these "counter

can even

gathered

a passage

be

said

in reply

learned theologian

would

supposing there could be no rebuttal, what follows? The perhaps, in the end, be embarrassed, but need the Christian be? Surely not!
. . .

But

At most, the theologian would be perplexed to see the supports with which he wanted to uphold reli gion thus shaken, to find the buttresses cast down by which he, God willing, had kept it safe and
sound.

But

what

does the Christian

care about

that man's

hypotheses,

explanations, demonstrations?
and

For him it is

fact, something
Nollett
or

that exists, this

Christianity which
two is

he feels to be true

in

which

he

feels blessed. When the

care about whether

paralytic experiences

the beneficial shock of the electric spark, what does he

right?"

Franklin

or neither of the

12

Interpretation
can

Whether there be it has the ble

and

be

and must

be

revelation,

and which of the

most probable claim, and

necessary,
evidence

further

only has been found out, reason can only for the truth of that revelation (rather than as an objection
the right
one

reason can

many which determine. But if revelation is

claim

to

possi

regard
against

it

as

it) if
re

it discerns
ligion

things

in it

that are

beyond

reason's grasp.

Anyone

who smooths out

his

so as

to be

rid of such

things
. .

is

as good as sans religion. a

Because

what

is

a reve

lation that discloses

obedience of

nothing?

So there is
on

kind

of

imprisoning

of reason

to the

faith

that

does

not

depend

this or that scriptural

passage

but belongs to

the very idea of

revelation

(vn.46if.).

Three hard
guished,
sue of

issues,

made

all

the harder

because,
an

though

they

can

be distin

they

cannot

in

practice

be separated,

seem to

strategy,

(2)

an

issue

of morality,
on

(3)

worry Lessing: issue of logic.

(i)

an

is

The logical issue I touched

by translating the comment about mysteries be

(p. 8
above).

ing
via

shielded

from

rational attack

It became

exacerbated

when,

the

passage where

Lessing
not

declares himself
are passions.

reason's

champion, it appeared

evident

that faith
moral

and reason

both

The

issue is that

zestfulness of

only the peace of the realm but the shapeliness and individual human lives may grow from their religious rootedness.

Who has the right to The issue

of

dig

the soil

away?

strategy too is painfully

"best"

alive

for Lessing. Hence his

sympathetic

reading of Leibniz. I distinguish questions of strategy from questions of morality when I speak of strategy. in the sense of "most because I mean

effective"

In publishing the Reimarus fragments so as to provoke Goeze and the rest of the theologians, Lessing has evidently decided (as he writes in the Preface to the final fragment "On the Objectives
should of

Jesus
put

and

his Disciples") that "the fire

(vn.494). The justification for
given at
vii.472.9

be furnished

with air

if it is to be

out"

this choice of policy, supposing

Reimarus
(in the

it is justifiable, is, I believe,

9.

Bollingen
and

paperback ed. of

sounding much like the Moslem inventor of "critical Rosenthal's translation of the Muqaddimah, pp.
that calculates how vast a quantity of

history,"

Ibn Khaldun (see

on

1 1

13)

the one hand

produced

Harvey

argument

blood

would

have to be

from food in 600,000

adds,

a short stretch of

time if Galen were

right)

on

the other

proves the

impossibility

of

men plus

their women and children and cattle

crossing

the Red Sea in the allotted time.

He

jokingly, "dafi man den Israeliten und ihren Ochsen und Karren nur keine Flugel ("Now don't you be giv Lessing, impersonating the orthodox, replies to this pleasantry of
Reimarus'

gebe."

ing

wings

to the Israelites and their oxen and carts") as

follows:

But doesn't God himself say at Exodus 19:4 that he carried the Israelites from Egypt on eagle's wings? What if language provides no words to express the features of this wonderful swiftness ex
cept this metaphor?

Allow

me

to see more reality

(Wirklichkeit)

even

in

a metaphor used/needed

by

God than in
continues:

all your symbolic

demonstrations.

Lessing
If

an orthodox person replies

shoulders at

his

answer, as much as you

in this way, how is he subject to rebuttal? You may shrug your like, but you will have to grant him his position. That's faithful to his principles,
who would rather

the advantage

had

by

a man who stays

not so well

be faithful to
them. This

principles even

if they're

founded than

not act and speak in accord with

Ernst

and

Folk, Dialogues for Freemasons

he
wants!

13

Lessing
Pastor
of

gets what

Johann Melchior Goeze (1717-1786), Chief

shows

Hamburg, in proceeding to the defense of his territory, (vm. 102; 1 15f ; 224L): Not truth, but obedience are threatened
.

his

colors

by

the Reimarus

fragments and, in particular,

may,

however,
he is

well

by undermining belief in the Resurrection. One wonder whether it is all that easy to distinguish what Lessing
"territory,"

claims says

the Pastor

is defending, namely, his

from

what the

Pastor

defending,

the peace of the realm and the peace of heart and

mind of

the

faithful.
Even before the
publication of
of

"On the Objectives

of

Jesus

and

His Disci hand last

over

ples,"

Lessing is

deprived

his

the manuscript of

Reimarus'

from censorship Apology. Since the thesis of

exemption

and must

Reimarus'

and

longest fragment is that Jesus

and

his disciples

were rebels against provokes

the

secular au

thority
of

of

his day, Goeze's fears that Reimarus

same

anarchy
year

seem war

ranted.10

That

year, 1778,

Lessing

publishes, anonymously, the first three

thereafter

the

five Dialogues for Freemasons translated below. The

Nathan the Wise.

he

publishes

Finally, in
On

1780,

again of

anonymously, the On the

Education of Mankind

fifty-two. That
ogy, if

year

died, aged February 15 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason appeared, ostensibly demon
appears. of natural science and

the next year he

strating the possibility

the

impossibility

of rational

theol

rational means natural.

acting consequently (translator's italics), on account of which one can anticipate how a human be ing would speak and act in a given case, is what makes a man of a man, what gives him character
and perseverance

the great excellences of a

principles. realize

thinking human being. Character and

a man act

perseverance

will, in time, even correct

ples without you're

Because it is impossible that if they

are

his coming to

their falsehood

false: If you

according to princi do lots of calculating,

not.

bound to

notice whether you've got your multiplication

tables right or

So it is
gusting.

not orthodoxy,

it is

a certain
vapid.

cross-eyed,

limping, wavering orthodoxy

must

that is so

dis

Disgusting,

repellent,

At least, that's how I

an

describe my

sense of

it.
(Nic. Eth.

What

strikes me about this passage

is that though

Aristotelian

"character"

emphasis on

11 I 05*35)

has been

given a

Kantian tinting, it is

conjoined with

Peircian hopes for the

self-corrective-

principles."

ness of conduct guided

by "leading

(That

Lessing wasn't all

that confident of progress

in

is shown, for instance, by his early play, the Mysogynist: Its butt was mar ried three times over and dropped his only when he was presented with proof positive of the error of the principle that the male is always recognizably the superior: His daughter-in-law-to-be
the sense of self-correction
"principle"

dressed left

equal of her brother when she turns out to be that very brother, as her being her brother, right side as herself makes undeniably plain.) The import of the pas sage I cited is, to me, that if only people try to make clear to themselves what it is that they believe and act on these beliefs, then there is hope that error will be weeded out. It is not supposed that error must

be declared the
side as

can

be
10.

prevented wholesale.

For

Reimarus'

a recent

setting

out of Autumn- Winter

argument, see Joel

Carmichael, "The Lost Conti

nent

St. John's Review,

1982/3,

73-84.

14

Interpretation

The Dialogues

DEDICATION

TO

HIS SERENE
stood
whom

HIGHNESS, DUKE FERDINAND

/ too

by
I

the well of truth and

wait to

from have

be

given permission

drew from it. How deeply, only he can judge to draw more deeply still. The people

long been

languishing:

They

are

dying
His

of thirst.
most obedient
servant*

Highness'

If the ensuing
be told
exact which of of

pages

do

not

hold the true ontology

writings occasioned

of

Freemasonry, I
denominations

want

to

the countless
true
nature*

by

that society gives a more

should

idea

its

But if Freemasons
shown as

of all

welcome

the

perspective

that

is here

the only one from

supplied

which sound

The

notes

to the translation selectively incorporate

-the

information

by

von

Olshausen, Paul

Peterson and von Olshausen edition of Les Rilla, Joachim Kriiger, and Heinrich Schneider in sing's Werke, the Aufbau edition of the Werke, the Carl Hanser edition, and in Schneider s Lessing: Zwolf biographische Studien (A. Francke, Bern, 1951) respectively. There is a fine biography of Lessing by Adolf Stahr, Life and Works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (Boston, 1886). The Lessing Yearbook, published in the United States, contains articles of consistently high intellectual calibre. *A11 italics
1. are

Lessing's,
this

unless there are

is

a note

to the contrary.

The Dialogues for Freemasons

ask

the only piece of writing of

Mason?"

Lessing's

marked

by

ded
Free

ication. To

masons?"

is probably tantamount to the question "why or, for that matter, "why bother to become a That Lessing asked to be because he expected to learn "saving

dedication?"

"why

address

"accepted"

secrets"

strikes me as

incredible:

Lessing

was no

Pierre Bezuhov (Tolstoy's War

a

and

Peace, book
could

v and elsewhere).

His

brother Karl thought

needed

Lessing became

Mason because only thus

he

obtain

information that he
not

to check out some scholarly guesses about the

such

history

of the society.

I do

think one need

attribute

singlemindedness so

to Lessing: Schneider shows that life in Wolfenbuttel was very

lonely for Lessing;

eryone at

he may

well

have joined for conviviality,

all over

when

he found

out that just about ev

the Brunswick court was a Mason.

But
count)

not

were

only in Wolfenbuttel-Brunswick, Masons. The Masonic path was the

sought

Germany,
he

men who counted

(or hoped to

one on which

"found"

audience

he had

to address in his earlier writings. In short,

leading members of the Lessing may have held that being a

the to the reigning Duke, is reminding him where thirst for truth (das Volk), which I

member of

the society would give him pedagogic advantages. to whom the Dialogues are

The

man

dedicated, Duke Ferdinand, brother

affairs.

had been foremost in Brunswick Masonic

or

It looks

as though

Lessing

how to lead.

Particularly striking is the reference to the people's

of an

interpret in the light

with

important

passage

in Anti-Goeze V (vm.234-36),

which comes

to

head

the

following remark:
meanest

The

crowd, when it is rightly led by its superiors, becomes more enlightened, more de cent, better in the course of time But it seems to be a principle of certain preachers to stay put for
.

ever

in that

moral and religious position

won't

in

which

their ancestors stood many hundreds of years

earlier.

They

tear themselves

from

the crowd,

but in the

end

the crowd tears

itself away

from them.

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

15

eyes catch sight of

eyes glimpse

something genuine (whereas, placed elsewhere, untutored nothing but a phantom), then the question arises why it has taken so
might

long

for

someone to speak plainly.

Several things
question more

be

said

in

reply.

But it

would

be hard to

nearly like the

one

just

uttered

than this:

Why

up with a did it take Christian

come

systematically laid there been so many good Christians for so a rational account of their faith? Indeed,

ity

so

long

to produce

out manuals of

instruction?

Why

have

long
such

who neither could nor would give

handbooks

of

Christianity

as we

now

have

might still

be deemed

little from them), were it not expound the faith in an utterly The

(since faith itself has probably gained that [certain?] Christians took it upon themselves to
premature nonsensical way.

application of these remarks can

be left to the

reader.

FIRST CONVERSATION

ernst
falk

What

are you

thinking

about, friend?

Nothing. You're
so quiet.
when

ernst

falk
morning.

Who thinks So
. . .

he is enjoying himself? And I

am

enjoying the

lovely

ernst falk

You

'

re quite

right

If I

were
of

thinking

about

pares with

that

thinking

out

something I'd be talking: No loud with a friend. fill

pleasure com

ernst falk

agree. you

If

have had
occurs

your

of

taking in

the fine morning, why don't

you

talk, if something
ernst
falk

to you.
ask you

I've been meaning to Ask away! Is it true,

something for

long

time.

ernst

friend,

that you are a Freemason?

falk

That's the
I believe

question of one who

is

not a

Mason.
you a

ernst

Admittedly. But
myself

give me a straight

answer, are

Freemason?
himself.

falk

to

be

one.

ernst falk

That's the
am.

answer of one who

doesn't feel

quite sure of

But I

ernst

Then

you must

know whether, when, where,

count

and through whom you

became

"accepted."2

falk

ernst
falk

I know those things, but they don't They don't?

for

much.

Who doesn't
What do

"accept"

and who

isn't "accepted"?

ernst

you mean?

2.

Masonic jargon

is,

of

course, inevitable. It gets worse in the Fourth

and

Fifth Dialogues.

16

Interpretation
I believe that I
am a

falk

cepted me

into

an official

Freemason, not because older Masons have ac lodge, but because I understand and appreciate what
it has existed,
such

why Freemasonry is, hinders it.

and

when and where

what

fosters

and what

ernst
self

And

nevertheless you speak

in

hesitant tones

"I believe my
conviction

to be one"?

falk

I've

grown accustomed
want

to that tone, not because of lack of

anyone's way.

but because I don't

ernst falk

to stand in

You

answer me as

though

were a stranger.

Stranger You

or

friend!
accepted,
you

ernst falk

were

Others too have been

But
could you

accepted and

? know everything believe they know.

accepted without

ernst falk

have been

knowing

what you

know?

Yes,

unfortunately.

ernst falk

How?
"accept"

Because many who it.3 the few who do cannot say

ernst falk

others

do

not themselves

know

it,

while

But

could you not?

know

what you

know

without

having been

accepted?

Why

Freemasonry
coming

isn't

an

arbitrary thing,

a superfluity,

but

a ne one

cessity,
must

grounded

in the

nature of man and of civil society.

Consequently

be just

as capable of

upon

it through

one's own reflection as under

external guidance.

ernst

"Freemasonry

isn't anything

arbitrary"?

Doesn't it involve

words and

symbols and customs

every

one of which might

have been different? Mustn't it,

customs

consequently, be
falk

arbitrary?

Sure. But these words, these symbols, these

do

not constitute

Freemasonry.

"Freemasonry is a necessity"? How, then, did Freemasonry came on the scene? falk Freemasonry has always existed.
ernst ernst falk

people manage

before

Then tell me,

what

is this necessary, this indispensable Freemasonry?

of which even

As I indicated earlier, something

A nonentity, then. What I I

those who know it

cannot speak.

ernst falk

Don't be hasty.
understand can put not

ernst
falk
ers

into

words.

Not always, and often the idea I have exactly.

in

such a

way that the

words

convey to

oth

ernst
3.

Approximately

if

not

exactly

wants to be impenetrable. As Lessing wrote Duke Ferdinand on October 26, 1778, "I desecrate any secret knowledge. I only tried to convince the world that truly great secrets con tinue to lie hidden there, where the world had at last become tired of (Heinrich looking for

The

"it"

did

not

them"

Schneider, Lessing, Zwolf biographische Studien, A. Francke, Bern,

1951).

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

less

17
or even

Approximately
conveys

the same idea would be useless

than the

dangerous

here: Useless if it bit

more.

idea; dangerous if it holds

of

the least little

ernst
not

Odd! If even the Freemasons who know the secret impart it verbally, how, then, do they spread their order?

their order can

falk
of more

By deeds. They
visible.

allow good men and youths whom

they deem worthy

as much of

intimate
is

association to

surmise,
new

guess

at,

see

their deeds

them

as

The

Masons'

intimates find

these deeds to their

liking

and

do the

same.

ernst
and songs

falk

by Freemasons? I only know of their speeches prettily printed normally than they are thought or recited. As might be said of lots of other songs and speeches.
more

Deeds? Deeds done

ernst

Or

am

supposed to take the things

they boast

of

in these

songs as

their

deeds? If they What

aren't are

falk ernst
pected of
so

just boasting?
about, anyway?
and

they boasting
human

Nothing

beyond

what

is

ex

every

good

being

decent

citizen

that they're so

friendly,

charitable,
falk

so

obedient,

so patriotic.

Are those

virtues nothing?

ernst

Nothing
supposed

that would to be

distinguish the Masons from

charitable,
and

the rest of mankind.

Who isn't
falk

friendly,

the

rest?

Supposed to be! (translator's italics) ernst Aren't there plenty of incentives and
apart

opportunities

for

such virtue

from Masonry?

falk

Yes, but
A

the Masonic
good of

fellowship

gives men an additional

incentive.

ernst

What is the

to the

utmost.

multitude of

multiplying incentives? Better to strengthen one motives is like a multitude of gears in a machine

the more gears the

falk

more slips.

can't

deny
on

it.
"additional
incentive"

ernst

Besides,
doubt

what sort of

is this that belittles best?

all

others,

casts

them,

gives

itself

out as strongest and

falk

Friend, be fair. Don't judge by

They're the You
mean

the exaggerations and confusions of

idle

songs and speeches.

work of

apprentices,

callow

disciples.

ernst

Brother Speaker

was

talking

nonsense? was

falk

I mean, the things that Brother Speaker

not

obviously doesn't talk out of school,

ernst

for

are

their

deeds
and

since

[whatever

else you

praising the Freemasons may say of him] he

deeds

speak

for

themselves.4

I'm

beginning

to see

what you are

driving

at.

Why

to me sooner, those

deeds,

those

telling, I'd

almost call

didn't they occur them shouting, deeds:

as would

Freemasons don't merely

4.

support one

another, and powerfully so,

in its Masonic tinting
end of

the

Lessing's

word

here is

"plaudern,"

familiar
says

from Mozart's Magic Act II.

Flute: "Ich

plauderte und

das

schlecht"

war

Papageno toward the

18

Interpretation
any
association.

members of

They

work

for the

public good of

whatever

state

they

are members of.

falk

For instance? I For

want

to be sure you're

on

the right track.

establish a

ernst

instance,

the Freemasons of

Stockholm, didn't they

foundling
falk
occasions.

hospital? I hope that the Freemasons

of

Stockholm

showed their mettle at other

ernst

What

other occasions?

falk

Just

others.

ernst

And the Freemasons

and

of

Dresden,

who

employ
the

lacemakers
falk

embroiderers, to

bring

down the

size of

young girls as foundling hospital!

who provide

poor

Ernst, need I remind you of your name? Be serious! ernst Well, seriously, consider the Freemasons of Brunswick,
boys
of

poor

talent with

drawing

lessons. Basedow's Philanthropin.

institute?5

What's wrong with that? ernst Or the Freemasons of Berlin,

falk falk
you

who support

The Masons

support

Basedow's teacher training

Who told

that fable?

ernst falk

It

was all over read

the

newspaper.

You

it in the
And I'd

newspaper?
want

won't

believe it till I

see

Basedow's

handwritten

receipt.

to be sure that it was made out to the Free

masons, not just to some Freemasons in Berlin.

ernst
falk

Why, don't
Then

you approve of

Basedow's institute?
financial

Me? I

approve wholeheartedly. you won't

ernst falk

begrudge him
contrary.

such

assistance?

Begrudge? Quite the

Who is

a stronger well-wisher of

Base

dow than I?
ernst falk

Well,

then.

You're

becoming
was unfair:

incomprehensible.
Even Freemasons may
undertake

suppose so.
albeit not as

Anyway, I
all

something
ernst falk

Freemasons.
the rest of their good

Does that hold for

all

deeds

as well?

Perhaps. Perhaps How do

the good deeds that you mentioned to me just now

ad extra.

are, to

use scholastic

jargon for brevity's sake, their deeds

that?

ernst

you mean

5.

Johann Bernhard Basedow

(1723-

1790)

was a

German

educational reformer who established

training institute in Dessau in 1774. He hoped it freundlichkeit und guter Kenntnisse fiir lernende undjunge
a teacher prentice of

would

become "Schule der ("a

school where

Menschen-

Lehrer"

young

and

ap

teachers would acquire philanthropia and good learning"). Basedow

and

started out as a student

theology

had

Reimarus'

come under

influence. His ideas

on education were also

affected

by

Comenius (snatches
such schools.

crop up word for word in certain Masonic documents) and by Rousseau's Emile. Though the Philanthropin itself folded in 1793, it served as a model for other
of whose writings

Lessing, in

the

Literaturbriefe

expresses

strong

reservations

about

Basedow

(v.i65ff.,285ff.).

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

are

19

Perhaps these
To

the eye-catching things

they do

to

draw the

multi

tude's attention, and which

ernst falk

they do solely for this

toleration?

reason.

gain respect and

Could be.
What
about their real

ernst falk

deeds then? You

keep

silent?

Perhaps I have already answered you? Their real deeds are their secret. ernst Ha ha! Yet another one of those things that can't be put into words?
falk
great and of such long range that centuries may be said, "This was their Yet they have done everything in the world, note well, in the world. And they continue to work for all the that is to be in the world, note well, in the world.
can
doing."

Freemasons'

Not very well. But I real deeds are so

can and am permitted

to tell you this much: The

pass good

before it

good

ernst

falk

Indeed

Come now, you are pulling my leg. not. But look there goes a butterfly that I
want

must

have. It's

Monarch! I deeds
of

to be off, so I quickly tell you just one

aim at

thing

more:

The true

the

Freemasons

making
true

most of

the deeds

commonly
good?

called good

superfluous.

ernst falk

But these [the

Masons'

deeds]
for
a

are

themselves

None better. Think Good deeds

refuse

about that

bit. I'll be right back. deeds

superfluous?

ernst
a riddle. watch

whose object
riddles.6

is to
I'd

make good

That's
and

to guess at

rather stretch out

beneath this tree

the ants.

6. I have
gute

not cracked

the riddle.

My guess is that in speaking of "Gute Taten welche darauf zielen

Taten

works of sacrifice

Lessing's Falk covertly and ambiguously refers to: (a)human the charity (Wohltatigkeit); (b)church sacraments; (c)the supreme, divine, work of charity of Christ. My guess depends on hearing the word opus underneath the German Tat. Opus is
entbehrlich zu
word

machen"

the operative ments; Non

in Luther's dispute

with

the

Church
what

of

Rome; Opera is
asks

what

Rome

calls

the Sacra

opinionem sed opus esse cogitent used as

is

Bacon

for in the

selection

from the Preface Critique of Pure

to the Instauratio Magna that Kant

frontispiece to the
word

second edition of the

Reason.

Lessing
refers

himself introduces the Latin

Masonic task
context,
of the
place

as an opus supererogatum:

in the Second Dialogue, when he speaks of the He is appropriating a word which, in the traditional religious
merit

to the

works of

extraordinary

done

by Christ and

the saints, upon

which

the rest
re

faithful draw. Christ

and the

My

guess amounts to
and ought

Saints
of

this, that the philosophes or Masons of highest degree eventually themselves to become superfluous.
sounds
mind

This interpretation

Falk's riddle

overly ingenious. But

aren't

falcons known for their efficacy in

the
multi
"bribing"

far-sightedness

and penetration?

Call to

the tremendous emphasis on works and

modem philosophy.

There is

more

to it than Pelagianism.

And it is

not

just

a and the

of

tude through technology. The

writings of

Frances Yates (Giordano Bruno

Hermetic Tradi

tion, London, 1964; The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972; The Valois Tapestries, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959) and Edgar Wind's Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance make me doubt the plausibility of separating the New Science from the New Politics; make me also

doubt the
cartes,
were

suggestion of some commentators

that the men who (like

Bacon, Galileo, Stevin, Des

ing

of the truth of words in any way lowering epistemic standards. Galileo's Dialogue Concern the Two Chief World Systems (Stillman Drake tr., University of California, 1961) pp. 58ff. makes
and authors of the
works as pledges

later the

Encyclopedia) demanded

in their

own estimation

palpable that power, virtii,

is felt to be

what

We

shrink

from

passages

like the Baconian

is really real. one in Diderot's Encyclopedia (p.

158

Bobbs-Merrill

20

Interpretation

SECOND CONVERSATION

ernst

What's been
me

keeping

you?

You didn't

catch your

butterfly

after all?

falk

It lured

from bush to bush, down to the brook. Suddenly, it

was on

the

other side.

ernst falk

There

are such seducers!

Have

you

thought

it

over? won't catch once

ernst

What? Your riddle? I

now on.

my

butterfly

either.

But I

shan't

worry about mine from That's enough. You're obviously just like the
falk

I tried

to talk to you about Freemasonry.

rest of them.

The

rest of them?

They

ernst

They

don't? So there But heretics

what

are

don't say the things I say. heretics among the Masons too? And
have something in
common with

you

are one of them?

always

the ortho

dox. And that is

falk

meant.

What did

you mean? or

(translator's

italics)
all

ernst

Orthodox

heretical

Freemasons

play

with

words, provoke

questions and then answer without falk

me

Is that

so?

Well,

away from my
ernst

pleasant

really answering. talk about something else, let's then, condition of mute avjxa (staunen).
than getting you back into that

since you

tore

Nothing is
me and
what?

easier

condition.

Just lie

down beside
falk

look. activity in
of this ant

At

ernst

At the life

and

and around and on

top

heap.

Such busyness
pushes, and yet
falk

and such order!

none

Every

one of

them fetches and

even

carries and

is in the

other's way.

Look, they

help

each other!

ernst

Ants live in society just like bees. And theirs is a society more wonderful than the bees', because there
midst

is

none

in their

to bind them together or to

rule over

them.

LLA ed.),
prises as

where

technological inventions are sized

up

as

harmless
4,5, 17
of

when compared to political enter

(see

also p. 50 of the article on naive.

Commerce
be false to

and pp.

the article
the

on

Art).

They

strike us

frighteningly
The Dutch

But it

would

contend that

it

was

hatred

of superstition or the

love

of man and not the

love

of truth that prompted the

physicist and engineer

Beeckman,
hand it

used

the motto Lahore

et

overwhelming interest in works. Simon Stevin, from whom Descartes learned so much via Constantia as imprint for his books. Sometimes a picture of a it. The Masons had
the motto

holding

a pair of

drawing

compasses accompanies the motto, sometimes a picture of a man with

a spade and a woman with a cross staff goes with old

(I do

not

know how Bruno is

is) "Par le
that

travail on vient a bout de and, if Frances

Yates'

tout."

These

mottoes

reading
the

of one portion of the seek

hermetic tradition

and

right,

"prescientific"

portion of

Renaissance,
Darkness

to

undermine the

teaching

that was held to

undergird

the power

of

the Kingdom of

the

teaching

that the human stain can

be

washed

away only through the ordained priest's power of administering the Sacraments. But this undermining of Christian doctrine is, as I see it, an expression of the new metaphysics as well. It is not just a rejec
tion, but
also an

embracing,

of nature as active.

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

can exist even without government? rule

21

Order I

ernst

If every individual knows how to

wonder whether

himself, why

not?7

falk

human beings

will ever reach that stage.

ernst
falk

Hardly.
a shame.

What

ernst falk

Indeed.
up.

Get

Let's

go:

want

to ask you something. I

They're going to crawl all over you, I mean the don't know your opinion on this at all. How do it

ants.

ernst falk

On

what? general. you size up?

Civil society, for human beings in ernst As a great good thing.

falk

No doubt. But do
I don't follow.
you

you consider

it

a means or an end?

ernst falk

Do

think that

men were made

for the

state or rather states

for

men?

ernst

Some, it
I think

seems,

want

to maintain the

former,

but the latter is

proba

bly

truer.
so too.

F a lk

States

unite

human beings in

order

that

through and in

these associations

enjoy his share bers is the happiness

so-called matter

every individual human being may better and more securely of happiness. The totality of the shares of happiness of the mem
of

the state. Apart of this there is no happiness.

Every other

happiness

of the

state, for the

sake of which some of the

members, no

how

few,
I

are said

to

have
say

to suffer,

is

a mere

cover-up for tyranny.

ernst
falk

would rather not

that so

loud.
according to his

Why? A truth
which each construes

ernst
abused.

own situation

is easily

falk

Do

you

realize,

friend,

that you're already a demi-Freemason?

ernst
falk

Who? Me?

Yes,

since you admit

there are truths better not

spoken.

ernst

falk

Yes, but they could be spoken. The sage is unable to say things he had better leave
As
you wish.

unsaid. want

ernst

Let's

not get

back to the Freemasons. I don't

to

know

about them anyway.

fa lk
about

beg your pardon.

You
are

But

at

least

you see

that I'm willing to tell you

more

them.

ernst

making fun And

of me.

All right,

civil

society

and political orga

nization of whatever sort are mere means

to human happiness. What follows?

falk
nature

Means

only!

means of

has

arranged

things in such a
later.8

human devising, though I won't deny that way that men would have had to invent polit

ical
7.

organization sooner or

we would Cf. Adeimantus in Republic n, 367 injustice, but each would be his own best guardian.

"

not now

be guarding

against one another's

8. Cf. Politics

1. 1253a30.

22

Interpretation
Which is why
some

ernst cause
civil

have held that

civil

everything

our passions and our needs

society is a leads there, they believed that

natural end:

Be

As though natural teleol society were more inter ogy didn't bear on the production of means! As though nature (translator's such and fatherland abstractions like of ested in the happiness state,
and the state are ultimate ends of nature.

ital.)
this:

than in the happiness of flesh and blood individuals.

falk

Fine. You're meeting

me

half-way. The

Admitting

that political constitutions

would you

next thing I want to ask you is (Staatsverfassungen) are means, and alone are exempt

means of

human invention,
human What do
you

say that they

from the hu

means?9

vicissitudes of

ernst

have in

mind when you speak of

"the

vicissitudes of

man means"?

falk

What

makes

them different

from divine, infallible

means.

ernst

Namely?
are not

falk

That they

infallible: Worse than

being ineffectual, they

often

produce results clean

ernst

Give Ships

me an

contrary to their design. example, if you can think

there.10

of one.

falk

and navigation are means

never

toward distant

lands, but they

are also

to blame for many a man's

ernst
at.

arriving

Those

who suffer shipwreck and

drown? I

see what you are

driving

But the

reasons

for
are

a constitution's

failure, why it
are

cheats so of

of their

happiness,
yet

known. There

many types

many individuals constitution, one better

their purpose; the

than the next; some very

inadequate, blatantly

at odds with

best may
falk

be

undiscovered.

Forget

about

that. Suppose the very best constitution imaginable were

invented. Suppose everybody the world over had accepted it. Don't you think that even then, under this best constitution, things that are extremely disadvanta9.

Why this emphasis on the

instrumental
and

status of political organization?

Cf Summa

contra

Gen

tiles 11.75,

On the Attainment of Happiness (p. 39 and p. 61 in Lerner and Mahdi, Medieval Political Philosophy, Cornell University Press, 1963) with the opening sen a dpur/ "toward this kind of tences of Hobbes Leviathan. Aristotle wanted to have it both ways Al Farabi Political Regime community
who exists

naturally in

all"

and also

"there

was someone who contrived

of

the community, and

goods."

thus wrought the greatest of

What kind

community

was

it that he fashioned ? Accord

cosmos at

ing to

becomes
enized
old

Al Farabi, one that of this idea of a

somehow mimes the rank order that exists

in the

large. But

what

"natural"

order within the political sphere when

the

new physics

has

homog

heaven and earth? The artificiality of the social and political order becomes exacerbated. The saying about politics being the architectonic art moves much closer to meaning that it is a produc tive art, because the bricks have no 6p\ir\ to assemble in this rather than that way. I believe that in

Plato
The

and

Aristotle

agxiTEHTWv means

something like the "superintendent

works."

of
etc.

10.

Cf. Republic

and countless other

texts about the ship of state, the pilot's governing art,

question

that I presume the two

the serious one, to

yond the pillars of
ence of

friends, Falk or Falcon, the far-sighted one, and Emst or Earnest, be considering is this: Whether, even supposing that the ship which sails out be
Hercules
on the

frontispiece to Bacon's Novum Organum brings back

science

a new sci

statecraft, from

than what was

America, the efficacy of that had heretofore, always be limited.

would, no matter how much better it is

Ernst
geous to

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

23

human happiness
If

state of nature would

ernst

such

would necessarily occur, things of which men in the have been utterly ignorant? things occur under the supposedly best constitution I infer it

isn't the best

falk
repeat

after all.

Assuming
You

that a

better
to

one

is

possible?

Well,

take that better one and

the question.
seem

ernst
sume all

to

me

be

disguising
of

with spurious

subtlety that

you as

along that every instrument stitutions, must be flawed.

falk

human invention,

including

political con

I'm You I

not

just assuming it.

me.

ernst falk

Show

want examples of

the harm that comes necessarily

of even

the best

constitution?

could mention ten at

will

least.

ernst
falk

One

do for

a start.

We

are

all mankind make

live

under

supposing that the best constitution has been invented and that it. Does that imply that all human beings in the world

up

one single state?

Hardly. Such an immense state would be ungovernable. So it would have to be divided into many smaller states, all governed with the same laws. falk People would still be Germans and Frenchmen, Dutchmen and Span
ernst

iards, Russians
ernst falk

and

Swedes,
each of

or whatever

they happen
own

to be called?

Certainly.
these
states

Wouldn't

have its

interests,

and the members

of each state

have the interests

of whatever state

happens to be theirs?

ernst falk
now?

Obviously.
state-interests would often

These

clash,

wouldn't

they, just

as

they do

So

wouldn't

the citizens of two different states be just as unable to encoun

ter
the

one another without a

burden

of prejudice and suspicion

best imaginable

constitution as a

German

and a

if they lived under Frenchman, or a Frenchman

and an

Englishman today?

ernst
falk

Very

When

probably German
.

meets a as a

Frenchman

or a a

Frenchman

an

Englishman,

he does

not meet of

him simply
their shared
of

human being,

fellow German
are

man and

to whom he is

drawn because
and

nature. national

They

meet as

English. Aware

these

differences, they

French, French cold, distant, suspi

cious even

ernst falk

before they have had any personal dealings. You're right, unfortunately.
prove

Doesn't that

that the means for uniting human

beings, for

assur

ing

their

happiness
I One step
are

through association, also divide them?

ERNST
falk
mates

Suppose SO.

that

further; these several states, many of them, will have cli very different; consequently they will have quite different needs

24
and

Interpretation

satisfactions; consequently

they

will

have different

moral

codes; conse

quently different religions. Don't you think? ernst That's an enormous step!
falk

Wouldn't

people still

be Jews

and

Christians

and

Moslems

and such?

ernst falk
with each

I don't dare deny In that case, Christians, Jews, and Moslems alike will continue to deal other as before, not as one human being with another, but as a Chris

it.

tian with a

Jew,

Jew
to

with a

Moslem: Each

will claim

that men of

his type

are

spiritually

superior

men of other

type,

and

they

will

thus

lay

the foundation
of.11

for

rights that
ernst

natural man could not

possibly

claim

to be

possessed

It's very sad, but

what you

say is probably

quite true.

falk

Only "probably
I
would

true"?

ernst

think

that, just

as you supposed all

the

world's states

to have

one constitution

politically,

so one ought to suppose them of one religion.

same

can't

imagine how they could be the falk Me neither. Anyway, I

cal constitution

politically

without religious uniformity.

proposed

the hypothesis of the one best politi

only to

prevent your

constitution].12

possibility
several

of

perfect

evading the issue [of the possibility or im Political and religious uniformity the

world over are states.

equally impossible. The steps of our argument were: One state, Several states, several political constitutions. Several political
that's how things
are!

constitutions,
ernst falk

several religions.

Yes,

look.
next

That's how they

nor

Consider
gives

the second misfortune

which civil

society,
without

quite at odds with

its end,

rise to. Civil society

erecting

cannot unite men

dividing them,
them apart.

divide them

without

walls or

digging ditches

to

keep

ernst
climb!

Those

chasms

are so

dreadful,

those walls often so impossible to

falk
national

must add a third:

and religious

Civil society doesn't just divide human beings along lines. Such division into some few major parts each of
a whole were

which would

for itself be

surely better than

no whole

whatever.13

But

civil

ERNST
1 1

society divides Explain.

on and on within each such partial whole.

"Nimmermehr"
.

in "Rechte die dem brief

naturlichen

Menschen

konnten,"

nimmermehr einfallen

is

ambiguous.

It is

not clear whether

the natural
and

man of whom

the

future,
12.

or neither. and

Lessing

wrote a

inconsequential

Falk is speaking belongs to the past, review of Rousseau's Discourse on He did

that it is perfect, as

Inequality
Voltaire

his friend Mendelssohn translated that Discourse.

on ours

Cf. Leibniz
seems to and

being the best of all possible worlds.

him. He
meant

not mean

have

construed

that the very conception of a

perfect world

is

self-

contradictory "Pope as

that ours is the best of the

possible systems.
Leibniz'

The

Lessing- Mendelssohn

essay

Metaphysician"

(in. 633-70), in

which

Theodicy is discussed, is
right"

worth reading. are studied;

For instance, the differences between Pope's "whatever is, is there is also, the possibility that for every
"progress"

Leibniz'

and

dictum his

"regress"

is

examined.

Strauss'

"whole"

13.

way

of

using the

word

probably has something to do

with

affection

for

Lessing.

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

you

25
of social classes

Do

believe that its

a state without

differentiation

is

conceivable?

Let it be
all

a good or a

bad state,

closer or

further from perfection, it

social,
and eco

is impossible for
nomic]
all

citizens to share the same

[political,

conditions.

have be

an equal share

Even if they all participate in legislative activity, they cannot in it; at least, not an equal direct share. So there are going
classes.

to

upper and

lower

equal share

in the

state's

And supposing that originally each citizen got an wealth, this distribution cannot be expected to last be
man will

yond a mere crease

two generations: One

a

know better than

may Soon there

another

how to in

his property; or among more heirs than

and poor.

poorly

administered estate

need

to be shared out

a well-administered one.

are

bound to be rich

ernst

Evidently.
evils

Consider now, are there many differentiation? (translator's italics)

falk
ernst
unite

that

are not

due to

such social

If only I human beings

could contradict you! one must

But why do I
and

want

to,

anyway?

To

divide them,

keep

them divided. Granted.

That's how it is. It

falk

can't

be

otherwise.

That,
But

precisely, is my thesis.
what's

ernst

the point of

dwelling

on this conclusion?
want me

Are

you

trying

to

make civil

conceived

society hateful to me? Do you the idea of uniting into states?

you

to regret that people ever

falk
were even

Do

know

me so

little? If the only

cultivated

good gained

from

civil

society

that human

reason can

be

if the

evils

it

produced were greater

proverb

there, by far than the

and

there alone, I would bless it

ones mentioned.

ernst

As the

has it

If

you want to

enjoy the

fire

you must expect

to put up
falk

with

the smoke.

therefore prohibit the

Quite. But granting that fire makes smoke unavoidable, should one invention of chimneys? Is the fellow who invented them to enemy of fire? You see, that's What? I don't follow you.
yet what

be

called an

was after.

ernst falk
united

And

the image

was most

suitable.14

If human beings
of, does that

cannot

be

into

states apart

from

such

divisions

as we spoke

make

the di

visions good? ernst

Why,

no. make

falk

Does it

them sacred?

ernst

How do

you mean

that, "sacred"?
them ought to

falk
ernst

I mean,

so

that

touching

be

prohibited.

Touching

with what end

in

view? more ground

falk

This,

of not

letting

them gain

than is absolutely

neces

sary,

of

cancelling their ill

effects as much as possible.

prohibited?
and

ernst
14.

Why

should
vn?

that be

Cf. Republic
writings.

Masonic

Think back

Of course, fire and sun imagery proliferate in Hermetic, Rosicrucian, on the Magic Flute, and on Campanella.

26

Interpretation
But it very well be enjoined either, at least not by the civil law, law holds only within the boundaries of the state, and what is
can't

falk
since

the civil

wanted

supererogatum

is precisely something that crosses these. So it can only be an opus [a work of supererogation; see note 6] That the wisest and best of
.

every for.

state

freely

undertake

this task beyond the call of

duty

can

only be

wished

ernst
falk

However ardent, it
so.

must remain
men

I believe

May

there be

prejudice and who

ernst falk

I join

you

know exactly when in your wish.

merely a wish. in every state who are beyond patriotism ceases to be virtuous.

popular

May

every

state contain men who are not

the creatures of the preju

dices
which

of

the religion

they

were raised

in,

who

do

not

believe that everything

they

regard as good and

true must be good and true.

ernst falk
not put

May it be so. May every state contain off by low, men in whose

men who are not

dazzled

by

high

position and

company the

nobleman

gladly

stoops and

the

lowly confidently rise. ernst May it be so.

falk

What if this
I don't In

wish of ours were

fulfilled?
there a
man

ernst falk

Fulfilled? To be sure, here

mean

and

like that

might

turn up.

just here

and

there and now and then. there might even be several such

ernst
men.

certain epochs and certain regions

falk

What

would you

say if I told

you

that

today

men

like this

exist

every

where; that from now on there are always going to be such men?
ernst falk

Please God!
not

What if I told you, further, that they do like the Church Invisible? persed,
ernst
falk

live

ineffectually

dis

Happy
get

dream!
point

I'll

right to the

these men that we are speaking of are the

Freemasons.
ernst
falk

What's that

you're saying?

of

That the Freemasons may be these very men who have taken on the job re-establishing human solidarity, including this in their proper business.
ernst falk ernst
falk

The Freemasons?

Yes, I'm saying they

The Masons? I

count

it

as part of their

business.
hear

Look

beg your pardon. I forgot that you don't we're being called for breakfast. Let's go.
Wait
a

want to

about them.

ernst
falk
gize.

minute, you say the Freemasons.

.?

Our

conversation

brought

me

back to them
matter

We're bound to find

crowd.

more

deserving

against my will. I do apolo for conversation once we join

the breakfast

Come!

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

27

THIRD CONVERSATION

ernst

All

day long
your

you

have been avoiding

me

in the

crowd.

But I've

tracked

you

down to
you

bedroom.
to say to
me?

falk

Do

have something important

I'm too tired for

mere chat.

ernst falk ernst

You're

ridiculing

my

curiosity.

Curiosity?

Yes,

which you so were we

artfully
about

piqued this morning.

falk

What

talking

this morning?

ernst falk
was

The Freemasons.
what about

Well,
on

them? I hope I didn't give the

secret

away

when

tipsy

the Pyrmont mineral water.

secret

ernst falk

The
You

which,

you

say,

no one can give away?

All right. That

said
me

restores

my

peace of mind.

ernst
struck

something
think.

about the

Freemasons that

came

unexpected,

me, made

falk

What

was

that?
me.

ernst
falk

Come on, stop teasing

you mention

I'm

sure you remember.

Now that
Right. I

it, it does

come

back to

me.

That's why

you

were so absentminded with your men and women

friends

all

day?

ernst

won't

be

able

to get to sleep

until you've answered at

least

one question of mine.

falk

The

question?
can you

ernst
masons

How

prove,

or at

least support,
I

your claim

that the Free

have these
Did I
when

great and

worthy

aims? was not aware of

falk
at a

speak to you of their aims?

asked what might

it. You

were quite

loss

be the

Masons'

true deeds. I wanted to draw

to something that deserves to be worked at, something that doesn't figure in the dreams of our clever political theorists (staatskluge Kopfe). Perhaps
your attention

the Masons are working on it. Perhaps they're working in that vicinity. I merely
wanted to cure you of

the

prejudice

that every spot

fit for

identified
out.15

and

occupied

and

that all construction

work

has been

building has been duly meted

ernst
15.

Wiggle

as you please:

From

your speeches

conclude that the Free-

See

vm. 39ff.,

117, 125 for

some more architectural

foundations,"

images. The

frequency

and

centrality

of

architectural metaphors
cornerstone,"

like

underbru

"laying

the
design"

"clearing away
in the
makers of

the

"setting

the

"city

planning,"

"architect's

Observe

that in

Copernicus, Galileo, Newton,

one section of

as well as

modernity deserves to be noticed. in Anderson's Constitution of 1723, God is

called

an architect.
son."

Remember that

Kant's Critique is

the "Architectonic of Pure Rea

That

modern

of

firm

foundations"

epistemology is intimately connected with the "ruinously inapplicable metaphor (Bradley's phrase), and that this metaphor (which can be found equally in
"worked"

Descartes

and

Peirce!)

seemed so natural and

unavoidable, especially

when

in

conjunction

28

Interpretation
have

masons are people who

freely

chosen

the responsibility of working against

the unavoidable
falk

evils of

the state.

Such

a conception of

their undertaking
not

will at

least

not

dishonor them.

Hold

on

to it. But understand

about

it right. Do

include

things that
of

don't belong.
not about

We're talking
evils

the unavoidable evils of the state,

any state,

the

that go

with

this or that particular state of a given

constitution.

The

healing
citi

and

alleviating

of evils native to a particular state the

Freemason leaves to its

citizen-

zens,

who must venture and

risk themselves according to their

insight and Mason's be

courage.

Evils

of a quite

different, higher kind

are the object of

the

efforts. ernst no

understand.

Without the
are not

evils that concern

the Mason there could

happy
falk

citizens.

These

the evils that

cause citizens unhappiness. you put

Right,
Yes.

the Freemasons mean to

how did

it?

work against

the unavoidable evils.

ernst falk

"Work

"undo

them."

may be too strong a word, if it is understood to These evils cannot be undone. It would destroy the state. be
made apparent now can

against"

mean

They
in

should not even evils.

to those

who

do

not yet perceive

them as

At

most

they
the

be mitigated,

by distantly

stirring up this why I

said

perception

people,
and

by

allowing it to
out

germinate and send out

shoots,

by clearing away
may
pass

weeds

thinning

new plants.

Now do been

you understand

or not

Freemasons have say "That is

what

always

at

work,

centuries

that, whether before one

"good

could

they

wrought"?

ernst

Yes,
are

and

now also understand

the second part of the riddle

deeds that
falk

to make good deeds

superfluous."

Fine! Go, then, and study these evils. Get to know them all. Weigh their mutual influences. This study will reveal things to you which, in days of de

jection, will seem irrefutable arguments discovery, this illumination, will give
without

against providence and virtue. you peace and make you

[But] this happy, even

being

called a

Freemason.
called"

ernst
falk

You say the words "being Because one may be something

with so much emphasis. without return

being called

it.
which

ernst

All

right.

understand.

But to

to my question,

I
.

need
.

only

rephrase:

Since I

now

know the

evils which

Freemasonry

combats

falk ernst falk

You know them? Didn't

you enumerate them named a

for

me?

I merely

few

of

them,

by

way

of

test, just those

more

which are ob
most and

vious even

to the most nearsighted, just a few of the most uncontested and

comprehensive.

But there

are

less

comprehensive that are

many just as sure

such evils and

less obvious,

debatable,

inevitable.

with all the cognate architectural

overhaul

imagery, because it

ministered to all the shown

moral, political, religious, scientific

deserves to be

pressing demands for in detail.

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

question to the evils you
mind.

29
yourself named.

ernst

I limit my
about

have

Prove to

me

that the

Freemasons have these in

Not

You

are silent.

Are

you

thinking?
you want

falk

how to

answer your question.

But why do

to

know?
ernst
falk

Will
I

you answer

my

question

if I

answer yours?

Yes, I

promise.

ernst
cause

asked
and

for

evidence that the

your

Freemasons

think as you say

they do be

I know

fear

ingenuity.
for fact.

falk

My ingenuity?
Yes. I
am afraid you're
a

ernst

selling

me your own speculations

falk

Thanks
I

lot!
you?

ernst falk

Did I insult
suppose

ought

to

be

grateful that you call

"ingenuity"

what might

have been
ernst

given quite a

different

name. a clever person which

No,

no.

Only, I know how easily

deceives

himself,
of

how readily he
others.

attributes plans and

intentions

they

never

thought

to

falk

But how do How

we

infer that
several

people

have

certain plans and

intentions?

Don't

we reason

from their
else?

deeds? back to my question from what indi Freemasons can it be inferred that in and by
me

ernst

Which brings

vidual,
their

uncontested

deeds done
mean

by

fellowship they
The

to overcome the
within

divisions among

men of which you

spoke?

unavoidable
one of

divisions

the state and amongst states. Show me

that this is even

falk
or

their objectives.
mean

And that they

I
am glad

to do this without

threatening

the individual state

the continued existence of a plurality of states.

ernst

to hear it.

Look, I

am not

necessarily asking

you

to tell me
men

of

deeds.

Oddities, idiosyncracies
You
must

that spring from or

lead to

union

among

would serve.

have based is
a

your speculations on some such signs as

am

asking for if your falk You continue

"system"

hypothesis.
But
perhaps you will

suspicious of me?

doubt

me

less if I

cite a constitutional principle of

Freemasonry

for

you.16

16.

by

the

Lessing is referring to the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of London, ostensibly drawn up Reverend James Anderson (Presbyterian) in 1723, though Newton's friend and disciple, the
Huguenot John Theophilus Desaguliers (who
wrote an allegorical poem entitled

ousted

The New

tonian System of the

manuscript

World,
runs:

the Best Model of

real author

collection) may be its

Government; it is in (Schneider, Quest, p.

the Harvard eighteenth century

14).

The "First

Charge"

of the

Anderson Constitution

A Mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the moral Law: and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient Times Masons were charg'd in every Country to be of the Religion of that coun try or Nation, whatever it was, yet it's now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that re

Concerning god and R E L I G I o N

ligion in Men
and

which all

true,

or

Men

Men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves. That is, to be good of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they

30

Interpretation
Which?
principle

ernst falk

they have

never

kept

secret and

in

accord with which

they

have

always conducted

themselves before the

world's eyes.

ernst falk

To

wit?

To

accept

into their

ranks

any worthy

man of

fit character,

without

dis

tinction of
ernst falk
who

fatherland,
Really?

religion,

or civil condition.

Admittedly,
make

such a constitutional principle seems of

to presuppose men

already
air

light

national, religious, and social distinctions. The consti

men.

tutional principle itself does not raise up such

But

mustn't upon

there be nitrogen

in the

for

saltpeter

[KN03

or

NaN03]
not

to accumulate

the walls?

ernst

Yes.

falk

And may the Freemasons

some of

have been resorting to

familiar ruse,

that of
men

openly practicing

their secret objectives, so as to mislead such

as, driven

by

suspicion, are always on the look-out

for something different

from

what stares them

in the face?
the artisan who can make silver deal in silver scrap, in

ernst falk
order

Perhaps.
shouldn't

Why

to allay the suspicion that he knows how to make it?

may be distinguished; whereby conciliating true The

Masonry

becomes the Center

must

of

Unition,

and the

Means

of

Friendship

among Persons that

have

remain'd at a perpetual

Distance.

editor of the facsimile edition of the 1723 Constitution that I consulted, Lionel Vibert I.C.S. (Re tired), Past Master of the Lodge of Quatuor Coronati, denies that there is any warrant in earlier Ma sonic charters for the sentence printed cursively in my citation. He invites comparing it to Mon

taigne's

How

could that ancient

God

more

clearly

accuse the

ignorance

of

the Divine

Being,

and give men

to understand that their religion was

human knowledge concerning but a thing of their own con

trivance, useful as a bond to their society, than in declaring, as he did to those who came to his tri pod for instruction, that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be (from the Apology of Raymond Sebond).
He does
1723-

not comment on the 1723 charge 1939 (Cambridge, 1970) does:

as

is. Jacob Katz, in Jews

and

Freemasons in Europe,

There is
universal

no reason to assume that the authors of the provide

English

constitution

intended, in

their

tolerance, to

for Jewish

candidates

in the flesh. Yet

.

when such candidates some of

did

apply for admission, the

principle was

followed in

practice.

At least

these Jews

sought to retain their own religious principles within

thology

of

Masonic

lodge meeting and dressed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy ance with the Jewish tradition (pp. 15L).

the framework of the lodges. In 1756 an an in print, among them to be recited "at the opening of the Freemasons." the like, for the use of Jewish While the other prayers were ad
prayers appeared

Ghost,

the

Jewish

prayers contained

nothing

at vari

Historians

who cite the remarkable exchange of of

letters between George Washington

BY

and

the Hebrew

Congregation

Newport, Rhode Island (with

SPOKEN

the ringing sentence it is now no more that

THE INDULGENCE OF ONE OF THEIR CLASS
OF

TOLERATION IS

OF,

AS

IF IT WAS THE

PEOPLE,

THAT

ANOTHER

ENJOYED

EXERCISE

INHERENT

NATURAL

rights)

sometimes
a

gation, was

fail to observe that Moses Seixas, the Warden of the Newport Hebrew Congre Mason (Annals of America, pp. 433L, neglects to report this fact).

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

not?

31

ernst
falk

Why

ernst

Ernst, are you listening? You sound as though you were half asleep. No, friend. But I have had enough, enough for tonight. Tomorrow

very early I'm going back to town. falk Already? Why so soon?
ernst

You know

me and ask?

How

long will

it be before

you wind

up

your

mineral water cure?

falk

ernst

I only started it day before yesterday. Then I shall be seeing you before you have finished

yours.

Farewell.

Good

night.

falk

Goodnight. Farewell.

NOTICE TO THE READER

The
at

spark

took. Ernst

went and

became

first, is

the matter of a

fourth

and

Freemason. What he thus learned, fifth conversation, in which there is a parting

a

of ways.

INTRODUCTION BY A THIRD PARTY

As is known, the
this continuation in

author of

the first three conversations had the manuscript for

when

hand, ready for print,

on

the entreating hint not to publish

. . .

it

reached

him from
the

high (den bittenden Wink.

the fourth and

Hoheren Orts). Yet he had

to some

earlier shown

manuscript of without

fifth

conversation

friends

who, presumably

incidence
He

one

his permission, had made copies of it. By a curious co of these transcriptions fell into the hands of the present publisher.
and

regretted

that so many glorious truths should be suppressed

zu

decided,

sans

hints (ohne Winke

If the desire to
not

haben),
light
the

to let it be printed.

see

spread more

widely

about matters so can

important does
in defense

sufficiently
that the
reader of

excuse

liberty he
not an

except

publisher

is

has taken, nothing Accepted Mason.

be

added

The

branch

the

however, notice that prudence and respect for a certain [Masonic] fraternity have prompted the publisher to delete some
will,

names that were written out

in the

manuscript.1

i.

Of the three
make so

foregoing
bold
as

conversations

Lessing

wrote

Duke Ferdinand in

on

19 October,

1778:

Since I
most

to deem the first three of the

conversations

question

the weightiest,
could no

laudable,
resist

and truest things

that may ever have been

printed.

written about

Freemasonry, I
.

longer

the temptation to

have them

(Schneider, Lessing

14).

There is

lated below,

Lessing

then, that Lessing both wrote and published them. The two conversations trans in Lessing's lifetime (Frankfurt am Main, 1780), had been held back by "Introduchimself. I do not know who is responsible for publishing them and for writing the
no question,
while published

32

Interpretation

FOURTH CONVERSATION

falk

Welcome, Ernst. Here

And it

you are at

last. I

concluded

my

mineral water

cure ages ago.

ernst falk
crossly.

agreed with you? matter?

I'm

so glad.
ever

What's the

I don't think I

heard "I'm

glad"

said so

ernst
falk

I do feel cross,
You tempted
you say?

and

very nearly

with you.

Why?
me

ernst

to do something

silly.

Look,

give me your

hand.2

What's that
falk

You shrug

your shoulders?

That

crowns

it

all!

I tempted Perhaps

you? without

ernst falk

meaning to.
people of a

But I

am still
man of

to blame?

ernst

The

God tells the

them not to

land

flowing

with milk and

honey,
when

and you expect

yearn

for

it?3

Expect them

not

to murmur

he leads them, not to this promised land but through barren falk Come now. The damage surely cannot be so great. Besides, I
you

wilderness?4

notice

that

have been
Then heat. The

laboring

among the

graves

of our forefathers

ernst

falk

Yes. But they were surrounded by smoke, not flames} wait for the smoke to clear. Thereafter the flame

will

furnish

light

and

ernst

smoke will suffocate me

able to

before the flame

will

gives me

light,

and

others, I
warmth.

believe, better
Are

bear the smoke,

have the benefit

of

its

falk
so

long

as

you referring to those who positively relish the sting it rises from some rich kitchen that isn't their own?

of

the smoke

ernst falk

Then

you admit
of

that you

know these

people?

I've heard

them.
what prompted you

ernst

In that case,

the shallowness
falk
about

(Ungrund)

of which you

Your irritation

makes you

to lure me by a fine show of things knew very well? quite unfair. I'm supposed to have talked

Freemasonry
Party."

with you without

giving

you

to understand

in

more

than

one

tion

by a Third Georg
Masons Exodus Exodus

Von Olshausen He

reinserted the

deleted

names and made a

few

other corrections and

in the
2.
3.

pirated 1780 version.

used the work

done

by Lessing's

two

friends, Friedrich Nicolai

Johann

Hamann.
make

themselves known to one another

by

special

handshakes.

13:5.

4. 5.

15:22!
forefathers"

"The graves of the

the

and

"flames"

plained until

brother
there is

reaches the

degree

of

Lessing's

seem to be Masonic symbols that aren't Master Mason. Here and throughout, italics

ex

are

unless

a note

to the contrary.

Ernst
way how

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

it
would

33
to become
a

pointless

be for every decent

man

Mason,

not

just

pointless, harmful? ernst May be

falk
without

you

did.
that the highest duties
of

I didn't tell
the

you

Freemasonry can be
well

fulfilled

bearing
I

name of

Freemason?
But
you

ernst

remember that you said that.

know perfectly

that

when

my fancy for showing it such luscious bait. falk Bait that you soon got tired
spreads

its

wings and takes off

there is no stopping it. I blame you only

of

struggling for! Besides, why didn't

me out of

you

tell me of your
ernst
falk
cause

intentions?
you

Would

have tried to talk

a

them?

me

in leading strings merely be he occasionally stumbles! I won't flatter you: You were too far along for to hold you back. Even so, no exception could be made for you. All must en
that way.

Certainly! Who'd put

dapper

boy back

ter

by

ernst

would not

be sorry to have

entered upon

it if I had higher

expecta
vain

tions

of

the way remaining. Vain promises, vain promises, nothing but

promises

(Vertrostungen)\

falk

Ah,

ernst
falk

so they are already holding out promises to you. Of what? You know Scottish Rites, the Scottish Knight.6 Yes, of course. But what does the Scottish Knight need consolation for
sich
. . .

(wessen hat
ernst
falk

der

schottische

Ritter

zu trostenf.

I'd

dearly

like to know!
other novices of

Your comrades, the They?

the order,

they don't know any

wants

thing
make of

either?

ernst

They

know

plenty!

They
do

have

such

high hopes. One

to

gold, the

other wants

to summon spirits, the third wants to revive the order

Knights Templar. You

falk

smile.

Why

you

merely

smile?

What

else can your

I do?
with

ernst falk

Show

disgust

these

blockheads.

I would, ernst What?

except

that there

is

one

thing

that reconciles me to them.

6. I imagine that the

gree of

promise refers

to

promotion

to those "higher

degrees,"

beyond the third de

Master,

that the Lodges of Strict Observance tacked on.

According to

Schneider

(Lessing

167), Higher Degree

ranks and

Masonry (which,

oddly enough,

reintroduced within

the Masonic

fellowship

hierarchy

merit qua progress

many

during

due to genealogy or rank outside the Brotherhood instead of matching rank to in the craft) was brought to Germany by French army officers stationed in Ger the Seven Years War. Chevalier Ramsay (1681-1743) is sometimes mentioned in con
and

century Higher Degree Masonry, because he is linked to the or even

nection with eighteenth
"re-Christianizing"

this is

not

"Romanizing"

that

entirely lacking in interest is said to have been encour

aged

by

the

Catholic Stuarts to

counteract

the Protestant Hanoverian influence in Masonic circles.

The

Scottish Knight's needing consolation may, then, refer to the Stuart loss of the English throne. I have no idea what connection, if any, there is between contemporary Higher Degree
passage about the and the

Masonry

eighteenth-century

variety.

34

Interpretation
In
all these reveries

falk

I detect
where

straining

after reality,

and all

these

wrong tracks nonetheless indicate ernst Even the

alchemy?7

the true way leads.

falk

Yes. Whether

gold can or can't

be

manufactured

doesn't

matter

to me.
on ac

But I am positive that reasonable men will want to be able to make

count of

it only

Freemasonry. And the

one who should a

lay

hold

of

the philosopher's that all re

stone

would, that

instant, become
the

Freemason. Isn't it bear this

out?

remarkable

ports about alchemists

alleged or real
necromancers?

ernst falk

What

about

I'd say roughly the How

all

same of them

spirits can't

possibly listen to any

human

voice except

that of a Freemason.

ernst falk

can you

say

such

things in so serious a tone?

By

that is sacred, my tone is no more serious than the things them

selves are.

ernst

Can it be

so?

(Wenn das ware!) Where do

willing?

you stand on

the issue of

the new Knights

falk

Templar, God
theml
you out!

Heavens,

ernst

I've found

You

can't come

up

with

anything to say, because

Knights Templar did

succeeded at masons

once

exist,

whereas

there may never have been anyone who

making

gold or

deal

with creatures of the

summoning spirits. It's easier to tell how Free imagination than how they deal with real
are

beings.
falk ernst

I admit,
If only

either/or.

There be

only two

alternatives.

one could

sure

that at least one of them held true.

. . .

Well,
(Spot-

then,

either

these would-be Templars

you

falk

Ernst, stop before

finish uttering

yet another

blasphemy
on

terei).

By

my conscience, these, precisely these,

path or else so

ernst falk

securely far from it that they should no longer even hope ever to I'll just listen, since asking for explanations.
. .

are either

the right
reach

it.

Why

don't

you?

For too

long

petty

secrets

have been

made

the mys

tery.
ernst

What do

you mean?

7.

Cf.

Descartes, Discours
iv
and v.

1, toward the

end

11,

aphorisms

"The

advent of mechanical philosophies

supposed to

have

sounded

the death
on

knell

(p. 41 Gilson ed.) and Bacon, New Organon, book in the seventeenth century is usually
. .

of alchemy.

However,

the single example

(1664-

of

Boerhave

is

Alchemy, Press, 1975, p. 44). fascinating study amply confirms Lessing's sense that occasional even frequent, chicanery should not make us deny the genuine questing for Wirklichkeit of the "Free Clearly, Falk is often made to speak of Freemasonry as though it were natural science in
sity
Dobbs'
Masons."

1734) is usually consid ered to be the first great rational chemist, imbued with the Newtonian philosophy, a thorough-going experimentalist and careful empiricist. Indeed he was all of those things, but he still believed in trans"mutation Jo Teeter Dobbs, The Foundations of Newton's (Betty Cambridge Univer
also."

sufficient to cast grave

doubt

the proposition.

Herman Boerhave

process of

formation. I do

not

know why

Lessing

never mentions

doesn't

Lavoisier. Kant (as far

as

either.

I know)

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

of

35
you of

The mystery
utter,

Freemasonry is,
supposing

as

I told

before, something
his wanting to do
at certain of

the
so.

Mason

cannot

even

the possibility

Whereas little
certain

secrets are

things perfectly sayable which

times

and

in

lands

were concealed

from envy, held back because

fear,

kept

covert

for

prudential reasons.

ernst

For instance?
matter of

falk
plar and

For instance this

the connection
was a

between the Knights Tem it

was needful and good

the

Freemasons. Perhaps there

time

when

to take

no notice of

it

a secret.

it. Today, contrary wise, much harm may be done by keeping Much better if it were openly admitted and the pertinent respect in

which

the Knights Templar were the

Freemasons likeness?

of

their

day

determined.8

ernst

May

I hear

of this point of
of

falk
make

Read the
which

history
were

the Knights Templar attentively. You are bound to

was no need

it out,
I

is why there

for

your

becoming

Freemason.

ernst

wish

among the

books in my library! If I
But to If

guess

right,

will you

tell me?
falk

You

won't
on

be needing
the very

such confirmation. we're

return all

to my either/or.

Its decision turns

thing

talking

about:

those

Masons

who

today

are

big with
all

Knights Templar is
well with

see and

feel the true

point of

likeness (diesen

rechten

Punkt),

work and upon all

tive to it (jenen

they Punkt), if they let

that

abstain

them, and with the world. Blessings upon all their from doing! But if they are blind and insensi
themselves be seduced

by

a mere

homonym, if
cross on and

it

was

only

the

Free Mason

who works at that great

temple who reminded them

of

the Knights

Templar, if they
all
. .

while

mantle, if
then.
.

that

they

are

merely infatuated with the red after is fat prebends for themselves
are grant us an ample

the

for their pity

so

friends,
that

we'll

be
I

able

Then I pray that Heaven to hold in our laughter.

that you are

supply

of

ernst

notice

capable of anger and

bitterness
and

after all.

8. I'd love to be told had in

and
mind.

what point of resemblance

between the Templars

role as

the Masons
and

Lessing

Two things

occur

to

me

the

Templars'

international financiers
the

bankers,

the rumor that

they

were

heretics

somehow connected with

Cathars

and

the

teaching

that all

men are saved

have

not yet

become the
the

vehicle

in the end, even if this for the Paraclete. The

when

might mean metempsychosis

thus, ultimately, with for those who

characterization of

the Knight Templar in

me

Lessing's Nathan
plars as

Wise, especially

taken together with Lessing's verbal endorsement of

tempsychosis in On the Education of Mankind, may bear out that

Lessing

was

thinking

of

the

Tem

early

critics

the point of economic

of Trinitarian Christianity. The Encyclopedia Brittanica (eleventh ed.) resemblance in a footnote to the entry "Templars":
was

speaks to

The Paris Temple Above it

the centre of the world's money market. In it popes and kings

were not

deposited

their revenues, and these vast sums

all
was

hoarded but issued

as

loans

on adequate security.

the Templars

who made

the exchange of money

with

the East possible. It is easy,

indeed,

to see how

Armenia to

they were the ideal bankers of the age; their strongholds were scattered from Ireland, their military power and strict discipline ensured the safe transmission of
their reputation as monks guaranteed their

treasure,

while

integrity. Thus they became the

prede

cessors, and later the rivals, of the great

Italian

banking

companies

(xxvi,

595).

36

Interpretation
Quite capable, Which
unfortunately.

falk

Thank

you

for that

remark.

am cold

again, like ice.

ernst of the two conditions you

described do

you

take to

be that
I

of

our gentleman?

falk

The

latter, I'm
in

afraid.

wish

were mistaken.

But how

can

be,

see

ing

that they've hit on the crazy

major respect applies.

notion of

reviving the Order of Knight

Templar?

That

which at

the Templars were the Freemasons of their

day

no

longer

Europe

headstart. So
sponge

what are

least is way past it and no longer needs that sort of they after? Do they want to become the new absorbent
squeeze?9

for the

great

to

about what people am

asking?

But why am I asking you these questions, and You didn't say that these alchemical or necroare

mancing
order,

or

Knight Templar-schemes

taken up

by

the older members of the

by

anyone who
you?

isn't

a child or else a man whom

abuse, did

You

couldn't

have! Children
hand.
me so

grow up.

nothing stops from child Let them be. Suffice it

that,

as

already said, in these

children's

toys I see the weapons that grown men

will some

day

wield with a sure what

ernst

Friend,

depresses

isn't really this

sort of childishness.

Even without, like you, taking it as foreshadowing anything serious, I disregard it as a mere diversionary tactic. What bothers me is that I neither see nor hear anything else, that no one is the least bit interested in the kind of thing you raised my hope for. No matter whom I talk to, never and nowhere do I meet with
about

anything
falk

except

blank

silence when

I try those themes.

which you cited as a consti

What
I
am

are you

ernst

talking talking about equality. That equality

about?
might

tutional principle of the order, that equality which

seen

filled my

soul with

the unfore
get

hope that I
Well?

breathe its

air at

last among

men who

know how to

past social stratification without

doing injury
ever?

to their neighbor.

falk

ernst

Does it

still exist?

Did it

Let

an enlightened

Jew

ask

for accep

tance. "A Jew? That will not do.

Clearly

the candidate must be a

of religious

Christian."

What

sort

of Christian is indifferent. "Regardless

distinctions"

merely

means

"without

discriminating
Roman

among the three officially tolerated de

Is that
your

nominations

in the

Holy

Empire.10

interpretation too, Falk?

,

the

9. The order of Knights Templar was, at the instance of Philip IV, King of France dissolved by Pope early in the fourteenth century and the Templars' holdings in France, Spain, and England confiscated. 10.

Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist. The banning of Christian sectarianism in Masonic lodges

great
progress

was,

of

course,

satisfied
p.

may be touched

by Enlightenment standards. The reason on by Jacob Katz (Jews and Freemasons

for Ernst
.

and

Falk's

not

being
16,

22).

Whereas (see
of the

note

69 above) the English and American Freemasons were "strict Constitution, the German Masons added bylaws when undesirables

constructionists"

Grand Lodge

applied:

Only

for membership in our ehrwurdigen order, but on no account Jews Pagans. Lodges which have admitted any of these to their community have thereby clearly shown that they have no knowledge of the nature of Freemasonry.
a

Christian is
or

eligible

Moslems,

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

see

37

No, I

it differently.
a

ernst

Suppose
sufficient

trusty

cobbler comes

along,

a man who while

his last has

cepted.

leisure

to think many a good thought.

even

working at Let him ask to be ac

or a

They'll turn him down

they'll say,

if he be

Jacob Boehme
. .

Hans

Sachs.11

"A

cobbler?"

"why,

clearly,

a cobbler.

Or imagine that

faith

ful,
of

seasoned,

much-tried manservant ask

for

acceptance.

person,

who

is

not at

liberty
is the

to choose the colors of

ourselves."

They'll say "That sort his coat, does not be

long.12

We

are such good

good

company

amongst

falk

Just how

company?

Nothing wrong with it at all, except that one gets tired of moving in nothing but the right social circles princes, dukes, lords, officers, councillors
ernst
of at

every variety, merchants, artists. Sure, all these folk meet and greet each other the lodges without distinction of rank. But at bottom they all belong to the
rank,
which

same social

is,

unfortunately.

falk
guess.

Things

were

different in my day. Still

since

I don't know. I

It's been too

long

was connected with not

think there is a

difference between

being

admitted

can only any lodge. But don't you to a lodge for the time be

ing
One

and

being

excluded

from Freemasonryl "

reason for my deeming this ble that the American emphasis experience.

somewhat recondite

fact

worth

on written constitutions

(state

or

recording is that it seems to me possi federal) is connected with Masonic

do

with respect
p.

It is, after all, not entirely true that the raising up of men of a certain kind has nothing to for a written constitution. Compare Eva Brann, Paradoxes of Education in a Repub
and a

lic,

102,

lecture
a

by

Robert A. Goldwin
Mind,"

entitled

"James Madison

and

the Bill of Rights:

1983.

Something
11.
at

More than

Change

of

St. John's College, Annapolis, September 30,

1576) is the shoemaker-poet who is the hero of Wagner's Master Singers Nuremberg. Jakob Boehme (1575- 1624), likewise a shoemaker, is better known as the author of
oder

Hans Sachs

(1494-

the mystic treatises Aurora

Theologia Germania. I have sting in the

contributed 12. observation that

not read

Aufgang (Aurora or the Crack of Dawn) and books, but from secondary literature I infer that there is a Boehme would be excluded from German lodges, since his teachings
these

die Morgenrote im

to Masonic spirituality.

classes and

See C. B. MacPherson, Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, appendix on social franchise classes in England around 1648. Philip Roth, in Masonry in the Formation of

Our Government (Wisconsin, 1927) cites a remark of President Theodore Roosevelt in the issue of McClure Magazine which bears on the justice of Ernst's expectations:
I
violate no secret when men

July

1909

tunity for

in

all walks of

I say that one of the greatest values in Masonry is that it affords an oppor life to meet on common ground, where all men are equal and have
when

one common

interest. For example,

was

President,

the Master was a worshipful

brother

Doughty,
It
would

gardener of the estate of one of

my

neighbors and a most excellent public-spirited citi

zen with whom

I liked to

maintain contact.

have
was me

embarassed

him. Neither
was over

could

Lodge it
good

different. He

me,

Clearly, I could not call upon him when I came home. he, without embarassment, call on me. In the though I was President, and it was good for him and

for

(Roth,

p.

134).
"lodge"

13.

My

guess

is that

stands

for

what people

normally
stands

mean

by Freemasonry; Freemasonry

also

for

"philosophe"

in the

sense of

Diderot (cited

"Freemasonry"

et al. p.

for Philosophy "as

about

an eternal possi

bility,"

to use

Strauss'

phrase and

"economized"

"politicized"

ing

3 above). The enigmatic sentences harmonize with this interpretation.

becom

38

Interpretation
How
so?

ernst

falk
stands

Because

of

the analogy that lodge stands to

about

Freemasonry
reverse:

as church

to faith.

Nothing, absolutely nothing

only

the faith of the members can

be inferred from the kind

of

church's external prosperity.

Quite the

There is its

prosperity that would

shows that always

by

miracle

be

compatible with genuine

faith.
mem

Indeed, history
bers have
other.

the prosperity of the church and the

faith

of

been

at odds with each

. .

other, the

one

has

always

destroyed the

And

so

am afraid that.

ernst falk
me. out

What?
goings on at of

The

lodges today are, from

what

I'm told,

quite

beyond

This

keeping

accounts, accumulating of capital, these efforts to squeeze

the last

percentage of

profit, this desire to

buy

into partnerships, this going

after royal and suppress

princely licenses, the using of princely authority and might to brethren who observe rites different from the ones that some want to
genuine

turn

into the only

prophet.

rites

these things must end in

fiasco. I hope I

am a

false

ernst

What's going to
14
. . .

come of

it

all?

The

state no

longer interferes much;

anyway, there are already too many Freemasons amongst those who make or
maintain

its laws for. Good!

falk

Supposing

that the Masons no

longer

need

fear

even the

state,

how in
where

opinion, is this going to affect them? Doesn't it put them right back started? Doesn't it stop them from being what they mean to be? I'm they
your

not sure you quite understand me.

ernst

Keep

talking.
. . .

falk

Although

sure

nothing lasts for

ever.

Perhaps Providence

se

lected precisely this Freemasonry.

ernst falk

course of events

to make an end of the present scheme of

"Scheme I

of

Freemasonry"?
guise.

Scheme, husk,
still

ernst
falk

don't follow.
you

Surely
What

don't

suppose that

Freemasonry

has

always played the

Ma

sonic part?

ernst falk

are you

talking

about?

I'm asking

you whether you

hold that

what

Freemasonry

is has

always

been

called so?

(translator's

italics) But look, it's going

won't you?

on supper-time.

My

guests are arriving.

You'll stay,

ernst

I did
me.

not

intend to, but clearly I must,

that
at

since a

twofold nourishment is

waiting for
falk

Hush,

none of

table.

14.

Frederick the Great

and

of

Prussia, for example,

was

initiated into

the

Brunswick Lodge. New

at

ton's

friend

apostle, John Theophilus

Desaguliers

(1683-

1744), officiated

the ceremony.

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

39

FIFTH CONVERSATION

ernst

They've left didn't

want

at

last. What babblers! You

that the
one with

seem not

to

have

noticed

perhaps you
about

to?

the

wart on

his

chin

who cares

his

name?

is

Mason. He kept

knocking.15

falk

Yes, I heard him. From his harangues I gathered,

in Europe fight for the
of

as you

may

not

have,

that he is one of those who

ernst falk

Americans.16

That's the least

are there at

his faults.
congress

He fancies that the American

is

Masonic lodge

and that the

Freemasons
ernst

last establishing their realm That kind of dreamer exists as well? "

by force

of arms.

15. Masons have secret signs of recognition the special handshake at the beginning of the Fourth Conversation, the special knock here. The knocking reminds me of how, in World War it, we used the of the Morse Code (and of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony!) to identify ourselves. Com

Jacques Chailley, The Magic Flute, Masonic Opera (Knopf, New York, 1971). must have been a touchy subject, since Duke Charles, to fill the Brunswick treasury, had sold a substantial number of his male subjects to England to fight against the rebel American colonists. Duke Charles, Duke Frederick, the Crown Prince all were
pare also

16.

The American War for Independence

Masons. But
count, that

so were

Freemasonry
of
with

George III, King of England, and General Washington! To claim, on that simply drops out of the equation, is empty, would be a mistake.
the United

ac

The Great Seal is imprinted

States, designed in

the eighteenth century (adopted

Masonic insignia (which

who

are reproduced on our one-dollar

bills

at the

June 20, 1782), instance of

Franklin D. Roosevelt,
offended

by this

open

declaration,

hesitated only because he feared American Roman Catholics might be see Washington Post, Nov. 9, 1982, p. D7). The ceremony of lay

ing

the corner stone of the United States Capitol in Washington was under the auspices of the Grand
of

Lodge

Maryland (a painting

by Stanley Massey

Arthurs

depicting

George Washington in full Ma

sonic regalia while surance seum

laying

the corner stone used to

hang

company in Washington). According to a in Baltimore, no important public work was started in the United States of America without an appropriate Masonic ceremony. At the opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Charles Carroll
threw the

in the gallery of the Acadia Mutual Life In plaque at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Mu

first

symbolic spadeful of soil and members of the

Grand Lodge

of

Maryland laid the first

grand masters

stone,

which was of

first

measured with

the

appropriate

instruments. After three

pronounced
trusty"

from the
in the

States

Maryland, Delaware,
"I
pronounce

and

Pennsylvania had
well

the stone suitable for

use

ceremony

this stone

formed, true,

and

the stone was laid into place,

were said. after

anointed with oil and wine and scattered with grain.

Then benedictions
said to a

Charles Carroll,
on

the last surviving

signer of

the Declaration of

Independence,

friend,

he had,

July 4,
"I

1828,

moved

the first

shovelful of earth with a silver spade at

the cornerstone

laying

ceremony:

consider this of

among the most important acts of my life, second only to the signing of the Declaration Independence, if indeed it be second to that. Carroll had been one of the original projectors of the
"

Railroad

and a

heavy

investor in its

stock.

According
of with

to Bernard

Fay

(a

professor of

American Studies

at

the Sorbonne who sent thousands

French Freemasons to their death in World War II

the Germans at the
generals were war's

and was tried and convicted as a collaborator

end)

all the staff officers

and

General Washington trusted

and all

the lead
see of

ing

army

Masons (Revolution

Freemasonry: 1689-1800, Little

Brown, 1935;
and

also

Philip

A. Roth,

Masonry

in the Formation of Our Government, 1761-1799;

speaks of scientific
were at

the

books

Margaret C. Jacob).
17.

Where the Fourth Conversation

dreams,

the

Fifth,

as

in this passage, for the

men who

speaks of political

dreams. That these two

least psychologically

connected

40

Interpretation
Unavoidably.

falk

ernst falk
well.

From
a

what

do

you conclude that

he is

given

to

such notions?

From

trait which will eventually become more conspicuous to you as

ernst

God, if I knew

that I have been so much deceived in the

Freemasons! leaves
to

falk Don't fret. The Freemason calmly waits for the sun to the lights on in the meantime, allowing them to shine for as long
and are able.

rise and

as

they

want

It's

not

his way to
see

snuff the candles and when

they
to

are extinguished

suddenly to
ernst falk

realize

that the stubs must be relit or other light provided.

That's how I

it: "What

costs

blood is

sure not

deserve

it."18

Excellent! Now Then there

ask what you will.

must answer you.

ernst

will

be

no end of questions.

is, as I urged earlier, shown by the work of Frances Yates, not only her The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972). What wel coming modernity meant is, perhaps, learned by studying what staving it off amounted to. For this purpose Henry Kamen's The Spanish Inquisition (Signet, 1965), especially chapter 7, is very helpful.
made

the modern world

also

Bruno book but

18.

Von Olshausen
uses

Lessing here

attributes the saying to Franklin, but without explaining why. Obviously, it to have Ernst declare himself an opponent of revolution by force. Hence Falk's

enthusiastic response

"Now

ask what you will.

stood

you."

must answer

Precisely
the supposed

where

Lessing

politically is

not

easy to make

outright political statements:

In

frequently

cited

letter to Nicolai honest Let's

liberty of thought and publication in Frederick the

against religion
with

I have, so far, found only two (25 August, 1769) he pokes fun at Great's Berlin, saying that this liberty
out. man ought

is limited to silly tirades

"of

which an
. . .

to be

ashamed."

"Just try

writing about other things in behalf of the rights of

the same

freedom!

see someone against

[Frederick's]
in France
land in

subjects, protesting

in Berlin raising his voice their being fleeced and against

you'll

[royal] despotism,
until

as some

and

Denmark do
Europe."

even now.

Then
I

this

day

the

most slavish

In the

sentences

Lessing indicates that he believes Catholic Vienna is a freeer place passage is from his private notes. Its heading is "Deutsche (German freedom), V.724L That Lessing did not adore Frederick is shown by the report that he declined the post of Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Koenigsberg (Kant's university!) because it involved the obligation to deliver a yearly eulogy to the king. It is confirmed by the poem (if that is what it should be called),
Freiheit"

out what country is from the translation, than Frederick's Berlin. The other omitted

find

"To Mr.

Gleim"

(1.146):

You [Gleim] know best how to sing for him [Frederick], I, meanwhile, want, with Aesopian a friend to animals, to teach a more quiet wisdom a fable about the bloodthirsty tiger. (The syntactic ambiguity of the second sentence is in the original).

timidity,
.

One must, then, infer Lessing's

political about

Dramaturgy,
cal"

the

Correspondence
all

opinions, chiefly from his Tragedy, the Fables, the plays,

"aesthetic"

works and

the

Hamburg

(of course) the "theologi

writings.

the major plays are on political themes: Emilia Galotti is a transformed, "bour Livy's (m. 44-58) Virginia theme, set in Italy, but applicable to threeany of the hundred-odd courts of Germany. Nathan the Wise, as I tried to show in a essay, "On the forthcoming Nathan," "modernity," Wisdom of is about not just about religious toleration. Samuel a
geois,"

Properly read,

version of

Henzi,

trag

edy

of

That,

which, unfortunately, only fragments exist, deals with a failed revolution in the city of Bern. according to Lessing's lay-out of the muthos, the revolution fails because non-citizens use it to
course of events 20lf.

achieve ends of private vengeance

scribed
not

is worthy of note. The historic in Beaujour, Offler, Potter, A Short History of Switzerland, the Seven Years War. help but somehow "deal
with"

in Bern is de

Minna

von

Barnhelm

can

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

you

41

Only

don't know didn't I

where to start?

ernst

Did I

or

understand you

just before Because

we were when

interrupted?
to

Were

you or weren't you

you

contradicting
but
also

yourself?

in

an earlier con

versation mean ages.

said

that

Freemasonry has
its

always existed

understood you

that not only

its

essence

present organization

date back to

hoary
is

falk

As though both

were

in the

same case!

The

essence of

Freemasonry
still

as old as civil society.

The two

ciety isn't merely

to the
sun.19

an offshoot

together, if indeed of Freemasonry: The flame at the focus is

could not arise except

civil so

due

ernst

That's how it
whether

dimly

looks to

me

too.
of mother and

falk

But

their

relation

be that

daughter

or of

sisters,

the fate of either

civil

has

always affected

that of the other. Whatever the condition of

of

versa.

society anywhere, such too was the condition The most reliable indication of the soundness been
whether or not

Freemasonry,
flourish

and vice

and strength of a state

has
Just

always as

it

permitted

Freemasonry to

by

its

side.

it is to this

day

an unmistakeable sign of a state's weakness and

timidity if it

won't

tolerate openly what it must, willingly or not, tolerate covertly.

ernst

To wit, Freemasonry?
course.

falk
which so

Of

Because

at

bottom it does

not

depend

on external

ties,

easily degenerate into

of minds attuned
who would

civil

ordinances; it depends
another. about

rather on

the com

munity

feeling

to one

ernst

And

dare to legislate

that!

falk

Which does been

not

take away from the fact that to

accommodate

Freemasonry has
as were

always

and everywhere

obliged

itself to the format

As many

of civil soci

ety,

which

has

always so

been the

stronger association. were

the forms
each of

of civil

society,

many, necessarily,

the forms of
could you

Freemasonry,
which

these,

of

course, receiving

a new name.
political

How way

have imagined that the for it

was tailor-

name was older than the

made?19

ruling

of thought

ernst

falk
name

"Freemasonry"

What is that ruling way of thought? I leave the question to your own investigation. Suffice it to say that the did not become applied to members of our secret brother
the

hood

until

beginning of this
date

century.

The

name

does

not

reliably

occur

printed work of earlier even

and

I dare

anyone

to show

me an older

in any document

in handwritten form.
You
are

ernst

talking

about

the German

version of

the name, aren't you?

19.

Despite the
read

comparative

rarity

of references

to Platonic dialogues in Lessing's eeuvre, it is

hard to

this

passage otherwise

than as saying of the

light in the cave, the city hearth, that it de

rives from the sun, the cosmic hearth. (Similar imagery can be found in Harvey's On the Circulation daughter or sisterly relation of Freemasonry and civil society would of the Blood.) Thus the be a stand-in for philosophy-science's relation to politics. "Herrschende Denkungsart der
motherStaate"

sounds to me

like the true

original

for

Strauss'

"regime."

word

42

Interpretation

falk

No, I
You

mean

the

original

English

"Freemason"

name

along
name occurs

with all sub

sequent translations of

it. be
serious.

ernst
work prior

can't

Reconsider. The

in

no printed

to this century,

none?

falk

None! Yet I have

of
myself.
. .

ernst falk

Some
But In

the dust that still hasn't settled got into the passage in.
. . .

your eyes

too?

ernst

what about

falk

Londinopolis?20

That's
of

what you

mean, isn't it? Dust!

under

ernst

How

about

the Acts

Parliament

Henry

VI?21

falk

Dust! And the Great Privileges

Sweden?22

ernst

granted

to the

Gothenberg Lodge by Charles

XI, King
falk

of

Dust! And Locke?

you

ernst

falk

Which Locke do The in

have in

mind?

ernst

philosopher,
VI'

his letter to the Earl

s own
hand.23

of

Pembroke,

the notes of

hearing,
falk

written

Henry
be
an

That It

must

Henry

VI

again?

entirely new find, Dust, nothing but dust! be!

of which

I haven't heard. But no,

ernst

can't

falk

What

would you call

these word twistings and sham documents?

gotten

ernst

How

could

they have

away

with such

deception

with all

the

world's eyes upon them?

falk
contradict persist.

Easy. There

never are enough sensible people around

for those few to

every

piece of nonsense
not

Obviously,

from its inception. Enough if they don't let it to have nonsense foisted on the public at all would be bet
most

ter. Because precisely the

that nobody bothers to
course of time.

despicable interval

nonsense

can,

being

so

despicable

fight it,
after an

acquire an air of of a

the serious and sacred in the

And so,

thousand years people say: "Would

this have been allowed to circulate in written form if it weren't true? No one con
tradicted these
ernst falk

trustworthy men then. Do Oh history, history. What are

callow

you want you? which

to contradict them

now?"

Anderson's
the

rhapsody, in

the

history
not so

of

the

building

arts

is

given out as

history

of the

Masonic order, is

bad. Perhaps it

was

good

for something in its day. Besides, the fraud

was

easily detected. But that

20.

21.

James Howell's Londinopolis (London, 1657) may be meant. Henry's reign stretches from 1422 to 1461. The Acts of Parliament
1660-

referred to allude to as

semblies of stonemasons.

22. 23.

1697.

See William Preston's Illustrations of Joachim Heinrich Campe of October, 1778.

Masonry (London,

1772).

Cf. Lessing's letter to

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

to

43
should main

people should continue

build

on such

tain in print what they'd be ashamed to say

marshy ground, that they

viva voce

to

a serious

man, that to
to

keep

joke going
a

which should

have been dropped

would
.

long
put

ago

they

even resort

forgery,

forgery
But

for

which at

they
issue.

have been
a

in the

stocks

if

some mi

nor civil matter

had been

ernst
were

mightn't more than

of old

just
of

play

on words

be involved? What if it
preserved

true that

from

the secret

the order

has chiefly been

the

homonymous
falk

by

craft?

were true! (translator's italics) Mustn't it be? Why else should the cisely from this craft, why not from some other?

//it

ernst

order

borrow its

symbols pre

falk

ernst falk

An appealing question! There must be an explanation There is. But

not

of

the fact.

ernst falk

the one I offered?

No. An entirely different one. ernst Am I supposed to guess or will

falk
was

you

tell me?

If

a while

back

you

had

asked me quite another

question,

one

that I

waiting

for,

you'd

easily
you

come

up

with

the answer

now.

ernst
falk

What

question were you

wasn't

"Freemasonry."

always borne that name, it only natural immediately to ask. ernst What other name it has had? Quite. So I ask the question now. falk You want to know what Freemasonry was called before it was called I answer,
. . .

When I told

waiting for me to that Freemasonry has not

ask?

"masony."

ernst falk

Sure, the English name No, the English name was

.

not

masonry but masony,

deriving

not

from

mason,

worker

ernst
falk

in stone, but from mase, table or tablet. Mase meaning table? In what language?
of

In the language
well;
so

the

Anglosaxons, but in
in
common

that of the

Goths

and

Franks

as

the word is German originally. Even

are

today

a number of com

pound words
stance

formed from it
masleidig,

use,

or were

till recently, for in

Maskopie,

Masgenosse.24

In Luther's
to a worse.

day

Masonei

was still

familiar but its

ernst
falk

good

meaning became

altered

I know nothing about either a good or a bad sense of the word. Still, you do know of the custom of our forefathers to deliberate about
matters while at

the

most

important

table. Mase refers to table and Masonei to a

company"

Maskopie means, according to Kruger's note, "trading understood; masleidig means "to lack an appetite"; Masgenosse is
24. one of the

or

koinonia

more

broadly
,

another word

for Tischgenosse
as a

company

gathered

for the

meal.

Surely,

the Latin mensa (still used at continental universi

mass

ties to refer to the student

per of

dining hall) is
absent?

in the background. But is

(the Lord's Supper

sup

fellowship) entirely

44

Interpretation
How
a private supper

private supper party.

(which is how Agricola

ernst
falk

understands

the

word)2S

party turned into is easily seen.

drinking party
italics)

Is

that what

happened to the

word

"lodge"? (translator's

But earlier, before some masonies degenerated in this way and lost their good repute, they were held in the highest regard. Not a court in Germany,

large

or

small, but had

one.

To this fact the

often

old songbooks and

histories testify.

Masonies had their

aces of

own

buildings,

adjoining to or near the castles and pal

so often

the ruling

prince.

The building's name,

connection.

today erroneously
I say
of

attrib
of

uted, derived from this

these
supper clubs

What

more need

the celebrity

than that the

society

of

the

round

table was the

first

and

oldest, from
ernst

which all others spring. round of

The

table? That

goes

back to
a

a quite

fabulous

antiquity.

falk

The story

King

Arthur may be

fable but the

it?

round

table

is

not.

ernst
falk

Wasn't Arthur the

one who established

By no means, not even according to the fable. Arthur or his father took suggests. And isn't it more from the Anglosaxons, as the name than likely that the Anglosaxons brought only such customs to England as they also left behind in their original fatherland? Besides, other Germanic nations of
it
"masony"

over

that

day had the

the

same penchant

for

forming
me?

smaller,

more

intimate,

groups

in the

context of

greater civil society.

ernst

What

are you

trying

to tell

falk

All that I

tions I promise to
cess to some

now say in brief and perhaps without the necessary qualifica document next time, when we are both in the city and have ac

my books. For the present, hear me out as you would the first great event. Let curiosity be piqued rather than satisfied. Where did
you

rumor of

ernst

leave

off? custom which

falk

Masony, then,
some
Masony16

was a

German

the Saxons transplanted to

England. There is Thanes of the masony

regime and

disagreement among
were.

scholars on the question who the

were

Presumably they
the new soil that to

its

nobles.

At any rate,

struck such

deep root in
in

every

once

a whole rose

hung on under all changes of flourishing condition. The twelfth- and

it

thirteenth-century
It
was such a

masonies of

the Knights

templar masony which,

until

Templar became especially famous. despite the dissolution of the order, main And here begins
nevertheless at

tained

itself in London

the end of the seventeenth century.

the period which, though undocumented in written tested to

by

tradition

so

carefully

preserved and marked

history, by

is

so

many

signs of

Konig

entry 668 of Johann Agricola's Anthology of Proverbs, "Es gehet zu wie in Agricola's explanatory note to this entry ("They're carrying on as at King Ar thur's court") remarks that the assembly of knights used to be called the Round Table or Masony (die Tafelrunde oder die Messenei). In case this isn't obvious Arthur's table was round to eliminate
25. cites
Artus'

Krueger

Hofe."

ranking\

26.

"Thane"

(as in Macbeth's "Thane

of

Cawdor") is

in the German text.

Ernst

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

45
written

trusworthiness that the tradition may substitute for the

lacking.27

history

that is

ernst
means of

What

stands

in the way
way?

of

turning

this tradition

at

last into be

history by
for it. At
to

documentary
What
in
stands

proof?

falk

in the

Nothing. There is

much to

said

lest,

feel,

I feel justified,

even

obligated, to disclose this

history,

to

you and

all who are

your position.
out with

ernst falk
end of

Well, then,

it. I

am all ears.

As I said, this templar masony was still in existence in London at the the seventeenth century. Its meeting house stood in the vicinity of St.
which was

Paul's

Cathedral,

then

undergoing
. .

alteration.

The

master

builder

of

this second church of the entire world was

27.

The Glorious Orange

on

Revolution, bloodlessly removing James

"Franklin's
in the
same circles as

II from
p.

liam
For

of

the throne in his stead (cf

saying,"

sisted"

by
a

men who moved

did Locke

and

office and establishing Wil 47 above), may have been "as the members of the Royal Society.

surrounding the Revolution of 1689, see G. M. Trevelyan, A Shortened History of England (Penguin), pp. 348ft. See also three books of Christopher Hill, The Century of Revolution (New York, Norton, 1966), The World Upside Down (Penguin,
comes

brief

account of some of the circumstances

1978), Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution (Oxford, Clarendon Press, afterwards, see Margaret C. Jacobs, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists,
1981).

1965).

For

what
and

Freemasons,

Republicans (London, George Allen & Unwin,

"radicalism"

is,

precisely,

what

the Founders were

On my reading of the history of Freemasonry, trying to avert! See p. 5 above of the Translat
zweiten

or's

Introduction. The German

of reads

28.

"Der Baumeister dieser

was,
of

Kirche der

Welt."

ganzen

The first Chris

"church
topher
sonic

the

world"

whole

course, St. Peter's Basilica in

Rome, dedicated in

1626.

Wren, according to John Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, p. 277, was adopted as a Ma brother on Monday, May 18, 1691 Wren was indeed the designer of the new St. Paul's Cathe
.

dral in London. He imitation

was also a vehement royalist.

original design for the remodeling of London's St. Paul's was, I am told, an Hadrian's Pantheon. The Pantheon may also have served as model for the first building designed to be a library: It used to stand in Wolfenbuttel. Leibniz is said to have conceived it, as a of
temple."

Christopher Wren's

sort of
where

"library
Leibniz,
'
.

It

was

to house the books

and manuscripts of

the

Herzog-August-Bibliothek,

thek

later Lessing, were curators (see "Das Gebaude der Herzog-August-Biblio in W. Totok and C. Haase, Leibniz: sein Leben, sein Wirken, und seine Zeit, Hanover,
and

of Hanover, which ascended to the throne of England, was a sprig of the House of Brunswick! I imagine that this is why Gibbon took an interest in the House of Brunswick, and wrote a history of it. Allow me to mention one other curious tidbit: The first English grammar school not un

1966).

The House

der

church or royal management stood

by St. Paul's,

and

bore its

name.

The London

Mercers'

Guild

friend and mentor, was its John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral and headmaster. According to Frederic Seebohm's The Oxford Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus and
supported

it,

Erasmus'

and

Thomas More (London, Longmans, Green, 1913), Colet's educational mission (he gave his life and fortune to the school that he re-founded) was born of Colet's meeting, in Italy, with Pico della

Mirandola. (On Pico's influence I tried to

comment

briefly

in

Note

on

Eva Brann's "Roots

of

Mo

dernity, "ft. John's Review,

1985).

I imagine that the extraordinarily complicated history of the re-education of mankind would be greatly illuminated if a really knowledgeable student of architecture got going on it. Can there really in the United States, England, and on be much doubt that the wealth of neoclassical architecture
the Continent

has something to do
architectural

with

the fact that Machiavelli's

teaching

to re-vive pre-Christian

Rome "took"?
Despite the fact that

imagery is favored by Lessing too and that he picks

an

architect,

46

Interpretation
Christopher Wren.
. .

ernst

falk

You have just

.

named

the creator of the whole of modern

Freema

sonry
falk

! Him?
put, the master builder of the Cathedral of St.
ancient

ernst

Briefly

Wren,

Paul's, in
St.

the vicinity

of which an

extremely
visited

masony
and

used

to assemble since time the

immemorial,
Paul's
ernst falk

was a member of

this masony

during

thirty

years of

reconstruction

he

it

regularly.

I begin to
else?

smell a misunderstanding.
"masony"

by

The true meaning of the word the English people, got lost. A masony hard by
so

What

had been forgotten

a

so

important

building

ven a

ture,

regularly frequented
a

by

the master

builder,

what else could

it be than

"masonry,"

society

of men skilled

in the

art of architecture, with whom

Wren

consulted about architectural problems?

ernst

A perfectly

natural

inference.

Christopher Wren, as Founder that buildings themselves were

chitecture

of

the Masonic society,

Lessing did

not, as far as I
"straight"

can

see, appreciate
passion

meant to serve

in the

re-education of

mankind, that the

for

ar

that seized hold of

men since

the

Renaissance is to be taken

as well as

in

trans

posed sense.

What

mat who served

Venice to the
the
"my"

to say this is, for instance, the fact that Sir Henry Wotton, the diplo Scotland, later James I of England, and who apparently hoped to win Protestant cause, authored a perfectly delightful handbook on architecture. Bacon, in
prompts me
of

James VI

Essays, has
who

an

essay

on

buildings

side

way, would he have

written off

Anderson's
the

guliers,

is

mentioned and

by

name as

If Lessing had seen things history as a mere "rhapsody"? Anderson (or DesaDeputy Grand Master at the end of the Dedication to the

by

side with one on gardens.

Duke

of

Montagu,
should we

pictured, in clergyman's
of

dress, in

the prefatory engraving) writes:

Nor

forget the learned island unhappily

Sicily,

where

the prodigious geometrician Archimedes

did flourish
general.

by Marcellus, the Roman from Greece. Egypt, and Asia the ancient Romans leamt both the science and the art, what they knew before being either mean or irregular. But as they subdued the nations, they made mighty discoveries in both, and like wise men, they led captive, not the body of the people, but the arts and sciences along with the most eminent professors and practi
and was slain when

Syracuse

was taken

For from

Sicily

as well as

tioners, to Rome,

which

thus became the center of

learning,

as well as of

imperial

power, until

they advanced to their zenith of glory under Augustus Caesar (in Messiah, the great architect of the church).
Augustus Caesar is
chitecture given the

whose reign was

born God's

title "Grand Master of the Lodge at

Rome"

and

the Augustan style of ar

is

recommended as

"the

pattern and standard of

true masonry in all

future

times."

(Consti

Freemasons, 1723: Reproduced in Facsimile with an Introduction by Lionel Vibert I.C.S. (retired). Past Master of the Lodge of Quatuor Coronati (Bernard Quaritch, London, 1923,
tution of the
pp. 24f).

Some

pages

below the

"history"

continues as

follows:

of true masonry proved afterwards very useful to England, Queen Elizabeth, who encouraged other arts, discouraged this because, being a woman, she could not be made a Mason. But upon her demise, King James VI, of Scotland, succeeding to the Crown of England, being a Mason King, revived the English lodges and as he was the first King of Great Britain, he was also the first Prince of the world that recovered the Roman architecture from the ruins of Gothic ignorance. The Augustan style
.
.

the great care that the

Scots took

for the learned

and magnanimous

...

above all by the great Palladio, who has not yet been Italy duly imitated in Italy, though justly rivaled in England by our great Master Mason, Inigo Jones (p. 38).
rubbish
.
.

was raised

from its

in

Ernst
falk

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

was

47

All London

interested in getting

progress reports on the construc

tion of such a church. To get

to possess any

building
in

first hand information, all who deemed themselves expertise would clamor for admission to the supposed
and

masonry,
man

and ask

vain. Finally you

he was, how inventive

of a scientific

know Christopher Wren, what sort of energetic. Wren had earlier participated in the
would make speculative truths more

projecting
efficacious

society that

directly

in establishing the public good and in making civic life more commo dious.29 Then it occurred to him that a society that rose from the activities of daily life (Praxis des biigerlichen Lebens) to speculation would be a fitting coun "There," terpart to it. he thought, "men would investigate what truths are
useful;

here

what useful

things

are

true.

What if I

make some of the principles of

masony

exoteric?

What if I hide the things that

the

cannot craft?

be

made exoteric under

the hiero

glyphics and symbols of

building

Why

not enlarge what people now a

take to be the sense

which a

of

the

"masonry"

word
participate?"

so

that it becomes

Freemasonry

in

larger

number can

Thus thought Wren,

strike you?

and

thereby Free

masonry sprang into being. How does that ernst I am dazzled.

falk

Do

you see a

little light

now?

ernst
falk

A little? Too
I

much all of a sudden.

. . .

Now do

you understand

ernst
city?

beg

you,

friend,

no more.

Don't

you

have

urgent

business in the

falk

Is that

where you want me

to be? to.
. . .

ernst
falk

Want? After

you promised

Well, then,

there

are a number of matters

that require my attention

there. Let me reiterate, relying on memory, I may have spoken too vaguely to

satisfy you. But among my books you will see down. You must be off to the city. Farewell.
ernst

and seize

hold. The

sun

is going

One

sun

is setting,

another

rising. Farewell.

POSTSCRIPT

sixth conversation

between these friends does

preceding.

not

lend itself to be

such

imitation

as was

furnished for the

means

Its

essential matter will

given

in the form

29.

Lessing

the Royal Society. I do

not

know

what

to make of the

fact that

Lessing

does
Ent-

not mention

Bacon's

role

in the

"projecting"

of that society.

Lessing's friend Nicolai is

well aware of

Bacon's
stehen

status as

the new Moses: In his remarkably careful historical

investigation, "Uber das

welche

der

Freymaurergesellschaft,"

Appendix to his Versuch

available at

uber

die Beschuldigungen

dem

Templerorden
many
of

gemacht worden

(1782,

the

University
on

of

Cincinnati), Nicolai

anticipates

the discoveries of Frances Yates in her book

works

the

Rosicrucian

"enlightenment."

Since

Lessing studied Diderot's

how Bacon is
ter than I
ever spoken

for the theatre, it is impossible for me to believe that he did not know of in the Encyclopedia. Yet Nicolai who can be presumed to know Lessing bet
, "history"

shall, takes Lessing's

straight,

including

the bit about masonry and masonyl

48

Interpretation
to the fifth
conversation.

of critical notes
withheld.

These

notes are

for the time

being

Translator's Postscript

After this may be many

long

and somewhat odd effort at

translation and

interpretation, I
as

permitted

to

report

that the

history

of this

undertaking is

follows: For

years

I tried to

understand

the
as
of

modern epistemological

enterprise, that of

"founding"

imorn^r), accepting
"basis"

constituting 56^a
this enterprise,

on

the

obligatory the project of re indubitables. I reached the conclusion that

intellectually

which supposes

that all trust needs

legitimizing,

that
of

we should

doubt
In

wholesale and

good enough

believe retail, that the modality of matter in necessity, is incoherent. but needs
"grounding"

fact is

never

an effort to learn why this intellectual obligation so gripped my predeces I took up the question whether, perhaps, the metaphor of sors, shoulu ue probed. This made me notice that it was just one of a family of build

"foundations"

ing

images that

runs through
and

the

writings of

Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Kant,

world

Harrington, Peirce,
Although it
ens

many

others.

seemed

to me that comparing the

"natural"

to a temple and the heav to believe that the

to a cupola has something

about

it, I came

found

ing

fathers

tural

modernity were deliberately deploying inherited uses of architec imagery, which I found to have had a fairly prominent place in the Old
of

Testament (2 Sam. 22, Ps. I02:25f., Ps. 78:67^, Ps. 104, Job 38, Isaiah 51, Ezekiel) the New Testament (Matthew 7:i5f., Matthew i6:i5f., Luke 6:46f., I Corinthians
3:1

if., Eph

,ians

2:19, Hebrews

1:10), in Plato's Statesman

and

in

Aristotle's Politics.

Having become building imagery, I

and

aware of

the political and religious contexts

was

of

the older
as a

thought

it

unlikely that epistemology

"In his

was

intended

value-neutral assignment

(e.g., Peter King, Locke's nephew,

p.

writes

in his Life

Letters of John Locke,

280:

[Locke's]
which

noble zeal

for

liberty

of

thought, he dreaded the tendency of doctrines mankind to 'swallow that for an innate principle
them.'

which might

may

suit

gradually his purpose

prepare who

teacheth

")
the conviction had taken hold of me that the new science, the
new

Just

when and

Erkenntnistheorie had originally been the one enterprise of re politics, constituting the public world of men awake (Heraclitus 237), I came upon Ma sonic snatches the unfinished pyramid below the Eye of God on our one-dollar

bills
an

and

the portrait of Washington mentioned

Freemasonry Harvey Flaumenhaft (to whom

interest in

in note 1 5 Thus I was led to take in Lessing's Dialogues. The fact that and, eventually,
.

owe the

Carroll

and

Franklin D. Roosevelt

cita-

Ernst
tions),

and

Falk, Dialogues for Freemasons

my
sense

49
modern world and

shared

that the story

of

the making of the

the

story Freemasonry formation as is contained in the

of are

intertwined
notes.

encouraged me to make available such

in

also owe much

to

Cathy Berry,

at

the St.

John's College

patiently away for materials only obtainable through interlibrary loan. Thanks, finally, are due to Gisela and Laurence Berns, who generously lent me books

Library,

who

wrote

Exoteric

Teaching
Kenneth Hart Green

Leo Strauss
edited by

Le

partage

du brave homme lache.

est

d'expliquer librement
de la
vie

ses pensees. religion et

Celui

qui n'ose

regarder

fixement les deux

poles

humaine, la

le gouvernement, Voltaire

n'est qu'un

The distinction between

exoteric

(or public) any

and esoteric

(or secret) teaching

is

not at present considered

to be

of

significance

thought of the past: the

leading
had

encyclopedia of

for the understanding of the classical antiquity does not con Since
a considerable

tain any article, however

number of ancient writers

brief,

on exoteric or esoteric.

not a

little to say

about

the distinction in question,

silence of

the silence of the

leading

encyclopedia cannot

possibly be due to the

the sources; it must

be due to the influence

of modern

scholarship; it is that influence

cance while

which prevents scholars

philosophy from attaching

on classical signifi

to numerous, if

not

necessarily correct,
to decide

statements of ancient writers.

For

it is for

classical scholars

whether and where

the distinction be

tween exoteric and esoteric to decide

whether

teaching
is

occurs

that distinction

significant

in the sources, it is for philosophers in itself. And modern philosophy

is

not

favorable to

an affirmative answer

to this philosophic question. The classi

cal scholar Zeller may have believed himself to have cogent reasons for rejecting the view that Aristotle "designedly chose for his scientific publications a style

This essay was originally written by Leo Strauss in December, 1939. The final typed version, his handwritten corrections, was probably prepared shortly thereafter. It deals primarily with G. E. Lessing (and secondarily with F. Schleiermacher). It was in the immediately preceding years
with

that Strauss had made his rediscovery of exotericism, and this

of

was no

Lessing in connection with his researches for the Moses Mendelssohn Jubildumsausgabe,
and

doubt partly due to his reading Volumes

to

2, 3 Part 1,

3 Part

2.

Strauss

was

very
p.

conscious of the

debt he

owed

Lessing,

and

he

men

tioned it both in "A

Accounts,"

Giving of
and

(April, 1970)
in the

pp.

1-5),

in his letter

of

3 (The College [Annapolis and Santa Fe] Vol. 22, No. 1 May 28, 1971, to Alexander Altmann (published by him

'Vorbemerkung'

to Volume 3 Part 2 of the Moses Mendelssohn Gesammelte Schriften: to the essay which Strauss said in 1971 that he had
"Zentrum"

Jubildumsausgabe, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann [Gunther Holzboog], 1974.) Per

haps this essay is the
mundo',"

closest

thing

we possess

wanted to write, since

and to

1937, in

order

to present the
of

of

be

entitled

'Taking

Leave
to
me

Germany.'

Concerning this intention,

then."

Lessing's teaching "'de Deo et Strauss also said

(Cf. the letter to Altmann in the

that "the decisive

'Vorbemerkung,'

points are as clear

today

as

they

were

Leo Strauss
copy:

following essay was discovered by the present writer in the Archive of the University of Chicago Library (final version: Box 9, Folder 18, and rough
loc.
cit., p. viii.)

The

Box 12, Folder 2),

sincere

and appears with no changes

to the text that

could affect

the meaning.

This

essay is
seph

published with the permission of the

Cropsey,

thanks are

Leo Strauss, to whose executor, Professor Jo due for his kind assistance. The generous interest and assistance of
of

Estate

Professor Alexander Altmann is

also

gratefully

acknowledged.

K. H. G.

52

Interpretation
to the

obscure and unintelligible reasons would

lay

mind"; but it

must

be doubted

whether

these

have

appeared

to him equally cogent, if he had not been assured

rejected view

by

the philosopher Zeller that the

"attributes to the

philosopher a
motive."1

very childish sort of mystification, wholly destitute of any reasonable As late as the last third of the eighteenth century, the view that all the
philosophers was still

ancient

had distinguished between their

and

exoteric and were

their esoteric

teaching
least

maintained,

its

essential

implications
united

fully

understood at

by

one man.

Gotthold Ephraim

Lessing

in himself in

a unique

way the so
ques
von

divergent den it

qualities of the philosopher and of the scholar.

He discussed the

tion of exotericism clearly and

Strafen"

fully

in three little
Falk"

writings of

his: in "Leibniz

ewigen

Dreieinigkeit"

(1773), in "Des Andreas Wissowatius Einwiirfe wider die 2 (1773), and in "Ernst und (1777 and 1780). He discussed

as

clearly

and as

fully as

could

be done
of

by

someone who still accepted exoteri

cism not

merely

as a strange

fact

the past,

but

rather as an own

intelligible necessity
activity.3

for

all

times and,

short,

Lessing

therefore, was the last writer

as a principle who

guiding his
while

revealed,
wrote

literary hiding them,

In

the reasons

compelling wise men to hide the truth: he writing between the lines.
In "Ernst
what
Falk,"

between the lines

about the art of

und

character,

called

Falk,

who expresses

himself every

some

evasively

and sometimes

enigmatically, tries to

show that

political

constitution,

and even

the

best

political

constitution, is necessarily

imperfect,

the

necessary imperfection
what

of all political and

he

calls

freemasonry,

life making necessary the existence of he does not hesitate to assert that freemasonry,

is necessary, was always in existence and will always be. Falk himself is a freemason, if a heretical freemason, and in order to be a freemason, a man must
which

know truths
reason of of

which ought view

better to be

concealed.4

Which is then the

imperfect?5

concealed

his

that all political life is

of

necessarily

The intention
and

the good works

the

freemasons is

to make good works

superfluous,6

Aristotle

and the

Earlier Peripatetics (translated

by Costelloe

and

Muirhead), London,
("Ernst
und

1897,

I.I20ff. 2. See Lessing, Werke, eds. Petersen and 138-89 (the two other treatises mentioned (xxiv. 146-53). 3. von

Olshausen,

vi. 21-60 also

Falk")

and xxi.

above).

Compare

Aufgabe"

Lessing's "Uber

eine zeitige

Lessing's
his

exotericism was recognized to a certain extent

Lessings, Leipzig,
plications of

by Gottfried Fittbogen,
however
see

Die Religion

1923,

pp.

6off.

and 79ff.

Fittbogen does

not

the most
on a

important im
or
post-

valuable

remarks, since his

interpretation

of

Kantian
4.
schon

Lessing

is based

Kantian

meaning of philosophy. "falk. Weisst du, Freund, dass du schon

die
man

view of

the

ein

halber Freimaurer bist? Aber doch

sagen

denn du
falk

erkennst

Wahrheiten,
sagen,

ja

kann
5.

nicht

was er

besser besser

verschweigt. ernst.

kdnnte.

Der Weise

verschweigt"

(Second

Dialogue, loc.

cit., p. 31).

In the third dialogue (p. 40), it is explicitly stated that only such shortcomings of even the best political constitution have been explicitly mentioned as are evident even to the most shortsighted eye This implies that there are other shortcomings of political life as such which are not evident to "short
eyes."

sighted

6. First dialogue (at the end)

and third

dialogue (p.

39).

Exoteric

Teaching
came

53
being,7

freemasonry
scientific

into

when someone who

society

which should make

conceived of a

the speculative truths

should raise

originally had planned a useful for practical

itself from the
prac of

and political

life,

"society which
The

tice

of civil

life to

speculation."8

concealed reasons of the

imperfection

political

life

as such are

the

facts that
or

all practical or political

life is essentially in
is self-sufficient, is higher. Con (i.e. the
truths. It

ferior to
are

contemplative
as

life,
as

that all works, and therefore also all good works,

"superfluous"

far

the level of theoretical

life,

which

reached, and that the requirements of the

conflict

lower

are

bound from time to time to

"freemasons"

with,

and

to

supersede

in practice, the

requirements of the

sideration of

that conflict

is the

ultimate reason

why the
Falk"

wise or

the men of contemplation) must conceal certain

points out

fundamental

may be added that Lessing gions is due to the variety

the
problem of

in "Ernst

und

that the variety of reli

of political

constitutions:9

the religious problem (i.e.

historical,
von

positive

religion) is

considered

by him

as part and par

cel of

the political problem.

In "Leibniz
these
views

den

Strafen"

ewigen

and
Leibniz'

in

"Wissowatius,"

Lessing
The

applies

to an explanation of

attitude toward religion.

motives and

explicit
which

purpose of

these two little treatises is to discuss "the

certain orthodox

reasons

had induced Leibniz to defend

nation and

beliefs (the belief in

Leibniz'

eternal of the

dam

the belief in

trinity).10

While
that

defending
Leibniz'

defense
of

belief

in

eternal

damnation, Lessing
is identical
speech."11

states

peculiar

way

ceived opinions

with

"what

all

the ancient

philosophers used

assenting to re to do in
asserts

their exoteric

By

making that statement, he

two
manners of

not

only

that all
and

the ancient
an esoteric

philosophers made use of

manner; he

also

bids

us

to trace back all

ancients. other

teaching, of an exoteric essential features of

are

Leibniz'

exotericism

to the exotericism of the

exotericism?

What, then,
what are

the essential fea

motives and rea
opinion?12

tures of

Leibniz'

Or, in

words,

the

sons which guided

Leibniz in his defense

of

the

orthodox or received
peculiar

Lessing's first
to received

answer

to this question is that

with

Leibniz'

way

of

assenting
to

opinions

is identical He

"what

all

the ancient

philosophers used

do in their

exoteric speech.

observed a sort of prudence

our most recent philosophers

have become

much

too

wise."13

for which, it is true, The distinction

"mysticism"

between
any
sort

exoteric and esoteric speech

has then

so

little to do

with on

of

that it

is

an outcome of prudence.

Somewhat later
the

Lessing indicates

7.

The

contradiction

between the

statement made at

existence and the statement made toward the end that

of

the eighteenth century enables

us

to see

beginning that freemasonry is always in freemasonry came into being at the beginning that freemasonry is an ambiguous term.

8. Fifth dialogue (toward the

9. 10.
11. 12. 13.

end).

Second dialogue (pp.

34ff.).

Werke,

xxi.

143

and 181.

Loc. cit., 147. Cf. loc. cit., 146. Loc. cit.,

147.

Cf. Plato, Theaetetus,

l8oc7-d5,

with

Protagoras, 316C5-317C5

and

343b4-5-

54

Interpretation
reason

the difference between the esoteric

dox doctrine

of eternal

damnation,
That

and

the exoteric reason

enabling Leibniz to defend the ortho expressed in his de

on

fense

of

that
of

doctrine.14

exoteric

reason, he asserts, is based

the mere
goes

possibility
on

eternally

to say: "It is

true,

increasing humanity shudders

For I it

wickedness of moral

beings. And then he

at

this conception although it concerns

reason raise

the mere possibility. I should not

however for that

should

the question: why

this
counterques-

frighten
been

with a mere possibility?

have to

expect

tion: why not

frighten

with

it,

since

can

earnest about

the betterment of

himself."

only be frightful to him who has never This implies that a philosopher
not a

who makes an exoteric call

statement, asserts,

fact, but

what

Lessing chooses to

"a

mere possibility":

that statement

he does not, strictly speaking, believe in the truth of (e.g. of the statement that there is such a thing as eternally increas human beings
which would

ing

wickedness of

ishments). This is indicated

quotation

by Lessing

in the

justify eternally increasing pun following remark introducing a

at

from the final

part of

Plato's Gorgias: "Socrates himself believed in

such eternal punishments quite

seriously, he believed in them

least to the

ex

tent that he considered it expedient to teach such punishments in terms which do

not

in any way arouse suspicion and which are most Before proceeding any further, I must summarize Lessing's

explicit."15

view of exoteric

teaching. To avoid the danger of arbitrary

of

interpretation, I
glance even

shall omit all elements

that view which are not noticed at a

first

by

the most superficial

reader of

Lessing,

although

the obvious part of his view, if taken

by itself,

is

somewhat enigmatic,
Leibniz16

(i) Lessing

asserts that all the ancient philosophers and

made use of exoteric presentation of

the

truth,

as

distinguished from
truth
makes use of not of

its

esoteric presentation.

(2) The

exoteric presentation of the

statements which are considered

by

the philosopher himself statements,

statements

facts, but

of mere possibilities.

(3) Exoteric

(i.e.

such statements as

would not and could not occur within

the esoteric

teaching)

are made

by the phi
by
such

losopher for

reasons of prudence or expediency.

(4) Some
be

exoteric statements

are addressed statements.

to morally inferior people who ought to be

are certain

frightened

(5) There

best is

political constitution
or political

to practical

concealed. (6) Even the is bound to be imperfect. (7) Theoretical life is superior life. The impression created by this summary, that there
which must

truths

a close connection

between

exotericism and a peculiar attitude toward political

"freemasonry,"

and practical

life,

is

not misleading: existence to the

which as such

knows

of se

truths, litical life.

cret

owes

its

necessary imperfection

of all practical or po

Some
14. 15. 16.

readers might

be inclined to dismiss Lessing's

whole

teaching

at

once,

Cf. also the remarks about on pp. 184, 187 and 189. conversation, published only after his death, Lessing said to F. H. Jacobi about Leibniz: "Es ist bei dem grossten Scharfsinn oft sehr schwer, seine eigentliche zu ent160.

Loc. cit., Loc. cit., In

I53ff.
"believing"

a private

decken."

(Werke,

Meinung

xxiv. 173).

Exoteric
since

Teaching
all

55

it

seems

to be based on the

assumption

that

the ancient

obviously erroneous, or merely philosophers have made use of exoteric

that the incriminated

traditional,17

speeches.

To

warn such

readers,

one must point out

sentence permits
writers

of a

wholly

unobjectionable

interpretation:

Lessing implicitly
deserve the
which

denies that

on philosophical
phers.18

topics who reject exotericism,

passages

name of philoso was

For he knew the

in Plato in in

it is indicated that it

the

sophists who refused

to conceal the truth.

After

Lessing,

who

died in the

year

which

Kant

published

his Critique of
sight of almost nov

Pure Reason, the

question of exotericism seems

to have been lost

as

completely, at least among scholars and philosophers

elists.

distinguished from

When Schleiermacher introduced that

style of

classical

scholarship is

still

engaged,

and which
with

Platonic studies, in which is based on the identification of

the natural order of Platonic

still

dialogues

the sequence of their elaboration, he

had to discuss in detail the kind

view that

there are two kinds of Platonic teaching,

an exoteric

and an esoteric one. remarks about

important
of which

and

true

doing this, he made five or six extremely Plato's literary devices,19 remarks the subtlety
In

has,

to my

knowledge,

never

been
He

surpassed or even

rivalled

since.

Yet

he failed to

see the

crucial question.
presented

asserts

that there is only one Platonic

although

teaching
speak,
an

the

teaching
which

in the dialogues
of

there

is,

so

to

infinite

number of

degrees

the understanding of that teaching: it is

the same

teaching
which

the beginner understands

inadequately,

the perfectly trained

student of

Plato

understands adequately.

only But is then the

the

and which

teaching
which

the beginner actually understands, identical

student

with

teaching

the perfectly trained

actually

understands?

The distinction between

Plato's

exoteric and esoteric

teaching had
popular

sometimes and

been traced back to Plato's

to the necessity in
which

religion"

opposition

to "polytheism and
of

he

found himself
this view
read

hiding

that opposition; Schleiermacher believes

principles on

he has

refuted

by

asserting that "Plato's

that topic are

clear enough

to

needed still more

gion"

in his writings, so that one can scarcely believe that his pupils might have information about Yet, "polytheism and popular reli had used the less ambigu Schleiermacher if expression: is an ambiguous
them."20 Athens,"

ous

"belief in the have

As

existence of

the gods

worshipped

by

the city of

he

could not

said

that Plato's

opposition

his

writings.

a matter of

fact,

to that belief is clearly expressed in in his introduction to his translation of Plato's

Apology of Socrates, he
Apollo, for
17. 18.

considers

it "a

weak point of

that writing that Plato has

not made a more energetic use of the argument taken

from

Socrates'

service old

to

refuting the

charge

that Socrates

did

not

believe in the

gods."21

Compare Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata, Cf

.

v. 58
of

(365

Stahlin).
antiquarischen

for

a similar example of xvil.97ff.).

Lessing's way
1.

expressing himself, his Briefe

p. 20.

Inhalts VII (Werke,

19.
20. 21.

F. Schleiermacher, Platons Werke,

Loc.
cit., 14. 3rded.,

1,

Berlin, 1804,

3rded., Berlin, 1855,

p. 16.

Berlin,

1855,
p.

p. 12.

Platons Werke, 1.2, Berlin, 1805,

185. 3rd ed.,

Berlin,

1855,

p. 128.

56

Interpretation
gods,"

If Plato's Socrates believed in "the believed in them "polytheism

Schleiermacher'

old can one

is

not

Plato himself likely to have

as well?

And how

then say that Plato's opposition to

religion"

and popular

as such

s strongest argument against the

assertion

is clearly expressed in his writings? distinction of two teachings of

real

Plato

appears

to be his

that Plato's

investigations

are

hidden,

not

or that attention is the only pre full understanding of his real investigations as distinguished from former.22 of the But did any those investigations which are merely the

absolutely, but only from the inattentive readers,

requisite

for

"skin"

man

in his

senses ever assert that

Plato

wished

to

hide his

secret

teaching from all

to carry any
other

readers or weight

from

all men?

Did any

man whose

judgment
esoteric

can claim

in this

matter ever understand

by

Plato's

teaching anything

than that

teaching

of

his dialogues

which escapes

the inattentive readers only?

The only possible difference of opinion concerns exclusively the meaning of the distinction between inattentive and attentive readers: does a continuous way lead

from the extremely inattentive reader to the extremely attentive reader, or is the way between the two extremes interrupted by a chasm? Schleiermacher tacitly
assumes

that the way from the

beginning

to the end is continuous, whereas, ac

conversion,23

cording to
with

Plato, philosophy

presupposes a real

i.e.

total break

the attitude of the

beginner: the beginner is

a man who

has

not yet

for

one

moment

and

left the cave, who (if he is not

of

whereas

the philosopher is the man who has

left the

cave

compelled

"the islands
opher

the

blessed."

to do otherwise) lives outside of the cave, on The difference between the beginner and the philos
student of

(for the perfectly trained

a

Plato is
of

no one else

but the

genuine

philosopher) is

difference

not of

degree, but

kind. Now, it is

well-known

that, according to Plato, virtue is knowledge or science; therefore, the beginner is inferior to the perfectly trained student of Plato not only intellectually, but also
morally.

That is to say, the morality

on which

of

the beginners
of

has

basis essentially
rests: their vir

different from the basis

the morality

the philosophers only,

tue is not genuine virtue,

but

vulgar or political virtue

a virtue

based

not on

insight, but

on customs or

laws.24

the morality of the

"guardians."

"auxiliaries"

Now,

the

"auxiliaries,"

We may say, the morality of the beginners is of the Republic, but not yet the morality of the the best among whom are the beginners,

i.e. statements which, while being useful for the po litical community, are nevertheless lies. And there is a difference not of degree but of kind between truth and lie or untruth. And what holds true of the difference between truth and lies holds equally true of the difference between exoteric and
must
22.

believe "noble

lies,"25

"Das

geheime

(ist)
dem

nur

beziehungsweise

so

i.i, 12.

"
.
.

die

eigentliche Untersu-

chung Haut iiberkleidet,

eigentlich soil

wird mit einer

anderen,

nicht wie mit einem

Schleier,

sondern wie mit einer angewachsenen

welche

Unaufmerksamen,
lautert."

aber auch nur

diesem, dasjenige
aber nur noch mine).

verdeckt,

was

beobachtet

oder gefunden

werden, dem

Aufmerksamen

den Sinn fur den

innern
23. 24. 25.

Zusammenhang

scharft und Loc. cit., 20 (the italics are Republic 5i8c-e, 52ie, and 6i9c-d. Cf. also Phaedo 69a-c. Republic 430C3-5 and Phaedo 82aio-b8.

Republic

4l4b4ff.

Cf. Laws 663d6ff.

Exoteric
esoteric

Teaching

57
exoteric

teaching; for Plato's

teaching is identical

with

his "noble

lies."

This
of

considerations, which is more or less familiar to every reader if not Plato, duly emphasized by all students of Plato, is not even mentioned by Schleiermacher in his refutation of the view that there is a distinction between
connection of

Plato's
allude

exoteric and esoteric teaching.

Nor does
Falk"

he, in

that context, as much as

conversation with and

to Lessing's

dialogues ("Ernst
probably any

und

and

Lessing's
of

F. H.

Jacobi)

which

come closer to

the spirit

Platonic dialogues
A

their technique than

Schleiermacher'

other modern work

in the German language. Therefore is

not convincing.
would

s refutation of the view

in

question

compar

ison
the

of

his Philosophic Ethics

with

the Nicomachean Ethics

bring

to light

why he failed to pay any attention to the difference between the mo of the beginner and the morality of the philosopher, i.e. to the difference rality which is at the bottom of the difference between exoteric and esoteric teaching.
reason26

return

to Lessing. How
about

was

Lessing

led to

notice,27

and

to understand, the

information

the fact that "all the

philosophers"

ancient

had distinguished had

between their
rediscovered

exoteric and

their esoteric teaching? If I am not mistaken, he that distinction

the

bearing

of

by

his

own exertion after

having

undergone

phy is

and

his conversion, i.e. after having had the what sacrifices it requires. For it is that

experience of what philoso experience which

leads in

straight

way to the distinction between the two

the
unphilosophic

groups of

men, the

philosophic

men and

men, and therewith to the distinction between the two

a

ways of

presenting the truth. In

famous letter to

friend,28

he

expresses

his

fear that
much

"by throwing

away

certain

prejudices, I have thrown away a little too

again."29

that I shall have to get back

That
to

passage

has

sometimes

been
ra

understood

to indicate that

Lessing

was about

return

from the intransigent

tionalism of his

earlier period toward a more positive view of the Bible and the ample evidence

Biblical tradition. There is

wrong.30

to

show

that this interpretation is

The

context of

the passage makes

and

it

clear

that the things which

Lessing

had "thrown
truths
which

away"

before

which, he
afar"

he descried "from

in

were feels, he ought to "fetch book by Ferguson, as he believed on

back"

the basis

of what

he had

seen

in the table have to

of contents of

that book. He also

descried "from
which we
26.

afar"

in Ferguson's book "truths in the

and we go on

continual contradiction of

happen to live
reason can

living continually
following

in the interest
e.g.:

of

That

be discovered

by

an analysis of the

statements,

"Knowledge defensive

of the essence of reason

is

ethics"

and

"The ordinary distinction between

on

offensive and

wars

is

empty"

quite

(loc. cit.,

60

and 276).

27.

Cf. the

remarks of

the young

Lessing
9,

the relevant passage in Gellius

(xx.5) in

the tenth

Literaturbrief (Werke,
28. 29.

iv.38). of

To Moses Mendelssohn, Another

statement about

January

1771.

the crisis

which

Lessing

underwent when

he

was about

forty occurs

in the Briefe
30.

antiquarischen

Inhalts LIV (Werke,

"

xvn.250). xxiv.4iff.

See

e.g. von of

Olshausen in his introduction to Werke,

30th 1784.
.

Compare

also

Jacobi's letter

to Hamann
von einigen sein

December

fur

eine nicht unchristliche

Als (Lessings) Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts Schrift, beinahe fur eine Palinodie angesehen wurde, stieg
Ergrimmen"

Arger

uber

die Albemheit des Volkes bis

zum

(F. H.

Jacobi, Werke,

1.398).

58
our

Interpretation

There may very well be a connection between the two kinds of truth: the truths which Lessing had thrown away formerly, may have been truths
quietude."

contradictory to the truths generally

and also accepted

accepted

by the philosophy of enlightenment

later he

by Lessing

throughout his life. At any rate, two years

openly rebuked the more recent philosophers who had evaded the contradiction

by becoming much too wise to submit to the rule by Leibniz and all the ancient philoso phers. External evidence is in favor of the view that the book referred to by Society.31 The "truths in the Lessing is Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil which had been discussed by continual contradiction of which we have to
between
wisdom and prudence

of prudence which

had been

observed

live,"

Ferguson
Essay,32

and which are

indicated to

a certain extent

in the table

of contents of

his
the

concerned

the ambiguous character of civilization,

i.e. the theme he

perhaps

of

two famous early

not considered

writings of

Rousseau,

which

Lessing,

as

felt, had
view of

in his

youth

enough.33

carefully

Lessing

expressed

his

the

ambiguous character of civilization some years

later in these

more precise

terms: even the

seems

absolutely best civil then to have been the political

turn away

constitution
problem

is necessarily imperfect. It which gave Lessing's thought a

decisive

from the philosophy

sort

of enlightenment

indeed,

yet not

toward

romanticism of

any

toward what is called a

deeper, historical

view of gov near

ernment and religion

but toward

an older

type of philosophy. How

he ap

parently lightenment to that

Jacobi tells
us

came

to certain romantic views on his way from the philosophy of en

older

type of philosophy,
of

in

an

remark made ments against or three

by

essay Lessing.

his

which

we may learn from what F. H. is devoted to the explanation of a political

According

to

Jacobi, Lessing

once said that

the argu
are two

Papal despotism

are either no arguments at

all,

or else

they

times as valid against the despotism of

view

princes.34

Could

Lessing

have

held the

that ecclesiastical despotism is two or three times better than secu

elsewhere says
44S.

lar despotism? Jacobi

31.

in his

own name

but certainly in the

spirit

Cf

von

Olshausen, loc.
the

cit.

who

however

rejects

this conclusion on the basis

of

"in

reasons."

ternal
32.

Cf.

e.g.

following
of

headings

of sections:

"Of the

professions"

separation of arts and

and

"Of the
33.

corruption

incident to

nations.'

polished

The influence

Ferguson's

mitigated

Rousseauism
says

on

Lessing can be
Falk"

seen

from

a compari
reasons of

son of the

following

quotations with what

Lessing

in "Ernst
says

und

on

the obvious

the

necessary imperfection intercourse

of all civil societies.

Ferguson

in Part I,
to set
broken."

section

and 4:

"The mighty

engine which we suppose continue their and

to have
after

formed society, only teaches

were

its

members at variance, or to

of fellow-citizens country men, unopposed to those of alien and foreigner, to which they refer, would fall into dis ". it is vain to expect that we can give to the multitude of a people a use, and lose their
meaning."

their bonds of affection

"The titles

sense of union

See also among themselves, without admitting hostility to those who oppose Part IV, section 2: if the lot of a slave among the ancients was really more wretched than that of the indigent labourer and the mechanic among the moderns, it may be doubted whether the superior orders who are in possession of consideration and honours, do not proportionately fail in the dignity which befits their
"
.
.
condition."

them."

34. son's

Jacobi, Werke, 11.334 ("Etwas das Lessing Essay extensively.

gesagt

hat"). Jacobi

quotes

in that

article

Fergu

Exoteric
of

Teaching
secular

59
which

Lessing,

that that despotism

is based
secular

"exclusively"

on

superstition, is

less bad than

with

despotism.35

Now,

despotism

could

easily be

allied

the philosophy

of

enlightenment,

and therewith with the rejection of exoter

icism strictly speaking, as is shown above all by the teaching of the classic of en lightened despotism: the teaching of Hobbes. But "despotism based exclusively
superstition,"

on

i.e.

not at all on

force,

cannot

be

maintained

if the

nonsupersti-

tious

"superstitious"

minority does not voluntarily refrain from openly exposing and refuting the beliefs. Lessing had then not to wait for the experience of Robes

pierre's
against

despotism to
the

realize the relative truth of what the romantics asserted

principles of

J. -J. Rousseau

who seems

to have believed in

a political

solution of generation

the problem of civilization:

Lessing

realized

that relative truth one

earlier,

and

he

rejected

or of philosophy.
understand

The

experience

it in favor of the way leading to absolute truth, which he had in that moment enabled him to
"prudence"

Leibniz'

the meaning of
enlightened

in

a manner

infinitely

more ade

quate

Leibnizians among his contemporaries did and could do. Leibniz is then that link in the chain of the tradition of exotericism which is
than the
nearest

to Lessing.

Leibniz, however,
admitted

was

not

the only seventeenth-century

thinker who was

writer as

initiated. Not to

mention

the prudent

Spinoza had

the necessity of "pia

as

Descartes, even so bold a dogmata, hoc est, talia quae

dogmata."36

movent"

animum ad obedientiam

distinguished from "vera

But
the

Lessing did
tradition:
classicism

not

he

was

have to rely on any familiar with its

considered view

modern or medieval representatives of sources.

It

was

his

that close
man can

in

which a

diligent

and

thinking

study of become a

precisely his intransigent the classics is the only way

philosopher37

which

had

led him, first, to

on

notice

the exotericism of some ancient philosophers, and later

to

understand

the

exotericism of all

the ancient

philosophers.

35.

Jacobi, Werke,

m. 469.

G. Lessing's "Gesprach iiber die Soldaten

20

Monche"

und

(Werke,

xxiv. 159).
36. 37.

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Cap. 14,

(Bruder).
iv.197),
after

He

writes

in the

71st

Literaturbrief (Werke,

having

quoted a statement of

Leibniz

in praise of criticism and the study of the classics:

betrachtet, und das Studium der Alten bis zu wodurch Leibniz der and Apollonius] getrieben, ist keine Pedanterei, sondern vielmehr das Mittel, fleissiger und denkender Mann ein welchen sich durch einzige der und Weg, geworden ist, der er war, (The italics are mine.) Ten years later (1769) he says in his Briefe antiquarischen ihm nahern
k'ann."

"Gewiss, die Kritik von dieser Seite dieser Bekanntschaft [with Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes

Inhalts XLV (Werke, xvn.218): "Wir sehen mehr als die Alten; Augen schlechter sein als die Augen der Alten: die Alten sahen
iiberhaupt
zu reden, mochten

und

doch durften
wir;

vielleicht unsere

weniger als

aber

ihre Augen,
ganze

leicht

scharfer gewesen sein als unsere.

diirfte."

Ich furchte, dass die

Vergleichung

der Alten

und

Neuern hierauf hinauslaufen

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought:

of

The Social

Philosophy

Adam Ferguson

Ronald Hamowy

University

of Alberta

There

can

be little doubt that the influence

of the

Scottish Enlightenment

on

late eighteenth-century American thought was as thorough and as extensive as on British and Continental philosophy. It is true that some historians have recently
exaggerated

this

influence to the
was

point where

it has been

claimed

that American
philosophy.1

revolutionary doctine

primarily

a product of

Scottish

political

Notwithstanding
least in the

that, at theory, the imprint of Scottish thinking was substantial. Not only did the Scottish universities serve as models for institutions of higher learning in the but the works of the various
areas of

these

distortions, however,

there is strong evidence

ethics, economics,

and social

colonies,2

writers who and

together comprised the Scottish Enlightenment were well-known this side of the
Atlantic.3

highly

regarded on

Among

this group were the

greatest philosophers

then writing in the English language, including Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, and Henry Home, Lord Kames.

Adam Ferguson is today

i.

perhaps

the least known and appreciated of these

Perhaps the

most extreme

instance

of this view

is that

contained

in

Garry Wills, Inventing

America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (New York: Doubleday, 1979), wherein Wills at least as Jefferson originally attempts to interpret the philosophy embedded in the Declaration

intended it
ences.

as

exclusively the
on

product of

Scottish Enlightenment thought, devoid

education

of

Lockean influ

2.

The Scottish impact A.

American higher

is

fully

examined

in Douglas Sloan, The

Scottish Enlightenment

and the

American College Ideal (New York: Teachers College

Press,

1971).

See

also

ginia,"

Bailey Cutts, "The Educational William and Mary Quarterly, 2d Ser.,

Influences

of

Aberdeen in
and

Seventeenth-Century

Vir

xv(i935):229-49,

George S. Pryde, The Scottish

Universities
3.
most

and the Colleges of Colonial America (Glasgow: Jackson, 1957). Herbert W. Schneider has observed of the Scottish Enlightenment that it "was probably the potent single tradition in the American Enlightenment. From Hutcheson to Ferguson, including

Hume

and

Adam Smith,

came a

body

of philosophical

literature that

aroused men

from their

dog

matic slumbers on

both

Atlantic"

sides of the

(A

History

University Press, 1946], p. 246). See also American intellectuals in eighteenth-century Scottish moral philosophy and epistemology by Elizabeth Flower and Murray G. Murphey, A History of Philosophy in America (2 vols.; New York: of early Capricorn 1977), 1, pp. 203-361. David Lundberg and Henry F. May's survey
lumbia
given

of American Philosophy [New York: Co the detailed discussion of the favorable reception

Books,

booksellers'

American

library

holdings
were

and

lists bears

out

the

conclusion

that

works

by

Scottish En
America,"

lightenment thinkers
American Quarterly,

extremely

popular

in America ("The Enlightened Reader in

xxvm[l976]:262-93).

The relationship between Scotland and America in the eighteenth century has recently been the the Sources for Links subject of a brief study by William R. Brock, Scotus Americanus: A Survey of Between Scotland and America in the Eighteenth Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

62

Interpretation
contributions stature

thinkers, despite the distinctive cial theory. Although of lesser

he

made

to eighteenth-century so

than were his

contemporaries

Hume

and

Smith, Ferguson
whose work was

was a man of

letters

of

international

repute

during

his

lifetime,
Ameri

both

as

familiar to,

and as esteemed

by,

most educated

cans as

to

Britons.4

The

recent resurgence of

interest in the Scottish Enlighten

that the character and
examined and and

ment, therefore, makes

of

it particularly

appropriate

quality
at

Ferguson's
as

political and social

cially

it touched
the

on questions

philosophy be that interested both Britons

assessed, espe the

Americans

close of

eighteenth and

the

beginning
on

of the nineteenth centuries.

The

youngest child of

the

parish

minister, Adam Ferguson was born on June the border of the Scottish
Highlands.5

20, 1723,
received

at

Logierait, Perthshire,

He

his early education both at the parish school and at the grammar school in Perth. In 1738, at the age of fifteen, he was sent to the University of St. An
where

drews,

he

gained a reputation

for

classical scholarship.

Ferguson took his

Hall
at

M.A. degree in

1742

and, in the

same

year,

entered

the

Divinity
of

St. An
pursue

drews, but
his

soon thereafter transferred to the

University

Edinburgh to

Although having only completed two years of divinity Ferguson was offered the deputy chaplaincy of the Black Watch regiment school, in 1745. He joined the regiment in Flanders and accompanied it at the Battle of
theological studies.
a

Fontenoy. Granted in
part

because home

of

his knowledge

dispensation from further study by the General Assembly, of Gaelic, Ferguson was ordained in July,
principal chaplain.

1745,

and given

the rank of

both

at

and

abroad,

until

1754,

at which

his regiment, time Ferguson resigned his com

He
remained with

mission and quit

the
of

clerical profession.

With the
4.

help

his friend David Hume, Ferguson

to Ferguson's
reputation

was appointed
see

to the post
and

With

particular reference

in America,

Gladys Bryson, Man

Society: The Scottish

J945)>
P- 31
,

and

Inquiry of the Eighteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Henry F. May, The Enlightenment in America (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1976),
Scottish Princeton in

p. 343.

moral

Witherspoon,

who arrived

philosophy was in the

decisively
colonies

established

in America through the

mediation of

John
of of

1768.

Witherspoon,
with

one of

from Scotland to take up the position of president the more outspoken Evangelical ministers in the Church
of

Scotland, brought
he kept
Civil

him

an

intimate knowledge

the work of the

leading Scottish writers,

which

current and attempted appears

Society
in

course

political

to impart to his students. Thus, Ferguson's Essay on the History of among the works comprising Witherspoon's recommended reading list for his theory (Dennis F. Thompson, "The Education of a Founding Father: The Reading
Madison,"

List for John Witherspoon's Course in Political Theory, as Taken by James Political The ory, iv[i976]:528). See also John Witherspoon, Lectures on Moral Philosophy, Varnum Lansing

Collins,
A

ed.

(Princeton: Princeton

student of

son's writings.

University Press, 1912), p. 144. Witherspoon's, James Madison seems to have been especially receptive to Fergu Madison's debt to Scottish Enlightenment thinking is discussed at some length in
and the

Roy Branson,
5.

"James Madison

Scottish

Enlightenment,"

Journal of the History of Ideas,

of

XL(i979):235-50.

The

standard

biographical essay
,

of

Ferguson
of

remains

Adam

Ferguson, LL.D. F.R.S.E. Professor

,

Moral

Philosophy

John Small, "Biographical Sketch in the University of

Edinburgh,"

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, xxm, Part in (1864): 599-655. See also the bio graphical chapter on Ferguson in David Kettler, The Social and Political Thought of Adam Ferguson
(Columbus: Ohio State

University Press,

1965),

pp. 42-82.

Progress
of

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

Advocates'

63

keeper

of the

Library, Edinburgh, in
the death
of was named

1757,

having

succeeded

Hume to that
the

office. of

Following

the professor of natural to that chair

University
later, in

Edinburgh, Ferguson
he held
until 1785.

philosophy at in 1759; five

years

1764, Ferguson transferred to the

chair of pneumatics and moral

philosophy, which
moral

It

was

during

his tenure

as professor of

Essay

philosophy that three of his four most important works were published: the on the History of Civil Society, in 1767; the Institutes of Moral Philoso

phy, a synopsis of the Progress and

his lectures

on moral

philosophy, in 1769;

and the

History

of

Termination of the Roman Republic, in 1783. In 1778, having received permission from the University to temporarily ab sent himself, Ferguson served on the Conciliation Commission headed by the
Earl
nies.

of

Carlisle,

charged with at

Upon arriving

Philadelphia,

negotiating a settlement with the American colo the Commission appointed Ferguson its sec

retary and immediately attempted to enter into negotiations with several mem bers of Congress.6 These proved a complete failure, nor was the Commission any
more successful

through the American

in prevailing upon Washington to grant Ferguson a passport lines to treat directly with Congress.7 Having been de

feated

at

reaching

pendence and

late 1778, at Because of ill health, Ferguson resigned the professorship of moral philosophy in 1785, at the age of sixty-two, to be succeeded in the position by his one-time
student, Dugald Stewart. The

agreement with the colonies short of recognizing their inde withdrawing all British troops, the Commission returned home in which point Ferguson resumed his chair at the University.

University

arranged

that Ferguson continue to

draw

salary by awarding him the chair of mathematics as a sinecure; all lectures in the field were, in fact, to be delivered by a junior professor. During his retire
a ment

Ferguson

completed

his

major work

in

moral

philosophy,

a revision and

expansion of

his Institutes, in two

year,
at

entitled

which appeared

volumes

Principles of Moral and Political Science, in 1792. Ferguson died on February 22, 18 16, in
and was

his

ninety-third

St. Andrews, Scotland,

writings, the

buried in the

grounds of

the cathedral there.

Of Ferguson's

principal

Essay

on the

History

of Civil

Society
or

is

6. Extensive discussions dependence:

tion
a

of

the Carlisle Commission

appear

in Weldon A. Brown, Empire

In

Study

University Press,
7.

in the Failure of Reconciliation, 1774-1783 (University, La.: Louisiana State 1941); pp. 244-92, and Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolu

(Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Co., 1 941), pp. 63-116. The Commission's official letter to Congress was accompanied by personal notes from both to Gen two of the Commissioners William Eden (later Lord Auckland) and George Johnstone
eral

Washington, warmly commending Ferguson. Eden

was entitled

referred

to the favorable

reception

to which

Ferguson

by

virtue of

his

eminence
,

in the

1778, in Benjamin Franklin

Stevens'

Stevens,
,

ed.

(Eden to Washington, June 9, s Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives

literary

world

Relating
& Sons,

to

America, 1773-1783 [24

1895], v,
p. 401

vols.; London:

1889-

facsimile 498),

beg

to

recommend

to your private civilities

Issued only to subscribers and printed by Malby Johnstone's letter was even more generous. "I he wrote. "He has been en my friend Dr.
while
Ferguson,"

practise"

gaged

from his early life, in inculcating to Washington, June 10, 1778, in Jared Sparks,

to mankind the virtuous principles you

ed.
,

(Johnstone
. . .

Correspondence of the American Revolution

[4

vols.; Boston:

Little, Brown, 1853], 11,

p. 136).

64

Interpretation
most

probably the among

work went

important; certainly it has

generated

the greatest

interest
The
to

social scientists and

through seven

intellectual historians in the last twenty lifetime,8 in editions during the author's
translations.9

years.

addition

appearing in French, German, and Italian prove that despite the ready availability of British
ica10

So

popular

did the

Essay
Amer

editions of

the work in

at

least two American

reception accorded

editions appeared

by

1819.11

was almost universally favorable. but it met Not only did his Scottish contemporaries think highly of the well. poet London and on the Continent as The great success in Thomas with

The

Ferguson's essay

work,12

8. The first
to the

edition was published

seven authorized editions

that appeared

simultaneously in Edinburgh, London, and Dublin. In addition between 1767 and 18 14, two pirated editions were ap

issued, the first carrying Thurneysen, 1 79

parently
1."

the imprint

"Basil, J. J. Toureisen,

1789,"

and the

second,

"Basel,
the

The
variants

edition used

throughout this paper is a reprinting of the

first edition,

with a collation of

in the

seventh edition which appeared

in

18

14, the last

during Ferguson's lifetime,

cited as

edited

by

Duncan Forbes (Edinburgh: Edinburgh

9.

University Press, by

1966), hereafter

Essay.

Two French

editions were published

T histoire de la
lation in

societe

civile, translated

Claude Bergier

in Paris, in 1783 and 1796, under the title Essai sur and Alexandre Meunier. A German trans

by C. F. Junger, entitled Versuch uber die Geschichte der bilrgerlichen Gesellschaft, appeared Leipzig in 1768. In 1807 the work was published in an Italian translation done by P. Antonutti in
under

Venice,
10.

the title Saggio the

circa

la

storia

di

civile societa.

by Jefferson that appears in his manuscript catalogue and that was sold to the Library of Congress in 1815 is the second, corrected, edition, published in London in 1768 by A. Millar and T. Cadell (E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson [5 vols.; Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1959], m, pp. 20-1, item 2348). Data presented by Lundberg and May indicate that between 1777 and 1813 the Essay appeared in twenty-two percent of the catalogues and booklists examined
Thus,
edition acquired

included in the

collection of

books

1952-

("Enlightened Reader in
1 1
.

America,"

283). of

printing by Hastings, Etheridge and Bliss in 1809, and an eighth edition, published in Philadelphia by A. Finley in 1819. Charles R. Hildeburn's bibliography of Pennsylvania imprints lists an edition of the Essay printed in Philadel
was a

There

the seventh edition, published in Boston

phia

Robert Bell in 1773 (A Century of Printing: The Issues of the Press in Pennslyvania, 1685 [2 vols.; New York: Burt Franklin, 1968], 11, p. 164, [item 2878 originally published in 2 vols.; Philadelphia: Press of Matlack & Harvey, 1885- 1886]). Hildeburn's evidence for the exis

by

-1784

tence of such an edition

is based

on an

advertising

circular

issued

by Bell

in that year, announcing

that the
light,"

living Author of much Estimation whose elegant Performance will greatly de would be published by subscription in the fall of 1773 (Ibid., p. 160, item 1857). There appear
Essay, "by
of

to be no copies
of

this edition

extant.

The

editors of

the Madison papers,

however,

state that the

copy

Essay obtained for James Madison by William Bradford in 1775 is that which Bell is reputed to have published in 1773 (William Bradford to Madison, January 4, 1775, in William T. Hutchinson
the
and

William M. E. Rachel, eds., The Papers of James Madison,

p.

[Chicago:

University

of

Chicago

Press, 1962],

133

n.).

12. Both Hugh Blair and Principal William Robertson thought highly of the work (letter from David Hume to Blair, February 1 1 1766, in The Letters of David Hume, J. Y. T. Grieg, ed. [2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932], 11, pp. 11- 12). And Lord Karnes wrote of the that "the sub
,

Essay

ject,

in writing, and much original (letter from Lord Karnes to Mrs. Edward Montagu, March 6, 1767, in Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Honourable Henry Home of Karnes [2 vols.; Edinburgh: William Creech, 1807], 11, 48).
not employs some vigour

less beautiful than

interesting,

thought"

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

strains of eloquence

65
re

Gray

found "uncommon it
as

in

it"13

and

Baron d'Holbach

garded

"answering completely
ingenuity."14

to the

high

opinion

I had
the

conceived of your

great abilities and

weeks after

So

well received was

Essay
to

that only two

its

appearance

in

London, David Hume

you of and

was able

write

Ferguson:

"It is had
as of

with sincere

Pleasure I inform

the general

Success
would

of your

Book. I

almost said universal as a

Success;

the

Expression
a

have been proper,

amidst this

far

Book
and

can

be

suppos'd to

be diffus'd in

Fortnight,
who

Hurry

Politics

Faction,

I may safely say, that I have

met with no

body,

that has

read

it,

who

does

not praise give

it,

and

these are the

on

People,

by

their

Reputation

and

Rank commonly

the Tone

these

Occasions."15

the only person who appears to have had reservations about the Essay Hume himself. A large part of the work had been completed by Ferguson some years earlier, and, in manuscript form, had circulated among Ferguson's
was close

Indeed,

friends

under

the title "A Treatise

and

Refinement."

on

In 1759 Hume had

ex

amined

it in this form

it had then
the

met with

his

approval.16

However,
wrote

when

the

finished

manuscript of

Essay

was offered

to Hume for his critical evalua

tion in 1766,

Hume had different thoughts. In

February,

1766, he

to Hugh

Blair:
I have
been
great

put

Ferguson's Papers [the ms. of the Essay] more than once, which had into my hands, some time ago, at his desire. I sat down to read them with Prepossession, founded on my good Opinion of him [and] on a Small Specimen I
perus'd

had

seen of them some

Years ago,

But I

am

answer'd
on

my Expectation. I do account of the Style nor the

specific objections

not think them

sorry to say it, they have no-wise fit to be given to the Public, neither
nor

Reasoning;

the Form

the

Matter."

Hume's

plausible explanation

is that

Essay have not been recorded, but the most offered by David Kettler, that where it was espe
to the

cially important that Ferguson be clear and precise, Hume found Ferguson's inexact.18 style both unsystematic and Indeed, the Essay is filled with observa
tions which,
once

made,

are set aside without

further discussion despite their

be-

Beattie, August 12, 1767, in Edmund Gosse, ed., The Works of Armstrong, 1885), hi, p. 279. 14. Baron d'Holbach to Ferguson, June 15, 1767, in John Small, Biographical Sketch, p. 611. 15. Hume to Ferguson, March 10, 1767, in Grieg, ed., Letters of Hume, 11, p. 125. 16. Ernest Campbell Mossner, The Life of David Hume (Edinburgh: Nelson, 1954), p. 542. See also Hume's letter to Adam Smith, April 12, 1759, in Raymond Klibansky and Ernest Campbell Mossner, eds., New Letters of David Hume (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), p. 52. 17. Hume to Blair, February n, 1766, in Grieg, ed., Letters of Hume, 11, pp. 1 1-12. Hume still
13.

Letter from

Gray

to James

Thomas

Gray (4

vols.; New York: A. C.

the Essay a year after its publication. Again writing to Blair, he commented: Book, Dear Dr, which you mention, gives me great Satisfaction, on account of my sincere Friendship for the Author; and so much the rather, as this success was to me unexpected. I have since begun to hope, and even to believe, that I was mistaken; and in this Perswasion [sic] have several times taken it up and read Chapters of it: But to my great Mortification and Sorrow, I have not (Hume to Blair, April 1, 1767, ibid., 11, p. 133). been able to change my 18. Kettler, Thought of Adam Ferguson, pp. 58-60.
same opinion of
of

held the

"The success

the

Sentiments"

66

Interpretation
implications. Hume's
own

ing
and

pregnant with sociological and political

disap

pointment

clearly

extended

to these aspects of the

Essay, its "reasoning, form,

matter,"

all of which were

found

wanting.19

But despite these

limitations,

the

Essay

proved a remarkable success and gained

letters.20

for Ferguson

an

international

reputation as a man of

Although the
the
work as

Essay is

of ethics, Ferguson believed, was the study of the individual and in conjunction with other people. both as an functions, way notions of mans nature were to be rejected as unsatis aprioristic If, furthermore, factory, then the only adequate method of gaining information about the rules of

starting

point

primarily for any analysis

an extension of

study in the social history of man, Ferguson regarded his researches into moral philosophy. The

man

morality
the
son

was

by

studying

man within

the context

of

his

history.21

It is because
that

of

adoption of

this

empirical approach

to the study of the founders

man's nature
sociology.22

Fergu

has been

credited with
adherence

being

one of

of

Ferguson's

to

scientific notion of

description,
"man in the
are

to man as he is actually ob
nature,"

served, led him to

man

reject

the

state of

in the

sense of

before the

advent of society.
subsisted."23

"Mankind

taken in

groupes

he wrote, "as

they have
19.

always

That society is

coeval with man

is

confirmed

by

There is
reaction

no evidence whatever

to support the assertion recently made

by

Paul A. Rahe that

Hume's

to the

Essay

stemmed

primitive societies

displayed

a vigor

primarily from his differences over Ferguson's claim that absent in more polished nations. Nor did Ferguson hold that "the

emergence of commercial

society

would

inevitably

be

accompanied

by a decline in martial fervor that

of

freedom"

was

the ultimate guarantor of political

(Paul A.

Rahe, "The Primacy

Politics in Classical
fervor"

Greece,"

American Historical

Review,

with public-spiritedness and an active

Rahe is here confusing "martial involvement in public affairs, characteristics Ferguson feared
lxxxix[I984]:28o).

might

diminish in

as societies

became

more commercial.

the weakening of these social bonds as ineluctable.

offers
support of

Indeed,

In any case, Ferguson certainly did not regard the quotation from Ferguson that Rahe fervor
nor

his

contention

has

no

bearing

on the value of martial

does it

suggest

that decline

is inevitable. The
the

quotation consists of

two sentences joined

statements are

taken out of context and are separated

by

no

in reality the two less than thirty-five pages of text in the

by ellipses;

Forbes

edition of no

Essay,
with

with

the second statement appearing

first!

Rahe does
again

better

the quotation

from the follow

Essay

that prefaces his article

statement

(ibid.,

265).

Once

he has

separated two sentences with ellipses.

The first

in fact

appears as part of

Ferguson's
part

analysis of the

dangers that

might

upon the
of

increasing division of labor and is from

of the naturalness of

five

of

the Essay. The second sentence forms part

Ferguson's discussion

society
service

earlier, in part one. Such distorted quotations can only do a dis to Ferguson's thought and, ultimately, to the cause of scholarship.
and appears over 180 pages

20.

Among
"Before

the many marks

of

favor the
the

publication of of

the

Essay

conferred upon

its

author was

the award of an
21
.

honorary

LL.D.

by

University

Edinburgh.

we can ascertain the rules of specific enjoyments and

morality for mankind, the

condition and

history

of man's

nature, his

dispositions, his
known"

sufferings, his

Creech,
22.

1772],

(Adam Ferguson, Institutes of Moral Philosophy p. 2, hereafter cited as Institutes).

future prospects, should be [2d ed.; Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and W.

Comte,"

See, for example, Harry E. Barnes, "Sociology before

als

ogy, xxm(l9l7):234;TheodorBuddeberg, "Ferguson

omie und

Soziologe,"

American Journal of Sociol Jahrbiicher fiir NationalokonSoziologie,"

Werner Sombart, "Die Angange der in Melchoir Palyi, ed., Hauptprobleme der Soziologie: Erinnerungsgabe fiir Max Weber (2 vols.; Munich and Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1923), 1, p. 9.
and

Statistik, cxxm(i925):6o9-l2;

23.

Essay,

p. 4.

Progress
the

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

of social

67

fact that the individual is the bearer

dispositions

and that regardless

of where we

remains,25

find man, we find him gathered together with Montesquieu's dictum that man is bom in Quoting society and that there he Ferguson insisted that it was more than mere convenience that binds
others.24

men

Society is the product of an array of natural, one might almost say drives instinctive, impelling the individual toward social interaction. "We may he observed,
together.
reckon,"

the parental affection, which,

instead

of

deserting

the adult, as among the

of

brutes,
its early

em

braces

more

close,

as

it becomes

mixed with

esteem, and the memory

effects; together

with a

propensity its

common to man and other

of

animals, to

mix with the

herd,
was

and, without reflection, to follow the croud

moment of

his

species.

What this propensity

to

in the first

operation we

know not; but

with men accustomed

company, its enjoyments

sures or pains of

and

disappointments
and

are reckoned

among the principal plea

solitude;

human life. Sadness

melancholy
men.2*

are connected with

gladness and pleasure with the concourse of

Ferguson lier

rejected

the

social contract

theory

as a valid account of

the origins of
ear

government with the same

offered

force

and with arguments not

dissimilar to those

by

Hume.27

The

establishment of

formal

rules enforceable

by

a per

institution emerged, not from the desire to create a stronger so cial union, but rather in response to the abuses that had arisen from an imperfect distribution of justice. Ferguson held that a system of formal political arrange
manent political

ments

did

not rest on consent

but

was

gradually

shaped

to meet the

interests

of

justice

with respect posit

to securing private

property.28

It is

a useless analytical

tool,

he claimed, to
modes of

the idea of universal consent to what was, in

rules of action which

fact,

the grad

ual emergence of

formalized

took their origin in earlier

behavior. "What

was

in

one generation of

propensity to herd

with

the

species,"

Ferguson observed, "becomes, in the

earliest and

ages which

follow,

a principle of

24.

"If both the

the latest accounts collected from every quarter of the earth,

and

repre

sent mankind as assembled one

in troops

companies; another;

and

the individual always joined

by

affection

to

party,

while

he is possibly
communicate admitted as

opposed to

employed

in the

exercise of recollection and

fore

sight; inclined to these facts

25. 26. 27.
must

his

own

sentiments, and to be
of all our

made acquainted with

those of others;
p. 3).

be

the foundation

man"

The

statement appears pp.

in letter

xciv of

reasoning relative to Montesquieu's Lettres persanes.

(Essay,

Essay,

16-17.

David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, L. A. Selby-Bigge, ed. (2d ed.; Oxford: Claren don Press, 1978), pp. 534-9. Useful analyses of Hume's views appear in Jonathan Harrison, Hume's

Theory of Justice
sophical 28.

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), pp. 172-89, and Duncan Forbes, Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 84-90.
122-6.

Hume'

Philo

Essay,

The

notion

that

government

itself, far from being the product of conscious de

sign, took its form gradually and without deliberate intent has led one commentator to refer to Ferguson's rejection of the social contract as the boldest attack on the contractarian theory of political
obligation that

had been

made

fassung

im

18.

Jahrhundert,

vornehmlich

up to that time (Herman Huth, "Soziale bei Adam Smith und Adam

und

Individualistische

Auf-

Ferguson,"

Staats- und Sozial-

wissenschaftliche

Forschungen [Leipzig: Duncker &

Humblot,

1907],

p. 46).

68

Interpretation
What
was

national union.

originally
force."29

an alliance

for

common

defence, becomes
for

concerted plan of political

The

reader must

turn to a consideration of Ferguson's

nature"

ethics

a clear notion

of what

the term "state of

in fact

refers

to

within

the structure of

Fergus

on's own

thought. Ferguson regarded a progression towards excellence or per the governing principle of all
moral

fection

as

life. The

natural

development

of

the individual and the species towards perfection

nature."

Any
man's

point

"state

nature"

of

is, for Ferguson, the "state of that lies along this continuum of development is as much as is any other In his major work on moral phi
point.30

losophy, Ferguson
The
not

noted:

state of nature or the

distinctive
its

character of at

any

progressive

being

is to be taken,

from its description

at the

outset, or

any

subsequent stage of

from

an accumulative view of

movement

throughout.

The

oak

its progress; but is distinguishable

from the pine, not merely by its seed leaf; but by every successive aspect of its form; by its foliage in every successive season; by its acorn; by its spreading top; by its lofty
growth;
and

the length of its period. And the state

all

of

nature, relative to every tree in

which

the wood,
pass

includes

the

varieties of

form

or

dimension through

it is known to

in the

course of

its

nature.31

parent

this unending improvement of the individual and the species is ap from any study of the history of mankind. Thus, at one and the same time, Ferguson's law of perfection offers an explanation both for individual morality
sense of and

for

social progress.

All

acts generated

by

desire for the

preservation of

what man most values and that are consonant with man's sense of

fellow-feeling, his
and

benevolence,
totally

work

towards these

ends.32

Ferguson's
progress were

conclusions

respecting the

character of

society

the nature of

antithetical to

those of

Hobbes,

who understood progress

acting against his basic nature. The ends of society, for Hobbes, were easily determined by reference to the purposes which originally impelled man to enter into the social contract. The ends of society for Ferguson,
of man

solely in terms

on

the other
kind,"

hand, followed directly from

he wrote, "the
species

man's progressive nature.

"In the hu

man

has

a progress as well as

the

individual; they
a succession

build in every
29. 30.

subsequent age on

foundations

formerly laid;
an often-quoted

and, in

Essay,
"If the

p. 121. palace

be

unnatural,"

wrote

Ferguson in

passage, "the

cottage

is

no

less; and the highest refinements of political and moral apprehension, are not more artificial in their kind, than the first operation of sentiment and (Essay, p. 8). 31. Adam Ferguson, Principles of Moral and Political Science (2 vols.; Edinburgh: A. Strahan & T. Cadell, 1792), I, p. 192, hereafter cited as Principles.
reason"

32.
sure of

"Man is his

natural

of the system

a member of society; his perfection consists in the excellency or mea ability and dispositions or, in other words, it consists in his being an excellent part to which he belongs. So that the effect of mankind should be the same, whether the in
...

by nature

dividual

means to preserve
of

himself,

or

to preserve his community, with either

of

intention he

must cher

ish

the

love

mankind, as the most valuable part

his

character"

(Institutes,

pp. 108-9).

Progress
of of

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

of

69
to which the aid

years, tend to a perfection in the application

their

faculties,

long

experience

is required,

and

to which many generations must have com

bined their

endeavours."33

It is true that, unlike many of his French inevitable,35 regard individual and social progress as
natural end

contemporaries,34

Ferguson did he held it

gift of as

not

although

the
all

towards

which all men strive.

"Progression is the

God to

his intelligent lowest

creatures,"

of mankind.

he remarked, "and is within the competence of the It is the nature of created mind in the course of experi
continual approach to
susceptible."36

ence and observation

to

the highest measure of

improve its sagacity, and to make intellectual ability of which it is

has denied that the

introductory comments to the 1966 edition of the Essay, Duncan Forbes Essay can properly be said to belong to the history of the idea of progress, inasmuch as Ferguson devoted a lengthy section of the work to the dangers of luxury and to the irrecoverable loss of much primitive vigor brought about by However, Ferguson's rejection of the idea of progress in its extreme form did not entail his having repudiated the notion of man's natural
civilization.37

In his

progress, however formulated. Forbes is

guish

Ferguson (and the

ers who embraced an

no doubt justified in wishing to distin Scottish Enlightenment writers) from those think uncritical faith in universal and inevitable progress directed

other

by

conscious

design. But, though Ferguson

the

would

have

rejected such a

blindly

optimistic view of social

man permeates

development, his belief in

and underpins all

the progressive nature of

Essay

his

moral philosophy.

In the Princi

ples, where

Ferguson's

moral

theory is

spelled out

in

great

detail, Ferguson's op
unambiguous.38

timism is far

clearer and

his

predictions of unlimited progress

In light

of

his

comments

sentiments expressed

in the Essay, particularly as they in his Principles, the claim recently

decline"

are

informed

by

the

made that

Ferguson

"prophesied

an

inevitable

once societies

had

passed

from barbarism to

33. 34.

Essay,

p. 5.

Condorcet, in

particular, comes to mind. Although portions of

it

are now somewhat

dated,

J. B. Bury's study of the idea of progress remains the best general work on the subject (J. B. Bury, The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth [London: Macmillan, 1920]). 35. Ferguson devoted an extensive portion of the Essay to the possibilities of retrogression (pp.
236-80).

Consider

also

the

following
The

observation:

"The

public

safety, and the relative

interests

of

states;
gage

political establishments, the pretensions of party, commerce, and

attention of nations. advantages gained

arts, are

subjects which en

the

in

some of these

particulars, determine the de

gree of national prosperity.

The

ardour and vigour with which objects cease

they

are at

any

one time

pursued, is the to

measure of a national spirit. when

When those

to animate, nations may

be

said

languish;

ate"

they are during any (ibid., p. 211).

Principles, 11,
Lois
Duncan Forbes,

considerable

time neglected, states must

decline,

and

their people degener

36. 37. 38.

and the

pp. 43-4"Introduction,"

Essay,

p. xiv.

Whitney has called attention to this fact some fifty years ago (Lois Whitney, Primitivism Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century [Baltimore: The
p. 153)-

Johns Hopkins Press, 1934],

70

Interpretation
cannot stand

commercialism39

travagant to assert

up to that he posited "an

examination.40

Although it is clearly

ex

inevitable,
as

suprahuman

logic

of continual

progress,"

spiritual as well as material

does

one

commentator,41

it is equally
or

questionable

to claim that Ferguson held to a

should

cyclical view of

history,42

to
of

deny,
could

as

does Forbes, that he

at
all.

be

considered a proponent of natural progressive

the

idea

progress

Only

a proponent of man's

development
to

have

concluded

that the

progress of mankind

"in its

continual approach

the infinite perfection of what is eternal

scribed can

may be

compared

to that curve, de
which

by

geometers, as in continual approach to a straight

line,
to

it

never

reach."43

All societies, Ferguson claimed,

progressed

from

"rude"

"polished"

na

tions,
39.

most

evolving through three

clearly distinct
Country'

stages,44

the first two of

omy,"

Istvan Hont, "The 'Rich Country-Poor Debate in Scottish Classical Political Econ in Istvan Hont and Michael Ignatieff, eds., Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Econ

omy in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 296. Nor, one might add, is there reason to accept Hont's conclusion that Hume's disappointment with the Essay
was occasioned

by

Ferguson's play

on

"the Machiavellian

chords"

of

"growth

and

decay,
which

virtue and

corruption"

40.

(ibid., p. 295). Indeed, Ferguson identified

progressed:

higher degree

of

morality

with

the process

by

the mate

rial

progress

that marks commercial societies emerges than with the more primitive cultures

from

which

they

"The
cure:

end of commercial art

is,

such a

supply

of accommodation and

pleasure, as

wealth

may

pro

this end to be obtained at once, and without any effort; suppose the savage to be come suddenly rich, to be lodged in a palace, and furnished with all the accommodations or means of

But,

suppose

enjoyment,

which an ample estate or revenue can

bestow; he

would either

have

no permanent relish

for

such

possessions, or, not

ungovernable
own

passion,

and a

knowing how to use and enjoy them, would exhibit effects of gross or brutality of nature, from which, amidst the wants and hardships of his
to be the effect of mere wealth, unattended with education, or apart
and

situation, he is in
we

a great measure restrained.

"Such from the

tainment:
genius of are

may

pronounce

virtues of

industry,
use of

sobriety,

frugality,

which nature are

has

prescribed as

the means of at

But, in the

these means, the

industrious

furnished

with exercises

improving to the

man; have occasion to experience, and to return the offices of beneficence and
of

led to the study

justice,

sobriety,

and good

order, in the conduct

of

life.

friendship; And, thus, in the very

a

progress with which and

they

arrive at the possession of equivalent

wealth, form to themselves

taste of enjoyment.

decency of manners,

to a conviction that

happiness does

not consist

in the

measure of

fortune, but in its proper use; a condition, indeed, upon which happiness depends, no less in the highest, than in the lowest, or any intermediate state into which nations are led in the pursuit of these, or any other (Principles, 1, pp. 254-5). 41. Kettler, Thought of Adam Ferguson, pp. 219-20.
arts"

42.

W. C. Lehmann, Adam Ferguson

and

the

Beginnings of Modern

Sociology

(New York: Co

lumbia
43.
44.

University Press,
Principles,
Ferguson's
1,

1930),

p. 149.

pp. 184-5.

development and their relation to changes in the property were adumbrated in slightly altered form by his fellow Scotsmen Sir John Dalrymple (Essay Towards a General History of Feudal Property in Great Britain [London: A.
notion of private

analysis of the stages of social

Millar, 1757]), Lord Karnes (Historical Law-Tracts [2 vols.; Edinburgh: Printed for A. Millar, Lon don; and A. Kincaid & J. Bell, Edinburgh, 1758] and the second edition of his Essays on the Princi
ples

of Morality and Natural Religion [2d ed.; Edinburgh: Printed for R. Fleming & A. Donaldson, 1758]) and, in particular, by Adam Smith, in his 1762- 1763 lectures on jurisprudence (Lectures on

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

Of the
on

71
society, the
most

which are pre-political.

varieties of pre-commercial and

primitive are
vate

those

based

hunting

fishing,
no

and

in these the
absent.45

notion of pri

property,

except

in its

most

rudimentary sense, is
formal Such
societies

Lacking

a con

cept of

property, these communities possess

no
government.46

system of subordination
sav-

and, consequently,

Ferguson denominated

Jurisprudence, R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael,

pp. 1-394)-

and

P. G. Stein,

eds.

[Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978],

societies progressed through and com

Dalrymple, Karnes,

and

Smith had postulated the theory that

mode of subsistence

four stages, defined

mercial political

by their primary

hunting,

pastoral, agricultural,

and

that each of these stages reflected

origin and

differing
of

institutions. The

development

Meek, "The Scottish Contribution

to Marxist

Sociology,"

property and distinct legal and this theory has been examined by Ronald L. in Ronald L. Meek, ed., Economics and
notions or

Ideology and Other Essays: Studies

in the Development of Economic Thought (London: Chapman &

Hall, 1967), pp. 34-50. (This essay originally appeared in slightly altered form under the same title in John Saville, ed., Democracy and the Labour Movement: Essays in Honour of Dona Torr [Lon don: Lawrence & Wishart, 1954], pp. 84-102). Meek has since extended his researches to include a study of French, as well as Scottish, eighteenth-century advocates of the four-stages theory. See his "Smith, Turgot, and the History of Political Economy, m(ig-ji):g-2j, and
'Four-Stages'

Theory,"

Smith's in Ian Bradley and thought, see Andrew Skinner, "A Scottish Contribution to Marxist Michael Howard, eds., Classical and Marxian Political Economy: Essays in Honor of Ronald L. Meek (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981), pp. 79-114.
of

his book-length analysis, Social Science Press, 1976). For a critical examination

and the

Ignoble Savage (Cambridge: Cambridge

University

the centrality of the four-stages

theory

to Adam

Sociology?"

45.

The description

taken

up

by

a number of nineteenth

Engels,

who was
was

property that

exhibiting a form of tribal communism was century social theorists, most notably by Friedrich Engels. familiar with Ferguson's writings, in commenting on the communal control over reputed to exist among the early Germans, observed; "It has been established that
of primitive communities as and

among almost all peoples the cultivated land was tilled collectively by the gens, nistic household communities such as were still found by Caesar among the

later

by commu

Family, Private Property

system of

and

the State
pp.

Lawrence & Wishart, 1940],

157-8).

[Zurich, Engels,

(The Origin of the 1884; first English edition, London, 1902] [London:
at other points

Suevi"

in the study, discusses the

the Iroquois

same

ownership

as

prevailing among the early Greeks

(68-9),

(99),

and

the Celts

(149)-

Tribal ownership
pothesis

of the
great

land in

primitive societies appears scholar

to have

been

so well accepted an
noting:

hy
be

that

even

the

nineteenth-century legal

Henry

Maine felt easy in

"The

collective

ownership
once

of

the soil

by

groups of men either

in fact

united

by blood-relationship,

or

lieving

or

assuming that
own

they

are so united,

is

now entitled

to take rank as an ascertained primitive

phenomenon, tion and our

universally characterising those communities of mankind between whose civilisa there is any distinct connection or (Henry Sumner Maine, Lectures on the
analogy"

Early History of Institutions

Property,"

[New York:

cations of

in Maine's Dissertations

Henry Holt, 1875], pp. 1-2). See also chapter x, "Classifi on Early Law and Custom (New York: Henry Holt,
one

1886),
46.

pp. 335-61-

"Where

no profit attends

dominion,

party is

as much averse to the trouble of perpetual

submission"

command, as the other is to the

mortification of perpetual political structure rests upon

(Essay,

p.

84).

That the institution

private

of a

formal

the prior establishment of a system of

school.

property is
close

a concept common
offered

to the Scottish historical

hunters,"

Adam Smith's

analysis

is

es

pecially
on

to that

by

Ferguson.

"Among
.
.

Smith

commented

in his
and

1766

lectures
which

jurisprudence, "there is
an

no regular government.
was

The

appropriation of

herds

flocks,

introduced

inequality of fortune,

that which

first

gave

rise to regular

government.

Till there be

(Adam Smith, Lec end of which is to secure property there can be no government, the very Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith, tures on Jurisprudence, p. 404). Similar sentiments appear in the

wealth"

72
age.

Interpretation
when savage societies

Even

base their

mode of subsistence on some

communal.47

form

of

agriculture, their notion of property remains

Most

agrarian and pastoral

societies,

however,
and

are

likely

to

be those in

which

property has ceased to remain communal form of agricultural products or of a herd

will not

in

which private wealth

takes the

of animals. a

Although

private

have

yet

become institutionalized into

principal object of

formal

system of

property laws in these Soci bar The

communities, it is a
eties thus marked

individual

and social

concern.48

by

the

emergence of personal

property Ferguson
are

called

barian. The
motive causes

for this transition from savagery to barbarism

emergence of private provision

unclear.49

for the

property

appears

to center upon the parent's

under

desire for "better

management of

for his

children than

is found

the promiscuous
and skill of

copartners."50

many

At that point,

when

the

labor

some members of
possession and

clination

the community are applied apart, when they aim at exclusive "the individual no longer finds among his associates the same in to commit every subject to public use, he [too] is seized with concern
and is alarmed by the cares which every person enter Such feelings, Ferguson added, begin to pervade all members much from the desire to emulate and from jealousy as from eco

for his

personal

fortune;

tains for
of

himself."

society

as

nomic

necessity.51

With the
tinguished

advent of

property, the members

other

of

the community

can now

be dis

one

from the

by

unequal

possessions, which in turn lays the

foundation for

a permanent subordination of rank.

Just

as savage societies appear

to bear the crude outlines of tions resemble

monarchies.52

democracies, so, Ferguson claimed, barbarous na However, the disparities of rank that mark barba
a concerted plan of government

rous states are not yet

sufficiently formalized for

An

Inquiry

into the Nature

and

Causes of the Wealth of Nations, R. H. Campbell

and

A. S. Skinner, among the

eds.

[2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976], 11, pp. 709-10 [v.i.b.2]). For a valuable discussion of the relationship between property and
the Scottish historical school, see
of

government

members of

Roy

Pascal's

seminal

article,

The Scottish Historical School

167-79.

the Eighteenth

Century,"

Modern

"Property and Society: Quarterly (London), 1(1938):

47.
mon.

"After they have

which

shared

the toils of the seed-time,

planted
.

they enjoy

the fruits of the harvest in com

The field in

they have
into the

is

claimed as a

property

by

the nation, but is

not

parcelled

in lots to its

members.

They

go

forth in
granary,

parties

to prepare the ground, to plant, and to

at stated

reap.

The harvest is
shares

gathered

public

and

for the

families"

maintenance of separate

(Essay,

from thence, p. 82).

times, is divided into

48.
49.

and simplicity, the reader is reminded of Rousseau's analysis of the ori property that appears in his Discourse on Inequality (Jean- Jacques Rousseau, Sur I'origine de I'inegalite parmi les hommes, in QZuvres completes, Barnard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond, eds. [Bibliotheque de la Pleiade; Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1964], in, pp. 164, 171.
gin of private

Essay, p. 82. Indeed, in its naivete

50. 51. 52.

Essay,

p. 96.

Essay, Essay,

pp. 96-7.
p. 100.

Progress
to

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

The distinction between leader
control, only brute
and

73
continues

have

emerged.53

follower

blurred;
habit

their pursuits and occupations remain the same, their minds are equally

cultivated.

There is

no civil

and power.

Yet, Ferguson

friend,

as well as an
protect."54

no formal set of rules, only is noted, "property secure, because each has a enemy; and if the one is disposed to molest, the other is

force;

ready to The chief threat to property in barbarous communities issues from outside the tribe, and war, whether offensive or defensive, is its main concern. While this
state of affairs

prevails, internal

usurpation of power

is impossible

and no

formal

arrangement of are

laws

nor

any
at

systematic and
once

found

necessary.55

However,

ongoing institutions to enforce them society has secured itself from its foreign
of what

enemies, "the individual

home bethinks him rights

he may
to

gain or

lose for

himself: the leader is disposed to

enlarge the advantages which

of

belong

to his sta
and

tion; the follower becomes jealous

parties who united
mon

which are open

incroachment;
to their

before, from

affection and

habit,

or

from

regard

com

preservation, disagree in supporting their several claims to

precedence or

profit."56

This

clash of

faction,

which emerges out of a

upon

desire "to

withstand

the en

sovereignty"

croachments of
rise

the rights
law.58

to government restrained

by

origin a natural outgrowth of the conflict

gives property for was in its Government, Ferguson, of party in domestic struggle. And from
political

and

of the

subject,57

this struggle, he contended, issued the earliest

institutions,

which were

based

previously Two themes emerge

on

observed

explicitly formulated rules. in Ferguson 's discussion of the rise of government that
not work and

but

are reiterated

throughout his

that are central to his social philosophy.

The first
53. 54. 55.

concerns the

ongoing

value of social conflict and

competition,

while

the

Essay,

p. p.

103.
106. 125.

Essay, Essay,

p.

But

compare

the description of the origin

"Man,"

of political establishments

that

Ferguson

he wrote, "is born naked, defenceless, and exposed to greater hardships than any other species of animal; His society, also, prior to any manner of political establishment, we may imagine exposed to extreme disorder; and there, also, we may fancy the spur of necessity no less applied than in the urgency of his mere animal wants. From
at one point offered

in his Principles.

these motives, accordingly, originated,

nience
.

we admit

the arts of

human life,

whether commercial or

political, to have
conve

and suppose
"

that the consideration of necessity must have operated prior to that of

56. 57.

(1, Essay,

p. 239). p. 125.
"Sovereignty"
"subject"

The terminology that Ferguson here used is confusing. understood only in some metaphorical sense, since Ferguson's discussion
reference to 58.

and
at

are to

be

this point

has

exclusive

barbarous

societies prior to the establishment of government. evidence

can

find little

to

support

Kettler

s contention that

"Ferguson differs politically

about power and the asser
interest"

from Hume

and

Smith because he believes that

political

life is primarily
satisfaction of

tion of will, and only secondarily about property and the

tory and Theory in Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society: A Theory, v[i977]:453). Indeed, with respect to the ultimate purposes Hume, and Smith appear to differ in only minor particulars.

Reconsideration,"

(David Kettler, "His Political

of

government,

Ferguson,

74
second

Interpretation has
reference

to the role

of

instinct is

and

habit in shaping

social

institu

tions.

Conflict, Ferguson
testify
to
our

contended,

a natural phenomenon; our

and sports

love

of contention.

very games This fundamental desire to compete,

assures a vigorous and

when manifested society.

in the

animosities of

faction,
and

flourishing

Without the

vigilance and spirit

that accompany the divisions of party,

free

government

becomes impossible further

Ferguson
more

went even

and claimed that war

mankind

despotism quickly follows. Indeed, itself gives rise to many of the

noble

sentiments

of which

is

capable.59

In addition,

war

ad

vances

that shared

feeling

of

community

which cements social

life. "The

sense

enemy,"

of a common

danger,

and the assaults of an

he wrote, "have been fre

quently

useful

to nations,

by uniting

their members more

separations

firmly

together,

and

by

preventing the secessions and actual

might otherwise
terminate."60

in

which

their civil

discord

Conflict

and

rivalry

are

thus natural to men at all stages of social

a

development

and contribute war act

substantially to

host

of

beneficial

social

ends.61

to encourage social cohesion,

but the

struggle of

faction

contributes

Not only does both

to the public
soci

to the

original emergence of government constrained

by

law

and

spiritedness and vigilance which

forestalls the rise

of

despotism. Advanced

eties, Ferguson maintained,

as each

were

individual
secure

concentrated

particularly his activities on the internal

prone

to degenerate into despotism

private pursuit of

fortune. A

society

from foreign

attack and

strife and comprised of citizens

corrupted62

preoccupied with

their private

interests is easily

"Liberty,"

condition of political slavery.

and may fall into a Ferguson contended, "is maintained by

the

continued

differences

and oppositions of
government."63

numbers,

not

by

their concurring
quite

zeal

in behalf

of equitable

Duncan Forbes has

justifiably

have found

society itself could scarcely any formal convention, but they cannot be safe without a national concert. The necessity of a public defence, has given rise to many departments of state, and the intellectual talents of men have found their busiest scene in wielding
59.

"Without the rivalship

an

of

nations, and the practice of war,

might

civil

object, or a form. Mankind

have traded

without

their national
with

forces. To overawe,
are

or

intimidate,
its

or, when we cannot

most

persuade with

reason, or resist

fortitude,

the occupations which give

animating exercise, and its greatest triumphs, his fellow-creatures, is

a stranger to

to

a vigorous

mind; and

he

who

has

never struggled with

half the

mankind"

sentiments of

(Essay,

p. 24).

Adam Smith, in like vein, refers to the Moral Sentiments, D. D. Raphael and A. L. [m.2.35]).

"ennobling hardships and hazards of Macfie, eds. [Oxford: Clarendon Press,

war"

(Theory of
p.

1979],

134

60. Essay, 61
.

p. 22. commentators

Several

have taken

note of

this apparent contradiction in Ferguson's thought:

that he could view man's hostile and contentious

same time

as of enormous social utility while at the advocating a system of ethics predicated on fellow-feelings of sympathy and benevolence. See, for example, Paul Janet, Histoire de la science politique dans ses rapports avec la morale (2 vols.; 3rd ed; Paris: Ancienne Librairie GermerBailliere, 1887), 11, pp. 565-6, and Duncan Forbes,
"Introduction,"

instincts

Essay,

pp. xviii-xix.
vigour,"

62. "The

national

Ferguson wrote, "declines from the

order"

abuse of that

very security

which

is

procured

by

the supposed perfection of public

p. 128.

(Essay,

p. 223).

63. Essay,

Progress
noted

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

75
and

that Ferguson's discussion of the dangers of political

tranquility

the

value of social
philosophy.64

faction

are a critical

Indeed,

nowhere

running commentary on Hume's political did Ferguson more clearly distance himself from
of

Hume's
good
ance

politics than

in his treatment
his fellow Scots

the

relation

between party faction

approach

and

government.65

On this

issue, Ferguson's
while

views were at substantial vari

from those

of

they

tended to

those of

Edmund

Burke,

who wrote

similarly

that the existence of party divisions is in

separable

from free

government.66

What is

somewhat more

difficult to

justify

is Ferguson's

conclusion that the

ferocity
ilized

of armed conflict plays a crucial role

in the

evolution and survival of civ

societies.67

His
we

more palatable

if

exerted, as I'm sure

great

emphasis on the value of dissension can probably be made include among the forces against which the will should be he meant to, the hostility of nature itself. There is, after all, which and

drama in the way in

character,
citizen whom no

the American West

was

tamed and settled

by

sheer strength of

dependent

its early settlers perhaps best reflect the active in Ferguson would have regarded with approval. There is,

however,

denying
social

that Ferguson saw in the

and

rivalship

of nations a

device for
In the

cementing the
process of

bonds
man's

for providing

an outlet

for

selfless action.

pacifying

anomosities, Ferguson wrote,

64.

"Introduction,"

Essay,

p. xxxvi. sentiments

65. Consider the islators

and

following

from Hume's essay

on political parties:

"As

much as

leg

among men, as much ought the founders of sects and factions to be detested and hated; because the influence of faction is directly contrary to that of laws. Factions subvert government, render laws impotent, and beget the fiercest
of states ought
respected

founders

to be honoured and

animosities each other.

among

men of

the

same

nation, who ought to give mutual assistance and protection to

And

what should render when once

the founders of parties

taken
root

more odious

is,

the

difficulty

of extirpat

ing

these weeds,

they have

for many centuries, and seldom end but (David Hume, "Of Parties in
sown"

by

in any state. They naturally propagate themselves the total dissolution of that government, in which they are
Essays Moral, Political,
and

General,"

Literary, T. H. Green

T. H. Grose, eds. [2 vols.; new ed.; London: Longmans, Green, 1882], 1, pp. 127-8 [reprint ed.: Vol. Ill, The Philosophical Works (Darmstadt: Scientia Verlag Aalan, 1964)]). Smith too had grave reservations respecting the benefits of faction. See Donald Winch, Adam
and

Smith's Politics: An
1978),
gious
pp.

Essay
and

158-60,

Smith's

in Historiographic Revision (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, references to the dangers inherent in the clash of political and reli

party that

appear

in the

Theory
12).

of Moral Sentiments,

p.

155 (ill. 3. 43),

p. 170

(m.5.13),

p. 232

(vi.ii.2.15),

pp. 241-2

(vi. iii.

66. Edmund Burke, "Observations on 'The Present State of the p. 271. vols.; rev. ed.; Boston: Little, Brown, 1865-1867), 1,

Nation'"

(1769), in Works (12

Herta H. Jogland, in commenting on Ferguson's discussion of the benefits arising out of political faction, implies an analogue between Ferguson's view of the role of healthy competition in political and commercial life, on the other (Urspriinge und Grundlagen der Soziologie on the one

life,

hand,

bei Adam Ferguson [Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1959]: 67. Duncan Forbes has
ers of
written

P-

I01)-

of this aspect of Ferguson's thought: "None of the

perpetual

leading think

the Scottish Enlightenment believed in

.
.

peace,

either as a practical

ideal

and

they

were well aware of the creative as well as

destructive

role

possibility or as an of war in the develop

glosses on the

ment of civilization.

But Ferguson's is the

most profound and

disturbing of these

high

Enlightenment"

("Introduction,"

hopes

of the

Essay,

p. xviii).

76
we we

Interpretation
may hope, in some instances, to disarm the angry passions of jealousy and envy; may hope to instil into the breasts of private man sentiments of candour toward

their
pect

fellow-creatures,
that
we can give

and a

disposition to

humanity

and

justice. But it is

vain to ex

to the

multitude of a people a sense of union

admitting hostility to those who oppose them. Could we any nation, extinguish the emulation which is excited from abroad, we should proba bly break or weaken the bands of society at home, and close the busiest scenes of
without
national occupations and
virtues.6*

among themselves, at once, in the case of

The

positive

but

unintended effects

that Ferguson

claimed characterizes social

conflict are

illustrative

of a more general social principle

that emerges throughout

his writings, namely, that social institutions take their form not from deliberate calculation but from instinct and habit. "The artifices of the beaver, the ant, and
the
bee,"

he observed,
Those
of polished nations are ascribed to them
superior

are ascribed to the wisdom of nature.

selves, and are supposed to indicate

establishments of men, Tike those of result of

capacity

to that of rude minds.

But the

every animal,

are suggested

by nature,
were

and are the

instinct, directed by

the variety

of situations

in

which mankind are placed.

Those

establishments arose

from

successive

improvements that human

carried

made,

without

any

sense of their general effect; and

which

they bring human

with which

affairs to a state of complica nature was ever

tion,

the

greatest reach of

capacity

adorned,
can

could not

have projected; comprehended in its full

conception

nor even when the whole

extent.69

is

into execution,

it be

The

here

offered

that social structures are formed spontaneously

is

possibly the single

most spectacular contribution

to social philosophy of the

Scottish Enlightenment. Such

theory is

able

to provide an explanation for com

the presence of

plex social phenomena without recourse a

to

descriptions requiring

designer

or coordinator.

Regularities

sphere need not provides

and

be the deliberate

product of

that the complex organization

most often

in the social orderly human design. Rather, the theory inherent in our social institutions can be,
and

arrangements

indeed is

is,

the result of countless

individual actions,

none of

which not

intentionally

aimed at rational

contributing have

to any preconceived plan.

Society

is

formed from any

calculation, but spontaneously; its institutions

as their objects more

are

the outcome of men's actions that

ends.70

immediate

private

68. Essay, 69. Essay,

70.

p. 25.
p. 182.

It is important to

underscore

the fact that the

theory here

expounded

does

not make

the claim

that social structures take their shape

of

independent

of

the action of

individuals

their intent. There is no attempt to reduce social

not provide

according to laws that do

theory

of spontaneous order as

institutions to products for the intervention of any human agency. It follows that the propounded by Ferguson and the other Scottish writers cannot legiti
social evolution

but only independent of arcane forces operating

mately be regarded as a precursor to the anti-individualistic theories of in the nineteenth century, as has been claimed some sociologists.

that

appeared

"Ferguson
cations

Soziologe,"

by

See, for

example,

Buddeberg,

als

of the

625, and Roy Pascal, "Herder and the Scottish Historical Publi English Goethe Society: Papers Read Before the Society, 1938-1939, New Ser.,
School,"

xiv(i938-i939):28.

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

nature of

11

The revolutionary
are

this explanation of the essential characteristics of

most complex social patterns should not

be

underestimated.

Social institutions

it is, at least at first blush, counter-intuitive to sup their that take shape from anything other than conscious intent. Indeed, pose they the argument from design dictates that when objects reach a certain order of intri
and

exceedingly intricate

cacy,

pose them to

men operate, we must sup The theory of spontaneously generated or ders explicitly denies this conclusion; far from being the product of human

such as

the social arrangements under which

a
designer.71

have had

contrivance, the

theory

provides

that these arrangements

emerged as

the unin
adaptive

tended

and unanticipated result of

human

action

through the process of

evolution.

This
son

account of appears

the

growth of

but

in the

writings of the other examined

institutions is, of course, Scottish moral

not

limited to Fergu
behind
of this

philosophers as well. motives

David Hume, for example,

individual
doctrine.72

the distinction between the

actions and

the

emergence of general rules of

justice in terms

The

principle perhaps presents

itself

the rights of property, right, and obligation.

served

clearly in his account of There Hume conceded that they

most

the

public good

but denied that the

public good was the motive

for their

adoption.

"If

men

had been

endow'd with such a

strong

regard

for

good,

public

he wrote,

they
arise

wou'd never

have

restrain'd

themselves

by

these rules; so that the laws of justice

from

natural principles
real

in

a manner still more oblique and artificial.

'Tis

self-love

which of

is their

origin; and

as

the

self-love of one person passions are oblig'd

is naturally contrary to that

themselves
after such

another, these

several

interested

to

adjust

a manner as to concur

in

some system of conduct and

behaviour. This system, there

fore,

is of course advantageous to the comprehending the interest of each individual, inventors.73 purpose by the that intended for not it be public;
tho'

One

of

the

most explicit presentations of

economic

the

theory

that complex social phe

nomena, especially

phenomena, are self-coordinating and

do

not re

quire conscious ordering, was offered

by

Smith's thought
connection with ample

of such notions as

"natural

Adam Smith. Hence the centrality in in and the "invisible

justice" hand"

the self-regulating
the

mechanism of

the

market.

Consider

as an ex

Smith's

account of

evolution of

the division of labor as the

unintended
labour,"

consequence of men's propensity to

exchange goods.

"The division
not

of

Smith wrote, "from which so many advantages are derived, is intends the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and
71. on

originally the

general opulence

The

relation

between invisible-hand

explanations and
Explanations,"

the

argument

from design is touched

in

Edna Ullmann-Margalit, "Invisible-Hand

Property,"

Synthese,

xxxix(i978):263-9i.

72.

Hume, "Of
of

the Origin of Justice and

role

For discussion's

the

the

theory

of spontaneous order plays of

Treatise of Human Nature, pp. 484-501. in Hume's social theory, see F. A.

Hayek, "The Legal and Dame.'lnd.: University

ence

Political
of

Philosophy

David

Hume,"

in V. C. Chappell,

ed.,Hume

(Notre

of a

Notre Dame Press, 1968), pp. 335-6o, and Knud Haakonssen, The Sci and Adam Smith (Cambridge: Cam Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume
pp. 4-44p. 529.

bridge University Press, 1981),

73.

Hume, Treatise of Human Nature,

78

Interpretation

to which

it

gives occasion.

consequence of a certain extensive

It is the necessary, though very slow and in view propensity in human nature which has

gradual
no such

utility; the propensity to

truck, barter,

and exchange one

thing for
of Moral distri

another."74

Smith first
Sentiments15

employed

the

concept of

the invisible hand in his the

effects of

Theory

in the

context of

his

examination of

the uneven

bution

of wealth.

With

reference

to the

rich, he
in

observed:

They consume
pacity, though
propose of

little

more mean

than the poor, and

spite of their natural selfishness and ra

they

only

their own conveniency, though the sole end which the thousands whom

they

from the labours

own vain and

of all

they
with

employ, the
poor

be the
the

gratification

their

insatiable
are

desires, they divide

produce of all

their improvements.

They

led

by

an

invisible hand to

make

nearly the same

earth

distri

bution

of

the

necessaries of

life,

which would

have been made, had the

been

divided into
without

equal portions

knowing it,
the

among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multi

plication of

species.76

Smith
tions,
scribe

again

had

recourse

to the expression "invisible

published some seventeen years

later,

when

in the Wealth of Na he once again used it to de individual actions,

each

hand"

the beneficial but

unintended social outcome of

end.77

aiming at some distinct private Nor did Smith limit the scope to
ated orders was applicable
ployed

which

the doctrine of spontaneously gener

to

economic phenomena.

Duncan Forbes has

em

ends"

the

phrase

"the law
and

of

the

heterogeneity
the

of

to describe this aspect of

Scottish thought
principle

has

pointed out
issues.78

pervasiveness of

Smith's

use of this

in explicating

social

Indeed, Forbes
.

provides an extensive

list

Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1, p. 25 [i.ii. 1] This is not, strictly speaking, correct. The term appears in Smith's "History of [in. 2], which was probably penned before his Theory of Moral Sentiments. See Alec Macfie, "The Journal of the History of Ideas, xxxn(l97l):595-9. Invisible Hand of
74. 75.
Astronomy"

Jupiter,"

of Moral Sentiments, pp. 184-5 [iv.i. 10]. "As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestick industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest
76.

Theory

77.

individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the publick interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestick to that of foreign industry, he intends only his
value; every
can. own

security;

and

by directing
own

that gain,

industry
and

in

such a manner as as

its

produce

may be

of the greatest

value,

he intends only his

that
of

to

promote an end which was no part

he is in this, of his intention.

in many

other

cases, led

by

an

invisible hand

By pursuing his own

interest he

frequently pro

motes

the society more effectually than when

known

much good

done

by

those who affected

and

he really intends to promote it. I have never to trade for the publick good. It is an affectation, in
words need

deed,
from

not
it"

very

common

(1,

p. 456

among merchants, [iv.ii.9]).

"'Scientific'

very few

be

employed

in

dissuading

them

78.

Duncan Forbes,

Whiggism: Adam Smith

and

John

Millar,"

Cambridge Jour

nal, vn(i954):643-70.

It
with

should

be

pointed out that

Forbes 's law

of the

heterogeneity
in this

of ends

is

not quite synonymous

emcompasses

the principle of

spontaneously

generated orders as used

essay.

Forbes 's law

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

Smith
action. on

79

of examples where
quences of

employed the

device to
the

explain

the unplanned conse

human

Instances include
the authority
of

"silent

and

insensible

operation

of

foreign

commerce"

the

feudal

barons79

and the unintended whole of the

effects on value of

the political power of the nobility of their

rents.80

consuming the

their

of Ferguson's use of the theory of sponta in Smith's writings, mainly the result of Ferguson's lack of interest in purely economic questions, Ferguson's applications of the doctrine are, for the most part, much clearer and less ambiguous, especially when they have reference to non-economic phenomena. For example, Ferguson explicitly

Although there

are

fewer instances

neous order

than appear

rejected

the notion that the

institutions

we associate with government are

the

product of conscious

design. "No

constitution,"

he observed,
a plan.

is formed

by

concert,

no government

is

copied

from

The

members of a small

for equality; the members of a greater, find themselves classed in a cer tain manner that lays a foundation for monarchy. They proceed from one form of gov
state contend ernment

to another,

constitution. and

The

ripen
an

with

easy transitions, and frequently under old names adopt a new every form are lodged in human nature; they spring up the season. The prevalence of a particular species is often derived
seeds of
mingled

by

from

imperceptible ingredient
that

in the

soil.81

Ferguson

concluded

we need put no credence

in the theory that

social ar

rangements are

the creation of some original Lycurgus-like

legislator,

who

delib le

erately
gal

structured

the consistency

and

symmetry that marks our

political and

institutions.82

In

contradistinction of

discussion

the

to Ferguson, one need only point to Rousseau, who, in his legislator, noted that he must possess an almost superhuman in

telligence that
would

would allow

him to

stand above
mold

the ordinary human passions. He

new and perfect

thus be in a position not only to

the

institutions

by

which men would

be

governed

but to actually

change the essential nature of

the whole spectrum of human actions that issue in significant but unintended social consequences.

The doctrine
patterns.

of spontaneous

order, on the other

hand, has

specific reference

only to those human

ac

tions the unintended

effects of

which, in the aggregate, result in social

institutions

or complex social

The

principle of spontaneous order thus refers to a narrower range of unplanned effects than

does Forbes 's law.

79.

Wealth of Nations, I,

pp.

417-

18 (m. iv. 9- 10).

80. Wealth of Nations, I, pp. 418-22 (m.iv. 10-17). So embedded is this principle in Smith's thought that it has been seen as extending to his ethical theory as well. Thus, in discussing the role utility plays in shaping the rules of morality, Campbell and Ross refer to "Smith's to demonstrate the unintended utilitarian consequences of non-utilitarian
repeated attempts

motiva

(T. D.

I. S. Ross, "The Utilitarianism of Adam Smith's Policy Journal of the His tory of Ideas, xlii[i98i]:76). And Haakonssen remarks of Smith's ethics that "the general rules of morality are thus the unintended outcome of a multitude of individual instances of natural moral eval
and
uation"

Campbell

Advice,"

(Science of a Legislator,
p. 123. p. 123.

p.

61).

81. Essay, 82. Essay,

80
man.83

Interpretation
It

is, therefore,

not

surprising that Rousseau felt

such a profound admira

tion for Lycurgus.

The belief that it

was within

the power of the legislator to create social

institu live

tions of enormous complexity, which, in addition, would constrain men to

lives, lutionaries, who

virtuous
Lycurgus.84

was not an uncommon view

all seem

among the

more radical

French

revo

to have found their

model of

the ideal

legislator in

found

even

aimed at

Nor did this belief stop at the Channel. It can, surprisingly, be in Burke, who wrote of "the wise legislators of all countries, who improving instincts into morals, and at grafting the virtues on the stock
affections."85

of

the

natural

Ferguson,

of

course,

was an adamant opponent of

this view, which

he,

together with the other Scottish moral philosophers, suc

cessfully
to the

undermined

by

origin and growth

applying the theory of spontaneously of political institutions.

application

generated orders

Nor did Ferguson limit the development Ferguson

of a

this doctrine to explaining the

of systems of government.

observed

that language

was an

particularly insightful comment, especially good example of an institu In

tion that takes

its

shape

from the

actions of countless

individuals,

who neither

aim at nor are capable of

comprehending the complexity that language

displays.

Language is
ment

one of

the clearest examples of an

intricately

ordered social arrange not

that,

although

the

product of

individual actions, is

consciously de

signed.

"Parts

speech,"

of

Ferguson wrote,

which,

in speculation,
The
rudest

cost the grammarian so much

study,

are

in

practice

familiar to

the vulgar:

They are
common

tribes, even the idiot, and the insane, are possessed of them: soonest learned in childhood; insomuch, that we must suppose human nature,
competent

in its lowest state,

this amazing

to the

use of

them; and,
ages,

without

the intervention of

un

genius, mankind,

in

a succession of

qualified

to accomplish

in detail

fabric

of

language,

which,

when raised

to

its height,

appears so much

83. "Celui

qui ose entreprendre

d'instituer

un peuple

doit

se sentir en etat

de changer,

pour ainsi

dire, la

nature

humaine; de

transformer chaque

individu,

qui par

lui-meme

est un tout parfait et soli

taire, en partie d'un plus grand tout dont cet individu recoive en quelque sorte sa vie et son etre; d'alterer la constitution de I'homme pour la renforcer; de substituer une existence partielle et morale a l'existence
ote a physique et ses

independante

que nous avons

tous recue de la

nature.

rhomme

forces

propres pour

lui

en

donner

qui

lui

soient etrangeres et

II faut, en un mot, qu'il dont il ne puisse faire

plus

usage sans

le

secours

d'autrui. Plus
plus aussi que par

ces

forces

naturelles sont mortes et est solide et parfaite:

aneanties,

les

acquises

sont grandes et n'est

rien,
haut

ne

durables, peut rien,

somme

l'institution

En

sorte que si chaque

par

Citoyen

tous les autres, et que la force acquise

le tout

soit egale ou

superieure a
plus

la

des forces

naturelles

point

la

perfection qu'elle puisse pp. 381-2).

de tous les individus, on peut dire que la legislation est au (Du contrat social [book 11, chapter vii], in
atteindre"

(Euvres completes, m,

84. See Harold T. Parker, The Cult of Antiquity and the French Revolutionaries: A Study in the Development of the Revolutionary Spirit (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937), passim* but esp. pp. 146-70. Duncan Forbes has remarked that the destruction of the Legislator myth, which

found

such

favor among
of on a

certain

eighteenth-century intellectuals, "was

Enlightenment"

perhaps the most original and

daring

coup

the social science of the Scottish

("Introduction,"

Essay,

p. xxiv).

85. "Letters

Regicide

Peace"

(1796-

1797), in Works, v,

p. 311.

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

be
ascribed to

81

above what could prehensive

any

sirrfultaneous effort of the most sublime and com

abilities.86

Ferguson's
of

application of

the

doctrine

of spontaneous order as an explanation

the development of

institutions is

extensive.

Most

complex social arrange

he contended, whether political, linguistic, economic, legal, or other are wise, likely to have taken their form as the unintended consequence of the efforts of large numbers of actors, often acting over long periods of time. In a
ments,

particularly

elegant passage of
come we

his Essay, Ferguson

not

noted:

Like the winds, that

know

whence, and blow whithersoever

they list,

the

forms
the
of

of

society

are

derived from

an obscure and not

date

of

philosophy,

from the instincts,

distant origin; they arise, long before from the speculations of men. The croud

mankind, are directed in their establishments and measures,

by

the

circumstances plan of

in

which

they

are

placed; and seldom are turned from their way, to follow the

any

single projector.

Every
ened

step

and

every
are

movement of

the multitude,

even

in

what are

termed

enlight

ages, are

made with equal

tablishments, which design.87 human

blindness to the future; and nations stumble upon es indeed the result of human action, but not the execution of any

Ferguson's theory
respecting

of spontaneous

development,

when wedded

to his notions

man's natural progress

towards excellence, led him to conclude that

social arrangements took their ultimate

form in the institutions that

mark

com-

86. Principles, I,

p. 43.

guage, twice quoted this

passage with approval.

Dugald Stewart, in his own discussions of the origin and nature of lan See Stewart's Dissertation: Exhibiting the Progress

the Revival of Letters in Europe (1815of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy, Since 1827), in Sir William Hamilton, ed., The Collected Works (11 vols.; Edinburgh: Thomas Constable, Vol. Ill, ibid., 1854), I, p. 365; and, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792-1827),

iv,

p. 27.

87. Essay,

p.

122.

Despite the

extensive

literature

dealing

with

Scottish Enlightenment

social

theory, the

role played

by

the

notion of spontaneous order

by

all

but

handful

of commentators.

(Exception

must

in Scottish philosophy has been neglected be made for Friedrich Meinecke, whose Die

at some Entstehung des Historismus [2 vols.; Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1936] discusses this theory economics proper, most scholars appear to have become aware of the of field Outside the length.)

doctrine litical

and

its

widespread

implications through the

writings of

F. A. Hayek,

whose own work

in

po

nonintentionalist aspects of Scottish thought. philosophy is explicitly indebted to the (1945). in F. A. Hayek, Individualism and See especially Hayek's "Individualism: True and pp. 1-32; The Constitution of Liberty Kegan Routledge & 1949), Paul, Economic Order (London:

and social

False"

(1965) and Chicago Press, i960), pp. 54-70; and, "Kinds of (1967), in F. A. Hayek, Studies in Philos "The Results of Human Action but not of Human of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 82-95, 96-105. ophy. Politics and Economics (Chicago: University
(Chicago:

Rationalism"

University

of

Design"

Of the intellectual historians

reference

who

have recently discussed Ferguson's thought, the few

who make

to the

relation

between

ordered arrangements and unintended outcomes appear

to owe the

structure of on

their analysis to Hayek.

and

See, for

example,

Human Nature

Society

(Chicago:

University

of

Louis Schneider, ed., The Scottish Moralists Chicago Press, 1967), pp. xxix-xlvii; Pas
(Urbino:

quale

Salvucci, Adam Ferguson: Sociologia

xxi(i970):i74.
aspect of

e filosofia politico

Argalia, 1972),

pp.

533~5;

Enlightenment,"

and, Alan Swingewood, "Origins

nal

of sociology: the case of the

Scottish
are

British Jour

of Sociology,

Both Schneider

and

Salvucci

expressly indebted to Hayek's in

terpretation of this

Scottish

social philosophy.

82

Interpretation
The
establishment of private

mercial society.

property
protect

and,

formal

governmental organization

necessary to

it

by implication, the was, for Ferguson, so

deeply
tionary

rooted

in

man's nature
regarded

character, he

that, despite Ferguson's references to its evolu the impetus towards private possession as uni
as essential

versal and

its institutionalization
was prepared

to man's

moral

growth.88

Ferguson

to concede that commercial societies, that

is,

those

based

on

the principle of private property, would

of wealth.

inevitably display
of

an uneven of

distribution acting
the

But this, he contended,

served

the essential function

as a spur

to the

industry
is to

and an

incentive to the labor

the economic

the great mass of that character

population.89

The

ultimate effect of

inequality

izes

commercial societies

encourage

the production of ever-greater quanti the community. "The object of

as well as

ties of wealth, thus

commerce

benefitting
wrote

all members of and

is

wealth,"

Ferguson,
and

"in the progress,

in the

re

sult of commercial

arts,

mankind are enabled

to subsist in growing numbers;

with superior ease and

learn to ply their resources,

success."90

to

wield

their strength,

Ferguson did
most extended argued
men

back away from embracing a regime of commerce of the sort, despite what he regarded as its potential dangers. Indeed, he
not

in his Principles that

exercise of a

active participation of

in

commercial

life

encouraged

in the

host

virtues,

including industry, by
a

sobriety,

frugality,
that

justice,
tivity,92

even

beneficence

and

friendship.91

Although Ferguson

contended

civilization was not

invariably

accompanied

high degree

of commercial ac

he did insist that the

ambition, "the

prime motive

force for individual

ress was

specific principle of advancement

this end, and

gratification."

not satiated with

any

given measure of

prog uniformly directed to And ambi

and social

tion, in turn, he noted,

ress of

operated no

less "in the its

concerns of mere animal

ornament,"

life; in

the provision of subsistence, of accommodation, and

as

society,

and

in the

choice of

institutions."93

Further,

"in the prog and more im

portant, Ferguson
as

saw no conflict

between those
and

social arrangements that acted

an

guarantees

of

individual
he

liberty

those that encouraged

increase in in
popu
pur-

wealth.94

Indeed,

contended

that the

forces that lead to

an expansion

lation,

which

Ferguson

equated with social

wealth, required the

successful

which refer to the preservation of the individual, while they continue to op instinctive desires, are nearly the same in man that they are in the other ani mals; but in him they are sooner or later combined with reflection and foresight; they give rise to his apprehensions on the subject of property, and make him acquainted with that object of care which he calls his (Essay, p. u).
erate

88. "The dispositions

in the
manner of

interest"

89. Principles, 11,

90. 91. 92.

p. 371. p.

Principles, 1, Principles, 1,

254,

p. 253.

p. 254.
p. 252.

Principles,

1,

The

examples

Ferguson

offered

in this

connection were

Sparta

and

the

Roman Republic.
93.

Principles, I,
"The laws

p. 235.

94.

made to secure the

rights

and

liberties

of

the people, may serve as encouragements

to population and

commerce"

(Essay,

p. 136).

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

defense
of

83

suit of commerce coupled with a vigorous

industry,"

individual rights. "The improve

their arts, to

growth of

he wrote, "the

endeavours of men to

extend

their commerce, to secure their possessions, and to establish their are indeed the most effectual means to promote
population."95

rights,

These
see a

sentiments cast grave antagonism philosophy.

doubt

basic

between
It

J. G. A. Pocock's conclusions, which commercial society and a polity of free men in

on a

Ferguson's
clude

is, I think,

distortion

of

Ferguson's thought to

con
with

that he shared the view that

liberty"96

"commerce

and culture were of

incompatible
that

virtue and

or, as Pocock wrote

specifically

Ferguson,

as an engine

for the

production and multiplication of goods was

personality."97

"society inherently hos

tile to

Ferguson was neither society as the moral foundation of distrustful of wealth nor did he believe that it invariably retarded social virtue and a free The centrality of the notion of progress to Ferguson's
society.98

thought

bears

repeating.

The

ascent of man

toward perfection represents the

pri

mary

motive

force

ments, progress

ultimately,
associated

to

civilization.99

human action, while, with respect to our social arrange takes the form of a transition from savagery to barbarism and, Commercial societies, which Ferguson closely
of

natural,

no

than were
95. 96.

if not completely identified with civilization were, thus, no less less indicative of man's never-ending movement toward perfection, the more primitive social institutions they supplanted. "If the palace be
p. 140.

Essay,

J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), p. 492. Although it is put for
ward

in its

most

fully

peared and

in "Civic Humanism
Time: Essays

developed form in The Machiavellian Moment, Pocock's argument earlier ap and its Role in Anglo-American and "Machiavelli, Harrington
Thought," Century"

English Political Ideologies in the Eighteenth

on

guage and

Political Thought
also

and

History

in J. G. A. Pocock, ed., Politics, Lan (New York: Atheneum, 1971), pp.

80-

103
and

and pp. 104-47.

Ideology,"

See

Pocock's "The Machiavellian Moment Revisited: A

Study

in His

Journal of Modern History, liii(I98i):49-72, for a summary of the controversy surrounding his thesis. It is of some interest that Pocock has recently referred to the civic humanist in terpretation of eighteenth-century Anglo-American political theory as simply a rather

tory

"paradigm,"

than as canonical description ("Cambridge Paradigms and Scotch Philosophers: A

Study of the Rela

tions Between the Civic Humanist

and

the Civil Jurisprudential

and

Interpretation

of

Eighteenth-Century

Social

Thought,"

in Hont

and

Ignatieff, Wealth

Virtue,

pp. 235-52).

Pocock's
model

attempt to assimilate questioned

the writers of the Scottish Enlightenment into his civic humanist

has been

by

earlier commentators.
Tradition,"

See James Moore, "Hume's Political Science

Canadian Journal of Political Science, X(l977):8o9~ Edward J. 39, and, particularly, Harpham, "Liberalism, Civic Humanism, and the Case of Adam Smith," American Political Science Review, lxxviii(I984):764-74.
and the

Classical Republican

97. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment, p. 501. Duncan Forbes has similarly noted: "It is pre ("Adam Ferguson and cisely community that is likely to be a casualty in the progress of the Idea of in Douglas Young, et al. Edinburgh in the Age of Reason: A Commemora tion [Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967] p. 43).
civilization"

Community,"

98.

Indeed, Ferguson

tended to regard

wealth and civic virtue as

directly

linked: "The
effects of

wealth,"

he commented, "the aggrandizement and power of nations, are commonly the loss of these advantages, is often a consequence of (Essay, p. 206).
vice"

virtue; the

99.

useful analysis of

Ferguson's theory

of progress appears

in Jules Delvaille, Essai

sur

V histoire de Tidee de progres (Paris: Alcan & Guillaumin, 1910),

pp. 475-6.

84

Interpretation
Ferguson concluded, "the
cottage

unnatural,"

is

so no

less;

and

the

highest
in their

refinements of political and moral

apprehension,

are not more artificial

kind,
of

than the

first
to

operations of sentiment and

reason."100

All this is
the

not

deny

that Ferguson dealt extensively

of

with

the harmful effects

increasing
effects

division

labor that

marked advanced commercial societies.

These

he

regarded as

subordination of
chanical

possessing the potential of producing despotism.101 rank, thus allowing for the rise of

a permanent

"Many

me

arts,"

he wrote,

require no

capacity;

they

succeed

best
habit

under a

total

suppression of sentiment and

reason; and ignorance

and

is the

mother of a

industry
of

as well as of superstition.

Reflection

fancy are

subject to

err; but

moving the

hand,

or the

foot, is independent
is least
con

of either.

Manufactures,

accordingly, prosper most,

without

where

the mind

sulted,

and where the

workshop may,

any

great effort of

imagination, be

considered as an

engine, the

parts of which are

men.102

The

ever-greater specialization of

labor, Ferguson feared,

could

lead to

a sys

tem of stratification

in

which

thinking itself might become the

in the detail limit the

particular province

of a privileged class:

But if many
quire no

parts

in the
or

practice of

every art,

and

of

every department,

re

abilities,

are others which

actually lead to general reflections, The

tend to contract and to

views of the mind,

there

and to enlargement of thought.

Even in

manufacture, the genius of the master, perhaps, is cultivated, while that of the inferior
workman

lies

waste.

statesman

may have

a wide comprehension of

human affairs,

while

the tools he employs are ignorant of the system in which

they

are themselves

combined.

The

general officer

may be

a great proficient

in the
. .

art of war, while the sol

.

dier is

confined to a

few

motions of

the

hand

and the

foot.

The

practitioner of man of

every

art and profession

may

afford matter of general specula

of

tion to the
peculiar

science; and

thinking itself, in

this age

separations, may become a

craft.103

In elaborating the

consequences of the
would

division

of

labor, however, Ferguson

did

not conclude

that it

mate social effect would

ety.

inevitably prove to be a Trojan horse whose ulti invariably be the destruction of a free and virtuous soci
of

Although the division

the

labor

might well place strains upon

the

social

fabric fa

and make possible a permanent subordination of cilitates

the many

by

the

few, it

also

fullest

expression of each serves a

individual's

natural abilities and personal

excellences and

hence
of

"With the benefit

it],"

accompanies

particularly valuable moral and social purpose. [and the division of labor which naturally commerce, Ferguson noted, "every individual is enabled to avail himself,
.
. .

to the utmost, of the peculiar advantage of

ioo.

his place; to

work on

the

peculiar

rna-

ioi
some

Essay, p. 8. Ferguson's views respecting

the dangers arising out of the division of labor are discussed at

Community,"

Forbes, "Ferguson and the Idea of "Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and the Division of
102. 103.

length in

pp.
Labour,"

40-7,

and

Ronald Hamowy,

Economica,

xxxv(i968):249~59.

Essay, Essay,

pp. 182-83. p. 183.

Progress

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

85

terials with which nature

and

has furnished him; to humour his genius or disposition, betake himself to the task in which he is peculiarly qualified to
proceed."104

Ferguson's

response

to the question of whether the

dangers inherent in

com

mercial societies could

be

averted was unambiguous.

the community take an active role in civic affairs, so

vision of
life,105

long as the members of long as they prevent the di

difficult,"

So

labor from embracing the

possible

more crucial aspects of political and

it is

to secure the

nation against

despotism. "It is

military he

wrote,
to tell how
which

long

their real

decay of states might be suspended by the cultivation of arts on felicity and strength depend; by cultivating in the higher ranks those
the

talents for the council and the arated; and in the

field,

which

cannot,

without great

disadvantage, be sep
that military charac

body of a people,
when

that zeal

for their country, its rights. defend his

and

ter,

which enable

them to take a share in

defending

Times may come,

every

proprietor must

own

possessions,

and

every free

people maintain their own

independence.106

In sum,
potism
of

while

it is true that

commercial societies

bring with them the risks of des

and a permanent system

in the form

of an over-specialization of

function

subordination,

decline into tyranny

need not

involvement in the
pacity

affairs of state

either

through the

follow. The stifling of public throttling of individual ca

division of labor or out of an all-consuming for one's private wealth is, in the end, what makes despotism solely possible. Encourage the populace to actively participate in the civic and military affairs of the nation and tyranny can be averted. Man's ability to uncover the
consequent on an extensive

concern

laws that determine his

might otherwise must

condition

107

provides

him the opportunity to

avoid what

be

regarded as

that corruption to which all commercial societies

descend.
Principles, n,
Ferguson
p. 424.

104.

105.
serious militia.

dangers

army and had written tracts pointing out the military and calling for the establishment of a civilian See his Reflections Previous to the Establishment of a Militia (London: R. & J. Dodsley,
was a

strong

supporter of a civilian

consequent on a professional

T756),
on

published anonymously.

The benefits

of a militia over a

mercenary army, he contended,

were

several and obvious.

While

a professional

military force

could act as the tool of a government

intent

would

depriving the citizens of their rights and subjecting them to despotic measures, a civilian militia invariably thwart such designs. More importantly, the citizen who had abdicated from active
a corrupt regime at

civic and

tions of

military involvement in his community could home while incompetently

not

but be

a poor

citizen, open to the depreda

against attack

protected

by

mercenary army

from

abroad.

While a number of his fellow Scots supported a variety of schemes for a militia which called for compulsory participation, the plan put forward by Ferguson in his Reflections Previous to the Estab lishment of a Militia appears to have favored voluntary involvement. His proposal called for legisla
tion ending certain restraints
on

the use of arms, such as the Game

Laws, in

addition to

permitting

freeholders

the

right to

arm one man.

For

detailed discussion

of

the militia question

and the

in

eighteenth-

century Scotland, see John Robertson, The Scottish Enlightenment John Donald, 1985).
106. 107.
will.

Militia Issue (Edinburgh:

Essay,

p. 227.
artist,"

"Man is

by

nature an

Ferguson noted, "endowed

on

with

ingenuity, discernment,
concerned to

and
em-

These faculties he is

qualified

to employ

different

materials;

but is chiefly

86
With
greater

Interpretation
respect

to the dangers of

despotism,

commercial societies present no

risks than do those

more primitive communities

arts,"

that

preceded

them. "In

the

lowest

state of commercial

Ferguson observed,
scenes of

the

passions

for wealth,
the most
on

and

for dominion, have exhibited

corruption of the of

oppression,

or ser

vility,

which

finished desire

arrogant, the cowardly, and the mer

cenary, founded
exceed.

the

procuring, or the fear of

unrestrained

In

such

cases, the vices of men,

at
on

losing, a fortune, could not by forms, and unawed by police,

are suffered to

riot

large,
the

and

to produce their entire effects. Parties accordingly

unite, or separate, tenderest

maxims of a nature.

affections of

human

gang of robbers; they sacrifice to interest the The parent supplies the market for slaves, even
to

by

the sale of

his

own

children; the

cottage ceases

be

sanctuary for the among

weak and

the defenceless stranger; and rites of hospitality, often so

primitive

sacred

nations without

in their fear
or

state,

come

to be violated, like every other tie of

humanity,

number of commentators

have

confused

Ferguson's fears regarding the

dangers

of political

indifference
writings.109

with a

tivity. But the

fact is that Ferguson

offered a

basic animosity towards commercial ac strong defense of commercial soci

could with

ety throughout his

Indeed, his distrust

on

justice be

said

to

center not on commercial

society itself but

with

the various efforts

by politicians to
no mat
production of

intervene in
"In

economic

life

the end of

ter how well-meaning, almost always

wealth.

resulted

improving in hindering
industry,
.

it. These attempts,

the
trade,"

matters of particular

profession,

and

wrote

Fergu

son, "the
would

experienced practitioner an active

is the master,

When the

refined politician and grounds of

lend

hand, he only

multiplies

interruptions

complaint."110

ploy them on himself: Over this subject his power is most immediate and most complete; as he may know the law, according to which his progress is effected, by conforming himself to it, he may, has
result"

ten or secure the

108. 109.
on

(Principles, I,
p. 242.

p. 200).

Essay,

Kettler has

concluded of

Ferguson's discussions
society"

of commerce

that "in the final

analysis and

the basis of the most central feature of the activist conception of virtue,

Ferguson's

position even

tuated in a vindication of commercial

with particular reference

(Kettler, Thought of Adam Ferguson,

p. 236).

And,

to

Ferguson's Essay,

Roy Harvey Pearce has observed that one reason for its

popularity,

ety

especially among Americans, was Ferguson's unambiguous defense of commercial soci cultures, despite the social costs that might accompany civilization. "What he notes, "is a simple and clear generally emerges from Ferguson's Essay, and from others like demonstration from conjectural history of a proposition which Americans, in their feelings of pity
over more primitive
it,"

and censure over

the fate of the

lized had

gained much more than

of primitive

Indians, needed desparately to believe; that men in becoming civi they had lost; and that civilization, the act of civilizing, for all of its
put

destruction
America: A

virtues,

Study
p.

Press,
crative

1965],

of the Indian 85).

and

(The Savages of something higher and greater in their the Idea of Civilization [rev. ed.; Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
place"

no.

Essay,

p. 144.

Consider
of or

arts,

by motives

also the following: "Men are tempted to labour, and to practise lu interest. Secure to the workman the fruit of his labour, give him the pros

pects of

independence

freedom,

the public has

found

faithful

minister

in the

acquisition of

Progress
We live in
phy

and

Commerce in Anglo-American Thought

dominated

87

an age

by sociology
and of

and

politics,

when moral philoso

and economics are

less exciting

less

concern than
often
of

they

were

two

cen

turies ago. tain of

of

Accordingly, contemporary scholarship

observations

tends to emphasize
at

cer

Ferguson's

relating to his fears

despotism
and of

the expense

his

conclusions

respecting
of

man's moral

perfectability

the value, both

moral and

economic,

the unhampered activities of the market.

Nevertheless,

these aspects of Ferguson's thought were of greater concern to

at

rian

least to his contemporaries, Ferguson has labeled the "new-model

in

shared the attributes

him. In this sense, of what one histo

in

man,"111

having

embraced a regime of com

civic

merce within a political system

which citizens were active participants

life. From the hard to bution

standpoint of current

argue against
was

the

view of

scholarship in the social sciences, it would be that Ferguson's most significant and lasting contri
the

his formulation

theory

of spontaneously-generated orders and of complex social

the application of this

theory

to a whole range

phenomena, in
enduring,
con of

cluding law and language. Of slightly sequence is Ferguson's analysis of the

lesser, but unquestionably

social effects of

the

increasing

division

labor. However, it was Ferguson's thought were

from Ferguson's

not until

the nineteenth century that these aspects of

fully

appreciated.

The

eighteenth

works more positive elements

there

century was to derive discussed: the benefits of a citizenry

society based as a bulwark

on

commerce, the

need

for

a public-spirited and vigilant

against

tyranny,

and the possibilities of unbounded progress to

wards moral perfection to which mankind

naturally inclined.

wealth,

and a

faithful
can

steward

in

population

itself,

do little

more

hoarding what he has gained. than avoid doing mischief.

the frauds to
of which

merce, he knows how to

repress

statesman in this, as in the case of It is well, if, in the beginnings of com it is subject. Commerce, if continued, is the

The

branch in
m.

which men committed

to the effects

their own experience, are least apt to go

wrong"

(Es-

say, p. 143).

Ralph Lerner, "Commerce

and

and

Character: The Anglo-American

as

New-Model

Man,"

William

Mary Quarterly.

3d ser., xxxvi(l979):3-26.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith's "Pernicious Opinion": A

Hermetic Social
David Levy
George Mason

Study Engineering

in

University

pernicious

Opinion that

of

Dr Johnson's & Dryden's & Adam Smith's &c that

profession are

Authors

by

compulsion

in the

likely

to be the best i.e. professional

musicians

&c

Coleridge, Notebooks 66 1
be
stated

The

problem can

simply

enough:

How did Samuel Taylor Coleridge

thinkers to
share

convince a generation and more of competent social

his

disap
In

probation of a

free

market

in

culture and to

disregard Adam Smith's

peers; here is

analysis of
did.1

the consequences of the endowments of the

intellectuals? The fact is that he

history

of economic

theory Adam Smith has few

testimony

from

one of

them:

We honour Coleridge for

the

English Church had involved everything connected cated against Bentham and Adam Smith and the whole
ciple of an endowed

having rescued from the discredit in which the corruptions of with it, and for having vindi
eighteenth and

century, the prin

class, for the

cultivation of

learning,
to

for

diffusing

its

results

among the

community.

That
an

such a class

progress of

knowledge, is
last two

be behind, instead of before, the induction erroneously drawn from the peculiar circum

is

likely

stances of the

centuries

2
.

That Coleridge had

an

influence

seems clear.

What troubles

me

is

why.

My

difficulty is very simple: Smith's argument against endowments is a valid deduc tion from the first principles of economic analysis, what economists today call In particular, if an endowment reduces the rewards for suc "the law of
demand."

cess and the penalties cellence to

be

forthcoming.3

for failure in intellectual pursuits, we can expect less ex Smith's position hardly requires a long chain of
and

Thanks

are

due to Warren Wigutow, Charles Griswold

Kathleen Coburn for

comments on

earlier versions.

Basil

Willey

More Nineteenth-Century Studies, New York, 1956, Coleridge's influence

and was

p.

62: "Here it
not

must suffice sys

to

remark

that

wherever

felt, it acted as

a seminal

force,

conveying

tematic

doctrine, but quickening

unenlivened understanding, and

warming both heart and head, revealing the calling men back to an awareness of spiritual

shallowness of the

reality."

2. John Stuart Mill, Essays on Ethics, Religion and Society, edited by J. M. Robson, vol. 10 of The Collected Works, Toronto, 1969, p. 150. Mill's reliance on Coleridge for the linkage between moral reform and social institutions is discussed in Raymond Williams, Culture and Society, New York, 1966, p. 62. How Mill's concern for moral reform unifies his work is stressed in J. M. Robson,

The Improvement of Mankind, Toronto, 1968. 3. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature

and

brary, New York,

1937, p. 727: "In general, the

richest and

Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Modern Li best endowed universities have been the

90

Interpretation Smith's
position

technical reasoning; consequently, as Mill writes,

unique.

is scarcely

If anything, Samuel Johnson

made

the

more

compelling

case

for the free

market

in the

production of

literature:

man

(said

he)

who writes a

book,
can

thinks

himself

wiser or wittier

than the rest of

mankind;

he

supposes that
after

he

instruct
of

or amuse

them,

and the publick to whom

he

appeals, must,

all, be the judges

his

pretensions.4

It

should come as no surprise then

that Smith and Johnson were coupled to to his position:

gether

in Coleridge's

eyes as opponents

pernicious

Opinion that in the

of

Dr Johnson's & Dryden's & Adam Smith's &c that Au

thors
cians

by
&c

compulsion
5

profession are

likely

to

be the best i.e.

professional musi

Not only is this

trous effect of the

analysis of endowments an

easy inference from

stood mute
diligence.6

a principle of

great empirical power:

Oxford

and

Cambridge is

withdrawal of

incentives to

testimony to the disas Now, if the Smith-

Johnson

argument

is

valid and there

evidence

to substantiate the conclusion,

how did Coleridge

they drew? What does the commentary say about this issue? Here, I find little guidance from either the studies which deal with classical British economics or from those
escape
which consider

the inference

Coleridge's
attention

political philosophy.

Modern historians

of econom

ics have
lack

paid

little

to the

"romantic"

critics of classical economics so

expected.7

of guidance

from this literature is

Nonetheless, I

was surprised

slowest

the established plan of education. Those

poorer

in adopting those improvements, and the most averse to permit any considerable change in improvements were more easily introduced into some of the universities, in which the teachers, depending upon their reputation for the greater part of their
were obliged

subsistence,

to pay more attention to the current opinions of the

of an

world."

Technically,

there is the possibility that the wealth enhancing aspect

wealth

endowment,

combined with a positive

part of the 19th

of intellectual output, could dominate the substitution effect. This possibility is not century discussion so it will not be further considered. 4. Samuel Johnson as reported in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., Modern Library, New York, n.d., p. 116.

elasticity

5.

S. T. Coleridge, The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

and

edited

by

Kathleen Coburn,
rivals

New York, 1957, vol. 1, #661. 6 The decay of the endowed Oxford
.

Cambridge

relative

to their poorer, unendowed

in

Scotland is
nation of

stressed

by Garry Wills, Inventing America, Garden City,

of

1978,

pp.

175-6, in his
of this

expla

the

importance

the Scottish thinkers in

come as no surprise

eighteenth-century America. News

corrup

tion would, of course,

have

ping around the muck, "To those who remember the

will appear no

Coleridge, who praises Robert Southey for step Biographia Literaria, edited by J. Shawcross, vol. I, Oxford, 1907, p. 47:
to

state of our public schools and universities some twenty years past, it ordinary praise in any man to have passed from innocence into virtue, 7. There is some interest remaining in the critics of the classical British economists. A recent look at Robert Southey and Thomas Carlyle by a historian of economics is provided by George J. Stigler, The Economist as Preacher and other Essays, Chicago, 1982. Albert O. "Rival

Hirschman,

Interpretations

Market Society: Civilizing, Destructive, or ture 20(1982): 1463-84, glances at Coleridge. The older historians more attention to these critics, for example, Joseph Schumpeter,
of

Feeble?"

Journal of Economic Litera

deal of Economic Analysis,

of economics paid a good

New York, 1954,

History

pp.

409-11, discusses Carlyle in

some

detail.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

to discover that many
even mention

91
political

famous

analyses of

Coleridge's
in

the fact that

Coleridge

writes

opposition to

philosophy do Smith's
one

not

analysis.8

In

spite of

the gap in the commentary on this particular

issue,

broad

point

of agreement which

does

emerge

from

various studies of

Coleridge's

social phi

losophy
form.9

is his desire to
course

engender spiritual

improvement

through institutional re

Of

this raises a technical question: Just how is one supposed to go

about

making

spiritual

improvement through institutional illuminate the

Johnson.

reform?

Answering
Cole

this technical question can, I shall argue,

mechanics of

ridge's

response

to Smith

and

Coleridge actually
the egalitarian
1830s.
rates

made

two important proposals for institutional

reform:

Pantisocracy

in the

1790s and the endowed cultural class

in the

Coleridge

switched philosophical positions

in the time

period which sepa

these proposed reforms. In

ets of philosophical

materialism.10

his Pantisocratic days, he subscribed to the ten By the time he proposed an endowed status
to
neoplatonism.11

for intellectuals he had

problem of
problem of

converted

Before

we

turn to the hard

the

mechanics of

looking

at what

endowing intellectuals, we shall deal with the easy wrecked Coleridge's Pantisocratic hopes. The case
proposal

shall

be

made

that Coleridge's later

came to grips with

the

lessons

taught

by

the early
of

importance

failure. In the Pantisocratic failure, Coleridge discovers the creating new men and women to act as the founders of a new or be done
will

der. How this

tonic
social

can

be

examined when we
argument.12

look

at

the role that

neopla

engineering
Mill's

plays

in the

8. In

spite of

explicit statement statement

that there

is

debate is between Smith

and

Coleridge,

and

Coleridge's

explicit

Notebook

is not Idea of the Modern State, New Haven, 1966, pp. 97-9. nor by John Colmer in his edition of Church and State in Collected Works, nor by R. J. White in The Political Thought of Sam uel Taylor Coleridge [1939], London, 1970, nor by Charles Richard Sanders, Coleridge and the
endowed cultural class

corroborating this interpretation, Coleridge's proposal for an discussed in relation to Smith or Johnson's claims by David P. Calleo,

Coleridge

and the

Broad Church Movement [1942], New York, 1 972. The tradition is Coleridge's Church and State and the Idea of an Intellectual Ideas
9.
46(i985):89-

continued

by

Peter Allen, "S. T.

Establishment,"

Journal of the

History of

106.

Willey, More Studies, p. 62; Williams, Culture and Society, p. 62. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, edited by Earl Leslie Griggs, vol. 1, Oxford, 1956, p. 137: "I go farther than Hartley and believe the corporeality of
10.

thought
11.

"
.

"neoplatonist,"

Coleridge himself
vol.

seems to

have

coined

the term

Marginalia,

edited

by

George Whalley,
p. 296.

12 of

The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Princeton, 1980,

postI think, that those studies which emphasize Coleridge's debt to the or social political about little to economy say Kantian idealistic developments in Germany have very German Idealism, Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1969. policy, e.g. G. N. G. Orsini, Coleridge and Norman Coleridge, The Damaged Archangel, New York, 1971, who has nothing to

12.

It is

not accidental,

Also,

Fruman,

476: "The extreme overemphasis on the importance of the say about political economy, says this, p. it not for Neoplatonists on Coleridge's intellectual development would be utterly inexplicable were On the other the the necessity of justifying Coleridge's assertions of independence from tradition and the neoplatonic tra hand, studies which emphasize Coleridge's use of both the German What dition often have a good deal to say about his proposals for social reform, e.g., Owen Barfield,
Germans."

Coleridge Thought, Middletown, Ct.,

1971.

92

Interpretation
we confront

Before

anyone who

texts, we can consider the problem which confronts is to deflect the free market conclusion which Smith and Johnson
analysis.

the

drew from their ridge

ably.

This

will

tell us

at case

least in

outline

form

how Cole is fixed.

to the fu

must proceed.

Understanding what
is
no

he had to

press will

help consider
past

First, it is necessary for Smith

such an

and

Johnson that human

path

nature

Without

assumption, there

inferential

from the

ture. Even

if past

endowments were

failures, why
in the
ideas

would

this bear on the

future?
to the

Perhaps human

nature

has

changed

meantime.13

Second, it is necessary
Smith
refers public must

that the judgments in the

marketplace of

are compelling.

"current
the

world"

opinions of

the

and

Johnson

speaks of

how the

judge

"pretensions"

of authors

to instruct them.

By

this analysis we know what Coleridge requires to make his case.

reform can remake

institutional
the

human

nature

itself in

some predictable

First, an fashion;

or, second, those ideas

which

which are

masses of mankind can writings.

ultimately important are not something about judge. We know, thus, what patterns to look

for in Coleridge's

Not to

keep the reader in

model of man

suspense, I

shall argue

that

Coleridge
sue:

relies upon

the Hermetic

to defend both the claims at is

first, institutional
from the Coleridge's

reform can remake mankind

itself;

and, second,

judg

ments

marketplace of

ideas
for

are

systematically flawed. resting

on some
novel.14

Reading

proposal

constitutional reform as

It is, however, a rather con is, of course, hardly troversial interpretation; indeed, a recent attempt has been made to mechanize into public opinion. In this view, Coleridge, to collapse what he calls
what occult premises
"Ideas"

Coleridge holds that the

truths.15

masses are

dominated

by the producers
is

of philosophical

In this

interpretation, Coleridge's
This interpretation
argument would

position

as straightforward as

that

of

J. M.

Keynes.16

ing. Coleridge's
13.

from, I think, a terrible shortcom be strangled at birth by the Smith-Johnson

suffers

The

critical nature of this assumption and

Morality,"

for a

series of

tional

Choice

History

of Political

Economy

debates is discussed in David Levy, "Ra i4(i982):i-36 and David Levy, "Mal-

thusians, Libertarian Communists and J. S. Mill Who Was M ill News Letter 15 (i98o):2-i6. 14. Calleo, Idea of State, p. 89: "Many of Coleridge's critics have treated the whole notion of the Idea as incomprehensible philosophical moonshine. But there is nothing necessarily occult in such a Constitution." Harold Beeley, "The Political Thought of Coleridge," Coleridge: Studies theory of the by Several Hands on the Hundredth Anniversary of His Death, edited by Edmund Blunden and Earl Leslie Griggs, London, 1934, p. 169: "Coleridge insisted on the supreme importance of education because he believed in
. . .

Both,"

what may be termed, by contrast with the Marxian formula, the metaphysical theory of history Existing evils he traced back through a chain of consequences to the atomism of Locke, and posterity, he hoped, would similarly attribute its blessings to his own philosophical sys

tem. Now the

stances system 15.

lever

by
of

which abstract

philosophy

operates on the political and economic circum

and

is the 'predominant in the hands

the

opinion,'

state of public

that can only be controlled

State."

by

an educational

Calleo, Idea of State,

pp. 21-2:

"Coleridge believed that

that are often

public opinion

is dominated in the
the average man,
are

long
rived

run

by

what

he

called

'Ideas,'

notions

dimly
These

comprehended

but that

by

ultimately de few in society who concern themselves with philosophic 16. John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, vol. 7 of Collected Works, Cambridge, 1973, p. 383: the ideas of economists and political philosophers,
from the
speculations of those
truth."

nevertheless mold

his thoughts

and perceptions.

dominating

Ideas

"

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

analysis.17

93 institutions

Judging

the performance

of educational which

by

the accep

tance

in the
gives

marketplace of

ideas

is

all

the Keynes position author

could

izes

the game to Smith and Johnson. Who

deny

the unendowed
eighteenth

Scottish
century?

universities

dominated

their endowed

British rivals in the

shall argue

that Coleridge

that all the

actualizing.

important ideas
These theses

are within

found in the Hermetic tradition two theses; first, selfus, and, second, that these ideas are
both
parts of

meet

the Smith-Johnson
are worthwhile

challenge.

The
of

first

gives us a method of

judging
second

what

ideas

independently
be
changed

what

the

world

thinks; the
sense,

tells us that human

nature can

in

lawlike fashion. In
a structural

one part of

Coleridge's

answer

to Smith and Johnson is

the same as the answer which the Hermetic philosophers gave to those who
claimed will

that the world was governed

answer

by

fate. How

can we

be? The Hermetic but

while

is to

remember

that we are

possibly change what God, brother to the cre

ator18

fate dominates
fate.19

our material concise

self, God dominates

statement of

fate;

so we

be

come

God to

escape

Hermetic

the relation be

tween religious behavior and knowledge was

within

recovered

from

Nag

Hammadi

living

memory:

the

pious who are counted are

few. Therefore

wickedness remains

among

(the)

many,

concerning For the knowledge of the things

of
matter.20

since

learning

the things which

are ordained

does

not exist

among them.
passions

which are ordained

is truly the

healing of the

both

when

they

are

right from

and when

they
.

are
. .

wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.

who

Indeed the

world

is

ruled

by

little

else

tilling

their

frenzy

some academic
read

Madmen in authority, scribbler of a few years

as

hear

voices

in the air,

are

dis

back."

17.

The temptation to

Coleridge

if he

wrote

in

modern

traditions

is

a well-known prob

lem. Kathleen Cobum, don, 1949, p. 40: "I do him. Nor do I

philosophers 18.
mean

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Philosophical Lectures, Lon not wish to try to do for Coleridge what Ritter did for Plato, i.e. de-Platonize to commit the ironical error of making Coleridge out to be one of the naturalistic his life
combating."

"Introduction,"

he

spent

Corpus Hermeticum, edited by A. D. Nock and translated by A. -J. Festugiere, vol. 1, Paris, Traite 1 13, pp. 10- 1 1 : "Or, lorsqu'il eut remarque la creation que le demiurge avait faconnee 1978, dans le feu, Homme voulut lui aussi produire une ceuvre, et permission lui en fut donnee par le Pere. Etant done entre dans la sphere demiurgique, oil il devait avoir plein pouvoir, il pergut les oeuvres de
.

1'

son

frere
19.

290:

Lynn Thomdike, A "Only the chosen few fate

History of Magic

and

Experimental Science, New

York,

vol. 1

1923,

p.

who possess gnosis or are capable of

receiving

nous can escape

"
.

the de

crees of

as administered

by

the stars and ultimately return to the spiritual world

View,"

John G.

Burke, "Hermetism as a Robert S. Kinsman, Berkeley,

vine

Renaissance World
1974,
p. 101 :

The Darker Vision of the Renaissance, edited by "the Hermetic texts declare that man was created as a di

of the creating being a so doing he voluntarily submits demiurge volition, body man can recover his divinity through a re to the domination of the stars and other celestial bodies generative experience, by casting away material preoccupations 20. Asclepius, translated by James Brashler, Peter A. Dirkse and Douglas M. Parrott, in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, James M. Robinson, New York, 1977, p. 301. The modern edition of

being
.

with
.

divine

creative

power, and man

of

is

'brother'

characterized as

man takes on a

mortal

his

own

and

in

the

received

text

is Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius

22-3.

94

Interpretation
thesis

My

is that Coleridge
to
answer

works within

the logical

presuppositions of

the

Hermetic

world view

Smith

and

Johnson: Free

an elite

from

material

preoccupations, and

creativity will flour they ish. Hermetism provides the key to unlocking creativity because creativity results to open the door to the uncaused world, essentially we from uncaused
will contact

the divine

within and

activity;21

must coerce

the divine. What we might

as we

call

Hermetic "social

engineering"

has

long history,
the
makes sense

have been taught

by

various

Warburg

Institute I
shall

studies over

last three decades. Coleridge's

endowment

proposal,

as

demonstrate,

inside this tradition. And, conversely, only inside this tradition is his argument compelling. There are thus two parts of the exercise. My case that

if Coleridge
ment

accepted

the Hermetic

presuppositions

then

his

proposed endow

verse

is sensible, can be made on straightforward textual grounds. The con only inside the Hermetic view of the worlds does Coleridge's proposal
cannot of course

make sense case

be

made on

textual grounds, but it is a simple

to

make on

history-of-philosophy grounds:

Hermetism

allows certain opera

tions which no other ontological system allows.

In Coleridge's Pantisocratic discussion in the 1790s,

a

we

find him attending to

fundamental issue
which

the

vicious circle

between

personal

immorality
is mainly In
a

and evil

institutions

his

endowment proposal seeks

to evade. In the materialist

a matter

tradition where
of

human

nature

is

assumed

fixed,

moral reform

incentives.22

changing Godwin, Coleridge

read:

Following
property is

the libertarian communism of William

a

claims

barrier to

moral conduct.

letter

we

The
with

real source of

inconstancy, depravity, &

good

prostitution,

is Property,
of all

which mixes
Evil.23

&

poisons

every thing
of

& is beyond doubt the Origin

Coleridge's defense
in the
change

his

proposed communal experiment

is clearly

offered

spirit of philosophical materialism

to change behavior one must first

incentives:
can

Wherever Men
make men
Temptations.24

be vicious,
virtuous

some will

be. The
all

leading

Idea

of

Pantisocracy
all possible

is to

necessarily

by

removing

Motives to Evil

In his
are

emotional

for
I

spiritual

divorce from Southey, he improvement:

states that

his

communistic

hopes

returned to

Cambridge hot in the

anticipation of that

happy Season,
it in

when we should

Principle from ourselves, and Abolition of Property: or in whatever respect this

remove

the selfish

prevent
might

our children,

be impracticable,

by an by such

sim-

21

The texts

are cited

below.
"

22.

The

subtitle of

perimental method

David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature is "An attempt to introduce the ex of reasoning into moral subjects Without stability of human nature , the evidence
.

from

experiments

23. 24.

in time (t) have Collected Letters 1:214. Collected Letters

1:114.

no

bearing

on experiments

in time (r + 1).

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

95
and answer all the purposes

ilarity
of

of

Property,

as would amount

to a

moral

Sameness,

Abolition.15

In Godwin's account, institutions in

people.

are

Contrary

to

this,

even

in the

unambiguously the cause of moral evil midst of his Pantisocratic fever, Cole

ridge worried about

the moral fiber of the

founders

of

the new

order

and, in
caused

so

doing,
I

spelled out an awareness

that the

evil

in institutions

could

be

by
at

the evil

in

people.

In

letter to

Southey

he

writes:
which

was challenged on

the subject of

Pantisocracy

is indeed the
six

universal

Topic

this

University
of

A Discussion began

and continued

for

hours. In conclusion,
the
assigned

Lushington & Edwards declared the System

impregnable, supposing

Quantum

Virtue

and

Genius in the first

Individuals.26

In the

same

letter,

these concerns are spelled out in

graphic

detail. The

stabil

ity

of

the moralizing society would be undermined

.

by

immoral founders:

Children going with us. Why did I never dare in my disputations with the Unconvinced to hint at this circumstance? Was it not, because I knew even to certainty
. .

there are

of

conviction, that it is

subversive of rational

Hopes

of a permanent

System? These

children

the little Flicker for instance and

the prejudices
and

your

Brothers

deeply tinged with

and errors of society?

Are they not already Have they not learnt from their
are

Schoolfellows Fear

Selfishness
are we

of which the

necessary offspring

Deceit,
our

and

desultory

Hatred? How

to prevent them from

infecting

the minds of

Children?27

Consequently, Coleridge's
the delicate
without virtuous

earliest

thoughts on institutional
of evil.

reform confront

problem of mutual

individuals to

causality act as founders

Institutions

corrupt

people, but

of

the new society,

uncorrupted

what

hope is

there to purge

vice?

And,

where can we

find those

by

their society?

Coleridge is left
world

Archimedes'

with

problem:

Where is there is

a place outside

the

by Only a

which

to

move

it?
writes

little

after

he had discarded his Pantisocratic hopes, Coleridge

neoplatonic
of all

that he has discovered the Hermetic branch of the

tradition:
the
strange phan
,

Metaphysics, & Poetry, & 'Facts

tasms that ever to

mind'

of

(i.e. Accounts
Studies.28

possessed your philosophy-dreamers

from Tauth [Thoth] the Egyptian

Taylor,

(the English
of

Pagan),

are

my

darling

The burden

the argument

below is inside the Hermetic tradition; Coleridge

can

breaks ize the

out of a circle of vice. rest.

Reform

first

moralize an elite who

then moral

In my interpretation, Coleridge's proposal to (the clerisy) in Constitution of Church and State

an attempt
25. 26. 27. 28.

create an endowed

learned

class

According to

the

Idea of Each is
create

to

rip

apart

the chains

binding

effects with material

cause, to

by

Collected Letters Collected Letters Collected Letters Collected Letters

1:163. 1:119. 1:119-20. 1:260.

96

Interpretation
in legal institutions
authorizes
us

a change
what

a vacuum

in time

and space

for

spiritual

activity, for
causal
where

he

to

call

the

supernatural.29

Sheltered from the

reality;
a

nexus,

spiritual

activity

by this

clerisy

could create a new where no

reality

men no

longer

confound wealth with

welfare,

longer

would

the worse

be

chosen over

the better.
proposal

argue that Coleridge's In brief, I through institutional change, an instance of

shall

to endow a learned class

what we would

today

call social en

gineering, takes on meaning

dition"

within what we now

know to be the "Hermetic tra

spiritual

where efforts monplace.

to expand the scope of personal

activity

are com

Our

guides

Festugiere, D. P. Walker
ful in
Yates'

for this tradition are, of course, Paul O. Kristeller, A. J. and Frances Yates. What I find most particularly help
the Hermetic tradition is her reconstruction of an
neoplatonic point of
view.30

series of studies on
school within

engineering

the broad

Knowing
engineering

first-hand
within

so much of

the excitement from the triumphs

of modern

our

Einsteinian-Newtonian tradition in

astrophysics

and

microelectronics,

we can more

easily

empathize with the neoplatonic engineers.

Raymond Lull's

symbolic constructs are

only

a world-view

away,

artificial

intel

ligence
H. A.

under

paradigm-shift, from Charles Babbage's analytical-engine and

programs.31

Simons'

vision of

theorem-proving Jupiter and Saturn, which

arranged

Similarly,

the pictures on our tele

the engineers at

Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion

Lab have

to appear, prepare us, at least to some

degree, for

the sort of

result expected

to flow from a neoplatonic memory to belabor. Thomas

classic

theater.32

In broad
ral

brush,

the scope of Coleridge's interest in the neoplatonic supernatu

is too

well-known

Carlyle's
of the

icily

contemptuous carica
Mariner,3*

ture,33

John Livingston Lowe's

Samuel Taylor
1971
,

study

Ancient

and now

29.

Coleridge, Aids to Reflection,

"Whatever is
comprised
. .

edited

by Henry Nelson Coleridge [1840],

Post

Washington,
of course

p. 108:

in the

chain and mechanism of cause and

effect,

is said to be natural; It is, therefore, a contradiction in terms to in necessitated, in this the freewill, of which the verbal definition is that which originates an act or state of being. In this sense, therefore, which is the sense of St. Paul, and indeed of the New Testament throughout, spiritual and supernatural are
clude
synonymous."

30. Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Chicago, 1964; The Art of Memory, Chicago, 1966; The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, London, 1972.
31.

the Art

with

Yates, Memory, p. 176: "[Lull] believed that if he could persuade Jews and Muslims to do him, they would become converted to Christianity Starting from premisses common
. . .

to all, the
32.
makes

Art

would

Ibid.,
his

pp.

demonstrate the necessity of the 147-8: "It is because he believes in the

Trinity."

divinity

of man that

the divine Camillo

stupendous claim of

being
can

able

to remember the universe

.

above, from first causes, as though he were God

The

microcosm mens or

by looking down upon it from [man] can fully understand and

memory."

fully
the
a

remember the

macrocosm,

hold it

within
p.
"
.

his divine
53, he
.

Thomas Carlyle, Life of John Sterling, Pantheist Tradition, Oxford, 1969, p. 333:
33.
and other

quoted

in Thomas McFarland, Coleridge

and

England,
eration

higher than literary, a kind the key of German he had this

of prophetic or magician

had, especially among young inquiring men, character. He was thought to hold, he alone in
. .

Transcendentalisms
and sat

to the

rising

spirits of the
girt

dusky

sublime

character;

there as a kind of

Magus,

enigma."

young gen in mystery and

pp. 229-36.

34.

John Livingston Lowes, The Road

to

Xanadu, Boston

and

New

York,

1927,

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

in
our

97

time Thomas
and

McFarland 's

examination of

Coleridge's
world-

place

in the

panthe

istic
lia,36

tradition35

Kathleen Coburn's study

same message:

of

the notebooks and

margina

all

carry the

the

Coleridgean
still

view ventures

into
to

neighborhoods where occult

sympathy

rules,

where

ideas carry

power

bind

and release.

The
critical of

obvious objection

to my thesis
revival

must

be first
after

considered.

Who took the in

texts

of

the

hermetic

seriously
In

Issac Casaubon's demolition

the

Corpus light
the

Hermeticum'

s claims of

to antiquity? After all,

Coleridge
seems to

wrote

the clear
cepted

the nineteenth

century.37

fact,

Coleridge

have

ac

historicity
texts

of some of

the

key

texts of the

Hermetic

tradition,38

but I

place no real weight on confusion of

this.

Today, learned

philologists still argue about the

and religious

traditions in the ancient world. For my purposes,

took the Bible

such evidence can and although magical

be

waived

because Coleridge
in

very seriously,
one takes as

it is

often neglected central

modern studies of

the occult, it is a very

book. This is

to my argumentative
given,40

strategy.39

For if

the literal truth of the Bible as

worth and

then one could accept, as Ralph Cud-

Henry
ash

More did, the

philological
of

demonstration

that the Hermetic

treatises

were contaminated
heap.41

by

frauds

the Christian era,

position

yet still save

Hermet

ism from the

35. 36.

The More-Cudworth

that the Corpus Hermeti-

McFarland, Pantheist Tradition. Kathleen Cobum, Experience into Thought, Toronto, 1979, pp. 29-54. 37. The occult is however rather hardy, cf Mircea Eliade, "The Occult and the Modern Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions, Chicago, 1976.
.

World,"

38.

Coleridge

attributes some of

the Old Testament to the Chaldean Sages [?

Oracles], Note

book F, Huntington Library, hm 17299, p. 24: "It is highly probable that the origin of this Chromometry is to be sought for in the astronomical or astrological Sciences, in which Daniel as a Pupil of the

Chaldean Sages had been

initiated."

There is
was

an

interesting

marginale on

Jeremiah 52, Coleridge,

Marginalia,
who resided

p. 440:

"The

52nd

Chapter

probably

written

by

the Author of the

Book

of

Kings,

Simi Oracles, as a Note, as we now should larly, he is willing to assert the great antiquity of the Kabbala, in the Manuscript Commonplace Book of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Huntington Library, hm 8195, p. 157: "With still less hesitation may
was appended

in Chaldea

&

say."

to the

the statement of the Jewish Cabbala in the purest state,

with

the grounds

for its

existence

before the
that
of

Christian
Agrippa.
39.

era

."I

have

not

found his

opinion of

the Corpus Hermeticum itself.

Below,

we see

he knew that

"false

Dionyius"

was responsible

for the

angel

lore

and

he thought very poorly

There is

another

consumption of opiates

strategy which I shall not consider. Could Coleridge's rather impressive have given credence to the reality of the supernatural? Karen Vaughn made

this

suggestion.

Mircea Eliade, Zalmoxis: The

p.

Vanishing God,

translated

by

Chicago,
walk

1972,

42,

notes

that the translation of one of traditional names of shamans

Willard R. Trask, is "those who

in

smoke."

He

glosses this as

"an ecstasy induced

revelation

hemp."

by

smoke of pp.

40.

Coleridge's

opinion of

the Bible as
and

is discussed in Sanders, Broad Church,

82-3. J. Robert Barth, Coleridge

portant point about

Christian Doctrine,
England,"

Cambridge,
sense of

1969, the

p.

71, makes the im

"Coleridge's

profound respect

for the literal

Bible."

41.

Kathleen Raine, "Thomas Taylor in

and

Thomas Taylor The Platonist,

edited

by

Kathleen Raine

toricity
minish

or

George Mills Harper, Princeton, 1969, pp. 45-6: "It will be obvious that the his otherwise of Orpheus would not, from the standpoint of metaphysics, either establish or di
'authenticity'

the

of the

Hymns that bear his

name.

In this

charge against of

Taylor's

unhistorical

point of view we

hear

an echo of a

Isaac Casaubon's tradition,

and

'discrediting'

the Hermetica a century and a

half earlier,
their authenticity

[both] embody

it is

not upon

their date but upon their content that

rests."

98
cum

Interpretation
albeit contaminated with

Christian

era

frauds

contains genuine and

Egyp
The

tian teachings,

rescues considerable

Hermetism for Jews

Christians.42

fact is that in Exodus the highest

the Egyptian
magicians.

For Jews

the wonder-working passages

petence of

authority attests to the prowess of Christians reading the Corpus Hermeticum, simply corroborate the Mosaic account of the com
of all possible

or

Egyptian

magicians.

Because my argument depends upon the seemingly incredible proposition that someone of Coleridge's dates and stature took Hermetism seriously, it is impor
tant for me to establish that the Bible gives credence to the Hermetic
claims.

engineering
albeit

In fact, in Exodus the Egyptian magicians hostile, testimony for the majesty of God's compelling, they cannot be incompetent. This they
tion with
matched

provide

independent,

works.43

For their testimony to be are not. Indeed, in competi The

magicians almost
snakes.44

God,
the

the

first few
rods

exchanges are rather close.

God turning

to snakes,

although

God had the larger

fish45

God

and

frogs.46

and generating dead heats exterminating While it is true that God removes the frogs first, any fair reading would
magicians run

consider

this part of the contest called for lack of

am

vermin.47

At the

beginning

of

42.

Here I

timidly disagreeing

with

Yates, Bruno,

pp. 423-31

and

Wayne Shumaker, The

Occult Sciences in the Renaissance, Berkeley, 1972, p. 210, about the extent of the salvage. The continuity between the Florentine Academy and the Cambridge Platonists is stressed in Ernst Cas
sirer, The Platonic Renaissance in

England,
as

translated
and

by

James P. Pettegrove [1953], New York,

one and

1970,

p. 9:

"For Cudworth

and

More,

for Ficino

Pico della Mirandola, Plato formed but

link in that Socrates

43.

golden chain of

and

divine revelation, Christ, Hermes Trismegistus and

which

besides him includes Moses

Zoroaster,
reader will
"Magi"

Plotinus."

This

is,

of
of

course,

not

the only such appeal to occult authority

in the Bible. The

James Version

doubtless think

Matthew

2:1-11 where the

"Wise

Men"

in the

King

or

in

the Greek (Novum Testamentum

Graece,

cum apparatu critico

D. Eberhard Nestle

and

D. Erwin

Nestle, Stuttgart,
sky.

1952)

are such able astrologers

that

they

can read

the hidden hand of

God in the
a
a

Modern

pictures of and

the passage

super-nova

makes

the guiding star is strip the Wise Men of all need for wisdom absolutely no sense. If the star were obvious enough to show up on

Hallmark card, it would be plain enough for Herod's associates to follow. The translation in the King James Version is worthy of note because when
(Acts

used

to describe Simon
"Magus"

8:9)

the cognate

is translated

discussed by Arthur

Darby

is philology of the Persian Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, edited by Zeph Stewart,
as complicated

"sorcery."

The

Cambridge,
A
classic

1972, 1:308-30.

study

of

the magical presuppositions of the Bible and Apocrypha

is.

of

course,
1:471:

Thorn-

dike, History,
had
the
seen

1:385-479.

Here is

what

Thorndike

writes about the

Matthew verses,

"When

the writer of the Gospel according to Matthew included the story of the wise men the star, there can
.

from the

east who

be little
the

or no

doubt that he inserted it

and that
of

it had been formulated in Jesus from that

art or sci

first place,

to

secure

appearance of support

for the

kingship

ence of

astrology which so many persons then held in high A. D. Nock, Conversion, Oxford, 1961, p. 210, stresses the importance

esteem."

superhuman claims

such point

of Christianity's various for its early acceptance. Also, Nock, Essays, 2:517: "though Egypt afforded no de depart as the story of the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem, thrice-greatest Hermes and

Zoroaster
44. 45. 46.

were alike pressed

into the

Christianity.'

service of

Exodus
Exodus

7:10-12. 7:19-22.

Exodus 8:5-7.
Exodus 8:12-15.

47.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

the

99
still stand.

fourth
tells:

round

God is

ahead on

points, but the magicians

Then,

class

And the Lord dust

of the

land,

said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
. .

And they did so And the magicians did

not: so there were

so with their enchantments to

bring forth lice,

of

but they
**

could

lice

upon

man, and

upon

beast.
God

Then the

magicians said unto

Pharaoh. This is the finger

there is a simultaneity of prowess. Just as the magicians for God's explicitly testify power, God implicitly testifies for theirs. While it is true that when the magicians are last seen, Pharaoh they are not would have been well advised to heed his Council of Occult Advisers. Coleridge was not the only one who drew some interesting conclusions from this report and
such contest
standing,49

In any

others

like

it.50

If there is
metic

genuine

Egyptian doctrine

which can

be

extracted

from the Her

texts, then all is not lost to the Hermetist. Because the power of natural or demonic Egyptian magic can be established independently, by the best of all pos
sible

authority, the only

real problem

is how to tap this

power.

To the

extent

that

there is ancient Egyptian doctrine mixed with the

mation

frauds,

then there is still infor

to be gained from the Hermetic tradition.

Philology

is

not

destiny.

The

critical presuppositions which we must accept to work within a neopla

tonic world-view are these:

1. True knowledge is found in Ideas (Plato's archetypes)

thoughts of
48.
God.51

which

are

the

Exodus 8:16-19.
and and

Thomdike, History 1:437

with

quotes

terizing both Moses

tians
charge

Jesus

as wizards and at 1 438 quotes

Celsus (via Origen, of course) as Origen as pointing out that the

Egypt."

charac

"Egyp

Moses

the Hebrews

the

practice of

49.

Exodus 9: 1

1:

"And the

magicians could not

sorcery during their stay in stand before Moses because of the boils; for the

boil

was upon the magicians, and upon all the

Egyptians."

50.

Coleridge, Marginalia, [Exodus 7.15

Baculus Astronomicus
provides no gloss

to 8. 11] p. 419: "Hieroglyphice historical. Predic-

tiones Astrologicae
Almanachs."

Enchantments
the

Constellated Talismans

Metallic
in this

Whalley

for "Constellated

Talismans"

but

cannot we read

phrase

Coleridge's

respect

for the

powers of

Zodiac,

(cited in note 59 below) might be read in conjunction Apologia Pro Vita Sua, London, 1964, pp. 29-30: "Also, besides the hosts of evil spirits, I consid ered there was a middle race, daiuovia, neither in heaven, nor in hell; partially fallen, capricious,
wayward;
noble or or

Hermetic Governors? Plotinus, Ennead 4.44 with this. Also, John Henry Cardinal Newman,

crafty, benevolent or malicious, as the

Persia'

case might
...

be. These beings

gave a sort of

inspiration
mention of such

of

I thought it countenanced by the intelligence to races, nations, and classes of men in the Prophet Daniel; and I think I considered that it was 'the Prince of
notice of

intermediate beings that the Apocalypse spoke, in its

'the Angels

of

the Seven

Churches.'"

Paul Oskar Kristeller, The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino [1943], translated by Virginia Conant, Gloucester, Mass., 1964, p. 163: "According to the Neoplatonic doctrine it [Idea] is nothing but a concept of the divine mind. But in so far as the difference between knowing and known is can
51.
celed

in the

perfect

thought,

all

Ideas

are

identical

with

the essence of

divine thought

and therefore

other."

with each

100

Interpretation
within

2. Human beings have

them potentially to that

them a divine spark these Ideas directly.

contemplate

(soul, mind) which allows (Trivially, 1 and 2 imply

directly.)52

in

so

doing,

human

being

can contemplate

God

3. Human beings rarely are able to achieve this contemplative feat because body.53 they are distracted by Matter, in particular pleasure and pain of the 4. Ideas
are

self-actualizing;

they

are more

than images

of

reality,

they

cause

itself.54

reality It follows
self

immediately that to
of

attain this

True

knowledge,
it is

one must

free

one

from the lures

after

the

flesh,

that one cannot attain union with the

divine

while

lusting
of no

money Thomas Hobbes presents

and

fame.55

Equally immediately
from the

clear

why the

doctrine
is

such a challenge

to this tradition: for Hobbes there

life

without

striving,

no quiet

passionate storm

in

which

to contem

plate and

reflect.56

52.

Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, "Oration

on

the

Dignity

Man,"

of

translated

by Elizabeth

Livermore Forbes, in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, edited by Ernst Cassirer, Paul Oskar Kristeller and John Herman Randall, Jr., Chicago, 1948, p. 235: "Then the saying yvaJOi oeaviov,
that is 'Know
of man
thyself,'

urges and encourages us

to the investigation

of all
'

nature, of

which

the nature

is both the connecting link and, so to speak, the 'mixed bowl. For he who knows himself in himself knows all things, as Zoroaster first wrote, and then Plato in his Alcibiades. When we are finally lighted in this knowledge by natural philosophy, and nearest to God are uttering the theologi
cal

greeting, el, that

terms."

is, 'Thou

art,'

we shall

likewise in bliss be addressing the true Apollo

Mind,"

on

inti

mate

Marsilio Ficino, "Five Questions Concerning the roughs, in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, pp. 209- 10:
53.
and

translated

by

Josephine L. Bur
of

"

the

Magi, followers

Zoroaster

something similar. They say that, because of a certain old disease of the human mind, everything that is very unhealthy and difficult befalls us; but, if anyone should restore the soul to its previous condition, then immediately all will be set in order [Pythagoreans and Platon

Hostanes,

assert

ists]
duced

say that the

soul

by

an excessive

is manifestly afflicted in the sensible world by so many ills because, se desire for sensible goods, it has imprudently lost the goods of the intelligible
"But
after we

world."

Pico, Oration,
the

p. 235:

have,

through the agency of

moral

philosophy, both

voided

lax desires

anger and

too abundant pleasures and pared away like nail-cuttings the sharp corners of the strings of wrath, only then may we begin to take part in the and to be free holy rites
of our
.

for

our contemplation

Kristeller, Ficino,
certain

p. 225:

"The

mind can

therefore achieve the highest

act of contemplation under

conditions, but it is hindered from remaining in that state

by

the needs of the

ternal

life."

body

and of ex

54.

Taylor, Taylor,

p. 443:

"I believe that the

rational part of

man, in which his essence consists,

is

of a self-motive

nature, and that it subsists between

"
. .

intellect,

which

is immoveable both in
now

essence

and

energy, and nature, which both moves and is

55.

moved."

Pico, Oration,
who make
.

p. 238:

it has

come

to the point where none is

deemed wise, alas,

save

those
.

the study of wisdom a mercenary profession

speak all these accusa

tions
of

against

the philosophers, who both

reason

believe

and

philosophy for the

truth for its own
56.

that

no

fee

and no compensation

openly declare that there should be no study have been fixed for philosophers,
.

that since their whole life is set either on profit or on ambition

sake."

they do

not embrace the

very

discovery
160: spo are

of

"For there is ken

at of

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, edited by C. B. MacPherson, Penguin Books, 1972, p. no such Finis ultimus, (utmost ayme,) nor Summum Bonum, (greatest Good), as is
of the old

in the Books

Morall Philosophers. Nor

can a man

any

more

live,

whose

Desires

any end, then he, whose Senses and Imagination the desire, from one object to another;
.

are at a stand.

Felicity

is

a continuall progresse of

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

A particularly
tonic

101 is found in The Pla

lovely
s

statement of this neoplatonic vision

Philosopher'

Creed by Coleridge's contemporary Thomas Taylor:

soul essentially contains all knowledge, and that in the present life is nothing more than a recovery
whatever

I believe that the human knowledge

once

she acquires

of what she
. .

possessed;

and which

discipline

evocates

from its dormant retreats,

In

what

I take to be the majority

neoplatonic

view of

the commentary, the Hermetic contri

bution to the

tradition is the startling

means of a

divine
word

can

be

changed

by

by

a science.

This

seems

to

me

claim that the activity of the formula taught to the not-so-gifted, in a a critical distinction beween the orthodox

neoplatonists and

the

Hermetic

school.

There

are

two cases to consider:

(1) Can

prayer move

the divine?
of

(2) Can

magic move

the divine? In this context

such and such.

prayer

is

a weak

form
does

magic, asking

the

divine to do
The first God

Magic is

prayer which

not

have to say

"please."

case

is easy to
moved

answer

tonic tradition. Prayer cannot

will of

for any thinker within the broad orthodox Pla have an effect upon the divine.58 Belief that the
supplication, is
of course

can

be

by prayer and

Plato's defini

tion of the third type of atheism.

Prayer

will not

work, but

what about magic? no

This is

a complicated case to of neoplato

make, in part, because there is nism, believed

magic
and

doubt that Plotinus, the founder

discipline.59

to be an empirical

The

critical

difference
to be

between Plotinus
escapes magic
Plotinus'

the

Hermetist,

as

read

the texts, is that for Plotinus one

by turning

inward. Entrapment
material world:

by

magic, seems to

me

metaphor

for life in the

For everything that looks to

magically.

another

is

under spell
magic.

to that:

what we

Only

the self-intent go free of

source, and the

which

entire

life

of

the

practical man upon

us.60

is

Hence every bewitchment:

action

look to, draws us has magic as its only

we move to that

has

wrought a

fascination

The life

of

the mind is immune to

magic:

Contemplation

alone stands untouched

by

magic;

no man self-gathered

falls to

spell;

for he is one,
In the
57. 58.

and

that unity

is

all

he perceives,
its
the

so that

his

reason

is

not

beguiled but

holds the due course,

other

fashioning

own career and

accomplishing its task.

that gives the

way of life, it is

not

essential man

impulse; it is

not

Taylor,

p. 444.

Albrecht Dihle, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, Berkeley, 1982, pp. 2-3. A. -J. Festugiere, Epicurus and His Gods, translated by C. W. Chilton, Cambridge, 1956, pp. 73-6. 59. Plotinus, The Six Enneads, translated by Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page, Chicago, 1952,
4.40:

"But

magic

spells; how
there

can their

fact in Nature that

sity
and

is

an agreement of

efficacy be explained? By the reigning sympathy and by the like forces and an opposition of unlike, and by the diver

of those multitudinous powers which converge

in the

one

living universe.

There is

much

drawing

magic is internal to the All, its at spell-binding dependent on no interfering machination; the true discovered by men who tractions and, not less, its repulsions. Here is the primal mage and sorcerer
another."

thenceforth turn those same ensorcellations and magic arts upon one

60. Ibid.,

443.

Cf. Cassirer, Platonic Renaissance,

p. 50.

102

Interpretation
a

the reason; the unreasoning also acts as

misfortune.

principle, and this

is the first
that

condition of
works as

the

Caring for children, planning marriage everything 61 value taking by dint of desire these all tug obviously
Just
so

bait,

as the

Egyptian

magicians are made

to

testify
to

to God's power in

Exodus,
magic.62

too an Egyptian

magician

is

Plotinus'

made

When

one can attain union with

the

testify Divine, what

to

immunity
the

to

power can

material world

bring

to

bear?63

But there is
plative claims

as a purely contem Hermetism (in this reading) doctrine, akin to Plotinus'. In particular, no power to operate on "the physical world or upon other human beings a
which reads
advantage."64

dissenting tradition

Hermetism

for

one's own

If this is

so then

the Hermetic
there
can

philosopher no social of

does

not

claim an

ability to influence activity.

Thus,

be

engineering
a

claims made

from

Hermetic framework. In this interpretation

enlightenment."65

the Hermetic

philosopher, "his object is not power but

correct of

1 don't think this is

reading Knowledge of the divine drives magic, it does not laugh the siege to scorn. What I find to be critical are the passages in CH which describe the creation of power ful idols
De
est

the Hermetic texts

where

knowledge

of

the divine is power.

by

the divine

power within us.

Here is A. -J. Festugiere's translation:

pour

meme que

le Seigneur

et

le Pere ou,
ainsi

lui donner
est-il

son nom

le

plus

haut, Dieu,
il
recoit

le

createur

des dieux du ciel, il la donne

rhomme

l'auteur des dieux il

qui resident

dans les temples

lumiere (vie),
encore

et qui se satisfont

du

voisinage

des humains:

non seulement

la

mais

a son

tour,

non seulement

progresse vers

Dieu,

mais

il

cree

des dieux. Admires-tu, Asclepius, 6 Trismegiste

que

ou manques-tu

de foi toi aussi,

comme

la

plupart?
.

Je
.

sui confoundu
.

les images des dieux

qui est plus pure et veux

faconne I'homme
plus

ont ete et

formes des deux natures,

de la divine

infiniment ils

rhomme, je
ne se

dire de la

matiere qui a servi a

mais

celle qui est en deca de divine, les fabriquer; en outre, leurs figures

de

bornent

pas a

la tete seule,

ont un corps entier avec tous ses membres.

Ainsi l'humanite, jusqu'en

ceci

qui toujours se souvient

de

sa nature et

de

son et

origine,

pousse-t-elle a

l'imitation de la divinite. que,

pour qu'ils

comme

le Pere

Seigneur

doue les
ses

dieux d'eternite
propres

dieux

lui fussent semblables, la ressemblance de son visage.

ainsi

I'homme faconne-t-il

Veux-tu dire les statues, 6 Trismegiste?

6i. Ibid., 4.44. 62. Porphyry, Life of Plotinus,
1967,
pp. 16-17.
,

quoted

in J. M. Rist, Plotinus: The Road

to

Reality, Cambridge,

63. E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley, 1971 p. 286: "And as to the Plotinunio mystica, it must surely be clear to any careful reader of passages like Enn. 1.6.9 or 6.7.34, that it is attained, not by any ritual of evocation or performance of prescribed an inward acts, but
ian

by

discipline
64.

of the mind which

involves

no compulsive element and

has nothing

whatever

to do

with

magic."

Shumaker, Occult Sciences,

regards the

p. 206.

65. Ibid. Shumaker

"idol

making"

passage

(Asclepius xiii, 37)

as an

outlier,

accord

ingly

gives

it little

weight

in his interpretation.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith Oui, les

103

manques de foi! Mais ce d'une ame, conscientes, pleines de souffle vital, et qui accomplissent une infinite de merveilles; des statues qui connaissent l'avenir et le predisent par les sorts, l'inspiration prophetique, les songes et bien d'autres methodes, sont

statues, Asclepius. Vois comme toi-meme tu

des

statues pourvues

qui envoient aux

hommes les

maladies et qui

les guerissent,

qui

donnent,

selon nos

joie.66 merites, la douleur et la

Granting, then, the Hermetic sprinkled with divinity, the technical

tacting
the

world-

view

that

men and women are

in

a world

problem remains

how to

go about con

divine? There

seems to

have been

basically

two points of view, not

necessarily mutually

exclusive: one which emphasizes

the possibility

of con

tacting divinity

within us

purely through meditation, another

which emphasizes

external possibilities neoplatonic research

to contact the

divine "out

there."

Walker

summarizes

these

traditions as follows:
comprised two
.

The tradition,
magic

as

Ficino left it,

kinds

of

magic, the natural,

spiritual

and

the demonic magic

which

two divergent

directions;

The tradition, therefore was likely to grow in it did. The demonic magic, combined with mediaeval
of

planetary magic, led to the overtly demonic, recklessly unorthodox magic and Paracelsus. The spiritual magic tended to disolve into something else:
poetry,
. .

Agrippa

music and

Let

me

take it as demonstrated that

tradition.68

We

can

draw

a consequence out of

Coleridge has sympathy for the Hermetic this which can sharpen a distinc
more
generally.69

tion between the Hermetic tradition

and neoplatonism

The

66. Corpus Hermeticum

way,
same
p. 302:

2:325-6
willed

(Asclepius viii,

23-4).

The

Nag Hammadi Asclepius reads this

"Just

as

God has

that the inner

man

be

created

way

man on earth creates gods

passage which suggests

according to his that working idols are created

are

likeness."

according to his image, in the very Shumaker has no trouble discarding a

see,

with

his interpretation
after all

the passages
our

where we create gods

by tricking demons. The fatal problem, that I by the power within ourselves. The
13.
p. 75.

Hermetic treatises

describe

divine origin, e.g., Corpus Hermeticum, Traite I,

Paracelsus."

67. D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic [1958], Notre Dame, 1975, Marginalia, p. 296, writes of "gross impieties in 68. Newman, Apologia,
can p. 100: "while

Coleridge,
Christian

he indulged

liberty

of speculation, which no
rather

tolerate, and advocated conclusions which were installed a higher philosophy into inquiring minds
.

often
.

heathen

than

Christian,

yet after all

69. One

critical piece of evidence

conflict

is

Plotinus'

opinion of

the gnostic philosophy.

Plotinus,

Enne-

ads, 2.9. This

is

stressed

bridge, U.K.,

1968,

pp. 12-13:

E. R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety, Cam "Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus and Palladas were men brought up in the

by

Greek tradition, who thought and felt within the limits set by that tradition. They could recognise But no Stoic or Aristotelian, with Plato that this sublunar world 'is of necessity haunted by evil, Where we find the visible cos and no orthodox Platonist, could condemn the cosmos as a whole
'
. . . .

mos set
as

in

opposition

to

God,

Fate,

whose agents are

"
.

the planetary

the opposing principle may be described in any or all of three ways: demons, the Keepers of the Seven Gates which cut off the
.

world

from God

It is

not clear whether

this

distinction

could

be

made

in the

nineteenth

century John

because

there was a tradition, now

pp. 283-311.

discredited,

that Plotinus himself engaged in theurgy, E. R.

supported

Dodds, Irrational,
as part of the

Dodds'

interpretation is
pp. 384-96

by Rist, Plotinus,
gnostic and

p. 250.

Dillon. The Middle Platonists, Ithaca, 1977,

"Platonic
Underground."

describes the

Hermetic

groups

104

Interpretation
that it is
possible

non-Hermetic neoplatonist would claim

to encounter the

divine

within without accepting the possibility that this can have any consequence upon the empirical world. Mystical union does not allow us to turn our neighbor into a

frog. For if it can, this

vine

means we can coerce

the

divine;

we can operate on

the

di

in the

same

way
out

we can operate

the telephone in Paris.

Any

occultist will

acknowledge a random component.

We

can

bring

the

metaphysical

difference if
a

we can

temporarily

adopt
not

Kantian terminology.
of appearance.

Divinity

is clearly

property

of

things-in-themselves,
occur.

Hermetism

makes causal statements about

things-in-themselves;
A
non-

that

is,

under such and such conditions so and so will neoplatonist needs

probably

Hermetic
exists

to make no causal to control

it.70

statements about

the divine. It

but

we

have
what

no science

We know

to look for now. If Coleridge to make causal

participates

in the Hermetic tra

dition, he is

allowed

statements about

the

divine, in Kantian
own sake as an

terms, We know that Coleridge

ideal71

about things-in-themselves.
regards

intellectual for its

inquiry

for its

study

of

its

own sake as an aspect of uncaused activity.

Here Cole

ridge

contrasts work

for

reward with work

own sake:

But

this

is the

worst sort of

Slavery: for herein true Freedom consists, that the

as the alone
vast

outward

is determined
must

by

the

inward,

self-determinating Principle
of

what

then

be the result,
the

when

in the

majority
and

that class

in

which we are most entitled

to

expect

conditions of

Freedom,
our

Freedom itself &

overlaid

as manifested

in the Liberal

Arts

and

Sciences,

all

Freedom is
namely, in

stifled

their career, as

men

from the very commencement of &c?72 Universities, Schools of Medicine, Law

Here

we

have

a suggestion of what

Coleridge found

attractive

in the

proposal

of an endowed cultural class:

it

would

free the learned from the thrall

of

the ma

terial world itself. Reference

note

70.
cited

should

be made, again, to

Dodds'

separation of

Plotinus from the Hermetists,

in

63

71.

The importance

Kathleen Cobum, The

character of

study for its own sake is apparent in the Notebook passages cited in Conscious Imagination, London, 1974, p. 49: "The noblest feature in the Self
of so general of the young men in all but the lowest ranks favorite study or object of pursuit, besides their allowed, to choose the latter with reference to the former.

Germany

I find in the

tendency

(N.b.

and

highest)
am

to select for themselves

some

Bread-earner But this, I

and where circumstances

told, is

becoming

less

and

less the fashion

where

even

in Germany;

This ideal is

con

trasted with the actual experience

in England

the only study undertaken is for the sake of

mate

rial

reward:

universities
means

"but in England it is the misery of our all-sucking all-whirling Money-Eddy that in our appreciate all knowledge as those, who are not idle or mistaking Verses for Poetry
. .

to some

finite

and

temporal end, the main value of which consists

in its

being itself a means to

and

another

finite &

common end

Knowledge

Profession

Income
of

consequently

se

lecting

their particular Profession in exclusive reference to the probability

perhaps

their acquiring a good

income &

ultimately
of

Fortune thereby, then

which will pass
...

set about

getting in the

easiest

sort and that and which

quantity
requisite

knowledge,
.

them in their examinations

Profession."

way exactly that for the Profession,

is

to

making money

by

his

72.

Ibid.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

It is important for
tions that Walker
us

105
of

to recognize that

Coleridge knew to,

and

both Hermetic
renounced

tradi
at

has

called our attention

explicitly

any

tempt to engage in external

daemonic

magic.

Many

references

to the mss. of the

Huntington
vine

Library,

Ideas,73

its wonderfully revealing, redundant title, On the Di have appeared in the last fifty years, but the significance of the
with

moral

constraints which

Coleridge

puts on

himself has

gone unremarked.

If

Coleridge here distances himself from Thomas bull to Zeus,

nism

Taylor,

who wished

to sacrifice a
of neoplato

as

he distances himself from the daemonic tradition

not

in Philosophical Lectures,7* it is

completely

out of conviction

that their

approach will not work.

cannot commence

this subject

more

fitly

than

by disclaiming

all wish and attempt of

gratifying others. I leave the

a speculative refinement

heavenly
and

in myself, or an idle presumptuous curiosity in hierarchies with all their distinctions "Thrones, Domina

tions, Princedoms, Virtues,

era of the
and

Powers,"

Names, Fervours, Energies

with the

long et cet

Cabalists

the obscure

degenerated Platonists, to the admirers of the false Dionyius, students of Cornelius Agrippa. All pretence, all approach to particu involves its
own contradiction
.

larize

on such a subject

Or had the

evident contra

diction implied in the

ing

failed in preventing it [,] the fearful abuses, the degrad idolatrous superstitions, which have resulted from its applications form too
attempt

palpable a

warning

not

to have deferred

me even

from

motives of common

morality.75

In this
definition

same manuscript
which

Coleridge

gives a

very

clear

definition

of

the

Idea;

locates him

firmly

in the

neoplatonic

tradition:

An Idea is
ceived:

not a

simply knowledge

or perception as a

it is

realizing

knowledge,

knowledge

causative of

distinguished from the thing per its own reality, in it in

Life

73. 74.

Mss.

number hm

8195.
those where Coleridge acknowledges that the "Plotian

schoo

The important

passages are

could tap the Christians, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Philosophical Lec tures, edited by Kathleen Coburn, London, 1949, p. 243: "the great object of Eclectic philosophy was to persuade men Heaven was already practicable on earth; not to raise men up to God, but by per same occult power as nicious practices and contrivances of not

rites to

bring

God down to

"

man

Ibid.

p. 244:

"Yet let

me

say

this without acknowledging that truths are to be

found in those writers,

between Eclectics

and

in my mind,

awful

truths."

Coleridge

summarizes

the differences and

similarities

and

Christians
and

as a con were

troversy not over whether Christ was God (freely admitted) but whether too, ibid., p. 295. Coleridge notes the engineering difference, ibid.: "This
of

Pythagoras

Plotinus

constituted

them enemies

Christianity, if they

were

so;

which should

teach us to look not only at what a man

disbelieves, but

at what

he believes beyond

or

besides it, for

on

that the

nature of

his belief and disbelief must depend.

This was, however, very fascinating, especially as the Eclectic philosophy was connected with the boldest purposes for the extension of the human discussion of the importance of Coleridge's emphasis on Pythagoras is consistent with
powers."

Dodds'

Pythagorean themes in the

thagorean
75. 76. out

wider

literature, Dodds, Pagan

the tradition.

and

Christian,

pp. 23-4.

Perhaps,

neopy-

is

fairer

characterization of

Divine Ideas,

pp. 3-5.
marginal comments on

Ibid.,

31.

Coleridge's

Marcus Aurelius's "the God

p. 178:

us"

within

point

its

resemblance

to St. John's

Gospel, Marginalia,

"the

Spirit,

(or

principle of the

Will,

106

Interpretation
we read

Can

this definition of an Idea

self-actualizing

knowledge, knowl
and

edge which creates

reality cording to the Idea of Each? If so, then we may have some insight why
important. The Ideas
are accessible through

back into the Constitution of Church

an endowed

State Ac

learned

class was so and are

meditation,

what

Walker

Yates

astrology."

have taught
of our

us

to

call

"spiritual

Since the important truths

self is a vastly more appealing route study ridge than study of the external The efficient creation and dissemination of new knowledge

inner

in us, knowledge for to Cole

world.77

about

the physical

universe, a

claim which

Smith

uses

to

justify

a competitive educational
material reward

system,
of

is for Coleridge
new

far from

unmixed

blessing. The

for study

ideas may lead people to forsake the old. Thus, one part of the Smiththe Johnson challenge is addressed. The new ideas which are produced under mate rial incentives are not as important as that which has been forgotten as a
consequence.78

We

gain

insight into
which

what attracted presents

Coleridge to both

an endowed culture

if

we at

tend to the

facts

Smith

about the origin of

the

new

ideas

and

the fate of the old in the

competitive market

for ideas:
made

The improvements which, in branches

.
.

modern

times, have been

greater part of

in

several

different

of

philosophy, have not, the those

them, been

made

in universities;

several of

learned

societies

have

chosen

to remain, for a

long

time, the

sanctuaries

in

which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices

found
the

shelter and pro

tection,

after

they had been hunted

out of

every

other corner of

world.79

the
us

Conscience,

and the

Reason) he is fond
this is noticeable

/Something very like

of considering [as God] & in many Texts of St John's with

calls

it [the] God The

within

Gospel."

neoplatonic phi

losophers obviously would have little to quarrel the Word was with God, and the Word was
doctrine Platonist in letters
77.
appealed

to the philosophers:

John i : i "In the beginning was the Word, and Dodds, Pagan and Christian, p. 104: "His Logosand a Amelius, the pupil of Plotinus, cited it with approval
God."
. . .

quoted
of gold

by

Augustine thought that the opening words of St John's Gospel 'should be and set up to be read in the highest places of all
churches'

written

The interest in the interrelations

of truth within us and without us

brought

out

in Coburn's

summary of her findings from the notebooks, Coburn, Imagination, p. 28: "Thus we see that Cole ridge's poetry and prose, like his notebook memoranda, took root in his minute inspection not only of
the inner self, but
ways of external

relations;

and

the two were never severed from

each other

but

seen al

in

some

dynamic tension
the word

reconciliation."

of opposition or
"
.

She

quotes one

ing

passage of

new phaenomenon

becoming real, ibid., p. 64: were the dim Awaking of a forgotten

a

I have

always an of

especially illuminat obscure feeling as if that

still

or

hidden Truth

my inner Nature/It is
the cost of the
pp.

interesting
78.

as a

Word,

See the

passage

Symbol! It is Aoyog, the Creator! [and the cited above in note 71. The neoplatonic concern

Evolved]."

over

atten

tion given to experimental matters

is

not unique to

Coleridge,
discern

e.g.,

Taylor, Platonist,
smallest

138-9:

"Where,

says

Mr. Harris, is the

microscope which can

what

is

in

nature?

Where the
no por

telescope,
regions of and

which can see at what point

in the

universe wisdom

first began? Since then there is

end, let us

tion of matter which may not

be the

subject of experiments without

betake

ourselves

to the

mind,

where all

things are bounded in intellectual measure; where every

divine."

thing is permanent

beautiful,
79.

eternal and p. 727.

Wealth of Nations,

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

Smith's
sorts of

107
gives a good picture of what

previous

discussion

of school

"systems"

learning
out:

might

have been hunted

if

subtleties and sophisms composed the greater part of the

of

Metaphysicks

or

Pneumatics
ogy,
80
.

the schools,

they

composed the whole of this cobweb science of

Ontol

The description
new

which

Coleridge

gives

in Aids

to

Reflection

of some of the contrast

methodological opinion.

developments in

education

stands

in sharp

to

Smith's high

He only thinks who reflects. [Note] The indisposition, nay, the angry aversion to think, even in persons who are most willing to attend, and on the subjects to which

they

are

giving
and

studious attention, as political

economy, biblical theology,

ranks.81

classical

antiquities,

the

like,

is the

phenomenon that
of persons

every time I

enter

into the society

forces itself on my in the higher

notice

afresh,

Coleridge
there"

asserts that the new

ideas

are

substituting study

of what

is "out

for

what

is "in here":
and attention.

Distinction between thought

reproduction

By

thought is here meant the voluntary

or
. .

in

our minds of

those states

of

consciousness,

of

those inward

experiences, to which,

as to

his best

and most authentic

documents,

the teacher of

In attention we keep the mind passive: in thought, we it into activity but self-knowledge, or an insight into the laws and consti tution of the human mind and the grounds of religion and true morality, in addition to
moral or religious truth refers us.
.

rouse

the effort of attention requires the energy of

thought.82

What

remains

to be

demonstrated is that Coleridge thought

better ideas
chance of real

an endowed cul

tural class

would offer a

is

uncaused

activity)

of

for study for its own sake, (remember: this importance. Here it helps a great deal to re

member

that some critical passages in Church and State are explicitly repro

duced from Biographia Literaria.

The preliminary sketch of the idea of is found in Biographia Literaria. This

clerisy,

as noted

in Church

and

State,

occurs

in

a context which emphasizes

Coleridge's from
either

contention

that literature should be produced without motivation

fame.83

"immediate"

money

or

This

contention

is

a vital

link in the

neoplatonic chain.

Matter

must not corrupt spiritual things:

would address an affectionate exhortation to

. .

the

youthful

literati,

grounded on

own experience

never pursue literature as a trade

my Three hours

80. Ibid., p. 726. 81. Aids to Reflection, 82. Ibid., pp. 69-70. 83. This qualification dence
of a rather careless of

p.

69.
to reputation could, in the eyes of an
of
untender

made

critic, provide evi

p.

handling
men

the tools of
.

mechanical school.

Hobbes, Leviathan,
death does the
same of

162:
yet

"Desire

Praise, disposeth

to laudable actions,

Desire

of

Fame

after

...

is

not such

Fame vain; because

have

a present

delight therein, from the foresight

it,

108
of

Interpretation
unannoyed

leisure,

by

any

alien

anxiety,
to

and

looked forward to
a

with

delight

as a

change and recreation,

will suffice

realize

in literature
and

larger

product of what

is

truly
an

genial, than

weeks of compulsion.

Money,

immediate

reputation

form only

of increasing them by any but the necessity of acquiring given exertion will often prove a stimulant to industry; them will in all works of genius convert the stimulant into a narcotic. Motives by ex

arbitrary

and accidental end of

literary

labor. The hope

cess reverse their should

very nature,
talents to
.

and

instead

of

exciting, stun and stupify the mind

or profession, and

...

he

devote his

some

known trade

his

genius

to ob

jects

of

his tranquil

and unbiassed

choice.84

True knowledge, in Coleridge's

ated

by

material

incentives. Johnson
the "pernicious

idealism, cannot result from activity gener and Smith, across their political-religious
that the production of
fame.85

divide, both hold

opinion"

literature

re

quires substantial motivation:

desire

Of course, Coleridge fession

tive for the

would

of money or have been negligent if he did

not suggest a pro and minimal mo

which allowed a regular production of

income,

sufficient

leisure time,

literature. All these

conditions could

be

satisfied

by
he

working for the

...

established church:
man of

the church presents to every

cherish a rational

learning
to
unite

and genius a profession,

in

which

may
with

hope

of

being

able

the

widest schemes of

literary utility

the strictest

performance of professional

duties86

Coleridge
some,

also notes

that the

emoluments of

the profession were quite hand

and went on

to suggest that the

presence of an established clergyman pro

vides social

benefits to the

neighborhood:

...

a neighbour and a

mansion of

the

rich

family-man, whose education and rank admit him to the land-holder, while his duties make him the frequent visitor of the

farm-house

and the

cottage87

In Church less study

and

State Coleridge
as

uses

("thinking"

defined in Aid

Hermetic machinery to argue that motive to Reflection) will be co-extensive with

the divine
within us and

religious study.

Two

critical

issues

are clear: we contact

the Ideas in which

divinity

is

embodied are self-actualizing.

In the

next passage

84. Biographia Literaria,

as weeks of

1:152-3.

Is this hypothesis

"three hours

of

leisure is
of

as productive
compositional

compulsion"

the basis

for Coleridge's

systematic

underreporting

his

difficulties,

the facts of which are brought out

by Fruman, Coleridge,

pp. 3-12?

Perhaps, Coleridge

simply confused what ought to be with what is. 85. Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 717, argues that all difficult choice requires strong motivation. Boswell, Life, p. 182: "In 1756 Johnson found the great fame of his Dictionary had not set him above
the

necessity

of

'making

provision

for the

day

that was

him.'

passing
should

over

No

royal or noble patron

extended a munificent guage of we

hand to

give

independence to the

man who

had

conferred such

his

country.

We may feel indignant that there

have been

stability on the lan unworthy neglect; but

productions,

must, at the same time, congratulate ourselves when

rouse the natural

we

consider, that to this very neglect,

operating to
which

indolence
1:154. 1:155.

of

his constitution,
appeared."

we owe

many

valuable

otherwise, perhaps,

might never

have

86. Biographia Literaria, 87. Biographia Literaria,

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

the former
passages.

109 be
clear

is clear, the latter is hinted,

although this too will

in later

That in
the

all

ages, individuals

who

have directed their

meditations and their studies to

nobler characters of our

nature, to the cultivation of those powers and

instincts in them
M
.

which constitute,

the man, at least separate him from the animal, and distinguish the

nobler selves and

from the

animal part of

his

own

being,
which

will

be led

by

the

supernatural

to the contemplation of a power

moral

is likewise

super -human; that science,

especially

science,

will

lead to religion,

and remain

blended

with

it

The group

who comprise

the clerisy

is defined:
in its primary
acceptation and origi

the clerisy of the nation, or national church,

nal

intention

comprehended the

learned

of all

denominations;
of music; of

the sages and profes

and civil architec organ of

sors of the

law

medicine and

physiology;

military

ture;

of the physical
. . .

sciences; with the

mathematical as

the common

the

preceding;

and

linked to the When

we

neoplatonic research

ideas."

tradition, "the doctrine and discipline of look inside ourselves, what do we see? We see the divine.
course, simply a transliteration of the Greek for

"Theology"

is,

of

"study

of

god":

[Theology]
precedence.

was,

indeed,

placed at under
.

the head of all; and of good right did it claim the

the name
of

But

why?

Because

Theology,
doctrine

or

Divinity,
discipline

were con prima

tained [the
scientia as

substantive

issues]

and

lastly,

the ground-knowledge, the the

and

it

was named,

philosophy,

or

of

ideas.'9

Thus, in Church
knowledge for its

and

State,

the links between

own

sake are connected

theology and the pursuit of far more tightly than they are in
of

Biographia Literaria. Finally, the self-actualizing property

pealed to:

the divine is ap

The Theologians took the

lead, because
. .

the sci ence

of

Theology
gave

was

the root and the circu

the trunk of the knowledges that

civilized

man, because it

unity

and

lating

sap

of

life to

all other sciences

90

When

we recall

the

material conditions under which

the Ideas

can

be

contem

plated, Coleridge's

elitism

does

not seem

unnatural; the many

are

in

no position

to free themselves from through

are

material

interests. The

philosophical

truths unearthed
of

contemplation are self-enforcing.

This is just

another

way

saying they

Ideas,

not simple opinions:

88. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On the Constitution of the Church and State, edited by John Colmer notes "a close connection Colmer, vol. io of The Collected Works, Princeton, 1976, p. 44specula between C's poetic explorations of the supernatural and his psychological and religious
tions."

89. Ibid.,
90.

pp. 46-7-

Ibid.,

p. 47.

110

Interpretation
education, the
which nisus formativus of

national

the

body

politic ,

the

shaping And

and

informing
pecial

spirit,

educing,

i.e.,
the

eliciting, the latent

,

man

in

all

the
.

natives of
. .

the

soil , trains them

country free subjects of the realm importance is it to the objects here contemplated, that only by the
up to
citizens of

of es

vital warmth phi

diffused

by

these truths throughout the many, and

losophy,
nity
or

which rulers

is the basis

of

divinity,

possessed

by by the

the guiding

light from the

few,

can either

the commu

its

fully

comprehend, or

rightly

appreciate, the

permanent
91
. .

distinction,

and the occasional contrast,

between

cultivation and

civilization;

We

see

how the Ideas

material

are recalled and

how they
proposal
national

are self-actualizing.

The free

dom from

incentives is

obvious when we examine

the details of the pro

posed endowment.
endowment92

Coleridge's three-tiered
church

to

be financed

by the
a

national

of

the national

(i)

universities,

(ii)

"parson in

and (iii) a "school-master in every makes explicit provi every sion for incentives in the lowest tier: the school-master "who in due time, and un

parish,"

parish"

der
the

condition of a
pastorate."93

faithful

performance of

his

arduous

duties,

should succeed

to

The formal

argument now stands complete.

It is

an elegant, spare construc

tion. Each of the Hermetic premises

enterprise

has been is

employed and

the validity of the

would

is

clear.

The

obvious question

whether

this system

actually

do

what

it is

supposed

to do.

Coleridge

offers as evidence the

history
It

of previous

experiments chapter view of

in Hermetic
Church
and

social engineering.

The

critical

text here is Coleridge's

contains a re

of

State, "Regrets
of

Apprehensions."

and
years,"

the "moral

history
heart,

the last 130

history
of

of gloom caused
origin of

by

the mechanic
race,"95

philosophy94

"Ouran in

Outang theology
economy,"96

the

the human
general

"hardness

of

political moral

the "Guesswork of
and

consequences substituted
consumed

for

and political

philosophy,"97

the "gin

by

paupers."98

By

contrast

Coleridge

recalls

the bright episodes be

fore

1660.

The

episodes worth

remembering

occurred when

Hermetism

was at

the center of culture. Here is what he says about

the remarkable contrast

Ficino's

social engineering:

between the

acceptation of the word,

Idea, before the Res

the princely

toration,

and the present use of

the same word. Before 1660, the magnificent son

with

of cosmo was wont to

discourse

ficino, politian

and

mirandula on the ideas of

of serenest
with

Will, God, Freedom,

sir philip

Sidney, the
communed

star

brillance in the
on

glorious constellation of

Elizabeth's court,

spenser,

the ide a of the beautiful: and the younger Algernon

Soldier,

91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98.

Ibid.,

pp. 48-9.

Ibid.,
Ibid.

pp. 52-3.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

Ibid.

p. p.
p.

64
66. 68

Ibid.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

Patriot,
and

111
and nevil on the idea of

Statesman

with

Harrington, milton,

the state:

It

seems clear

that

guise and on a national

Coleridge's clerisy is the proposed rebirth, in Christian Academy.100 The vision of endowed scale, of Ficino 's
motive

intellectuals freed from

moral uplift

to the masses,

helps

penetrating the divine as a technique to provide put what Coleridge found attractive in a clerisy
modern

into
now

much sharper

focus. Thanks to deal

historical

work

in many fields,

we

know

a great

about previous neoplatonic social

engineering,

govern

ment sponsored academies and masques an attempt

to change the morals of people.

recalling to life the ancient mysteries in On the basis of what economists call
seriously.

revealed preference

grounds,

we must

take this activity

For instance,
shown us

British kings

spent vast amounts of their

money,

and caused others to spend vast

amounts, on masques to uplift court the depth of the Elizabethan court's

ing.102

morals.101

Moreover, Yates has

would see

involvement in Hermetic
Coleridge

social engineer

spot

It is consequently no in history. Joe Dee, the

surprise that grand magus,

this as a bright
teacher.103

is,

of course

Sidney's

We

can summarize our argument supported neoplatonic

by independent passages
one must

from the
be

Philosophical Lectures. In the

world-view,

be

purified

fore

one can contemplate

edge of real worth.

tradition, is
At
of once

clear

the divine, the source of Ideas, self-actualizing knowl Coleridge's debt to engineering neoplatonism, the Hermetic in his use of the most famous of all Hermetic phrases:
complex and

the most

the most

individual

of

creatures, man, taken in the idea

1M
.

his humanity, has been

of

not

inaptly

called the microcosm of the world

To break the thrall

this

material

world, Coleridge

proposes

to free an elite

from

material

motive, thus

bringing about the

and

requisite purification.

Here

we can

contact

the divine

within us:

which exists

in

all men

potentially

in its germ, though it

without

requires

both

effort

from

within and auspicious circumstances

from

to evolve

it into

effect

by

99. 100.
mies

Ibid.,

pp.

64-5.
on

For details
Sixteenth

Ficino's

Academy

and

its influence, Frances A. Yates, The French Acade

36-76-

of the

101.

Stephen Orgel
of the

Century [1947], Nendeln, 1968, pp. 1-13, and Roy Strong, Inigo Jones, London,
Politics"

1973, 1:49-75, have an extensive

discussion
cussion of

"Platonic
Jones'

involved in the Stuart

-.55:

court masques.

Here is

some of their

dis

Inigo
the

contributions, 1

"[he] realising
and

the royal ideas

of

by

creating

what were es

sentially

models of the

universe,

was a

living demonstration

the power of the mind to comprehend

and art.

and control

workings of

nature, both human

elemental, through intellect

And thus in

Love's Triumph, King's

able.

once

the anatomy
and

of neo-Platonic politics

has been completed, the

universe

is

at

the

command."

Orgel

Strong provide

history

of

the expenses of this activity:

it is

consider

102. 103. 104.

Frances A.

Yates, The Occult Philosophy in

Lectures,
p. 312.

the Elizabethan

Age, London,

1979.

Ibid.,

pp. 79-93-

Philosophical

112

Interpretation
and

this third
plates all

higher power he

places

himself on the
their

same point as

Nature,

and contem and

objects, himself included, in

permanent and universal

being

relations.105

Coleridge
He tells

cites

Bacon's

views on purification:

us that the mind of man purged of

light.106

is

an edifice not

built

with

human

hands,

which needs of

only to be
and

its idols

and

idolatrous

services to

become the temple

the true

living

These are,
place."107

of

course, "idols

of

the

den,

of

the theatre,

and of

the market

Coleridge draws the

reader's attention
where

to the past glories of neoplatonic pol

within us was

icy,

to Ficino 's academy,

the divine

tapped,

even

if in

a pa

gan context.

These,

we are

led to believe,

were magical times:

...

yet there was the power

felt,

and and

[sic]

with

the

power

the grace and the

life

and

the influence of Platonic

philosophy.

This

was under

the auspices of

Lorenzo the

Magnificent

taming
and

the untractable

There the mighty spirit still coming from within had succeeded in matter and in reducing external form to a symbol of the inward

imaginable

beauty.108

Here

Ficino's academy seems to be the paradigm of Coleridge's social engineering. was an institution which quite literally worked magic. When Coleridge dis
the good

cusses
us

times, he is talking

about

Ficino. Yates

and

Walker have taught

to understand what this means.

Let have

me not pretend

that the

argument above accomplishes more than

it does. I

attempted

to demonstrate that Coleridge's argument against Smith's and

Johnson's What is

anti-endowment position

is

coherent

inside the Hermetic tradition.

claim

special about

the Hermetic tradition

is the

that under

well-specified

conditions we can control the

divine

within us and

by so doing,

control

the mate

rial
the
an

world.

What I

claim

to

have

Hermetic tradition, then institutional setting inside

The
next

is */ Coleridge were a social engineer in his argument follows. Coleridge proposes we create
shown
which we can

let the divine

speak

through

us. claim:

step in my

argument

is to demonstrate the

Coleridge does
not

were not a social engineer a

if my in the Hermetic tradition, then his argument

converse to

follow. This is first.

logical,

not a

textual,
his

argument and we consider a spe

cial case

Suppose Coleridge
view.

were

developing
valid?

argument

from

Kantian

point of

Would the
Ibid.

argument

be

Would

freeing

individuals from incentives

105. 106.

107.
108.

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

p. 333.
p. 332.

p. 193.

S. T. Coleridge Replies to Adam Smith

allow

113
to break

them to obtain

self-

actualizing

knowledge,

free

of

determinism?

For Kant, determinism is necessary to think about appearances; free will is only sensible for Obviously, in a Kantian framework we
things-in-themselves.109

cannot conduct social split

policy to determine things-in-themselves. The Kantian between the determined world and the free world will not support Cole
claims

ridge's

because Coleridge
This
can

needs to make causal statements about self-ac a

tualizing we free individuals from

will

events.

be done in

Hermetic

system

the paradigm

is that if

material concern

they

will obtain gnosis and this event outside

take an

individual

outside

fate,

outside

determinism,

the chain of
construction

cause and effect. would not suffice

I think it

clear that

Coleridge knew that Kant's

cannot

for his
is

result.

Things-in-themselves

be

coerced.110

The
able to

general case
coerce

now easy.

For Coleridge's
In particular,
things

argument

to

hold,

we must

be

the divine

within us.

we want

to create an institu

tional

causality.

setting in which We are the

and

all sorts of good

would

be

created outside material a

operators on the

divine. This is
and

defining

characteristic
well-

of

theurgy,

the link between

we

theurgy

the Chaldean Oracles is

known.111

Thus,

find

ourselves

back in the Hermetic tradition. This

estab

lishes the
If the
can

converse as required.

above reconstruction of silence

Coleridge's
on

political

break the
comes

ridge

to grips

with

in the commentary Smith and Johnson. Further, debt to the

neoplatonics

Church

and

economy is correct, we State about how Cole

we

find

reason

to believe

that Coleridge's

claimed

is

quite real and not a sham

throwing

willing to grant the Her first-rate. At bottom, how metic view, Coleridge's construction is absolutely whether there is reason ever, we must ask whether the game is worth the effect,
sand over

his debt to Kant. Indeed, if

we are

to believe that such social engineering

asked

would work.

The

proper question was

long

ago

by

Coleridge's

great master:

109.

Immanuel

Kant, Critique of Pure Reason,

"if
appearances are

translated

by

Norman

Kemp Smith,
be
upheld.

New York, Nature

will

'937>

A536-B565:

things

in themselves, freedom
cause of

cannot

event."

then be the
no.
never

complete and sufficient

determining

every his
own

Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, believe, that it was possible for him

his
mere words express; or

1:100:

"In

spite therefore of

declarations, I
the

could

to have meant no more

by

his Noumenon,

or thing

in

itself than power

that in his own

external

conception

he

confined

whole plastic

to the forms of the

intellect, leaving for the

is doubtless

cause,

for the

materiale of our

sensations,

inconceivable."

a matter without

form,
of

which

In his discussion Spirit Seer,

translated

Swedenborg, Kant made an unsurprising claim, Immanuel Kant, Dreams of a nature can never be by John Manolesco, New York, 1969, p. 70: "the spiritual
and can never

known but only assumed to us in our total

those who know only the
solved

be

thought of

in

a positive sense

because

no

data

are available

His
great

attitude

toward the occult

is

expressed

in terms that
Hudibras

might surprise

critiques, ibid., p. 66: "Perhaps the clever wind rattles through the in the riddle for us; according to his opinion, when a hypochondriac if up, it turns into an a f becomes it , takes: if direction it the down, depends on testines, it all
inspiration."

alone could

have

apparition or a ill.

holy
pp. 283-4.

Dodds, Irrational,

1 14

Interpretation
I
can call spirits so can

glendower hotspur

from

Why,

I,

or so can

vasty deep. any man; But will they come,

the

when you

do

call

for

them?112

And, it really makes no difference will they come when we call?

whether

the spirits are

in here

or out

there,

112.

Henry IV,

m.i.

Coburn

spirits from the vasty

deep,"

less

deep."

Coleridge's

reference

in Philosophical Lectures, p. 316, "call forth recalling only Milton's Paradise Lostl. 177, "vast and bound occurs in an illuminating context where he discusses magical opera
glosses a passage
as

tions.

Review Essays

Shakespeare
Studies

and

his Roman Plays

and

by Cantor, Piatt,

Blits

Will Morrisey

Shakespeare's Rome: Republic

N.Y.: Cornell

and

Empire.

By

Paul A. Cantor. (Ithaca,

University Press,
Md.:

1976. 228 pp.: cloth

$26.95.)

Rome
tion.

and

Romans

(Lanham,

According to Shakespeare. By Michael Piatt. Revised edi University Press of America, 1983. 331 pp.: cloth $25.00,
on

paper

$13.00.)
of

The End

the Ancient Republic: Essays

Julius Caesar. 95
pp.: cloth

(Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press,

Over twenty
years

1982.

By Jan H. $12.95.)

Blits.

ago, Allan Bloom

as

and

Harry

V. Jaffa

wrote

Shakespeare's

Politics,
again

essays

"intended

first

steps

in the The

enterprise of

making Shakespeare merely 'liter

the theme of philosophic reflection and a recognized source for the serious
of moral and political
problems."1

study
ary'

authors regarded the

or estheticist ment

study

of

Shakespeare's

writings as an example not of refine

but

of philistinism.

Estheticism,

that monument to exquisite perception, ac

tually blocks readers from seeing poetry clearly. Shakespeare intends not only to write beautifully but to depict something: "a whole series of fundamental human
problems."

Shakespeare depicts these life. different kinds

'

problems

by depicting
life

different kinds

of

men and ways of

One
gimes

sees

of men and ways of

by

observing

political re

'in

action.

Drama

serves as an

political action.

Bloom

and

Jaffa

consider

especially four

vivid and accurate of

Shakespeare's dramas

way to depict The

Merchant of Venice, Othello, Julius Caesar, and King Lear as depictions of the kinds of men and ways of life political action reveals and cultivates. The first
of

these two

pairs concerns men and

their

ways of

life in Venice,

modern, com

mercial

republic; the

second pair concerns men and

their ways of

life in

ancient

Rome

and ancient as

Britain,

the former as it changed from a republic to an empire,

the latter

a monarchy.

Bloom

and

Jaffa move, then, from Shakespearean

consideration of

consideration of the rule of

many to his

the

rule of one.

From
the

the many to the

one:

the authors

move as some philosophers

move,

not as

Creator-God
1.

moves.

Allan Bloom

and

Harry

V. Jaffa:

Shakespeare'

Politics (New York: Basic

Books,

1964).

116

Interpretation
sentence's comical afflatus calls attention
s

That last
Shakespeare'

to a serious

feature

of

Politics,

and of

Shakespeare's

politics.

Religious

matters

move over

the surface of these writings, but

they

never sink

too

may far beneath it.

not

The

modern commercial republic of

Venice

would

"overcome the
could
hereafter."

religious ques

tion,"

the question of how

men

men of

opposing faiths
as

tach[ing]
for the
about

to the here and

now rather

than to the

live in harmony, by "atBut the toleration for

commerce

commerce requires can survive content of

only

long

as men care more

than

their religious faith. Bloom regards Shakespeare as pessimistic

of modernity's

the success

strategy

of

distraction:

Othello is

about a man who

tried to assimilate and failed. In The Merchant of

Venice,

we see the soul of a man who refused to assimilate. and

He is consequently distrusted

hated. He reciprocates,

and

his

soul

is

poisoned.

tian is

In The Merchant of Venice, a comedy that stops just from both a Jew and a fellow-Christian
'saved'

short of

by

a woman purpose.

tragedy, a Chris inspired by Shakespeare justice

a

classical philosophy. makes

Commerce does

not suffice

for this

it

plain

that classical philosophy can defeat

Christianity
utopia.

with more

than it can defeat

Judaism; he

also makes

it

plain

that it can only

defeat them in
a

comedy,

drama

whose characters

have

access

to

In

Othello,
of

that stops just short of comedy (the jealous husband is a stock

victimized cost of

figure

tragedy fun, justly

by a merry wife), Shakespeare has his villain defeated, but only at the death to the villain's good wife. Bloom regards Christian love as the
disaster. Christian
political man's

cause of this

bines the
upon
God'

love, according to Bloom's Shakespeare, com desire for honor a desire that makes one dependent
with an apolitical quest

the opinions of others

for

universality.

'loving
would

is

a contradiction

in terms, for "a

upon nothing. not an
with

perfect

being

would not

love"; it

desire nothing, depend

suspicion of

"Jealousy,

the emotion accompanying the

outside

infidelity, is
is
even more

important theme

the

Bible."

The Chris
mysti

tian "attempt to do away

cism which

the superficiality

of

the old law leads to a to a cult of

distant from the

truth,"

words and even

deeds insubstantial but

in Othello's case, the

which goads

itself into

fidelity that finds believing the

this cir

frailest

of signs

presence of a

handkerchief. In

It becomes negativity, and nothing more; cumstance, the clear-sighted Iago successfully corrodes faith, but "has no idea of what he His clear sight "cannot foresee that his wife, "would be willing
reason can

be

corrupted.

wants."

Emilia,"

to

die for the

Problems

truth."

All his

thinking
induce

ends

in the

silence of nihilism.
perhaps

caused

by

religions not adapted

to existing civil society, or the ancient polities

to civil society as such, may

one to examine

whose re

ligions

were civic.

Bloom turns to Shakespeare's depiction

with a memorable and who

of ancient

Rome in

Julius Caesar. He begins

Caesar is the story

my

of a man

became

god."

perplexing sentence: "Julius There is no evidence, to

He was,
of

knowledge,
if he

that Julius Caesar ever

were one.

became

a god.

course,

wor

shipped as

His

godliness was

entirely

a matter of

human

opinion.

Review Essays
He was,
human
one might

1 17
say,
a political god.

"His

appearance ended

forever the

age of

heroes"

that

is, human heroes

admired as

human beings. But in

doing
con

this, Caesar "brought to fulfillment the end implied in all heroic (emphasis added), vincing others that he was "the best of all
men"

ambition,"

and

thereby
all

causing his

"spirit"

to rule Rome

This

apparent

that came to

be implied

immortality and by the

upon

by "convey[ing] the sole title to the status of being the source of legitimacy
"Caesar"

legitimacy."

name,
perplexing.

causes

Bloom to

call

Julius
that

Caesar

"self-sufficient."

This too is

For Bloom has

shown

Othello depends
political animal

reputation,

opinion.

Did

not

Caesar,

who

is

an even more admit

than

Othello, depend upon others even

Bloom
calls

more?

As if to

this,

in his

next sentence

Caesar's the "greatest

of political accomplish

ments"

ple who ever

(emphasis added), and then calls the Romans "the greatest political peo When one considers Venice, Christianity obscures the polit
lived."

ical; in Rome
of

we can see

the political clearly. the political at the

moment an unusually pure example The Roman Republic was "the seed-bed of

In Julius Caesar

we see

it is

about

to go out of

existence.

Romans."

great

Seeds

by

nature grow

into plants,

and plants

by

nature tend

to

crowd one another out.

political

"Out

of the constant competition

for the

rewards of citi

zenship,"

ponents."

godhood

his op life, "finally end of a aims at the heroism human Just as heroism, sort of naturally that makes future heroism impossible, so political life aims at the end of
emerged a victor who could subdue all of
replacement of

politics, the
and

the Republic the

by

the Empire.

By

the time of

Antony

Cleopatra, "nothing
the

of

old world can work

in the

new."

The

peaceful

rule of one man ends

external warfare and

domestic faction ("undesirable in

hero,"

themselves") that made republican, political, virtue flourish. Romans are no a remnant. Further, longer necessary, or even possible; Antony is "the last which exalts faith a new "within that peace can be sown the seeds of

peace,"

leading
ered

the

world

toward the circumstance Bloom's readers have already consid

in Shakespeare's Venice.
question

"The important

is, then,

what were

Caesar's talents

and what was

the
one

To understand Caesar's success, policy that brought about such must first consider the circumstances Caesar's talents and policy exploited. Bloom considers Republic Rome, as seen in Shakespeare's one play about Re publican Rome. In Coriolanus, Rome stands revealed not as one city, but as two,
results?"

the rich city, is city of the rich and a city of the poor. The Senate, representing would lose its virtue aristocratic were Romans equal, "the soul of Rome"; if all Rome for exposes Caesar The poor city is Rome's body. Julius "field of
a
action."

soul even as its soul be entity wherein the body actually rules the this does Caesar body. winning lieves it rules the by "betray[ing] his own Although Bloom basest in to what is the poor to his side what

it is:

an

class,"

them."

by "appealing
of

writes that

"the people,
and

when poor and

held in

check

by

the aristocrats, are per

the state,

pity"

fectly decent

deserving

but "when in it
must

control of

they

are

the

institutions,"

enemies of republican

be said that the

people's

decency

was

118

Interpretation

would be impossible. One might probably less than perfect, else its corruption blame the aristocrats for misrule, were it possible for them to truly rule. Corio

lanus demonstrates the

tue to be

independent,"

impossibility of truly aristocratic rule. He "wants his vir but, like Othello, his political nature requires honor,
The
more godlike
manner.

which comes who can

from

men.

honor him in

satisfying

his nature, the fewer men there are But as soon as he steps outside the

city, rejects politics, he is

honored, worshipped, by no one. Further, the exis tence of his mother proves his humanity, deny it though he will. Bloom writes that "a man cannot become a god, in Rome at least, on the patrician
because "the
phrase
people's

princ

is

of course

love is necessary; a god unworshipped is no either a bad blunder or a good, if naughty, joke,
Roman
religion at

god."

The last
point

joke

ing

to the

human,

political character of

the very least.

Caesar
Roman

understood

that one cannot go broke underestimating the taste of the

people.

To

modern

readers, this is
who cares so

an unremarkable

insight. "What is

re

markable not

is that this man,

mere

little for the

nobility is

conventional

virtues, does
nobil

degenerate into

self-indulgence, that he possesses the charms of the

charms of
deeds,"

ity."

However,

to

possess

not necessarily to possess no

bility. Caesar, "capable

of

the highest

ambition and

the

lowest

is

"saved"

Bloom's very word, and They "saved him from the

one with religious resonance errors of

by his own assassins.

preventing him
"king."

weaknes

humanity

and

from making the error of allowing himself to be called "The position he had henceforth shall call kings
"Caesar."

Instead,

men

created was

too great

to be fulled

by

man, even the

whole

Caesar; but Caesar's

world."

spirit,

once released

from his
of

body,

ranged over
Hero."

Bloom titles this

end all

chapter pagan

"The

Morality

the Pagan

Caesar is the hero to

heroes;

heroism immolates

the very morality upon which

it depends for its

meaning.

"As

man,

[Caesar]

was a

failure"; he did not receive the free, honest admira

of

tion of the best human beings

problem of mental
equal."

his time. "To be Caesar is

no solution to

the

leading

a noble political
"But,"

life that is

not

tragic,

not rooted

in funda
is his
who

contradictions."

Bloom

immediately

adds, "no

political man

This leads to
plot

a consideration of

the two political, republican, men

lead the

to kill

Caesar,

men whose political character

is
an

compromised

by

antipolitical cian.

doctrines. Brutus is
contradict not

Stoic politician, Cassius

each other

Epicurean
decent"

politi
moral

That

is, they

only

but

also

themselves. The

izing
also

Brutus has "no

other source of

knowledge
gods.

about what

is

than "the

view,"

popular

namely, belief in the

In this he is
"Stoic"

a political man. and

But he
present

believes that
is

"morality

is

absolute"

(his
a

side),

tries to

Caesar's
sacrifice
would

assassination as an act of not enough.

piety,

"sacrifice to the

gods."

But

one such

Other

sacrifices

have been
of

needed

to make

notably the sacrificing of Antony the conspiracy work. Brutus cannot quite con
which

vince

himself
in

his

own

morality,

he

nonetheless would

in

a sense

deify
kill
and

perhaps

order

to convince himself of it.

Cassius, by
Brutus'

contrast,

would

Caesar, Antony,

and

many

others.

But, lacking

self-delusion,

Review Essays

-119

lacking

Brutus'

hypocrisy, he has
his fellow

neither
plotters.

the reputation nor strength

of will and

to

impose his

prudence on

"Could
type

a man

be both Stoic

Epi

curean,"

supplementing the defects

that the philosopher,
mediated
and

of each

with

the other's
who

virtues?

Bloom
. . .

suggests could

Cicero, is "a
Brutus'

mean"

golden

"perhaps

have

between

moral passion and

Cassius'

calculation."

"With Brutus
plication of

Cassius, Shakespeare
political

shows

the

impossibility of the direct ap

in
attempts

philosophy to to transform reality "to fit

anism accounts

affairs,"

which application results

it."

one's conception of

Neither Stoicism "Caesar

nor

Epicure

for the

political

man, who pursues neither wisdom

city."

nor pleasure

but something in between: beyond the limits Caesar does

"glory through the

lived,"

seems

to have been

the most political man who ever

of politics.

but this seeming,

as we've

seen, pushes

so without ever

knowing the
Politics,"

significance of what
upon mere opinion.

he does. He

re

Jaffa's essay on titled "The Limits of shows a better to go beyond those King Lear, way limits. As the drama begins, Lear has reached a political limit; he foresees the
end of

mains a creature of

appearance, dependent

his

reign and would provide perpetuation of

for the succession,

monarchy's greatest regime requires

di

lemma. The
vine

assistance,"

its

most obvious

any Jaffa reminds us; monarchy, then, only presents this dilemma in aspect. In Lear the problem is most striking, as Great Britain is Shakespearean drama. Jaffa
action,
and
calls

the political

institutions

of

"di

united as

in

no other

Lear the
of

greatest

king,

the

succession the greatest

monarchy the best form Act I,

scene

government,

of a

Great Britain that

Jaffa

was never greater.

shows that the

love test

of

i, far from being

blunder

of

Lear's dotage, demonstrates the old king's political greatness. The wisdom of Jaffa's interpretation, however, may be seen in his suggestion that Lear overrides his
for
own political greatness through
success."

"a

passion

far

more profound

than the passion

an

political

On

one

level,

Lear

rages

because Cordelia's truthful his

plan

swer to the

love test does

refusal

not permit consummation of

role

for the

succes

sion;
that

at

worst, her

to play the

he

assigns might even reveal a would

Machia

vellian

selfishness, for

political edifice character of

he knows. On the deeper level, Lear which it had been his life's work to
all

"destroy

construct"

because the

very

professions of

he he

can never
cannot

authority impedes knowledge. As king, Lear can command love but not love itself. As king, he is said to embody justice, but Without ceasing to rule, know, as king, who truly loves
'justice.'

know. (One

might add

that

'justice,'

and therefore

love for him

will no

by ceasing to rule he will no longer embody longer be love of 'justice.') Among

human beings, Godlike authority blocks Godlike knowledge. The remainder of quite literally, as Lear divests himself of the play presents a king's divestiture
his clothing, symbolic true; the "divine
out to
of conventional

hierarchy.

Only
little

the natural

hierarchy

is

assistance"

rulers need

to perpetuate political
or no not

institutions turns

be the

assistance of

philosophy, which gives

direct assistance to
to say that
philoso-

those

who would perpetuate political

institutions. This is

120 phy
well

Interpretation
useful, indirect assistance; philosophers are
self-

cannot or will not give

sufficient

in

one

sense, but

not

in every sense,

and certain political

institutions,
jus
,

perpetuated, may

serve

them better than others. Lear's "attachment to to [the world

tice was at the root of

and

his

attachment

in

which

he had been

king]

tragedy King Lear lies in the necessity of Lear to abandon even his at tachment to justice [which he himself was said to embody] when the claims of
the
of

love

and a

truth are brought to bear in all their uncompromising

one might

imperiousness."

Only

Creator-God,
classics

say,

could

both

justly

command and

truly know

Cordelia. But

would such a

God love her? The Bible teaches that He would,

that he is

leaving the
for
whose

to wonder why.
shows

Lear's love for Cordelia

human,

not godlike.
or

He

needs not

truth,

discovery
and

one might turn to

consider

philosophy

religion, but

to ruler

ship.

Bloom

Jaffa

the philosophic
permanent

Shakespeare to light
on

provide

for this

study of politics as understood human need. Politics may shed

by
no

men, but it does generate a representative variety of men and places

them in revealing circumstances. Politics raises questions, sometimes perforce.

Politics

readies men

to be illuminated tellingly.

Since this first step taken by Bloom and Jaffa, many others have joined the ex ploration. Today, Shakespeare is indeed the theme of philosophic reflection and
a recognized source

for the

serious

dramas

most

thoroughly

studied

study of moral and political problems. The to date are those on ancient Rome, that excep

tionally

political city.

Paul A. Cantor

examines

the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire as un

derstood

by Shakespeare,
republicanism of the

dates true institution its

pairing Coriolanus with Antony and Cleopatra. Cantor not from the expulsion of the Tarquin kings but from the
gave

tribunate, "which

the plebeians a share in the power,

and

by introducing
regime

the popular element into Roman sovereignty gave the Republic

character."

mixed

Coriolanus

presents

the tribunate at its beginning.

not receive ex

Julius
tended

Caesar,

which presents

the Empire at its

beginning, does
add

consideration

because Cantor found he "had little to

subject"

to what has

al

ready been

written on

the

by

Bloom. dramas
allies
as parallel

Pairing
vering
seven

suggests

Plutarch. Cantor

regards the two

alienates

lives: the
wa

single-minded and arrogant

and generous

Coriolanus
wins

his

in victory; the

Antony
on

the love of his allies in defeat. Cantor then three on

writes

chapters; three

Coriolanus,

Antony and Cleopatra,

follow

the

introduction, "Romanness in Shakespeare finds "true

Romans to
succumb to

Shakespeare."

Romanness"

caused

Egyptian

primarily in the Republic. The Empire customs and Greek doctrines, particu
tension between

larly

Epicureanism. The Republic

a tension

causes a

heroic

virtue and

commerce,
virtue,
would

the Republic needs in order to survive. Undiluted heroic

associated with

austerity, anger, and pride, animates

with

Coriolanus,

who

dismantle

the Republic. But commerce,

its tendency toward

easygo-

Review Essays

111
needs at

ing defenselessness,

least

some

heroic

virtue.

"Pride turns

out

to be the
city,"

only force that can be counted upon to make a man willing to die for his even if wounded pride may also make a man willing to kill his city. In the Em
pire,
political advancement comes with

flattery
Eros

of one's

superiors,

not

manly
en

self-assertion ergies of men

identified
from

with

the public good. Thus the Empire "redirects the

life."

public

to private

replaces thymos.
reflect

The two
morphosis.

most prominent

Roman

women

in the two dramas

and

this meta
son,"

Volumnia, "torn between love for her country

who

love for her

her

Coriolanus,
love for her
to

threatens her country, represents the Roman

matron at

most

authoritative.

Octavia,

"torn between her love for her

husband,"

Antony, "and
a

brother,"

Octavius,

would

be

Roman

matron

but lacks

country
to

defend; her

two conflicting

private

loyalties

provide no standard a spiritual

by

which

guide choices.

The Empire, though universal, lacks

anger-stirred

hierarchy. Cantor
to suc

suggests ceed

that the presence of a standard or

hierarchy
whereas

enables mediators

in the spirited,

Republic,

the absence of any public

without stable

standard predestines mediators

to fail in the erotic Empire. Eros

purpose

brings only "an endless succession of momentary awakening "immortal Longings that are immortal must eventually find objects
longings."

pleasur

equally immortal, "there had to be a

whether real or

imagined. Cantor
could
'church'

sees what

Jaffa writes, that

church."2

polity, before there Shakespeare's Romans do not separate

catholic

be

a catholic
'state,'

from

as moderns

do,

or as

Christians. Romans
virtue,

associate

impiety
the

with
.

injustice.
. .

Regarding

courage as

the

chief

they "make

room at

top for

ambitious and spirited

men";

the tribunate

enables a

political ambition.
concerned about

few among the long-excluded plebeians to satisfy their Faced with rebellious, starving plebs, "the patricians are more
political ambitions of
plebeian

the

the leaders of the rebellion than about

whole."

the desires
amounted get out of

of

the

class

as

In the Republic, Such

patrician

eros

often

warriors."

only to "a
hand,"

matter of

framing

austerity "can
republic-

even as plebeian appetites can. reason rules thymos

In the

most celebrated

in-speech, Plato's,
reason

and, through

it,

the

appetites.

Without

fable),

the

(Rome's Senate is only a belly, republic-in-deed is ruled by opinion (in particular,

"This is the
paradox of

according to the Senator

Menenius'

by

offsetting

class

prejudices).

the Roman

regime:

the plebeians must accept

. .

the Senate's right to rule, and ceptance,

mere appetite will
would exhaust

yet

dispute the way it

rules.

Without this

ac

rule,

defenselessly;

without

this

disputing,

warrior

austerity Coriolanus

the city.
refound"

errs

found Rome, but,

Romans. He would regarding warriors as the only true can be Lycurguses no "as Shakespeare discreetly hints,

by

in Rome. Rome came, stayed, lanus, "worshipped by both

2.

and went more might

by

chance

than

by

choice.

Corio
not

sides,"

have been

founder

were

he

too

Harry V.

Jaffa: "The

Unity

of

Universe,"

spearean

in John Alvis

and

Tragedy, Comedy, and History: An Interpretation of the Shake Thomas G. West, editors: Shakespeare as Political Thinker
p. 294.

(Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 1981),

122

Interpretation
He
will not use rhetoric

patrician.

to

perpetuate

the noble lies that bind the

city

during
mands

peacetime.

His

spiritedness

blurs

comfortable

distinctions between

public

and private

that ordinary men appreciate. His spiritedness

is

so

strong that he de

the highest

honor,

perpetually.

But,

of

course,

honor,

compacted almost

entirely of opinion, partakes of the mediocrity and changeableness of opinion. Coriolanus hates the fickle plebs for their very fickleness, without ceasing to
wish that

they

would

worship him

properly.
more

But the

more

they

could admire

Coriolanus for
therefore

'Coriolanic'

reasons, the

the plebeians

would

resemble,

and

rival, him.

His mother, Volumnia, shows Coriolanus that he cannot destroy the city in or der to punish it for dishonoring him, because he has no basis for independence from the
city.

finally
city
of
noble

cannot

At times resembling a god, a machine, or a beast, Coriolanus deny he is of woman born, hence part of a family, hence part of a
that

families

he is

human

being

who

"needs Rome to

perpetuate

his

memory."3

Shakespeare's Romans "lack

at

ing

for

themselves,"

best

depending
for

upon

inwardness"; they "avoid think proverbs once defined by an

American

cynic as

boned

wisdom

weak

teeth. "Republican Romans use rhet

themselves."

oric even when

talking

to

Nicanor the spy, the only man free of Roman opinions. Cantor is probably the first commentator to Nicanor Shakespeare suggests the presence of philosophy. "Rome
accomplishes

Their only counterpoint in the city is Republican Rome who is truly without a city, in
see

that

with

politicizing its citizens, with such success that Rome demands loyalty, denies "ac it can reveal the limits of the city as Truth is dangerous to Rome, to cess to wisdom, especially to

its

goal of

such."

self-knowledge."

the opinions that make Rome Rome. Without

entirely seeing this, the patricians act as if they do, sacrificing the outstanding patrician in order to evade plebeian rage at the patrician class (and, one might suggest, to rid themselves of the
dominant
resentment'

patrician

'plebeian

is

not an

exclusively
not

plebeian vice).

Whereas
does
still not

the

individual, Coriolanus,
as

learns that he is

self-sufficient, the city

and

learn. "It is

if Lear

were

to come through the scenes on the heath

think that storms

would peace at

his

bidding."

Individuals

can

learn, but

cit

ies

cannot.

They

can

only

change.

The Roman
makes exile

emperor rules

subjects,

not citizens.

impossible;

enemies now

kill

one

another,
own

A world-encompassing state and the men they kill are fighting. He

can even

fellow Romans. An Emperor

child, prefiguring
'plebeian'

need not

do his

be

a religion

that worships a Child.

and peace obscures the public

word

good,

obvious

in

war.

Spiritedness is unnecessary Cantor observes that the

'patrician'

occurs
omits

only

once

in Antony

and

Cleopatra,

not at all.

Shakespeare

any

reference

to the Senate

and other

institutions intermediate intentions

of
re-

between Emperor
3.

and subjects.
with

Army

officers must guess the

pp. 292-4).

Contrast Cantor's treatment

Jaffa's (ibid.,
emphasizes

Cantor

emphasizes

the distinction

between

public and private, whereas

Jaffa

the connection between partiotism and the Ro

man matriarchy.

Review Essays
mote generals.

123
remote"

The "most

rulers of all are

the

gods.

Roman

civic reli

gion,
the

Antony (according patra), replace the old Roman gods. Personal fidelity to one's master, lover, replaces patriotism. One "can gain more glory by losing than by
such as

secretly by only time in the Roman plays, gods, such as Bacchus, and deified
with gods ruled

the patricians, gives way to superstition. "For

personal

deities

are

mentioned."4

Foreign
to Cleo
or one's

lovers,

winning

Not deeds but intentions

and women.

count most.

Tests

of

love become

all-important to men

"What is in

others

to see

way Antony's weakness as a commander, allowing his limitations as a man, is another way his great strength, for it
one
enemies

makes even

his

bond that

comes

and creates in his followers the deepened pity him from their feeling he is in need of This is not yet Chris
. . .

them."

tianity, but the resemblance may strike With the liberation of eros, the problem
us.5

of

fidelity

in love

no

longer inspires

comedy. one's and

Eros takes

on

the seriousness of the means of salvation, and

at

"Paradoxically though, ready to use the whole world as a measure of the value of their love, the world has come to seem worthless to them, and thus their ultimate sacrifice is reduced to a form of "[T]he bedrock of
new worship.

beloved is the
are

the

moment

fidelity to Antony

Cleopatra

self-indulgence."

nihilism"

underlies

this "mountainous

passion."

Suicide doesn't

solve

the problem, for "if

life is

worthless and

death

desirable"

then suicide is merely

"the

prelude

to new

pleasures."

Neither lover

can

truly

relinquish

his

identity

as

love "swings back

cannot resolve
time."

and

forth between
their
who
and
"rustic"

separation."

moments of union and

"Death

the

paradoxes of

love, but it can fix

brings
an
underscores

them

in

final form for

all

Or

can

it?
of

The

asp to Cleopatra doubts her

would of

vision.

"[T]he ending divine

Antony
Cantor

Cleopatra

the subjectivity of the

lovers'

expe

"[F]or their story to be

notes.

comedy, it
or a

have to be
could

kind

comedy,"

of

Only

god,

kind

god,

know

enough

to smile at their

story The liberation

with

justifiable

confidence.

of eros ends politics.

regard politics as a

It does

not end publicity.

Antony

and

Cleopatra "seem to

springboard, into some new

but

undefined

celebrity."

(In casting Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in a movie version, Hollywood was profoundly right.) The new hero and heroine would "excel in

love just
eros, tions
an are

as

the Republican Romans

want

to

excel

in

war."

Pride

unites with

impossible coupling in the Republic. The imperial individual's ambi not apolitical but transpolitical. "A boundless desire plays the same role
that a tyrant
plays

in

a man's soul

in the city, overpowering

attempt

other

desires
.

and
.

making them follow its lead just the way the tyrant The love and the rule of Antony and Cleopatra both
4. 5.

crushes all opposition.

"to do

law,"

without

11. 20-31. among these is a daimonian: Act II, sc. iii, because half her that she cannot "love my father to the love test might thus be seen as a corollary to / anticipation of the Jewish love must go to her future husband See Genesis 2:23,24; 1 Corinthians 6:16; and Ephesians 5:31. 1 and Christian doctrine of "one

Most

notable

all"

Cordelia's

response

flesh."

am

indebted to the late Professor Gerrit H. Roelofs

of

Kenyon College for this

observation.

124
and

Interpretation

"to

bring

reality into
public

accord with

their own desires

without compro cites

mise."

In the

world, such illusions injure others; Cantor

Antony's

militarily bizarre battle strategy. And although Antony and Cleopatra are "the only ones who can be said to respond heroically to the challenge presented by the

dissolution

of

the Republican

regime,"

Cantor does

not

find their

response

any

thing

more

than

heroic, if that.
tragedy in Rome
can

"Ultimately
Republic

the source of

be traced to the fact that the

and
self-

seems to offer men

while

knowledge,

nobility only at the price of wisdom the Empire offers freedom in private life only at the for
nobility."6

price of a

lasting

and meaningful context of

Shakespeare's Rome, "a city

and yet

great

because

the kinds of human greatness it

fosters,

tragically
invites

at odds with

the full and independent development of that

sider

greatness,

readers

to con

the "problem of the relationship of the city and

To

what extent

do Roman heroes transcend their

and

city?

In the revised,

ex

panded version of

Rome

Romans

According
The

to

Shakespeare,1

Michael Piatt
as

contrasts

the title he chose

with

Cantor's. "I
Rome."

understand

Shakespeare to be
men, "but

in

terested in the

Romans
the

as

he is in

regime makes

great

something in them lives outside any Both Cantor and Piatt evidently agree that (in Piatt's words) "in Rome at least the problem of the city and man is They also agree that the occasional
men also affect regime and
insoluble."

regim

Roman transcends the regime,

"transcend"

although perhaps of

for Nicanor.

They

differ in their judgment Perhaps Cantor

the extent

is the wrong word to which Roman heroes

transcend the

regime.

might

toward romanticizing these

heroes;

perhaps

slightly too hard to bring their pretensions Piatt considers all of Shakespeare's Roman works, which tion of the Republic in [The Rape of) Lucrece to its suicidal
earth.8

say that Piatt leans slightly too far Piatt might reply that Cantor tries down to
span

"the founda in

metamorphosis

Titus

Andronicus."

He

emphasizes the

Shakespeare

'Rome'

means

the

Republic."

Republic because, "strictly speaking, for Piatt eschews what has come to be
a conclusion and

the conventional scholarly manner

stating
a an

(called, in half-hearted
it. He
proposes
'thesis'

imitation

of science and

modesty,

'thesis')

defending

in

quiring into Shakespeare's meaning,

with wonder.

inquiry that begins

not with a

but
pre

The

inquiry

is the scholarly

genre nearest to

Shakespeare's
nor

but for both

with

ferred genre, drama, which exists neither solely for its and for its middle, for the tensions of the
the word
'drama.'

beginning
middle

its ending
associate

that we

In choosing to

write

dramas, Shakespeare

most

closely

6. Is there
7.

a counterpart

to Nicanor under the Empire ? If not, could

Shakespeare be entirely

neu

tral on the question of republicanism versus tyranny?

The first

edition appeared

in 1976, the
an

same year as

Cantor's book.

authority on Romantics. See his Creature and Creator: MythMaking and English Romanticism (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984). Piatt has made himself an authority on Nietzsche, that formidable critic of reductionists.
made

8. Cantor has

himself

Review Essays
imitates life: "Those

125
who

think life is summed up

will

in

its

conclusion will,

like the

Romans, honor

also, I think, write dramas much They inferior to Shakespeare's." After his introduction, Piatt divides his book into three parts of one, six, and four chapters, respectively. Eleven, that inauspicious number, quite properly characterizes
and ends with whole story:
Titus'

and commit suicide.

history

that begins

with

Lucrece's

rape

meatball pie.

But Rome's inauspicious

character

isn't the

the

inquiry
mans,

is to

read

him."

Romans count, too, and so does Shakespeare. "The aim of this Shakespeare's works so as to learn from his Rome, his Ro
both the fall
Aeneid'

and of

Encompassing
ad's

Troy

and the

founding
is "an
of a

of

Rome, both

the Ili
epics."

theme and the

s, The Rape

ofLucrece

abbreviation of

Within it is

"something

briefer

still": a of

description

Troy

and

Lucrece's interpretation
a stanza

the painting

painting of the fall of "a brief epic within a brief

skill of the painter who
compact

epic."

Within it is

describing

can press a whole epic action onto a surface which

"the abbreviating is so
of

that it requires
whole

long
les,

study to be
of whom

understood."

The "eye

the

mind"

must see

the

Achil

the painter shows only a part; "visible parts stand for

restates

imagined

wholes."

nique while

his understanding of Shakespeare's artistic tech his own principles of interpretation. restating Her rapist, Tarquin, Symbolically, Lucrece "is a city and her rape a
tyranny."

Thus Piatt

exemplifies

"the tyrannic

soul."

"Shakespeare

confirms

both the Socratic

view

that politics is the soul writ large and

its Aristotelian
that "it seems

elaboration

that ethics and

politics, though

distinct,

inseparable."

are
writes

in his love

own elaboration.
and

He first

Piatt does something quite interesting tyranny has two opposites,

inequality,"

kingship

republic,"

just

resembles

kingship

"rape has two opposites, love and friendship"; in that "both suppose friendship resembles
as
equality."

a republic

in that "both

suppose

But he then writes, "The

the

plot of

Lu

crece seems

to be guided

by

these distinctions: the distinction between a tyrant

of

and a

king

dominates the first half

the narrative,

until

Troy

painting; from

then on it gives way to the distinction between tyrannies (or

publics"

(emphasis

added).

This shift,

kingships) and re and kingship, might conflating tyranny

to modern
an attempt
political philosophy.

correspond to a movement poem's come a

from

classical

In the

first half, Lucrece

king"

uses rhetoric

in

to "persuade a tyrant to be

with arguments

identical to "those
rapes

made

by

the classical political tyrant is that he is

philosophers."

She fails. Tarquin

when she acts

her; "the

mark of a

unteachable."

Only

to revenge injustice does Lucrece succeed in

overthrowing tyranny, and her action founds not a kingship but a republic. She commits suicide in order to show that "she loves honor more than she fears
death,"

and

in

order

to inspire her husband and his friends

shows a

with

her

own thymos

for

retributive

justice. Piatt

how Shakespeare
Army."

uses

both

narration and rhet of

oric to mobilize readers

"in

Republican

Lucrece's interpretation

the painting

serves as

"a

vivid example of art's

action."

Unlike the conquering

and

capacity to imperial Caesar, who came, saw,

encourage virtuous and

126

Interpretation

conquered, Lucrece

looks,

speaks, and acts. Shakespeare purposefully alters

with

Vergil's story
It is
not

by

replacing Aeneas

Lucrece.

either

necessary for Rome to have its origin in the prestigious world of epic heroes, Greek or Trojan. Rome does not need to define itself against Greek models of
and

life, thought,
Piatt
goes so

heroism.

Rome is autochthonous,

not a scion.

far

as to

"while

outward,"

looking
The

imagine Shakespeare telling Vergil that Roman virtue, is "always to be self-consulting, with no need of
tells his story on his own authority.

myths."

modern epic poet

Shakespeare

is

republican; Vergil is not. Shakespeare prudently avoids using the word "re
anywhere

public"

in

the poem.

But Piatt "His

aim

next argues that not

Shakespeare transcends
not

partisan regime-advocacy.
...

is

to advocate,
bears."

to

fear the

gifts

he

Machiavellian one, Piatt Shakespeare does

nor

Having quite deliberately

given us

No city need teach, but to understand. first a Platonic Shakespeare and then a

leaves his

reader

in

some confusion.

not want

his best

readers

to be Platonists or

Machiavellians;
"is
an

does he

want

them to be Shakespeareans.

"Progress toward his deeper

elusiveness

thoughts is also a liberation from his

authority."

His

image

of

the elusiveness of the things his thoughts

advocate republicanism. vate

Shakespeare does not merely "The early Romans are not individuals"; lacking a pri his poems side, their thoughts serve their deeds. Shakespeare's deeds
his thoughts.

think."

serve side

By

no means

lacking

a private

side, he is "above

or out

Piatt turns next, as Shakespeare does, to Rome at its most republi can, that is, to Rome as it most contrasts with what is highest in Shakespeare. "There is so little in Coriolanus. "Shakespeare seems to have put aside
love"

Rome."

all

that he loved

most and

imitated

with most exuberance

in

order

to treat this Ro

man and

his

city."

ways verges on

Anger is Rome's ruling passion, which is to say that Rome al the unruly. "The souls of Romans are (except for

Antony's); only
pleases

their

funeral

music partakes of

discipline

and

honor,
thing

fact that

but does

not encourage

us, Piatt wryly

no

notes.

Unlike Shakespeare's
natural

Eng

land, Shakespeare's Rome has

Rome
scourges the weak.
receive no
justice."

greenness; the only

and

there

is fire.

"[W]hile in both Lear

Coriolanus the
think
of

powerless

quarter, only in the Roman city does

no one

No one, that

is,

except

the apparently powerless

protesting this in themselves: Corio The "ancient

lanus begins for

with strife precipitated

by

famine among the

plebs.

malice"

of plebeians

for patricians
the

and

plebeians concerns

issue

of

the complementary contempt of patricians distributive justice. As the Senator Menenius

understands

(perhaps

not martial virtue.

Senators, politics to a Creator-God),

from
either

among the Senators), the plebs care for their bodies, most of the plebs, politics is economics; to most of the is war. Both classes assume that "life is owed to the (not
alone

To

city"

and or

the

life-giving

city "is higher than

man."

"Banishment

the

body

the city can lead

only to

death."

Coriolanus tests this fundamental

assumption of

Romans. In

material

things,

Review Essays
Rome honors him
a

127
tenth of the spoils after his conquest of
god

with a

Corioli;

this is

tithe, "the distributive justice given a thus deserves Coriolanus can take
all."

in

recognition that

he

gave all and

no offense at

this.

Rather,

the enforced tribunes who

exile.

humbling
fear
and

of political

life

itself,

made more pointed make

by

scheming
cannot

envy him,

goad

Coriolanus to
with a

the speeches that provoke his

When he

marches on

Rome

foreign army, Menenius

the

dissuade him.
level,"

Although Volumnia

can

"identify

that of sexual generation, even

city and the body at an even deeper "natural affections for his own
family"

cannot

stay Coriolanus. Only his mother's appeal to honor honor he cares for is Roman honor, the destruction
purpose of

stays
of

him; because
would

the only the

Rome

destroy

his thymos.
would
what

To honor himself he
would

have to know himself. It

would also mean

that he
no guide

have to know

is honorable. But in both

particulars

he finds

superior to the opinion of the city.

Coriolanus hates the

mortal

the

inconstant

opinions and appetites of the plebe

of

ians,

ruled a

by

their
of

bodies

without

seeing the immortal. His hatred

the

body

"masks
appeals of eros.

fear"

the body. As "the

speech while

incarnation

of the

body

politic,"

Volumnia

to

honor in her

"The desire

of the

solutely

unconditional

wholly freedom is not

spirited man

representing in her person the inescapability like Coriolanus to achieve an ab

possible."

He too

was

born

of a

woman,

condition that makes one's godliness at

least half-suspect.

Having

dissected the

pretensions of

the patrician

Coriolanus,

Piatt turns to the

city itself. It too has its limitations. "Who but Rome and Volumnia has raised this destroyer of Rome is not even one city; as Bloom observes, it is two
cities?"

cities,

patrician and

plebeian, held together only

not

by

threat

of war

threat that

reminds one that

Rome is

the only city, that enemies would

destroy it.
to."

"[T]he

necessity characterizes the Republic and provides its martial dynamism"; this amounts to "the dismal best the city ascends Unlike does not regard Rome as "a temperate Shakespeare Polybius, regime"; "he
and

tension between honor

knows that it is very hard to have nobility and temperance together, to have the valor of Rome and the temperance of Sparta together, to have the glory of Rome
regime."

and a
allow

temperately
him to The

mixed

Menenius,

whose

intelligence

and moderation

favor."

partially outside the city, "has everything but success in his friendship he esteems finds little honor in the city animated by appe
stand
envy.

tite, fears,
The

vanity, and

equation of

city

and

body
the

is

not

the only Roman assumption Romans ha

and

bitually
rather

fail to

examine.

Both Coriolanus

Volumnia

assume that origins

gives

thing."

than ends "most

reveal

nature of a

The city

life to

man

'therefore'

and

"can take life

away."

This teaching its

resembles

that of the

Bible's
them

Creator-God,
from

except

that Judaism "describes Creation as a

separation of creature

Creator,"

whereas

Rome

'creates'

citizens

but does

not separate

from herself. Rome actually

creates

nothing; that

is, "Rome denies the

possibili-

128
ties of
old

Interpretation
thing,"

any

new

regarding

each

birth

parent."

thing

namely, an

ancestor or opinion of exists

as merely "the reappearance of an Cyclical nature, the old believed to

peoples.

be

good:

this is of course the

the ancient

There is

at

least

one

problem with

it: "ancient
good.

malice"

igin

can

be simply

in Rome, belying the opinion that the or Malice issues from unmoderated thymos, whose "char
of thymos would rule a

activity"

acteristic
dead."

is killing. "The tyranny time, "the

rule of

city

of

the

being Rome "every warrior must come from a non-warrior therefore has no firm foundation. Worship of the origin prevents the nurturing of the founders Rome needs, founders cognizant of fully developed human nature. Rome's equation of body and city contrasts with Plato's equation of city and
At the
same

thymos,

incapable

of

creation,

must

mother."

recruit

from eros";

nobility that wins honor. Piatt now does something exceptionally interesting. Earlier he had discussed the bitten by image of the "gilded son; the incident symbol
soul.

Rome lacks

soul.

At best it has that

appearance of

butterfly,"

Coriolanus'

de ized the Roman's predatory impulse, the compulsion behind mature mand for wilful art, and their intolerance of frailty. Piatt recalled the only other 8occurrence of this image in Shakespeare: King Lear, v. iii. 17, where "gilded
butterflies"

Romans'

are ephemeral

courtiers
nature

ephemeral

and

laughable

men.

Piatt

suggests that

human

"deserves

protection"

(according

to Shakespeare's

teaching in Lear), but it receives not even pity in Rome. This is a somewhat puzzling interpretation, inasmuch as the ephemeral courtiers do not evidently de
serve

the

protection

Cordelia deserves. Certain (but

not

specimens of

human

nature are

more to

be

scorned of

seriously) than
reminds us

pitied.

But now,

near

the end of

his im

discussion
edge

Coriolanus, Piatt

that "to

men of some classical

knowl

it

was common

knowledge that the

butterfly is
yet

an

image

of the soul's

mortality."

How is the

butterfly

ephemeral

immortal? It metamorphoses,

changing from egg to larva to pupa to adult, then reproducing the cycle again. How is the soul ephemeral yet immortal? Perhaps it too can metamorphose,
grow

from the

wilful

destructiveness

of a small

boy

little

more than a

beast

toward the divine. Coriolanus wants to go from

metamorphoses of the soul.

manhood

to godhood;

instead, he

into

beast, in

famous

sentence

They

are spirited

what many commentators see as a dramatization in Aristotle's Politics (i.ii. 14). ' Romans apparently lack lions and clever foxes, but "where reason is a shrewd and

deceitful fox, it the city, for the

cannot

be

said to

be in

contact with reason

in the

cosmos above

reason of

the

fox is

not

in love

with

immortal

things."

The fox

loves its self, not any soul; it would cunningly scheme to make that self immor tal, if it could, surviving all the traps in the world. But "the immortal part of the
soul, the

intellect, is exactly
Roman
would

what

Coriolanus
attached

lacks."

"To be

rid of

fear

and con
more

tempt,
precise
9.

have to be

to things that exist

always."

It is

to say, as Piatt soon

not

does,

that Romans
that

have

souls

but

are

ignorant

of

Piatt does

discuss

Menenius'

assertion
thing,"

Coriolanus,

dragon, is "more
or perhaps

than a creeping

more

than a mere grub.

after metamorphosing into a Perhaps Menenius speaks ironically,

Shakespeare does. Or

perhaps the

details

need still more work.

Review Essays
them.

129

Piatt

suggests that the

Shakespearean philosopher,
would

exemplified
guided

by

Pros

pero,

would not strive

to become divine but

appear to

"be

things."

by

immortal

Christianity
divine
when,
as

"would

have

cooled

the ancient desire to be

unnecessary Christian teaching that the

This
of

in the Christian teaching, souls are immortal, divinization is "and pacified the tumults of the Roman Piatt omits the
city."

will

to

divinity

manifests a

explicit reintroduction of

the Christian theme

mortally sinful pride. leads to the consideration

Julius Caesar, although the reason for this is not immediately obvious. Like Coriolanus, Caesar tests the limits of politics. But Caesar does so with intelli
gence.

His intelligence
core of that

serves

his

will

to

be honored.
wish

The

Roman

pursuit of

honor is the

to become a larger-than-life statue

and secure the

whose

hundred

bleeding

spouts

found
sense]

a political of

dynasty

divine im

mortality [in Bloom's

political

its founder. Julius Caesar is himself

the most perfect expression of the regime he destroys.

Should he be killed? Caesar's rise "jeopardizes

all

things

which claim some au

tonomy from that the Rome he

which can

politics,"

particularly
epitomizes

friendship

and

poetry, but

one must observe

scarcely

cultivated

these things. "The only

the restoration of

thing

justify
is

the

assassination of conspirators

Caesar is
that

honor to

Rome."

The

fail to do this because Caesar's Cassius "are have

unpolitical"

liberty and killing is all

they do;

there
of

no coherent republican plot

founding
that

Rome. Both Brutus

to make a

and

follows from that killing, no re in believing "as Shakespeare demonstrates

He does
so without succeeded.

order."

sassination enough

new political

he knows how the

republican plot might

endorsing this better plot, precisely because he knows the limitations of both republicanism and Caesar. "On the question of whether Caesar should be
quite

killed, Shakespeare
Republic
nor

preserves an openness which pleases neither partisans of

who

the

reluctantly hail Caesar as a post-constitutional human beings "who live with Shakespeare "belongs to the very
those
few"

ruler."

ques

not answers.

Piatt

presents a

Caesar

whose

life

formidably
a

rivals the life

a

of questioning. rhetorical

Shakespeare's "Et tu, one bespeaks the "political

political,
must

Brute?"

itself

question, but

brilliantly

genius"

of a man who

"must

seem unpolitical

to be
. . .

seem without ambition

live."

to be ambitious, appear at rest to strive, and

sees

die to

Like
goes

Caesar. But Piatt

knew
his

of

the plot and

only further. Unlike Bloom, he argues explicitly that Caesar incorporated it into his own plot, made it an instrument of

Bloom, Piatt

that the

republican plotters

assist

quest

for

divinity.10

Caesar is "the

most ambitious

(or

second most ambi

lived"

tious)
would

man who ever

more

rivaled only

gests, bear

marks of resemblance

by Jesus, Whose methods, Piatt sug to Caesar's than the New Testament
might

have

one think.

Piatt wittily (some

say wickedly)

observes

that

io.

See David Lowenthal: "Shakespeare's Caesar's

Plan,"

Interpretation, Vol.

io, Nos. 2 & 3,

pp. 223-50.

130

Interpretation
makes such a poor a god.

Caesar nearly
to the
ship.
self.

impression

as a

human

A god,

after all, might make a

being, but this is only proof that he is very poor sort of human being, numb
the

fears
The

of mortal

flesh,

the

pleasures of warm motion and

happiness find that

of

friend
him be

being

Caesar becomes is
'Roman'

fearless,

senseless, motionless, to

a statue of

He is

a great

disappointment to any
or

spectator who expected

one can

'immortal,'

'great,'

and also remain

human.
ranks of

Piatt

agrees with

Bloom in writing that "highest in the

to take one's
particular name as philosopher

honor is

not

'king'

but to

compel men

title

of

legitimacy."

source of

In the end, only the successfully

resists

Cicero,

with

rulership his "moder

and a

eye,"

ate and skeptical

culmination of

the

Republic?) Brutus,
in the
I

who

submitting to Caesar. (Is he, too, the has answers (Stoic doctrine), allies,
or

and even a good

wife, fails to philosophize, conspire,

presence of whom

love

adequately.

If "a

friend is he
ence

or she

I know

myself

best, in

whose pres or no capac

I become

am,"

what

Brutus

and

his fellow Romans have little

for friendship. Both philosophy and friendship require the desire for knowl edge, but the Roman "does not want to be known or to know himself, he wants to

ity
be he

admired."

Shakespeare himself
plots

contrasts most

dramatically
a

with

the Romans

Although

better than the plotters, he is "no threat to

monarch"

(but,

perhaps, to

many tyrants?).
Though he is
superior to political

men, he is not their rival. His knowledge of politics

who

is

not such that

he is

rival

of

those

burn for its distinctions. The

reasons

why

Shakespeare knows how to kill Caesar better than Brutus

sons

are connected with the rea

why he

would not

desire to do

so.

Shakespeare knows
gence,

more

than Romans do because his will serves his intelli

not vice-versa.

He imitates.

Only

"sympathetic

intelligence,"

akin

to

friendship,
intelligence
ish."

enables one mind neither

to understand another. "Without this sympathetic

friendship, dramatic
terror,"

poetry,

nor

interpretation

could

flour

them to

subjecting marrying them. But he rules them in order to know them; Piatt knows Jaffa's (and Shakespeare's) teaching about the incom

No sentimentalist, Shakespeare

rules

his characters,

at times

"cruelty

and

and even

patibility of political rule and knowledge, but Whereas "Caesar's combination of ruling and
speare's

poetic rule

is is

not political rule.

skillful,"

interpreting

Shake

"is

more than

skillful, it is

wise."

"Shakespeare
Genesis."

understood

himself

and

his

art as an

image

of

the mysterious combination of wisdom (sympathetic in

sight)

and power exhibited not

by

the God of

Shakespeare's imitation
"the

of

God does
In
Rome."

issue from
and

desire to become

a god.

Antony

Cleopatra "a courtly

after

interior"

has

replaced

civil streets of each

Love

prospers

equality disappears;

"each
and

will

be

other's

master."

slave, each,
the

each other's

Courage, truth,
of passions

Empire;

the Pax

Augusta, "a

exhaustion,"

peace of

activity have no place in redirects human energy

into

protoromantic

love. "[I]n the play

in

[Cleopatra's] breast Antony

Review Essays
will

-131

discover

whole

Cleopatra
ings"

never

But the passions in and for early Republics of and beget nothing. She awakens "immortal long satisfy, they
on earth or

tumult."

without
without

fulfilling them,
a

in Heaven. "Both Rome

and

Egypt

are

children,"

fact the drama

counterpoints

by

its

references to

Herod,
of

the the

man most obsessed

by

news of a childbirth. modern

Piatt

suggests

that adoration
and

Christ

as child

distinguishes

even suggest

that the origins of

and

from early Christianity, modernity itself lie in such

we come

"one

might

innovations."

struggling to judge Rome

cient politics and ancient
antique works

Egypt,
for

to

"[B]y long for something beyond an

means

pleasures."

Perhaps Piatt

that

impatience

with

than in

sterility disputation. Be that lie

prepares souls

moderns who offer a science more

fruitful in

as

his

modern world

a number of

it may, "between Shakespeare's ancient and his plays, including all his 'romances'"; of

these plays neither ancient nor modern, two are set

allude

in the Roman Empire. Both

to the rape of Lucrece. Titus Andronicus "shows that Rome succumbed to

what we now venged

know

as

terrorism

and nihilism

by

choice."

Lavinia,

raped, is re

spectacularly but not politically. Rome's best general, Titus, prefers to lose in order to display his virtue. He "so divorces virtue from the good, one

does

not

know
the

whether

to compare him to a terrorist or a triumphs over

saint."

In

Cymbeline,
an ana
vice,"

Imogen,
gram

Lucrece-figure,
Rome

Iachimo,

whose name

may be

for Machiavelli. "English

and and

virtue"

triumphs over "modern Italian

not as

but

England

are reconciled

because "Imogen is
Tarquin."

entirely

virtuous as

Lucrece
"most
gion
.

Iachimo is
and

not as vicious as condition

The

god who rules over

this
reli

prosperous"

happy
. .

in

world

history

is Jupiter. "Natural

supports

human

confident."

virtue

by

making

good men

Against the

critic who asserts

that Shakespeare wrote not one good prayer, Piatt calls atten

tion to the
or

more."

Posthumus: "His guilt is just and serious, rather than gloomy gods he appeals to are masters of life and death and nothing for the base, This "happiest historical time in all of Shakespeare did not have to
prayer of

pass,"

but the Romans

chose

to

die,

a choice related might

to but not determined

Posthumus'

by

Christian is
an obvi

ity,
ous

and

by

Stoicism before that. One

say that

name

pun,

and that

Shakespeare intended it to be

obvious.

Divergent

answers

to the question of chosen death distinguish pagan

answers

antiquity
specif

from Christianity. So do divergent

to the

question of

generation,

ically,
"all

sexual abstinence
exact

before

marriage.

Shakespeare's Rome,

republican and

opposite"

pagan, "is the

roads

of monarchic,
Tempest,"

Christian England. In Shakespeare

lead to The
the
Rome"

not

to Rome or to England.

By

the end of

The

Tempest, Prospero,

poetic philosopher and

king, "is

well on

his way to found

ing

new

would reunite

uniting northern and southern Italy. Machiavelli, too, Italy. But, as Piatt reminds us, Shakespeare would do this only in

by

speech,

not

in

practice.

Today

we

live in Machiavelli's empire, but Unless I

am mistaken, as open.

some might

wonder who was who recognize

the real realist.

Piatt

writes

for those die

this question,

and others

like it,

On the

questions of
would

death

and generation,

his Shakespeare

would not

cling to life but

132

Interpretation
of our

blessing life for the warmth

ter Piatt quite properly ends
"inquiry,"

bodies

and

for

our speech.

In

regard

to the

lat

his book

with a reconsideration of

the genre
who

he

calls

an

and with praise of several

path of

contemporary inquirers

helped him

along the

inquiry.
to the central, pivotal, Roman play. He agrees with his
and the

Jan H. Blits
predecessors

returns us

in calling Caesarism both the destruction

fulfillment
many

of

the

republican regime.

Emphasizing

the theme of manliness,

he

adds

observa

tions to those of Bloom and

Piatt, challenging

them on several points while

confirming their basic reading and endorsing their way of reading. "Loving victory, dominance and honor, [the Romans] characteristically
equate manliness and
nist.

human

excellence."

Even Portia, Blits notes, is

much

misogy
physical

They

regard women as women

weak, not so

because

women

lack

strength, or because
another

instead

of

herself. Romans
. .

fear too much, but because a woman tends to love want to be loved without loving. "The repub
a contest

lican

contest

for love
not

is

affectionate,"

"[S]pirited,
friend
Portia

by unmanning friendship writ

could

his

heart."

proud

manly manly love impels a Roman "to crush a "Rome's civil strife seems to be Roman
with

in

manliness

for the love

of other

large."

Blits then breaks

Piatt's interpretation in

denying that

be

Brutus'

true friend. Portia sees that insofar as she is womanly,

Brutus distrusts her

would

weakness.

She fails to

see

that if she could be manly, Brutus

exalted a view of man

have to
see

crush

her,

not confide

in her. "She has too

liness to

its

limitations."

Blits
and

observes

that manly strife

inheres in Rome's

very foundation Blits

by

Romulus
may be

Remus

fratricide,
the

not

fraternity. Thus both

republic and empire

seen

in the

origin of

city.

asks the same question Piatt asks:

Should Caesar be killed? Unlike

personal short

Bloom, he
comings,

emphasizes

"the corruption,
principal an

as

distinguished from the

This
corruption

of the

Republic's

defenders."

the belief that one owes

manliness

loyalty to

individual

and not

to one's

is personalism, country. Roman

issue in patriotism, or in "republican It destroys them. Not only Caesar and the plebeians, but Marullus, Brutus, and Cassius too succumb to personalism. They are defeated before they begin. Love, including does
not

equality

manly love, allows no equality and must undermine republicanism. Blits concurs with Bloom and Piatt in their criticism of "ethics
Brutus'
tention,"

of

in

but he judges Brutus his

more

severely

on moral rather than on contains

intellectual disdain

grounds, arguing that Brutus 's "Stoic

ethics"

"an

antirepublican

for the Cantor in flicts

success of

own political cause and even

for the

welfare of

his
(With

a corruption and

that reflects and reacts to "the rise of to

imperial

Rome."

in

partial opposition
individuals'

Piatt, he

emphasizes the

importance

of regime

determining
It is especially though Brutus

thoughts and actions, although this emphasis con

somewhat with

his

assessment of

manly love).
Brutus for his disinterestedness, for
even

fitting

that

Antony

eulogizes

considers

him his

moral

opposite,

Antony

proves to epitomize the

Review Essays

133
that one can gain
more

postrepublican notion
Brutus'

by losing politically
Antony's

than

by

winning.

virtuous self-denial
are

is

of a piece with

sensual self-indulgence.

They

the twin representatives of the new

Rome.

One

might add

that as with the twins present at Rome's

founding, twinship does

duty"

not preclude violence.

Nothing
as

"can

mediate

between desire

and

in impe hu

rial Rome. Brutus is indeed

man
blood."11

brutish; his

'idealism'

"requires the
pacifistic,

sacrifice of one must

Inasmuch

the Republic

was

hardly

take

Blits to be criticizing,
version of

first,

Roman

manliness

and, second, this

one such as

it. Should Caesar be killed? Not

that Caesar should
makes

by

late, hypocritical Brutus, or by

Brutus'

co-plotters.

This does

not mean

not

have been killed. Blits

Caesar's

confirms
more

Piatt's thesis, that Caesar

tricate plot.

the

republican plotters part of

in

"[W]hat

at

first

glance appear

to be dull failures in Caesar's attempt

to become a

king

are

in fact disguised

successes

in his

attempt

to become a

god."

As in
with

several other

places, Blits revealingly

contrasts

Shakespeare's

account

Plutarch's; Caesar's

apparent epileptic seizure after

refusing the crown does

assassination, trans
and

not occur

in Plutarch. The fall

simulates and prefigures the

forming
him

the crowd's fear of ambition into "piteous

which

forgiveness"

"providing]

them with an interpretation for his death

god."

as a martyred

The

people exchange
worship.

later inspires them to worship republican fear of greatness, the

establishment

"ancient

malice,"

for

martyr-

"With the

of

imperial
suffering

Rome, nobility
rather

comes

to be

associated with

human love

and piteous

pride."

manly nobility issues from the triumph of the old. "To conquer everyone, Rome had to embrace everyone, so that her very conquests eventually transformed her basic
principle of universal

than

with

As his

predecessors

saw, Blits

sees that the new

force into

love."

universal

He

credits

Machiavelli

with

this

insight. Force
was

could

become love because the Roman

motive

for applying force

was worth

the desire to be loved or honored. to the Romans. Some Romans the

world

name,'

Honor,

'a

good

the

world

conquered

the

world

sacrificed names

for it. "It

would

be difficult to in any

exaggerate

for honor, others the importance of

characters

in

Caesar,"

the play in
. .

which

the names of the

other

leading

"are

mentioned much more often

than

Shakespearean

play."

To the

manly

that

is, honor-loving
Unfortunately,
puts

Romans, "names

are most real.

The

name

is the

itself."

thing
vance of what

the

exaltation of one's

name,

rather

than

due

obser world

nature,

the great name at risk. "Caesar claims to be

in the

the

northern star

is in the

sky.

But the

northern

star, as Caesar seems to for

get, is

The image suggests at least two thoughts. Caesar only at ism depends on darkness. And Caesarism can be blotted out by the coming of a
night."

visible

nearer
1 1
.

star, the
Does Blits
the

sun.
glance at

Christianity

here? Incidentally, if Caesar is the

the
culmination of

culmination of and

the Re

public, and Cicero

culmination of standable.

is

somehow associated with

the

Republic,

if Jesus is the
more under

Empire,

then Shakespeare's

refusal of simple

partisanship becomes

Setting
John

the Seal

on

Marxist Criticism

Stephen H. Balch

Jay

College of Criminal Justice, C.U.N.Y.

Main Currents Golden

Marxism. Volume I, "The Founders"; Volume II, "The Age"; Volume III, "The By Leszek Kolakowski. Trans lated from the Polish by P. S. Falla. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981
of
Breakdown."
.

Each

volume

$32.50 cloth,

$9.95

paper.)

Though Marxism has

continues
repeated

long
lack

lost any
of

credible claim

to the

status of a

science, it

to have a compelling, if
or

falsification

illusory, intelligibility, its

psychological appeal.
major

Thus, despite

theorems can still be in

voked as

talismans promising

deliverance from

an assortment of and

justifying
hand,
cal

the ambitions of a variety of

insurgents

worldly ills, and despots. On the other

as a set of practi

when

Marxism-Leninism is

considered not as

theory, but

techniques for gaining and exercising power, it sheds this guise of

of a

fantasy
and

in favor
(though
practice

hardboiled,

clear-eyed, ultrarealistic pragmatism. This striking

status of

by
is

no means

unparalleled) disjuncture between the

theory

hardly

accidental.

It

reflects

the historical willingness of Marxism's

most successful practitioners

to accord a pious veneration to the hallowed formu

lae,

while

freely twisting
noted, the

their substance to meet the exigencies of political

combat.

Still,
Utopian ure of

"theory"

as

is

not unimportant.

Fantasies have their

use.

The

vision, the deterministic certainties, the antinomianism, the

mythic stat

the early Marxist

fathers,
core.

accept the

Machiavellian

all play essential roles in preparing believers to To be sure, the converse is also true. Without
men of

Marxism's

awesome victories

in the field few

the
patience

ideas

would

bear its errors,

confusions and

incoherence

with

scholars,

no

less than

anyone

else,

power

they have generally received. For breeds respect. But every great move
Marxist theory
to provide.
as universal
will

ment requires

its mysteries,

and that

is

what

enhanced

by

its it

very intellectual decadence Whether our descendants

as we recall
and

is

fully

equipped

experience

Marxism

dogma,

or recall

do

with

the

contest of

phrenology diplomats
criticism

the Albigensian

heresy,

and generals than with

probably have more to the state of Marxist criti it

comes

cism.

Nonetheless,

does matter, particularly

unable

when

in

form

that is

accessible and

digestible for those

criticism

the
an

subject.

When that

is

also

fully immerse themselves in distinguished by an unusual trenchancy,

to
of

unfailing logical rigor

and an

extraordinary breadth
reasons
an

learning, it

marks a

major pedagogical event.

It is for these

that the publication of Leszek

paper-

Kolakowski's Main Currents of Marxism in

affordable, three-volume

136 back

Interpretation is
so

edition

important health

not

but for the This is

overall

of modern

only for students and intellectual life.

scholars of political

theory

not

to

(Kolakowski modestly
pressive work of

say that Main Currents of Marxism is simply an outstanding text uses the term "handbook"): it is also an original and im

interpretation. But its primary use in accord, I believe, with is likely to be as an educational resource, providing con the author's intention cise, demystifying introductions to the thought of the more significant members
of

the Marxist

pantheon.

As tools
these

of graduate

instruction (and

reinstruction

for

established

academics)

volumes

have

several special assets.

First, they

are close

to

being encyclopedic,
"giants"

giving

extended coverage not

only sig

to all of the tradition's

(Marx, Engels, Kautsky, Luxemburg,

also

Plek-

hanov, Lenin, Trotsky Labriola, Krzywicki,

and

Mao), but

to those lesser lights

who added

nificant nuance or represented new points of

theoretical departure
and

(LaFargue,
scholar

the

Austro-Marxists,

the

Russian Empiriocritics Marxist

among others), and to the more prominent ship (such as Gramsci, Lukacs, Korsch,

exponents of recent and

the members of the Frankfurt

School),

and to

those Marxist

"heretics"

whose work

highlighted

ruptures

in the

movement
radicalism

(Bernstein, Jaures) or suggested (Sorel, Marcuse, Bloch).

affinities with non-Marxist strains of

Second, they clearly place the origins

larger
which

and

development

of

Marxism

within

the

context of

Western thought. This is particularly true emphasizes not merely the Hegelian roots of Marx's

of

the initial volume the extent

ideas, but
well)

to which Hegelian philosophy itself

(and thus Marxism for

mankind a

as

reflect

that far

older,

quasi-religious

longing

to recover

lost

state of wholeness

and perfect

freedom. Kolakowski is

perhaps at

his best

as a

teacher in

tracing this
me

line

of philosophic scholastics

dieval

continuity stretching from the Neoplatonists through the to the German Idealists of the early nineteenth century.
never

Third, Kolakowski
uation. of much of what

takes considerable pains to separate exposition from eval

To be sure, this is Marx

and

completely possible, partly because the meaning his heirs wrote is a subject of controversy in its own

right,

and

only be

"explained"

partly because the basic incoherence of a good deal of their writing can by labeling it as incoherence. Nonetheless, Kolakowski's

general scrupulousness

in this

regard makes

candidate to
all

become the

acknowledged standard reference work

Main Currents of Marxism in the

area

strong for

but true believers.

Finally,
ably
good

the clarity of Kolakowski's

translation from the original Polish

expository style, (assisted by a remark by P. S. Falla), and his complete

familiarity with the subject, make his criticism at once understandable and con vincing. Following his dissections, little of tissue remains in the theory of labor
value, historical
materialism and other central

tenets of the

faith. Appropriately,
the ele
hon-

Kolakowski,
ments of

once a

Marxist himself, is
value within the

also capable of

acknowledging

intellectual

tradition,

as well as of

distinguishing

Review Essays

137 from empty pretentiousness, apologetic servility and out stresses Marx's critical role in establishing the now
that political,
reference

est or ambitious error

right

cretinism.

Thus, he

somewhat

truistic

proposition

literary

and artistic phenomena can

economic underpin

only be

fully

understood

through

to a society's

nings and social conflicts.

In general, he

also

treats the

representatives of nine

teenth century Marxism with much greater respect than their post-Bolshevik
epigoni.

But the

overall

thrust of Kolakowski's review is to consign Marxism to

greatest

the status of
epilogue:

fantasy, "the

fantasy

of our

century."1

As he

observes

in his

The influence that Marxism has achieved, far from

scientific character,
ments.

being

the result

or proof of

its
ele

is
a

Marxism is

entirely due to its prophetic, fantastic doctrine of blind confidence that a paradise of
almost us

and

irrational

universal

satisfaction performs

is awaiting

just

around

the corner.

...

In this

sense

Marxism

the function of a religion, and

its efficacy is

of a religious character.

But it is

a caricature and a as a scientific

bogus form

of religion, since

it

presents

its

temporal

es-

chatology

system, which

religious mythologies

do

not purport

to

be.2

One
This is

of

the most

curious sides

to Marxism's ingenious amalgam of

notion

science

jar

gon and

religiosity is found in its

to
which which

(or notions)
the two

of

historical
as

materialism.

a subject

Kolakowski

must

repeatedly return,

the divergent

lines along

the

concept evolved separate

major schools of whom

Marxist
ma

epistemology.

On

one side stand

those Marxist thinkers for

of

historical

terialism expresses a particular understanding

consciousness

the relationship between human

all

and practical existence,

in

which

forms

of self and

social

awareness are
ment.

deemed to be dependent
other are

on

the existing level of technical the term

develop

On the

those for
than the

whom

defines

type of positivism,

denying
the

any reality

other

world of material

phenomena, and asserting

the primacy of economic

relationships

in the

explanation of

human behavior. For

the
a

former,
based

Marxism is
on an

a self-contained and

radically

relativistic view of

world

epistemology derived from

and, in

Hegel,

while

for the latter it is

scientific theory.

Engels, Kautsky

a vulgarized

form, Lenin

represent

Marxist

positivism, while
champions of

foremost

among Hegelian relativism.

placed

modern

writers, Gramsci and Lukacs are the

Where Marx is to be

has been

a subject of

scholars, particularly in view of the change writings. For his part Kolakowski argues that Marx
tence
on

continuing debate among in tone between his early and mature

never abandoned

his insis
re

mained

viewing thought as a function the framework within which he inductive

analysis of

of

socially defined action,

and

that this

conducted what otherwise appears

to be

the

largely
years.

the

operation of capitalism notion

that occupied

his

later

Kolakowski thus
and

rejects

the

that one can usefully distinguish

between
I. 2.

"young"

"old Marx", in favor

of a single,

basically Hegelian

char-

Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, m,

Kolakowski m,
pp. 525-6.

p. 523.

138

Interpretation
Marx's
entire career.

acterization of

While Kolakowski's
suggest a

arguments are

unlikely
ide

to settle this

by

controversy they Kolakowski) that perhaps deserves more

long-standing

further issue (unexplored

scholars: can an

attention

from

ology like Marxism, which is virtually oblivious to the possibilities of a human nature independent of the external environment, really be considered materialist
in the
sense

that this

word

is generally

used

today (i.e.,
in

to

denote

a mode of ex

planation which

finds the

causation of phenomena

physical agencies)? evolution of consciousness

For Marx the

(and hence
and

ultimate motive

force behind the

of

history
that

as

well) is the development of technology, technical

of

ability

the technical division

man

on an assertion

labor. His materialism, therefore, essentially rests is made by his tools. Of this the classic statement is to

be found in Marx's Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Econ omy (1859):
In the
social production which men

carry

on

they

enter

into definite

relations that are

indispensable
ular stage of

and

independent

of

their will; these relations

correspond

to a partic

development

of their material

forces

of production.

The

sum total of

these relations

of production constitutes

the economic structure of

society
in

the real

foundation,

on which rises a

legal

and political superstructure and to which corre

spond particular

forms

of social consciousness.
political and

The

mode of production

material not the

life determines the social,

intellectual lie

processes on the

in

general.

It is

consciousness of men that

determines their being, but

contrary, their social be

ing

that determines their

one

consciousness.3

What impresses
"tool"

of that

of production which social universe:

in reading this passage is its exclusion from consideration is also the most palpable of all the material ob
biological
man.

jects in the

While in Marx's time

not much was

specifically known tion, it was already

the

about the

biological underpinning

of cognition and motiva

a matter of

lively

medical speculation and research.

Certainly,
and
explained

leading

precursors of

Holbach, had
many
of

taken

it

as

nineteenth-century materialism, axiomatic that human behavior

workings of

such as could

Hobbes be

through a mechanical analysis of the the thinkers

within

body

and

brain. So, too, did

whether explic

the emerging liberal tradition who,

arguments

itly

materialist or

not, based their

for

constitutions or
nature.

free

markets on

very definite conceptions of an underlying human been extraordinary, therefore, had Marx chosen to

It

would

hardly

have Yet

adopt a similar position.

in opting for the view that consciousness must be understood as a function of so cial context, he did quite the reverse. It is here, of course, that the influence of his Hegelianism is epistemology had
materialists
most

apparent, for if Marx's (or at least the young

relativistic would

Marx's)
other

not

been

but

positivist obliged

as was

that of most

he, like them,

have been

to begin his analysis at the

such a course,
a

level

of

the concrete and work his way upward.

consideration of

Following

detailed

human

nature as an avoided.

independent

variable of some

sig

nificance could

hardly

have been

3.

Kolakowski 1,

p. 335.

Review Essays
Marx's
than

139
this question has more in common
with classical

outlook on

idealism

it does

with modern

materialism, for like Plato, he is inclined

materialist

to

invert the

common order of a

purely

brain in terms functions

of

of

its

abstracted

products,

causality, explaining the activity of the rather than seeing those products as

the properties of the brain. To be sure, Marx substitutes the "rela

distribution"

tionships of production and

for "ideal

forms"

or, in Hegelian

terms, "Mind"), as the primary factors in his causative as well as in those of the more orthodox Hegelians, this his
"materialist"

system.

And in his view,

to establish

was sufficient

credentials. a

Nonetheless, his

studied neglect of the

biological is

striking, particularly from

twentieth century perspective.

There may be a motive behind this omission, for Marx bears yet another re semblance to Plato (or in any event, to the Plato of The Republic read literally):

he is

a Utopian.

Accordingly, he
For this
a

needs a malleable substance plastic concept of

from

which

to con

struct

his

new order.

wholly

consciousness, ready to
more serviceable with

respond

to the progressive evolution of the environment, is far

psychic givens.

than a set of refractory

tions of a

human nature,

whose

impulses

Liberal theorists, starting might be redirected but

the limita

not

redesigned,

inevitably

created systems

that placed bounds on human possibilities. With quite

must

different objectives, Marx

have found the

escape

hatch

of a relativistic epis

temology, with its extreme contextualism, quite welcome. Marxists have continued to find the concept of human nature a source of trou ble, both in the realms of theory and practice. This has been particularly true for
those
within

the

more orthodox positivist grounded or

tradition,

who

have had

either

to dis

cover an

empirically
to social
that
one

theory

of

human

nature compatible with

the goal

of an egalitarian amenable

utopia,

factually

re-engineering.

demonstrate that the human personality is Thus Karl Kautsky, influenced by Darwin
egoistic or and one

"naturally"

ism,
sic
side

argued

man was neither

altruistic, since two ba preservation, existed

instincts,

for self-preservation,

for

species

by

side within

erative

impulse to
to

him. Socialism simply provided the opportunity for the coop achieve its full expression. Soviet sociologists, in contrast,
rest

have

attempted

their case on the

"data", asserting that

experience under

socialist conditions
Man."

demonstrates

the emergence of an altruistic

"New Soviet

Neither

of these approaches,
an enormous

however, have been particularly convincing

to

outsiders.

(Indeed,

body

of observation

by journalists,
attitudes).

scholars and emigres suggests,

if

anything, that the experience of

visiting Soviet social

ism has greatly

accentuated, rather than reduced,

self-serving

Finally,

most contemporary Marxists have shown unremitting hostility toward efforts to forge theories of human behavior based on comparative ethology and sociobiol

ogy,

since

these carry
cannot

within

them

suppositions about

individual

and

group

com

equalitarianism.4

petition

that

be

squared with radical

As it is precisely in

4.

See, for

example,

Sociobiology Study Group

ed.

of

Another Biological Determinism, The Sociobiological Debate: Readings

Science for the People, Sociobiology on the Ethical and Scientific

Issues
90.

Concerning Sociobiology,

Arthur L. Caplan (New York: Harper &

Row, 1978),

pp.

280-

140
these
and

Interpretation
as well as

fields,

in

work

being

conducted

by

experimental psychologists

neurologists, that the major advances toward

are

"materialist"

explanations of

human behavior

derscores how far the

might

likely to be made, the prevailing Marxist prejudices only un ideology has drifted from a formulation of the concept that
modern mind. review of

be intelligible to the

Like any comprehensive fully documents Marxism's

own sense of

the subject must, Kolakowski's survey

eventual abandonment of materialism even

in its

the term

(i.e.,
all

as a

theory

of economic

determinism).

Obviously,
they
were

Marx, Engels
relationships

and most of

the

pre-Bolshevik

Marxists did

argue that economic

determined

others, though as Kolakowski shows

quickly

reduced
were

to qualifying their determinism

by

noting that economic rela

tionships

orientation

by

only decisive in the "last resort". Lenin, however, reversed this severing the connection between economic development and revo
As
a

lutionary

readiness,

working primary causative agents. Since his time, and due to his success, operational Marxism has meant the subordination of just about everything, not to economics, but to the demands of politics. Without this de facto, but essentially complete, reversal of roles between eco politics, it is hard to imagine the appearance of a Marxist totalitarian

class.

substituting the activity of party cadres for that of the result, Lenin elevated political action and will to the status of
and

nomics and

ism. Totalitarianism is, after all, a political rather than an economic conception. It ultimately depends not on the manipulation of economic incentives to produce
this or that form of desired
mobilization of and political

behavior, but

on wholesale regimentation through cases of conflict

the

irresistible force. Thus, in

the

between

economic
sac

needs, totalitarian

systems always show a on

strong tendency to

rifice the former to

tion of the
all

latter. (It is only

this basis that the colossal centraliza

economic planning makes any sense, for though it stifles over it also secures the Party's grip on power and guarantees the productivity, steady flow of resources to the military.)

Soviet

Marx's
where

vision of mankind's

future,

while

Utopian,

was not

totalitarian. No

in his works, for example, is there anything like the design for coerced uniformity that is so conspicuous in earlier Utopian literature. Indeed, if any
utopia

thing, Marx's
of nineteenth sions

bears

more

than a

passing

resemblance to

the promised land

conces

to the realities

century liberalism, of human nature. As withering away

of

though

without

liberalism's necessary

pictured

by Marx,

postcapitalist

society

would witness a

the state, coercive power to be replaced

by

set of

purely technical arrangements had

"objectified"

for the

administration of production.

Where

capitalism
of

the life of the

production,

communism would

individual, reducing him to a mere unit liberate him from the direction of impersonal

forces, and restore him to control over his own life. And, far from suppressing individuality, the new dispensation would, for the first time, give it a true oppor
tunity for
creative
of

self-expression, though in
workers.

form

compatible with a coopera

tive society

free

Thus, in Marx's idyllic phrasing (from The German

Review Essays

141 "hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon,

dinner,"

Ideology [1846]),
rear

socialist man could

livestock in the evening,

roles of either

and criticize after

without

thereby being
As Kola

bound to the

"hunter, fisherman,
universal

shepherd or

critic."5

kowski

puts

it, "the

notion

that Marx regarded socialism as a system for de

pressing individuals into

one of

Comtean

being deprived of all subjectivity is

rise."6

the absurdest aberrations to

avoids

which

the study of his work has given

Marx
cords

totalitarian advocacy precisely because of the centrality he ac

.

to

economics

His

revolution comes

only

when contradictions

between the
con

forces

of production and millennium

the forms of property relationships require it. His

flict-free division
of

is attained only when technology ceases to demand a class labor. In postrevolutionary society, economics more or less takes care itself, without fuss, bother or political conflict. There is an obvious parallel between this vision of economic automaticity in a
of

postrevolutionary
nineteenth

of

the automaticity of the marketplace as conceived by liberals. There is yet another with respect to the negative view century government and its social role that Marx shared with his liberal contempor
world and

aries.

On these levels Marx from

was

clearly
a

a child of

his time,
economic

and quite

different

from

modern socialists who view public

ownership

not as a means of

banishing
a perma

politics

economic

life, but as

nent extension of majoritarian

way of making democracy.

decisions

Above all, it is difficult to imagine how Marx's schema, with its postulate of economic determinism, could have attained any plausibility whatever outside the
world of

liberal

capitalism.

The

system rests on

the possibility of clearly distin

of

guishing between
capitalism

economic and political

activity, but before the rise

made.

industrial
ex

there was no

such clear

distinction to be
a

The transition, for

worked

ample, from a Rome of

free farmers to

Rome

of

latifundia

by

slaves

certainly
to do
with

a major transformation
change

in the

mode of social production

had little
strat same

egy

and

in the quality of technology or skill, unless weapons, administrative technique be included under those headings. By the
any
distribution"

token "the means of

"economic,"

in imperial China

or

feudal Europe

were no

being based on market or customary exchange, than they were being based on exactions of tribute and taxation. It secured for the mar was only during Marx's lifetime that liberal reforms finally ket a degree of autonomy greater than it had formerly (or has since) enjoyed.
more

in the

sense of

"political,"

in

Moreover, they
technology
to

also

helped to vastly
and

accelerate

develop faster,

far

more

industrial invention, spurring visibly, than any other factor con

these transient phenomena, and not

nected with social change.

Beguiled

by both

itself a product of politics, Marx unwisely general realizing that the former was history. ized them into universals of relaSo long as it was grounded in economic determinism Marxism remained
5.

Eugene Kamenka,
p. 177.

ed.

and

Penguin Books, trans., The Portable Karl Marx (New York:

1983),

6. Kolakowski 1,

p. 311.

142

Interpretation
a revolution

tively harmless. Waiting for

to

based

on

accumulating contradictions,

be led

that

would never come.

doxy

for something working Marxist ortho despite its Thus, revolutionary rhetoric, drifted in the political currents of the late nineteenth century, unsure of the

by

historically

conscious

class, was to wait

uses of

power,

or

the

means of

charting its

own course.

In

Germany

it

whiled

away its time in parliamentary cumbing to

a movement with as represented

eventually suc truer instincts for the political jugular. Further east,
maneuver and

trade unionism,

by

the

Mensheviks, it
midst of

also

tended toward

political accommoda

tion, arguing
be
put on

even

in the

the Czarist collapse that the revolution had to

tice,

subscription

hold pending the development of a mature Russian capitalism. In prac to economic determinism seemed to entail a loss of revolution Marxism from

ary nerve. Without Lenin's transformation ory into

genius

of

body of deterministic
without

the

a set of operational precepts

for the

seizure of

power,

his tactical
of

during

the summer

and autumn of

19 17,

without

the dissolution

the

Russian Empire in the

crucible of

the First World

War,

there would probably not

was

be many Marxists in the

most successful. political

world today.

Certainly, by 1914 Marxism

an

becoming politically domesticated, particularly in

This simultaneously involved
on

those countries where

rapidly it was
to base

increasing

willingness

strategy

contesting elections,

an acceptance of

democratic

political

values,

an emphasis on gradual economic

reform,

an openness and an

to cooperation

with other

parties, the

assimilation of a nationalist

outlook,

emerging

con

viction

that

socialism would not constitute which was

the destruction but the

culture.

universaliza-

tion of that

best

about

bourgeois

This had

gone

further in

practice than

in

explicit

preachment, but
plane was on

was manifest at

both levels.

Especially
em

important

on

the theoretical

the appearance of
of a

"revisionism,"

bodying
One

widening tendency

the part

variety

of

Marxist thinkers to treat

major elements of

the system with skepticism.

of

the thorniest issues in Marxist

represents an extension or of

Leninism

scholarship is whether the emergence of a departure from the thought of Marx.

intentions. The
with

Kolakowski's discusson
sistence on

this problem is particularly useful because of his in

considering it

as a matter of consequences rather than

intentions

of a

theorist are sometimes ambiguous, and often have little to do

the uses to which his theories can be put. Since it is the origin of Lenin's tactical

principles,

and not

his

ultimate

tions,

whatever

they may
and ask

intentions, that are really at issue, Marx's inten have been, are also a bit besides the point. Finally, to
would

try

as some

do,

how Marx

have

reacted to

the reality of Soviet

power, is to raise a question that can

have

no meaningful answer.

For
was a

quite good reasons

Kolakowski

refuses

to argue that despotic socialism

direct

consequence of

movement appeared

Marx's ideology. As has been noted, the Marxist to be heading in quite a different direction as of 19 14. None

theless,

the possibilities
after

for

totalitarian

by

the Bolsheviks

1917 were,

interpretation, which were implemented according to Kolakowski, always present in

Review Essays
the

143
possibilities

doctrine. He finds these

in Marx's

"Romantic"

and
a

"Prome
organic

thean"

tendencies,

the former encompassing a desire to recover

lost

unity between the individual and the society, the latter asserting that at the cli mactic moment of human history man would attain both the will and understand

ing to totally remake himself and his

thus take the
appear

form

of a

in the

attempt

surroundings. "Marx's dream of unity could despotic party oligarchy, while his Prometheanism would to organize economic life by police methods, as Lenin's

party did

at the outset of

its

rule."

Moreover, "if freedom

equals social

unity,

then the more

conditions of unity there is, the more freedom; as the have been the confiscation of bourgeois achieved, namely property, all unity manifestations of discontent are relics of the bourgeois past and should be treated
accordingly."7

'objective'

But,

as

I have tried to argue, Marx's Prometheanism is hitched to his deter

minism and cannot

be

construed as a

blank

check either a world

for revolutionary

action

or wholesale

revolutionary

suppression.

His is

to be

made over on sched

ule, not through a

serves as a point of additional

Consequently, Prometheanism only departure for charting the course from Marx to Lenin if some explanation can be offered for why the deterministic anchor was cut
mastermind's command.

loose. In searching for this

those quasi-religious

explanation

Kolakowski

might

better have

returned

to

sources of

the ideology's appeal (of which he is so clearly

aware), than to its

philosophic content.

If,
offers

after

all, Marxism is

form

of religious

fanaticism (at least for some), if it

the prospect not of

less

theory

than a

improving but transcending the human condition, if it is vehicle of redemption, then it is hardly surprising that it
brand
of activism

should set

eventually
economic

spawn a

impatient

with

both the limitations forms.

by
only

determinism,
what

and

those
can

engendered

by
or

constitutional

With
or

stakes so

high

true believer
can

bear to wait,

temporize,

or

tolerate,

persuade?

If Marxism

have

an

intense

religious

appeal, why expect

be any different from those produced by other intensely apocalyptic faiths? Promising a world to be won, they have always resulted in activism of the most strenuous kind. To be sure, this has often been of an inward nature (taking

its

effects to

shape

in

unusual regimes of

discipline

and

mortification)
never

rather

than constituting the

mun

moral,

political or

military crusades, but it has Traditional

religions

been

at rest with

dane

art of

the

possible.

do,

of

course, have the saving world,

placing the Marxist vice

grace of

redemption

beyond the bounds

of this

thereby avoiding

in their more seeking to turn human society inside out. But taken principle the extreme expressions they always embody fully up by the zeal
of ots of world revolution: transcendent objects

Viewed from this Marx's his doctrine

angle

the

wellsprings of

demand transcending efforts. Leninism are to be found in Karl

millennial promise rather

than

his

theoretical plan,
substance.

in the

psychological

appeal of set

rather

than

its intellectual
when

Accordingly, if Marx

the

stage

for Leninism he did it

pp. 418-19.

he fashioned

a creed capable of fasci-

7.

Kolakowski 1,

144

Interpretation
chiliasts

nating those

left high

and

dry by
per

the advance

of modern secularism.

Undoubtably, his doctrine

organizing
with

attracted other

types as

well: scholars

impressed

by

the sweep and insight of the

an

theory

se,

politicians

drawn

by

the prospects of

material advancement.

emerging industrial class, But none of these

constraints and
were

and workers who saw were

it

as a means of
of

interested,

or

capable,

breaking

its deterministic

transforming it into

The chiliasts, in contrast,

needed

only

a set of

ical

process within

emotionally prepared formulae to subsume both working class and histor slippery their impatient revolutionary wills. Lenin's genius lay in

world-changing force. to do precisely that, and

a

pre-Marxist

creating these and combining them with organizational techniques inherited from Russian terrorists. Thus, under his auspices, and through the power ful
assist of an accident of

war, Marxism ceased to be the property

of a school of

thought and became the intellectual totem of a cult.

Whether or not he would fully accept these conclusions, Kolakowski superbly documents the underlying process, deftly interpreting its course and end result. This is surely as much as any historian of ideas can be expected to do. Indeed, he may well have closed the book on the entire subject, for as Main Currents of Marxism amply
of

demonstrates,
ideas.

the Marxist enterprise is no longer a genuine part

the

history

of

Book Reviews

The

Being

of

the Beautiful: Plato's

a

Theaetetus, Sophist,

and

Statesman.
of

Translated

with

commentary

by

Seth Benardete. (Chicago:

University

Chicago Press,

1984. 450 pp.: cloth

$42.50.)

Stewart Umphrey
St. John's College, Annapolis

This book
each

contains
with a

translations

of

Plato's Theaetetus, Sophist

and

Statesman,
part

together

commentary,

and an

introduction

whose

larger

is

commentary on Plato's Hippias Major. It also contains lected bibliography, and an index of names and things.
Near the
outset one

sets of

endnotes,

a se

Benardete introduces hand

a translation

a non-Quinean problem or

regarding trans
should
of

lation. On the

is to be idiomatic

colloquial; it

"appear to let the

original shine other

through and leave no tell-tale sign

or

its

own

unoriginality."

On the

hand it is to be literal

strict;

"everything

in the

original

[should] be
its
proper

rendered as
distance."

original at

it is in the original, for the sake of keeping the But translators cannot satisfy one of these condi
other.

tions

without

failing

to satisfy the

This

problem

has

a philosophical coun as

terpart. One cannot engage in dialogue (to

Siateyeoftca)
and

diairesis
versa.

without

failing

to engage in dialogue as communication,

vice

In

prac

tice, however, Plato's Socrates evidently engages in both at practiced in his writing the two aforementioned principles

once. of

Plato himself

translation. And

Benardete himself has arguably come about as close as one can to satisfying both in his translations. Readers of English will find them to be lively throughout and

only occasionally awkward; those familiar with Attic Greek will find that from the English one can often infer the original. They are then remarkably albeit
roughly precise. The endnotes to
each translation

supply

useful

information

about persons and

things,

grammatical

details, diagrams,

and the

like.

In the Introduction Benardete

man are connected

argues and

that the

Theaetetus, Sophist

and

States

linguistically

thematically by

the beautiful. It is in the

Hippias Major that Socrates, together with Hippias, treats thematically of the beautiful itself apart from the lovely. This dialogue may then provide a kind of
transcendental guideline to Plato's trilogy. In it the beautiful comes to
open mystery, or core of

light

as an

both

wonderful and

perplexing; as

the speech-provoking ground

intersubjectivity;

as a paradigm of

indeterminate doubleness in that it

transcends some given class

union of magnitude with

while remaining bound to it; and as an impossible kind. Benardete here suggests that Socrates, the ugly

discoverer

of political

philosophy, needs Hippias 's

inarticulate

vision of the

146

Interpretation
as a

beautiful
of

being

to complement his

own

criterial,

broadly

logical

conception

it. He begins

moreover

to defend Socrates or Plato against the plausible charge

other poets of

that he simply followed Homer and the

Greek

culture of

in identi

fying being

the
of

beautiful
the

with

the

being

of

beings. Whether the

being

beings is the here

a

beautiful, according
striking thing
about

to Plato or

Benardete,

remains

little

question.

The

most

Benardete's trilogy

of commentaries

is that in it

truisms respecting the

inseparability
Socrates'

of speeches and

deeds in Plato's dialogues

do

not remain

cal and

merely deictic nature

programmatic. of

is that the manifoldly hypotheti argumentation becomes evident. Another is

result

One

commentary magnifies the others. The Statesman commentary, in par ticular, draws from its context. It is the culmination of Benardete's trilogy, and a rare model of Platonic exegesis.
that
each

Another very striking thing is their concision; they are not much longer than the dialogues they accompany. Consequently reading them must be quite unlike
a

flowing

of olive-oil.

It

won't

be surprising, then, if

some readers

judge Benar

dete's writing to be needlessly obscure. Theodorus, for one, would never subject himself to it, for reasons that Benardete, following Plato, makes abundantly
clear.

Nor

will

any

reader who presumes

that the immanifest is eliminable, or

that the manifest is

cleanly analyzable,

or that there

is

no exegetical counterpart

to the aforementioned problem regarding translation. In order to

be

precise about

the

Theaetetus, for
diagnosis
and

example, Benardete has to

of

Socrates'

explicate

hardly

me

thodical

Theaetetus 's

nature

which

Theodorus

misunderstands

according to Socrates this requires some consideration of the nature of na ture. And in the Sophist commentary he must follow the stranger following the sophist, and it turns out that the stranger doesn't quite know his way about. So Benardete's
most part commentaries are
of

in

places

unclear, but their unclarity is for the

indicative

the

subject matter.

Their

concision will also

leave

some readers

dissatisfied

on other grounds.

I,

for one, wish that Benardete had written even more about in the Theaetetus to know (enioraoftai), and the extent to knowledge
which

Socrates'

single claim which

this

alleged

provides a measure of

truth and

falsity;

even more about the extent to

and

in the Sophist the

stranger

departs from the distinction between dv

when

cpavraoLia which
even

Socrates introduces
possibility
of

more about the

posing his leading question; and the precise itself and of political science,
other, and given the "unre
and the oneness of the of the

given the

doubleness

of whole and part and same and

solved tension
good."

between the doubleness

beautiful

can

In any case, these works of moderation are like reflections in which we gradually see how such issues emerge in Plato's trilogy. They may enable some to see how such issues are to be settled in truth.

The

endnotes

to each commentary supply references to relevant passages in

works most are

other works.

Of these

by

Plato.
own

The Index

gives readers access to

Benardete's

workshop,

since

in

mak-

Book Reviews

147
'Same' 'Other'

ing

it he had to divide
'Other'

separate under

For example, are and to be headings? And if not, which is to be put under which? (He puts Cf. 11.95, T47> T53f-> ni.86, 146.) The access is limited, how
and collect.
'Same'

ever,

and not wholly reliable. For example, there is in the commentaries a much fuller discussion of morality and the holy than the Index suggests. The Selected Bibliography contains lists of relevant editions, translations, and
much of

the best secondary literature.

the Theaetetus and the

Surveying

it

one realizes on

how

much

has

been
cent

written on

Sophist, how little

the Statesman in re

decades. One reason,

and

ogy
at

ontology

can

political philosophy.

of course, is the prevailing assumption that epistemol be cleanly separated not only from each other but also from Plato evidently thought otherwise. Benardete notes as much

the outset, and proceeds accordingly.

The Politics

of

Moderation: An Interpretation

of

Plato's Republic.
1984. xxvii

By John
+ 213

F.

Wilson. (Lanham, Md.:

cloth

$22.00,

paper

University $12.00.)

Press

of

America,

pp.:

Will Morrisey

In Wilson's opinion, tral books. In order "to

sizes

commentators

have

overemphasized

the Republic's cen

Republic,"

restore

the

wholeness of

the

Wilson

empha

Books VIII, IX,

which

and

X. Such emphasis, he argues,

argues,
and aims at

reflects

the nature of
opposites or

dialectic,

"presents,
of a

accommodating

contenders."

Common

sense suggests

that we look for this culminating accom

goes so

modation at

the end

dialogue; Wilson

far

as

to say that Books I- VII

constitute a sort of

introduction to the Republic's later books. Accommodation

suggests compromise and compromise suggests moderation. problem of

"The fundamental

the

work

is the relationship between justice

serious problem of a serious

and

moderation"; Wilson
writes as a seri

man."

describes this
ous man.

as

"the

Wilson

StraussWith gentlemanly care, Wilson challenges "the very interesting the one found in the central chapter of Leo Strauss's The Bloom
interpretation,"

City

and

Man

and

in Allan Bloom's

edition of

The Republic. This interpretation These

at are:

"questionable."

"rests

on

four

all of them

that Plato that

is

interests of philosophy heart"; philosopher, "or has primarily the types as rhetoricians and human permanent such that from separate

'body'

is

'soul';

ty

rants exist

less)

more

in actuality, but the just city is ideal, only; and that truth is (nonethe In consid real than honor, which is more real than physical pleasure.

one should compare and contrast it with that of ering Wilson's interpretation, this easy to do because, like Strauss and makes Wilson Strauss and Bloom. he respects the order of the dialogue. He devotes one chapter to each

Bloom, Book,

then adds an eleventh, concluding, chapter.

148

Interpretation

Wilson

briefly discusses the first three Books.

the setting, Wilson
moves

Whereas Strauss

and

Bloom

ex

tensively discuss
theme of

quickly to the
as

arguments.

On the
are

gods, that
ises"

of albeit

poetry men have souls, and that there is Socrates. "Thus, his reform of the

and

the gods, he describes the Greek

an

convictions

"that there

afterlife"

"unquestioned

prem

poets'

teaching

will

be

one of and

details,
Bloom

large

details,

fundamentals"

rather

than

an assertion

Strauss
anger at

do

not make.

Wilson

agrees with

Strauss that
much

Thrasymachus'

Socrates is
when

faked, but he does

Socrates
catches of

not

mention,

less explain, Wilson

Thrasymachus'

blush

him in

a contradiction. advantage of the

observes that
undercuts

Thrasymachus'

definition
tionalism
well. of

justice ("the
appeal

stronger")

its

own conven

by its

to nature, to the

strength of

the artisan who does his job

Socrates'

Unlike Strauss

and

Bloom, Wilson does

not regard

exploitation
Socrates'

this

contradiction as

logically

problematic, saying only that

argu

ment contradicts

"our

experience."

In

describing
at

the entrance of Glaucon and Adeimantus into the the

brothers'

dialogue,
Strauss

Wilson
and

first

melds

voices

into one, He

disagreement

with

Bloom that he
so

necessity,"

abandoned

by

quickly appealing to Adeimantus Socrates "with a mental

retracts

enough.

contends

that the simple

and so repellent
sigh"

to the erotic

"city of Glaucon, is

a sigh

probably, to Strauss. In

discussing

the complex

inaudible to Bloom and, city demanded by Glaucon, but

of

Wilson

emphasizes

the existence there not only of

luxury

leisure. Leisure

brings freedom from necessity; choice in turn opens the mind to reason. "Now, Socrates and the brothers become something more than observers and chroniclers
passing historical scene: they become tors, they discuss the lawgivers of Greece, the
of the
legislators."

In

becoming

legisla

poets:

"Only when the question of

Socrates in fact says, is not; but what he
eradicate and

justice

arises

does the form

"A young thing can't takes into his opinions

speaking become judge what is hidden sense

of at

crucial."

and what

that age has a

tendency

to

become hard to

(378e). Not only justice but wisdom more precisely, one's fu ture love of wisdom depends in some way on the form of speaking. Be that as it may, Wilson tacitly acknowledges that Strauss and Bloom are at least partly

unchangeable"

right in arguing that Socrates separates body from soul glects the body: "in the just city, everything cares for the
that "the great genius of
ceal
musical education

and then
soul."

pointedly ne Wilson contends

power

is

not

its truth, but its

to

con

the

"noble

lie."

truth, especially the truth about itself"; this education culminates in the But Socrates asserts that rhythm and harmony, while not themselves
have
"genius"

rational, can incline one to reasonable speech. Unless this assertion proves ironi

cal,

music education must

a more complex and greater

than Wil

son suggests.

Wilson

agrees with

Strauss

and

Bloom that

Socrates'

procedure
'assuming'

for justice
tice

by

a process of elimination

arbitrarily positing four virtues and is highly suspect. He

virtues a

for searching that one can find jus

that Socrates
charac

agrees

gives all

these

distinctly

political cast.

He

sees

the problematic

ter of

Socrates'

analogy between the individual

soul and

the city, a problem

Book Reviews
Socrates himself
of

149 Wilson correctly observes that statement noncontradiction (at 436c) comes during this discussion of the
Socrates'

points out.

the principle of

soul's

nature, specifically,
"law,"

during an attempt to distinguish its parts.

at

Wilson

calls

this principle a

likens the dialogue

this point to
closest to

trial,

and claims

that

"political philosophy, especially when it is law." the This edifying interpretation does
concerns

philosophy,
than

must respect

not quite reflect principle rather

the passage, which

convention.

justice

more

than it concerns
won't

law,

To

say that "the

the definition

same

thing

sites with respect

to the same

be willing at the same time to do part and in relation to the same

or suffer oppo

thing"

is to

allude

to

of justice as each

doing

his/its

own proper

task.

Moreover,

the for

mulation gives

the basis for making

distinctions, for

classification.
upon

Language

itself

another

meaning

of

the

word

Xoyog
of

depends

the truth of this

principle.

Strauss
part

and

Bloom

emphasize

the danger

the spirited part of the soul, the

that will serve appetites instead of reason if

improperly
holds the

trained. Wilson

em

phasizes

the tension between moderation,

which

parts of

both

soul and

city together, and justice, which differentiates, "makes each thing Untempered by moderation, political justice requires the radical
souls'

what

it

is."

changes set

down in Book V, changes sufficiently spectacular to cause Glaucon to forget that he earlier agreed that moderation, not the community of bodily pleasures
and

pains, binds the

city.

But

city/body analogy

would

be

even more suspect as common sensa

than the analogy of city and soul, as "there is no such

tion."

thing

Wilson
the

claims

that this new, just city's immoderate politics "are the poli
war,"

tics

of

most

unholy
assertion

a war

"understood

as a quest

for

justice."

The tex

tual support for this

the just city's

is weak; Wilson ignores the relative humaneness of defensive warmaking. This suggests that justice and moderation
tension as Wilson claims. Wilson does not discuss the

are not at such severe much more

losophy,
tivities
of

questions raised

interesting questions concerning the tension between justice and phi by Strauss and Bloom. None of these commentators
relation of

adequately discusses the

the
soul

Book VI's four-part division

of

the soul's ac

(imagination, believing, thinking, understanding) (reason, spirit, and appetites).

suggests a

to the tripartite division

Wilson

that the image of the

philosopher's ascent

from the
sun's

cave con

tains, implicitly,
ergo, the
soul

defense
most

of moderation. and

Eyes

narrow

in the

bright light;

shy admitting only very small amounts of it at image prepares the way for Wilson's claim that Soc ing variation of rates would send the young guardian-philosopher back to the cave in order to
time."

"is

distrustful

of pure

closed and

truth, making itself quite This charm any one

Socrates'

gain

knowledge

of

"our

ignorance"

own

a clever application of a seven

famous So Republic

cratic phrase.
constitute an

Thus,

in Wilson's reading, the first

show

books

of the

introduction because they

quests

the dangers of

immoderation,
a political

including

immoderate

for justice

science of moderation presented

truth, in preparation for in the final three books.

and of

decline"

The "true

cause of

the

the Beautiful

City

ruled

by

philosophers

is

150
not

Interpretation
theoretical not practical

the failure of eugenics but "the fact that the rulers

are allowed to of

men

vary the basic education in music and

and

gymnastic."

The
the

"essence"

regime of philosophers
also

philosophy "is that it remains partially is "always subject to change

practical of reason

ignorant"; therefore,
decline."

The tyrant

"has lost his

wisdom,"

of reason.

The sgcog

but to the egajg of appetites, not to the egog would behold the Good, after sacrificing many

goods; tyrannic sgcog achieves the opposite sort of unity, "the mindlessness of
non-differentiation,"

sacrificing the many goods. Wilson's Socrates prefers "the just and moderate person,
after

a complex whole of

in

tegrated

by

wisdom,"

practical made

not theoretical wisdom.

By the end

the Repub

lic, his Socrates has

X
contains a

justice

discussion

of

"no longer very Book imitation (poetic imitation in particular) because both
and moderation

distinct."

"virtue

and vice are somehow associated with a chain of

imitation,
which

and perhaps even caused or

by it"; "each thing in

manifestation of
Strauss'

reality

of

being
it

imitates is
more

is

a more evident

the

thing directly

real."

above

This

contrasts

with

making,

and

and Bloom's interpretation, which differentiates the arts of use, imitation, distinguishing even the best imitation from the truth. most

Here Wilson differs

noble

lie

as particular and

sharply from his predecessors. political, the image of the cave

not

Rightly describing
as general and

the

human,

and

the

myth of

Er

as

cosmic, he believes the latter

but

Philosophy is all too human. Tyranny in Xoyog nor in egog but in choice. Choice is "the soul of the are put in their place by the science of the a "Necessity and fate practical, not a theoretical, knowledge. Remarking that in the later Books Soc
most

true.

only most authoritative is inhuman. True humanity

inheres

neither

soul."

soul,"

rates shifts

from

tripartite to

bipartite division

of

the soul, Wilson suggests

blending"

that spiritedness
spiritedness to
results
ron.

has

merged with practical of

wisdom, "a

that enables

become "the heart

moderation."

The "politics
not

moderatio

of

in "the

community"

open

a phrase

Wilson does

intend

as an oxymo

The

open community's

bases

are

wealth, privacy,
and

tolerance,

good moral

up for

bringing, "subdued but evident These, "coupled with

interests."

strength,"

"an

accurate sense of one's own

the spark of

philosophy,"

"make the

search

the good

possible"

as

long

as moderation prevails.

Arnold Toynbee

and
of

the Crisis

of

the West.

By

Marvin Perry. (Lanham, Md.:

University
State

Press

America,

1982. 138 pp.: cloth

$19.00,

paper

$8.25.)

W.Warren Wagar

University

of New York

at

Binghamton

Marvin Perry's

object

in this

short

book is to
on

provide a

summary

and analysis of

of the views of the civilization.

late Arnold J. Toynbee

of

the nature and

destiny

Western

Since the fate

the West was always Toynbee's central concern,

Book Reviews

151

Perry has

chosen a large theme. It is, to be sure, an important theme. But writing book on Toynbee in the mental climate of the 1980s is a courageous act in any deed. No historian, and few scholars in other disciplines, received more critical attention in the 1950s than Toynbee. As a graduate student in those years, I well remember how he dazzled or exasperated nearly all of us. Today, however,

in the

expressive phrase of

his countrymen, he is
not quite sure.

cold mutton.

Why
tion

this should
not grown

has

be so, I am less perilous

The

plight of

Western

civiliza

since midcentury.

The

problems that

Toynbee

explored another alternative

religion, war, how

civilizations

rise

and
of

fall, how they

affect one studies of

have

remained

topical. The emergence

interdisciplinary

futures,

peace and world

order,

and comparative civilizations should eye.

have kept Toynbee before the scholarly Fernand Braudel and la longue duree has
with no

historiography the vogue of distinctly Toynbeean resonance, but

when all

In

benefit to Toynbee's
matter

reputation.

Perhaps,

is

said and
method.

done, it is
His
eclec

not

Toynbee's

that condemned him to neglect

but his

tic, superficially positivist,

historical studies,
teenth century or in the
seemed convert

fundamentally
have
of won

intuitive
him

and metaphysical approach

to

which might

a secure

following

late in the

nine

his German forerunner Oswald Spengler, quaint the as historians strove (not for the first time!) to 1960s, merely by their discipline into a true social science. The quantifiers, behaviorists,

heyday

neo-Marxists, sociologizers, and econometricians

their dust.

who

took the field left him in

significant, if only as an index to the More than intellectual history that, it was a prodigious effort to do what certain historians of every age since St. Augustine have felt compelled to do: standing on the highest peaks, to survey the human experience as a whole.

Nonetheless, Toynbee's
of

work remains

its

own time.

Ironically,

such visions of

the

whole are always partial. proper

But

we need

need constitutions and

maps, for the

the to
stage

ordering

of our

them, as collective lives.

we

Perry's first
an age of

chapter sets

crisis."

The

crisis

by characterizing Toynbee as a historian "in which Perry refers is primarily spiritual and intel
the Enlightenment

lectual. The unity

and we

of outlook of

has been shattered, he writes,

anchor."

Sensing uncertainty unable to drop this profound disarray, Toynbee thought he had found its source in modern man's embrace of a secularism no longer fortified by religious faith. He argued,
"are

floundering

in

a sea of

like

so

many

prophets of

his generation, from Maritain

and

Teilhard de Chardin

to Jaspers and

Sorokin,

that only the restoration of our lost links with transcen

dence
Six

would rescue us

from Untergang.
which

chapters

follow in
of

Perry

expounds and

Toynbee's basic
and

concepts and

methods, his reading

Western

history,

his hopes

including
the higher

the possibility of a
religions.

world republic grounded

fears for the future, in the spiritual insights of

firmly
cay of

and

Perry sees Toynbee as a cyclical philosopher of history who even jubilantly denied the inevitability of his cycles. Although the de
and

faith

the rise of

such murderous substitute religions as nationalism and

152

Interpretation
showed that the

technocracy
abolition of

West

was

in

grave

trouble, he

contended

that

its de

cline might still

be

reversed. and

Signs

of renewal were

already visible,

not

least the

slavery

the invention of the democratic

welfare state.

On the
avoidable

whole

Perry

delineates Toynbee's
humanism"

message quite

fairly. There

are un

simplifications, in a volume so brief. The contrast that he has

of the

Toynbee

draw between the "secular

Hellenic heritage
of

and

the faith of
spiritu

Christianity

is

exaggerated.

Toynbee did deplore the failings Hellenic

Hellenic

ality, but Perry's

virtual equation of

culture with modern secularism

well and

distorts Toynbee's views, on subtlety and deep learning. A

more serious

a subject that

he knew

discussed

with

shortcoming of the book is its tendency to homogenize Toyn bee's thought. Perry furnishes hints that Toynbee shifted his ground from time to

time, but his impulse throughout is to reduce the ideas of his subject to a single, uniform system held together by common premises. Essentially, his Toynbee is
the cosmopolitan prophet who wrote the
published

last

six volumes of

Study

of History,
of

the same
gion.

between 1954 and 1961, together with period as The World and the West and An
who most

such other
Historian'

important texts
Approach
to

Reli Per

This is the Toynbee

ry's preferences.

But the fact

remains

interests me, too, and I that Toynbee held

and often more

can understand

somewhat

different

views,

tougher, less tolerant, less hopeful,

the first six volumes of his

Study,

which appeared

last

years

he

also expressed serious reservations

powerfully argued, in between 1934 and 1939. In his about the fate of democracy in his
vision of a concert of

any future world state and at the very higher religions with the suggestion of East Asian
and rather

end replaced

a new pantheistic creed grounded

in the faith

than the

"Judaic"

world view.

Like many

other men of

foresight, Toynbee

was never a paragon of consistency.

All the same, Perry has read and taken into account the entire bee's work. His book is marked by clarity, common sense, and

body

of

Toyn His

concision.

strong emphasis on the role of religion in Toynbee's work, even if he gives too little heed to the fluctuations in Toynbee's own religious beliefs, is an interpre
tive strategy that pays many dividends.

Of

special value
response

is the

eighth and

final chapter, in
and

which

Perry

reviews

the

scholarly
quite

to

Toynbee, his limitations,

suffered

his

achievements.

He
of

notes
vir

correctly that Toynbee

from

a curious

blindness to many

the

tues of Western civilization, in spite of

mated

his

political

liberalism,
not

and underesti

the intrinsic divisiveness

of

the positive religions. "The

tegration in the modern

religions

era,"

Perry
science,
world-

observes, "has

growing world in been the creation of

a reli

but

of

business,

and

technology

and

it is doubtful that

mindedness."

gious revival will accelerate

To judge from the

current per reli

formance
gions

of

may Yet Toynbee

and

well prove

fundamentalist Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, the higher to be "a barrier rather than an aid to world

unity."

life,

to the

was not wrong to call attention to the spiritual poverty of modern hollowness of a culture grounded only in profit and the exploita-

Book Reviews

153
men and women.

tion of nature and our fellow

gar materialism

is

as powerless as religious an age

This, too, Perry makes clear. Vul fanaticism to rescue civilization from
questions."

its discontents. "In

that

has

collapse

seen reason and optimism soar and

Perry

concludes, "Toynbee has

raised

the

essential

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