The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of MankindGobineau, Arthur, comte de
Philosophy
The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind
there is but one way; the creature must humbly and devoutly cast himself
into the ever-open arms of the Creator and seek for knowledge where none
knocketh in vain. This privilege he has enjoyed in all ages, and it is a
question which I would hesitate to answer whether the progress of
physical science has not, in many cases at least, rather the effect of
making him self-sufficient and too confident in his own powers, than of
bringing him nearer to the knowledge of the true God. It is one of the
fatal errors of our age in particular, to confound the progress of
physical science with a supposed moral progress of man. Were it so, the
Bible would have been a revelation of science as well as of religion,
and that it is not is now beginning to be conceded, though by no means
so generally as true theology would require; for the law of God was
intended for every age, for every country, for every individual,
independent of the state of science or a peculiar stage of civilization,
and not to be modified by any change which man might make in his
material existence. With due deference, then, to those philosophers who
assert that the moral nature of the human species has undergone a change
at various periods of the world's history; and those enthusiasts who
dream of an approaching millennium, we hold, that human nature has
always been the same and always will be the same, and that no inventions
or discoveries, however promotive of his material well-being, can effect
a moral change or bring him any nearer to the Divine essence than he was
in the beginning of his mundane existence. Science and knowledge may
indeed illumine his earthly career, but they can shed no light upon the
path he is to tread to reach a better world.
Christ himself has recognized the diversity of intellectual gifts in his
parable of the talents, from which we borrow the very term to designate
those gifts; and if, in a community of pure and faithful Christians,
there still are many degrees and kinds of talents, is it reasonable to
suppose that in that millennium--the only one I can imagine--when all
nations shall call on His name with hope and praise, all mental
imparities of races will be obliterated? There are, at the present time,
nations upon whom we look down as being inferior in civilization to
ourselves, yet they are as good--if, indeed, not better--Christians than
we are as a people. The progress of physical science, by facilitating
the intercourse between distant parts of the world, tends, indeed, to
diffuse true religion, and in this manner--and this manner
only--promotes the moral good of mankind. But here it is only an
instrument, and not an agent, as the machines which the architect uses
to raise his building materials do not erect the structure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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