Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written ThereHazlitt, William
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Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written There
Hazlitt, William
English essays
the inequalities of surface in a country, for the benefit of
agriculture and commerce. In short, he believed that the interests of
men in society should be consulted, and their several stations and
employments assigned, with a view to their nature, not as physical,
but as moral beings, so as to nourish their hopes, to lift their
imagination, to enliven their fancy, to rouse their activity, to
strengthen their virtue, and to furnish the greatest number of objects
of pursuit and means of enjoyment to beings constituted as man is,
consistently with the order and stability of the whole.
The same reasoning might be extended farther. I do not say that his
arguments are conclusive: but they are profound and _true_, as far as
they go. There may be disadvantages and abuses necessarily interwoven
with his scheme, or opposite advantages of infinitely greater value,
to be derived from another order of things and state of society. This,
however, does not invalidate either the truth or importance of Burke's
reasoning; since the advantages he points out as connected with the
mixed form of government are really and necessarily inherent in it:
since they are compatible, in the same degree, with no other; since
the principle itself on which he rests his argument (whatever we may
think of the application) is of the utmost weight and moment; and
since, on whichever side the truth lies, it is impossible to make a
fair decision without having the opposite side of the question clearly
and fully stated to us. This Burke has done in a masterly manner. He
presents to you one view or face of society. Let him who thinks he
can, give the reverse side with equal force, beauty, and clearness. It
is said, I know, that truth is _one_; but to this I cannot subscribe,
for it appears to me that truth is _many_. There are as many truths as
there are things and causes of action and contradictory principles at
work in society. In making up the account of good and evil, indeed,
the final result must be one way or the other; but the particulars on
which that result depends are infinite and various.
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