CLAUDE ADRIAN HELVETIUS,

ON PREJUDICE.

All men imagine, that on this globe there is no part of it, in this part of the earth no nation, in the nation no province, in the province no city, in the city no society comparable to their own. We, step by step, suprise ourselves into a secret persuasion that we are superior to all our acquaintance. If an oyster, confined within its shell, is acquainted with no more of the Universe than the rock on which it is fixed, and therefore cannot judge of its extent⚫ how can a man, in the midst of a small society, always surrounded by the same objects, and acquainted with only one train of thoughts, be able to form a proper estimate of merit without his own circle. Truth is never engendered or perceived but in the fermentation of contrary opinions. The Universe is only known to us in proportion as we become acquainted with it. Whoever confines himself to conversing with one set of companions, cannot avoid adopting their prejudices, especially if they flatter his pride. Who can separate himself from an error, when vanity, the companion of ignorance, has tied him to it, and rendered it dear to him?

It is the philosopher alone who contemplates the manners, laws, customs, religions, and the different passions that actuate mankind, that can become almost insensible both to the praise and satire of his cotemporaries; can break all the chains of prejudice, examine with modesty and indifference the various opinions which divide the human species; pass, without astonishment, from a seraglio to a cloister, reflect with pleasure on the extent of human folly, and see, with the same eye, Alcibiades cut off the tail of his dog, and Mahomet shut himself up in his cavern; the one to ridicule the folly of the Athenians, and the other to enjoy the adoration of the world. He knows, that our ideas necessarily proceed from the company we keep, the books we read, and the objects presented to our sight; and that a superior intelligence might divine our thoughts from the objects presented before us, and from our thoughts divine the number and nature of the objects offered to the mind. The Arab persuaded of the infalli

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bility of his Khalif, laughs at the credulity of the Tartar, who believes the Great Lama immortal. In Africa, the negro who pays his adorations to a root, the claw of a lobster, or the horn of an animal, sees nothing on the earth but an immense mass of deities, and laughs at the. scarcity of gods among us; while the ill-informed Musselman accuses us of acknowledging three. If a sage should descend from heaven, and in his conduct consult only the light of reason, he would universally pass for a fool. All are so scrupulously attached to the interest of their own vanity, that the title of wise is only given to the fools of the common folly. The more foolish an opinion is, the more dangerous it is to prove its folly. Fontenelle was accustomed to say, that if he held every truth in his hand, he would take great care not to open it to show them to

men.

In destroying prejudices, we ought to treat them with respect: like the doves from the ark, we ought to send some truths on the discovery, to see if the deluge of prejudices does not yet cover the face of the earth; if error begin to subside; and if there can be perceived here and there some isles, where virtue and truth may find rest for their feet, and communicate themselves to mankind.

All those virtues originate from prejudice, the exact observance of which does not in the least contribute to the public happiness; such as the austerities of those şense- 、 less Fakirs with which the Indies are peopled: virtues that, being often indifferent, and even prejudical to the state, are the punishment of those who make vows for the performance of them. These false virtues in most nations (for many of them are to be found in every nation under heaven) are more honored than the true virtues; and those that practise them held in greater veneration than good citizens. Happy the people among whom the virtues which originate from prejudice and folly are only ridiculous, they are frequently extremely barbarous. In the capital of Cochin they bring up crocodiles; and whoever exposes himself to the fury of one of these animals, and is devoured, is reckoned among the elect. What is more barbarous than the institution of convents among the Papists? In Martemban, it is an act of virtue, on the day

when the idol is brought out, for the people to throw them selves under the wheels of his chariot; and whoever offers himself to this death, is reputed a saint. As there are virtues of prejudice, there are also vices of prejudice. It is one for a Bramin to marry a virgin. If, during the three months in which the people of Formosa are ordered to go naked, a man fastens upon him the smallest piece of linen, he wears, say they, a clothing unworthy of a man. The neglect, in Catholic countries, of fasts, confessions, penances, and pater nosters, is a crime of the first magnitude. And there is, perhaps, no country where the people have not a greater abhorrence of some of these crimes of prejudice, than for villanies the most atrocious, and the most injurious to society.

JOHN JAMES ROUSSEAU'S

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Every people become in time what the government causes them to be. They are warriors, citizens, men, if it so pleases; or are merely populace, a vulgar mob, if so it requires them. Hence every prince who despises his subjects, dishonors himself, in confessing he knows not how to make them respectable. Form therefore, men, if you would command men: if you would have them obedient to the laws, order it so that they shall respect those laws, and then they will need only to know what is their duty to put it in practice. This was the great art of the ancient governments, in those early times when philosophers gave laws to mankind, and made use of their authority only to render them wise and happy.

What is most necessary, and perhaps the most difficult in government, is a rigid integrity in doing strict justice to all; and in particular to protect the poor against the ty ranny of the rich. The greatest evil is already effected, when there are poor to be defended and rich to be restrained. It is on the middle people alone the whole force of the laws is exerted; being equally incapable to withstand the opulence of the rich and the penury of the poor. The first eludes them, and the second escapes them. The on breaks the snare and the other passes over it.

It is, therefore, one of the most important objects of the government, to prevent an extreme inequality of fortunes; not by taking away the wealth of the possessors, but in depriving them of means to accumulate them; not by building hospitals for the poor, but by preventing the citi zens from becoming poor. The unequal distribution of the inhabitants of a country, some being thinly scattered over a large tract of land, while others are assembled together in crowds in cities; the encouragement of the agreeable, instead of the useful arts; the sacrificing agriculture to commerce; the mal-administration of the finances; and in short, that excess of venality which sets public esteem at a pecuniary value, and rates even virtue at a market price; these are all the most obvious causes of opulence and of poverty, of the public interest, the mutual hatred of the citizens, their indifference for the common cause, the corruption of the people, and the weakening all the springs of government.

One's country cannot subsist without liberty, nor liberty without virtue, nor virtue without citizens: you would have every thing by forming citizens-without that you will have nothing but wretched slaves, and the first of these will be the rulers of the state. Now to form citizens is not the work of a day; and in order to have men it is necessary to educate children.

A public education, therefore, under proper regulations prescribed by the government, and under magistrates appointed by the sovereign, is one of the fundamental maxims of popular or lawful government. If children are educated in common and as equals; if they are taught a respect for the laws and the maxims of the general will; if they are instructed to respect these above all things; if they are surrounded by examples and objects which are constantly reminding them of the tender mother which hath nourished them, of the love she bears them, of the inestimable value of what they have received from her, and of the return which is due to her; we cannot doubt that they would learn to cherish each other mutually as brothers, to will nothing contrary to the general will of the society, to substitute the actions of men and citizens in the place of the vain futile and babble of sophists, and to become in