ESSAY XLIII. FORMS VANISH AS THE HUMAN MIND In order to estimate properly those circum-stances which are essential to the existence and preservation of civil society, and to distinguish them from such as are merely adventitious and formal, it is necessary to trace the actions and sentiments of men to their source. In rude and barbarous states of society, or among the ignorant members of the most polished nations, the mind is affected only through the medium of the senses; the hu• man animal, though he may possess an inferior degree of imagination and fancy, is only capable of calling those into action by means of sensible impressions. To endeavour to call up those vivid forms of imagination, which are capable of producing the passions of heroism or valour by abstract thought, is ineffectual; and the Indian has recourse to This yell, the Scotsman to his bagpipe, the Dutchman to his gin, and the English peasant to oaths and curses. In such a state of society men are entirely subjected to forms, and causes are only recognised and attended to in their effects; but in the highest state of refinement of which society admits, and among true philosophers of every period, forms and ceremonies are of little avail, and the substance rather than the shadow, the cause rather than the effect, becomes the rule of judgment. In our present imperfect states of society, however, it is only in our power to trace and appreciate by their causes our own actions; the motives of others can only be recognised in their effects. As, however, it is altogether impossible to appreciate our own actions without knowing perfectly; those mo- tives which prompted them, we can never be ··capable of judging others. As it is necessary, in every society, that the few should think for the many, or, in other words, that the many should be judged by the few, it becomes unavoidable to constitute some determinate and fixed criterion, some general model, by which all actions are to be appreciated. Hence it is not by the spirit of law that mankind is, dor perhaps ever can be ruled; it is only by the form. Integrity and justice do not constitute a judge, nor did virtue or true religion ever form a priest." And here let not any zeal ous blockhead, or addle-pated booby, in the fervour of his stupidity, imagine, that because he is unable to put two ideas together, or separate things which could never be jumbled with each other, but in the muddy medium of his own brain, I assert, or for a single moment suffer myself to think, that no judge ever possessed integrity and justice, or that no priest ever knew what true religion and virtue were. I am speaking entirely of the judicial and clerical character as an abstract principle, not of men and individuals: whence every thinking being will readily perceive, that if we cannot appreciate by their causes any actions, unless we trace them up to their original motives, and that we can trace them up to their original motives only in our own minds, not being able to do it in the minds of others, it must necessarily follow that the clerical and judicial, or any other character, constituted as a rule of government, cannot possibly direct men's actions by the spirit or essential quality of virtue, but only by certain forms and ceremonies, because they cannot judge really of the causes of any action, being incapable of tracing it up to its original motive; whence judging only by the effect and not the cause of an action, actions are repressed or allowed by the mere will of form and custom, which can never appreciate the real value of any deed which might be in itself virtuous and holy before God, but guilty of the most unpardonable crime in the eyes of a human law, or might be black with every iniquity, before our conscience and our Maker, and receive encouragement and reward from human institutions, which cannot read the heart of man, for the heart is known only to God and to ourselves."-In the rudest period of barbarity, therefore, all the variety of forms, ceremonies, and corporeal punishments which are calculated to operate upon the senses, are essential to the existence of regular society; and in more refined and advanced ages, mankind are ruled by fixed principles, approaching only, but never arriving at the spirit of justice. But the great 3societies and associations of men must be governed in a state of barbarity and ignorance 1 by those circumstances fitted to impress the senses; and refined society, by forms which approach more and more towards perfection, and the pure spirit of truth and justice, as the human mind progressively advances; yet the case is altogether different among friends, or the individuals of a family, where the regu lation and government are deducible from a higher origin. In that pure alliance which takes place between two persons united in -friendship or love, and that between man and -his Creator, forms, which are intended to prevent the evils that would arise from arbitrary judgment, cannot exist. In that dear connexion the mutual and candid communication of minds between the individuals, united by such refined connexions, the motives and the causes of actions, are accurately known, and indeed the knowledge of them is essential to such a society. Hence the spring and motive of actions, where alone there exists no fallacy, become the criterion of judgment. Suspicions and deceitful appearances are entirely disregarded. Friendship, love, and devotion are founded. entirely upon the more noble emotions of the mind, flowing from |