Civil freedom, Gentlemen, is not, as many have endeavoured to persuade you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of abstruse science. It is a blessing and a benefit, not an abstract speculation; and all the just reasoning that can be upon it is of so coarse a texture as perfectly to suit the ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy and of those who are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those propositions in geometry and metaphysics which admit no medium, but must be true or false in all their latitude, social and civil freedom, like all other things in common life, are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very different degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms, according to the temper and circumstances of every community. BURKE: Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777. The extreme of liberty (which is its abstract perfection, but its real fault) obtains nowhere, nor ought to obtain anywhere; because extremes, as we all know, in every point which relates either to our duties or satisfactions in life, are destructive both to virtue and enjoyment. Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed. The degree of restraint it is impossible in any case to settle precisely. But it ought to be the constant aim of every wise public counsel to find out, by cautious experiments, and ra tional, cool endeavours, with how little, not how much, of this restraint the community can subsist; for liberty is a good to be improved, and not an evil to be lessened. It is not only a private blessing of the first order, but the vital spring and energy of the state itself, which has just so much life and vigour as there is liberty in it. But, whether liberty be advantageous or not (for I know it is the fashion to decry the very principle), none will dispute that peace is a blessing; and peace must, in the course of indulgence and toleration at least to liberty: human affairs, be frequently brought by some for, as the Sabbath (though of divine institution) was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, government, which can claim no higher origin or authority, in its exercise at least, ought to conform to the exigencies of the time, and the temper and character of the people with whom it is concerned, and not always to attempt violently to bend the people to their theories of subjection. The bulk of mankind, on their part, are not excessively curious concerning any theories whilst they are really happy; and one sure symptom of an ill-conducted state is the propensity of the people to resort to them. BURKE: Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777. In a free country, every man thinks he has a concern in all public matters; that he has a right to form and a right to deliver an opinion upon them. They sift, examine, and discuss them. They are curious, eager, attentive, and jealous; and by making such matters the daily subjects of their thoughts and discoveries, vast numbers contract a very tolerable knowledge of them, and some a very considerable one. this it is that fills free countries with men of ability in all stations. Whereas in other countries, none but men whose office calls them to it having much care or thought about public affairs, and not daring to try the force of their opinions with one another, ability of this sort is extremely rare in any station in life. BURKE: And To a Member of the Bell Club, Bristol, In free countries there is often found more real public wisdom and sagacity in shops and manufactories than in the cabinets of princes in countries where none dares to have an opinion until he comes into them. Your whole importance, therefore, depends upon a constant, discreet use of your own reason; otherwise you particular occasion you should be roused, you and your country sink to nothing. If upon any will not know what to do. Your fire will be a fire in straw, fitter to waste and consume yourselves than to warm or enliven anything else. You will be only a giddy mob, upon whom no sort of reliance is to be had. You may disturb your country, but you never can reform your government. In other nations they have for some time indulged themselves in a larger use of this manly liberty than formerly they dared. BURKE: To a Member of the Bell Club, Bristol, I must fairly tell you that, so far as my principles are concerned (principles that I hope will only depart with my last breath) I have no idea of a liberty unconnected with honesty and justice. Nor do I believe that any good constitutions of government, or of freedom, can find it necessary for their security to doom any part of the people to a permanent slavery. Such a constitution of freedom, if such can be, is in effect no more than another name for the tyranny of the strongest faction; and factions in republics have been, and are, full as capable as monarchs of the most cruel oppression and injustice. BURKE: Speech at Bristol Previous to the Election, 1780. I was, indeed, aware that a jealous, everwaking vigilance, to guard the treasure of our liberty, not only from invasion, but from decay and corruption, was our best wisdom and our first duty. BURKE: Reflec. on the Rev. in France, 1790. The distinguishing part of our Constitution is its liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate is the peculiar duty and proper trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the only liberty, I mean, is a liberty connected with order; and that not only exists with order and virtue, but cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle. BURKE: Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, 1791. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,—in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,-in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters. BURKE: Letter to a Member of the Nat. Assembly, 1791. To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself. BURKE. If liberty, after being extinguished on the Continent, is suffered to expire here, whence is it ever to emerge in the midst of that thick night that will invest it? It remains with you, then, to decide whether that freedom at whose voice the kingdoms of Europe awoke from the sleep of ages to run a career of virtuous emulation in everything great and good; the freedom which dispelled the mists of superstition, and invited the nations to behold their God; whose magic touch kindled the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, and the flame of eloquence; the freedom which poured into our lap opulence and arts, and embellished life with innumerable institutions and improvements, till it became a theatre of wonders; it is for you to decide whether this freedom shall yet survive, or be covered with a funeral pall, and wrapped in eternal gloom. ROBERT HALL: Sentiments Proper to the Present Crisis. Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in of that society, and made by the legislative power all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, un known, arbitrary will of another man. LOCKE: On Government, b. xl. c. 4. Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool and draw shame and misery upon a man's self? LOCKE. "Many men," said Mr. Milton, "have floridly and ingeniously compared anarchy and despotism; but they who so amuse themselves do but look at separate parts of that which is truly one great whole. Each is the cause and the effect of the other; the evils of either are the evils of both. Thus do states move on in the same eternal cycle, which, from the remotest point, brings them back again to the same sad starting-point: and, till both those who govern and those who obey shall learn and mark this great truth, men can expect little through the future, as they have known little through the past, save vicissitudes of extreme evils, alternately producing and produced. "When will rulers learn that where liberty is not, security and order can never be? We talk of absolute power; but all power hath limits, which, if not fixed by the moderation of the governors, will be fixed by the force of the governed. Sovereigns may send their opposers to dungeons; they may clear out a senate-house with soldiers; they may enlist armies of spies; they may hang scores of the disaffected in chains at every cross-road; but what power shall stand in that frightful time when rebellion hath become a less evil than endurance? Who shall dissolve that terrible tribunal which, in the hearts of the oppressed, denounces against the oppressor the doom of its wild justice? Who shall repeal the law of self-defence? What arms or discipline shall resist the strength of famine and despair? How often were the ancient Cæsars dragged from their golden palaces, stripped of their purple robes, mangled, stoned, defiled with filth, pierced with hooks, hurled into Tiber! How often have the Eastern sultans perished by the sabres of their own janissaries or the bow-strings of their own mutes! For no power which is not limited by laws can ever be protected by them. Small, therefore, is the wisdom of those who would fly to servitude as if it were a refuge from commotion; for anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny. That governments may be safe, nations must be free. Their passions must have an outlet provided, lest they make one. The Ready and Early Way to Establish a Not active trade and victorious armies, but "When I was at Naples, I went with Signoring to the best light which God hath planted in Manso, a gentleman of excellent parts and him to that purpose, by the reading of his rebreeding, who had been the familiar friend of vealed will, and the guidance of his Holy that famous poet Torquato Tasso, to see the Spirit? . . . The other part of our freedom burning mountain Vesuvius. I wondered how consists in the civil rights and advancements of the peasants could venture to dwell so fearlessly every person according to his merit: the enjoy and cheerfully on its sides, when the lava was ment of those never more certain, and the flowing from its summit; but Manso smiled, access to these never more open, than in a free and told me that when the fire descends freely commonwealth. MILTON: they retreat before it without haste or fear. They can tell how fast it will move, and how far; and they know, moreover, that, though it may work some little damage, it will soon cover the fields over which it hath passed with rich vineyards and sweet flowers. But, when the flames are pent up in the mountain, then it is that they have reason to fear; then it is that the earth sinks, and the sea swells; then cities are swallowed up, and their place knoweth them no more. So it is in politics: where the people is most closely restrained, there it gives the greatest shocks to peace and order; therefore would I say to all kings, Let your demagogues lead crowds, lest they lead armies; let them bluster, lest they massacre: a little turbulence is, as it were, the rainbow of the state; it shows indeed that there is a passing shower; but it is a pledge that there shall be no deluge." LORD MACAULAY: Conversation between Cowley and Milton, religion and morality are the safeguards of freedom. When faith is lost, virtue soon departs also, and, corrupt to its very core, an unbelieving nation soon sinks tamely and meanly into decay. R. PAYNE SMITH, D.D. Of what use is freedom of thought, if it will not produce freedom of action, which is the sole end, how remote soever in appearance, of all objections against Christianity? And therefore the freethinkers consider it as an edifice wherein all the parts have such a mutual dependence on each other, that if you pull out one single nail the whole fabric must fall to the ground. FRIENDSHIP. SWIFT. Tully was the first who observed that friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and dividing of our Surely," said Mr. Milton," and that I may end this long debate with words in which we shall both agree, I hold that, as freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve free-grief; a thought in which he hath been followed dom. Even the vainest opinions of men are not to be outraged by those who propose to themselves the happiness of men for their end, and who must work with the passions of men for their means. The blind reverence for things ancient is indeed so foolish that it might make a wise man laugh, if it were not also sometimes so mischievous that it would rather make a good man weep. Yet, since it may not be wholly cured, it must be discreetly indulged; and therefore those who would amend evil laws should consider rather how much it may be safe to spare, than how much it may be possible to change. Have you not heard that men who have been shut up for many years in dungeons shrink if they see the light, and fall down if their irons be struck off? And so, when nations have long been in the house of bondage, the chains which have crippled them are necessary to support them, the darkness which hath weakened their sight is necessary to preserve it. Therefore release them not too rashly, lest they curse their freedom and pine for their prison." by all the essayers upon friendship that have written since his time. Sir Francis Bacon has finely described other advantages, or, as he calls them, fruits of friendship; and indeed there is no subject of morality which has been better handled and more exhausted than this. ADDISON: Spectator, No. 68. It is very unlucky for a man to be entangled in a friendship with one who, by these changes and vicissitudes of humour, is sometimes amiable, and sometimes odious; and as most men are at some times in admirable frame and disposition of mind, it should be one of the greatest tasks of wisdom to keep ourselves well when we are so, and never to go out of that which is the agreeable part of our character. ADDISON: Spectator, No. 68. The mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the conversation of a well-chosen friend. There is indeed no blessing of life that is any and virtuous friend. It eases and unloads the way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet mind, clears and improves the understanding,. engenders thought and knowledge, animates. virtue and good resolutions, soothes and allays the passions, and finds employment for most o. the vacant hours of life. The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil liberty. As for spiritual, who can be at rest, who can enjoy anything in this Next to such an intimacy with a particular word with contentment, who hath not liberty person, one would endeavour after a more gento serve God, and to save his own soul, accord-Ieral conversation with such as are able to enter- Tully has justly exposed a precept, that a man should live with his friend in such a manner that if he became his enemy it should not be in his power to hurt him. ADDISON. We ought always to make choice of persons of such worth and honour for our friends, that if they should ever cease to be so, they will not abuse our confidence, nor give us cause to fear them as enemies. ADDISON. Injuries from friends fret and gall more, and the memory of them is not so easily obliterated. ARBUTHNOT. Whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up in communicating and discoursing with another: he tosseth his thoughts more seeth how they look when they are turned into easily; he marshalleth them more orderly; he words: finally, he waxeth wiser than himself; and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's meditation. LORD BACON : Essay XXVIII., Of Friendship. Heraclitus saith well in one of his enigmas, "Dry light is ever the best," and certain it is that the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another is drier and purer than that which cometh from his own understanding and judg ment; which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs. So there is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer; for there is no such flatterer as is a man's self, and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man's self as the liberty of a friend. LORD BACON : Essay XXVIII., Of Friendship. A man hath a body, and that body is confined to a place; but where friendship is, all offices of life are, as it were, granted to him and his deputy; for he may exercise them by his friend. How many things are there which a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself! A man can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them; a man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate, or beg, and a number of the like: but all these things are graceful in a friend's mouth which are blushing in a man's own. LORD BACON : Essay XXVIII., Of Friendship. It is better to decide a difference between our enemies than our friends; for one of our friends will most likely become our enemy; but, on the become our friend. other hand, one of our enemies will probably BIAS. A long novitiate of acquaintance should precede the vows of friendship. LORD BOLINGBroke. A likeness of inclinations in every particular lence in two minds towards each other, as it is is so far from being requisite to form a benevogenerally imagined, that I believe we shall find some of the firmest friendships to have been contracted between persons of different humours; the mind being often pleased with those perfections which are new to it, and which it does not find among its own accomplishments. Besides that, a man in some measure supplies his own defects, and fancies himself at secondhand possessed of those good qualities and en dowments which are in the possession of him' who in the eye of the world is looked on as his other self. The most difficult province in friendship is the letting a man see his faults and errors, which should, if possible, be so contrived that he may perceive our advice is given him not so much to please ourselves as for his own advantage. The reproaches therefore of a friend should always be strictly just, and not too frequent. The violent desire of pleasing in the person reproved, may otherwise change into a despair of doing it, while he finds himself censured for faults he is not conscious of. A mind that is softened and humanized by friendship cannot bear frequent reproaches; either it must sink under the oppression, or abate considerably of the value and esteem it had for him who bestows them. The proper business of friendship is to inspire outdoes itself; whereas if it be unexpectedly life and courage; and a soul thus supported deprived of these succours it droops and languishes. BUDGELL: Spectator, No. 385. False friendship is like the ivy, decays and ruins the walls it embraces; but true friendship gives new life and animation to the object it supports. ROBERT BURTON. The attachments of mirth are but the shadows of that true friendship of which the sincere affections of the heart are the substance. For my own part, I found such friendships, though warm enough in their commencement, of about three hundred, in ten years' time not surprisingly liable to extinction; and of seven or eight whom I had selected for intimates out The truth is that there may one was left me. be, and often is, an attachment of one boy to another that looks very like friendship, and, while they are in circumstances that enable them mutually to oblige and assist each other, promises well and bids fair to be lasting; but they are no sooner separated from each other, by entering into the world at large, than other connections and new employments, in which they no longer share together, efface the remembrance of what passed in earlier days, and they become strangers to each other forever. Add to this, the man frequently differs so much from the boy -his principles, manners, temper, and conduct undergo so great an alteration-that we no longer recognize in him our old playfellow, but find him utterly unworthy and unfit for the place he once held in our affections. COWPER. It ill corresponds with a profession of friendship to refuse assistance to a friend in the time CRABB: Synonymes. of need. I have often contended that attachments between friends and lovers cannot be secured, strong, and perpetually augmenting, except by the intervention of some interest which is not personal, but which is common to them both, and towards which their attentions and passions are directed with still more animation than even towards each other. JOHN FOSTER: Journal. Let friendship creep gently to a height: if it rush to it, it may soon run itself out of breath. T. FULLER. There can be no inducement to reveal our wants, except to find pity, and by this means relief; but before a poor man opens his mind in |