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35
Last of all come ą band of men whom supposing them to exist, he calls Theoretics. These
men look to contemplation – to contemplation alone for the summum bonum.
Contemplation? To reach the summit of human felicity a man has nothing to do
but to contemplate. Who would not be a theoretic. Crede quod habes et habes – and if
there be any case in which the truth of this maxim is exemplified it is this: – for being
between being happy, – & fancying oneself happy where, as long as the fancy lasts, where,
what is the difference?
Of these men surely may be said & with no less propriety what Cicero said
of another set of men "Istos viros sine contumelia dimittimus sunt enim boni viri,
et quandoquidem ita sibi ipsis videtur beati"† † Cic They are a good set of men, – &
forasmuch as they are blessed in their own opinion, – blessed are they.
Not so our moralist. Happy tho' they may dream themselves, – it
is all a mistake of theirs. He will show them why.
Why then? We are born for action, he says, for action, & in order to prove
it he summons the Fabric of our nature, to give evidence – whereupon he observes that
if in our actions there were no action, – no action of offices (or duties) takes place
then the highest knowledge on arts or sciences is in a certain sort defective, and will
be of little service to mankind.⊞ ⊞ p9 testatur crim nostræ natura fabrica, nos ad agendum esse natos; deogue dumma in artibus ant scientus cognitio manca quodammodo est et humano goneri parum profutura si nulla officiorum actio consequatus. This is rather a roundabout way of coming at a matter
of fact. If scribere est agere, better proof was he giving while scribbling his philosophy.
And there are only one two objections to be urged – the first that all this means nothing –
the second that if it did it is nothing to the purpose.
But let the theoretic be produced, – wrapt up in his contemplations –
thinking about any thing else, or nothing else, – and fancying himself happy – so
happy as to have found the summum bonum – & let our philosopher go
with his Fabric of our nature to batter down the Theoretic's felicity. Will the
theoretic believe his own senses, – which tell him that he has got the
summum bonum – or our philosopher who assures him he has not?
In fine, let him fling away the Platonists, Academicians& Stoics
– they shall be as much in the wrong as he pleases, – but for the rest there is
not one of them so completely in the wrong as he. Every one of the others, – when he found
the sovereign good or not, found some good, – but not an atom of good has he our philosopher found
where he looked for it. How should he? It was not there. They might have been
wrong – but they did not contradict themselves, – did not bring out one sentence just
to have it annihilated by another.
His summum bonum, any summum bonum must amount to
nothing without a dose of those other things on which he pours out his scorn & drags
through the Kennel. But what dose? This he does not pretend to know – it is
a moderate dose, – & that is all he can say about it. With any other
summum bonum than his you have at all events something – with his
you have nothing but moonshine – & not moonshine enough to show you your
way &
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Identifier: | JB/015/167/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
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015 |
deontology |
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167 |
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001 |
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linking material |
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recto |
f35 |
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sir john bowring |
[[watermarks::[prince of wales feathers] i&m 1818]] |
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arthur wellesley, duke of wellington |
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1818 |
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