EXTRACTS FROM 'REPLIES.' 309 national human suggesting, that the means of intellectual improvement Adam Smith, and the quesmultiply rapidly with the increasing wealth of society; tion whether that the facility therefore of acquiring these means may wealth is the increase in the same ratio with the injurious tendency of ultimatum of that system we have been just considering; and thus society. counteract or compensate all its evil. An answer, which affords a much stronger proof of the candour of the philosopher, than it is a satisfactory defence of his system against the supposed objection. The evil of that system is certain, and almost demonstrable; the remedy suggested is doubtful, and even conjectural. It would have been better to alter the shape of the whole question, and remove at once the groundwork of the objection, by guarding his theory against that extreme in which it takes its rise. If indeed national wealth were the sole object of national institutions, there can be no doubt but that the method demonstrated by Dr. Smith, being the surest means of attaining that end, would be the great leading principle of political philosophy. In his own work it is the great and sole end of his inquiry: and no one can blame him for confining himself to that single consideration. His undertaking required no more, and he has performed his part well. But, in truth, national wealth is not the ultimatum of human society; and although we must forbear entering on the boundless inquiry, what is the chief good, yet all reflecting minds will admit that it is not wealth. If it be necessary, as it is beyond all question necessary, that society should be split into divisions and subdivisions, in order that its several duties may be well performed, yet we must be careful not to yield up ourselves wholly and exclusively to the guidance of this system: we must observe what its evils are, and we should modify and restrain it, by bringing into action other principles, which may serve as a check and counterpoise to the main force. One of the greatest faults in all moral and political Ill effects upon the mind when sorbed in one isolated study; reasoning is an excessive and immoderate application of one principle, to the exclusion of others, with which it ought in reason to be combined; and whose relative force should always vary with the circumstances of the case. There can be no doubt that every art is improved by it is wholly ab- confining the professor of it to that single study. There are emergencies, which call for his whole mind and faculties to be absorbed in it, which require him to forget every other relation of life, however sacred or natural, except that artificial one in which he is then placed. Times will occur when a surgeon or a general must dismiss the common feelings of human nature, and, in order to do his task well, must look upon himself as engaged in working out one problem, and upon all around him as instruments subservient merely to the acquisition of some one distinct purpose, without regard to their bearings on anything yet confined intellect is not without its enjoyment. besides. But although the art itself is advanced, by this concentration of mind in its service, the individual who is confined to it goes back. The advantage of the community is nearly in an inverse ratio with his own. Reason and common sense require that neither object should be exclusively regarded. And if, as in the cases above mentioned, an entire sacrifice of the individual is demanded, in all other cases that sacrifice can be required only in proportion as they approximate to this extreme. And thus a wide space is left to the discretion of the individual, where the claims of the community are either not pressing, or are wholly silent. Of course it will be understood, that in this statement I exercise of the consider the intellectual enjoyment of the individual merely, when speaking of his advantage, and that I do not lose sight of that enjoyment, which even the most confined exercise of the intellect imparts: I consider it as abridged only in proportion to the contracted sphere of action in which he is doomed to move. EXTRACTS FROM 'REPLIES.' 311 Indeed, when the emergency is past, society itself requires some other contribution from each individual, besides the particular duties of his profession. And if no such liberal intercourse be established, it is the common failing of human nature, to be engrossed with petty views and interests, to underrate the importance of all in which we are not concerned, to carry our partial notions into cases where they are inapplicable, to act, in short, as so many unconnected units, displacing and repelling one another. tion of litera In the cultivation of literature is found that common link, In the cultivawhich, among the higher and middling departments of life, ture will be unites the jarring sects and subdivisions in one interest, found a cure which supplies common topics, and kindles common feel- fessional prejudices. ings, unmixed with those narrow prejudices with which all professions are more or less infected. The knowledge, too, which is thus acquired, expands and enlarges the mind, excites its faculties, and calls those limbs and muscles into freer exercise, which, by too constant use in one direction, not only acquire an illiberal air, but are apt also to lose somewhat of their native play and energy. And thus, without directly qualifying a man for any of the employments of life, it enriches and ennobles all. Without teaching him the peculiar business of any one office or calling, it enables him to act his part in each of them with better grace and more elevated carriage; and, if happily planned and conducted, is a main ingredient in that complete and generous education which fits a man 'to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war.' Thus far then we have considered the utility of those liberal pursuits, which in a refined state of society engage the attention of the higher orders, and which, by common consent, impart a dignity to the several professions of life, and to mercantile adventure. Classical literature more particularly considered. Inadequacy of translations to convey the spirit of the originals. It still remains to prove that what is called classical literature answers this purpose most effectually. And here, if the question is to be compendiously treated, it must be allowed me to take for granted many points, which a captious adversary might dispute, but which the authority of the greatest names, and the general experience of educated men, concur in establishing. That the relics of Grecian and Roman literature contain some of the choicest fruits of human genius; that the poets, the historians, the orators, and the philosophers, of Greece especially, have each in their several lines brought home, and laid at our feet, the richest treasures of invention; that the history of those early times presents us with a view of things 'nobly done and worthily spoken;' that the mind and spirit which breathed then lives still, and will for ever live in the writings which remain to us; that, according as taste, and genius, and learning, have been valued among men, those precious remains have been held still dearer and more sacred, are all positions which it is better to assume as indisputable, than to embarrass the present argument with any new attempt to prove them. Neither is it necessary to say much in order to silence the feeble and querulous cry, that all the good which those works contain may be had through the medium of translation. To demonstrate, indeed, how, from the very nature of language, translation cannot adequately perform this office, would require an extended argument. I would rather appeal to the reflection and experience of every man who is acquainted with more than one language, whether he has not often felt a translated thought, even when best executed, to be rather a cold inanimate bust, than a living counterpart of the original: whether he has not been affected by sentiments or descriptions in one language, in a degree which no power or skill can equal in another. Even EXTRACTS FROM REPLIES.' 313 serve rather to was excellent, us with that the rudest languages have in some words and phrases, or Translations some peculiarity of construction, their characteristic advan- tell us that tage; and the more copious and perfect a language is, the the original more must these advantages be multiplied. A bare chronicle than present of facts indeed, or a rigid demonstration in science, may excellence perhaps be transferred from one to the other without itself. loss or injury. For where the ideas are few, simple, and determinate, they readily find in all languages an adequate expression. But how shall the inspirations of genius and fancy be packed up, lettered, and consigned over, from hand to hand, in this literary traffic? How shall even the ordinary phraseology of moral reasoning, of sentiment, of opinion, preserve its native colouring, and exact features? How shall the language of varied passion, of tender feeling, of glowing description, find, in the distant region to which it is transported, the precise measure of its value? How, after this change of place and manners, where all is so new and so different, how shall it suit itself with the commodities adapted to its former wants and habits? Mere subsistence, it is true, the bread of life, may be obtained everywhere. The great truths of religion, the bare theorems of science, whatever is addressed to the understanding strictly, may perhaps pass unimpaired. But all that constitutes the grace, the beauty, the charm, the dignity of composition, all that tends to awaken the fancy, or to affect the heart, like the finer and more volatile parts of substances, is lost during the experiment; or if these qualities be partially retained, they are in a manner the invention of the translator; and serve rather to tell us, that the original was excellent, than to present us with a view of that excellence itself. The writer of an article in the Edinburgh Review, on Edgeworth's Professional Education, whose petulant sarcasms alternately provoke our spleen and our laughter, endeavours to convince the world that, notwithstanding |