Andrew Halliday Douglas

“ But it might be argued with a show of reason that man cannot find peace or happiness if his existence and his hopes are confined to the present life. It does not quite appear, from a somewhat obscure passage, what the precise difficulty is. Probably it is that this life is such a scene of change and trouble. Or the suggestion may be, that earth is not sufficient to satisfy the large desires of man, or bring his mind to rest. Or it might be held, as Pomponazzi observes elsewhere, that the fear of death poisons life and makes happiness, or at least rest, impossible. ”

“ Wherefore, he says, Aristotle, asking the question why prizes are given in all other contests, but not in the efforts after virtue and knowledge, answers that it is because a prize, to be a prize, must be of more value than the game; but nothing is of more value than virtue or knowledge; and therefore there is nothing fit to be the reward of those efforts except the virtue and the knowledge themselves. ”

“ Again, whereas it had been remarked that the various intellectual and practical pursuits in which men may engage impede one another, and compete with one another, so that a man has to choose among them and cannot possibly cultivate all to perfection or even more than one, it is not so with the moral virtues; for moral life is a unity; and the cultivation or attainment of one virtue, so far from hindering the pursuit of another, puts us on the way to it: indeed the attainment in perfection of one virtue would imply really the attainment of all. ”

“ If intellectual contemplation were the very end of man's existence, it could not be supposed to be so frustrated as it is here; and a future life would evidently be necessary to supply the deficiencies, and carry on the poor beginnings, of this. But as it is, the position of man with regard to knowledge may be considered altogether appropriate to his condition; for it may fairly be maintained that in this life each man possesses know ledge enough, and sufficient intellectual light, to enable him to fulfil his moral vocation as a man. ”

“ It is not true then, Pomponazzi maintains, that men miss their end in this life. He meets the allegation by two suggestions which are perhaps the most original ideas to which his mind gave birth. He offers a twofold correction of the accepted ideas about a man's end. In the first place, he suggests the conception of the human race as an organism, in which the different parts combine to promote a common end. Individual men may come to little, or do little in this world; yet they may fill each a place in the common life and do each a part in the common work of the whole human race. ”

“ Pomponazzi answers all this in the bold way which is characteristic of him. He frankly admits the alleged inequalities in the distribution of outward rewards and punishments. Nevertheless he affirms that no good action goes unrewarded and no evil action unpunished, in this life. He does so on the simple ground that virtue is its own reward and vice its own sufficient punishment. ”

“ For, in virtue of that moral worth which it may possess, it is far, even at the worst, from being the miserable condition it is said to be; and in any case it is infinitely preferable to a merely animal existence. Mere duration is not the test of a satisfying existence: " Who would prefer the long life of a stone or of a stag to that of a man how ever mean? 4 " In the worst bodily condition a thinking man can possess a quiet mind. Nay, every wise man would prefer to endure the worst hardships and tribulations rather than in an opposite condition to be foolish, base, or vicious. ”

“ POMPONAZZI always shews a marked anxiety about the ethical effect of his theories. It is characteristic of him that he constantly desires to shew his philosophical conclusions to be consistent with the highest views of moral life, and with the binding obligation of moral duties. In particular he labours to prove that his doctrine of the soul's mortality not only does not deprive morality of any sanction, but even establishes morality upon a better basis. ”

“ Pomponazzi examines the faculties of human nature in order to discover in the exercise of which of them that nature is to find its end; and he concludes that a man's true end is to be found in the exercise of moral reason and in the moral conduct of life. His other powers a man is to cultivate in part, and in various proportions according to his nature and his place in life ”

“ It is remarkable that, while thus escaping the argument from the necessity of intellectual perfection, by the substitution of a moral for an intellectual ideal of life, Pomponazzi did not consider the argument which many would think the strongest argument for immortality the argument, namely, from the necessity of moral perfection or at least of a higher degree of moral progress than is here attained or attainable by man. ”

“ No doubt, if Divine conditions of being are set before us, our will desires them: whether it is justified in so doing, is another question. If our desires are not to be disappointed, they must be regulated by sound reason 2 .
It is true that in intelligence man partakes of the eternal principle. But a mole has eyes, yet does not see (although Aristotle compares human intelligence rather to an owl than to a mole, for an owl sees a little) . ”

“ You ought not to attempt, he would have said, to force human nature beyond its scope, or pitch the standard of human virtue too high. And on a modest and moderate view of what is in any case possible to a man, this life might be considered sufficient for its attainment by those who make a reasonable effort, who do their best. ”

“ Pomponazzi replies characteristically by defining the measure and kind of the " peace " enjoyed by man. He quotes Aristotle's teaching that human happiness is not inconsistent with many changes, and many lesser misfortunes. He does not, of course, forget how Aristotle finds in goodness the essence of happiness, and in the permanency of moral attainments its true stability; so that the peace or security of the good man can survive even great outward misfortunes, borne with a high spirit. ”

“ Nor ought what is mortal to seek immortal happiness, since the immortal is not congruous with the mortal ...which is why at the beginning we laid down that to each thing is assigned an end appropriate to it; for if a man be moderate he will not seek the impossible, nor will it be suitable to him: for to have such happiness belongs to the Gods, who are independent in every way of matter and mutation the opposite of which is the case of the human race, which holds an intermediate position between mortal and immortal beings 1 . ”

“ Pomponazzi does not deny that most men, if they thought death were the end, would prefer even dishonour to death; wherefore wise legislators restrain the masses of mankind from crime and incite them to courage by threats and promises for the future life ”

“ So far, the argument is clear that if the poena culpae (the inward and intrinsic loss through sin) be thus diminished through the endurance of the poena damni (outward loss) , the absolute loss is lessened, and, speaking absolutely, the man is a gainer. The ultimate standard of gain and loss is the inward one, the standard of character, of more or less actual goodness. As always, Pomponazzi maintains again that any outward loss or suffering is well borne which makes the man a better man ”

“ This is put crudely that the incidence of the outward consequence positively interferes with the development of the intrinsic consequence, whether of gain or loss in order by the paradox to emphasise the main position, that the absence of external reward makes absolutely no difference to a man's reaping the fruit of his goodness; that in escaping outward punishment a man is still left to bear the utmost consequences of wrong-doing. ”

“ Nothing better than goodness itself can possibly be possessed by human nature 1: this is the best that can befall; and therefore in being good a man infallibly has his reward. It is in this that the security and stability consist which Aristotle ascribes to the good man 2 . On the other hand, wickedness of itself implies unhappiness ”

“ But a crime injures the community, of which the criminal is also a part; and, still more, injures the criminal himself 1 . A soul marred by baseness is a diseased soul 2; and by it a man does injury to his own humanity 3 . Even if by wrong a soul could escape death for ever, sin would still be misery 4 . ”

“ This is the question which Pomponazzi takes up first, in the fourteenth chapter of the De Immortalitate.
He raises first the question, whether it be possible for man in this life to attain the end of his being. And he admits that if we suppose that " end " to be intellectual contemplation, it can in no sense be attained within the bounds of mortality. How few men have in this life ability, time, or opportunity for philosophic thought! ”

“ For so far from its being true, that in view of the difficulty and unsatisfactoriness of higher aims in this life (the labour, say, of the pursuit of knowledge, the renunciation of bodily enjoyments, and the dim knowledge which at the best we gain, with the prospect of losing all we have acquired) reason would counsel us, if this life were all, to decline upon bodily indulgence and excess the mere truth is that the smallest share in knowledge and virtue is to be preferred to the total sum of bodily delights 5 . ”

“ For the common good of humanity exactly requires that in these respects there should be differences among men that speculation, and mechanical labours, and the various sub-divisions or departments of each of these, should be attended to by different individuals. ”

“ The last objection on moral grounds to his conclusion with which Pomponazzi deals, is the allegation that the immortality of the soul is the belief of all good men, and its mortality is held only by those who desire to lead immoral and sensual lives. ”

“ Here also we find the most deliberate statement of Pomponazzi's frequently expressed opinion, of the right of prudent legislators to impose upon their subjects useful and restraining beliefs, although known by themselves to be untrue. Truth is not the concern of the legislator, but good living only 2; and men have to be influenced, he says, according to their nature, some by higher, some by lower considerations. ”

“ He will not for a moment allow that his view of human life leads to immoral conclusions, or lessens the sanctions and destroys the motives for moral action. If it were to follow from the soul's mortality that men should prefer dishonour to death, or fail to persist in duty even to the point of death, that certainly would be something contra naturam 1 , but by his determination of good ness as a thing desirable for its own sake, he proposes to shew that this does not follow. ”

“ But in the second place, with reference to man's attaining the ends of his being in this life, Pomponazzi raises the question of what is the essential end of man, taken even as an individual. He prepares to dispute the conventional belief, that the end of man is intellectual attainment, intellectual contemplation. ”

“ Similarly, in the case of the various branches of science, all men possess and exercise the elements of mathematics and astronomy, of perspective and music, of rhetoric and dialectic 1 . It is even more evident that all men exercise the practical reason, and have some aptitude for moral, civic, and domestic life. ”

“ The legislator, knowing that men's lives are prone to evil, and aiming at the common weal, has sanctioned the belief that the soul is immortal, not caring about the truth of the belief, but about its moral value 3 . ”

“ But to be a philosopher, or to be a house-builder, is not within our power, nor are such things absolutely incumbent upon man 3 ."
Nay, he can go further, and say that to require of every man the cultivation either of the theoretical understanding or of the mechanical arts would be inconsistent with the general well- being of the human race. ”

“ In relation to absolute truth, and those matters which are the objects of the higher Intelligences, his light may in comparison be dim and his sight feeble, while at the same time he may have sufficient knowledge for the conduct of life; and indeed it may well be that the degree of knowledge vouchsafed to man is exactly that which is most appropriate to the working out of his moral task 2 . In that case
1 " Agricola enim, et faber, egenus vel dives, si moralis sit, felix nuncupari potest, et vere nuncupatur, sorteque sua contentus abit." ”

“ He would rather commit any baseness than meet death; nor would he die for his friend, his country, or the public good. But such a conclusion is " against nature " and repugnant to the universal feelings of mankind. ”

“ Admitting that the intellectual part of mankind is in a sense the highest part, he does not infer that every man should attain to the excellence of that part, any more than that in the body every member should exercise the functions of those which are considered to be the highest parts of the body, such as the heart or the eye 4 . ”

“ This is the negative case against the sufficiency of the present life. But the positive argument, on which the thinkers of that time depended to prove the immortality of the soul, was that the soul of man desires and demands infinity. ”

“ Hence it is that a man does not take it amiss to be told that he is no metaphysician, or physicist, or artisan; but when he is called a thief, or intemperate, or unjust, or imprudent, he feels that he is being accused of not being what he ought to be, and blamed for something that is within his power. ”

“ It has been argued 6 that, if death ended all, no man could ever for any reason willingly seek death. In this way it was sought to prove that the doctrine of mortality was inconsistent with the obligation of duty and the necessities of moral life. For, death being altogether evil, no man would then ever be
1 "Cum homo praesupponitur mortalis." ”