Benjamin Robbins Curtis

“ I have not made a forced and unnatural distinction between this middle class and the mass of the people. A distinction does in reality exist, and always must exist, between knowledge and ignorance, poverty and wealth. ”

“ They have called to men to beware, for the spot on which they stood was holy ground. But let religious ignorance once be removed, let commerce, agriculture, and manufactures flourish, — let the resources of the people be fully developed, — and then a despot would scarcely look down from his throne with confidence on such a people, even though they were politically ignorant. That one absolute government in Europe may support another, experience proves; but this very necessity shows that political ignorance is not to be relied on. ”

“ It requires more subtlety than the ignorant possess to separate the idea of their country from the government which exists in it, and to be able to venerate the one, though they may hate and despise the other: when they perceive that self-aggrandizement is the object of their rulers, that the welfare of the people enters but rarely into their thoughts, and then only in connection with their own interests, it is not strange that they should shrink within themselves and leave their country to its fate. ”

“ Why the iron hand of arbitrary power has so long grasped some of the finest countries in Europe? I answer, that this is not to be attributed to political ignorance alone, but also to religious ignorance. Princes have taken shelter under the cross. Superstition has been called to their aid, and, clothed in the garment of religion, has assisted to keep men in bondage. In the words of Burke, "They have consecrated the state, that no man should dream of beginning its reformation by its subversion." ”

“ Sympathy with the sufferings of others, strong hatred of injustice, — in short, some of the noblest feelings of our nature, — must be excited before public opinion can become truly formidable, before it can assume that resistless power which God, when he formed man for society, intended that it should have. It can never have a decided effect where the great majority do not understand the subject on which they are to decide. ”

“ He who is unconscious of the ties which connect him with every individual of his species feels no obligation to make sacrifices for their welfare or happiness. Can such a man understand why he should make sacrifices and incur dangers to reform a system of government, because it is highly injurious to the interests of posterity and the world? He would be much more likely to exclaim with the member of the Irish parliament, "What has posterity done for me that I should make such sacrifices for them?" Can he comprehend why he should contend for principles, and not for actions ”

“ Possessing no knowledge of the politics of their own country or of foreign nations, ignorant of the rights which belong to them as men, and taught by sad experience to pay a blind obedience to arbitrary power, it is natural that they should look on all measures, except those which have a direct and pressing influence on their persons and property, with total indifference. ”

“ I do not believe, therefore, that political ignorance in the people can be relied on for the preservation of absolute government in Europe. The lottery of political events produces fearful combinations of circumstances, and every year, as it passes, may bring forth some mind capable of starting up and taking advantage of them. ”

“ The entire influence of this body of men tends to substitute a government which shall secure to them their private and political rights for one which does not even acknowledge those rights, much less secure them. ”

“ This course of policy has been pursued for ages by the sovereigns in the East, and it has uniformly produced the same result. While the people have remained in the lowest state of degradation, the sovereigns have gone on adding to their power, with no foundation on which to build it but the weakness of their subjects. They have undermined their throne while they were increasing its outward splendor, and at the moment when it seemed to be secure it needed but an infant's touch to dash it from its foundation. ”

“ That tremendous tribunal which we call public opinion can be exercised only by an enlightened and judicious people. It requires a free and rapid circulation of thoughts and opinions, a high degree not only of political information, but of political discernment and skill. ”

“ Every day's experience shows that this is true, in some degree, even of men of considerable refinement and education, — of men whose professions are of a more dignified and intellectual nature; how much more, then, must it be true of those whose knowledge is confined to one simple art, and over whose weak and uncultivated minds habit must exercise such an unbounded sway! The advantages of early education they have never enjoyed. ”

“ I would not be thought to entertain degraded views of human society. I know that men of education are but too apt to undervalue the attainments of those who are below them in point of cultivation. But I believe that general ignorance does produce the effects I have described, and it scarcely needs to be proved that these effects are fatal to liberty. ”

“ From infancy to manhood, from manhood to old age, their view is bounded by the narrow horizon which their senses have drawn around them; and they remain ignorant, not only of the nature, but even of the existence of objects beyond. ”

“ I do not deny that public opinion is formidable, even when erroneous; but its influence must necessarily be shortlived, for the truth will come at last to put an end to its power, or to give it another direction. A people cannot judge of the fitness of means to produce ends, pr of the consequences which are to follow from causes with which they are wholly unacquainted. ”

“ There are few governments sufficiently strong to resist the united force of a whole people; but how seldom are the united exertions of a people directed to a particular end! They have not sufficient discernment to perceive the course which it is for their interest to pursue. ”

“ But not even this redeeming quality can be urged in favor of an ignorant people. Slavery has pervaded every thought and feeling. It has reached the mind and corrupted the very sources of life. They have not the energy to wish to be free. ”

“ We find one part of the people gradually acquiring wealth, together with the importance which always attends it. They were at first weak, and forced to join sometimes one party and sometimes another in those endless disputes between the nobles and the crown. ”

“ They perceive that they are mere ciphers in the state, and they lose all their energy arid spirit, and become ciphers in reality: so true is it "that the estimation in which any body of men is held soon becomes the standard by which that body of men measure themselves." Doubtless there are giant minds which have slumbered since their birth, unconscious of the powers they possess and of the wonders they might achieve, if called into action. ”

“ He who is unacquainted with the relations in which he stands to others acts, of course, without reference to them. He who sees not that strong and uninterrupted chain which binds together distant events cannot estimate aright the importance of his actions. ”

“ Notwithstanding all this doubt attending political subjects, there are principles which may be applied to them with certainty and success; principles which take the nature of man, stripped of all adventitious circumstances, as their broad foundation, and which are always applicable as long as that foundation remains unchanged. ”

“ The mind as well as the body must be not only strong, but well disciplined, in order to act with promptness and vigor in new and untried situations. It is hard to turn men's minds from the old and deeply worn channels in which they have long been flowing. Now there is a sameness in the occupations of the lower classes in civilized society, which almost necessarily confines their minds within very narrow limits. ”

“ The subject of a despotic sovereign is not called upon to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason: he has only to obey; and, when obedience is the only habitual and safe course, ignorant men will hardly trouble themselves about forms and principles. They have wants and desires, but they are few and easily satisfied. They are men, and must become attached to the spot on which they live and the customs in which they have been educated ”

“ If they are in want of the necessaries of life, they desire relief: if relief is not obtained, they may be roused to violence, but they will vent their fury on some petty object which is, perhaps, the innocent cause of their sufferings, while the grand difficulty remains unremedied, and even undiscovered ”

“ He cannot avoid perceiving that all the countries of Europe partake in some degree of the spirit which has overturned so many thrones and brought war and confusion into so many communities. He will not believe that an effect so general is to be ascribed to very partial and limited causes. ”

“ This system was founded at a period when the common people had no rights and privileges except those which the king and the nobles chose to give them, and when they had no security for them after they were actually obtained. ”

“ I have said that this middle class forms a discordant element in the state which virtually denies them existence, and it is to the creation of this class that we must look for one of the principal causes of the revolutions of modern times. ”

“ Slight modifications in the circumstances make such wide difference in events, that it is almost impossible to predict with certainty whether a political scheme will succeed or fail, whether its effects will be good or bad. ”

“ Where they have not been thus favored by circumstances, they have remained to this day without those rights which belong to them as men, — a discordant element in the society in which they exist, — protected, indeed, to about the same degree, and for nearly the same reasons, that the game in the royal forests was anciently protected, — because tho noble huntsman chose to kill it all himself. ”

“ The benevolence of the Deity has provided men with faculties which in time adapt themselves to almost any circumstances in which they may be called into action. Hut. after having been a long time accustomed to a certain set of operations, it is extremely difficult for them to perform any others. ”