Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4)

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

II. I repeat again, that I am at a loss whether to condole with or congratulate you on the event. I view your soul as exposed to the continual hazard of being lost; and I was on the point of saying, the office of a Judge affords proximate occasions for sinning through the course of a man’s life. You may say this is a hard proposition; and I acknowledge it is; but what other inference can be drawn from the terrible sentence of St. John Chrysostom, which is in the following words: It appears to me impossible that any of those who govern should be saved. And what other thing could the religious Pontiff, Pius the Vth, mean, when he said, that while he was a private Religious, he had great hopes of being saved, though when they made him a Cardinal he began to fear, but when they made him a Pope he almost despaired of salvation? If this is not a virtual asseveration, that the occupation of a ruler furnishes a continual and proximate occasion for sinning, I do not understand the expression. But it is true, that although this should be the case, the crime would be obviated, because the necessity of the public makes the exercise of such a function inevitable; but then the crime would only be obviated in such subjects, who feel in themselves, dispositions to perform the duties of such an office with rectitude and propriety; as for the others, I will not exculpate them. I do not understand that text of the Ecclesiastes as an advice or caution, but as a precept and injunction, which says, Don’t solicit to be made a judge, unless you find yourself possessed with that virtue and fortitude, which is necessary to extirpate evil deeds.

III. He who doubts whether he is endued with a sufficient share of knowledge, or a necessary portion of health and constitution, to undertake so weighty a charge; he who does not find himself possessed of a robust heart, which is invincible to, and proof against the promises and threats of the great and powerful; he who feels himself enamoured with the beauty of gold; he who knows his sensibility liable to be wrought upon by the intreaties of domestics, friends, or relations, cannot, in my opinion, enter upon the office of a magistrate with a good conscience. I do not, although it is indispensably necessary, comprehend in this catalogue of requisites the virtue of prudence, because every one fancies he possesses it; but, if a man mistakes in this particular, I judge his error to be incurable.

IV. He who is cloathed with a robe, ought to keep his soul well fortified at all points, because in a variety of occurrences, there is no passion that may not be inimical to justice; and the suitors are very solicitous in examining where the defence is weak; even lawful affections are sometimes hostile to her. What is more right or proper than a man’s tenderness for his wife? But how often has a man’s affection for his wife, been the cause of warping the wand of justice!

V. I don’t mean to inculcate, that a judge should be fierce, unfeeling, and harsh; but that he should be firm, spirited, and a man of integrity. It is rare, but not impossible, for a man to possess a soul of wax for the duties of private life, and a mind of brass for the administration of public ones; although the heart may be susceptible of its tendernesses, the sacred castle of justice should be inaccessible to such feelings. It is said, that friendships may be permitted to approach even to the altar; but they should not be so much as suffered to enter the doors of the temple of Astrea.

VI. I contemplate you, my Son, as having some advantageous dispositions for exercising this office; you are disinterested, an important quality in a judge; but that does not quiet my fears; for how can I be certain you will continue so in future? Disinterestedness, like beauty, is an endowment and ornament of youth, and rarely accompanies life in old age. I have read but of two women who preserved their beauty till seventy; the one was Diana of Poitiers, Dutchess of Valentine, who lived in the reign of Henry the IId. King of France; the other was Aspasia of Miletus, concubine of Cyrus King of Persia. I do not know whether you can reckon many more men, who left totally to their natural dispositions, without the invention or assistance of other helps, preserved their contempt for gold till they arrived at that age. The soul fades with the body, and the narrowness and contractions of avarice are its wrinkles.

VII. The danger of people in exalted stations in the law, falling into this vice, is greater, because they are exposed to more frequent temptations. Elizabeth of England used to say, that the office of a Judge at his first elevation, seemed to fit on him like new cloaths, which appear tight and strait at the beginning, but after a little time they stretch and become easy and familiar. The same may be said of Judges in all other kingdoms. Many, who at first scruple to accept an apple, in the course of a few years, are capable of swallowing the whole orchard of the Hesperides; and you know the apples of that orchard were golden ones. The same thing happens to them that happens to rivulets, which rarely fall into, and are swallowed by the sea, with the scanty stock they contained in their first passages.

VIII. Let no caution, my Son, appear too great, to guard you against the treacherous attacks of avarice; this serpent, whose bulk in time increases without limits, is at first no bigger than a hair; I mean to say, they commonly begin with presents of such trifling value, that the refusing to accept them would be blamed by the world as affected nicety. But what follows? Why, that when they are once admitted, by the exertion of their power in the first entrances of the door of the will, they proceed to widen it by little and little, so that every day it becomes capable of receiving more and more. God defend us from a magistrate’s setting about to enrich himself! because in such a case, he may be compared to the element of water, whose stock bears proportion to the contribution it receives; while it is a brook, it only receives fountains; afterwards becoming a river, it receives brooks; and when it arrives at being a sea, it receives rivers.

IX. It is not sufficient that you keep your own hands clean; but it is also necessary that you examine those of your domestics. The integrity of a magistrate requires, that he should adopt the practice of an active and vigilant matron, who not only takes care of the cleanliness of her own person, but looks also to the cleanliness of the rest of her household. This is not only an obligation you owe to your conscience, but is likewise a matter that concerns your reputation, because it is generally understood, that the inferior part of the family is a subterraneous conduit-pipe, through which, supplies are conveyed to the hand of the master; but in truth it happens in point of regale or refreshment, as it happened to the fountain of Arethusa, which although it was received by a cavern in Greece, the place it fertilized was the land of Sicily. We read in Daniel, that the ministers of the temple are the dainties which were presented to the idol; in the house of a magistrate, the idol eats the dainties which are presented to his ministers.

X. The apprehensions I am under, that you may one day be betrayed into this corruption, move me at present to give you an excellent caution, as a preservative against the temptation of gifts, which is, that you should consider any one who attempts to gain your favour in this way, as a person who offers a direct affront to your honour; for it is clear, that by such an action, he gives it to be understood, that you hold in your hands the scales of venal justice. There are two sorts of people in the world, who fall into the dangerous error, of mistaking injuries for courtesies; women who receive presents from gallants, and ministers of justice who permit the reception of them from suitors: for with respect to the givers, every present is meant as a subornation; otherwise, why is not their liberality manifested to other people as well as to those from whom they entertain expectations? It can only be, because they consider what they give as an offering made to their interest; and that, to which they affect giving the appearance of a courtesy, is at bottom nothing better than a bribe. He who makes presents to a lady, or a minister of justice, attempts their corruption by the act, and in his imagination supposes he has effected it. You ought, therefore, my Son, to consider every one who attempts to gain your favour by such means, as an enemy to your conscience, and as a person dangerous to, and one who would injure your honour; and you should look upon him as a man, more deserving of your contempt and indignation, than your courtesy.

XI. I have given the name of preservative to the foregoing reflection, because it is rather calculated to prevent the infection from getting footing in those, who are sound and in health, than to cure the disease, after it has once taken root. He who has contracted a habit of gorging himself with presents, is callous to the reproach of having put his decisions to sale.