"Perhaps not," answered Walter Tracy; "but yet I have many doubts, my young friend, whether the amount of evils of any kind is greater or less (to the individual) in a civilized or uncivilized state of society. These gipsies, were it not their misfortune to be placed amongst nations in a different condition to themselves, would be one of the happiest races on the face of the earth. Nomadic from their very origin, they would wander about hither and thither, feeding their sheep, or their cattle, or their horses, and pilfering a little. I dare say, from their neighbours, if they had any; but where the rights of property are very ill defined, a little pilfering is not very evil in its consequences; and with a thin population there is no opportunity of carrying it on to a great extent. Besides, I believe, that almost all the bad qualities of the gipsey proceed from his position. His hand is against every man's, because every man's hand is against him. He is a wanderer amongst settled tribes; a stern adherer to his ancient forms, amongst a people whose only constancy is that of a cat to the house in which it is kittened; a despiser of the civilization which, as he has constant proof before his eyes, does not make those who are blessed (or cursed) with it a bit more wise, merry, or virtuous than himself. It is very natural, therefore, that he should despise the institutions and dislike the men, amongst whom he is so located only for a short time. For my part, I only think it wonderful, that these good people do not commit more crimes than they do; and that our purses and our lives are not taken, instead of our poultry, and the lives of our ducks and geese. I begin almost to think it a sin and a shame to withdraw that bold boy from his freedom amongst hedges and ditches, to poke him into a dull, fusty school; and to cut him off from those blessings, of which he has learned the value and tasted the enjoyment."
Mr. Fleming smiled. "If the mother were really doubtful," he said, "it would be very easy for you, my dear Sir, to remedy the error you regret. But I cannot help thinking, that for the sake of the jest, you are taking a much narrower view of such questions than your mind would otherwise lead you to. You seem, General, to consider the individual as only born for the individual. But let me ask you, Is he not placed here for much more than that? I would not push my notion, on the subject to any of the extreme lengths which some of the gentlemen who have called themselves philosophers have done. I do not look upon man merely as a part of a great machine, one of the wheels or pulleys, or cogs, of the instrument called society, and that he is bound to regulate all his thoughts, feelings, and actions by one precise rule, for the benefit of the country in which he lives, or even for the more extended fellowship called society. There is a certain degree of individual liberty, surely, due to all men; and, to a certain point, they have a right to consult their own happiness, even by indulging their whims and caprices, provided they are not detrimental to others. The Spartan code and the Prussian system to me both equally tending to take from man many of his highest qualities and rights; but still, to a certain degree, man is bound to his fellow-man, as well as to God. I say, as well as to God, because I know that there are some persons who may not see that the one duty is a consequence of the other. But I fear I am preaching out of the pulpit," he continued, with a laugh; "and I must be forgiven as for an infirmity. The habit of preaching, I fear, is a very encroaching one, which, with the authority that the calling of teacher gives, renders many of us somewhat domineering in society."
"No one can say that of you," answered Walter Tracy, "But I must defend myself. I was certainly speaking of the boy's individual happiness, not of his duty to society."
"Can the two be separated?" asked Horace Fleming, in a thoughtful tone. "I have always myself considered that the greatest amount of happiness on earth, is only to be obtained by the performance of all duties. I should be sorry to part with that conviction."
"I doubt not it is just," answered General Tracy gravely; "and I would not seek to take it from you even if I did; for it is a pleasant one, and a most useful one. But I will only remark in passing, that the most difficult of all points in ethics, is to define what duties are. So many of those things that we call duties are but conventional opinions, that I fear a rigid scrutator of the world's code of obligations would soon strip moral philosophy very bare. As to society itself, its rules are very much like the common law of England; a code of maxims accumulated during centuries, by different races, and under different circumstances, often contradictory, often absurd, continually cruel, frequently unjust and iniquitous in practice, even when theoretically right, and yet cried up by those who gain by them as the perfection of human wisdom, to which all men must submit their acts, and most men do submit their reason. Of one thing I am very certain, that the aims and objects of society at present, the tendencies which it encourages, and the rewards which it holds out, are all opposed most strongly not only to that end which it professes to seek, but to that religion the excellence of which you are not one to deny--nor I either, be it remarked. Its tendencies, I contend, are anything but 'to produce the greatest amount of good to the greatest number,' which philosophers declare to be its object; its result is anything but to produce 'peace and goodwill amongst men,' which is the grand purpose of the Christian religion."
Mr. Fleming was silent; for he felt that, though he differed in some degree, there was a certain amount of truth in the assertion. But Mr. Tracy exclaimed, "I do not understand you, Walter. In what respect does society so terribly fail?"
"In a thousand," answered General Tracy, abruptly.
"But an instance, but an instance," said his brother.
"Look around," replied the other; "do you not see, wherever you turn, even in this very land of ours, which is not the worst country in the world, that wealth gives undue power? that it is not the man who labours in any trade who gains the reward of industry? that the produce of labour is not fairly divided between the labourer and the wealthy man who employs him? that the laws which regulate that division are framed by the wealthy? and that an inordinate authority has fallen into the hands of riches, which keeps the poor man from his rights, drowns his voice in the senate, frustrates his efforts in the market, defeats his resistance to oppression, whether it take a lawful or unlawful form?"
"Pooh, pooh, Walter," replied Mr. Tracy; "this is all an affair of legislation and political economy, and has nothing to do with society."