New-York daily tribune., 1842-09-06
Man and the Passions.


Man and the FASHIONS.
The Constant endeavor of Philosophers and
Legislators has been to reform Man, TO chaEge
Human Nature; they have never Thought OF
changing their false Societies they have rery
nodesuy supposed them perfect, while they con-
demned ManlIth work of God, as imperfect.
But how far have they succeeded in their efforts
to change Human Nature? Are not the men of
our present civilized Societies as Perverse as were
those of Greece Rome or India! Now, Philoso-
pliers and Legislators if the anathenias ef FIVE and
twenty centuries against Human Nature and the
Passions have produced practical results, why
not suspect your OWE Systems and Institutions
If the human Passions may be really dePraved
and vicious, Cnstead of being perverted and de-
ranged in their action,) do you think that 1t Is Lett
TO YOUR Intelligence to correct them! Have YOU
not the experience of at least forty centuries be-
fore you, during which Human Nature has re-
NAMED the same, fixed and unvarying ia its
action, while your social views and theories have
changed thousand times, If you still have
confidence in them, it is time you knew that the
revolt of the Passions against your outrageous
Societies is the voice of TRUTH the voice of the
Divinity pronouncing their condemnation.
What an outrage against Nature and true
Science to discard without examination i'm
pertant an element OF Man as the Passions Sup.
pose mechancians, for example, had refused to
study the properties of steam, and had condemned
it as an ungovernable and dangerous power7 they
certainly would never have discovered the steam
engine This is equally true with regard to the
Passions: SO long as human Science condemns
them declares them to be deceitfu guides, TO be
OUR enemies, SO long will it be unable to discover
true system of Society. and the Destiny of Man.
It is onlv from a study of the Passions, and from
L. Doftb hair tapH IA,
lectively, that we can deduce the system predes
tined for, and applicable to, them. This study
certainly is of the most urgent necessity, but the
belief in the dogma that nature is radically
bad, has sunk deeply into the minds OF men,
that it will require great effort to eradicate 1t
and bring them back to standard of truth.
1t would seem, however, that thirty centuries Of
poverty and carnage, of palitcal and administrative
controversies, should have convinced men Of the
impotency of human Legislation, and led them to
set aside their prejudices for time TO seek iar
remedy elsewhere than in party strife, Legislative
controversy, and all the false theories about Man
which they have built up. AT any rate, as human
Legislation is ali based on the theory of the de-
pravity of Human Nature, its miserable practical
results should have been alone sufficient to prove
the faseness of this outrageous doctrine, insulting
alike to the Justice Of God and the dignity Of Man
Either the Passions-those springs of action, those
impeling powers within us-are bad, or the social
mechanism is false; fer evil prevails, and to
melancholy extent. IF the former be true, then
there is no hope of better state of things; for
every means Of repression and constraint that hui
man ingenuity could invent has been applied TO
regulate their action but all in vain; they have
remained unchanged, and, in the eyes of the moral
ist as perverse as eve:. IT, however the latter be
true-that is, if the social mechanism be false
then there is chance Of better future; for our
incoherent and absurd Societies are changing
or less with every century. They are at the mercy
of the whim of tyrant, or OF revolution OF the
Mass they may therefore be reformed, or even
done away with entirely.
1t IS not the Passions alone which are falsely
developed, if their natural law be not applied to
them; it is so with any other active power they
are forces which cannot be suppressed or annihi-
lated but merely directed. To do away there
fore with crime. and what is termed moral de-
,ruvitv, we have not to change mans nature,
create new being new race, is so often
asserted; we have to change the social organlza-
ton, the causes of vice, crime and dscord In
Society and the vicious direction which the Pas
sions receive from it. The great question: there
fore-the only one truly worthy of the efforts of
genius and of ID eentary which pretends to be en-
lightened-is to plan the means of reform in
The social organization.
Every consideration Of Justice and Right de-
mands it; our outrageous societies have worn out
human patience. Like the ever fulling drop of
water which wears away the solid rock, SO they,
by their daily and hourly harassing action, have
corroded the Passions until they have become
perverted to an extent to make moralists believe
them inherently depraved. The noble being, man,
mas been reduced TO level with the brutes.-
Look at the populations of China, of India and
Europe look at their misshapen and deformed
bodies, their deadened in,eects, their senses
gross, their souls formed only to selhshness and
deceit, and all personal and social sympathies
swallowed up in the anxieties of material ex-
istcnce. Look and say whether those beings are
men, or some horrible deformity OF Gods noblest
creature
Rousseau felt keenly that this degradation of
human nature was the effect Of some external
cause, when he said: "Those beings which we
see around US, are not men; there Is some Perver-
sion of Natures laws, the cause OF which we
cannot penetrate.
There is but little sympathy for Poverty and
Misery-noae for Degradation Tho Rulers OF
tho eer u fnd1ug the Human Race abased by indl-
gence and ignorance, fit tools for their purposes,
made use of them as instruments OF carnage or
as machines of labor. Their situation has ex-
cited no commiseration instead of endeavoring
to elevate, they have striven to keep them where
they were or-to secure more firmly their usurped
power-to degrade them lower still The evils
they have suffered have only added contempt to
injustice and legazed IN the opinion of those
rulers, Tyranny and Oppression. Such has been
the history Of our Race, and is still the condition
of the vast majority of the human Family. Poll
ticians and moralists seeing the continuance for
forty centuries of this of suffering and degra-
oJ,,J, ID
able lot and destiny Of mankind. Instead of
hre.k;nn down the hnrriar Of a few nraiudices