"
In about two years Congreve produced 'The Mourning Bride,' a
tragedy which was over-lauded, but stands high among the dramas
of the century.
In about two years Congreve produced 'The Mourning Bride,' a
tragedy which was over-lauded, but stands high among the dramas
of the century.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v07 - Cic to Cuv
3932 (#298) ###########################################
3932
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
CHARACTER OF LOUIS XI.
SMA
MALL hopes and comfort ought poor and inferior people to
have in this world, considering what so great a king suf-
fered and underwent, and how he was at last forced to
leave all, and could not, with all his care and diligence, protract
his life one single hour. I knew him and was entertained in
his service in the flower of his age and at the height of his
prosperity, yet I never saw him free from labor and care. Of
all diversions he loved hunting and hawking in their seasons;
but his chief delight was in dogs.
In hunting, his
eagerness and pain were equal to his pleasure, for his chase was
the stag, which he always ran down. He rose very early in the
morning, rode sometimes a great distance, and would not leave
his sport, let the weather be never so bad; and when he came
home at night he was often very weary, and generally in a vio-
lent passion with some of his courtiers or huntsmen; for hunting
is a sport not always to be managed according to the master's
direction; yet in the opinion of most people, he understood it
as well as any prince of his time. He was continually at these
sports, lodging in the country villages to which his recreations
led him, till he was interrupted by business; for during the
most part of the summer there was constantly war between him
and Charles, Duke of Burgundy, and in the winter they made
truces;
so that he had but a little time during the
whole year to spend in pleasure, and even then the fatigues he
underwent were excessive. When his body was at rest his mind
was at work, for he had affairs in several places at once, and
would concern himself as much in those of his neighbors as in
his own; putting officers of his own over all the great families,
and endeavoring to divide their authority as much as possible.
When he was at war he labored for a peace or a truce, and
when he had obtained it he was impatient for war again. He
troubled himself with many trifles in his government which he
had better have left alone: but it was his temper, and he could
not help it; besides, he had a prodigious memory, and he forgot
nothing, but knew everybody, as well in other countries as in
his own.
And in truth he seemed better fitted to rule a world than
to govern a single kingdom. I speak not of his minority, for
## p. 3933 (#299) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3933
then I was not with him; but when he was eleven years he
was, by the advice of some of the nobility and others of his
kingdom, embroiled in a war with his father, Charles VII. ,
which lasted not long, and was called the Praguerie. When he
was arrived at man's estate he was married, much against his
inclination, to the King of Scotland's daughter; and he regretted
her existence during the whole course of her life. Afterwards,
by reason of the broils and factions in his father's court, he
retired into Dauphiny (which was his own), whither many per-
sons of quality followed him, and indeed more than he could
entertain. During his residence in Dauphiny he married the
Duke of Savoy's daughter, and not long after he had great dis-
putes with his father-in-law, and a terrible war was begun
between them. His father, King Charles VII. , seeing his son
attended by so many good officers and raising men at his
pleasure, resolved to go in person against him with a consider-
able body of forces, in order to disperse them. While he was
upon his march he put out proclamations, requiring them all as
his subjects, under great penalties, to repair to him; and many
obeyed, to the great displeasure of the Dauphin, who finding
his father incensed, though he was strong enough to resist,
resolved to retire and leave that country to him; and accord-
ingly he removed with but a slender retinue into Burgundy to
Duke Philip's court, who received him honorably, furnished him
nobly, and maintained him and his principal servants by way
of pensions; and to the rest he gave presents as he saw occasion
during the whole time of their residence there. However, the
Dauphin entertained. SO many at his own expense that his
money often failed, to his great disgust and mortification; for
he was forced to borrow, or his people would have forsaken
him; which is certainly a great affliction to a prince who was
utterly unaccustomed to those straits. So that during his resi-
dence at the court of Burgundy he had his anxieties, for he was
constrained to cajole the duke and his ministers, lest they should
think he was too burdensome and had laid too long upon their
hands; for he had been with them six years, and his father,
King Charles, was constantly pressing and soliciting the Duke
of Burgundy, by his ambassadors, either to deliver him up to
him or to banish him out of his dominions.
And this, you
may believe, gave the Dauphin some uneasy thoughts and
would not suffer him to be idle. In which season of his life,
## p. 3934 (#300) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3934
then, was it that he may be said to have enjoyed himself? I
believe from his infancy and innocence to his death, his whole
life was nothing but one continued scene of troubles and
fatigues; and I am of opinion that if all the days of his life
were computed in which his joys and pleasures outweighed his
pain and trouble, they would be found so few that there would
be twenty mournful ones to one pleasant.
## p. 3935 (#301) ###########################################
3935
AUGUSTE COMTE
(1798-1857)
HE name of Auguste Comte is associated with two such utterly
conflicting systems, the "Positive Philosophy" and the
"Positive Polity," that the impression conveyed by his
name is apt to be a rather confused one. Littré, Comte's most
distinguished disciple, takes no notice of his later speculations, attrib-
uting them to a nervous malady complicated by a violent passion for
Madame de Vaux; while Carid, on the other hand, considers Comte's
return to metaphysical ideas the saving grace in his career. His
conception of human knowledge, as defined
in the Positive Philosophy, is in a measure
the general property of the age. He devel-
oped the germs latent in the works of
Turgot, Condorcet, and Kant, his immedi-
ate predecessors in the world of thought.
Universality was the essential characteristic
of his intellect, enabling him to penetrate
profoundly into the domain of abstract
science from mathematics to sociology.
AUGUSTE COMTE
Auguste Comte was born at Montpellier
on the 19th of January, 1798, and entered
college at the age of nine years. Before
attaining his fourteenth year he had already
felt the need of fundamental reconstruction in politics and philosophy.
This maturity is all the more remarkable that philosophical minds
mature slowly. In 1814 he entered the Polytechnic School. When
Louis XVIII. suppressed it, Comte, not having graduated, found him-
self without a career. At the age of twenty he came in contact
with Saint-Simon, whose devoted disciple he became. The attraction
mutually felt by them was due to their common conviction of the
need of a complete social reform, based on a widespread mental
renovation.
There was now no place in the national system of education for
free-thinkers, and Comte, cut off from all hope of employment in
that direction, turned to private instruction for support. At the age
of twenty-two, in a pamphlet entitled 'System of Positive Polity,'
he announced his discovery of the laws of sociology. The work
had no success, and Comte bent his energies during a meditation of
## p. 3936 (#302) ###########################################
3936
AUGUSTE COMTE
twenty-four hours to the conception of a system which would force
conviction on his readers. This he so far elaborated that in 1826
he published a plan of the work,-a plan requiring twelve years for
its execution.
As his ideas were being appropriated by other people, he now
began a dogmatic exposition of Positivism in a course of lectures
delivered in his own home. These lectures opened under encouraging
auspices, but after the third, Comte's mind gave way. The deter-
mining cause of this collapse lay in the excessive strain of his
method of work, aided by a bad digestion and mental irritability
growing out of the violent attacks made upon him by Saint-Simon's
followers. In 1827 he was sufficiently recovered to take up intel-
lectual work again, and the following year he resumed his lectures
at the point of their interruption. After the accession of Louis
Philippe, Comte was appointed assistant teacher of mathematics at
the Polytechnic, and later, examiner of candidates, while he taught
in a private school.
Unshakable firmness in philosophical matters and great disinter-
estedness were characteristic of this social critic, who cared nothing
for the money his books might bring. His early sympathies were
with the Revolution; he defended the socialist Marrast, though his
position in a government school might have been compromised
thereby. When in 1830 the Committee of the Polytechnic undertook
to give free lectures to the people, he assumed the department of
astronomy and lectured on that subject weekly for sixteen years.
The second and great period of Comte's life extends from his
recovery in 1828 to the completion of his Positive Philosophy' in
1848; though what he calls his "second life" began after that. The
intense satisfaction which he felt on the completion of that work
became infatuation. He was no longer capable of judging his
position sanely, and by his attacks antagonized the scientists.
In 1842 John Stuart Mill gave his adherence to Positivism. When
Comte lost his tutorship in the Polytechnic, and shortly after, his
position as examiner, Mill raised a small sum for him in England.
Afterward Littré organized a subscription, and this formed hence-
forth Comte's sole resource. He now threw himself more completely
than before into the problems of social life, elucidating them in his
'Positive Polity,' whose really scientific elements are almost crowded
out of sight by a mass of extravagant theories.
The Positive Calendar, in which the names of great men replace
the saints of the Catholic Church, was adopted by Comte in his cor-
respondence. He consecrated an altar to his friend Madame de
Vaux, entitled himself High Priest of Humanity, married people,
called his letters his briefs, administered the sacraments of his cult
## p. 3937 (#303) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3937
in commemoration of birth, the choice of a profession, marriage, etc.
He subordinated the intellect to the feelings, wished to suppress
independent thought, to center a dictatorship in a triumvirate of
bankers, and to concentrate the entire spiritual power of the world
in the hands of a single pontiff. He acquired a hatred of scientific
and purely literary pursuits, and considered that men reasoned more
than was good for them. Comte's absolute faith in himself passes
belief. He lauds the moral superiority of fetishism, pronounces the
æsthetic civilization of the Greeks inferior to the military civilization
of the Romans; is indifferent to proof, provided he attains theoretic
coherency; and pushes his spiritual dictatorship to the length of
selecting one hundred books to 'constitute the library of every Posi-
tivist, recommending the destruction of all other books, as also that
of all plants and animals useless to man. He associates science with
sentiment, endows the planets with feeling and will, calls the Earth
"le grand fétiche," includes all concrete existence in our adoration
along with "le grand fétiche," and names space "le grand milieu,»
endowing the latter with feeling as the representative of fatality in
general. Many of these conceits can be attributed to his ardor for
regulating things in accordance with his peculiar conception of
unity. He died in Paris at the age of fifty-nine years, on September
5th, 1857.
Throughout life, Comte's method of work was unprecedented. He
thought out his subject in its entirety before writing down a word,
proceeding from general facts to secondary matters, and thence to
details. The general and detailed sketch outlined, he considered the
work done. When he began to write, he took up his ideas in their
respective order. His memory was wonderful; he did all his read-
ing in his early youth, and the provision then amassed sufficed to
elaborate a work for which he had to bear in mind an unusual num-
ber of scientific and historical facts. In consequence of his absten-
tion from contemporary literature he became less and less in touch
with the age, and missed the corrective force of friction with other
minds.
The word "religion," when applied to Comte's later speculations,
must not be taken in its ordinary sense. His attitude towards the-
ology was and continued to be purely negative. The obligation of
duty was towards the human race as a continuous whole, to whose
providence we owe all the benefits conferred by previous generations.
If he has not succeeded in suppressing the Absolute, he has co-ordi-
nated all the abstract sciences into one consistent system. Some of
them he found ready to hand, and merely revised and rearranged in
their philosophical relation, eliminating all non-positive elements.
The first three volumes of the Positive Philosophy' are devoted to
VII-247
## p. 3938 (#304) ###########################################
3938
AUGUSTE COMTE
this task. The other three volumes, as well as the last two of the
'Positive Polity,' are dedicated to the solution of the problems of
sociology unattempted until then. While they may not have solved
these, they have a scientific value independent of any absolute
results.
The distinctive characteristic of Positivism is that it subjects all
phenomena to invariable laws. It does not pretend to know any-
thing about a future life, but believes that our ideas and intelligence
will go to swell the sum total of spirituality, just as our bodies go
to fertilize matter.
The complaint has been made that there has been very little seri-
ous criticism of the 'Positive Polity,' which Comte regarded as the
most original and important of his works. If the form in which he
reproduces metaphysics and theology has any value, it is because he
has come to see that they are based on perennial wants in man's
nature. In the 'Positive Philosophy' he excludes the Absolute; in
the 'Positive Polity' he substitutes Humanity in lieu thereof; but his
moral intention, however misguided at times, is passionately sincere,
and his conviction that his mission was to exalt humanity through
all time, sustained him during the course of a long life devoted to
a generous ideal, fraught with disappointment, saddened by want of
recognition and by persecution and neglect.
THE EVOLUTION OF BELIEF
From the Positive Philosophy>
E
ACH of our leading conceptions passes through three different
theoretical conditions: the Theological, or fictitious; the
Metaphysical, or abstract; and the Scientific, or positive.
Hence arise three philosophies, or general systems of conceptions
on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the
others. The first is the necessary point of departure of the
human understanding, and the third is its fixed and definite
The second is merely a state of transition.
state.
In the theological state, the human mind, seeking the essen-
tial nature of beings, the first and final causes of all effects,—
in short, absolute knowledge,- supposes all phenomena to be
produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings.
In the metaphysical state, which is only a modification of the
first, the mind supposes, instead of supernatural beings, abstract
forces, veritable entities (that is, personified abstractions) inherent
## p. 3939 (#305) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3939
in all beings, and capable of producing all phenomena. What is
called the explanation of phenomena is, in this stage, a mere
reference of each to its proper entity.
In the final, the positive state, the mind has given over the
vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of
the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself
to the study of their laws,- that is, their invariable relations of
succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly
combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now
understood when we speak of an explanation of facts, is simply
the establishment of a connection between single phenomena and
some general facts, the number of which continually diminishes
with the progress of science.
The Theological system arrived at the highest perfection of
which it is capable, when it substituted the providential action of
a single Being for the varied operations of numerous divinities
which had been before imagined. In the same way, in the last
stage of the Metaphysical system, men substitute one great
entity (Nature) as the cause of all phenomena, instead of the
multitude of entities at first supposed. In the same way, again,
the ultimate perfection of the Positive system would be (if such
perfection could be hoped for) to represent all phenomena as
particular aspects of a single general fact,—such as gravitation,
for instance.
There is no science which, having attained the positive stage,
does not bear marks of having passed through the others.
The progress of the individual mind is not only an illustra-
tion but an indirect evidence of that of the general mind. The
point of departure of the individual and of the race being the
same, the phases of the mind of a man correspond to the epochs
of the mind of the race. Now each of us is aware, if he looks
back upon his own history, that he was a theologian in his
childhood, a metaphysician in his youth, and a natural philoso-
pher in his manhood.
## p. 3940 (#306) ###########################################
3940
AUGUSTE COMTE
THE STUDY OF LAW SUBSTITUTED FOR THAT OF CAUSES
From the Positive Philosophy>
HE first characteristic of the Positive Philosophy is, that it
all as subjected
-
Laws. Our business is-seeing how vain is any research
into what are called Causes, whether first or final - to pursue an
accurate discovery of these Laws with a view to reducing them
to the smallest possible number. By speculating upon causes we
could solve no difficulty about origin and purpose. Our real
business is to analyze accurately the circumstances of phenomena,
and to connect them by their natural relations of succession and
resemblance. The best illustration of this is in the case of the
doctrine of Gravitation. We say that the general phenomena of
the universe are explained by it, because it connects under one
head the whole immense variety of astronomical facts; exhibiting
the constant tendency of atoms towards each other in direct pro-
portion to their masses, and in inverse proportion to the square
of their distances; whilst the general fact itself is but a mere
extension of one which is familiar to us, and which we therefore
say that we know -the weight of bodies on the surface of the
earth. As to what weight and attraction are, we have nothing to
do with that, for it is not a matter of knowledge at all. Theo-
logians and metaphysicians may imagine and refine about such
questions; but Positive Philosophy rejects them.
When any
attempt has been made to explain them, it has ended only in
saying that attraction is universal weight and that weight is
terrestrial attraction: that is, that the two orders of phenomena
are identical; which is the point from which the question set
out.
Before ascertaining the stage which the Positive Philosophy
has reached, we must bear in mind that the different kinds of
our knowledge have passed through the three stages of progress
at different rates, and have not therefore reached their goal at
the same time. Any kind of knowledge reaches the positive
stage early in proportion to its generality, simplicity, and inde-
pendence of other departments. Astronomical science, which is
above all made up of facts that are general, simple, and inde-
pendent of other sciences, arrived first; then terrestrial physics;
then chemistry; and at length physiology.
## p. 3941 (#307) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3941
It is difficult to assign any precise date to this revolution in
science. It may be said, like everything else, to have been
always going on, and especially since the labors of Aristotle and
the school of Alexandria; and then from the introduction of nat-
ural science into the west of Europe by the Arabs.
But if we
must fix upon some marked period to serve as a rallying-point,
it must be that about two centuries ago, when the human
mind was astir under the precepts of Bacon, the conceptions of
Descartes, and the discoveries of Galileo. Then it was that the
spirit of the Positive Philosophy rose up, in opposition to that of
the superstitious and scholastic systems which had hitherto ob-
scured the true character of all science. Since that date, the
progress of the Positive Philosophy and the decline of the other
two have been so marked that no rational mind now doubts
that the revolution is destined to go on to its completion,-
every branch of knowledge being, sooner or later, within the
operation of Positive Philosophy.
―
SUBJECTION OF SELF-LOVE TO SOCIAL LOVE
From the Positive Polity
I'
T IS one of the first principles of Biology that organic life
always preponderates over animal life. By this principle the
sociologist explains the superior strength of the self-regard-
ing instincts, since these are all connected more or less closely
with the instinct of self-preservation. But although there is no
evading the fact, Sociology shows that it is compatible with the
existence of benevolent affections which Catholicism asserted
were altogether alien to our nature, and entirely dependent on
superhuman grace. The great problem, then, is to raise social
feeling by artificial effort to the position which in the natural
condition is held by selfish feeling. The solution is to be found
in another biological principle; viz. , that functions and organs
are developed by constant exercise and atrophied by long inac-
tion. Now the effect of the social state is, that while our sym-
pathetic instincts are constantly stimulated, the selfish propensities
are restricted; since if free play were given to them, human
intercourse would very soon become impossible. Both of the
tendencies naturally increase with the progress of humanity, and
their increase is the best measure of the degree of perfection
## p. 3942 (#308) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3942
that we have attained. Their growth, however spontaneous, may
be materially hastened by organized intervention both of indi-
viduals and of society; the object being to increase all favorable
influences and to diminish unfavorable ones. This is the aim of
the science of Morals. Like every other science, it is restricted
within certain limits.
The first principle of Positive morality is the preponderance
of social sympathy. Full and free expansion of the benevolent
emotions is made the first condition of individual and social
well-being, since these emotions are at once the sweetest to
experience, and the only feelings which can find
find expression
simultaneously in all. This doctrine is as deep and pure as it
is simple and true. It is essentially characteristic of a philosophy
which by virtue of its attribute of reality subordinates all
scientific conceptions to the social point of view, as the sole
point from which they can be co-ordinated into a whole.
THE CULTUS OF HUMANITY
From the Positive Polity
HE cultus of Positivism is not addressed to an absolute,
Tisolated, incomprehensible Being whose existence cannot
be demonstrated or compared with reality. No mystery
surrounds this Supreme Being. It is composed of the continu-
ous succession of human generations.
Whereas the old God could not receive our homage without
degrading himself by a puerile vanity, the new God will only
accept praise which is deserved and which will improve him as
much as ourselves. This reciprocity of affection and influence
can belong only to the final cultus, modifiable and perfectible,
addressed to a relative being composed of its own adorers, and
better subjected than another to law which permits of foreseeing
its wishes and tendencies.
The superiority of demonstrated over revealed religion is
shown by the substitution of the love of Humanity for the love
of God. To love Humanity constitutes all healthy morality, when
we understand the character of such a love and the conditions
exacted by its habitual ascendency.
The universal reign of Humanity is to replace the provisory
reign of God. Demonstrated religion has its dogmas, its regimen,
## p. 3943 (#309) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3943
and its cultus corresponding respectively to three fundamental
attributes; viz. , thoughts, acts, and sentiments.
The Religion of Humanity transforms the coarse idea of
objective immortality into the real objective immortality common
to the whole race. The first hypothesis is anti-social; the latter
constitutes real sociability.
THE DOMINATION OF THE DEAD
From the Positive Polity'
A
LWAYS and everywhere, the living are more and more domi-
nated by the dead. This irresistible domination represents
the unmodifiable element in all social existence, and regu-
lates the total human movement.
When the "Grand Être" shall occupy the whole planet, each
city will live more and more under the weight of preceding gen-
erations, not only of its defunct citizens but of the total sum of
terrestrial ancestors.
This ascendency was long ignored, and a dominating principle
was sought elsewhere, by transporting the human type to external
beings, first real, then fictitious. So long as the search for
Causes predominated over the study of Law, it was impossible
to recognize the true Providence of the race, owing to thus
diverting the attention to chimerical influences. At the same
time continuous conflicts and discordance made the conception of
a collective being impossible. When these fictitious struggles
exhausted themselves, Humanity, prepared during their domina-
tion, became aroused, and founded on peace and truth the advent
of the new religion.
THE WORSHIP OF WOMAN
From the Positive Polity
WOM
TOMAN'S function in society is determined by the constitution
of her nature. As the spontaneous organ of feeling, on
which the unity of human nature entirely depends, she
constitutes the purest and most natural element of the moderat-
ing power; which while avowing its own subordination to the
material forces of society, purposes to direct them to higher uses.
## p. 3944 (#310) ###########################################
3944
AUGUSTE COMTE
First as mother, afterwards as wife, it is her office to conduct
the moral education of Humanity.
Woman's mission is a striking illustration of the truth that
happiness consists in doing the work for which we are naturally
fitted. Their mission is always the same; it is summed up in
one word,- Love. It is the only work in which there can never
be too many workers; it grows by co-operation; it has nothing
to fear from competition. Women are charged with the educa-
tion of sympathy, the source of real human unity; and their
highest happiness is reached when they have the full conscious-
ness of their vocation and are free to follow it. It is the
admirable feature of their social mission, that it invites them to
cultivate qualities which are natural to them, to call into exercise
emotions which all allow to be the most pleasurable. All that is
required of them in a better organization of society is a better
adaptation of their circumstances to their vocation, and improve-
ments in their internal condition. They must be relieved from
outdoor labor, and other means must be taken to secure due
weight to their moral influence. Both objects are contemplated
in the material, intellectual, and moral ameliorations which
Positivism is destined to effect in the life of women. But
besides the pleasure inherent in their vocation, Positivism offers
a recompense for their services which Catholic Feudalism fore-
shadowed but could not realize. As men become more and
more grateful for the blessing of the moral influence of women,
they will give expression to this feeling in a systematic form.
In a word, the new doctrine will institute the Worship of Woman,
publicly and privately, in a far more perfect way than has ever
been possible. It is the first permanent step towards the wor-
ship of Humanity; which is the central principle of Positivism
viewed either as a philosophy or as a polity.
## p. 3945 (#311) ###########################################
3945
WILLIAM CONGREVE
(1670-1729)
ONGREVE was the most brilliant of all the English dramatists
of the later Stuart period. Born at Bardsley, near Leeds, in
1670, he passed his childhood and youth in Ireland, and was
sent to the University of Dublin, where he was highly educated; and
on finishing his classical studies he went to London to study law and
was entered at the Middle Temple. He had two ambitions, not alto-
gether reconcilable to shine in literature and to shine in society.
His good birth, polished manners, and witty conversation procured
him entrance to the best company; but the
desire for literary renown had the mastery
at the start. His first work was 'Incog-
nita,' a novel of no particular value, pub-
lished under the name of "Cleophil. " In
1693 he wrote The Old Bachelor,' a com-
edy; it was brought out with a phenomenal
cast. Under the supervision of Dryden,
who generously admired the author, it
achieved triumph; and Montagu, then Lord
of the Treasury, gave him a desirable
place (commissioner for licensing hackney-
coaches) and the reversion of another. The
plot is not interesting, but the play is cele-
brated for its witty and eloquent dialogue,
which even Sheridan did not surpass; it has a lightness which noth-
ing that preceded it had equaled. The characters are not very ori-
ginal, yet it has variety and diverting action.
Returning now to his rival ambition, that of achieving social suc-
cess, Congreve pretended that he had merely "scribbled a few scenes
for his own amusement," and had yielded unwillingly to his friends'
desire to try his fortune on the stage. But in 1694 he brought out
his second play, 'The Double Dealer. ' It was not a favorite, though
in it all the powers which made a success of 'The Old Bachelor'
were present, mellowed and improved by time. The dialogue is light
and natural; but the grim and offensive characters of Maskwell and
Lady Touchwood disgusted even an audience of the seventeenth cen-
tury. Dryden, however, wrote a most ingenious piece of commenda-
tory verse for the play; gradually the public came to his way of
WILLIAM CONGREVE
## p. 3946 (#312) ###########################################
3946
WILLIAM CONGREVE
thinking; and when, the next year, 'Love for Love' appeared, it was
said that "scarcely any comedy within the memory of the oldest man
had been equally successful. " This play was the triumph of his art;
and it won Congreve a share in the theatre in which it was played,
-the new theatre which Betterton and others had opened near Lin-
coln's Inn. Jeremy, the gentleman's gentleman, is delightfully witty,
- he has "the seeds of rhetoric and logic in his head,” — and Valen-
tine's mock madness is amusing; but as Sir Sampson remarks of him,
"Body o' me, he talks sensibly in his madness! has he no inter-
vals? " Jeremy replies, "Very short, sir.
"
In about two years Congreve produced 'The Mourning Bride,' a
tragedy which was over-lauded, but stands high among the dramas
of the century. It ranks with Otway's Venice Preserved' and 'The
Fair Penitent. ' A noble passage describing the temple, in Act ii. ,
Scene 3, was extolled by Johnson. The play was successful, and is
more celebrated than some far better plays. But Congreve was
unequal to a really great flight of passion; tragedy was out of his
range; though he was now hailed, at the age of twenty-seven, as the
first tragic as well as the first comic dramatist of his time.
Now, however, a reformer arose who was destined to make his
mark on the English drama. The depravation of the national taste
which had made the success of Congreve, Wycherley, Farquhar, and
others, was the result of a reaction against the Puritan strictness
under the Commonwealth. Profligacy was the badge of a Cavalier,
and Congreve's heroes exactly reproduced the superficial fine gentle-
man of a time when to be a man of good breeding it was necessary
to make love to one's neighbor's wife, even without preference or
passion.
In the plays of this period nearly all the husbands are
prim, precise, and uncomfortable, while the lovers are without excep-
tion delightful fellows. The Puritan writers regarded an affair of
gallantry as a criminal offense; the poet of this period made it an
elegant distinction.
Jeremy Collier came to change all this. He was a clergyman and
a high-churchman, fanatical in the cause of decency. In 1698 he
published his 'Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the
English Stage,' and threw the whole literary world into convulsions.
He attacked Congreve, among others, somewhat injudiciously, not
only for his sins against decency but for some unreal transgressions;
and he had at his command all the weapons of ridicule and indigna-
tion. The country sided with the eloquent preacher, but waited for
some champion — Dryden presumably - to pick up the gauntlet.
Dryden however declined, acknowledging later that Collier was in the
right. Congreve stepped in "where angels feared to tread," and suc-
ceeded in putting himself entirely in the wrong. His reply was dull,
## p. 3947 (#313) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3947
and he was unwise enough to show anger. Collier's cause remained
in the ascendant, and with the younger race of poets who now came
forward a reform began.
In 1700 Congreve wrote one more play, 'The Way of the World,'
the most brilliant and thoughtful of his works. Lady Wishfort's
character is perhaps too repulsive for comedy, though the reader,
carried on by the ease and wit of the dialogue, will accept her.
Mirabell's brilliant chase and winning of Millamant; the diverting
character of Witwould, an incarnation of feeble repartee; and the
love scene in Act v. , Scene 5, in which both lady and gentleman are
anxious and willing to be free and tolerant, are original and amusing
studies. But whether it was the influence of his defeat by Collier
or not, this play, the best comedy written after the civil war, failed
on the stage.
Congreve produced nothing more of consequence, though he lived
for twenty-eight years in the most brilliant society that London
afforded; he suffered from gout and from failing eyesight, and by
way of consolation contracted a curious friendship with the Duchess
of Marlborough, widow of the great Marlborough, with whom he
passed a part of every day. In the summer of 1728 he met with an
accident while driving, and died from the effects of it in January,
1729. The Duchess buried him with pomp; he lay in state in the
Jerusalem Chamber, and was interred in Westminster Abbey.
Congreve was held in the highest esteem by his fellow writers,
and Pope dedicated to him his translation of the Iliad. Yet he
would not hear his literary works praised, and always declared that
they were trifles. When Voltaire during his visit to England
desired to see him, Congreve asked that he would "consider him
merely as a gentleman. " "If you were merely a gentleman," said
Voltaire, "I should not care to see you. "
Congreve was not a great poet, but he had more wit than any
English writer of the last two centuries except Sheridan; he had at
the same time great skill in character-drawing and in constructing
plots. The profligacy of his plays was the natural consequence of a
period of Puritanical austerity. While not free from the blame of
intentional indecency, he at least lacks the brutality and coarseness
of Wycherley, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar.
## p. 3948 (#314) ###########################################
3948
WILLIAM CONGREVE
MRS. FORESIGHT AND MRS. FRAIL COME TO AN UNDER-
STANDING
From 'Love for Love'
Scene:-A Room in the Foresight House. Enter Mrs. Foresight and Mrs.
Frail
RS. FRAIL
What have you to do to watch me? 'Slife, I'll
do what I please.
Mrs. Foresight - You will?
Mrs. Frail-Yes, marry, will I. A great piece of business,
to go to Covent Garden Square in a hackney-coach and take a
turn with one's friend!
M
--
Mrs. Foresight-Nay, two or three turns, I'll take my oath.
Mrs. Frail-Well, what if I took twenty? I warrant if you
had been there, it had been only innocent recreation. Lord,
where's the comfort of this life, if we can't have the happiness
of conversing where we like?
Mrs. Foresight - But can't you converse at home? I own it,
I think there's no happiness like conversing with an agreeable
man; I don't quarrel at that, nor I don't think but your conver-
sation was very innocent; but the place is public, and to be seen
with a man in a hackney-coach is scandalous; what if anybody
else should have seen you alight, as I did?
How can any-
body be happy, while they're in perpetual fear of being seen and
censured? Besides, it would not only reflect upon you, sister,
but me.
Mrs. Frail-Pooh, here's a clutter! Why should it reflect
upon you? I don't doubt but you have thought yourself happy
in a hackney-coach before now. If I had gone to Knightsbridge,
or to Chelsea, or to Spring Garden, or Barn Elms, with a man
alone, something might have been said.
Mrs. Foresight - Why, was I ever in any of those places?
what do you mean, sister?
Mrs. Frail-"Was I? " What do you mean?
Mrs. Foresight - You have been at a worse place.
Mrs. Frail-I at a worse place, and with a man!
Mrs. Foresight - I suppose you would not go alone to the
World's-End.
Mrs. Frail-The world's end! what, do you mean to banter
me?
## p. 3949 (#315) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3949
Mrs. Foresight-Poor innocent! you don't know that there's
a place called the World's-End? I'll swear you can keep your
countenance purely; you'd make an admirable player.
Mrs. Frail-I'll swear you have a great deal of confidence,
and in my mind too much for the stage.
Mrs. Foresight - Very well; that will appear who has most.
You never were at the World's-End?
Mrs. Frail — No.
Mrs. Foresight - You deny it positively to my face?
Mrs. Frail-Your face! what's your face?
Mrs. Foresight - No matter for that; it's as good a face as
yours.
Mrs. Frail- Not by a dozen years' wearing. But I do deny
it positively to your face, then.
Mrs. Foresight - I'll allow you now to find fault with my
face, for I'll swear your impudence has put me out of counte-
nance; but look you here now,- where did you lose this gold
bodkin? O sister, sister!
Mrs. Frail-My bodkin?
Mrs. Foresight-Nay, 'tis yours; look at it.
Mrs. Frail-Well, if you go to that, where did you find this
bodkin? O sister, sister! -sister every way.
Mrs. Foresight [aside]—Oh, devil on't, that I could not
discover her without betraying myself!
Mrs. Frail-I have heard gentlemen say, sister, that one
should take great care, when one makes a thrust in fencing, not
to lay open one's self.
Mrs. Foresight-It's very true, sister; well, since all's out,
and as you say, since we are both wounded, let us do what is
often done in duels,- take care of one another, and grow better
friends than before.
Mrs. Frail-With all my heart: ours are but slight flesh
wounds, and if we keep 'em from air, not at all dangerous:
well, give me your hand in token of sisterly secrecy and affec-
tion.
Mrs. Foresight-Here 'tis, with all my heart.
Mrs. Frail-Well, as an earnest of friendship and confidence,
I'll acquaint you with a design that I have. To tell truth, and
speak openly one to another, I'm afraid the world have observed.
us more than we have observed one another. You have a rich
husband and are provided for; I am at a loss, and have no
## p. 3950 (#316) ###########################################
3950
WILLIAM CONGREVE
great stock either of fortune or reputation; and therefore must
look sharply about me. Sir Sampson has a son that is expected
to-night, and by the account I have heard of his education, can
be no conjuror; the estate, you know, is to be made over to him:
now if I could wheedle him, sister, ha? you understand me?
Mrs. Foresight-I do, and will help you to the utmost of my
power. And I can tell you one thing that falls out luckily
enough; my awkward daughter-in-law, who you know is designed
to be his wife, is grown fond of Mr. Tattle; now if we can
improve that, and make her have an aversion for the booby, it
may go a great way towards his liking you. Here they come
together; and let us contrive some way or other to leave 'em
together.
Scene: A Room in the Foresight House. Enter Angelica and Jenny
Angelica - Where is Sir Sampson? did you not tell me he
would be here before me?
-
Jenny He's at the great glass in the dining-room, madam,
setting his cravat and wig.
ANGELICA'S PROPOSAL
From 'Love for Love'
Angelica - How! I'm glad on't. If he has a mind I should
like him, it's a sign he likes me; and that's more than half my
design.
―
Jenny I hear him, madam.
Angelica - Leave me; and d'ye hear, if Valentine should
come or send, I am not to be spoken with.
Enter Sir Sampson
-
Sir Sampson I have not been honored with the commands
of a fair lady a great while: - odd, madam, you have revived
not since I was five-and-thirty.
me!
Angelica - Why, you have no great reason to complain, Sir
Sampson; that is not long ago.
Sir Sampson-Zooks, but it is, madam; a very great while,
to a man that admires a fine woman as much as I do.
Angelica - You're an absolute courtier, Sir Sampson.
Sir Sampson-Not at all, madam; odsbud, you wrong me; I
am not so old, neither, to be a bare courtier; only a man of
## p. 3951 (#317) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3951
words: odd, I have warm blood about me yet, and can serve a
lady any way. Come, come, let me tell you, you women think
a man old too soon, faith and troth, you do! Come, don't
despise fifty; odd, fifty, in a hale constitution, is no such con-
temptible age.
Angelica-Fifty a contemptible age! not at all; a very
fashionable age, I think. I assure you, I know very consider-
able beaux that set a good face upon fifty. Fifty! I have seen
fifty in a side-box, by candle-light, outblossom five-and-twenty.
Sir Sampson - Outsides, outsides; a pize take 'em, mere out-
sides! hang your side-box beaux! No, I'm none of those, none
of your forced trees, that pretend to blossom in the fall, and bud
when they should bring forth fruit; I am of a long-lived race;
none of my ancestors married till fifty;
I am
of your patriarchs, I, a branch of one of your antediluvian
families, fellows that the flood could not wash away. Well,
madam, what are your commands? has any young rogue affronted
you, and shall I cut his throat? or
Angelica-No, Sir Sampson, I have no quarrel upon my
hands. I have more occasion for your conduct than your cour-
age at this time. To tell you the truth, I'm weary of living
single, and want a husband.
-
Sir Sampson-Odsbud, and 'tis pity you should! -[Aside. ]
Odd, would she would like me, then I should hamper my young
rogues: odd, would she would; faith and troth, she's devilish
handsome! [Aloud. ] Madam, you deserve a good husband, and
'twere pity you should be thrown away upon any of these young
idle rogues about the town. Odd, there's ne'er a young fellow
worth hanging! that is, a very young fellow. Pize on 'em!
they never think beforehand of anything; and if they commit
matrimony, 'tis as they commit murder-out of a frolic, and are
ready to hang themselves, or to be hanged by the law, the next
morning: odso, have a care, madam.
Angelica - Therefore I ask your advice, Sir Sampson. I have
fortune enough to make any man easy that I can like, if there
were such a thing as a young agreeable man with a reasonable
stock of good-nature and sense;
for I would neither
have an absolute wit nor a fool.
Sir Sampson-Odd, you are hard to please, madam; to find
a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own
in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.
eye nor a fool
But faith and
## p. 3952 (#318) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3952
troth, you speak very discreetly; for I hate both a wit and a
fool.
Angelica-She that marries a fool, Sir Sampson, forfeits the
reputation of her honesty or understanding: and she that mar-
ries a very witty man is a slave to the severity and insolent
conduct of her husband. I should like a man of wit for a lover,
because I would have such a one in my power; but I would no
more be his wife than his enemy. For his malice is not a more
terrible consequence of his aversion than his jealousy is of his
love.
Sir Sampson-None of old Foresight's Sibyls ever uttered
such a truth. Odsbud, you have won my heart! I hate a wit; I
had a son that was spoiled among 'em; a good hopeful lad, till
he learned to be a wit; and might have risen in the State.
But a pox on't! his wit run him cut of his money, and now his
poverty has run him out of his wits.
Angelica - Sir Sampson, as your friend, I must tell you, you
are very much abused in that matter; he's no more mad than
you are.
Sir Samson-How, madam? would I could prove it!
Angelica I can tell you how that may be done. But it is
a thing that would make me appear to be too much concerned
in your affairs.
Sir Sampson [aside] — Odsbud, I believes she likes me!
[Aloud. ] Ah, madam, all my affairs are scarce worthy to be laid
at your feet: and I wish, madam, they were in a better posture,
that I might make a more becoming offer to a lady of your
incomparable beauty and merit. -If I had Peru in one hand,
and Mexico in t'other, and the Eastern Empire under my feet, it
would make me only a more glorious victim to be offered at the
shrine of your beauty.
Angelica - Bless me, Sir Sampson, what's the matter?
Sir Sampson - Odd, madam, I love you!
3932
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
CHARACTER OF LOUIS XI.
SMA
MALL hopes and comfort ought poor and inferior people to
have in this world, considering what so great a king suf-
fered and underwent, and how he was at last forced to
leave all, and could not, with all his care and diligence, protract
his life one single hour. I knew him and was entertained in
his service in the flower of his age and at the height of his
prosperity, yet I never saw him free from labor and care. Of
all diversions he loved hunting and hawking in their seasons;
but his chief delight was in dogs.
In hunting, his
eagerness and pain were equal to his pleasure, for his chase was
the stag, which he always ran down. He rose very early in the
morning, rode sometimes a great distance, and would not leave
his sport, let the weather be never so bad; and when he came
home at night he was often very weary, and generally in a vio-
lent passion with some of his courtiers or huntsmen; for hunting
is a sport not always to be managed according to the master's
direction; yet in the opinion of most people, he understood it
as well as any prince of his time. He was continually at these
sports, lodging in the country villages to which his recreations
led him, till he was interrupted by business; for during the
most part of the summer there was constantly war between him
and Charles, Duke of Burgundy, and in the winter they made
truces;
so that he had but a little time during the
whole year to spend in pleasure, and even then the fatigues he
underwent were excessive. When his body was at rest his mind
was at work, for he had affairs in several places at once, and
would concern himself as much in those of his neighbors as in
his own; putting officers of his own over all the great families,
and endeavoring to divide their authority as much as possible.
When he was at war he labored for a peace or a truce, and
when he had obtained it he was impatient for war again. He
troubled himself with many trifles in his government which he
had better have left alone: but it was his temper, and he could
not help it; besides, he had a prodigious memory, and he forgot
nothing, but knew everybody, as well in other countries as in
his own.
And in truth he seemed better fitted to rule a world than
to govern a single kingdom. I speak not of his minority, for
## p. 3933 (#299) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3933
then I was not with him; but when he was eleven years he
was, by the advice of some of the nobility and others of his
kingdom, embroiled in a war with his father, Charles VII. ,
which lasted not long, and was called the Praguerie. When he
was arrived at man's estate he was married, much against his
inclination, to the King of Scotland's daughter; and he regretted
her existence during the whole course of her life. Afterwards,
by reason of the broils and factions in his father's court, he
retired into Dauphiny (which was his own), whither many per-
sons of quality followed him, and indeed more than he could
entertain. During his residence in Dauphiny he married the
Duke of Savoy's daughter, and not long after he had great dis-
putes with his father-in-law, and a terrible war was begun
between them. His father, King Charles VII. , seeing his son
attended by so many good officers and raising men at his
pleasure, resolved to go in person against him with a consider-
able body of forces, in order to disperse them. While he was
upon his march he put out proclamations, requiring them all as
his subjects, under great penalties, to repair to him; and many
obeyed, to the great displeasure of the Dauphin, who finding
his father incensed, though he was strong enough to resist,
resolved to retire and leave that country to him; and accord-
ingly he removed with but a slender retinue into Burgundy to
Duke Philip's court, who received him honorably, furnished him
nobly, and maintained him and his principal servants by way
of pensions; and to the rest he gave presents as he saw occasion
during the whole time of their residence there. However, the
Dauphin entertained. SO many at his own expense that his
money often failed, to his great disgust and mortification; for
he was forced to borrow, or his people would have forsaken
him; which is certainly a great affliction to a prince who was
utterly unaccustomed to those straits. So that during his resi-
dence at the court of Burgundy he had his anxieties, for he was
constrained to cajole the duke and his ministers, lest they should
think he was too burdensome and had laid too long upon their
hands; for he had been with them six years, and his father,
King Charles, was constantly pressing and soliciting the Duke
of Burgundy, by his ambassadors, either to deliver him up to
him or to banish him out of his dominions.
And this, you
may believe, gave the Dauphin some uneasy thoughts and
would not suffer him to be idle. In which season of his life,
## p. 3934 (#300) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3934
then, was it that he may be said to have enjoyed himself? I
believe from his infancy and innocence to his death, his whole
life was nothing but one continued scene of troubles and
fatigues; and I am of opinion that if all the days of his life
were computed in which his joys and pleasures outweighed his
pain and trouble, they would be found so few that there would
be twenty mournful ones to one pleasant.
## p. 3935 (#301) ###########################################
3935
AUGUSTE COMTE
(1798-1857)
HE name of Auguste Comte is associated with two such utterly
conflicting systems, the "Positive Philosophy" and the
"Positive Polity," that the impression conveyed by his
name is apt to be a rather confused one. Littré, Comte's most
distinguished disciple, takes no notice of his later speculations, attrib-
uting them to a nervous malady complicated by a violent passion for
Madame de Vaux; while Carid, on the other hand, considers Comte's
return to metaphysical ideas the saving grace in his career. His
conception of human knowledge, as defined
in the Positive Philosophy, is in a measure
the general property of the age. He devel-
oped the germs latent in the works of
Turgot, Condorcet, and Kant, his immedi-
ate predecessors in the world of thought.
Universality was the essential characteristic
of his intellect, enabling him to penetrate
profoundly into the domain of abstract
science from mathematics to sociology.
AUGUSTE COMTE
Auguste Comte was born at Montpellier
on the 19th of January, 1798, and entered
college at the age of nine years. Before
attaining his fourteenth year he had already
felt the need of fundamental reconstruction in politics and philosophy.
This maturity is all the more remarkable that philosophical minds
mature slowly. In 1814 he entered the Polytechnic School. When
Louis XVIII. suppressed it, Comte, not having graduated, found him-
self without a career. At the age of twenty he came in contact
with Saint-Simon, whose devoted disciple he became. The attraction
mutually felt by them was due to their common conviction of the
need of a complete social reform, based on a widespread mental
renovation.
There was now no place in the national system of education for
free-thinkers, and Comte, cut off from all hope of employment in
that direction, turned to private instruction for support. At the age
of twenty-two, in a pamphlet entitled 'System of Positive Polity,'
he announced his discovery of the laws of sociology. The work
had no success, and Comte bent his energies during a meditation of
## p. 3936 (#302) ###########################################
3936
AUGUSTE COMTE
twenty-four hours to the conception of a system which would force
conviction on his readers. This he so far elaborated that in 1826
he published a plan of the work,-a plan requiring twelve years for
its execution.
As his ideas were being appropriated by other people, he now
began a dogmatic exposition of Positivism in a course of lectures
delivered in his own home. These lectures opened under encouraging
auspices, but after the third, Comte's mind gave way. The deter-
mining cause of this collapse lay in the excessive strain of his
method of work, aided by a bad digestion and mental irritability
growing out of the violent attacks made upon him by Saint-Simon's
followers. In 1827 he was sufficiently recovered to take up intel-
lectual work again, and the following year he resumed his lectures
at the point of their interruption. After the accession of Louis
Philippe, Comte was appointed assistant teacher of mathematics at
the Polytechnic, and later, examiner of candidates, while he taught
in a private school.
Unshakable firmness in philosophical matters and great disinter-
estedness were characteristic of this social critic, who cared nothing
for the money his books might bring. His early sympathies were
with the Revolution; he defended the socialist Marrast, though his
position in a government school might have been compromised
thereby. When in 1830 the Committee of the Polytechnic undertook
to give free lectures to the people, he assumed the department of
astronomy and lectured on that subject weekly for sixteen years.
The second and great period of Comte's life extends from his
recovery in 1828 to the completion of his Positive Philosophy' in
1848; though what he calls his "second life" began after that. The
intense satisfaction which he felt on the completion of that work
became infatuation. He was no longer capable of judging his
position sanely, and by his attacks antagonized the scientists.
In 1842 John Stuart Mill gave his adherence to Positivism. When
Comte lost his tutorship in the Polytechnic, and shortly after, his
position as examiner, Mill raised a small sum for him in England.
Afterward Littré organized a subscription, and this formed hence-
forth Comte's sole resource. He now threw himself more completely
than before into the problems of social life, elucidating them in his
'Positive Polity,' whose really scientific elements are almost crowded
out of sight by a mass of extravagant theories.
The Positive Calendar, in which the names of great men replace
the saints of the Catholic Church, was adopted by Comte in his cor-
respondence. He consecrated an altar to his friend Madame de
Vaux, entitled himself High Priest of Humanity, married people,
called his letters his briefs, administered the sacraments of his cult
## p. 3937 (#303) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3937
in commemoration of birth, the choice of a profession, marriage, etc.
He subordinated the intellect to the feelings, wished to suppress
independent thought, to center a dictatorship in a triumvirate of
bankers, and to concentrate the entire spiritual power of the world
in the hands of a single pontiff. He acquired a hatred of scientific
and purely literary pursuits, and considered that men reasoned more
than was good for them. Comte's absolute faith in himself passes
belief. He lauds the moral superiority of fetishism, pronounces the
æsthetic civilization of the Greeks inferior to the military civilization
of the Romans; is indifferent to proof, provided he attains theoretic
coherency; and pushes his spiritual dictatorship to the length of
selecting one hundred books to 'constitute the library of every Posi-
tivist, recommending the destruction of all other books, as also that
of all plants and animals useless to man. He associates science with
sentiment, endows the planets with feeling and will, calls the Earth
"le grand fétiche," includes all concrete existence in our adoration
along with "le grand fétiche," and names space "le grand milieu,»
endowing the latter with feeling as the representative of fatality in
general. Many of these conceits can be attributed to his ardor for
regulating things in accordance with his peculiar conception of
unity. He died in Paris at the age of fifty-nine years, on September
5th, 1857.
Throughout life, Comte's method of work was unprecedented. He
thought out his subject in its entirety before writing down a word,
proceeding from general facts to secondary matters, and thence to
details. The general and detailed sketch outlined, he considered the
work done. When he began to write, he took up his ideas in their
respective order. His memory was wonderful; he did all his read-
ing in his early youth, and the provision then amassed sufficed to
elaborate a work for which he had to bear in mind an unusual num-
ber of scientific and historical facts. In consequence of his absten-
tion from contemporary literature he became less and less in touch
with the age, and missed the corrective force of friction with other
minds.
The word "religion," when applied to Comte's later speculations,
must not be taken in its ordinary sense. His attitude towards the-
ology was and continued to be purely negative. The obligation of
duty was towards the human race as a continuous whole, to whose
providence we owe all the benefits conferred by previous generations.
If he has not succeeded in suppressing the Absolute, he has co-ordi-
nated all the abstract sciences into one consistent system. Some of
them he found ready to hand, and merely revised and rearranged in
their philosophical relation, eliminating all non-positive elements.
The first three volumes of the Positive Philosophy' are devoted to
VII-247
## p. 3938 (#304) ###########################################
3938
AUGUSTE COMTE
this task. The other three volumes, as well as the last two of the
'Positive Polity,' are dedicated to the solution of the problems of
sociology unattempted until then. While they may not have solved
these, they have a scientific value independent of any absolute
results.
The distinctive characteristic of Positivism is that it subjects all
phenomena to invariable laws. It does not pretend to know any-
thing about a future life, but believes that our ideas and intelligence
will go to swell the sum total of spirituality, just as our bodies go
to fertilize matter.
The complaint has been made that there has been very little seri-
ous criticism of the 'Positive Polity,' which Comte regarded as the
most original and important of his works. If the form in which he
reproduces metaphysics and theology has any value, it is because he
has come to see that they are based on perennial wants in man's
nature. In the 'Positive Philosophy' he excludes the Absolute; in
the 'Positive Polity' he substitutes Humanity in lieu thereof; but his
moral intention, however misguided at times, is passionately sincere,
and his conviction that his mission was to exalt humanity through
all time, sustained him during the course of a long life devoted to
a generous ideal, fraught with disappointment, saddened by want of
recognition and by persecution and neglect.
THE EVOLUTION OF BELIEF
From the Positive Philosophy>
E
ACH of our leading conceptions passes through three different
theoretical conditions: the Theological, or fictitious; the
Metaphysical, or abstract; and the Scientific, or positive.
Hence arise three philosophies, or general systems of conceptions
on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the
others. The first is the necessary point of departure of the
human understanding, and the third is its fixed and definite
The second is merely a state of transition.
state.
In the theological state, the human mind, seeking the essen-
tial nature of beings, the first and final causes of all effects,—
in short, absolute knowledge,- supposes all phenomena to be
produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings.
In the metaphysical state, which is only a modification of the
first, the mind supposes, instead of supernatural beings, abstract
forces, veritable entities (that is, personified abstractions) inherent
## p. 3939 (#305) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3939
in all beings, and capable of producing all phenomena. What is
called the explanation of phenomena is, in this stage, a mere
reference of each to its proper entity.
In the final, the positive state, the mind has given over the
vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of
the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself
to the study of their laws,- that is, their invariable relations of
succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly
combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now
understood when we speak of an explanation of facts, is simply
the establishment of a connection between single phenomena and
some general facts, the number of which continually diminishes
with the progress of science.
The Theological system arrived at the highest perfection of
which it is capable, when it substituted the providential action of
a single Being for the varied operations of numerous divinities
which had been before imagined. In the same way, in the last
stage of the Metaphysical system, men substitute one great
entity (Nature) as the cause of all phenomena, instead of the
multitude of entities at first supposed. In the same way, again,
the ultimate perfection of the Positive system would be (if such
perfection could be hoped for) to represent all phenomena as
particular aspects of a single general fact,—such as gravitation,
for instance.
There is no science which, having attained the positive stage,
does not bear marks of having passed through the others.
The progress of the individual mind is not only an illustra-
tion but an indirect evidence of that of the general mind. The
point of departure of the individual and of the race being the
same, the phases of the mind of a man correspond to the epochs
of the mind of the race. Now each of us is aware, if he looks
back upon his own history, that he was a theologian in his
childhood, a metaphysician in his youth, and a natural philoso-
pher in his manhood.
## p. 3940 (#306) ###########################################
3940
AUGUSTE COMTE
THE STUDY OF LAW SUBSTITUTED FOR THAT OF CAUSES
From the Positive Philosophy>
HE first characteristic of the Positive Philosophy is, that it
all as subjected
-
Laws. Our business is-seeing how vain is any research
into what are called Causes, whether first or final - to pursue an
accurate discovery of these Laws with a view to reducing them
to the smallest possible number. By speculating upon causes we
could solve no difficulty about origin and purpose. Our real
business is to analyze accurately the circumstances of phenomena,
and to connect them by their natural relations of succession and
resemblance. The best illustration of this is in the case of the
doctrine of Gravitation. We say that the general phenomena of
the universe are explained by it, because it connects under one
head the whole immense variety of astronomical facts; exhibiting
the constant tendency of atoms towards each other in direct pro-
portion to their masses, and in inverse proportion to the square
of their distances; whilst the general fact itself is but a mere
extension of one which is familiar to us, and which we therefore
say that we know -the weight of bodies on the surface of the
earth. As to what weight and attraction are, we have nothing to
do with that, for it is not a matter of knowledge at all. Theo-
logians and metaphysicians may imagine and refine about such
questions; but Positive Philosophy rejects them.
When any
attempt has been made to explain them, it has ended only in
saying that attraction is universal weight and that weight is
terrestrial attraction: that is, that the two orders of phenomena
are identical; which is the point from which the question set
out.
Before ascertaining the stage which the Positive Philosophy
has reached, we must bear in mind that the different kinds of
our knowledge have passed through the three stages of progress
at different rates, and have not therefore reached their goal at
the same time. Any kind of knowledge reaches the positive
stage early in proportion to its generality, simplicity, and inde-
pendence of other departments. Astronomical science, which is
above all made up of facts that are general, simple, and inde-
pendent of other sciences, arrived first; then terrestrial physics;
then chemistry; and at length physiology.
## p. 3941 (#307) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3941
It is difficult to assign any precise date to this revolution in
science. It may be said, like everything else, to have been
always going on, and especially since the labors of Aristotle and
the school of Alexandria; and then from the introduction of nat-
ural science into the west of Europe by the Arabs.
But if we
must fix upon some marked period to serve as a rallying-point,
it must be that about two centuries ago, when the human
mind was astir under the precepts of Bacon, the conceptions of
Descartes, and the discoveries of Galileo. Then it was that the
spirit of the Positive Philosophy rose up, in opposition to that of
the superstitious and scholastic systems which had hitherto ob-
scured the true character of all science. Since that date, the
progress of the Positive Philosophy and the decline of the other
two have been so marked that no rational mind now doubts
that the revolution is destined to go on to its completion,-
every branch of knowledge being, sooner or later, within the
operation of Positive Philosophy.
―
SUBJECTION OF SELF-LOVE TO SOCIAL LOVE
From the Positive Polity
I'
T IS one of the first principles of Biology that organic life
always preponderates over animal life. By this principle the
sociologist explains the superior strength of the self-regard-
ing instincts, since these are all connected more or less closely
with the instinct of self-preservation. But although there is no
evading the fact, Sociology shows that it is compatible with the
existence of benevolent affections which Catholicism asserted
were altogether alien to our nature, and entirely dependent on
superhuman grace. The great problem, then, is to raise social
feeling by artificial effort to the position which in the natural
condition is held by selfish feeling. The solution is to be found
in another biological principle; viz. , that functions and organs
are developed by constant exercise and atrophied by long inac-
tion. Now the effect of the social state is, that while our sym-
pathetic instincts are constantly stimulated, the selfish propensities
are restricted; since if free play were given to them, human
intercourse would very soon become impossible. Both of the
tendencies naturally increase with the progress of humanity, and
their increase is the best measure of the degree of perfection
## p. 3942 (#308) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3942
that we have attained. Their growth, however spontaneous, may
be materially hastened by organized intervention both of indi-
viduals and of society; the object being to increase all favorable
influences and to diminish unfavorable ones. This is the aim of
the science of Morals. Like every other science, it is restricted
within certain limits.
The first principle of Positive morality is the preponderance
of social sympathy. Full and free expansion of the benevolent
emotions is made the first condition of individual and social
well-being, since these emotions are at once the sweetest to
experience, and the only feelings which can find
find expression
simultaneously in all. This doctrine is as deep and pure as it
is simple and true. It is essentially characteristic of a philosophy
which by virtue of its attribute of reality subordinates all
scientific conceptions to the social point of view, as the sole
point from which they can be co-ordinated into a whole.
THE CULTUS OF HUMANITY
From the Positive Polity
HE cultus of Positivism is not addressed to an absolute,
Tisolated, incomprehensible Being whose existence cannot
be demonstrated or compared with reality. No mystery
surrounds this Supreme Being. It is composed of the continu-
ous succession of human generations.
Whereas the old God could not receive our homage without
degrading himself by a puerile vanity, the new God will only
accept praise which is deserved and which will improve him as
much as ourselves. This reciprocity of affection and influence
can belong only to the final cultus, modifiable and perfectible,
addressed to a relative being composed of its own adorers, and
better subjected than another to law which permits of foreseeing
its wishes and tendencies.
The superiority of demonstrated over revealed religion is
shown by the substitution of the love of Humanity for the love
of God. To love Humanity constitutes all healthy morality, when
we understand the character of such a love and the conditions
exacted by its habitual ascendency.
The universal reign of Humanity is to replace the provisory
reign of God. Demonstrated religion has its dogmas, its regimen,
## p. 3943 (#309) ###########################################
AUGUSTE COMTE
3943
and its cultus corresponding respectively to three fundamental
attributes; viz. , thoughts, acts, and sentiments.
The Religion of Humanity transforms the coarse idea of
objective immortality into the real objective immortality common
to the whole race. The first hypothesis is anti-social; the latter
constitutes real sociability.
THE DOMINATION OF THE DEAD
From the Positive Polity'
A
LWAYS and everywhere, the living are more and more domi-
nated by the dead. This irresistible domination represents
the unmodifiable element in all social existence, and regu-
lates the total human movement.
When the "Grand Être" shall occupy the whole planet, each
city will live more and more under the weight of preceding gen-
erations, not only of its defunct citizens but of the total sum of
terrestrial ancestors.
This ascendency was long ignored, and a dominating principle
was sought elsewhere, by transporting the human type to external
beings, first real, then fictitious. So long as the search for
Causes predominated over the study of Law, it was impossible
to recognize the true Providence of the race, owing to thus
diverting the attention to chimerical influences. At the same
time continuous conflicts and discordance made the conception of
a collective being impossible. When these fictitious struggles
exhausted themselves, Humanity, prepared during their domina-
tion, became aroused, and founded on peace and truth the advent
of the new religion.
THE WORSHIP OF WOMAN
From the Positive Polity
WOM
TOMAN'S function in society is determined by the constitution
of her nature. As the spontaneous organ of feeling, on
which the unity of human nature entirely depends, she
constitutes the purest and most natural element of the moderat-
ing power; which while avowing its own subordination to the
material forces of society, purposes to direct them to higher uses.
## p. 3944 (#310) ###########################################
3944
AUGUSTE COMTE
First as mother, afterwards as wife, it is her office to conduct
the moral education of Humanity.
Woman's mission is a striking illustration of the truth that
happiness consists in doing the work for which we are naturally
fitted. Their mission is always the same; it is summed up in
one word,- Love. It is the only work in which there can never
be too many workers; it grows by co-operation; it has nothing
to fear from competition. Women are charged with the educa-
tion of sympathy, the source of real human unity; and their
highest happiness is reached when they have the full conscious-
ness of their vocation and are free to follow it. It is the
admirable feature of their social mission, that it invites them to
cultivate qualities which are natural to them, to call into exercise
emotions which all allow to be the most pleasurable. All that is
required of them in a better organization of society is a better
adaptation of their circumstances to their vocation, and improve-
ments in their internal condition. They must be relieved from
outdoor labor, and other means must be taken to secure due
weight to their moral influence. Both objects are contemplated
in the material, intellectual, and moral ameliorations which
Positivism is destined to effect in the life of women. But
besides the pleasure inherent in their vocation, Positivism offers
a recompense for their services which Catholic Feudalism fore-
shadowed but could not realize. As men become more and
more grateful for the blessing of the moral influence of women,
they will give expression to this feeling in a systematic form.
In a word, the new doctrine will institute the Worship of Woman,
publicly and privately, in a far more perfect way than has ever
been possible. It is the first permanent step towards the wor-
ship of Humanity; which is the central principle of Positivism
viewed either as a philosophy or as a polity.
## p. 3945 (#311) ###########################################
3945
WILLIAM CONGREVE
(1670-1729)
ONGREVE was the most brilliant of all the English dramatists
of the later Stuart period. Born at Bardsley, near Leeds, in
1670, he passed his childhood and youth in Ireland, and was
sent to the University of Dublin, where he was highly educated; and
on finishing his classical studies he went to London to study law and
was entered at the Middle Temple. He had two ambitions, not alto-
gether reconcilable to shine in literature and to shine in society.
His good birth, polished manners, and witty conversation procured
him entrance to the best company; but the
desire for literary renown had the mastery
at the start. His first work was 'Incog-
nita,' a novel of no particular value, pub-
lished under the name of "Cleophil. " In
1693 he wrote The Old Bachelor,' a com-
edy; it was brought out with a phenomenal
cast. Under the supervision of Dryden,
who generously admired the author, it
achieved triumph; and Montagu, then Lord
of the Treasury, gave him a desirable
place (commissioner for licensing hackney-
coaches) and the reversion of another. The
plot is not interesting, but the play is cele-
brated for its witty and eloquent dialogue,
which even Sheridan did not surpass; it has a lightness which noth-
ing that preceded it had equaled. The characters are not very ori-
ginal, yet it has variety and diverting action.
Returning now to his rival ambition, that of achieving social suc-
cess, Congreve pretended that he had merely "scribbled a few scenes
for his own amusement," and had yielded unwillingly to his friends'
desire to try his fortune on the stage. But in 1694 he brought out
his second play, 'The Double Dealer. ' It was not a favorite, though
in it all the powers which made a success of 'The Old Bachelor'
were present, mellowed and improved by time. The dialogue is light
and natural; but the grim and offensive characters of Maskwell and
Lady Touchwood disgusted even an audience of the seventeenth cen-
tury. Dryden, however, wrote a most ingenious piece of commenda-
tory verse for the play; gradually the public came to his way of
WILLIAM CONGREVE
## p. 3946 (#312) ###########################################
3946
WILLIAM CONGREVE
thinking; and when, the next year, 'Love for Love' appeared, it was
said that "scarcely any comedy within the memory of the oldest man
had been equally successful. " This play was the triumph of his art;
and it won Congreve a share in the theatre in which it was played,
-the new theatre which Betterton and others had opened near Lin-
coln's Inn. Jeremy, the gentleman's gentleman, is delightfully witty,
- he has "the seeds of rhetoric and logic in his head,” — and Valen-
tine's mock madness is amusing; but as Sir Sampson remarks of him,
"Body o' me, he talks sensibly in his madness! has he no inter-
vals? " Jeremy replies, "Very short, sir.
"
In about two years Congreve produced 'The Mourning Bride,' a
tragedy which was over-lauded, but stands high among the dramas
of the century. It ranks with Otway's Venice Preserved' and 'The
Fair Penitent. ' A noble passage describing the temple, in Act ii. ,
Scene 3, was extolled by Johnson. The play was successful, and is
more celebrated than some far better plays. But Congreve was
unequal to a really great flight of passion; tragedy was out of his
range; though he was now hailed, at the age of twenty-seven, as the
first tragic as well as the first comic dramatist of his time.
Now, however, a reformer arose who was destined to make his
mark on the English drama. The depravation of the national taste
which had made the success of Congreve, Wycherley, Farquhar, and
others, was the result of a reaction against the Puritan strictness
under the Commonwealth. Profligacy was the badge of a Cavalier,
and Congreve's heroes exactly reproduced the superficial fine gentle-
man of a time when to be a man of good breeding it was necessary
to make love to one's neighbor's wife, even without preference or
passion.
In the plays of this period nearly all the husbands are
prim, precise, and uncomfortable, while the lovers are without excep-
tion delightful fellows. The Puritan writers regarded an affair of
gallantry as a criminal offense; the poet of this period made it an
elegant distinction.
Jeremy Collier came to change all this. He was a clergyman and
a high-churchman, fanatical in the cause of decency. In 1698 he
published his 'Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the
English Stage,' and threw the whole literary world into convulsions.
He attacked Congreve, among others, somewhat injudiciously, not
only for his sins against decency but for some unreal transgressions;
and he had at his command all the weapons of ridicule and indigna-
tion. The country sided with the eloquent preacher, but waited for
some champion — Dryden presumably - to pick up the gauntlet.
Dryden however declined, acknowledging later that Collier was in the
right. Congreve stepped in "where angels feared to tread," and suc-
ceeded in putting himself entirely in the wrong. His reply was dull,
## p. 3947 (#313) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3947
and he was unwise enough to show anger. Collier's cause remained
in the ascendant, and with the younger race of poets who now came
forward a reform began.
In 1700 Congreve wrote one more play, 'The Way of the World,'
the most brilliant and thoughtful of his works. Lady Wishfort's
character is perhaps too repulsive for comedy, though the reader,
carried on by the ease and wit of the dialogue, will accept her.
Mirabell's brilliant chase and winning of Millamant; the diverting
character of Witwould, an incarnation of feeble repartee; and the
love scene in Act v. , Scene 5, in which both lady and gentleman are
anxious and willing to be free and tolerant, are original and amusing
studies. But whether it was the influence of his defeat by Collier
or not, this play, the best comedy written after the civil war, failed
on the stage.
Congreve produced nothing more of consequence, though he lived
for twenty-eight years in the most brilliant society that London
afforded; he suffered from gout and from failing eyesight, and by
way of consolation contracted a curious friendship with the Duchess
of Marlborough, widow of the great Marlborough, with whom he
passed a part of every day. In the summer of 1728 he met with an
accident while driving, and died from the effects of it in January,
1729. The Duchess buried him with pomp; he lay in state in the
Jerusalem Chamber, and was interred in Westminster Abbey.
Congreve was held in the highest esteem by his fellow writers,
and Pope dedicated to him his translation of the Iliad. Yet he
would not hear his literary works praised, and always declared that
they were trifles. When Voltaire during his visit to England
desired to see him, Congreve asked that he would "consider him
merely as a gentleman. " "If you were merely a gentleman," said
Voltaire, "I should not care to see you. "
Congreve was not a great poet, but he had more wit than any
English writer of the last two centuries except Sheridan; he had at
the same time great skill in character-drawing and in constructing
plots. The profligacy of his plays was the natural consequence of a
period of Puritanical austerity. While not free from the blame of
intentional indecency, he at least lacks the brutality and coarseness
of Wycherley, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar.
## p. 3948 (#314) ###########################################
3948
WILLIAM CONGREVE
MRS. FORESIGHT AND MRS. FRAIL COME TO AN UNDER-
STANDING
From 'Love for Love'
Scene:-A Room in the Foresight House. Enter Mrs. Foresight and Mrs.
Frail
RS. FRAIL
What have you to do to watch me? 'Slife, I'll
do what I please.
Mrs. Foresight - You will?
Mrs. Frail-Yes, marry, will I. A great piece of business,
to go to Covent Garden Square in a hackney-coach and take a
turn with one's friend!
M
--
Mrs. Foresight-Nay, two or three turns, I'll take my oath.
Mrs. Frail-Well, what if I took twenty? I warrant if you
had been there, it had been only innocent recreation. Lord,
where's the comfort of this life, if we can't have the happiness
of conversing where we like?
Mrs. Foresight - But can't you converse at home? I own it,
I think there's no happiness like conversing with an agreeable
man; I don't quarrel at that, nor I don't think but your conver-
sation was very innocent; but the place is public, and to be seen
with a man in a hackney-coach is scandalous; what if anybody
else should have seen you alight, as I did?
How can any-
body be happy, while they're in perpetual fear of being seen and
censured? Besides, it would not only reflect upon you, sister,
but me.
Mrs. Frail-Pooh, here's a clutter! Why should it reflect
upon you? I don't doubt but you have thought yourself happy
in a hackney-coach before now. If I had gone to Knightsbridge,
or to Chelsea, or to Spring Garden, or Barn Elms, with a man
alone, something might have been said.
Mrs. Foresight - Why, was I ever in any of those places?
what do you mean, sister?
Mrs. Frail-"Was I? " What do you mean?
Mrs. Foresight - You have been at a worse place.
Mrs. Frail-I at a worse place, and with a man!
Mrs. Foresight - I suppose you would not go alone to the
World's-End.
Mrs. Frail-The world's end! what, do you mean to banter
me?
## p. 3949 (#315) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3949
Mrs. Foresight-Poor innocent! you don't know that there's
a place called the World's-End? I'll swear you can keep your
countenance purely; you'd make an admirable player.
Mrs. Frail-I'll swear you have a great deal of confidence,
and in my mind too much for the stage.
Mrs. Foresight - Very well; that will appear who has most.
You never were at the World's-End?
Mrs. Frail — No.
Mrs. Foresight - You deny it positively to my face?
Mrs. Frail-Your face! what's your face?
Mrs. Foresight - No matter for that; it's as good a face as
yours.
Mrs. Frail- Not by a dozen years' wearing. But I do deny
it positively to your face, then.
Mrs. Foresight - I'll allow you now to find fault with my
face, for I'll swear your impudence has put me out of counte-
nance; but look you here now,- where did you lose this gold
bodkin? O sister, sister!
Mrs. Frail-My bodkin?
Mrs. Foresight-Nay, 'tis yours; look at it.
Mrs. Frail-Well, if you go to that, where did you find this
bodkin? O sister, sister! -sister every way.
Mrs. Foresight [aside]—Oh, devil on't, that I could not
discover her without betraying myself!
Mrs. Frail-I have heard gentlemen say, sister, that one
should take great care, when one makes a thrust in fencing, not
to lay open one's self.
Mrs. Foresight-It's very true, sister; well, since all's out,
and as you say, since we are both wounded, let us do what is
often done in duels,- take care of one another, and grow better
friends than before.
Mrs. Frail-With all my heart: ours are but slight flesh
wounds, and if we keep 'em from air, not at all dangerous:
well, give me your hand in token of sisterly secrecy and affec-
tion.
Mrs. Foresight-Here 'tis, with all my heart.
Mrs. Frail-Well, as an earnest of friendship and confidence,
I'll acquaint you with a design that I have. To tell truth, and
speak openly one to another, I'm afraid the world have observed.
us more than we have observed one another. You have a rich
husband and are provided for; I am at a loss, and have no
## p. 3950 (#316) ###########################################
3950
WILLIAM CONGREVE
great stock either of fortune or reputation; and therefore must
look sharply about me. Sir Sampson has a son that is expected
to-night, and by the account I have heard of his education, can
be no conjuror; the estate, you know, is to be made over to him:
now if I could wheedle him, sister, ha? you understand me?
Mrs. Foresight-I do, and will help you to the utmost of my
power. And I can tell you one thing that falls out luckily
enough; my awkward daughter-in-law, who you know is designed
to be his wife, is grown fond of Mr. Tattle; now if we can
improve that, and make her have an aversion for the booby, it
may go a great way towards his liking you. Here they come
together; and let us contrive some way or other to leave 'em
together.
Scene: A Room in the Foresight House. Enter Angelica and Jenny
Angelica - Where is Sir Sampson? did you not tell me he
would be here before me?
-
Jenny He's at the great glass in the dining-room, madam,
setting his cravat and wig.
ANGELICA'S PROPOSAL
From 'Love for Love'
Angelica - How! I'm glad on't. If he has a mind I should
like him, it's a sign he likes me; and that's more than half my
design.
―
Jenny I hear him, madam.
Angelica - Leave me; and d'ye hear, if Valentine should
come or send, I am not to be spoken with.
Enter Sir Sampson
-
Sir Sampson I have not been honored with the commands
of a fair lady a great while: - odd, madam, you have revived
not since I was five-and-thirty.
me!
Angelica - Why, you have no great reason to complain, Sir
Sampson; that is not long ago.
Sir Sampson-Zooks, but it is, madam; a very great while,
to a man that admires a fine woman as much as I do.
Angelica - You're an absolute courtier, Sir Sampson.
Sir Sampson-Not at all, madam; odsbud, you wrong me; I
am not so old, neither, to be a bare courtier; only a man of
## p. 3951 (#317) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3951
words: odd, I have warm blood about me yet, and can serve a
lady any way. Come, come, let me tell you, you women think
a man old too soon, faith and troth, you do! Come, don't
despise fifty; odd, fifty, in a hale constitution, is no such con-
temptible age.
Angelica-Fifty a contemptible age! not at all; a very
fashionable age, I think. I assure you, I know very consider-
able beaux that set a good face upon fifty. Fifty! I have seen
fifty in a side-box, by candle-light, outblossom five-and-twenty.
Sir Sampson - Outsides, outsides; a pize take 'em, mere out-
sides! hang your side-box beaux! No, I'm none of those, none
of your forced trees, that pretend to blossom in the fall, and bud
when they should bring forth fruit; I am of a long-lived race;
none of my ancestors married till fifty;
I am
of your patriarchs, I, a branch of one of your antediluvian
families, fellows that the flood could not wash away. Well,
madam, what are your commands? has any young rogue affronted
you, and shall I cut his throat? or
Angelica-No, Sir Sampson, I have no quarrel upon my
hands. I have more occasion for your conduct than your cour-
age at this time. To tell you the truth, I'm weary of living
single, and want a husband.
-
Sir Sampson-Odsbud, and 'tis pity you should! -[Aside. ]
Odd, would she would like me, then I should hamper my young
rogues: odd, would she would; faith and troth, she's devilish
handsome! [Aloud. ] Madam, you deserve a good husband, and
'twere pity you should be thrown away upon any of these young
idle rogues about the town. Odd, there's ne'er a young fellow
worth hanging! that is, a very young fellow. Pize on 'em!
they never think beforehand of anything; and if they commit
matrimony, 'tis as they commit murder-out of a frolic, and are
ready to hang themselves, or to be hanged by the law, the next
morning: odso, have a care, madam.
Angelica - Therefore I ask your advice, Sir Sampson. I have
fortune enough to make any man easy that I can like, if there
were such a thing as a young agreeable man with a reasonable
stock of good-nature and sense;
for I would neither
have an absolute wit nor a fool.
Sir Sampson-Odd, you are hard to please, madam; to find
a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own
in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.
eye nor a fool
But faith and
## p. 3952 (#318) ###########################################
WILLIAM CONGREVE
3952
troth, you speak very discreetly; for I hate both a wit and a
fool.
Angelica-She that marries a fool, Sir Sampson, forfeits the
reputation of her honesty or understanding: and she that mar-
ries a very witty man is a slave to the severity and insolent
conduct of her husband. I should like a man of wit for a lover,
because I would have such a one in my power; but I would no
more be his wife than his enemy. For his malice is not a more
terrible consequence of his aversion than his jealousy is of his
love.
Sir Sampson-None of old Foresight's Sibyls ever uttered
such a truth. Odsbud, you have won my heart! I hate a wit; I
had a son that was spoiled among 'em; a good hopeful lad, till
he learned to be a wit; and might have risen in the State.
But a pox on't! his wit run him cut of his money, and now his
poverty has run him out of his wits.
Angelica - Sir Sampson, as your friend, I must tell you, you
are very much abused in that matter; he's no more mad than
you are.
Sir Samson-How, madam? would I could prove it!
Angelica I can tell you how that may be done. But it is
a thing that would make me appear to be too much concerned
in your affairs.
Sir Sampson [aside] — Odsbud, I believes she likes me!
[Aloud. ] Ah, madam, all my affairs are scarce worthy to be laid
at your feet: and I wish, madam, they were in a better posture,
that I might make a more becoming offer to a lady of your
incomparable beauty and merit. -If I had Peru in one hand,
and Mexico in t'other, and the Eastern Empire under my feet, it
would make me only a more glorious victim to be offered at the
shrine of your beauty.
Angelica - Bless me, Sir Sampson, what's the matter?
Sir Sampson - Odd, madam, I love you!
