The Nation

Feb. 8,19221

Books
Roving Critic
H0M;ISPAINEistheRaggedPhllosopher
of hisrace.
HIS books a r e t h e blble of vlllageradicals, of boysand
In furglrls learnlng to argue and reflect up dlngy alleys and
tlvegarrets, of menandwomeneverywherewhoforlack
of
learnmgfind I t hard to enter the
fields of llberalspeculation.
In hisownday,Indeed,
I t washisprlnclpaloffensethatllke
a differentSocrateshebroughtphilosophytothepeople.
He
expounded In the market-place the dlscreeter deism
of F r a n k hn, Washlngton, Jeberson, of many a scented abbe in France,
and of enough good BrltlshblshopsHepreachedrepubllcanism where not only more or less comfortable kings could hear,
but also them most hungry and dlscontented subjects. To Burke,
whlmperlngovertheage
of chivalry,Painespokewiththe
blttervoice of that vast majority
of t h e populacewhichhad
never beheld the gold and silk
of chlvalry except as a distant
spectacle, but had supported
it w i t h t h e n s w e a t a n d blood and
now szw it estlnguishedwithscantregrets.
In languageno
onecouldmlsunderstzndoroverlookhestruck
at thecode of
honorthatcompelledtheduel,
a t lrratlonalnotlons of marriageanddworee,
at t h et y r a n n y of mastersoverslaves,
of
husbands over wives, of mankind over dumb beasts.
To F r a n k Ims magnlficent boast Where Llberty is, t h e r e IS my country
P a m e nolessmagnlficentlyansweredWhere
IS notLiberty,
there IS m m e A n d
as hespokehefought,inAmericafor
of f r e e
t h e n g h t of self-government, In England for the right
speech and a free press, In France for the lmng rights
of m a n
hlmself asagamstthedeadhand
of feudaltradltlon.Inall
this P a m e was t h a t r a r e t h i n g , a trlbune of thepeoplewithoutself-InterestPosslblythemostmfluentlalauthor
of hls
day, he had but
a modestpride of authorshlp. He could have
made h1s fortune a dozen t m e s , b u t h e lived and died in poverty-dwd the same Ragged Philosopher he had llved.
TheextenttowhlchPamesdoctrmesarestlllpotenthas
been latterly overlooked,
so m a n y of h1s arguments have come
still
to
seem
3xioms.
For
the
Anglo-Saxon
populace
he
is
a classlctextbook
of llberalthoughtTheRlghts
of Man
andTheAge
of Reasonarethumbedtopiecesinpublic
v~gorous
I ~ b r a r l r s ;in uncounted cheap edltlms they keep
career. No otherwriterInEngllshhasever
set forthwith
suchcombinedlucldltyandenergythebalderfactsregardmg
societyandtheology.
No other books of popularphilosophy
demand so llttle preparation from then readers. Pame speaks
t o the common m a n ~nt h e common tongue It IS true that most
of 111s content~onsderlvefromdoctrlneswhichwerewidely
current among the bolder spirits In his day and that his triumph
IS r a t h e rt h a t
of t h et r a n s l a t o rt h a n
of theorlglnator.But
as hlsfromthelearnedtonguehaspracsuchtransIatlon
ticallythemerit
of positwecreation
It IS true,also,that
P a m e , son of a centurywhichtalkedinprosetoolucidand
believedInproverbstooslmple
t o bemorethanpartlytrue,
refined his dlalectlcto a bareness which does not always take
account of lightsandshadows,
of moodsandhesitationsand
reverencesandadoratlons.Tosuchcolors
of lifehewasnot
altogetherblmdHewashlmself
so much a salnt that his
a superstition. He was
confidence In thereasonwaspossibly
so much a Qulxote thathispassionforthellberation
of humanitybyhumanenesswaspossibly
an Iliusion. Butthose
who make textbooks for the people must cling
t o the center of
thendoctrlnes,mustwalkunderthefull
hght of t h e n convlctlons. P a n ew a sf i r s t
ofall
a m a n of actlon, a soldler
whoseweaponswerethepamphletandthepen.
HIS dec1s:ons
sprangpromptlyintoepigrams;hisreflectlonsshapedthemselveslnstinctwelyintoargument;hispassionsflowered
as
eloquence. T o less busy and less lnclsive men he left the luxury
of brooding. F o r himself,heneverdoubted.
His wordshave
still almost the vitahty of deeds actually witnessed.

165

Therewasnever
a braverormorehonestman.Ifhegot
some pleasure out of fighting, it was but incidental to a profoundly serious career. Pames defects lay on that side
of his
naturewherehlslmaginatlonbelonged.He
saw a good many
t h m g s so clearly that a morelmaginatwepersonmighthave
suspected that he was not seeing the whole. My own line
of
r e a s o n ~ n g , Pame wrote, 1s tomyself
as straightandclear
as a r a y of hght. There are deeps In human character which
he never saw Into at all. So In soclety and government he made
tradition, by the
too llttle of the complexity really created by
long
chords
of memory,
by
the
criss-cross
of interests
andpasslons,bythemponderabledifferencesbetweenthe
way masses of nlcn mlght be expected t o a c t a n d t h e w a y t h e y
doact.Althoughinhisprogramforincreasingwell-being
in Englandheshowedhimself
a prophet, In themore official
methods of constitution-maklng In France and America he revealedlessemphatlcglfts.hisoutlookwastoopersonal,and
hls concerns too definltelywiththe
p l a nm a n
Inhisdally
business.Paineslnnltatlonsinrellglonnowappeargreater
thantheywereIfhetalkedtoomuchaboutunimportant
doctrinesandphases
of worshipit
was becausethosevery
doctrines and phaseswerefalselyvalued,becausetheywere
presentedtothepeopIe
as h a v m gt h e truth of mathematlcs
not of poetry.Still,Palnepartly
misunderstood theplace
in religion of poetryandhistory.Indeed,hlsprlnclpaldeiect
may be found In his failure to perceive the rlght use of history
In humanhfe.And
I t maybesald
that hlsprlnclpalmerlt
w a s h1s abllltytoperceivewhatuses
of hlstorywerewrong.
His powerful speculatlve lntelllgence played upon the soclety
of histlmequlteundeceivedbytheglamorwhichdeceives
weaker eyes. Independence IS my happlness, and
view things
as theyare,withoutregardtoplaceor
person; mycountry
IS theworld,
and myrellglon is todo good. It 1s h a r dt o
overestimatetheservicestotheelghteenthcentury,wlth
Its
tight categories and stateIy decorums and many hoilow reverences, of a challenger s o bold as Pame. In an age which had
as naturallydlvldedintorulersandsublongseenhumanlty
Jects he saw
I t only as men,bythelaws
of n a t u r e f r e e a n d
equal. Ingovernments so iongconstitutedandunquestioned
as
t h a tt h e yh a d
come t o seempermanent
thehills,and
such to be venerated, he saw only natlonal assoclatlons which
f o r good cause rnlght at anytlmebetermmated.Inchurch
establishments anclent and compact beyond anything else vmble
in European society, wlth a11 the appurtenances of vast wealth
and sumptuous hlerarclnes, and with the claim
t o be the lawful custodlan of truth, he saw the superfluous vesture of a f a i t h
orlglnallymeekandgentlePamesworkwastocalltheattention of mllllons of men back to the substance
of falth and
government and happiness
SeventyYearsAmongSavages(Seltzer)Henry
S. S a l t
ItheNancients
says, in effect, that it well enough to anthropologlze among
oramongthesurvivingprlmltlvepeoplesabout
1s

whom we can make dexterous guesses, but we can find plenty of

savages among our neighbors
if w e t r y t h e r u l e s of reason on
t h e w a y s of life. Savages eat each other, on
occasions, b u t we
regularly eat our compatrlots of the universe: cows, sheep, pigs,
birds, fish; moreover, we leave the savages hopelessly behind in
t h ea r t s of war,sport,vlvlsectlon,andpot-huntmgTherecent world lmbrogho saw the caveman emerging from his lalr
andinheritingtheearth,Justified-what
IS worse-by
hls descendants who had all along been boastmg of their clvillzatlon.
T o M r . Salt, whose nmeteenth-century heroes have been Shelley
and Thoreau, the customs of his country seem many of them to
lack elther reason or love;
his autoblography IS the record of a
s p m t which tests all thlngs by those attributes
of the human
race. He movesthroughvariedexperienceswithvariedpersonages in the British Isles quite
as if he were a visitor there
f r o m some more rational planet, reportmg what he sees as if he
had never taken the habits
of the race for granted

VAN