ABSTRACT
Individuality is of the very essence of human perfection. 7 If as a body we would reach truth, each man of us must be taught to inquire and think for himself, while at the same time communicating his thoughts to others, and getting the benefit of joint as well as independent effort. In any other sense there is no such thing as collective wisdom ; it is "among the most palpable of all impostures." 8 Patriotism, and even universal philanthropy, are too abstract. It is individual men that we are to make happy ; happiness, to be real, must be individual ; and, wherever there are individuals that understand the nature of political justice, there is my country. 9 Political justice itself is simply morality viewed in relation to other men (ape-r~ ~ 7rpo~ ~-repov); it is "that impartial treatment of every man in matters that relate to his happiness, which is measured solely by a consideration of the properties of the receiver and the capacity of him that bestows." Its impartiality does not make it a special virtue, but is simply the feature common to all
9 Pol. J., II. IV. 106, 107, V. XVI. SIS·
universal cause of the misery of mankind; but men are reasonable beings ; therefore truth will prevail over error ; and of their own accord men will adopt the one perfect form of society, without laws or central government. In modern language, they will be not Socialists but Anarchists. In Platonic language, they will have no need of kings because they will be themselves philosophers. The idea is (as after 2,000 years it might easily be) larger than that of Plato, who thought that the redemption of society depended on the appearance of philosophic kings. But if the idea is greater, it is only the more impracticable. If it is a mistake to suppose men governed by a ruling passion, it is equally wrong to suppose them influenced by reason without any passion at all. Godwin allows that the victory of reason will be slow in coming ; but he seems wrong in imagining that it could ever be complete, even in a single man, at any time, however far in the future. He was abstra~t, too, in his conception of rational society ; it could only (he thinks) have one form, as opposed to the diversity that now prevails (II I. vn. I 8 I seq.), the diversity allowed to individuals being denied to societies, for societies are mere aggregates of individuals, and have nothing that the units have not. Godwin's theory is the apotheosis of individualism and (in a sense) of Protestantism ; a purified and enlightened individualism is not to him (as to Rousseau) the beginning, but the end of all human progress. He is the father not so truly of philosophical radicalism as of Anarchism.
