Sir Thomas More | Page 9

man were changed; and that
renovation is only to be effected in individuals, and in them only by the
special grace of God. Physical evil must always, to a certain degree, be
inseparable from mortality. But both are so much within the reach of
human institutions that a state of society is conceivable almost as

superior to that of England in these days, as that itself is superior to the
condition of the tattooed Britons, or of the northern pirates from whom
we are descended. Surely this belief rests upon a reasonable foundation,
and is supported by that general improvement (always going on if it be
regarded upon the great scale) to which all history bears witness.
Sir Thomas More.--I dispute not this: but to render it a reasonable
ground of immediate hope, the predominance of good principles must
be supposed. Do you believe that good or evil principles predominate at
this time?
Montesinos.--If I were to judge by that expression of popular opinion
which the press pretends to convey, I should reply without hesitation
that never in any other known age of the world have such pernicious
principles been so prevalent
"Qua terra patet, fera regnat Erinnys; In facinus jurasse putes."
Sir Thomas More.--Is there not a danger that these principles may bear
down everything before them? and is not that danger obvious, palpable,
imminent? Is there a considerate man who can look at the signs of the
times without apprehension, or a scoundrel connected with what is
called the public press, who does not speculate upon them, and join
with the anarchists as the strongest party? Deceive not yourself by the
fallacious notion that truth is mightier than falsehood, and that good
must prevail over evil! Good principles enable men to suffer, rather
than to act. Think how the dog, fond and faithful creature as he is, from
being the most docile and obedient of all animals, is made the most
dangerous, if he becomes mad; so men acquire a frightful and not less
monstrous power when they are in a state of moral insanity, and break
loose from their social and religious obligations. Remember too how
rapidly the plague of diseased opinions is communicated, and that if it
once gain head, it is as difficult to be stopped as a conflagration or a
flood. The prevailing opinions of this age go to the destruction of
everything which has hitherto been held sacred. They tend to arm the
poor against the rich; the many against the few: worse than this, for it
will also be a war of hope and enterprise against timidity, of youth
against age.

Montesinos.--Sir Ghost, you are almost as dreadful an alarmist as our
Cumberland cow, who is believed to have lately uttered this prophecy,
delivering it with oracular propriety in verse:
"Two winters, a wet spring, A bloody summer, and no king."
Sir Thomas More.--That prophecy speaks the wishes of the man,
whoever he may have been, by whom it was invented: and you who
talk of the progress of knowledge, and the improvement of society, and
upon that improvement build your hope of its progressive melioration,
you know that even so gross and palpable an imposture as this is
swallowed by many of the vulgar, and contributes in its sphere to the
mischief which it was designed to promote. I admit that such an
improved condition of society as you contemplate is possible, and hath
ought always to be kept in view: but the error of supposing it too near,
of fancying that there is a short road to it, is, of all the errors of these
times, the most pernicious, because it seduces the young and generous,
and betrays them imperceptibly into an alliance with whatever is
flagitious and detestable. The fact is undeniable that the worst
principles in religion, in morals, and in politics, are at this time more
prevalent than they ever were known to be in any former age. You need
not be told in what manner revolutions in opinion bring about the fate
of empires; and upon this ground you ought to regard the state of the
world, both at home and abroad, with fear, rather than with hope.
Montesinos.--When I have followed such speculations as may
allowably be indulged, respecting what is hidden in the darkness of
time and of eternity, I have sometimes thought that the moral and
physical order of the world may be so appointed as to coincide; and
that the revolutions of this planet may correspond with the condition of
its inhabitants; so that the convulsions and changes whereto it is
destined should occur, when the existing race of men had either
become so corrupt as to be unworthy of the place which they hold in
the universe, or were so truly regenerate by