II: Of the Accordance of Politics with Morals according to the Transcendental Conception of Public Right.

We may think of Public Right in a formal way after abstracting from all the matters to which it is applied in detail, such as the different relations of men in the State, or of the States to each other, as presented in experience; and this is the way in which jurists usually think of it. But apart from the matter of public right, there remains only the form of publicity, the possibility of which is implied in every expression of right; for without such publicity there would be no justice, this being thinkable only as what is publicly declarable, and hence without this publicity there would be no right, as right is only administered or distributed by it.

This character of publicity must belong to every mode of right; and, as it can easily be judged whether it accompanies any particular case, and whether it can therefore be combined with the principles of an agent, it furnishes a criterion, which is at once presented a priori in reason and which it is easy to use in experience. Where it cannot be combined with the principles of an agent, the falsity and wrongness of a pretended right can thus be immediately recognised, as if by an experiment of the pure reason.

Abstraction being thus made from everything empirical that is contained in the conceptions of national and international right, (such as the evil disposition of human nature which makes coercion necessary) the following proposition arises, and it may be called the transcendental formula of Public Right.

‘All actions relating to the rights of other men are wrong, if their maxim is not compatible with publicity.’

This principle is not to be regarded merely as ethical, and as belonging only to the doctrine of virtue, but it is also to be regarded as juridical and as pertaining to the rights of men. For a maxim cannot be a right maxim which is such that I cannot allow it to be published without thereby at the same time frustrating my own intention, which would necessarily have to be kept entirely secret in order that it might succeed, and which I could not publicly confess to be mine without inevitably arousing thereby the resistance of all men against my purpose. It is clear that this necessary and universal opposition of all against me on self-evident grounds, can arise from nothing else than the injustice which such a maxim threatens to everyone. Further, it is a merely negative maxim, in so far as it only serves as a means of making known what is not right and just towards others. It is like an axiom which is certain without demonstration. And, besides all this, it is easily applicable; as may be seen from the following examples and illustrations of Public Right.

1. Public Right of the State. As regards the right of the State, and in particular its internal right, we may look at the application of this formulated principle to a question which many hold it difficult to answer, but which the transcendental principle of Publicity quite easily resolves. The question we refer to is as to whether Insurrection is a right means for a people to adopt in order to throw off the oppressive power of a so-called tyrant? Non titulo sed exercitio talis. The rights of the people are violated in the case supposed, and no wrong would be done to the tyrant by his dethronement. Of this latter position there may be no doubt, and yet it is wrong in the highest degree, on the part of the subjects, to pursue their rights in this way; and if they did so, they would have as little right on their side to complain of injustice should they fail in this conflict and were afterwards subjected to the severest punishment in consequence.

In this case much may indeed be advanced for and against either position if the attempt is made to establish it by a dogmatic deduction of the principles of right. The transcendental principle of the Publicity of public right can alone spare us all this prolixity of discussion. For, according to that principle the people would only have to ask themselves before the institution of the civil contract whether it would dare to make the maxim of the proposal of an occasional insurrection publicly known. We easily see that were it made a condition at the founding of a political constitution that force was in certain circumstances to be exercised against the supreme authority, the people would have to arrogate to themselves the right of power over that authority. But were it so, that would no longer be the supreme authority, or if both powers were made a condition in the constitution of the State, the establishment of such an authority would really not be possible, although this was the intention of the people. The wrongness of rebellion therefore appears plain from the fact that the maxim upon which it would proceed, were it to be publicly professed as such, would make its own purpose impossible. It would therefore necessarily have to be kept secret. This latter condition, however, would not be at all necessary on the part of the head of the State. The sovereign power may freely announce that every form of insurrection or revolt will be punished with the death of the ringleaders, however the latter may believe that it was the sovereign who first violated the fundamental law. For if the sovereign is conscious of possessing irresistible supreme power (and this must be assumed in every civil constitution, because he who has not power enough to protect any member of the people against every other has no right to command him), he need have no anxiety about frustrating his own purpose by the publication of his maxim. And it is quite consistent with this position to hold that, if the people succeed in a rebellion, the sovereign must then return to the position of a subject. But he will not then be entitled to begin a new rebellion with a view to his own restoration; and neither should he have to fear that he will be called to account for his former administration.

2. International Right.—There can only be a system of International Right on the assumption that there is really a state of right as the external condition under which right can become real among men. And this is so because, as public right, it already implies the publication of a common will assigning to every one what is his own. This status juridicus must arise out of some sort of compact which, unlike that from which a State springs, cannot be founded upon compulsory laws, but it may, in all cases, assume the form of a permanent free association; and this we have already indicated as assuming the form of a Federation of the different States. Without some jural organisation to connect the different persons, moral or physical, in an active form, and therefore in the state of nature, there can be no other right but private right. Here again comes in a conflict of Politics with Morals when the latter is regarded as a doctrine of right; and the criterion of the publicity of maxims again finds an easy application to it, but only on the condition that the States are bound by a compact with the object only of maintaining themselves in peace with each other, and not at all in the intention of acquiring new possessions. The following instances of antinomies arising between Politics and Morals may be here given, along with their solution.

(1) ‘If one State has promised something to another, whether it be assistance, or a cession of country, or subsidies, or such like, the question may arise as to whether in a case on which the well-being of the State is dependent, it may withdraw from keeping its promise, on the ground that it would have itself to be regarded as a double person: first, as a sovereign, from being responsible to no one in the State, and, secondly, merely as the highest political official, from having to give account to the State; and then the conclusion is drawn that what it had become responsible for in the first quality, it may be discharged from in the second.’ But if the sovereign of a State should proclaim openly such a maxim, it is evident that every other State would naturally avoid it, or would unite with others to resist such pretensions; and this proves that politics, with all its craftiness, would frustrate its own purpose by such an application of the principle of publicity; and consequently any such maxim must be wrong.

(2). ‘If a neighbouring Power that has grown formidable by its aggrandisement, excites anxiety, it may be asked whether, because it is able, it will also resolve to oppress others, and whether this gives to the less powerful States a right to make a united attack upon it, although it may as yet have committed no injury?’ A State which would affirmatively proclaim such a maxim, would only bring about more certainly and rapidly the evil that is dreaded. For the greater power would anticipate the lesser; and, as regards their union, it would be but a weak bundle of reeds against it, if it knew how to practise the rule divide et impera. Such a maxim of political prudence if publicly declared, would therefore necessarily frustrate its own purpose; and it is consequently wrong.

(3). ‘If a small State, by its geographical position divides the connection of a greater State which requires this connection in order to its own preservation, is such a State not entitled to subject the smaller State to itself, and unite it to its own territory?’—Here again it is easily seen that the greater State cannot possibly let the maxim of such a procedure be previously known; for either the lesser States would combine early against it, or other powerful States would contend with it for this prize, and so the maxim would make itself impracticable by its very publicity. This would be a sign of the wrongness of the maxim, and it would be so in a very high degree; for the smallness of the object of an injustice does not prevent the injustice manifested by it from being very great.

3. Cosmopolitical Right.—As regards Cosmopolitical Right, I may pass it over in silence here, because on account of its analogy with International Right its maxims may, in a similar manner, be easily indicated and estimated.

The principle of the incompatibility of certain maxims of International Right with their publicity, thus furnishes us with a good criterion relative to the non-agreement of Politics with Morals viewed as the Science of right. But it is necessary also to be informed as to the condition under which its maxims agree with the Right of Nations. For it cannot be inferred conversely, that those maxims which are compatible with publicity are on that account also right, because he who has a decided supremacy does not need to conceal his maxims.—The condition of the possibility of a Right of Nations generally, is that there does exist a prior state of right. For without this there is no public right, but every kind of right which could be thought as existing without it (as in the state of nature) is merely private right. Now we have seen above that a federative union of States, having for its sole object the removal of war, is the only condition compatible with their freedom, and in which their rights can have existence in common. Hence the agreement of Politics with Morals is only possible in this connection, by means of a federative union, a union which is also necessarily and really involved a priori in the principles of right. And all public policy can have a rightful basis only by the establishment of such a union in its greatest possible extent; and apart from this end, ingenuity is but unwisdom and disguised injustice. Yet there is such an ingenuity, and its bastard policy has a casuistry of its own that might defy the best Jesuit school to outrival it. It has its mental reservation, as in the composition of public treaties by using such expressions as may at will be interpreted to suit the occasion and in any interest: such as the distinction between the status quo of fact and the status quo of right. Again it has its probabilism, when it construes evil intentions in others, or even the probabilities of their possible superiority into a justifiable reason for undermining other peaceful States. And, finally, it has its philosophical sin (peccadillo or bagatelle) when it maintains that the absorption of a small State is an easily pardonable triviality, if a much larger State thereby gains to the supposed greater advantage of the whole.

A pretext of all this is furnished by the double-dealing of Politics in relation to Morals, according as it employs one or other of its departments for its own purposes. Now, in fact, both philanthropy and respect for the rights of men, are obligatory as duties. But the former is only a conditional duty, the latter is unconditioned and absolutely imperative; and he who would give himself up to the sweet feeling of well-doing, must first be fully assured that he has not transgressed it. Now Politics easily accords with Morals in the former sense (as Ethics) by making it incumbent on men to give up their right to their superiors, but it is otherwise when Morals is taken in the second sense (as Jurisprudence or the Science of Right) before which politics must bow the knee. Here Politics finds it advisable not to trust at all to any compact, but rather to take away from right all reality, and to reduce all duties to mere benevolence. This artifice of a mode of policy that shuns the light would be easily frustrated by publicity being given to such maxims, if it only dared allow the philosophers to give publicity to their maxims.

From this point of view, I shall now propose another principle of Public Right, which is at once transcendental and affirmative, and whose formula would be as follows:

‘All Maxims which require Publicity in order that they may not fail of their end, are in accordance with both right and politics united with each other.’

For if these maxims can only attain their end by publicity, they must be conformable to the common end of the public, which is happiness; and it is the special problem of politics to put itself into agreement with the public, and to make the people contented with their condition. But if this end is to be attained only by publicity, as the means of removing all distrust of political maxims, these maxims must also be in harmony with the right of the public; for the union of the ends of all is only possible in the harmony established by right. I must, however, defer the further development and explanation of this principle till another occasion. But it may be already seen that it is a transcendental formula from the fact that all the empirical conditions of happiness, as the matter of the law, are removed from it; and it merely has regard to the form of a universal legislation.

If it is a duty to realise a state of public right, and if at the same time there is a well-grounded hope of its being realised—although it may only be by approximation to it that advances ad infinitum then Perpetual Peace is a fact that is destined historically to follow the falsely so-called Treaties of Peace which have been but cessations of hostilities. Perpetual Peace is, therefore, no empty idea, but a practical thing which, through its gradual solution, is coming always nearer its final realisation; and it may well be hoped that progress towards it will be made in more rapid rates of advance in the times to come.

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[over.

CONTENTS.

KANT’S METAPHYSICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT.

Prefatory Explanations, page3

PROLEGOMENA.

General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals.

I. Relations of the Faculties of the Human Mind to the Moral Laws, 9

II. The Idea and Necessity of a Metaphysic of Morals, 15

III. The Division of a Metaphysic of Morals, 20

General Divisions of the Metaphysic of Morals.

I. Division of the Metaphysic of Morals as a System of Duties generally, 24

II. Division of the Metaphysic of Morals according to Relations of Obligation, 26

III. Division of the Metaphysic of Morals according to its Principles and Method, 27

IV. General Preliminary Conceptions defined and explained, 28

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT.

GENERAL DEFINITIONS AND DIVISIONS.

A. What the Science of Right is, 43

B. What is Right? 44

C. Universal Principle of Right, 45

D. Right is conjoined with the Title to compel, 47

E. Strict Right; Compulsion, Freedom, Universal Laws, 47

F. Supplementary Remarks on Equivocal Right, 50

I. Equity, 50

II. The Right of Necessity, 52

DIVISION OF THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT.

A. General Division of the Duties of Right, 54

B. Universal Division of Rights, 55

I. Natural Right and Positive Right, 55

II. Innate Right and Acquired Right, 55

There is only one Innate Right, the Birthright of Freedom, 56

C. Methodical Division of the Science of Right, 58

THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT.

PART FIRST: PRIVATE RIGHT.

THE SYSTEM OF THOSE LAWS WHICH REQUIRE NO EXTERNAL PROMULGATION.

The Principles of the External Mine and Thine.

PRIVATE RIGHT.

CHAPTER FIRST.

Of the Mode of having anything External as one’s own.

1. The Meaning of ‘Mine’ in Right, 61

2. Juridical Postulate of the Practical Reason, 62

3. Possession and Ownership, 64

4. Exposition of the Conception of the External Mine and Thine, 64

5. Definition of the Conception of the External Mine and Thine, 66

6. Deduction of the Conception of Juridical Possession of an External Object, 67

7. Application of the Principle of the possibility of an External Mine and Thine to Objects of Experience, 72

8. To have anything External as one’s own is only possible in a Juridical or Civil State of Society, 76

9. An External Mine and Thine in the State of Nature only provisory, 78

CHAPTER SECOND.

The Mode of Acquiring anything External.

10. The General Principle of External Acquisition, 81

First Section: Principles of Real Right.

11. What is a Real Right? 85

12. The First Acquisition of a Thing can only be that of the Soil, 87

13. Every part of the Soil may be originarily acquired, 88

14. The Juridical Act of this original Acquisition is Occupancy, 89

15. Peremptory and Provisory Acquisition, 90

16. Conception of a Primary Acquisition of the Soil, 94

17. Deduction of the Conception of original primary Acquisition, 95

Property, 98

Second Section: Principles of Personal Right.

18. Nature and Acquisition of Personal Right, 100

19. Acquisition by Contract, 101

20. What is acquired by Contract? 104

21. Acceptance and Delivery, 105

Third Section: Principles of Personal Right that is Real in Kind.

22. Nature of Personal Right of a Real Kind, 108

23. What is acquired in the Household, 109

RIGHTS OF THE FAMILY AS A DOMESTIC SOCIETY.

Title First: Conjugal Right (Husband and Wife).

24. The Natural Basis of Marriage, 109

25. The Rational Right of Marriage, 110

26. Monogamy and Equality in Marriage, 111

27. Fulfilment of the Contract of Marriage, 113

Title Second: Parental Right (Parent and Child).

28. The Relation of Parent and Child, 114

29. The Rights of the Parent, 116

Title Third: Household Right (Master and Servant).

30. Relation and Right of the Master of a Household, 118

SYSTEMATIC DIVISION OF ALL THE RIGHTS CAPABLE OF BEING ACQUIRED BY CONTRACT.

31. Division of Contracts, 121

Illustrations: I. What is Money? 125

II. What is a Book? 129

The Unauthorized Publishing of Books, 130

Confusion of Personal Right and Real Right, 131

Episodical Section: The Ideal Acquisition of External Objects of the Will.

32. The Nature and Modes of Ideal Acquisition, 132

33. I. Acquisition by Usucapion, 133

34. II. Acquisition by Inheritance, 136

35. III. The Right of a good Name after Death, 138

CHAPTER THIRD.

Acquisition conditioned by the Sentence of a Public Judicatory.

36. How and what Acquisition is subjectively conditioned by the Principle of a Public Court, 141

37. I. The Contract of Donation, 143

38. II. The Contract of Loan, 144

39. III. The Revindication of what has been Lost, 147

40. IV. Acquisition of Security by taking of an Oath, 151

TRANSITION

From the Mine and Thine in the State of Nature to the Mine and Thine in the Juridical State generally.

41. Public Justice as related to the Natural and the Civil State, 155

42. The Postulate of Public Right, 157

PART SECOND: PUBLIC RIGHT.

THE SYSTEM OF THOSE LAWS WHICH REQUIRE PUBLIC PROMULGATION.

The Principles of Right in Civil Society.

43. Definition and Division of Public Right, 161

PUBLIC RIGHT.

I. RIGHT OF THE STATE AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

44. Origin of the Civil Union and Public Right, 163

45. The Form of the State and its Three Powers, 165

46. The Legislative Power and the Members of the State, 166

47. Dignities in the State and the Original Contract, 169

48. Mutual Relations and Characteristics of the Three Powers, 170

49. Distinct Functions of the Three Powers. Autonomy of the State, 171

Constitutional and Juridical Consequences arising from the Nature of the Civil Union.

A. Right of the Supreme Power. Treason; Dethronement; Revolution; Reform, 174

B. Land Rights. Secular and Church Lands. Rights of Taxation; Finance; Police; Inspection, 182

C. Relief of the Poor. Foundling Hospitals. The Church, 186

D. The Right of assigning Offices and Dignities in the State, 190

E. The Right of Punishing and of Pardoning, 194

50. Constitutional Relations of the Citizen to his Country and to other Countries. Emigration; Immigration; Banishment; Exile, 205

51. The Three Forms of the State. Autocracy; Aristocracy; Democracy, 206

52. Historical Origin and Changes. A Pure Republic. Representative Government, 208

II. THE RIGHT OF NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW.

53. Nature and Division of the Right of Nations, 213

54. The Elements of the Right of Nations, 214

55. Right of going to War as related to the Subjects of the State, 215

56. Right of going to War in relation to Hostile States, 218

57. Right during War, 219

58. Right after War, 221

59. The Rights of Peace, 222

60. Right as against an unjust Enemy, 223

61. Perpetual Peace and a Permanent Congress of Nations, 224

III. THE UNIVERSAL RIGHT OF MANKIND.

62. Nature and Conditions of Cosmopolitical Right, 226

Conclusion, 229

SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATIONS OF PRINCIPLES OF RIGHT.

Occasion and Object of these Supplementary Explanations.

Objection as to the Faculty of Desire, 234

I. Logical Preparation for the preceding Conception of Right, 235

II. Justification of the Conception of a Personal Right of a Real Kind, 237

III. Examples of Real-Personal Right, 238

IV. Confusion of Real and Personal Right, 241

V. Addition to the Explanation of the Conception of Penal Right, 243

VI. On the Right of Usucapion, 245

VII. On Inheritance and Succession, 247

VIII. The Right of the State in relation to Perpetual Foundations for the benefit of the Subjects, 249

A. Hospitals, 250

B. Churches, 251

C. The Orders in the State, 253

D. Primogeniture and Entail, 254

IX. Concluding Remarks on Public Right and Absolute Submission to the Sovereign Authority, 255

APOLOGIA.

Kant’s Vindication of his Philosophical Style, 259

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Prof. Carle of Turin, ‘La vita del diritto,’ p. 374.

‘The Last Days of Kant.’ Works, iii. p. 101.

Text-Book to Kant, p. xxviii.

See above all Rosenkranz’s Geschichte der Kant’schen Philosophie (in Kant’s ‘Werke,’ Bd. xii. 1841) in which Kant’s philosophical development is divided into 1, The Heuristic Epoch (1746-1770); 2. The Speculative-systematic Epoch (1770-1790); and 3, The Practical Epoch (1790-1804). But this is not an absolute division, nor does it indicate the predominantly scientific character of the first period.

See specially his ‘Untersuchung der Frage ob die Erde in ihrer Umdrehung um die Achse einige Veränderungen seit den ersten Zeiten ihres Ursprunges erlitten habe,’ 1754; ‘Allgemeine Naturgeschichte u. Theorie des Himmels,’ 1755; ‘Meditationum quarundum de igne succincta delineatio,’ 1755; ‘Von den Ursachen der Erderschütterungen,’ 1755; ‘Zur Erläuterung der Theorie der Winde,’ 1756; ‘Neuer Lehrbegriff der Bewegung u. Ruhe,’ 1758; ‘Ueber die Vulcane im Monde,’ 1785; and cf. Dr K. Dietrich, Kant und Newton, Tübingen 1876, and F. Shultze, Kant und Darwin, Jena 1875. Kant’s merit as the originator of the Nebular Theory is now recognised by all scientific writers on Astronomy.

The immense and ever growing literature on this subject in all the European languages cannot be referred to here, but too much praise could hardly be given to the latest and completest exposition of it in ‘The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant,’ by Professor Edward Caird, LL.D., 2 vols., 1889.

Werke, I. 92.

See Kant’s ‘Werke,’ vii., 374; ‘Anthropologie,’ 268, etc. Kant not only pays homage to the acuteness of Rousseau’s intellect, ‘the noble soaring of his genius,’ and ‘the magic power of his eloquence,’ but he says explicitly: ‘By inclination I am myself an enquirer. I feel all the thirst for knowledge and the eager unrest of striving to advance, as well as satisfaction with every kind of progress. There was a time when I thought all this could form the glory of mankind, and I despised the rabble who know nothing. Rousseau has brought me to the right view. This blinding superiority vanished; I learned to honour men, and I would regard myself as much more useless than the common labourers did I not believe that this way of thinking could communicate a value to all others in establishing the Rights of Mankind.’ Cf. Dr K. Dietrich, Kant und Rousseau, 1878.

Janet has given a good account of the development of the idea of Perfectibility and Progress among the French thinkers of the Eighteenth Century. The merits of Turgot in his ‘Discours sur l’Histoire Universelle,’ 1750, are undoubtedly great. Ample justice has been done to them by Prof. Flint in his ‘Philosophy of History in France.’ Condorcet in his ‘Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progrès de l’Esprit Humain,’ 1795, follows Turgot apparently without knowledge of Kant, although Siéyès had tried to draw the great philosopher into the vortex of the French discussions.

Kant refers to Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, and Hume as having carried farthest the attempts to investigate ‘the first principles of all morality,’ ‘Werke’ i, 297. Hume’s Utilitarianism had a relation to Kant’s ethics somewhat similar to that of the sceptical theory of causality to his Metaphysics.

Cf. Stahl ‘Philosophie des Rechts,’ i. 210.

Prof. E. Caird, Op. cit. ii, 561.

‘Werke,’ vii, 376.

‘Werke,’ vi, 210, ‘Anthrop.’ 270, etc., ‘Kritik der Urtheilskraft,’ 83.

This is the point of view developed by Schleiermacher in his Philosophical Ethics.

‘The Winter’s Tale,’ iv, 4, 85.

Full and interesting information on these points is given by Schubert in his Article on ‘Immanuel Kant, and his attitude towards Politics in the last half of the Eighteenth Century,’ in Raumer’s ‘Hist. Taschenbuch,’ 1838.

‘The Philosophy of Law; an Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right,’ by Immanuel Kant. Translated by W. Hastie, B.D., 1887. The Preface to this Translation may be referred to as also relevant to the present work.

See Professor Bryce’s able and vigorous Article under this heading in the Contemporary Review, Jan. 1891.

Thus Mr John Morley, in a work just published, has well said: ‘There is not, in fact, a body of systematic political thought at work in our own day. Yet it cannot be pretended that we are less in need of systematic politics than our fathers were sixty years since, or that general principles are now more generally settled even among members of the same party than they were then. The perplexities of to-day are as embarrassing as any in our history, and they may prove even more dangerous. The renovation of Parliamentary government, the transformation of the conditions of the ownership and occupation of land, the relations between the Governments at home and our adventures abroad in contact with inferior races, the limitations on free contract, and the rights of majorities to restrict the private acts of minorities, these are only some of the questions that time and circumstances are pressing upon us.’ (Studies in Literature, 1891. So he wrote in 1882). The most abundant illustration of Mr Morley’s admission of the lack of systematic political thought in our own day might be drawn from the history of recent legislation and from the political creed professed by the Parliamentary orators. Of the latter let one recent instance taken at random suffice. A learned and distinguished legal Member of the House of Commons—Mr Asquith, Q.C.—addressing his constituents in Fife recently, is reported to have defined the function of the Government in these terms: ‘The Government as it now exists,’ he said, ‘was nothing more or less than an organisation to carry out the wishes, interests and desires of every class and section of the community.’ No wonder he added that ‘the machinery of Parliament was inadequate and unfit for the duties expected from it.’ (Scotsman, Oct. 6, 1890). It is almost impossible to get further from Kant’s Practical Reason and Doctrine of Right, but this is the professed creed of the great majority of our legislators.

Sir Frederick Pollock in his recently published ‘Introduction to the History of the Science of Politics,’ closes with the suggestion: ‘Back to Aristotle.’ This cry may receive practical illustration for a time on account of the remarkable discovery of Aristotle’s work on the Polity of the Athenians; but, except for historical and comparative purposes, no return to the political principles of the ancient world can meet the wants of our time. In Sir Frederick’s able and attractive sketch, Kant is—alas! conspicuous by his absence.

These quotations might be illustrated by references to Lange, Helmholtz, and even Häckel.

The whole movement of English Philosophy, during the last half century especially, might be referred to in illustration. The following remarkable statement by the late Lord Bulwer Lytton written in 1824, but only recently published, is more than ever relevant to the reciprocal relation between the practical English mind and the great German thinkers: ‘If we are less inclined than the French to political Utopias, and than the Germans to metaphysical problems, still the most valuable political axioms have come from us. From us every sound thinker desirous of founding a free State (whether the form of it be Monarchical or Republican) borrows the groundwork of his plan. With us the ideas which retain the most enduring sway over the widest range of intelligence have either originated or borne their most substantial fruit. Nay, if no Kants, or Schellings, or Hegels, agitate the intellect of our Universities, still the leading conceptions and most valuable propositions, even of these philosophers, are perhaps less generally taken up into the actual life and working intelligence of the ordinary German Public than into those of large numbers of Englishmen, who, in all probability, have never surmised the existence of their systems, or heard of their names. Through their influence upon the minds and works of the few English writers who have taken them into their own theories or sentiments about human destinies and relations, these ideas work indirectly over a wider field of social activity, and I have heard an English mechanic talk pure Kantian philosophy without the least suspicion of the sources whence it had flowed into his mind.’ (The Life, Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, vol. i, p. 264-5, 1883).

The part that has to be played by man is, therefore, a very artificial one. We do not know how it may be with the inhabitants of other planets or what are the conditions of their nature; but, if we execute well the commission of Nature, we may certainly flatter ourselves to the extent of claiming a not insignificant rank among our neighbours in the universe. It may perhaps be the case that in those other planets every individual completely attains his destination in this life. With us it is otherwise; only the species can hope for this.

It is only a learned Public which has had an uninterrupted existence from its beginning up to our time, that can authenticate Ancient History. Beyond it, all is terra incognita; and the History of the peoples who lived out of its range, can only be begun from the date at which they entered within it. In the case of the Jewish People this happened in the time of the Ptolemies, through the Greek Translation of the Bible, without which little faith would have been given to their isolated accounts of themselves. From that date, taken as a beginning when it has been determined, their records may then be traced upwards. And so it is with all other peoples. The first page of Thucydides, says Hume, is the beginning of all true History.

Pactum unionis civilis.

Pactum Sociale.

Occupatio bellica.

[The term Selbständigkeit, here rendered by Self-dependency,’ is represented by Kant in his text by the Latin equivalent Sibisufficientia. The word ‘self-sufficiency,’ however, would be apt to mislead English readers. The term is commonly translated by ‘Independence,’ but ‘Self-dependency’ has been preferred as more closely indicative of the form and connotation of the German word.—Tr.]

If, for example, a proportioned war-tax were imposed on all the subjects, they are not entitled, because it is burdensome, to say that it is unjust because somehow, according to their opinion, the war was unnecessary. For they are not entitled to judge of this; whereas because it is at least always possible that the war was inevitable and the tax indispensable, it must be regarded as rightful in the judgment of the subject. If, however, in such a war certain owners of property were to be burdened by imposts, from which others of the same class were spared, it is easily seen that a whole people could not concur in such a law, and it is entitled at the least to make protestation against it, because it could not regard this unequal distribution of the public burdens as just.

Here belong certain prohibitions of imports in order that the means of acquisition may be promoted in the best interests of the subjects, and not for the advantage of strangers and the encouragement of the industry of others; because the State without the prosperity of the people, would not possess sufficient power to resist external enemies or to maintain itself as a Commonwealth.

However the actual compact of the People with the Ruler may be violated, the People cannot in fact directly offer opposition as a Commonwealth, but only by mutiny and rebellion. For the hitherto existing Constitution is then broken through by the People; whereas the organisation of a new Commonwealth has still to find place. In these circumstances the state of Anarchy arises with all the abominations, which are thereby at least made possible; and the wrong which thus ensues is what is inflicted by one party upon another in the People. Thus from the example referred to above, it is seen how the rebellious subjects of that State strove at last to force on each other a Constitution which would have been far more oppressive than the one they abandoned; as it would have led to their being consumed by Clergy and Aristocrats instead of their waiting for more equality in the distribution of the burdens of the State under an all-controlling Head.

No Law or Right in the State can be, as it were maliciously concealed by a secret reservation; least of all the Rights which the people claim as belonging to the Constitution, because all its laws must be conceived as having sprung from a public will. If the Constitution allowed insurrection, it would therefore publicly have to define the right to it as well as the way in which it was to be put in practice.

‘Judicium anceps, experimentum periculosum.’

Jerusalem, II, 44-77

A hereditary kingdom is not a State which can be bequeathed to another State, but one whose right to rule can be transmitted to another physical person. The State thus acquires a ruler, but the ruler does not as such (that is, as already possessing another kingdom) acquire the State.

See note A.

See note B.

See note C.

See note D.

See note E.

The majesty of a people or nation is an erroneous and absurd expression.

Thus a Bulgarian Prince when the Greek Emperor was desirous to bring his quarrel with him to an end by a duel, gave his answer by saying: ‘A smith who has tongs will not pluck the glowing iron out of the coals with his hands.’

See note F.

See note G.