Sir Thomas More | Page 8

had two successors who pursued
the same course of conduct. In the other kingdoms the character ceased
with the necessity for it. Crimes enough were committed by succeeding
sovereigns, but they were no longer the acts of systematic and
reflecting policy. This, too, is worthy of remark, that the sovereigns
whom you have named, and who scrupled at no means for securing

themselves on the throne, for enlarging their dominions and
consolidating their power, were each severally made to feel the vanity
of human ambition, being punished either in or by the children who
were to reap the advantage of their crimes. "Verily there is a God that
judgeth the earth!"
Montesinos.--An excellent friend of mine, one of the wisest, best, and
happiest men whom I have ever known, delights in this manner to trace
the moral order of Providence through the revolutions of the world; and
in his historical writings keeps it in view as the pole-star of his course. I
wish he were present, that he might have the satisfaction of hearing his
favourite opinion confirmed by one from the dead.
Sir Thomas More.--His opinion requires no other confirmation than
what he finds for it in observation and Scripture, and in his own calm
judgment. I should differ little from that friend of yours concerning the
past; but his hopes for the future appear to me like early buds which are
in danger of March winds. He believes the world to be in a rapid state
of sure improvement; and in the ferment which exists everywhere he
beholds only a purifying process; not considering that there is an
acetous as well as a vinous fermentation; and that in the one case the
liquor may be spilt, in the other it must be spoilt.
Montesinos.--Surely you would not rob us of our hopes for the human
race! If I apprehended that your discourse tended to this end I should
suspect you, notwithstanding your appearance, and be ready to exclaim,
"Avaunt, tempter!" For there is no opinion from which I should so
hardly be driven, and so reluctantly part, as the belief that the world
will continue to improve, even as it has hitherto continually been
improving; and that the progress of knowledge and the diffusion of
Christianity will bring about at last, when men become Christians in
reality as well as in name, something like that Utopian state of which
philosophers have loved to dream--like that millennium in which saints
as well as enthusiasts have trusted.
Sir Thomas More.--Do you hold that this consummation must of
necessity come to pass; or that it depends in any degree upon the course
of events--that is to say, upon human actions? The former of these

propositions you would be as unwilling to admit as your friend Wesley,
or the old Welshman Pelagius himself. The latter leaves you little other
foundation for your opinion than a desire, which, from its very
benevolence, is the more likely to be delusive. You are in a dilemma.
Montesinos.--Not so, Sir Thomas. Impossible as it may be for us to
reconcile the free will of man with the foreknowledge of God, I
nevertheless believe in both with the most full conviction. When the
human mind plunges into time and space in its speculations, it
adventures beyond its sphere; no wonder, therefore, that its powers fail,
and it is lost. But that my will is free, I know feelingly: it is proved to
me by my conscience. And that God provideth all things I know by His
own Word, and by that instinct which He hath implanted in me to
assure me of His being. My answer to your question, then, is this: I
believe that the happy consummation which I desire is appointed, and
must come to pass; but that when it is to come depends upon the
obedience of man to the will of God, that is, upon human actions.
Sir Thomas More.--You hold then that the human race will one day
attain the utmost degree of general virtue, and thereby general
happiness, of which humanity is capable. Upon what do you found this
belief?
Montesinos.--The opinion is stated more broadly than I should choose
to advance it. But this is ever the manner of argumentative discourse:
the opponent endeavours to draw from you conclusions which you are
not prepared to defend, and which perhaps you have never before
acknowledged even to yourself. I will put the proposition in a less
disputable form. A happier condition of society is possible than that in
which any nation is existing at this time, or has at any time existed. The
sum both of moral and physical evil may be greatly diminished both by
good laws, good institutions, and good governments. Moral evil cannot
indeed be removed, unless the nature of