Читать книгу Anarchism - Paul Eltzbacher - Страница 18

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According to Godwin, our supreme law is the general welfare.

What is the general welfare? "Its nature is defined by the nature of mind."[27] It is unchangeable; as long as men are men it remains the same.[28] "That will most contribute to it which expands the understanding, supplies incitements to virtue, fills us with a generous consciousness of our independence, and carefully removes whatever can impede our exertions."[29]

The general welfare is our supreme law. "Duty is that mode of action on the part of the individual, which constitutes the best possible application of his capacity to the general benefit."[30] "Justice is the sum of all moral duty;"[31] "if there be such a thing, I am bound to do for the general weal everything in my power."[32] "Virtue is a desire to promote the benefit of intelligent beings in general, the quantity of virtue being as the quantity of desire;"[33] "the last perfection of this feeling consists in that state of mind which bids us rejoice as fully in the good that is done by others, as if it were done by ourselves."[34]

"The truly wise man"[35] strives only for the welfare of the whole. He is "actuated neither by interest nor ambition, the love of honor nor the love of fame. [He knows no jealousy. He is not disquieted by the comparison of what he has attained with what others have attained, but by the comparison with what ought to be attained.] He has a duty indeed obliging him to seek the good of the whole; but that good is his only object. If that good be effected by another hand, he feels no disappointment. All men are his fellow laborers, but he is the rival of no man."[36]