Wednesday, July 10, 2013

"a people ought to be moral, religious, and temperate in proportion as it is free."

"un peuple doit être moral, religieux et modéré, en proportion qu'il est libre."

     Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America I (1835).I.X[.4] ("Principal causes which render religion powerful in America"), trans. Henry Reeve, with revisions by Francis Bowen and Phillips Bradley ((New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), vol. 1, p. 416);  =I.ii.X[.4] in Œuvres, ed. André Jardin (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), II (De la démocratie en Amérique), ed. Jean-Claude Lamberti and James T. Schleifer (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1992), 460.

"The rights of every people are therefore confined within the limits of what is just."
"La justice forme donc la borne du droit de chaque peuple."

     Ibid.:  I (1835).I.XV[.3], p. 259/I.ii.VII[.3], p. 288.

"'This liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest.'"

     Ibid., p. 42(-43) and 43n1 (cf. p. 46 in the Pleiade), quoting John Winthrop, as quoted by Cotton Mather in Magnalia Christi Americana, vol. 1, pp. 116-117 (following the volume and pagination given in the note on p. 951 of the Pléiade edition rather than that given on p. 42 of the 1997 Knopf edition of the Reeve translation and p. 46 of the Pleiade, where (in both cases, and therefore probably the original, "Vol. II, p. 13" appears).
     That reading (reproduced on p. 42 of the Knopf, but not on p. 46 of the Pleiade, matches the manuscript of the Winthrop Journal, as reproduced on p. 229 (228-230) of vol. 2 of The history of New England from 1630 to 1649.  By John Winthrop, Esq.  First governour of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay.  From his original manuscripts, ed. James Savage (Boston:  Thomas B. Wait and Son, 1826), and the version given in Puritans in the new world:  a critical anthology, ed. David D. Hall (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 2004), 176-180.  The properly critical Belknap edition of 1996 (The Journal of John Winthrop 1630-1649, ed. Richard S. Dunn, James Savage, and Laetitia Yeandle) reproduces the "litle speeche" on pp. 584-589.  The passage in question (pp. 27-28 of vol. 3 of the manuscript) occurs on pp. 587-588 (3 July 1645) as follows:
There is a twofould Libertye, Naturall (I meane as our nature is now corrupt) & Civill or fœdorall:  the first is common to man with beastes & other creatures:  by this, man as he standes in relation to man simplye, hathe Libertye to doe what he liste, it is a Libertye to euill, as well as to good:  This Libertye is incompatible & inconsistant with Authoritye, & cannot endure the least restraint of the most iust Authoritye:  the exercise & maintaininge of this Libertye makes men growe more evill, & in tyme to be worse then bruite beastes omnes sumus licentia deteriores.  this is that greate enemy of trueth & peace, that wilde beaste which all the ordinances of God are bent against, to restraine & subdue it.  The other kinde of Libertye I call Ciuill or fœderall, it may also be termed morall, in reference to the Covenant betweene God & man, in the morall Lawe, & the Politicke Couenantes & constitutions, amongst men themselues.  This Libertye is the proper ende & obiecte of Authoritye, & cannot subsist withoute it, & it is a libertye to that onely which is good, iust & honest:  this Libertye you are to stand for, with the hazard (not onely of your goodes but) of your liues, if need be:  whatsoeuer crossethe this, is not Authoritye, but a distemper thereof.  this Libertye is maintained & exercised in a waye of subiection to Authoritye it is of the same kinde of Libertye wherewith Ch[r]ist hath made vs free.
omnes sumus licentia deteriores is Terence, Heautontimorumenos, III, 1, 74.  There is a photograph of p. 25 of the manuscript, the page on which Winthrop's "litle speeche" begins, on p. 585.
     Whereas on p. 117 (116-117) of vol. 1 of an 1820 American printing of the Magnalia Christi an unacknowledged condensation of sorts is what we find, a condensation closer, but not identical to, the text reproduced on p. 46 of the Pleiade:

"But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that only which is just and good."

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