THE POLITICAL WISDOM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
WERE we to attempt to deal adequately with the political wisdom of the Old Testament, we should have to devote not one but many articles to the subject, for we are fully of Milton's opinion that the prophets and writers of the Old Testament "in their majestic, unaffected style" give better counsel as to "what makes a nation happy, and keeps it so," than all the orators or statesmen of Greece and Rome. Our object to-day is a narrower one. It is merely to point out how, apart from the patriotic inspiration of such poets-statesmen as Isaiah and his fellow-prophets, one may find in the Old Testament examples of practical political wisdom which are as sound and full of meaning for our complicated civilisation as when they were written. What is specially memorable is the freshness, we had almost said the "modernism," of the writers. Though their experience was in many cases of a people still in the nomadic state of society, they never- theless laid down administrative principles the statement of which could not be bettered by the ablest political philosophers of to-day.
We will take for our present purpose two examples,—one from the Book of Exodus, and the other from the Book of Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha. The first passage, that to be found in Exodus, we quoted some years ago in these columns, but it is well worth quoting again, and we feel sure that those readers who may remember the former article will not think that we were using the language of exaggeration when we suggested that the late Lord Salisbury might have begun his Cabinet meetings by reading the eighteenth chapter of Exodus from the thirteenth to the twenty-sixth verse. The passage in question, though dealing with the life of a wandering tribe leading the existence led to this day by the Bedouin of the Syrian desert, lays down the fundamental principle of all administration,—the principle under which the man at the top, the supreme bead of the department, must reserve only the big matters and those involving important considerations-of principle for himself, and must delegate matters of detail to his subordinates, strenuously resisting all temptations to deal with them himself. If he does not do this, he will be worn out with detail, and involve his administration in the ills which come from the final word being given by an exhausted and weary brain. Our readers may remember that the eighteenth chapter of Exodus tells with a charming nalvet6 how Moses's father- in-law, Jethro, came to visit his daughter's husband in the desert, and expressed his delight at the manner in which Moses had led the people of Israel out of Egypt. But Jethro was not content with congratulations. He watched how Moses did his work, and then, like a wise parent, gave his son-in-law some good advice. The rest we cannot do better than give in the words of the original :— " And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people : and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. And when Moses' father in law saw all that he did to the 13 eople, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even ? And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God : When they have a matter, they come unto me ; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws. And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that • thou doest is not 'good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee : for this thing is too heavy for thee ; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee : Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God : And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place sack over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, , rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens : 'And let them judge the people at all seasons : and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the ' burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endurea'and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons : the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves."
We do not hesitate to say that no administration has ever flourished in which Jethro's principle has been left unobserved. Occasionally some man of daemonic energy, like the first Napoleon, has contrived for a time to busy himself both with the big principles and the small details, and has done clerk's work as well as the work proper to the chief. But in the end he has not only worn himself out, but has ruined the administrative machine. Indeed, - it might almost be said that in a really well organised department the chief ought to have nothing to do as long as no unforeseen difficulties arise in the department, and as long as there is no question of introducing new, machinery or of meeting new conditions. He should "stand by" to settle abnormal points, points of friction. and to decide whether this or that plan of meeting special difficulties should be adopted. Such tasks involve questions of principle. Let no one suppose that work of the kind we have just defined is too limited and restricted for the ruling man, however energetic and however versatile. The chief will always find plenty to occupy him in the unfore- seen and the new, and in taking care that the true principles are properly applied and without deflection.
We must turn next to our second example of practical political wisdom, which is to be found in Ecclesiasticus. The passage we have in mind begins at the twenty-fourth verse of the thirty-eighth chapter and continues to the thirty- fourth verse, and is as follows :— " The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure : and he that hath little business shall become wise. How , can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labours, and whose talk is of bullocks? He giveth his mind to make furrows ; and is diligent to give the kine fodder. So every carpenter and workmaster, that laboureth night and day : and they that cut and grave seals, and are diligent to make great variety, and give themselves to counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work: . The smith also sitting by the anvil, and considering the iron work, the vapour of the fire wasteth his flesh, and he flghteth with the heat of the furnace : the noise of the hammer and the anvil is ever in his ears, and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the , thing that he maketh ; he setteth his mind to finish his work, and watcheth to polish it perfectly: So cloth the potter sitting at his work, and turning the wheel about with his feet, who is alway carefully set at his work, and maketh all his work by number ; He fashioneth the clay with his arm, andboweth down his strength before his feet; he applieth himself to lead it over; and he is diligent to make clean the furnace : All these trust to their hands : and every one is wise in his work. Without these cannot a city be inhabited : and they shall not dwell where they will, nor go up and down : They shall not be sought for in publick counsel, nor sit high in the congregation : they shall not sit on . the judges' seat, nor understand the sentence of judgment : they cannot declare justice and judgment; and they shall not be found where parables are spoken. But they will maintain the state of the world, and [all] their desire is in the work of their craft."
It might be supposed from a hasty reading of this passage that the Hebrew writer was an aristocrat opposed to democratic government, and anxious to rule out of politics" all those who were handicraftsmen,—i.e., working men by origin. A closer examination of the text, and a remem- brance of the condition of Hebrew society when it was written, will show that the intention of the writer was something very different. In truth, the passage is not a condemnation of democracy, or of the right of the poor to take their share in politics, but rather a plea for the best , type of professional politician,—using the phrase not in its degraded sense, but in the seiase of the man who devotes himself, and the whole of himself, to public work and public duty. The man who makes politics his profession in this sense is the man who, like Mr. Pitt in a former generation, or Mr. Gladstone or Lord Beaconsfield in our own, dedicates his life to the State, and does not allow himself to be deflected from the study of public questions by any private business concerns. The ploughman, the driver of oxen, he "'whose talk is of bullocks," the carpenter, the smith, and the potter stand in the modern polity not so much for the poor man as for the business man.
• The evident intention of the Hebrew writer is to point out that men whose minds are full of business details, and who are occupied with money-making, are not the best guides for a nation. They may, as he suggests, be doing very useful work—" every one is wise in his work "—and they are also performing in their own way most important functions for the nation—" without these cannot a city be inhabited "—but their immersion in material affairs prevents them from being wise in the conduct of politics. Their minds are set on the land, or the furnace, or the wheels of industry, and they cannot switch them off on to affairs of State. Modern experience has certainly shown this to be the truth. Again and again great men of business, men who have created vast wealth for themselves and for the nation, great captains of industry and great organisers of commerce, have entered the House of Commons or the Government with a chorus of praise and hope. The world was told that it was at last going to see business principles applied to politics, and it was confidently predicted that the men who built up this or that great business would be able to show the politicians how to serve and save the State. Alas for the result ! In almost every case men's hopes have been dis- appointed. The great captains of industry, have been, as a rule, failures in Parliament and in the Cabinet. The man who figuratively has "fought with the heat of the furnace" and conquered it, and who "has the noise of the hammer and the anvil ever in his ears," though so triumphant in matters of metal and clay, is found quite unable to "declare justice and judgment" in public causes. Such men can "maintain the state of the world" in material things, but "their desire is in the work of their craft," and not in the work of governing men.
To make the true statesman, what is needed is an early dedication to public affairs, and the training of the mind to the consideration not of material but of political things,— not "talk of bullocks," but of Acts of Parliament. What could be sounder than the manner in which the writer of Ecelesiasticus insists that "the wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure," and that "he that hath little business shall become wise " ? Above all things, what is wanted for the governing man is "opportunity of leisure,"—the opportunity to look the great facts of the world quietly and steadily in the face and to learn how to deal with them, to keep the head clear of minor details while a full train of thought is followed out to its ultimate conclusions, whether it be in the region of international or of home affairs, whether the point be one of social or of foreign policy. Assuredly the man "who hath little busi- ness "—that is, he who is little involved in money-making or in some complicated industrial organisation—shall become wise, granted, of course, that he uses his opportunity of leisure to the full. Take an old and a new example: Burke and Mr: John Morley. One was, and one is, wise in affairs of State, because both had the "opportunity of leisure," and because both had "little business. Neither, that is, ever had his mind deflected from public affairs by the details of money-making or of industrial organi- sation,—neither followed any trade but that of politics. For the best-ordered State we want first a leisured class, and then to use that leisured class for the work of government.
Let it not be supposed, however, that by accepting such a principle as this we rule out of politics all poor men, and confine our rulers and administrators either to the literati or the wealthy, and among the wealthy to those who have inherited, not made, their wealth. A poor man may be a man of leisure as well as a rich man, and may dedicate his life to politics, provided he has sufficient self-control to give himself the "oppor- tunity of leisure" which makes for wisdom. Take the case of Mr. John Burns, who is now showing himself one of our !Nest administrators, and also one of the least prejudiced and most teachable. He is an excellent example of a man who in spite of obstacles many and great has wrested from fate leisure for politics and has dedicated himself to public affairs. It is no doubt very picturesque for a politician to go on working at his craft, and to be summoned from the inside of a boiler where he is hammering hard to take his seat in Parliament, and we are quite willing to give all honour to such men. But we cannot doubt that if, to pursue our example, Mr. Burns had worked at his trade during the last twenty years instead of working at public affairs, local and central, he would never have developed the gifts of wisdom in adminis- tration which he now unquestionably possesses. His ears, like those of the great manufacturers, would have been full of "the noise of the hammer and the anvil," and his political life would have been a failure.
If we are wise, we shall take the words of the writer of Ecclesiasticus to heart, and not look for our governing men either among the great self-made millionaires and captains of industry, or the working-men politicians. We shall draw our rulers neither from the counting-house and the board-room, nor from the workshop, the mine, and the plough, but from the men of leisure, whether rich or poor, who have been able to dedicate themselves to public service, and who, through opportunity of leisure and through little external business, have become wise. How can he get political wisdom who is immersed in land speculations, who glories in producing a particular article at a fraction cheaper than it was ever produced before, whose talk is of percentages, or who has the factory, the mill, or the furnace always in his mind ? Heaven forbid that we should seem to defend the professional politician in the bad sense ; but in the good sense it may be truly said that without him a State cannot be properly governed.
Previous page
