The Moral aka Intellectual Compass circa 1809
Illustration of the Moral aka Intellectual Compass circa 1809
from Ackermann’s Repository
[as republished for Ackermann’s repository circa 1809]
PREFACE TO THE INTELLECTUAL COMPASS
In the present revolutionary and awful crisis of the moral world, the fable of Hercules and the carter should be strongly impressed on the recollection and attention of mankind, in which Jupiter, when called upon for his aid to extricate man from misery, declared that he had given man competent powers for every purpose of his existence, and directed the carter to put his shoulders to the wheel, and lift it from the rut of impediment.
Modern authors, in their progress of science beyond the ancients, have made a most momentous discovery of a fact, of whose nature and consequences they seem to have had but a very obscure glimpse, which is the important distinction between sense and science. […] Many of the French authors take notice of the same importance distinction of the bel esprit from bon esprit; but none of these have suggested any character of the distinction, or any of the momentous consequences to be drawn from it.
Reflecting upon the above circumstances, it occurred to my thoughts, that man had stopped short in the development of his intellectual powers, and resembled nearly the low state of the development of his physical powers, as when creeping on all fors like a brute; and if Jupiter in the fable was now to command him to use his understanding to extricate himself from the present awful moral catastrophe, he would be as incapable to use his mind, as in such a brutal state to have used his shoulder.
Sense appears to me to be the complete development of the organ of thought or internal sense, as sight the development of the eye, or language the development of the innate faculty of speech; and if man was taught to think and to reason, as well as to now and remember the ideas and reasoning of others, the sense of thought would be as competent to direct his conduct to right action, as all the other senses; it would no doubt be liable to more mistakes; but these would be considerably lessened in number, if we would use it with the clue of experience like any other senses. No man pretends to see into things that are removed from the boundaries of vision, or employ any of his external senses beyond the powers of their organs: and if he would use his understanding with precaution, though liable to errors, it would be competent to all the purposes of human happiness, in such a degree as would be compatible with existing circumstances and progressive powers of perfectuability: to effect which purpose, I have composed the following compass; and if the navigator’s compass was esteemed and inestimable discovery, to open and intercourse between the different national of the world. how shall we estimate this more compass, whose invention appears at the moment (when discord is threatening universal wreck to social life) to discipline of mankind; when the mind, having no powers but the mere technical intellect of science, is calling out for a standard of sense, or light of reason, truth, and nature, to save the world from a moral chaos.