Thrice lovelier shine the things that last
Let's talk about the idea of a document that a group of people agrees to accept as true and uses to establish the veracity of all emergent claims as well as the morality of all proposed courses of action. You've got two Jews and three opinions but you've only got one Torah so the correct opinion is the one that can be shown to be most supported by the God-given text. Or, you've got nine Supreme Court judges and two possible verdicts but you've only got one Constitution so the correct verdict is the one that can be shown to be constitutional. Or you've got a surly Board of Directors and three building proposals but you've only got one Vision Statement so the correct proposal is the one that can be shown to move the company closer to its vision. In all three cases, what you've got is ethics as poetry analysis. "Is it right?" just means "Is it supported by the text?"
The beauty of this idea is that it combats tyranny. Neither the most powerful rich man nor the largest majority can simply act in their own self-interest. All decisions must conform to the high ideals established in the text.
The power of this idea is that the essence of an institution does not rest in the merely mortal brains of its founders but in their immortal words. Therefore, the institution continues to fulfill its orginal purpose even when the people who started it are long dead.
The danger of this idea is that the text is probably wrong. I'm a believer in moral progress. It does not surprise me that we in 2011 look at the founding texts of old institutions and shout, "That's sexist!", "That's racist!", and "That is simple false."
There is a poem called "The Things That Are More Excellent" by William Watson that fully articulates my priorities and ethical stance. Like a good vision statement or constitution, it speaks generally enough to be applied to any question. Take, for example, why same-sex marriage should of course be legal and opponents should stop yammering about it. Watson writes, "Shall we perturb and vex our soul for "wrongs" which no true freedom mar, Which no man's upright walk control, and from no guitless deed debar?" That's just perfect.
I've often thought that when I one day start a school "The Things That Are More Excellent" would be its consitution and all proposed policies and programmes would either be in line with the poem or thrown out:
What would the school hope to cultivate? "The grace of friendship, mind and heart linked with their fellow heart and mind, the gains of science, gifts of art, the sense of oneness with our kind, the thirst to know and understand"
What would our basic approach to behaviour management be? "Not nobler is that to be free, the stars of heaven are free because, in amplitude of liberty, their joy is to obey the laws".
Would Monday afternoons be given to debate club or nature walks? "Tired of the Senate's barren brawl, an hour with silence we prefer, where statelier rise the woods than all yon towers of talk at Westminster."
I am not certain I should plan my school that way, though, because I'm worried about the aforementioned danger of the constitutional approach. I want my school to not only keep pace but the lead the way as society becomes kinder, gentler, and more moral. I'd hate to thing that in 2534 my school 's founding principles will be decried as somethingist. Watson states that "the things that are more excellent" are precisely those things that do last, but can I be certain that what he and I espouse will stand the test of time?
Read the poem and vote:
False, true now, or true forever?
As we wax older on this earth,
Till many a toy that charmed us seems
Emptied of beauty, stripped of worth,
And mean as dust and dead as dreams,--
For gauds that perished, shows that passed,
Some recompense the Fates have sent:
Thrice lovelier shine the things that last,
The things that are more excellent.
Tired of the Senate's barren brawl,
An hour with silence we prefer,
Where statelier rise the woods than all
Yon towers of talk at Westminster.
Let this man prate and that man plot,
On fame or place or title bent:
The votes of veering crowds are not
The things that are more excellent.
Shall we perturb and vex our soul
For "wrongs" which no true freedom mar,
Which no man's upright walk control,
And from no guiltless deed debar?
What odds though tonguesters heal, or leave
Unhealed, the grievance they invent?
To things, not phantoms, let us cleave--
The things that are more excellent.
Nought nobler is, than to be free:
The stars of heaven are free because
In amplitude of liberty
Their joy is to obey the laws.
From servitude to freedom's _name_
Free thou thy mind in bondage pent;
Depose the fetich, and proclaim
The things that are more excellent.
And in appropriate dust be hurled
That dull, punctilious god, whom they
That call their tiny clan the world,
Serve and obsequiously obey:
Who con their ritual of Routine,
With minds to one dead likeness blent,
And never ev'n in dreams have seen
The things that are more excellent.
To dress, to call, to dine, to break
No canon of the social code,
The little laws that lacqueys make,
The futile decalogue of Mode,--
How many a soul for these things lives,
With pious passion, grave intent!
While Nature careless-handed gives
The things that are more excellent.
To hug the wealth ye cannot use,
And lack the riches all may gain,--
O blind and wanting wit to choose,
Who house the chaff and burn the grain!
And still doth life with starry towers
Lure to the bright, divine ascent!--
Be yours the things ye would: be ours
The things that are more excellent.
The grace of friendship--mind and heart
Linked with their fellow heart and mind;
The gains of science, gifts of art;
The sense of oneness with our kind;
The thirst to know and understand--
A large and liberal discontent:
These are the goods in life's rich hand,
The things that are more excellent.
In faultless rhythm the ocean rolls,
A rapturous silence thrills the skies;
And on this earth are lovely souls,
That softly look with aidful eyes.
Though dark, O God, Thy course and track,
I think Thou must at least have meant
That nought which lives should wholly lack
The things that are more excellent.