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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1785-1837] Romantic Age » Wilhelm von Humboldt

Wilhelm von Humboldt

The Sphere and Duties of Government

On the Solicitude of the State for the Positive Welfare of the Citizen

[1792] Wilhelm von Humboldt,"On the Solicitude of the State for the Positive Welfare of the Citizen," The Sphere and Duties of Government (The Limits of State Action) translated from the German [First published, 1792] by Joseph Coulthard (London, 1854; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

And this is the very design which States have in view. They desire nothing so much as comfort, ease, tranquility; and these are most readily secured when there is little or no among that which is individual. But that to which man's energies are ever urging him, and towards which he must ceaselessly direct his efforts, is the very reverse of this inertness and uniformity,—it is variety and activity. It is to these alone we are to look for the free development of character in all its vigorous and multiform diversity of phase and manifestation; and, to appeal to the inner motive of the individual man, there can be no one, surely, so far sunk and degraded, as to prefer, for himself personally, comfort and enjoyment to greatness; and he who draws conclusions for such a preference in the case of others, may justly be suspected of misconceiving the essential nobleness of human nature, and of agreeing to transform his fellow-creatures into mere machines. (22-3)