 such, all of humankind suffers the consequence of what it means to be a human (that is, non-fully virtuous). “Every man as man is subject to the misfortunes of humanity: the law is general, so it is not unjust.”[7] All suffer, for all are guilty and suffer the consequence of their departure from virtue, even the so-called virtuous man.
Seeing that all humankind suffers indiscriminately, de Maistre adds in his second answer that, essentially, suffering proves beneficial to all, but that happiness is a snare only to the wicked. I shall explain both of these aspects of his second account. First, that suffering is beneficial to all. Elsewhere in de Maistre’s Considerations on France, he says, “there is no chastisement that does not purify.”[8] In this quote, I find the embodiment of this aspect. De Maistre says that, with respect to happiness and suffering, people do not know what is truly good for them. In this first aspect, suffering is beneficial, for by it, the wicked are brought to terms with themselves, they learn of their wickedness through the suffering which must be seen as a punishment of some kind. This is just as when a parent punishes a child for misbehavior. By punishing children, or criminals, we hope that in so doing, they would be reformed, they would learn of their wickedness and change for the better. So suffering can serve as a reality check for the wicked.
The second part of this answer goes along with the first in that while suffering proves beneficial for both the wicked and the just, this is not the case with happiness. We have all heard the old saying “goods badly acquired scarcely profit”[13], and de Maistre would agree with this. For he believes that the wicked who are happy do not have the same happiness as the just. He says, “can one prevent oneself from contemplating with delight the happy man who can say each day before going to sleep: I have not lost the day?”. The just man is able to find peace of heart in his happiness, knowing what he has, he has earned through honest means and “sleeps with the certitude of having done what is good, and awakes with new strength to become better still.”[14] Compare this with the supposed happiness of the wicked, and you will find a different story. The wicked may have great success in the world, wealth, friends, reputation, power, but peace of heart is something they will never have, according to Maistre. They live in regret of the wicked means they used to gain happiness, and this can lead them into severe and damaging mental strife. If what the wicked has is happiness, what the virtuous and just have is inner peace, which all the success of the wicked could never afford.
Finally, in order that this whole answer may seem more convincing and make it based less so much on religious doctrine, de Maistre points out that this idea, that of sacrifice and substitution, has found its way into the beliefs of the people from every corner of the globe. He spends some time in his Dialogues and an even greater deal of time in its epilogue section, Elucidation on Sacrifices, to note various instances of this belief throughout the world and its history. He recounts that, in ancient Rome, the cult of Mithra performed a baptism in blood. In it, the initiates would be drenched in the blood of the bull which was immolated above them. This was believed to cleanse those were bathed of sin.[20] He says that the Gauls of continental Europe participated in human sacrifice, where prisoners were sacrificed at the tombs of the dead. And that these Gauls, when the Romans were threatened by war or disease, were themselves sacrificed. Also, he recounts that, in India, it is said that “the sacrifice of a man gladdens the divinity for three thousand years.” And in this same region, you will also see women throwing themselves onto the flaming pyres of their husbands, which, in Bengal, meant they had lost more than thirty thousand widows to the practice.[21] Lastly, he comes to the New World, where the explorers and missionaries recounted numerous examples also. For example, that the Aztecs sacrificed roughly twenty thousand people in one year, and the “still beating hearts” of some were pulled from their chest, allowing the priest to feed into the mouth of the idol the blood of the victim.
De Maistre uses all of these examples to show the universality of this seemingly innate or instinctive idea in the heart of mankind, that there is “an expiatory power in blood; so that life, which is blood, can redeem another life.”[22]He says that the universality of this idea is proof that it is not an erroneous belief, for “no error has been universal and constant. If a false opinion reigns over one people, you will not find it among its neighbor, or if it seems to spread over a great number of people, the passing of time will efface it.”[23] All of these examples, then, only go toward supporting the truth of this grand mystery of the universe, that the innocent suffer for the sake of the guilty, which Christianity perfected from its base forms in paganism, and consecrated and encapsulated at its core in the sacrifice of Christ and the salvation of the guilty by His blood. With this, de Maistre concludes, in a rather brilliant fashion, his third answer to the question at hand.
[3] De Maistre does not mean that this simple answer is wrong. Rather, he admires those who, with a simple and child-like acceptance, can have their spirit calmed by such a simple and basic truth of Christianity. But, he also does see the need, in the case of some people, for a separate account to be given.
[4] J. Maistre, St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014), 9-10, 12.
[8] J. Maistre, Considerations on France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 31.
[9] In this case, the old adage “to err is human” works well.
[10] J. Maistre, St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014), 248.
[12] J. Maistre, St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014), 248. This whole argument may sound similar to those who have read Plato’s Gorgias, where I believe roots of this argument may be found. There it is stated that it is better for those who have done injustice to suffer than to not suffer, and since all have done injustice in de Maistre’s case, all ought to suffer.
[16] It might also be said that, given the current non-virtuous state of humanity and its need for the knowledge of its own wickedness so that humanity may turn from its wickedness, that suffering is necessary so that happiness may be a good, otherwise it is a curse.
Maistre, J. St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence.
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014. Maistre, Joseph Marie, and Richard Lebrun. Considerations on France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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All the correspondence.
Kendra Mulligan BScPT, CGIMS, FCAMPT is the owner of Ascent Physiotherapy and has been since purchasing the clinic with her husband Ron in June 2010. They moved to the Comox Valley from Grande Prairie, Alberta where they had been actively involved in the community and in the delivery of physiotherapy services. Kendra was born and raised in the North