Chapter GERRARD WINSTANLEY'S UTOPIA

CHAPTER XVI

GERRARD WINSTANLEY'S UTOPIA

THE LAW OF FREEDOM (concluded)

    「Day unto day utters speech--
    Be wise, O ye Nations! and hear
    What yesterday telleth to-day,
    What to-day to the morrow will preach.
    A change cometh over our sphere,
    And the old goeth down to decay.
A new light hath dawned on the darkness of yore,
And men shall be slaves and oppressors no more.「
                                        CHARLES MACKAY.

It is in the chapter we have just been considering, the fourth chapter of 「The Law of Freedom,「 that we find Winstanley's last recorded utterances on cosmological and theological problems. Nothing seems to us more strikingly to show the broadening and development of his powerful mind than a comparison of the views here expressed with those contained in his earlier writings on the subject. True, the underlying ideas are practically the same: he still realises the existence of a Divine Spirit, the Spirit of Reason and of Love, of Righteousness and of Peace, animating, inspiring, pervading and governing the whole Creation; he still holds to his doctrine of the Inward Light, the spark of the Divine Spirit of Reason, within man, prompting each and all to act righteously and equitably one toward the other. Yet he is decidedly less mystical. He lays emphasis on the necessity to study the works of God rather than the Word of God; and has evidently become less anthropomorphic and more spiritual, less mystical and more rational, less religious and more ethical, less theological and more philosophic, less scholastic and more scientific. However, we had better let him speak for himself. Immediately after his reflections on the duties and functions of a Commonwealth's Parliament, he proceeds to consider the work of a Commonwealth's Ministry, as follows:

 「THE WORK OF A COMMONWEALTH'S MINISTRY, AND WHY ONE DAY IN SEVEN
 MAY BE A DAY OF REST FROM LABOR.

 「If there were good Laws and the People be ignorant of them, it
 would be as bad for the Commonwealth as if there were no Laws at
 all. Therefore it is very rational and good that one day in seven
 be still set apart, for three reasons:

 「_First_, That the People in such a Parish may generally meet
 together to see one another's faces, and beget or preserve
 fellowship in friendly love.

 「_Secondly_, To be a day of rest, or cessation from labor; so that
 they may have some bodily rest for themselves and cattle.

 「_Thirdly_, That he who is chosen Minister (for that year) in that
 Parish may read to the People three things. First, the affairs of
 the whole Land, as it is brought in by the Post-Master. Secondly,
 to read the Law of the Common-wealth, not only to strengthen the
 memory of the ancients, but that the young people also, who are not
 grown up to ripeness of experience, may be instructed to know when
 they do well and when they do ill. For the Law of a Land hath the
 power of Freedom and Bondage, life and death, in its hand,
 therefore the necessary knowledge to be known; and he is the best
 Prophet that acquaints men therewith, that as men grow up in years
 they may be able to defend the Laws and Government of the Land. But
 these Laws shall not be expounded by the Reader; for to expound a
 plain Law, as if a man would put a better meaning than the letter
 itself, produces two evils: First, the pure Law and the minds of
 the people will be thereby confounded, for multitude of words
 darken knowledge. Secondly, the reader will be puffed up in pride
 to contemn the Law-makers, and in time that will prove the father
 and nurse of tyranny, as at this day is manifested by our
 Ministry.「

WHAT SHALL BE SPOKEN OF.

 「But because the minds of people generally love discourses,
 therefore, that the wits of men, both old and young, may be
 exercised, there may be speeches made in a threefold nature:

 「_First_, To declare the acts and passages of former ages and
 governments, setting forth the benefit of freedom by well-ordered
 Governments, as in Israel's Commonwealth, and the troubles and
 bondage which hath always attended oppression and oppressors, as
 the State of Pharaoh and other tyrant kings, who said the Earth and
 People were theirs, and only at their disposal.

 「_Secondly_, Speeches may be made of all Arts and Sciences, some
 one day some another, as in Physics, Chyrurgery, Astrology,
 Astronomy, Navigation, Husbandry, and such like. And in these
 speeches may be unfolded the nature of all herbs and plants, from
 the Hysop to the Cedar, as Solomon writ of. Likewise men may come
 to see into the nature of the fixed and wandering Stars, those
 great powers of God in the heavens above. And hereby men will come
 to know the secrets of Nature and Creation, within which all true
 knowledge is wrapped up, and the light in man must arise to search
 it out.

 「_Thirdly_, Speeches may be made sometimes of the nature of
 mankind, of his darkness and of his light, of his weakness and of
 his strength, of his love and of his envy, of his inward and
 outward bondages, of his inward and outward freedoms, etc. And this
 is that at which the ministry of Churches generally aim; but only
 that they confound their knowledge by imaginary study.... And thus
 to speak, or thus to read the Law of Nature (or God) as He hath
 written His name in every body, is to speak a pure language, and
 this is to speak the truth as Jesus Christ spake it, giving to
 everything its own weight and measure. By this means in time men
 shall attain to the practical knowledge of God truly, that they may
 serve Him in spirit and in truth: and this knowledge will not
 deceive a man.「

HIS ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS.

Then follows a passage which even to-day would bring down the wrath of 「zealous but ignorant professors「 upon the head of any author acknowledging it, if within their sphere of influence. He continues:

 「'I,' but saith the zealous but ignorant Professor, 'this is a low
 and carnal Ministry indeed; this leads men to know nothing but the
 knowledge of the earth and the secrets of nature; but we are to
 look after spiritual and heavenly things.'

 「I answer: 'To know the secrets of nature is to know the works of
 God; and to know the works of God within the Creation, is to know
 God himself; for God dwells in every visible work or body. Indeed,
 if you would know spiritual things, it is to know how the Spirit or
 Power of Wisdom and Life, causing motion or growth, dwells within
 and governs both the several bodies of the stars and planets in the
 heavens above, and the several bodies of the earth below, as grass,
 plants, fishes, beasts, birds and mankind. For to reach God beyond
 the Creation, or to know what he will be to a man after the man is
 dead, if any otherwise than to scatter him into his essences of
 fire, water, earth and air, of which he is composed, is a knowledge
 beyond the line or capacity of man to attain to while he lives in
 his compounded body. And if a man should go to imagine what God is
 beyond the Creation, or what he will be in a spiritual
 demonstration after a man is dead, he doth, as the proverb saith,
 but build castles in the air, or tells us of a world beyond the
 Moon or beyond the Sun, merely to blind the reason of man.

 「'I'll appeal to yourself in this question, What other knowledge
 have you of God but what you have within the circle of the
 Creation? For if the Creation in all its dimensions be the fullness
 of Him that fills all with Himself; and if you yourself be part of
 this Creation: where can you find God but in that line or station
 wherein you stand? God manifests Himself in actual Knowledge, not
 in Imagination. He is still in motion, either in bodies upon earth
 or in the bodies in the heavens, or in both; in the night and in
 the day, in Winter, in Summer, in cold, in heat, in growth or not
 in growth.'「

THE CAUSE OF IGNORANCE, EVIL AND SORROWS.

 「But when a studying imagination comes into man, which is the
 devil, for it is the cause of all evil and sorrows in the world;
 that is he who puts out the eyes of man's knowledge, and tells him
 he must believe what others have writ or spoke, and must not trust
 to his own experience. And when this bewitching fancy sits in the
 Chair of Government, there is nothing but saying and unsaying,
 frowardness, covetousness, fears, confused thoughts, and
 unsatisfied doubtings, all the days of that man's reign in the
 heart.「

EXAMINE THE WAYS OF MEN, NOT ONLY THEIR PRECEPTS.

 「Or, secondly, examine yourself and look likewise into the ways of
 all Professors, and you shall find that the enjoyment of the earth
 below, which you call a low and a carnal knowledge, is that which
 you and all Professors (as well as the men of the world, as you
 call them) strive and seek after. Wherefore are you so covetous
 after the world, in buying and selling, counting yourself a happy
 man if you be rich, and a miserable man if you be poor? And though
 you say, _Heaven after death is a place of glory where you shall
 enjoy God face to face_, yet you are loth to leave the earth and go
 thither.

 「Do not your Ministers preach for to enjoy the earth? Do not
 professing Lawyers, as well as others, buy and sell the Conquerer's
 justice that they may enjoy the earth? Do not professing Soldiers
 fight for the earth, and seat themselves in that Land which is the
 birth-right of others, as well as theirs, shutting others out? Do
 not all Professors strive to get earth, that they may live in
 plenty by other men's labors? Do you not make the earth your very
 rest? Doth not the enjoying of the earth please the spirit in you?
 and then you say God is pleased with your ways and blesseth you. If
 you want earth, and become poor, do you not say, God is angry with
 you? Why do you heap up riches? why do you eat and drink, and wear
 clothes? Are not all these carnal and low things of the earth? and
 do you not live in them and covet them as much as any, nay more
 than many which you call men of the world?

 「It being thus with you, what other spiritual and heavenly things
 do you seek after more than others? What is in you more than in
 others? If you say there is, then surely you should leave these
 earthly things alone to the men of the world, as you call them,
 whose portions these are, and keep you within the compass of your
 own sphere, that others seeing you live a life above the world in
 peace and freedom, neither working yourselves, nor deceiving, nor
 compelling others to work for you, they may be drawn to embrace the
 same spiritual life by your single hearted conversation. Well I
 have done here.「


 「LET US NOW EXAMINE YOUR DIVINITY.「

Winstanley then carries the war into the camp of his clerical opponents, and that in so forcible a manner that we cannot refrain from quoting at length. He says:

 「Let us now examine your Divinity, which you call heavenly and
 spiritual things; for herein speeches are made, not to advance
 knowledge, but to destroy the true knowledge of God. For Divinity
 does not speak the truth, as it is hid in everybody, but it leaves
 the motional knowledge of a thing as it is, and imagines, studies
 or thinks what may be, and so runs the hazard of true or false.
 This Divinity is always speaking words to deceive the simple, that
 he may make them work for him and maintain him, but he never comes
 to action himself, to do as he would be done by; for he is a
 monster who is all tongue and no hand.

 「This Divining Doctrine, which you call spiritual and heavenly
 things, is the thief and the robber, he comes to spoil the Vineyard
 of a man's peace, and does not enter in at the door, but he climbs
 up another way. And this Doctrine is two-fold: First, it takes upon
 him to tell you the meaning of other men's words and writings, by
 his studying or imagining what another man's knowledge might be,
 and by thus doing darkens knowledge, and wrongs the spirit of the
 Authors who did write and speak those things which he takes upon
 him to interpret. Secondly, he takes upon him to foretell what
 shall befall a man after he is dead, and what that world is beyond
 the Sun and beyond the Moon, etc. And if any man tell him there is
 no reason for what you say, he answers, you must not judge of
 heavenly and spiritual things by reason, but you must believe what
 is told you, whether it be reason or no.「

WHEREIN IT IS WANTING.

 「There is a three-fold discovery of falsehood in this Doctrine.
 First, it is a Doctrine of a sickly and weak spirit, who hath lost
 his understanding in the knowledge of the Creation, and of the
 temper of his own heart and nature, and so runs into fancies,
 either of joy or sorrow. If the passion of joy predominate, then he
 fancies to himself a personal God, personal Angels, and a local
 place of glory, which he saith, he, and all who believe what he
 hath, shall go to after they are dead. If sorrow predominate, then
 he fancies to himself a personal Devil, and a local place of
 torment that he shall go to after he is dead: and this he speaks
 with great confidence.

 「_Secondly_, This is the doctrine of a subtle running spirit, to
 make an ungrounded wise man mad.... For many times when a wise
 understanding heart is assaulted with this Doctrine of a God, a
 Devil, a Heaven and a Hell, Salvation and Damnation after a man is
 dead, his spirit being not strongly grounded in the knowledge of
 the Creation nor in the temper of his own heart, he strives and
 stretches his brain to find out the depth of that doctrine and
 cannot attain to it. For, indeed, it is not knowledge, but
 imagination. And so by poring and puzzling himself in it, he loses
 that wisdom he had, and becomes distracted and mad. If the passion
 of joy predominate, then he is merry, and sings, and laughs, and is
 ripe in the expression of his words and will speak strange things:
 but all by imagination. But if the passion of sorrow predominate,
 then he is heavy and sad, crying out, _He is damned; God hath
 forsaken him, and he must go to Hell when he dies; he cannot make
 his calling and election sure._ And in that distemper many times a
 man doth hang, kill or drown himself. So this Divining Doctrine,
 which you call spiritual and heavenly things, torments people
 always when they are weak, sickly or under any distemper. Therefore
 it cannot be the Doctrine of Christ the Saviour.

 「Or, _thirdly_, This Doctrine is made a cloak of policy by the
 subtle Elder Brother, to cheat his simpler Younger Brother of the
 Freedoms of the Earth. For, saith the Elder Brother, 'The Earth is
 mine, and not yours, Brother; and you must not work upon it, unless
 you will hire it of me; and you must not take the fruits of it,
 unless you will buy them of me, by that which I pay you for your
 labor. For if you should do otherwise, God will not love you, and
 you shall not go to Heaven when you die, but the Devil will have
 you, and you must be damned in Hell.'

 「If the Younger reply, and say--'The Earth is my Birth-Right as
 well as yours, and God who made us both is no Respecter of persons.
 Therefore there is no reason but I should enjoy the Freedoms of the
 Earth for my comfortable livelihood, as well as you, Brother.'

 「'I,' but saith the Elder Brother, 'You must not trust to your own
 Reason and Understanding, but you must believe what is written and
 what is told you; and if you will not believe, your Damnation will
 be the greater.'

 「'I cannot believe,' saith the Younger Brother, 'that our Righteous
 Creator should be so partial in his Dispensations of the Earth,
 seeing our bodies cannot live upon Earth without the use of the
 Earth.'

 「The Elder Brother replies, 'What, will you be an Atheist, and a
 factious man, will you not believe God?'

 「'Yes,' saith the Younger Brother, 'if I knew God said so, I should
 believe, for I desire to serve Him.'

 「'Why,' saith the Elder Brother, 'this is His Word, and if you will
 not believe it, you must be damned; but if you will believe it, you
 will go to Heaven.'

 「Well, the Younger Brother, being weak in spirit, and not having a
 grounded knowledge of the Creation, nor of himself, is terrified,
 and lets go his hold in the Earth, and submits himself to be a
 Slave to his Brother, for fear of damnation in Hell after death,
 and in hopes to get Heaven thereby after he is dead. And so his
 eyes are put out, and his Reason is blinded. So that this divining
 spiritual doctrine is a cheat. For while men are gazing up to
 Heaven, imagining after a happiness, or fearing a Hell after they
 are dead, their eyes are put out, that they see not what are their
 Birth-Rights, nor what is to be done by them here on Earth while
 they are living. This is the filthy Dreamer and the Cloud without
 rain. And indeed the subtle Clergy do know that if they can but
 charm the people by this their divining doctrine, to look after
 riches, Heaven and Glory when they are dead, that then they shall
 easily be the inheritors of the Earth, and have the deceived people
 to be their Servants.

 「For my own part,「 he continues, 「my spirit hath waded deep to find
 the bottom of this divining spiritual Doctrine; and the more I
 searched, the more I was at a loss. I never came to quiet rest and
 to know God in my spirit, till I came to the knowledge of the
 things in this Book. And let me tell you, They who preach this
 divining doctrine are the murderers of many a poor heart, who is
 bashful and simple, and who cannot speak for himself, but who keeps
 his thoughts to himself.「

Such, then, was Winstanley's final attack on the body of teachings he, rightly or wrongly, hated and despised as the main supporter of the prevailing social injustice. Correct thought he realised to be the necessary precursor of right action; and he knew that correct thought is impossible so long as old, inherited false ideas are unquestioningly accepted and hold undisputed dominion over the human mind. Winstanley seems to us to have realised that it was the ignorance of the many that, in truth, maintained the privileges of the few; that the masses themselves forge the fetters for their own enslavement, which, though apparently as strong as iron bands, are, in truth, but things of gossamer, easily to be broken by those who themselves have forged and who themselves still maintain them.

In the next chapter (chap. v.) Winstanley briefly summarises his views on education, and outlines the means by which he deemed both the production and the distribution of wealth could be carried on without having recourse to 「the thieving art of buying and selling.「 It commences as follows:

OF EDUCATION.

 「Mankind in the days of his youth is like a young colt, wanton and
 foolish, till he be broken in by education and correction; the
 neglect of this care, or the want of wisdom in the performance of
 it, hath been and is the cause of much division and trouble in the
 world. Therefore the Law of a Common-wealth doth require that not
 only a Father, but that all Overseers and Officers should make it
 their work to educate children in good manners, and to see them
 brought up in some trade or other, and to suffer no children in any
 Parish to live in idleness and youthful pleasures all their days,
 as many have been; but that they may be brought up like men and not
 like beasts. That so the Commonwealth may be planted with laborious
 and wise experienced men, and not with idle fools.「

He continues his reflections as follows:

 「Mankind may be considered in a four-fold degree, his childhood,
 youth, manhood, and old age. His childhood and his youth may be
 considered from his birth till forty years of age. Within this
 compass of time, after he is weaned from his mother, his parents
 shall teach him a civil and humble behaviour towards all men. Then
 send him to school, to learn to read the Laws of the Common-wealth,
 to ripen his wits from his childhood, and so to proceed with his
 learning till he be acquainted with all Arts and Languages.... But
 one sort of children shall not be trained up only to book-learning,
 and to no other employment, called Scholars, as they are in the
 Government of Monarchy. For then through idleness they spend their
 time to find out policies to advance themselves to be Lords and
 Masters over their laboring bretheren, which occasions all the
 trouble in the world.「

After again indicating the source of all real knowledge, he continues:

 「Therefore, to prevent idleness and the danger of Machivilian
 cheats, it is profitable for the Commonwealth that children be
 trained up in trades and some bodily employment, as well as in
 learning languages or the histories of former ages. And as boys are
 trained up in learning and in trades, so all maids shall be trained
 up in reading, sewing, kniting, spinning of linnen and woollen,
 music, and all other easy neat works, either for to furnish
 Storehouses with linnen and wooll cloth, or for the ornament of
 particular houses with needlework. If this course were taken, there
 would be no idle person or beggar in the Land, and much work would
 be done by that now lazy generation for the enlarging of the Common
 Treasury.「

INVENTION TO BE ENCOURAGED.

 「In the managing of any trade let no young wit be crushed in his
 invention. If any man desire to make a new trial of his skill in
 any trade or science, the Overseer shall not injure him but
 encourage him therein; that so the Spirit of Knowledge may have his
 full growth in man, to find out the secrets in every art. And let
 everyone who finds out a new invention have a deserved honor given
 him; and certainly when men are sure of food and raiment, their
 reason will be ripe and ready to dive into the secrets of the
 Creation, that they may learn to see and know God (the Spirit of
 the whole Creation) in all his works. For fear of want and care to
 pay Rent to Task-Masters hath hindered many rare inventions. So
 that Kingly Power hath crushed the Spirit of Knowledge, and would
 not suffer it to rise up in its beauty and fullness, but by his
 Club Law hath preferred the Spirit of Imagination, which is a
 deceiver, before it.


 「THERE SHALL BE NO BUYING AND SELLING OF THE EARTH, NOR OF THE
 FRUITS THEREOF.

 「For by the Government under Kings the cheaters hereby have cozened
 the plain-hearted of their Creation Birth-rights, and have
 possessed themselves in the Earth, and call it theirs, and not the
 others, and so have brought in that poverty and misery which lies
 upon many men. And whereas the wise should help the foolish, and
 the strong help the weak, the wise and strong destroy the weak and
 simple ... and so the Proverb is made true--_Plain dealing is a
 jewel, but he who uses it shall die a beggar._ And why? Because
 this buying and selling is the nursery of cheats; it is the Law of
 the Conqueror, the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees....
 And these cunning cheaters commonly become the Rulers of the
 Earth.... For not the wise poor man, but the cunning rich man was
 always made an Officer and a Ruler; such a one as by his stolen
 interests in the Earth would be sure to hold others in bondage of
 poverty and servitude to him and his party. Therefore there shall
 be no buying and selling in a free Common-wealth, neither shall
 anyone hire his Brother to work for him.「

From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs: such, then, was Winstanley's ideal; such was the Communistic Commonwealth he evidently imagined would naturally evolve if only the equal claims of all to the use of the Earth were once recognised and respected. He was, however, much too shrewd to think for a moment that any such State could be ushered in all at once, or created by Act of Parliament. For he continues:

 「If the Common-wealth might be governed without buying and selling,
 here is a Platform of Government for it, which is the ancientest
 Law of Righteousness to Mankind in the use of the Earth, and which
 is the very height of Earthly Freedom. But if the minds of the
 people, through covetousness and proud ignorance, will have the
 Earth governed by buying and selling still, this same Platform,
 with some few things subtracted, declares an easy way of Government
 of the Earth for the quiet of people's minds, and the preserving of
 peace in the Land.


 「HOW MUST THE EARTH BE PLANTED?

 「The Earth is to be planted and the fruits reaped and carried into
 Barns and Storehouses by the assistance of every family. If any man
 or family want corn or other provisions, they may go to the
 Storehouses and fetch without money. If they want a horse to ride,
 go into the fields in Summer, or to the Common Stables in Winter,
 and receive one from the Keepers, and when your journey is
 performed, bring him where you had him, without money. If any want
 food or victuals, they may either go to the butchers' shops and
 receive what they want without money, or else go to the flocks of
 sheep or herds of cattle, and take and kill what meat is needful
 for their families, without buying and selling. The reason why all
 the riches of the Earth are a Common Stock is this: Because the
 Earth and the labors thereupon are managed by common assistance of
 every family, without buying and selling, as is shown more largely
 in the Office of Overseers for Trades and the Law for Storehouses.
 The Laws for the right ordering thereof, and the Officers to see
 the Laws executed, to preserve the peace of every family, and to
 improve and promote every trade, is shown in the work of Officers
 and the Laws following.「

WHO ALONE WILL OBJECT.

 「None will be an enemy to this Freedom, which, indeed, is to do to
 another as a man would have another do to him, but Covetousness and
 Pride, the spirit of the old grudging, snapping Pharisees, who give
 God abundant of good words in their sermons, in their prayers, in
 their fasts, and in their thanksgivings, as though none should be
 more faithful servants to Him than they. Nay, they will shun the
 company, imprison, and kill every one that will not worship God,
 they are so zealous. Well now, God and Christ hath enacted an
 everlasting Law, which is Love, not only one another of your own
 mind, but love your enemies too, such as are not of your mind: and
 having food and raiment therewith be content. Now here is a trial
 for you, whether you will be faithful to God and Christ in obeying
 His Laws; or whether you will destroy the man-child of true
 Freedom, Righteousness and Peace, in his resurrection. And now thou
 wilt either give us the tricks of a Soldier, face about, and return
 to Egypt, and so declare thyself to be part of the Serpent's seed
 that must bruise the heel of Christ. Or else to be one of the
 plain-hearted Sons of Promise, or Members of Christ, who shall help
 to bruise the Serpent's head, which is Kingly Oppression, and so
 bring in everlasting Righteousness and Peace into the Earth. Well,
 the eye is now open.「


 「STOREHOUSES SHALL BE BUILT AND APPOINTED IN ALL PLACES AND BE THE
 COMMON STOCK.

 「There shall be Storehouses in all places, both in the Country and
 in Cities, to which all the fruits of the Earth, and other works
 made by Tradesmen, shall be brought, and thence delivered out again
 to particular Families, and to every one as they want for their
 use; or else to be transplanted by ships to other Lands to exchange
 for those things which our Land will not or does not afford. For
 all the labors of Husbandmen and Tradesmen within the Land, or by
 Navigation to or from other Lands, shall be upon the Common Stock.
 And as everyone works to advance the Common Stock, so everyone
 shall have a free use of any commodity in the Storehouse for his
 pleasure and comfortable livelihood, without buying or selling or
 restraint from any. Having food and raiment, lodging, and the
 comfortable societies of his own kind, what can a man desire more
 in these days of his travel? Indeed, covetous, proud, and beastly
 minded men desire more, either to lay by them to look upon, or else
 to waste and spoil it upon their lusts, while other Bretheren live
 in straits for the want of the use thereof. But the Laws and
 Faithful Officers of a Free Commonwealth do regulate the irrational
 conduct of such men.


 「THERE ARE TWO SORTS OF STOREHOUSES, GENERAL AND PARTICULAR.

 「The general Storehouses are such houses as receive in all
 commodities in the gross.... And these general Storehouses shall be
 filled and preserved by the common labor and assistance of every
 Family, as is mentioned in the Office for Overseer for Trades. And
 from these Public Houses, which are the general stock of the Land,
 all particular Tradesmen may fetch materials for their particular
 work as they need, or to furnish their particular dwellings with
 any commodities.

 「_Secondly_, There are particular Storehouses, or Shops, to which
 the Tradesmen shall bring their particular works; as all
 instruments of iron to the Iron-shops, hats to the shops appointed
 for them, and so on.... They shall receive in, as into a
 Storehouse, and deliver out again freely, as out of a Common
 Storehouse, when particular persons or families come for everything
 they need, as now they do by buying and selling under Kingly
 Government. For as particular Families and Tradesmen do make
 several works more than they can make use of ... and do carry their
 particular works to Storehouses; so it is all Reason and Equity
 that they should go to other Storehouses to fetch any other
 commodity which they want and cannot make. For as other men partake
 of their labors, so it is reason they should partake of other
 men's.「

It should be scarcely necessary to pause to point out that what Winstanley here describes is exactly what is taking place, in his time as in our times, all the world over. Commodities of every description are continuously being produced, and being brought to the Storehouses, wholesale and retail, thence to be redistributed to those who require them. The Social Problem, of Winstanley's time and of our time, is how to secure to each co-operating worker his fair share of the returns to the labours of all. And manifestly this is impossible so long as some can command any share thereof without having in any way shared in the toil or rendered any equivalent counter-service. In 1905, as in 1652, an ever increasing portion and proportion of the wealth thus harvested and garnered constantly gravitates towards those who, under the prevailing 「kingly laws,「 claim to control the use of the land, whence alone it can be derived. This was the basic social injustice, the parent source of innumerable other social ills and injustices, which Winstanley was one of the first clearly to apprehend, and to combat which he devoted his life.

Winstanley, moreover, fully and clearly realised that:

 「THE KING'S OLD LAWS CANNOT SERVE A FREE COMMONWEALTH.「

And this formed the heading of his next chapter, in which in a specially lively manner he first points out that the Laws of a Monarchy--which, being based upon inequality, necessarily tend to produce inequality, and whose main function is to legalise and to maintain privileges--are necessarily essentially different from those suitable to a Free Commonwealth--which, being based upon the recognition of the equality of rights, would necessarily tend to produce an equality of social conditions; and whose main function would be to establish and to legalise Justice, equal rights and equal duties, to maintain and to enforce the equal claims of all to the use of the earth, to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness. It commences as follows:

OF KINGLY LAWS.

 「The King's Old Laws cannot govern in times of Bondage and in times
 of Freedom too. They have indeed served many masters, Papish and
 Protestant. They are like old Soldiers, who will but change their
 name, and turn about, and as they were. The Reason is because they
 are the prerogative will of those, under any Religion, who count it
 no Freedom to them unless they be Lords over the minds, persons and
 labors of their bretheren.

 「They are called the King's Laws, because they are made by the
 King. If any say they were made by the Commoners, it is answered,
 They were not made by the Commoners as the Commoners of a Free
 Commonwealth are to make Laws. For in the days of the King none
 were to choose or be chosen Parliament Men, or Law Makers, but
 Lords of Manors, and Freeholders, such as held title to their
 Enclosures of Land, or Charters for their Liberties in Trades,
 under the King, who called the Land his, as he was the Conqueror or
 his successor. All inferior people were neither to choose nor be
 chosen. And the reason was because all Freeholders of Land and such
 as held their Liberties by Charter, were all of the King's
 interest; and the inferior people were successively of the rank of
 the conquered ones, and servants and slaves from the time of the
 Conquest.

 「Further, when a Parliament was chosen in that manner, yet if any
 Parliament Man, in the uprightness of his heart, did endeavour to
 promote any freedom contrary to the King's will or former customs
 from the Conquest, he was either committed to prison by the King or
 by the House of Lords, who were his ancient Norman successive
 Council of War; or else the Parliament was dissolved and broke up
 by the King. So that the old Laws were made in times under Kingly
 Slavery, not under the liberty of Commonwealth's Freedom, because
 Parliament Men had to have regard to the King's prerogative
 interest to uphold his conquest, or else endanger themselves. As
 sometimes it is in these days, some Officers dare not speak against
 the minds of those men who are the chief in power, nor a Private
 Soldier against the mind of his Officer, lest they be cashiered
 their places and livelihood. And so long as the promoting of the
 King's will and prerogative was to be in the eye of the Law Makers,
 the oppressed Commoners could never enjoy Commonwealth's Freedom
 thereby. Yet by the wisdom, courage, faithfulness and industry of
 some Parliament Men, the Commoners have received here a line and
 there a line of freedom inserted into their Laws: as those good
 lines of freedom in Magna Charta were obtained by much hardship and
 industry.

 「_Secondly_, They were the King's Laws, because the King's own
 creatures made the Laws: Lords of Manors, Freeholders, etc., were
 successors of the Norman soldiers from the Conquest, therefore they
 could do no other but maintain their own and the King's interest.
 Do we not see that all Laws were made in the days of the King to
 ease the rich Landlord? The poor laborers were left under bondage
 still; they were to have no freedom in the earth by those
 pharisaical Laws. For when Laws were made and Parliaments broke up,
 the poor oppressed Commoners had no relief; the power of Lords of
 Manors, withholding the free use of the Common-land from them,
 remained still. For none durst make any use of any Common-land but
 at the Lord's leave, according to the will and law of the
 Conqueror. Therefore the old Laws were called King's Laws.「

OF COMMONWEALTH'S LAWS.

 「These old Laws cannot govern a Free Commonwealth; because the Land
 is now to be set free from the slavery of the Norman Conquest, and
 the power of Lords of Manors and Norman Freeholders is to be taken
 away. Or else the Commoners are but where they were, if not fallen
 lower into straits than they were. The Old Laws cannot look with
 any other face than they did; though they be washed with
 Commonwealth's water, their countenance is still withered.
 Therefore it was not for nothing that the Kings would have all
 their Laws written in French and Latin, and not in English; partly
 in honor to the Norman Race, and partly to keep the Common People
 ignorant of their Creation Freedom lest they should rise to redeem
 themselves. And if those Laws should be writ in English, yet if the
 same Kingly Principles remain in them, the English language would
 not advantage us anything, but rather increase our sorrow by our
 knowledge of our bondage.「


 「WHAT IS LAW IN GENERAL?「

Winstanley then proceeds to consider the question, What is Law? and to emphasise the essential difference between customary, conventional or written Law and that unwritten Law, proceeding from the Inward Light of Reason, that inspires men, in action as in words, to do as they would be done unto. He first gives the following clear, rational and sufficient definition of Law:

 「Law is a Rule, whereby men and other creatures are governed in
 their actions for the preservation of Common Peace.「

Then follows a most philosophic consideration of the whole question, which seems to us to reveal that Winstanley was groping, and by no means so blindly as many who succeeded him, after some Natural Law, some unalterable and immutable principle, which should serve as a basis, as well as the test and touchstone, of all man-made customs, laws and institutions. He continues:

THE TWO-FOLD NATURE OF LAW.

 「This Law is two-fold: First, it is the power of Life (called the
 Law of Nature within the Creatures) which doth move both man and
 beast in their actions, or that causes grass, trees, corn and all
 plants to grow in their several seasons. And whatsoever anybody
 does, he does it as he is moved by this inward Law. And this Law of
 Nature moves two-fold, viz., irrationally or rationally.「

THE LAW OF THE FLESH.

 「A man by this inward Law is guided to actions of present content,
 rashly, through a greedy self-love, without any consideration, like
 foolish children, or like the brute beasts. By reason whereof much
 hurt many times follows the body. And this may be called the Law of
 the Members warring against the Law of the Mind.「

THE LAW OF THE MIND.

 「Or where there is an inward watchful oversight of all motions to
 action, considering the end and effect of those actions, so that
 there be no excess in diet, in speech, or in action break forth, to
 the prejudice of a man's self or others: and this may be called the
 Light in Man, the Reasonable Power, or the Law of the Mind. And
 this rises up in the heart by an experimental observation of that
 peace or trouble which such and such words, thoughts and actions
 bring the man into. And this is called the Record on High; for it
 is a record in a man's heart above the former unreasonable power:
 and it may be called the witness or testimony of a man's own
 conscience: and this moderate watchfulness is still the Law of
 Nature, but in a higher resurrection than the former. It hath many
 terms, which for brevity sake I let pass.「

THEIR STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY.

 「This two-fold work of the Law within man strive to bring forth
 themselves in writing to beget numbers of bodies on their sides.
 That power which begets the bigger number always rules as King or
 Lord in the creature and in the Creation, till the other side
 overtop him: even as light and darkness strive in day and night to
 succeed each other. Or as it is said--「The strong man armed keeps
 the heart of man till a stronger than he came and cast him out.「

THE WRITTEN LAW.

 「This written Law, proceeding either from reason or
 unreasonableness, is called the Letter, whereby the creation of
 mankind, beasts and earth are governed, according to the will of
 that power which rules.... As for example, if the experienced, wise
 and strong man bears rule, then he writes down his mind to curb the
 unreasonable Law of Covetousness and Pride in inexperienced man, to
 preserve Peace in the Commonwealth. This is called the Historical
 or Traditional Law, because it is conveyed from one generation to
 another by writing: as the Laws of Israel's Commonwealth were writ
 in a book by Moses, and so conveyed to posterity. And this outward
 Law is a bridle to unreasonableness; or as Solomon writ, It is a
 whip for the fool's back, for whom only it was added.「

ITS CORRUPTION.

 「_Secondly_, Since Moses' time the power of unreasonable
 covetousness and pride hath sometimes risen up and corrupted that
 Traditional Law. For since the power of the sword rises up in
 Nations to conquer, the Written Law hath not been to advance Common
 Freedom and to beat down the unreasonable self-will in mankind, but
 it hath been framed to uphold the self-will of the Conqueror, right
 or wrong, not respecting the Freedom of the Commonwealth, but the
 Freedom of the Conqueror and his friends only. By reason whereof
 much slavery hath been laid on the backs of the plain-dealing men;
 and men of public spirit, as Moses was, have been crushed, and
 their spirits damped thereby: which hath bred first discontents,
 and then more wars in the Nations.... But hereby the true nature of
 a well-governed Commonwealth hath been ruined; the will of Kings
 set up for a Law; and the Law of Righteousness, the Law of Liberty,
 trod under foot and killed. This Traditional Law of Kings is that
 Letter at this day which kills true freedom and is the fomenter of
 wars and persecutions.

 「This is the soldier who cut Christ's garments into pieces, which
 was to remain uncut and without seam. This law moves the people to
 fight one against the other for those pieces; viz., for the several
 enclosures of the Earth, who shall possess the Earth, and who shall
 be Rulers over others.「

THE EVERLASTING LAW.

 「But the true ancient Law of God is a Covenant of Peace to the
 whole of mankind. This sets the Earth free to all. This unites both
 Jew and Gentile into one Brotherhood, and rejects none. This makes
 Christ's garment whole again; and makes the Kingdoms of the World
 to become Commonwealths again. It is the Inward Power of Right
 Understanding, which is the True Law that teaches people in action,
 as well as in words, to do as they would be done unto.「

Winstanley then contends that, as far as written laws are concerned--

 「SHORT AND PITHY LAWS ARE BEST TO GOVERN A COMMONWEALTH,「

and defends this conclusion as follows:

 「The Laws of Israel's Commonwealth were few, short and pithy; and
 the Government thereof was established in peace so long as Officers
 and People were obedient thereunto. But those many Laws in the days
 of the Kings of England, which were made some in times of Popery
 and some in times of Protestantism, and the proceedings of the Laws
 being in French and Latin, hath produced two great evils in
 England. First, it hath occasioned much ignorance among the people,
 and much contention. And the people have mightily erred through
 want of knowledge, and thereby they have run into g

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