THE DIVINE ORIGINS OF CONSTITUTIONS
From Joseph de Maistre. Essay on the Generative Principle of Political
Constitutions (1810)
The more we examine the influence of human agency in the formation of
political constitutions, the greater will be our conviction that it enters
there only in a manner infinitely subordinate, or as a simple instrument; and I
do not believe there remains the least doubt of the incontestable truth of the
following propositions: -
1. That the fundamental principles of political constitutions exist
before all written law.
2. That a constitutional law is, and can only be, the development or
sanction of an unwritten pre-existing right.
3. That which is most essential, most intrinsically constitutional, and
truly fundamental, is never written, and could not be, without endangering the
state.
4. That the weakness and fragility of a constitution are actually in
direct proportion to the multiplicity of written constitutional articles.
. . .
To this general rule, that no constitution can be made or written, à
priori, we know of but one single exception; that is, the legislation of
Moses. This alone was cast, so to speak, like a statue, and written out,
even to its minutest details, by a wonderful man, who said, Fiat! without his
work ever having need of being corrected, improved, or in any way modified, by
himself or others. This, alone, has set time at defiance, because it owed
nothing to time, and expected nothing from it; this alone has lived fifteen
hundred years; and even after eighteen new centuries have passed over it, since
the great anathema which smote it on the fated day, we see it, enjoying, if I
may say so, a second life, binding still, by I know not what mysterious bond,
which has no human name, the different families of a people, which remain
dispersed without being disunited. So that, like attraction, and by the same
power, it acts at a distance, and makes one whole, of many parts widely
separated from each other. Thus, this legislation lies evidently, for every
intelligent conscience, beyond the circle traced around human power; and this
magnificent exception to a general law, which has only yielded once, and
yielded only to its Author, alone demonstrates the Divine mission of the great
Hebrew Lawgiver....
But, since every constitution is divine in its principle, it follows,
that man can do nothing in this way, unless he reposes himself upon God, whose
instrument he then becomes. Now, this is a truth, to which the whole human race
in a body have ever rendered the most signal testimony. Examine history, which
is experimental politics, and we shall there invariably find the cradle of
nations surrounded by priests, and the Divinity constantly invoked to the aid
of human weakness....
Man in relation with his Creator is sublime, and his action is creative:
on the contrary, so soon as he separates himself from God, and acts alone, he
does not cease to be powerful, for this is a privilege of his nature; but his
action is negative, and tends only to destroy....
There is not in the history of all
ages a single fact which contradicts these maxims. No human institution can
endure unless supported by the Hand which supports all; that is to say, if it
is not especially consecrated to Him at its origin. The more it is penetrated
with the Divine principle, the more durable it will be.