Humboldt_0053 09/15/2005 09:26 AM THE ONLINE LIBRARY OF LIBERTY © Liberty Fund, Inc. 2005 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/index.php WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT, THE SPHERE AND DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT (THE LIMITS OF STATE ACTION) (1854 ED.) (1792) URL of this E-Book: http://oll.libertyfund.org/EBooks/Humboldt_0053.pdf URL of original HTML file: http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0053 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Described by Hayek as Germany’s greatest philsopher of freedom" Humboldt wrote a path-breaking defense of the minimal state which had a profound influence on John Stuart Mill. Humboldt later became Director of the Section for Public Worship and Education, in the Ministry of Interior. In this capacity, he directed the reorganization of the Prussian public education system, and, in particular, founded the University of Berlin. ABOUT THE BOOK A mid-19th century translation of this work. "The grand, leading principle, towards which every argument . unfolded in these pages directly converges, is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity." This description by Wilhelm von Humboldt of his purpose in writing The Limits of State Action animates John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty and serves as its famous epigraph. Seldom has a book spoken so dramatically to another writer. Many commentators even believe that Humboldt’s discussion of issues of freedom and individual responsibility possesses greater clarity and directness than Mill’s. The Limits of State Action, by "Germany’s greatest philosopher of freedom," as F. A. Hayek called him, has an exuberance and attention to principle that make it a valuable introduction to classical liberal political thought. It is also crucial for an http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/EBook.php?recordID=0053 Page 1 of 109 Humboldt_0053 09/15/2005 09:26 AM liberal political thought. It is also crucial for an understanding of liberalism as it developed in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century. Humboldt explores the role that liberty plays in individual development, discusses criteria for permitting the state to limit individual actions, and suggests ways of confining the state to its proper bounds. In so doing, he uniquely combines the ancient concern for human excellence and the modern concern for what has come to be known as negative liberty. THE EDITION USED The Sphere and Duties of Government. Translated from the German of Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt, by Joseph Coulthard, Jun. (London: John Chapman, 1854). A modern edition is published by Liberty Fund (not available online) - Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action, ed. J.W. Burrow (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1993). Buy a copy of the book from LF's online catalog COPYRIGHT INFORMATION The text of this edition is in the public domain. FAIR USE STATEMENT This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. _______________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE. ENDNOTES http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/EBook.php?recordID=0053 Page 2 of 109 Humboldt_0053 09/15/2005 09:26 AM CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. ENDNOTES CHAPTER II. OF THE INDIVIDUAL MAN, AND THE HIGHEST ENDS OF HIS EXISTENCE. ENDNOTES CHAPTER III. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR THE POSITIVE WELFARE OF THE CITIZEN. ENDNOTES CHAPTER IV. OF THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR THE NEGATIVE WELFARE OF THE CITIZEN—FOR HIS SECURITY. ENDNOTES CHAPTER V. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR SECURITY AGAINST FOREIGN ENEMIES. ENDNOTES CHAPTER VI. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR THE MUTUAL SECURITY OF THE CITIZENS.—MEANS FOR ATTAINING THIS END.—INSTITUTIONS FOR REFORMING THE MIND AND CHARACTER OF THE CITIZEN.—NATIONAL EDUCATION. ENDNOTES CHAPTER VII. RELIGION. ENDNOTES CHAPTER VIII. AMELIORATION OF MORALS. ENDNOTES CHAPTER IX. THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR SECURITY MORE ACCURATELY AND POSITIVELY DEFINED.—FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF SECURITY. CHAPTER X. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR SECURITY WITH RESPECT TO ACTIONS WHICH DIRECTLY RELATE TO THE AGENT ONLY. (POLICE LAWS.) ENDNOTES CHAPTER XI. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR SECURITY WITH RESPECT TO SUCH OF THE CITIZENS’ ACTIONS AS RELATE DIRECTLY TO OTHERS. (CIVIL LAWS.) ENDNOTES CHAPTER XII. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR SECURITY AS MANIFESTED IN THE JURIDICAL DECISION OF DISPUTES AMONG THE CITIZENS. CHAPTER XIII. ON THE SOLICITUDE FOR SECURITY AS MANIFESTED IN THE PUNISHMENT OF TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE STATE’S LAWS. ENDNOTES CHAPTER XIV. ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR THE WELFARE OF MINORS, LUNATICS, AND IDIOTS. CHAPTER XV. MEANS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE STATE ORGANISM. COMPLETION OF THE THEORY. ENDNOTES CHAPTER XVI. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE THEORY PROPOSED. http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/EBook.php?recordID=0053 Page 3 of 109 Humboldt_0053 09/15/2005 09:26 AM _______________________________________________________ WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT, THE SPHERE AND DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT (THE LIMITS OF STATE ACTION) (1854 ED.) (1792) “Le difficile est de ne promulguer que des lois nécessaires, de rester à jamais fidèle à ce principe vraiment constitutionnel de la société, de se mettre en garde contre la fureur de gouverner, la plus funeste maladie des gouvernemens modernes.” —MIRA BE A U l’Aîné, sur l’Education Publique, p. 69. PREFACE. THE book of which a translation is here offered to the English reader was published posthumously at Berlin, in the year 1852, by the Author’s younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, the eminent Naturalist. It appeared under the title of ‘Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Gränzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen;’ forming part of the seventh and concluding volume of the ‘Gesammelte Werke’ of its distinguished author. Written in 1791, in his early manhood, and at a time when the ideas which it unfolds were in striking contrast to the events and opinions of the day, the book was long obnoxious to the scruples of the German Censorship; and his friend Schiller, who took much interest in its publication, had some difficulty in finding a publisher willing to incur the necessary responsibility. The Author therefore retained the manuscript in his possession, revising it from time to time, and re-writing considerable portions, which appeared in Schiller’s ‘Thalia’ and the ‘Berlin Monthly Review;’ but, although the obstacles which at first opposed the issue of the book were subsequently removed, it was never given to the world in a complete form during his life. It is probable that his important official engagements,* and those profound studies in critical philology, of which we have such noble and enduring monuments in the literature of Germany, left him no leisure to revert to this the chosen subject of his earlier labours. But we cannot but feel grateful to his distinguished brother, for giving publicity to a treatise which has such strong claims to attention, whether we regard the eminence of its Author as a philosopher and a statesman, the intrinsic value of its contents, or their peculiar interest at a time when the Sphere of Government seems more than ever to require careful definition. To Englishmen, least of all, is it likely to prove unattractive or uninstructive, since it endeavours to show the theoretical ideal of a policy to which their institutions have made a gradual and instinctive approximation; and contributes important ideas towards the solution of questions which now lie so near to the heart and conscience of the English public. With respect to the translation, I have aimed at scrupulous fidelity; believing that, even where there may be some obscurity (as in one or two of the earlier chapters), the intelligent reader would prefer the ipsissima verba of so great a man, to any arbitrary construction put upon http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/EBook.php?recordID=0053 Page 4 of 109 Humboldt_0053 09/15/2005 09:26 AM would prefer the ipsissima verba of so great a man, to any arbitrary construction put upon them by his translator. Still, I have spared no pains to discover the author’s sense in all cases, and to give it in simple and unmistakable words; and I would here mention, with grateful acknowledgment, the valuable assistance I have received in this endeavour from my accomplished German friend, Mr. Eugen Oswald: those who are best acquainted with the peculiarities of thought and style which characterize the writer, will be best able to appreciate the importance of such assistance. In conclusion, I cannot but feel that there may be many to whom this book contains little to recommend itself;—little of showy paradox or high-sounding declamation, little of piquant attack or unhesitating dogmatism, little immediate reference to sects, or parties, or political schools; but I would also venture to anticipate that there are others, to whom the subject is no less congenial, who would willingly listen to a calm investigation of the most important questions that can occupy the attention of the statesman and the moralist, to earnest ideas clothed in simple and well-measured words; and that these will receive with welcome any worthy contribution to the expanding opinions of our day and nation, and look in these “Ideas,” perhaps not unsuccessfully, for some true and abiding materials towards the structure of some fairer polity of the future. BRA M P T O N , August 4th, 1854. *In the MS. of the Third Chapter, on “Positive Welfare,” there occurs an hiatus of a few pages. This has not been supplied in the German edition, published by the Author’s brother; but the thread of the argument is sufficiently clear, from the Author’s summary, to occasion little difficulty to the reader in continuing it in his own mind.