DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
edited by Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
GOVERNMENT
has no rights; it is a delegation from several individuals for the
purpose of securing their own. It is therefore just, only so far
as it exists by their consent, useful only so far as it operates to
their well-being. 2
IF these individuals think that the form of government which they, or
their forefathers constituted is ill adapted to produce their
happiness, they have a right to change it.3
Government is devised for the security of rights. The rights of
man are liberty, and an equal participation of the commonage of nature.
4
As the benefit of the governed, is, or ought to be the origin of
government, no men can have any authority that does not expressly
emanate from their will.5
Though all governments are not so bad as that of Turkey, yet none are
so good as they might be; the majority of every country have a right to
perfect their government, the minority should not disturb them, they
ought to secede, and form their own system in their own way.6
All have a right to an equal share in the benefits, and burdens of
Government. Any disabilities for opinion, imply by their
existence, barefaced tyranny on the side of government, ignorant
slavishness on the side of the governed.7
The rights of man in the present state of society, are only to be
secured by some degree of coercion to be exercised on their
violator. The sufferer has a right that the degree of coercion
employed be as slight as possible. 8
It may be considered as a plain proof of the hollowness of any
proposition, if power be used to enforce instead of reason to persuade
its admission. Government is never supported by fraud until it
cannot be supported by reason. 9
No man has a right to disturb the public peace, by personally resisting
the execution of a law however bad. He ought to acquiesce, using
at the same time the utmost powers of his reason, to promote its
repeal. 10
A man must have a right to act in a certain manner before it can be his duty. He may, before he ought. 11
A man has a right to think as his reason directs, it is a duty he owes
to himself to think with freedom, that he may act from conviction. 12
A man has a right to unrestricted liberty of discussion, falsehood is a
scorpion that will sting itself to death. 13
A man has not only a right to express his thoughts, but it is his duty to do so.14
No law has a right to discourage the practice of truth. A man
ought to speak the truth on every occasion, a duty can never be
criminal, what is not criminal cannot be injurious15
Law cannot make what is in its nature virtuous or innocent, to be
criminal, any more than it can make what is criminal to be
innocent. Government cannot make a law, it can only pronounce
that which was law before its organization, viz. the moral result of
the imperishable relations of things.16
The present generation cannot bind their posterity. The few cannot promise for the many.17
No man has a right to do an evil thing that good may come. 18
Expediency is inadmissible in morals. Politics are only sound
when conducted on principles of morality. They are, in fact, the
morals of nations. 19
Man has no right to kill his brother, it is no excuse that he does so
in uniform. He only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of
murder. 20
Man, whatever be his country, has the same rights in one place as
another, the rights of universal citizenship. 21
The government of a country ought to be perfectly indifferent to every
opinion. Religious differences, the bloodiest and most rancorous
of all, spring from partiality. 22
A delegation of individuals for the purpose of securing their rights,
can have no undelegated power of restraining the expression of their
opinion.23
Belief is involuntary; nothing involuntary is meritorious or
reprehensible. A man ought not to be considered worse or better
for his belief. 24
A Christian, a Deist, a Turk, and a Jew, have equal rights: they are men and brethren. 25
If a person's religious ideas correspond not with your own, love him
nevertheless. How different would yours have been had the chance
of birth placed you in Tartary or India! 26
Those who believe that Heaven is, what earth has been, a monopoly in
the hands of a favoured few, would do well to reconsider their opinion:
if they find that it came from their priest or their grandmother, they
could not do better than reject it. 27
No man has a right to be respected for any other possessions, but those
of virtue and talents. Titles are tinsel, power a corruptor,
glory a bubble, and excessive wealth, a libel on its possessor. 28
No man has a right to monopolise more than he can enjoy; what the rich
give to the poor, whilst millions are starving, is not a perfect
favour, but an imperfect right. 29
Every man has a right to a certain degree of leisure and liberty,
because it is his duty to attain a certain degree of knowledge.
He may before he ought. 30
Sobriety of body and mind is necessary to those who would be free,
because, without sobriety a high sense of philanthropy cannot actuate
the heart, nor cool and determined courage, execute its dictates. 31
The only use of government is to repress the vices of man. If man
were to day sinless, to-morrow he would have a right to demand that
government and all its evils should cease. ———————————
Man! thou whose rights are here declared, be no longer forgetful of the
loftiness of thy destination. Think of thy rights; of those
possessions which will give thee virtue and wisdom, by which thou
mayest arrive at happiness and freedom. They are declared to thee
by one who knows thy dignity, for every hour does his heart swell with
honourable pride in the contemplation of what thou mayest attain, by
one who is not forgetful of thy degeneracy, for every moment brings
home to him the bitter conviction of what thou art. Awake! — arise! — or be for ever fallen.
From Romantic Circles website.
Comment
by John Lauritsen: I especially like Shelley's statements on
Freethought and Free Speech. If he were here now, he'd adamantly
be opposed to Antifa and “cancel culture”.