What social condition of Europe those days made Joseph Addison write his essay by the above title is not clear to many of us. He slightly refers to the occasion of his writing as, “I was repining at the sudden rise of many persons who are my juniors, and indeed, at the unequal distribution of wealth, honour, and all other blessings of life.” Then he went to sleep and saw the vision.
The heaven was extraordinarily illuminated and all on a sudden a woman by name BALANCE appeared with a mirror in her hand. She bore many emblems by which the goddess of justice is usually named. All the inhabitants of the world gathered in a spacious plain. The accompanying heavenly voice announced the intention of this visit: to restore and appropriate to everyone what was his/her due. Then fear, joy, hope and sorrow filled the gathering. The first edict was then pronounced,
“That all titles and claims to riches and estates, or to any part of them, should be immediately vested in the rightful owner.” The inhabitants of the earth were ready with their records to which the goddess of justice moved the mirror of truth which she held in her hand. The rays of this mirror had a particular quality of setting fire to all forgery and falsehood. The fire very often ran through two or three lines only and then stopped. The fire pierced through the dark corners and the recesses of the universe and by that means detected many writings and records which had been hidden or buried by time, chance, or decision. At the same time the spoils of extortion, fraud, and robbery, with all the fruits of bribery and corruption, were thrown together in a prodigious pile, that almost reached to the clouds, and was called, “The Mount of Restitution” to which all injured persons were invited, to receive what belonged to them. This revolution made several millioners to people of moderate fortunes and certain street of the greatest credit in Europe, from one end to the other become bankrupt.
The second command of the goddess of justice was that, “All the posts of dignity and honor in the universe should be conferred on persons of the greatest merit, abilities, and perfection”. Anyway, it will take much time and space to exhaust Joseph Addison’s vision. We may only note the high sense of accountability of the visionary who reminded his fellow citizens of that day (Christians included?) that their daily lives were played on the stage directed by the Living God, the God of Justice. Is our world of today comparable to the world of Joseph Addison? We pray to this Living God day and night, pray in all places of our work and living but fail to realize we are living and acting in the silent presence of this God whose name we profess. The day we settle the account of our lives with the King of kings and the Lord of lords will be more spectacular and rewarding for some and disappointing for the others.
(Extracted and paraphrased by Ezamo Murry from The Book of English Essays by W.E.Williams)
