In the general distribution of responsibility for disagreeable conditions, false modesty must take its full share. Men permit errors to continue simply because they dislike to meddle with them. Were there no engineers bold enough to smell sewerage we should all die of plagues. Sewage is not attractive from any standpoint, yet it would do no good for law to forbid its existScientists have only recently spared time to find a means for a purification which makes it possible for the dainty to forget the necessity of assumed ignorance, and adaptation of their discoveries is hardly yet begun. The problem is to find a new utility for that which is now objectionable. We must recognize our evils first and then remove the evil from them. We shall have just as ence. much substance left-we cannot make an actuality disappear-but we may certainly hope to change its nature if not hampered by a delicacy that demands disregard. Any solution of a problem that relies on nothing but repression is but temporary. Self-denial and artificial restraint for the mere purpose of discipline are medieval and absurd. There are plenty of other trials of real necessity to aid us in the formation of character. To adopt restraint for its own sake would lead to imitation of the Indian fakir who twists his ankle round his neck to limit the comfort of his downsittings and his uprisings. Yet we may properly block up one path if we at the same time point out a better. It will not do to let people ramble at will. Many if permitted to carry out their individual desires would spend their time and strength in unthinkable debauchery. A two year old child could not safely be allowed to choose its food and explore the country, and those no better able to govern themselves must not be allowed to experiment at will with their untrained impulses. There is always a cogent reason for each finally approved human act, and an expediency in each respected moral rule-some necessary motive force at work to kindle the sense of duty by which the strength of progress is sustained. Many have hoped to find it in the hope of a future existence in which their goodness would meet appreciation, but the possibilities of a second life are not necessarily stimulating to a present effort. Christians, for instance, often treat their heaven as a state so high as to make earthly experience hardly worth while. This peculiar interpretation of divine judgment makes it safer for them to remain inert rather than court the chance of error in activity. Their attitude is best defined by that most illogical assertion, They also serve who only stand and wait. Morality is then but a system of experimental means by which to reach an ideal end. Its present factors are not all evolutionary in development, many continuing by inherited respect for past authority rather than by tested merit. The morality of the future will develop on purely logical lines, as intelligence will conquer that veneration for age and mystery which now wrestles with reason. The more we exert our brains the less we shall rely on custom, rule and habit. We shall act with a purpose and for a purpose. We may even arrive at that plane of honesty and courage which shall take pride in the admission that we are moral because we find it to our immediate or indirect advantage; that we obey the law because we respect either its force or its justice and that we show public spirit, philanthropy or kindliness because we enjoy the action or appreciate the return. We shall take an extra pride in the grade of character that finds its pleasure in enlightened utility or in such immaterial things as success, affection, gratitude and praise. Thus we shall exemplify the growth of higher aspirations and evidence the onward progress of evolution. |