The Portland daily press., 1872-12-27
Solidarity.


States, but it is sad to read of the slaughter of
so many travellers; our great cities are
source OF pride, but their ruin by fire is the
source OF freq Gently recurring humiliation;
big hotel is the boast of more than one city,
buS it ceases to be appreciated when it be-
comes continuance for roasting its inmates
the modern steamship with its speed its in
dependence of the wind and its Luxurious ap-
pointments, is triumph of human genius,
but it becomes sad monument to human
impotence when it carries its precious freight
down in terror and anguish in the wastes of
mid ocean; modern experimental philosophy
is an improvement on the unfruitful deduct
i've method of Aristotle and his school, but
alas disease and casualty, arising from
causes by no me us un nown or insuperable
still afflict mankind and render existence
tragedy. A counterpart of these parallel
lines of material success Ind failure exists in
the domain o mans moral activity, but it is
no tn province of a newspaper to describe
it. Our purpose is to suggest that efforts for
the ameorating t e condition of men are
not directe to the most u.eful ends. Civi-
cation needs what we mag all, for the want
of better term, lateral expansion. Inge-
nuity should seek sphere for its exercise
not so much in inv ntion as in Improvement.
The world does not now so much need trans
portation which is more rapid as
that which is more safe Engines
of the present power will answer for
few years, If they can be built SO that they
will not explode. Larger and more luxuri-
GUS public and private buildings are not a
prime necessity, but fire-pronf structure and
greater convenience and comfort are reason
able objects of ambition We need not
cross the ocean in less than ten
days, if Wa can be morally certain
Of reaching there without suffer-
ing or accident. The world will not suf-
fer for greater variety of food or splendor of
personal adornment, but more wholesome
and cheaper food and clothing would be uni
versal blessings. Purity and abundance of
manufactured articles seem to be much
more difficult objects of attainment than nov
city Of design or fancifulness of construction.
Country people may well content themselves
with the moderate Illuminating power of pet
roleum, if some benefcent genius will pro-
tect them against its fearful explosive power.
New an@sthetics and delusive specifics engage
the attention Of medical investigation to a
much greater extent than the general appli-
cation OF simple, well-known hygienic and
sanitary laws. The perfection and common
use ofdrainage, disinfection and vaccination
would assuredly promote human happiness
more than the finding of another congener of
ether, nitrous-oxide or chloral. The spread
OF the smallpox epidemic which is now de-
Vastatlng so many cities, might have been
prevented by the use of known means and of
small part of the time and energy spent in
introducing cundurango and other panaceas
ard catholicons.
Modern civilization collects wealth skilfully,
but distributes it badly, it establishes excel
lent institutions and laws, Int executes them
imperfectlY. Civilized countries increase in
population rapidly, but are not SO successful
in diffusing intelligence. Ease, luxury and
superfuities for the rich are more attainable
than the necessaries of life for the masses. II
any given community should, under favora-
bic conditions, aim rather at a more equal di-
vision of the wealth it possesses than to in
crease its store. and should have for its main
purpose the thorough enlightenment, the
virtue aud the happiness of all the people
composing it instead of increasing their num-
bers.-would not the result be better one
than follows from the ambition to make a
State populous and rich?
The neglect of the most profound of all
truths-a truth that is an axiom in religion
as well as in philosophy-is at the bottom of
most of the errors and failures and sufferings
of the race. That truth which is so familiar
to the ear but so strange in the practice of us
all is that the highest interests of the individ-
ual are best subserved by laboring for the
common good-that the wel-being of each is
identical with that of all. The French ex-
press it in one words solidarity. Chris
tianty inculcates it in one sentence,-"Love
one another"-and in that fundamental max
i'm in morals. Glove is the fulfilling of the
law. Philosophy which is so fastidious that
it cannot brook terms so sentimental as love
adopts ''ultraism" for its equivalent. Yet
modern civilization is deliberately founded on
antagonists national and individual, antag
onisms that waste three-fourths of human
energy and perhaps vastly more. The world
which knows the truth so well practices it so
i'll, that armies, navies, monopolies, kings,
peers, fraud, robbery, selishness and all such
sheer waste exhaust both the mental and
physical powers of man, while steamships
burn and sink, railways say their thousands,
mines explode and take fire, diseases like ty-
phoid fever and smallpox which have a
known and removable cause, destroy the
people and whole cities go up in smoke and
fame. Haste to be rich, haste to be great,
no matter at whose cost, no matter how
this is the cause to which most Of the disas-
tiers of this sad year are directly traceable.