Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-01-02
ErnlnliOn of COnlnct,

A~'Oi"'aOh VI SNE"NN'
In an article on the Morality Of
Happiness" published in the Popular
Science Monthly, Thomas Foster says:
In the lower races Of man as at pres
INT existing, and in still greater de-
gree among the lower races when the
human race as a whole was lower, we
see that the adjustments of external
actions to obtain food, to provide shell
ter against animate and inanimate enc.
mics, and otherwise to support or to
defend Life, are imperfect and irregu.
lar. The savage of the lowest type Is
constantly exposed to the risk Of losing
his life either though hunger or cold,
or through storm, or from attacks
against which he has not made ade-
luate provision, He neither foresees
nor remembers, and his conduct is cor
respondingly aimless and irregular
The least provident, or rather the
most improvident, perish in greatest
numbers. Hence there is an evolu-
ton of conduct from irregnlarity and
aimlesSness by slow degrees toward
the regularity and adaptation of aims
to ends, seen in advancing civilization.
The ill-adiusted conduct which dimin-
shes the chances Of lie dies out in the
struggle for life, to make way for the
.better-adiustel conduct by which the
chances Of life are increased. The
process is as certain in its action as the
process Of structural evolution. In
either process we see multitudinOu5 in
dividual exceptions, Luck plays it's
part in individual cases; but ineXora-
bic law claims its customary rule over
averages. In the long run, conduct
best adapted and adjusted to environ
ment, is developed at the expense Of
conduct less suitable to the surround
ingS.
With man, as with all orders of ami
mails, conduct which tends to increase
the duration Of life, prevails over con-
duct having an opposite tendency
Wherefore, remembering the ever
varying conditions under which life is
passed, the evolution of conduct means
not only the development of well-ad-
iusted actions, but the elaboration of
conduct to correspond with those
diverse and multitudinous conditions
The Opium Eaters Disposition.
The opium eater is, with respect to
disposition, creature Of the most
variable mood, his manner being mold
ed by the action of the drug, In the
morning he is petulant and ill-temper-
ed, sometimes to brutality, while the
afternoon of the same day will find
him graciously considerate Those
who have had experience with them
know that the most truthful people be-
come the most daring liars after long
indulgence in the use of opium. The
realities of life are so blended with the
distorted opium imaginings that thevic-
tim cannot distinguish between facts
and fancy. SO much is this the case
that those who hear them talk, igno.
rant of their habit, are positively
shocked at the glaring falsity Of their
statements, They jealousy guard
their infrmity, and it would be next
to useless to question them concerning
their habit. Hugging his chains, the
rack would hardly draw from the vic
tim a true statement in respect to the
quantity Of opium used by him if he
suspected an intention to interfere
with his allowance. Always with
them, too, is the dread that by some
unhappy combination of circumstances,
lack of money, involuntary contue-
ment, close surveillance, any or all of
these obstacles, they may find them
selves so situated as not to be able to
procure the drug, experience having
taucht them the horrors of abstinence