The Republican journal., 1886-07-08
Right and Wrong
BY {. S. GRIFFIN.

was expected to do great deal of this unconl-
Portable rightne>s. | have been punished per-
haps hundred times for ''making images on
my slate in school; and these ''mages" con-
sisted of people. ships. birds, animals, etc.
Hardly twenty-five years has elapsed and now
the art is almost universally taught in schools
and instead of punished as a mis(emeanor is
rewarded as virtue What was then an
''image" demanding punishment is now Il
"frce hand drawing demanding reward.
Has time converted a wrong into right: |
was convinced that my conduct was wrong.
In fact, l hadn't doubt that it was wicked
to ''make images" yet persisted in making
them because | loved to do so. Was | in fact
doing wrong or were the persons doing wrong
who punished me? At that time it had never
entered my head that it was arr0ng to set up a
standard of right and punish all who did not
conform to it. l only knew that about all
standards of right We're very diSagrceable. but
| supposed they We're all written down in the
Bible and had also come direct from the Gre
ator, and | began to believe that He had been
unfair in the matter and in fact had Deliberate
ly imposed upon us. | could no reason
why He should not make right pleasing or
have made me so | would be pleased with it
and made wrong unpleaSing. If He was ''al-
wise" and ''all-powcrful" He could do it. Why
did He not. Why would He make Us love to
do wrong, then punish us for doing it. or allow
devil to monkey around and lead Us into
scrapes that He, God, intended to punish us
for getting into? | could not see why this was
not taking a mean advantage of US, and this
conclusion filled my young mind with atheism;
and was wholly unable to relieve my mind Of
this atheism until adopted Il new standard of
right and errong. The first step in my con-
version to DeiSm was after learned that no
two persons were alike. If we want an idea
of how much human beings differ. one from
all others. we have only to imagine this earth
as glass ball with Il powerful light in its
centre and we shall see it sending straight ravs
of light out into endless space in every possible
direction, no two rays going in the same di-
rection and no two rays crossing each other.
Now imagine aS many human beings on the
earth's surface a> there could be rays of light,
and each person with Il mind reaching out to-
ward endleSsncss in the same line of that ray
of light he represents. and we shall have at
least beginning of the sum total of all wisdom,
yet none of necessity knowing more than Il
small portion Of the great all. yet each is with
out limit and no two agree perfectly, and all
have their direct oppoSiteS yet no one conflicts
with any other. Adopting any one direction
as rtght and then puniShin@ all that did not
conform to it, would simply operate to damage
all virtues but the one set up as Tight stan
dard. This line of reasoning leads to the con-
clusiOn that rtyht is natural. and wrong is I'M
natural or artificial 1t also leads to the con-
clusion that right is pleasing to all the senses
and wrong is displea>iny. Also, that right not
only benefits the person doing it but equally
benefits each Of all other persons in creation.
Each was designed by nature to contribute his
peculiar mite No other could contribute it.
If by the will of another he is bent from his
own line the great whole is the lo>cr and all.
being capable of receiving benefit from the
great whole, are equal losers. How then can
it he right to set up any standard as a right
and force even one other person to conform to
it:
the difference in the nature of human beings
Let Us see how much difference we can find in
only one of our senses. If YOU had as many
pieces of different rolorcd glass as there are
different colored eyes. and you looked out upon
nature first through one piece, then another
until you had looked through them all. YOU
then begin to form some idea of how different
he tn n.it.l ~,
one person goes into ecstasy over Il color that
another de>pi>cS.
For each piece of colorcd class above men-
toned collect as many lenses as there are diff
fereht degrees of conveNity in human eyes
from the far sighted to the near sighted. Then
cover each of them with is many coIors and
thickne>>es as are represented hy all the hlt-
mors and films in human eyes. Then in all
this collection, each surrounded with all the
shades of lids and la>hes and try them at all
the angles of all the cross eyes. and one begins
to see that the difference in human eyes is end
less. and that no two persons ever got the
same view Of any one subject.
Let lis realize that we differ as much in the
four senses of taste. smell, touch and hearing
as we do i'll the sense of sight; and then realize
that each person has over forty distinct mental
faculties in each of which faculties he differs
from all other human beings, and that he must
Judge with these of all he receives through his
five senses, then we can realize that human be-
ing> may differ is much as the rays of light
above referred to. How then can we con
clude that any man or set of men can make
law or rule of action that all men can of riyht
be forced to obey. How much legislation and
how many racks, dungeons and Whipping
posts would be necessary to bring rjMt into
the world: We know that the same offence
does not offend all alike or any two to the same
extent and does not even offend the same per-
son twice alike. We know also that the same
penalty does not punish all alike Two men
steal Il loaf Of bread and each yets thirty DAYS
i'll Jail. One finds it Il months rest, comfort
and good living and the other finds it Il month
of mental torture. How then can eiaal justice
be done through penalties even if we allowed
that same penalty is just:
Suppose two men Were created absolutely
perfect but as different from each other as pos
sibe, would not each do riyhtl Now make
either Of these governor or dictator over the
other and that other will continually do wrong.
Why? Because under government right and
trfOny are measured by obedience and dsobe-
dience and the party governed cannot obey his
governor without violating his own nature AS
the subject would generally be undergoing
some torture for disobedcncc to his governor,
it would be only fair to let these two Just men
take turns at each other However ridiculous
this may seem, we must conclude that 0Je-
dtencc and rtght are not synonymous, though
we have always been in the habit of measuring
one by the other.
Every public martyr from the cruciNion
down ha, been punished for dSobediencc to
the standard of right in vogue at the time
of the punishment. Where then is the wrong
if it is not in the effort to sustain standard of
right:
Whoever was critically judged by another
was never found right, no matter who was
judge or VINO was being judged. RaiIers.
brawlcrs and common scods are the most
energetic judges, but the mercy of Providence
has given but few of them power to execute
their own judgments.
The glory of Geo. Washington was his high