The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1888-08-17
CHE 1cmorraf-S Star
The Force of Habit.

DR.. Felix l.. Oswald in the Open Court.
"Whatever is pleasant is wrong"
I'M marizes the distinctive tenels
of a creed which has for centuries
biased the ethics ef the Arvan ma
tions and found its fullest express
ion in the asceticiSm OF the Bud
dhistic world renohncers. The
charge of impious ingratitude tails
TO influence the convert of a doc
trine which supplements the belief
O fthe total %deDravity of the mate
rial world with the dogmas of SUI
pernaturalism and transfers ITS
hopes from the disappointments of
the present to the unalloyed beau
titude of a future existence.
"That doctrine" says a champion
of utilitarlan ethics, 'iS n mere
survival of demonism. involving a
belief in a system of creation so
diabolically arranged hat all its
sweets are secret poisons and its
pleasures nothing but baited traps"
The belief in the sInfulneSs OF fem
poral qualifications implies the log
ical converse of making the avoid
ance of pleasures a habitual rule
of conduct, and thus demonstrates
the self-contradicling .absurdity
and anti-naturallsm. since by the
influence of habit the sources OF
enjoyment. Instructive preferences
and diversions are merely the out
come of ancestral modes of life,
continued through a long series OF
generations and the origin of u
so-called moral institutions is
strikingly illustrated by the infu-
ence of personal habits. The short
average life-term Of our latter-day
generations sufiices TO tnrn habitual
Performance of irksome duties into
a matter Of spontaneous indiifer
ence. A Path of irksome duties in
to a matter of spontaneous indif-
ference. 4 path of routine, pur-
sued at first IN quest of remote and
indirect benefits, eventually pro.
duces its own daily and direct re-
wards. Acts, often repeated IN de-
fiance OF Instinct and conscience,
are soon performed with callousi in
difference, and at last even with
prediction. The Spanish CON
querors of the new world employ ed
aspecies of bloodhOunds descended
from the gaunt shepherd dogs of
the Spanish sierras, and in spite Of
their reckless courage, at first ex-
tremely reluctant to use their
fangs on The image Of God" as Las
Casas expresses it. They had TO be
whipped aud bullied into cOmpli
ance with the commands of their
ruthless masters. but after a certain
amount of practice would follow
the trail OF an Indian as their an
cest0rs had followed the trail Of a
wolf, and al last came to prefer a
man-hunt 10 every other sport.
During an Easter picnic in The
mountains of Puebla, Mexico, | saw
a little boy run shrieking from the
side of a cook who had just cut the
throat of a kid /; and failing TO en-
gage the sympathy of The jeerlng
bystanders, the emotional young
ster flung himself down at the foot
of a tree, and for nearly an hour
Rugged a pet poodle dog with con-
vulsive sobs. Hindoos will starye
for weeks rarher than Imbrue their
hands in the blood of a fellow-cre-
allure and shudder at the'mere sight
of a meat-ax. Yet our professions
al butchers so thoroughly overcome
that natural horror that the veter-
M Of our slaughter-houses may
often be seen smoking their pipes
or whistling a pleasant tune while
their hands are shedding contlnu.
Gus stream Of gore. With a similar
Indifference the Overseers of the
Cuban slave plantations ply their
cruel whips and | have known
surgeons who performed the ghast-
ly work of the operation table
with all the equanimity of a pro-
tesslOnal wood carver