The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-18
MIND AS A FACTOR.


The Forum for August has a very
suggestive article by Edward Atkinson,
on 'Must Humanity Starve at LastP"
The question concerning population
and the means of subsistence, here con-
sidered, is an old one. Among the
most noted writers upon the subject is
Mr.. Nautilus, whose theory is that
there must always be pressure of
population upon the means of subsist-
ence, because, while population might
increase in geometrical ratio, the
means Of subsistence might only in
crease in an arithmetical ratio. Ri
cardo, another writer, holds to the
steadily diminishing returns from
land; under which law the land may
fail to return product equal to the
labor and capital expended upon it.;
which in the end would result in hav-
ing more persons dependent upon the
land for subsistence, than the land
could properly support. Mr.. Atkinson
meets these hypothesis by saying, that
there has not been a single decade
since the theory of Nautilus was first
propounded, in which the means of
subsistence have not gained very
rapidly upon the population of the
world, Notwithstanding the totally in
adequate and unscientifc methods now
applied to agriculture.
1t was not of this, however, that we
meant especially to speak. The SEN
tence which particularly struck us in
what Mr.. Atkinson says was this,
"The fault of these hypothesis may be
that their proponents had not taken
cognizance of the human mind as q
factor in material production
The fact thus made clear is a very
important one. Mind, as a factor in
any problem, is one that is primary and
must be reckoned with. No problem
involving human interests is solved,
it is not even correctly stated, until
this all-important, necessary factor is
brought in. Man, because of his in
tellectual endowments, is fertile in re-
sources, and it is not safe to predict
that the time will ever come when the
race will not be able to adjust itself
successfully to the needs of existence.
At least, whether such time ever
comes or not, it is neither safe nor logi-
cal to build up an hypothesis upon the
superstition that it may, or may not.
The possible intellectual triumphs of
man over the sequences of nature are
against such theorizers.
But the force of this Indicator is
not exhausted in its relation to the
problems Of mans physical existence.
The theory which shuts the divine
Mind out Of the problem of mans
spiritual affairs is as unsafe and un-
scientific as the other can possibly be-.
Mr.. Atkinson has struck upon great
fundamental principle of morals as well
as of economics, in this cognizance of
the mind as an active operating agent
in affairs. No problem of man, either
his existence, or his history, or his
destiny, can be even correctly stated,
much less solved, and finally passed
upon, which does not accept God, the
Father, as necessary, ever-operative
agent in its solution. 1t is unwise and
Illogical to build up any theory of the
final destiny of the human race, upon
the supposition that God ever becomes
incapable of adjusting means to the
urgent ends of mans spiritual needs.
God is an ever-present primary factor
in mans life and destiny. Moreover,
if science falls back upon mind as the
ultimatum, but the necessity, in her
economic problems, it does not become
her to scott when religion does the
same in those of morals. The fact is,
mind must form the subject, or the
predicate, in all questions involving the
interests OF humanity great or small
near or remote.