St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-08-03
Responsibility.

So says the good book: s'lhoug oh hand
join in hand, the wicked shall not be I'M
punished. Responsibility is coeval with
knowledge and grows out of it, and with,
out knowledge there is no responsibility, in
moral sense, no punishment but the
violation of a physical law is also certain,
whether we know the law or not. In this
case Ignorance is no protection from suffer
ing or punishment because it only has
reference to the laws of matter and their
relations with the animal organism. An
! idiot is wholly irresponible, because he is
not susceptible to moral teaching but if
he expo ,es himself to fire he suffers, be-
cause the unalterable laws of physical life
are the same as though he were a moral
being. Infants are not responsible, because
they have no knowledge of right or wrong,
and we must be permitted to doubt that
anybody anywhere are really responsible
for acts that they believe are right, though
| civilized men and women may look upon
such acts as egregiously wrong. The
means of punishment are inherent in the
constitution of mind and when educated to
believe thing wrong the punishment is
! inflicted by conscience in conjunction with
other faculties that see their error and ac-
knowledge their guilt. Hence it is, the
greater our knowledge of the laws of our
being the greater our responsibility. But
right here we may be met with the SEEM
ing argument, that if ignorance exempts
from punishment it would be better for us
all to be imbeciles. This conclusion does
not follow, for it is an acknowledged
truth that man was made to enjoy, and the
more he knows the greater the aggregate
Of happiness, and, consequently, though
responsibility is Increased, happiness is
also. 1t is not the greater amount of
| knowledge that makes us suffer, but the
abuse of what we know. The knowledge
of the 'tree of good and evil, first let
| light into the mind of man, for without
evil we could never know what good is;
| without sin we should be blind. Hence,
sin is the friend of man after all, and slim
ulates him to avoid the violations of law
which causes him to suffer. 1t is true
man was constituted fallible and for his
continually held over bis head as a warn
ing for him to use his faculties within the
bounds of law and profit by the tempta-
tons which beset his path. n =
But it seems that false education which
incites to evil doing runs in parallel lines
to good, and good and evil are racing
through the world, the good only few
lengths ahead, the scowling devils of evil
madly shouting close behind. Naturally,
if there is any naturalness about it, there
is more of good than evil in man. We
infer this may be SO, because all faculties
when properly educated minister to his
interest and happiness, and as God made
man for his pleasure and mans good, it
follows that man Is susceptible of great
amount ofspleasure IN this present life.
His departure from the laws of his being is
what dams up the stream of his happiness.
and overtiows the richly MANFRED meadows
of his intellectual farm. 1t is quite evident
that mans partial control over some of the
forces of nature has created, as it were,
multitude Of apples, pears, ETC., from the
original stock direct from the Creative
hand-have increased the size early ma
turity and beauty of our domestic animals;
have n1olded into forms Of beauty and
wonderful machines the material furnished
by q wise Creator for mans use; and
strange to say, IN doing these things he has
shameful v neglected himself and his most
urgent dudes to his fellow men. His self
esteem, his unbounded confidence in HIM
self; his andacious Independence, his sell
fshness and love of gold has plunged one
half of the race into the porridge pot of
,verty, and are working hard to enslaves
another quarter of the race.
Evils seem rather to increas~> han dimin-
1ish and why is it !? Is it not because man
in his insane pursuit of what he falsely
calls happiness has forgotten himself and
the ties that ought to bind him to society?
He has falsely educated himself till an evil
hereditary predisposition is found in the
children. Like produces like and hence
the evils more readily extend to numerous
progeny, who are poisoning the streams of
life and leading the nations farther and
farther away from their own good. But
other streams of vice are flowing to the
ocean that obliterates Acknowledgements
bling houses and above al the mad roar
ing river Of intemperanee, that in it's
devastating course merci1essly swallows up
they Gun gshe Iniddl eaged and theold, and
with fiendishness breaks theg~hearts of
innocent and lovely women; clothes the,
children in rags and fills thousands of
minds with the rotting skeletons of I'M
numbered evils and sets them against all
that is. lovely and good. The world ap-
pears full of the wickedness that appals
the philanthrophist and chi11s the efforts
of those who would restore mankind to d.
condition of mind compatible with his.
duties, his capabilities and the Inspirations
that leadeth to peace, health, longevitya
and happiness. u at, ssz.sa' -
Man is mortal and falIible, and somsu.
times we are led to ask is man in this az e
of civilization ina normal or abnormall
condition Is it really necessary that
evils should increase with knowledge and
progress Z, But when we reflect that God
is perfect, and stands in the relation Of
Father ato. the human family and it is
saids Overcome evil with good, !" we are
constrained to fall back on the Scripture
language "He doeth ell things after the
counsel of his own will, and we become,
an opinlist and believe the Education On
themasses will yet rectify much of The
wickedness that now surrounds uss Mar
has busted himself about everything elsepl
but bis own progress in the direction Of
his physical and mental improvements
These have been criminally neglected to
his own hurt and the consequences of his
accountability are piercing him with poi
the ability by virtue. of the power Of rea-
the forces of nature to vastly improve QUIZ
shows that we are able to improve our
selves We are fully ssare that theneed-.
ed self improvement is g. ,Herculean task,
requiring time and labor, but we believe it
can and will, eventually be done, and thus
disprove the discouraging idea that history
must forever. repeat itself. Progress is
engraven with an Almighty chisel on the
mile stones of the ages past, and the adyta-
of the coming ages will reveal their mys-
teries to the ardent seekers after truth, 9
and elevate us to the physical and intel
lectual heights which now are but specks
seen through, the telescope of human posi-
sibilities. How are such vast achieve