The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-05-05
SCIENTIFIC.
THE MORAL CRITERION.

The question of the ages is the ques-
tion of Duty. Questions of creeds and
of institutions depend mainly upon
this, and questions of physical laws
serve mainly as means towards clear
ing the way to it. Life, although
specifically a torrent of selflove, has
running though it force, whereof the
strongest and most INSCRIPTIONS self
love stands in dread. The thing
which the masters Of mankind sooner
or later have to reckon with, is the
tide of opinion towards what consti-
tutes right and wrong in human con-
duct.
In the ocean of thought, wherein
civilization has thus far been upborne
on two mighty currents arising from
separate understandings of this ques-
tion-the underf1ow as it were of two
preponderant FLYERS of conception,
each acting more or less upon the other,
and sometimes cOmmingling, but never
in af1nity-the utmost ingenuity of
the human mind has striven to make
these currents coalesce and become as
one, but always Intellectually, the
genius of each being born of principles
which are incOnceivable. These prin-
ciples are "the absolute" or the con
ception of an invariable, a~ll-perfect
criterion, and the relative" or the
conception of a conditional criterion of
Judgment. Conduct ordered upon one
principle pre-suppOses knowledge Of a
First Cause; upon the other, knowledge
only of secondary causes. Positive
and comparative, ultimate and prOxi-
mate, fxedness and fuxation-how
assuredly futile is all effort to blend the
underlying principles of these con-
joined ideas.
The master spirits, they towards
whom thought has c~onverged most,
invariably recognize this. Their ex-
ample and precept are pure emanations
from one or the other principle. Civ
ilization, however, being an effort to
conciliate the opposing principles, is a
series of actions and reactions between
them. Wherever men have exalted
obedience, their inspiration has been
from the one; and wherever they have
exalted intelligence, their inspiration
has been from the other. Men appear
to have been equally strenuous in pro-
noting the supremacy of their prin-
cip,e. 1t requires the same devotion
to succeed in a war for freedom, that
it does to succeed in a war for faith,
and the same remuneration to make a
philosopher that it does to make a saint.
Nothing better illustrates the irrecon-
cilability of these principles than the
fact, that men always have accom-
plished most when inspired but by one
of them at a time, whichever it may
have been. 1t might almost be said,
that nothing prominently great ever
was accomplished under the inspiration
of the one, except during decadence of
the other.
All speculation concerning mans first
conception of the absolute soon loses
itself, and speculation concernin mans
first conception of the relative is just
as vague. While, as a mental creation,
1t is subordinate and p~osterior to the
Labsolute; as an actual force the relative
can hardly be separated from it. Con
fronted at the beginning of his exist
ence by this memorable force, mans
first effort is to put himself in some de-
gree of harmony Herewith. For a
prolonged period man obeyed tbs
force unconsciously, as for the most
! part he does still. Necessity he is