The San Francisco call., 1899-04-09

sense Of the term, and one whose fame
has been noted at times even in our
cosmopolitan city, has conflded to the
exclusive and almost secret society that
reads the Atlantic Monthly his dogma
on the mystery of evil. Taking as his
text the familiar words: Your eyes
shall be opened and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil" he maintains
that what we call evil is force, or
condition, essential to the moral evolu-
tion Of man. THE whole universe" he
says; sis animated by a single prin-
ciple of life, and whatever we see in
it, whether to our half trained under
standing and narrow experience it may
seem to be good or bad, is an inds-
scheme" 1t will be seen that while
: this relieves us from old-time anxieties
by removing the devil from our horizon.
it throws a heavy. responsibility upon
the original author of evolution.
In celebrating his argument Mr..
Fiske maintains that we regard as evil
the conditions from which we are
emerging by the processes Of evolution
and esteem as good those to which we
are tending. Thus he says: "As we
survey the course of this wonderful
evolution it begins to become manifest
that moral evil is simply the character
istic of the lower state of living as
looked at from the higher state" That
means the more experience we have
the more evil we know. The good of
to-day is the curse of tomorrow. For
example the people will at one time
oh e. f1,. III
him a statesman, vote for him and elect
him Governor; and after trying him
forty days in office will find him deal
ing out the worst brand of pernicious
activity on record-but of course that
illustration doesn't apply to California.
1t was borrowed from Kansas for the
sake of euphony.
This philosophy is of some value to
the world. 1t has all the merit of a
bread poultice and will relieve the men
tai irritation caused by many of those
minor evils of life which are more vex-
atious than big ones. It is worth
While applying it to some Of the prob
lens that have been fretting the coun-
try during the past week; and there is
no better time for experimenting with
the application than this balmy day of
rest-for as this Sunday follows i'm
mediately after Easter it has no new
bonnets to show, and therefore there is
no fashionable necessity for going to
church.
To many good souls that really merit
a life of unalloyed comfort, one of the
most distressing things of the week has
hepn fha nf raolx1aCc
rhetoric poured forth column after col
umn in rapt and almost adoring adu-
lation Of the matrimonial alliance be-
tween an heir of the house Of Wander
bilt-brother-in-law of the house of
Marlborough-with a daughter of the
house of Fair. 1t has seemed to many
people that the publication of this
phosphorescent mass of rotten stuff
about the vulgar ostentation of wealth
was an evil-that it was something
which pandered to a spirit of f1unky-
ism among us, or served to feed NOR
bid appetite for gossip about the doings
of the rich.
That, however, was not so. The great
mass of people who read those daily
columns of gush are not fiunkies by
any means. They are men and women
whose minds are so harassed with de-
sires for a dollar or a dress suit that
wealth is t one object of idolatry A
millionaire seems to them an ideal
creature. They delight to read of
golden plates, heaps of diamonds and
splendid silks just as other people like
to read of art and science and poetry,
or to liste to music, but they are not
toadies. They would shy brick at
plutocrat If they had a chance.
Men and women whose lives are
made up of incessanr toll under sordid
conditions, who are chronically impe-
cunious, who long for a holiday to frolic
in the sunshine or the gaslight, to
wander by the seashore or to dance in
a Mob Hill mansion, but who hardly
ever have as much as a day of really
unrestrained enjoyment in a year, turn
with deligh. to stories of Dukes and
Earls and mill.c0aires, of stately
palaces, ropes of pearls and exhaust
less wealth by an inevitable law of
their being, just as starving men dream
of rich banquets by reason of the
promptings of the empty stomach. To
the human being tormented by a half
contemplating those who have every
thing. The feeling is not a vulgar
flunkyism, but something Of an ideal
aspiration, akin to that which Shelley
calls:
THE love of the moth for the star;
OF the night for the morrow;
The longing for something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow"
Nor was the ostentatious display of
profuse extravaganza in the ceremony
to be wholly condemned. From a social
point of view it is perhaps bad, since
it tends to set up the corruptions of
luxury in places where the refinements
of culture should have an undisputed
sway; but from an economic point of
view the extravaganza of the rich is to
be commended. The sooner the fools
among them are parted from their
money the better it is for all concerned.
1t is, therefore worth while to applaud
them when to illumine festal night they
burn money enough to make an aurora
borealis.
What is good to men and women of
one level of intellectual development is