The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-27

stress on the natural impulses as supe- rior in authority to the dictates of a conventional morality; the other which looks to enlightened selfishness as the means by which mankind is to be de- iivered from unenlightened restraints iof tradition. believe that each of these philosophies is erroneous; that the one means a reversion toward savage ry, the other degeneration toward so- cial weakness. But so plausible are the arguments with which they are supported and so insidious the tenden- cies that make for their adoption that i it will be no waste of time to take ac- count of these arguments and tenden cies and see what they really signify.
 There is a school of writers like Zola or D'Annunzio which lays great stress on what it calls the primal instincts of mankind. These writers think that with all that has been done in the way of civilization, it's effect is like that of an artificial veneer; that man remains at bottom an animal, moved by animal impulses and passions; that to feel ], these passions strongly is sign or strength, and that to have them under complete control is an indication of weakness. At one point or another in our lives we are all likely to have some touch of this spirit of impatience w1th fertilization. We shall none of us-ex- cept possibly under the influence of vi olent physical disease-feel these in- pulses in their really savage form, x.rh;1 1Is int 0rpinS nf wrath and murder. But we shall find often enough, when social laws and ! usages stand in the way of our con- venience or comfort, an impulse to override those laws and usages for our individual pleasure; and we shall be tempted to avail ourselves of every ex- cuse which modern literature or mod ern philosophy may give to regard re- venge or self-will or intemperance i'll it's various forms as a token of strength on our own part and thing superior in authority to the morality taught us by our fathers.
 These animal passions have their place in life. They may often serve as impulses to civilization; they may sometimes be so wholly repressed that this will constitute an evidence of weakness instead of Strength. Tn that profound classification of human sins originally made by Aristotle, and adopt ed by Dante as the basis of arrange ment of his Inferno, there is sharp distinction drawn between those anil nal vices like lust or anger, which are ,, but the unbridled excess of qualities F,,l x,i,. f1-.oi1 and those deeper forms of evil like cruelty or breach of trust which are wrong in themselves, whether exercised without restraint or under the influence of cool calculation. And Aristotle further re- cognizes that man may have these animal impulses in inadequate amount, and may thereby fail of the proper measure of virtue-that it is as bad to be stolid as it is to be angry; as bad to be shiftless as it is to be covetous; or, to quote his pregnant phrase, that yir- tue is a mean between two extremes. But this fact does not one whit abate the necessity that these things should be controlled by some strong force re- siding within the man, which shall make him the master of these impulses and not their slave. Otherwise the lustful man, as in Dante's hell, will be driven about forever in utter darkness by fierce winds; the intemperate will wallow forever in the foul storms; the covetous and the spendthrift alike will to all eternity roll their burdens back ward and forward in purposeless con tradiction; the angry will forever tear one another to pieces in the bog that surrounds the inner city of fire. It is of no purpose to dignify these passions by the name of primal instinct. Liter ature is one long story of the vanity of these primal instincts against the moral nature of man. From 'Oedipus Tyrannus' to The Scarlet Letter the primary passions are defeated ant overcome by duty, religion and the moral law. The misery of broken law outlives passion and tramples on it: embers The love of Jaolo and Fran. cesca is swallowed up in their sin, | is the like in Faust Earthly passions cannot avail against the moral pow. erc."
 But have delayed too long on g group of temptations to disregard mor, al law and religious sentiment, whicf to the majority of men of this age ha. only occasional or secondary impor tance. Our chief danger comes iron the other quarter-from trusting to tn, work of reason in places where we ar
 imperfectly prepared for it's operation