Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-12-02

man OF means, their number, their
reach and their refined shades.
Of all this has resulted. across the
different social orders, and according
to the conditions, with variable in
tensity, a general agitation, a state Of
mind most complex, which can but be
compared to the humor of spoiled
children, at once overwhelmed with
gifts and still discontinued.
If we have not become happier,
neither have we grown more peace
able or brotherly. The spoiled chill
dren dispute often and viciously. The
more needs and desires a man has
the more occasions he finds for con-
fiicts with his fellow-men, and these
conflicts are more bitter in proper
ton to the lack of justice in the
cause That they fight for bread, a
necessity, is the law of nature. 1t
may seem brutal. but has an excuse
even for its hardness, and in general
1t is limited to rudimentary crueltes.
All other is battle for the superhu-
GUS: for ambition, privilege, caprice,
and for material pleasure. Hunger
alone never caused man to descend to
the baseness which ambition will
cause him to commit, or avarice, or
thirst for unhealthy pleasures. Egot-
ism becomes more maleficent as it
becomes more refined. We have
therefore, in these days beheld an ag-
gravation of the spirit Of hostility
among our fellow-beings and our
hearts are less at peace than ever.
1t is useless to ask If we have be-
come better. Does not the nerve of
goodness" lie in the capacity of man
to love something besides himself?
And what place would remain for the
neighbor in life sacrificed to mater
ial cares, to needs mostly fictitious,
to the satisfaction of ambitions, ha-
treds and fantasies? The man who
gives himself up entirely to the SER
vice of his appettes makes them grow
and multiply SO rapidly that they be-
come stronger than he. He is deliv-
cred to an internal anarchy, from
which is born at last an outward and
visible anarchy, Moral life consists in
the government of ones self. I'm
morality consists in the government
of ourselves by our needs and our pas
sons. Thus, little by little, the bases
of the moral life are displaced, and
the rule of judgment is deviated from.
For man, slave to numerous and
eXacting needs, to possess is the great
est good, source of all other good
things 1t is true that in the fierce
struggle for possession, we come to
hate those who possess. and deny the
right of property when that right is in
the hands of another and not our own
But the ferocity in attacking the pos
sessions of others is a new proof Of
the extraordinary importance which
we attach to possession itself Things
and men end by being estimated at
their selling price, and the profit to be
made therefrOm.
That which brings nothing is worth
nothing, and he who has nothing is
nothing. Honest poverty risks pass
ing for shame, and even unclean mon
ey has little difficulty in passing for
merit.
Then" some one objects, you con-
denim modern progress by Wholesale,
and you would lead us to the good old
times, to asceticism, perhaps?" Not
at all. 1t is the most sterile and dan
gerous of Utopias to wish to resusci-
tate the past, and the art Of right liv-
ing does not consists in Withdrawing
oneself from life. But, we are seeking
to bring to light, with the aim of find
ing a remedy for it, one of those err
: rors, which weigh heaviest on social
progress, and that is, that man be-
comes happier and better by increase
of his outward well-being. Nothing
, is falser than this pretended social
axiom. On the contrary. The dimin-
ishing Of the capacity for being happy
!, and the debasement of characters by
: material well-being without counter
weight, is fact which thousand ex.
, amples are at hand to establish. A
civilization is valued by what the man
installed in It's center Is worth. When
,. that man lacks moral direction, al
progress but serves to make the evil
worse and to further embroil prob
lens.
. This principle may be verified IN
other domains than that of well-being
We will mention but those of instruc
ton and liberty. We remember the
: time when prophets who were believ
: ed announced that to transform bar
/, rem land into an abode fit for the gods
. 1t would suffice to overthrow those
: coalescent old powers: misery, ignor
ance and tyranny. Other prophets to
day repeat the same predictions. We
have inst seen that the evident de
: crease of misery has not made mar
better nor happier. Has this result
;, been achieved in certain measure
!, BY the praiseworthy efforts of instruc
= tionH II does not appear 80 at the
= present hour and this is the anxiety
: the despair of those who have con
: seorated themselves to our p0tiona
. education Then we must brutifY the