The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-27

IN life-their number, their reach and
their shades of refinement.
From all this, there has arisen
throughout the different social orders.
modified by conditions and varying i'm
intensity, common agitation very
complex mental state best compared
10 the petulance of a spoiled child at
once satisfied and disconnected.
IF we have not become happier.
= neither have we grown more peace
ful and fraternal. The more desires
and needs a man has, the more occa-
sion he finds for conflict with his fcI-
low men; and these conflicts are more
bitter IN proportion as their causes are
less last. 1t is the law of nature to
night for bread. for the necessities. This
law may seem brutal, but there is an
excuse in its very harshness. and il
IS generally limited to elemental cruel
ties Quite different is the battle for
the superintendent ambition, privi-
lege, inclination, luxury. Never has
munger driven man to such baseness
as have envy, avarice and thirst for
pleasure. Egotism grows more malefi-
cent as 1t becomes more refined. We
OF these times hare seen an increase
OF hostile feeling among brothers, and
our hearts are less at peace than
eVer@
After this. is there any need TO ask
If we have become better? Do not the
very sinews of virtue lie i'm mans ca
pacity to care for something outside
hlmself2 And What place remains for
one nelghbor in a life given over to
material cares, 10 artificial needs TO
the satisfaction of ambitions. erIidgas
ana Whims? The man who gives him
SELF up entirely to the service of his
appetltes, makes them grow and null
upiy so well that they become strong
er Ihdn he. and once their slave. he
loses ms moral sense, loses his energy.
and becomes incapable of discerning
ana practicing the good. He has sur
rendered himself 10 the inner anarchy
OF desire, which in the end gives birth
10 outer anarchy. In the moral life
we govern ourselves. In the immoral
life we are governed by our needs and
passions; thus, little by little. the bases
OF the moral life shift, and the law of
judgment deviates.
FOR the man enslaved to numerous
ana eXacting needs. possession is the
supreme good and the source of ALI
other good things. 1t is true that i'm
the herce struggle for possession, we
come 10 hate those who possess. and
20 Qeny the right of property when this
=
IN our own. But the bitterness of at
tack against others possessions is ONLY
4 new proof of the extraordinary i'm
portahce we attach to possession it.
ser IN the end people and things
COLne 10 be estimated at their
selling price, or according TO
the profit to be drawn from them.
w nat brings nothing is worth nothing:
ne "nS has nothing, is nothing. Hon
est poverty risks passing for shame.
q 40 lucre, however filthy, is not greatly
put TO 1t to be accounted for merit.
some one objects: Then you make
wholesale condemnation of progress.
ana would lead US back to the good Old
ascetcism perhaps"
Not at all. The desire to resuscitate
the past is the most unfruitful and dam
Serous of Utopian dreams. and the art
OF good living does not consist in retir-
ing from life. But we are trying TO
throw light upon one Of the errors that
oraS most heavily upon human pro-
sreSs, IN order 10 find g. remedy for it
namely, the belief that man becomes
napier and better by the increase of
outward Well-being Nothing is falser
lhan TINS pretended social axiom: on
the contrary, that material prosperity
without an offset, diminishes the ca
paclty for happiness and debases char
acter, Is fact which a thousand cyan
PIES are at hand to prove The worth ,
OF civilization is the worth of the
man at Its center. When this man
lacks moral rectitude, progress only
makes pad worse, and further embroils
social problems.