Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-20
WHAT is BEST?
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.
fcop, right. 1918. by Frank crane.l

What is the best? We all agree We
should strive for it, but what Is 1t?
Christians say the answer is found In the
Bible, Mohammedans, in the Koran. some
say it is In the theories of Herbert Spen-
Ger. others of Descartes.
These have been given as 1.-The greatest
GOOD: righteousness. happiness. wisdom,
love, holiness. and so on.
NV own notion is that ''the best is
whatever favors the fullest development
of the personality. l believe we are set in
this garden Of the world to grow, and
that he who grows most perfectly Is the
best man.
There are in us sensual, selfish and
other so-called "evir' qualities. and others
called higher" ements. or good. What
is the difference?
The evil elements are those which the
experience of the race has shown to be
destructive. their pleasure Is brief; the
higher are those proved to be both last,
ing in themselves and preservative and
STRENGTHENING to the whole man.
Over the individual man is mankind
From this comes a still truer fact. What
ever is hostile to the full development
and permanent order. health and JOY OF
the whole race becomes bad thing
for the single person: and Whatever pro-
notes the welfare OF humanity is d
From this comes what we call morallty.
which is the limiting of the Individual
self-expression by the collective. l may
have an impulse to gluttonize, stea! or
kill; If l and all others freely INDUCED
such promptings the race would be I'M
periled; hence they are wicked
The moraities therefore are not the
inventions of priests. are not forms OF
tyranny. No man nor conspiracy could
establish a fake or artificial system OF
1xy. lit xx,,1a he fnCf nf
For morals are the feeling of self-pres-
ervation in the race, superimposed upon
the feeling of self-expression in the indi-
vidual
The great "lawgivers" never gave"
laws at all. They discovered them. They
were poets seers. Moses discovered the
Ten Commandments; he perceived them
to be the real principles of racial self
preservation. Socrates, Buddha, Con-
fucius and all the saees merely saw vast
correctives of individual forces.
Let us go back to our definition. "the
best Is whatever favors the fullest growth
of the personality" and ask how we
may know what this is. The answer is,
by experience-not only individual ex-
perience, but the experience of the whole
world. The latter is stored in our con-
science, cellared in our Unborn sense OF
light and wrong.
The man who pursues only se'f-expres-
ION anu gives SELF up 10 sensual, lntel-
ectual or spiritual self-indulgence is a
dangerous man. He is surely headed for
tragedy.
But the man who. while freely indulg-
ing every instinct, every desire. yet feels
n himself a race-consciousness that con-
rois his private impulses-such a man
S truly altruistic.
When altruism becomes q passion we
call 1t religion.
Thus, then, We may know what is
best" First. it is whatever In us seeks
expression, it is the forthputting of our
personality. And second, it is the world
consciousness, more or less manifested in
love. patriotism, God, and all inclusive
race-passions. guiding and fostering our
individual desires.
I know that hope, faith, courage and
chaste-mindedness are good. because l
feel that if all the world practiced them
it would be well, 1 know that fear, pride,
petulance, greed and such things are bad,
because if everybody We're governed by
such emotions it would produce chaos
and universal unhappiness. This is prac-
tically Rants Categorical imperative"
1t is a simple, understandable means of
deciding by common-sense, and not by
authority nor hearsay, what is best