The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-12-13

UuCI . los WILL InO S1oCCuSlOu VI 0uc
intellectual, a corresponding de-
clension of the purely animalistic
impulses. As the moral perspec.
tive becomes clearer, the grosser
proclivities, both immoral and un.
moral. become less urgent in their
demands.
We know that in physics the
consequent follows the antecedent;
likewise, in metaphysics, l hold
moral law to be the consequent OF
civil law. An illustration may
better convey my meaning: A
beast of the jungle has secured for
itself a supply of food, but before
it can partake of it, it is set upon
by one of its fellows. In the en-
suing struggle, the attacking ami.
NAL is driven off, wounded. We
do not conceive of the defeated
animal considering the matter in
any light other than, that the other
beast was the stronger, and that
himself had received punishment.
No question of property rights
troubled him. But as the centuries
pass, like encounters were engaged
in by his successors, even for long
after primitive man appeared. But
hold, that with the evolution
from the jungle beast of the more
highly organized man animal,
there began a process of reflection
in the mind of the new creature.
That of which he had possessed
himself, he would retain, even
with his life as the stake. Why9
Because he had earned it. His own
efforts had made it his very own.
None other had a right to it, un-
less they gave him value received.
Rejecting further, it became plain
to him that, if another had not the
right to take from him that which
was his, then the same would hold
true as regarded his conduct to-
wards another. Civil law (pun-
ishment) had kept him from pos
sessing himself of another's prop.
erty only through fear of the
consequences; but as he yielded
himself to the higher conception OF
the relation that should obtain be-
tween himself and bis fellows, he
withheld his hand. not through
fear of punishment, but because
moral law, crude yet and unde-
fined, was laying restraining
hand upon him. A hand invisible,
but weightier than the strong arm
of civil law-and more potent.
This crude illustration, ladies
and gentlemen, portrays, l believe
in small measure, the manner in
! which that higher impulse known
as moral law had it's genesis in the
mind of man.
In the realm of metaphysics NOR
al law is fixed luminary, around
which all PHILOSOPHERS describe their
orbit; and from what angle so ever
we look at it. always it is the same.
Men of the greatest divergence Of
view in philosophy and religion
are agreed in the essential virtues
of humanity. One has said, that.
However far apart men may be
in cosmic philosophy and theo-
logical theory, they may be at one
concerning the primal duties which
shine aloft like stars" Nor does
this agreement spring from indif.
ference, but from the very intensi
ty of moral passion, which will not
allow the great essentials of mora
life to be obscured by the muta-
tions of moral theory.
Milton and Huxley are not in al
their teachings of the same mind
But when Milton writes: Il Cal
that a complete and generous edu
cation which enables a man to per
form wisely, justly, and magnani
mously all the offices both public
and private, of peace and of war"
and Mr.. Huxley, in his equally
famous definition, pictures mar
whose passions are trained te
come to heel by a vigorous will,
the servant of a tender conscience
who has learned to love al