HAVING demonstrated, in our former paper, how humanity is to be considered as an organic whole, whose particular organs are individual men,

we are now better enabled to answer the question about the rule of what they have to do and to shun, or in other words, the question about good and evil. We have to seek the rule which determines the actions and aims of mankind, and from this rule. we then may infer the laws which must govern the activity of every individual. For every individual, in every action, is a representative of, and works for, humanity, which produces for every given task a particular fitting performer. The organic whole of humanity may here be compared to the thinking artist, and every individual man may be likened to a finger of that artist-a finger which contributes to realize what the thinking head has invented and intended.

We have, first, to find the ruling law for the actions of mankind in the whole. What is a law? This word, "law," has different meanings, of which the following example is an illustration. A timepiece is designed to mark the true time of day, which design is the law of the timepiece. The very best timepieces, the chronometers, do not fully answer that purpose; for the most improved timepieces are indeed almost uniform and accurate in their motion, but the motion does not exactly agree with the revolution of the earth, which must be normal for the timepiece. The real motion of the timepiece, therefore, has another law than that which the artist would have given, if he had been able fully to realize his intentions. Therefore, the captain of a ship, or the astronomer, has to calculate certain tables, which point out the dif

ference between the motion of the chronometer and that of the earth; and by those tables he may know at a moment's notice how much the time measured by his chronometer differs from the revolution of the stars. This revolution, therefore, of the stars, or the calendar, is the law for that which the timepiece ought to be; whereas those calculated tables mark the law of what the timepiece is, and of what degree of perfection this instrument is capable. The two laws in this case differ from each other, because the instrument, whose law is being sought, does not correspond in reality to the rational intention of him. who made it. But, if a thing is entirely rational and perfect in all its parts, then those two laws are congruent; and there are no more two laws for it-there is only one. For instance, we never can say of a star that it ought to go in such a manner, but that it goes in another manner, because the calculations of the astronomer do not agree with its orb; but we shall not hesitate to pronounce that the astronomer was wrong in his calculations. The reader will know that we owe one of the most splendid manifestations of human sagacity to this principle-the discovery of the planet Neptune by Leverrier.

This example will make it evident that for a thing entirely rational and perfect there exists only one law, because in reality such a thing is all that it ought to be, so that, if I know what it is designed to be, I at the same time know what it is in reality. Now it is our persuasion that mankind, as a totality, is perfectly rational. Is not the world created by God-that is, by the highest and most absolute wisdom and rationality we are able to imagine? and can the highest wisdom create what

is otherwise than wise and rational in all its parts? But this must be elucidated by some words more.

An entire that is throughout homogeneous can only contain homogeneous parts. A cubic foot of genuine gold can no longer be called genuine gold if the smallest possible part of it is adulterated by the smallest possible alloy of some other metal. A metallic body is perfectly metallic, be it golden, or be it composed of gold and silver, or of a mixture of all possible metals; but, if the smallest part of it is not metallic, then the whole can no more be called a perfectly metallic body. It is the same with the mental and spiritual attributes of a subject. A history is perfectly true so long as not the smallest error nor the smallest untruth is contained therein; and a perfectly rational entire is no more perfectly rational if it contains even the smallest particle of irrationality. It is, therefore, needless to prove that in the universe, created rationally by God's supreme reason, there can be contained nothing contradictory to rationality. It will be objected that, among men, who are doubtless a part of the universe, there occur SO many things and actions contrary to reason. But this seeming contradiction ceases to puzzle us if we bear in mind that this irrationality exists only because we look at the individual actions of men as such, and not as forming a part of the whole created world. That is irrational which is in contradiction with the rational intention of Him who has to command; and, in a world created by the wisdom and the omnipotence of God, we cannot think that anything should be allowed to exist in opposition to His supreme rationality, and to His almighty will.

Man is the noblest of all creatures who obey the laws of nature. Favoured with the faculty of acting according to our own free will, and with the power of thinking and reasoning, we may call ourselves the crown of creation. This freedom and self-government of ours cannot be conceived without the faculty of acting according to our own pleasure,

either reasonably or unreasonably; for man is not free unless the impulse of being rational be balanced by an equal impulse of being irrational. If such an equilibrium exists, it is as likely that a man should act right as that he should act

wrong, and a third power must supervene

to engage him to do either. Such an irrationality of human action is irrational only as long as we occupy ourselves with humanity isolated from its connexion with the universe; and human irrationality exists only and exclusively within the sphere of mankind, but disappears as we ascend to a point of view whence the whole world appears as a unity, and mankind as an organical part of this unity. The irrationality inseparable from human nature is rational as an elastic spring within the wonderful mechanism of the world.

He who ventures to deny this may say with equal propriety that fire was only created to warm and to shine, but, when the same fire burns our houses, or ignites the stake to burn innocently condemned persons, declare that this phenomenon is contrary to the purpose of its Creator, and only permitted by Him. If any one should in earnest bring forward such a proposition, it would not be difficult to set him right by showing that he regarded fire from a very narrow point of view, unable to appreciate that so-called element as an indispensable agent within the sphere of matter. Such an individual would mistake that essential agent of nature for an accidental instrument for the use of man. On the contrary, whenever we discuss human affairs, in order to judge clearly, we must keep in view humanity as an organic inseparable Entire. If then this united humanity in its totality bear in itself a power of surmounting and rendering inoffensive the irrationality of the separate parts, then the final result, produced by the conflict of all actions and reactions of reason and error, must be rationality and harmony. Only with this final result, with this surplus of reason, humanity enters as a rational part into the organization of the Universe, despatching the business of combating

and overcoming the errors of individuals by itself quite as a home affair.

The reader will excuse me if I come back once more to the simile of the timepiece. The movement of a pendulum clock will be retarded by heat, which expands, and accelerated by cold, which shortens the pendulum. Now a pendulum, according to certain scientific principles, can be constructed lozenge-shaped, in such a manner that the expansion of the single parts of this pendulum by heat is made up by compensation, because the horizontal middle-piece, being stretched out by the increase of temperature, shortens the dimensions of the whole, exactly as much as the heat would have lengthened it, and the influence of cold is compensated by a similar action and reaction. A timepiece provided with such a pendulum may be said to be subjected to the dominion of the changing temperature quite as much and quite as little as mankind is under the dominion of irrationality. The pendulum must indeed yield to the influence of heat and cold; but, in so far as the instrument is able to vanquish this influence, it may be regarded as independent of the temperature for him who wishes to know the time of day. Quite so is mankind perfectly rational as to that task which it has to fulfil, as an organical part of the universe, vanquishing within its own limits the irrationality of individuals by the rational construction of the whole, and doing its duty with the resulting surplus of rationality.

What kind of duty this task of mankind may be, we learn from history. History shows us in what manner humanity proceeds step by step to fulfil the mission of ruling this our earth by reason and rationality, and lay the foundation of that empire of reason which is destined to extend its dominion all over the surface of our planet. To ascertain that such is really the task of the human race, is the business of those skilled in history; and, having undertaken an ethical and not a historical essay, we must refer the reader for the proof of that proposition to the historian, whose principal task it is to

point out in history the rational progress of mankind. Let us remember only that history shows us among the different nations on earth the same division of labour which we saw prevalent among the individuals. Nations appear and disappear one after another; every one of them has certain provinces of art, of science, and of religion to cultivate, and to work out almost to perfectionto such a perfection that, after a lapse of hundreds and thousands of years, we are struck with awe in contemplating the performances of those nations which vanished centuries ago from the surface of our earth. And if the present age, abolishing more and more by its inventions the separating barriers of time and space, has more obliterated the original diversity of nations than any preceding period of history, yet still now such a division of labour between the different nations is to be perceived, and we might point it out, if such a design were within the limits of this disquisition. Nevertheless, we must be aware that in many regions of art, science, and politics, we are standing barely on the shoulders of long-perished nations, not to mention. the eternal doctrines of religion, revealed to us by the prophets of a nation which has long ceased to exist as such. But, in worldly matters also, we are far from having produced anything equal to the works of Homer, Sophocles, and Demosthenes; and there is scarcely any piece of furniture within our rooms, but the embellishments of it are taken from Greek or Etrurian models; and the greatest praise we bestow on a modern sculptor is that his works come near those of the ancient Greeks. Roman laws continue to be valid in our tribunals until the present day. In so masterly a way did those nations fulfil their task, and then vanish from the surface of this earth, some of them perishing totally and completely, some others by coalescing with other nations. But this

succession of nations is not completely to be understood as yet, because every day brings forth new tasks for the labour of nations and of individuals. Futurity covers with its veil the deeds and actions

reserved for the exertion of posterity, just as the horizon, receding before the navigator, opens to his view those parts of his voyage which formerly he was not able to behold. Such a navigator will finally reach the opposite shore; but the history of mankind has no such limits, and we shall be carried on by its progress as far as to the end of all time. It is, indeed, almost impossible for us shortsighted beings to have a perfect understanding of that career which Providence has ordained for the human race to go through; but, this career being traced to the rational intention of God, the philosopher may observe the small portion of this endless plan revealed to him by history, with the same sagacity with which the astronomer observes the course of a comet. The portion of the revolutions of such a comet which he can follow with his telescope is exceedingly small, compared to the almost endless dimensions of its orbit; but the smallest part of a rational entire is sufficient to reveal to the initiated the law and principles of the whole. This law for the actions of mankind, we have seen, is no other than to establish a rational empire extending its sway over the whole surface of this our earth.

And now we are arrived at that point where it is possible to draw the net of our conclusions, and to see if we have really caught up in it the notion of good and evil which it was the problem of this disquisition to discover.

Before we address ourselves to this, let us not forget that we must not expect to find anything but what is comprised within the compass of the earth on which we

are.

We are not entitled to expect any higher result, because we started from an ethical point of view, and we have been restricting ourselves all along by the laws of human ethics. This ethical point of view was that from which man considers himself as a finished and perfect creation of God, having to seek his way, and to prepare and to pave it for himself, with those powers and faculties which he has received from his Maker. We, therefore, have only to explore that part of this way over which our path

It

lies during our life on earth, assigning to theology those other parts of this way which lie before the beginning and after the end of our earthly career. is, therefore, true that the torch of reason is able to illuminate only a short fragment of our eternal life, and that by mere reasoning we never shall gain any knowledge of the life we are taught to expect after death. But reason can never comprehend more than a short fragment of human existence. We do not attain to reason and consciousness at our first entrance on this planet as one of its citizens, but there must be a long period of mere animal or vegetable life, antecedent to the state of distinct consciousness; and again, we quit life in a state of unconsciousness, because there are, in every case, at least some moments of total insensibility preceding death. In this manner our life lies before us like a stream, of which alike the springs and the entrance into the ocean are unknown. Our infantine existence is a dark mystery for ourselves, and what is passing in a child's soul we can but imperfectly guess and conjecture. But, if every man is to himself a fragment and a riddle, how can the boundless history of humanity be more intelligible to him? Enough for us to be able to apply that infinite notion of good which we have tried to develop by our reasoning, to that limited space of our terrestrial life which we with our reason survey and govern.

We began with stating that everybody knows, and must needs know, what in each individual case is good or bad; and that, in this special case, he may judge correctly and positively-not indeed, in general, from a just and clear insight into the idea and supreme principles of good, but rather from a vague feeling, or from a conviction acquired by instruction, tradition, or revelation. If, then, that vague notion really and truly has been explained as identical with a reasonable dominion of man over the earth, this definition must yield a standard by which each of these individual cases is to be tried and determined. We must prove that all we recognise as

equivalent to good, or as a direct consequence of good, is a special case of the general rule about the reasonable government of earth. We must clearly show that the source of all virtue, felicity, human perfection, and duty is completely contained in this rule. For virtue, felicity, perfection, and duty mark the different points of view under which men are inclined to contemplate the supreme good, according to their different education and sagacity.

All we

Our demonstration is not difficult. Man, we said, is to govern on earth; therefore, he has to master the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and to stamp nature with the seal of his genius, subordinating matter to his mind, and bringing it as an obedient servant under the empire of reason. Having acquired Having acquired this power, and in the process of establishing it, man is to develop all those blossoms which the human mind is capable of bringing forth. Is all this to be accomplished? then the first requirement is, that the individual man must enter into an organized community of his fellow-men; for, as individuals, we are weak and helpless. perform is the result of the co-operating efforts of many. What is it that renders man stronger than those animals most superior to him by corporeal force? It is not the strength of his body; it is reason, which teaches him the use of arms. What enables him to sever huge granite pillars from earth's massive body? That same reason which led him to construct wheel and lever. Reason tames ferocious beasts, or it wages a war of extermination against them, provided man is to exist at all. Those very earliest operations, without which the naked and naturally defenceless lord of the creation could not have been maintained in existence, require the co-operation of many. The cottage which shelters, the cloak that covers him, are the works of a thousand hands.

Reason thus enables man to understand, what his natural feeling revealed to him, that he must love men-because he knows that every other man forms a part of

himself, as well as he himself is on the other hand a part of them. For I am myself not only this individual body animated by a soul; but my own self expands itself, and embraces the world of things as far as I am able to set the stamp of my will and of my mind upon it; and in the same way I produce an influence upon my fellow-men inasmuch as I take a part in their instruction, their welfare and their development in general, just as they do in mine; and without their company I should lose the best part of myself. It has been said of marriage, that its true glory is apparent from the fact that its supreme happiness is coincident with its highest duty, viz. to live for him, and to strive with all our might and main to make him happy, who is dearest to us on earth. Now, such a happiness is reserved not only for the religious man; but it also blossoms even in a higher degree for the ethical man who has thoroughly appreciated the idea of mankind in its due sense. To what do these conclusions lead us but to that which the religious man calls Christian charity? Thus we arrive at the harmony of that highest of all virtues on our rational and logical way, quite in the same manner as the mathematician we spoke of achieved the task of composing a fuga by calculation.

But if, under guidance of our ethical conscience, we have discovered the greatest and highest of all human virtues, without which even the wisest and greatest of all men is but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, it would be easy to discover in like manner all other virtues by the same process of reasoning. We will confine ourselves to giving some hints about the manner in which every single virtue is to be deduced from that notion of good and evil which we have explained. If the realization of good consists in the foundation of a kingdom of reason on earth, it is easy to see that the virtue of humility reveals itself immediately to him who is fully conscious of the immensity of such a task, and of the narrowness of the part which the individual, even the greatest and the most