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The perception of evolution of all existing things is ever obscured through lack of perspective. Happy would it be, however, if such parts as are faintly visible could be viewed and described as they seem, without the everlasting suspicion that its portrayal indicates desire to praise at the expense of the present the times that are past. To declare any one a praiser of by-gone times is supposed by the unthinking to constitute an unanswerable argument, praise of anything that is past being supposed to convey disparagement of everything in the present. Of such airy nothings are the words which often present themselves as reason. But let it be noted that, to deride one who praises things of the past, as compared with certain phases of the same things within the present, implies that, in all things, at every period, the world has progressed up to that point in everything, and never has in anything retrograded, and this is an untenable proposition, as can be proved by the single instance of the Dark Ages, covering a multitude of retrogressions. A bird's-eye view of present civilization, while it shows us an aggregate of wide-spread liberality of thought, and of tenderness for the weak and oppressed and suffering, and of individual and organized effort for succor and relief, shows us also at the foundation of society a weakness of principle in financial matters unknown within historical times, and simultaneously a loosening of the family tie, associated with an erotic license with which, whether as cause, effect, or concomitant, it goes hand in hand. If it be ever possible to reach perception of effect as derived from cause, it would seem here as if the greatest of all the agencies at work, amid the multifarious ones that go toward producing any effect, is the sudden influx of wealth and luxury to thousands of persons, who, reared in penury, or in the most modest circumstances, could not safely reach at a bound suddenly changed conditions. Although not generally recognized, here is plainly to be seen the working

of the law of the survival of the fittest, for luxury has its victims from prodigality of all sorts, in health and money, who go down in the battle of life as surely stricken as in war.

At a time when the greatest general sense of justice that has ever been exhibited is engaged in ameliorating the condition of the poor, declaring that the laborer is worthy of his hire, and philanthropy, going beyond this, seeks to educate him, and to succor him when needy and when sick, the laborer himself, in instances so numerous as to tend to repress the sympathy which has gone out toward him, makes claims and demonstrations of force which have on occasions paralyzed the industries by which he lives, and withdrawn from the coffers of the State moneys for whose reimbursement he must contribute from his scanty stock. In this country, America, where the shoes in which men walk freely are so big that they never pinch, even organized anarchy has presumed to take disruptive part against a governmental scheme which it had not part nor lot in framing,—a governmental scheme which professes to permit to every man to become that to which he is entitled by nature and his own deserts.

In this democratic America, where only a few years ago the tail of the British lion used to be twisted on the Fourth of July and other high-days and holidays, and the public prints never tired of descanting on effete European monarchies and the absurdities of titular rank, valuable invoices of American girls yearly go to supply foreign needs, so that the day may come when the New Zealander, sitting on the broken arch of London bridge to view the ruins of St. Paul's, may find among the neighboring drift a stratum rich in specimens of an extinct female American type, associated with collapsed money-bags, while the opposite shores of the Atlantic may show contemporaneous deposits of banjos and microcephalous dudes. These, mingled with crania evidencing a highly-intellectual status of

present dwellers on the soil, will be the puzzle and despair of the future geologist to account for their presence in the midst of an evidently advanced civilization.

The family which, in modern society, is the pillar of the State, weakens, while the State, democratic, republican, or what not, goes on toward centralization of power, and tends, by becoming more and more paternally protective to the individual, to render him less independent, and consequently less free. The unthinking masses, while clamoring for all that government can give, little think that they are bartering away their birth-right. This is a recession from better principles, and looks backward toward Greece and other ancient countries, where, the individual was merged in and had no other existence than for the State. It is difficult to see it as a healthy sign in the State, when gov ernment is like a gambling scheme, where in defeat or victory the chief gain is not for the people, as against the owners of the bank. The times of Louis XIII were not pleasant for the people; the king was really the State long before Louis XIV proclaimed it; but they were, at least, consistent in not pretending that government signified anything else than that the people should be despoiled. If one must be ruled by tyrants, instead of by the people for the people, better than a bloated tribune is kingly prerogative amid the pomp and elegance of a court, for nothing is more terrible than vulgar tyranny.

It is thus seen that it is absurd to say or imply, at any period of the human race, that all things are everywhere, in every respect, better than they have ever been. We must be able to recognize the fact that, in the moral world as well as in the organic and inorganic worlds, evolution is an unrelenting process, and, as represented in any individual place, may be progressive or retrogressive.

All that we can intimately know of the effects of evolution is comprehended by earth, and here we perceive general progress,

not only in the intellectual and the moral, but also in the physical, world; but if we are observant we ought also to see retrogression and apparent pause, according to the rhythmical law to which all things are subject. The great moral advance, regarded as a whole, that has been made on earth is to be frankly acknowledged. But do not, therefore, let us stultify ourselves through self-satisfaction, by proclaiming, in the face of facts, that we are better than we are, in all respects better than our immediate progenitors. Let us, however repugnant to our self-love, recognize that if we have got rid of some of their vices, they possessed some virtues in which we hardly equal them, while at the same time it is permissible to us to take credit to ourselves for a comprehensiveness in the lines of our advance which they never approached.

It is thus perceived that not in the physical world alone, but in the mental one also, as represented by the individual, family, social circle, and nationality, development in infinite directions, in the present era generally upward, continuously influences life. The force at work acts in obedience to an unremitting natural law, controlling all physical, mental, and moral affairs, not only on earth, but, as we have reason to believe, throughout the whole universe. The only apparently modifying influences to its action on earth are the intelligence and the will of man; but these are not antagonistic influences, for they, too, are factors in the grand total, contributing their quota to the consequences of the working of this universal law. Controlling all being, it necessarily includes health and beauty, and all else that appertains to mankind.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SENTIMENT OF THE BEAUTIFUL.

ALF the arguments in the world arise and persist, because

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each side does not know exactly what the other is driving at, and very nearly the other half, because one does not itself know. With this solemn warning before us, an instant's thought will be well taken to reach an agreement as to what is to be here understood by the term beauty. In this best of all possible worlds one can never tell, unless personally acquainted with his interlocutor, at what tangent he may go off. It has even happened, when the question of beauty was on the tapis, that some one has asserted that the supremely good is the supremely beautiful. This is worse than puerile, for we know nothing of perfection of any sort except as a transcendental idea, and our notion of perfection in morality, as expressed in terms of the beautiful, is only figurative, a notion derived from our constant comparison of objects of beauty in the sensuous order of things. To do this, therefore, is to be guilty of the absurdity of attempting to define the unknown in terms of the unknown, and not only that, but the unknown in terms of the unknown in an entirely different category, confounding the sensible with the supersensible. world.

What is here intended to be understood by the term beauty is the beauty that is recognized by the senses, sensuous beauty; and although the touch has had its share in educating that perception, reference is here to be made solely to the beauty which is perceived by the eye. The limitation must be made still more strict, and therefore it becomes necessary to say that, although occasion will presently arise for using illustrations which do not apply to personal beauty, yet it is to personal beauty, as our

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