348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they overlook its benefits ; and, doing this, they think that nothing but 

 good would result from its general abandonment. Let us observe the 

 tacit assumptions made in drawing this conclusion. 



It is assumed, in the first place, that adequate guidance for con- 

 duct in life, private and public, could be had ; and that a moral code, 

 rationally elaborated by men as they now are, would be duly operative 

 upon them. Neither of these p l-opositions commends itself when we 

 come to examine the evidence. We have but to observe human ac- 

 tion as it meets us at every turn, to see that the average intelligence, 

 incapable of guiding conduct even in simple matters, where but a very 

 moderate reach of reason would suffice, must fail in apprehending 

 with due clearness the natural sanctions of ethical principles. The 

 unthinking ineptitude with which even the routine of life is carried 

 on by the mass of men, shows clearly that they have nothing like the 

 insight required for self-guidance in the absence of an authoritative 

 code of conduct. Take a day's experience, and observe the lack of 

 thoiight indicated from hour to hour. 



You rise in the morning, and, while dressing, take up a phial contain- 

 ing a tonic, of which a little has been prescribed for you ; but, after 

 the first few drops have been counted, succeeding drops run down the 

 side of the phial all because the lip is shaped without regard to the 

 requirement. Yet millions of such phials are annually made by glass- 

 makers, and sent out by thousands of druggists : so small being the 

 amount of sense brought to bear on business. Now, turning to the 

 looking-glass, you find that, if not of the best make, it fails to pre- 

 serve the attitude in which you put it ; or, if what is called a " box " 

 looking-glass, you see that the maintenance of its position is insured 

 by an expensive appliance that would have been superfluous had a 

 little reason been used. Were the adjustment such that the centre of 

 gravity of the glass came in the line joining the points of support 

 (which would be quite as easy an adjustment), the glass would remain 

 steady in whatever attitude you gave it. Yet year after year tens of 

 thousands of looking-glasses are made without regard to so simple a 

 need. Presently you go down to breakfast, and, taking some Harvey 

 or other sauce with your fish, find the bottle has a defect like that 

 which you found in the phial : it is sticky from the drops which trickle 

 down, and occasionally stain the table-cloth. Here are other groups of 

 traders, similarly so economical of thought that they do nothing to rec- 

 tify this obvious inconvenience. Having breakfasted, you take up the 

 paper, and, before sitting down, wish to put some coal on the fire. 

 But the lump you seize with the tongs slips out of them, and, if large, 

 you make several attempts before you succeed in lifting it all because 

 the ends of the tongs are smooth. Makers and venders of fire-irons 

 go on, generation after generation, without meeting this evil by the 

 simple remedy of giving to these smooth ends some projecting points, 



