424 APPENDIX 



individual freedom of action, and ignore the obligations essential to part- 

 nership in any social or constructive compact. It is not without significance 

 that ordinary people, like you and me, can discover no specific mandate in 

 the Constitution of the United States. It broadly defines what the state does, 

 or will do, in certain contingencies, and what its citizens may, or may not 

 do, but says nothing about what the citizen must do in return for what 

 the state does for him. The absence in citizenship 2 of a formal and specific 

 contract, defining a common purpose and recognizing mutual liabilities 

 and mutual benefits in its attainment, is in marked contrast with modern 

 business procedure, as well as with almost every other form of intelligent 

 cooperation. It is, therefore, not surprising that an international covenant 

 for the specific purpose of reducing the danger of international wars to a 

 minimum, in which an attempt is made to define national rights and obliga- 

 tions in that undertaking, has a strange and unfamiliar sound. 



The absence of this covenant principle is noticeable in almost every 

 phase of modern education. Science, even, does not formally recognize a 

 covenant with nature, although nature virtually says to man "Know me, 

 and serve me, and I will serve you." Much of our biological teaching is 

 like a shop window display of nature's competitive goods, with a varied 

 assortment of human notions thrown in, but with no guarantee as to their 

 significance, or quality, or usefulness. The pedagogical barker, seldom 

 having convictions of his own, proudly displays the impartiality of his 

 "purely scientific" attitude, and leaves the callow purchaser to decide for 

 himself which trinket he will select for his mental adornment. 



Perhaps all of us can get together again on common ground by put- 

 ting our concepts of nature-action into simpler, more comprehensive formu- 

 las, universal in application, and somewhat as follows. In so far as we 

 have a right to assume that purposeful action is involved in any construc- 

 tive functioning whatever, or in anything that has been accomplished, we 

 may assume that the purpose, or grand strategy in nature-action, is evolu- 

 tion, or self-construction, or growth. To that end, serviceable agents must 

 first exist, or be constructed, in which is resident a basic right to receive 

 service, and a basic obligation to give service. As all constructive action 

 is contingent on the fulfilment of these mutual rights and obligations, the 

 categorical imperative to existence is mutual service. 



As corollaries to this categorical imperative, the following compulsions 

 are laid upon these constructive agents. In all sustained constructive 

 action there must be: (i) A mutual directive discipline, or mutual adapta- 

 tion; that is, a mutual subjection, and yielding to one another's influence. 

 (2) An individual freedom of opportunity for self-constructive, or egoistic 

 action, within rigidly circumscribed limitations. (3) Mutual service or 

 cooperative action, in which, sooner or later, the profits of egoism must be 

 surrendered, through altruism, to some ulterior creative act. (4) Con- 

 servation of these profits as an accumulating capital in constructive right- 

 ness, and its endowment to other individualities for usage in further con- 

 structive action. 



In that phase of cosmic evolution which we call social growth, science 

 and religion are the outstanding cooperative agents. They better serve 

 their ulterior purposes the better their mutual services, and the better their 

 mutual adaptation of thought and act to creative ends. 



"Every member of the community has a right to be protected by it in 

 the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property. He is, therefore, bound 

 to contribute his share in the expense of such protection, and to yield his 

 personal service, when necessary, or an equivalent." 



BILL OF RIGHTS, Art. rath, Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, 

 "Colby's Manual," 1902. 



