CHAP. XIII.] CONSEQUENCES. 417 



M. Le Play * is a highly original worker and author far 

 too little known or appreciated in this country, where the 

 eminently practical and positive character of his researches 

 should be especially appreciated. His publications on social 

 matters do not repose on a mere collection of the observations 

 of others. He has spent years in not only visiting different 

 countries, from England and Portugal to Tartary and Arabia, 

 but he has actually resided in the houses and families of 

 working men of different kinds in all these different countries, 

 observing with his own eyes the practical results of the dif 

 ferent political, racial, geographical, and climatic conditions 

 of the subjects of his prolonged and exhaustive inquiries. 



But yet another consequence remains to be noticed in 

 connection with conduct. If the lessons herein- Responsi- 

 before deduced from nature are correctly deduced, iKfi?&quot; 

 and if the consequences of the acceptance or rejection of 

 such teaching be such as here represented, a specially awful 

 responsibility must surely rest upon men of any social 

 influence a responsibility both as regards their fellow-men 

 and themselves. But a very small degree of human kind 

 ness and sympathy must be requisite to bring home to such 

 men the need and duty of attaining a distinct certainty both 

 of the non-existence of God and the mortality of the soul 

 before they venture to advise their fellow-men to discard 

 from their thoughts and actions all reference to either. 



As regards themselves, if God exists if, that is, there is 

 a Being of Absolute Beauty and Holiness it follows as a 

 strictly logical consequence that there cannot be any evil for 

 a moment comparable with that of a voluntary denial of 

 worship or of any other conscious rebellion against Him. It 

 also becomes manifest that if there be a personal embodiment 

 of evil the one motto of such a being must be the proud one, 

 &quot;Non serviamr It necessarily follows that those who con 

 sciously or unconsciously, avowedly or practically adopt his 

 motto must, however good-natured or fascinating in manner, 



TT*- ^^ v LCS 9? vri( rs europ&nV and other works, and founder of the 

 Union de la Paix soctale. 



2 E 



