THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



they act, and why they act, and, when we obtain the 

 knowledge thereof, to yield willing obedience to the 

 power that cannot be controverted. In this regard 

 the moral and psychical laws are like the physical, 

 though the former laws are not so easily learned. In 

 regard to the latter the child, before it can walk, 

 learns that it must avoid certain acts and leave cer- 

 tain things untouched, or it will suffer pain in conse- 

 quence. All men know that the laws of gravitation 

 are no respecter of persons. No amount of piety, 

 innocence or virtue will save from destruction one 

 who, carelessly approaching, falls from a precipice. 

 The over-venturesome swimmer, when his strength 

 gives out, will be drowned, whether he be a saint or a 

 sinner. Even the zealous physician, who devotes 

 himself to science, and for the benefit of it and of his 

 fellow-men searches out the cause and the possible cure 

 of a virulent disease, if not very watchful, may fall, 

 and often does fall, a victim to deficient caution. Many 

 dangers cannot be averted, but very many can. The 

 laws that govern mental and moral acts are equally 

 positive and equally inflexible. They are not so self- 

 evident and self-asserting as those that are called the 

 physical laws, but all who care can read them, and 

 if wise obey them. The unpardonable sin is that 

 ignorance that cares not to know and will not learn. 



354 



