2 TEE SUN. 



THE LAW OF ORDER. 



The first thing, then, to consider, is how to Jceej) order. 

 How far can a person go in his actions without being subject 

 to arrest? 



Incapacity. — Can we suffer dictation, on the ground of inca- 

 pacity? Then by reason of whose capacity? What consti- 

 tutes the standard ca2:)acity? Is not folly the material out of 

 Avhich wisdom is made? Not only are they relative, they are 

 interconvertible terms. Through both runs the same warp 

 of self interest. Self help, at one's own cost, is the law of 

 growth. Everybody then has a right to the exercise of his 

 incapacity if it does not impose a burden. Every one has a le- 

 gal right to make a fool of himself, providing he pays the bills. 



Ojximons. — Should erroneous oj^inions be suppressed? If 

 so, then who has got the correct one? Is not one's evidence 

 just as good to him as that of another? Does not the same 

 rule apply, Avhen my opinions seem erroneous to you, to make 

 yours so to me? Then the suppression of another's opinion 

 warrants the suppression of your own, and the suppression of 

 one calls for the suppression of all. Can an idea be hit by a 

 brickbat, much less be killed? Instead, do not "those who 

 would crush out ideas in turn perish by ideas?" 



Morals. — Can bad morals be tolerated? Thought leads to 

 action. Preaching points to practice. A theory is good for 

 nothing if it cannot be put into operation. The people's mor- 

 als have their opinions behind them. Opinions cannot be 

 separated from morals. AVhat makes my morals offensive to 

 you, by the same ]>rocess of reasoning, reversed, makes yours 

 distasteful to me. The suppression business works both ways. 



Emls. — Can we harbor evils? To be sure some are great. 

 But if we can suppress the greatest, then we should the next, 

 and so on till all are closed out. But evil is only a m«7-adap- 

 tation, beneatli it is a soul of goodness; to arbitrarily destroy 

 all evil would destroy the good. To call upon force indicates 

 an utter lack of all faith in virtue itself to cope with vice on 

 equal terras. A resort to force is moral cowardice, a virtual 

 self-surrender. Evil may seem to be suppressed, but it has 

 only been excited to renewed activity. Breaking the thermom- 

 eter does not alter the weather. 



