MORALITY 



ilization has taken over as a heritage from earlier and 

 lower nations, and partly from barbarians and savages. 

 In the public life of states this contradiction is much 

 more striking than in the private life of the family or the 

 individual. Whereas the milder teaching of the Chris- 

 tian religion — sympathy, love of one's fellows, patience, 

 and devotion — ^has had a good influence in many ways, 

 there can be no question of this in the international 

 relations of the nations; here we find pure egoism. 

 Every nation seeks to take advantage of others by 

 cunning or force, and, wherever possible, to subjugate 

 them: if they will not consent, the brute force of war 

 is employed. Social misery of all kinds spreads wider 

 and wider, almost in proportion as civilization develops. 

 Alexander Sutherland is right when he characterizes 

 "the leading nations of Europe and their offshoots" 

 (in the United States) as lower civilized' races. In some 

 respects we are still barbarians. 



How far the bulk of modern nations still are from the 

 ideal and the reign of pure reason can be seen by a 

 glance at the social, juridical, and ecclesiastical condition 

 of "these leading nations of Europe," either Teutonic 

 or Latin. We need only consider with an unprejudiced 

 mind the accounts in our journals of parliamentary and 

 legal proceedings, government measures and social re- 

 lations, in order to realize that the force of tradition and 

 fashion is immense, and resists the claims of reason on 

 every side. This is most clearly seen externally in the 

 power of fashion, especially as regards clothing. There 

 is a good ground for the complaint about "the tyranny 

 of fashion." However unpractical, ridiculous, ugly, and 

 costly a new garment may be, it becomes popular if it 

 is patronized by authority, or some clever manufacturer 

 succeeds in imposing it by specious advertisements. 

 We need only recall the crinoline of fifty years ago, the 

 bustle of twenty years ago, and the exposure of the 



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