4io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



does not steal, because he is neither a murderer nor a thief. Society 

 does not need to surround him with policemen in order that he may 

 be led to conclude with some reluctance and regret that honesty is the 

 best policy ! And when he goes about doing good, when he helps the 

 fatherless and the widow in their affliction, he is not doing such deeds 

 in order that he may secure to himself personal advantages in the nature 

 of titles to valuable celestial properties. He thinks not of himself when 

 his brother calls for help. He has within him the instincts of a gentle- 

 man. They were born in him. They have been bred into his very 

 bones. These instincts prompt him to respect the rights and property 

 of others, and to lend a hand when others need his help. He is ready 

 to do his part in providing the children who are living amid brutal 

 surroundings, with those influences which will inspire them with 

 admiration for that which is pure and good and manly. 



The highest type of man of which we can conceive deserves no more 

 credit for being what he is, morally, than he deserves credit for having 

 a white skin. It is precisely this which makes him a man of the 

 highest type. He does not need to waste his strength in resisting 

 temptation to do wrong. When we come to consider the character of 

 the Creator of these wonders, which so far as we know find their highest 

 expression in the human race, on this little insignificant earth, we can 

 not think of him as claiming or deserving any credit for being what he 

 is, or for doing what he has done. 



We can not think of him as having been sorely tempted to do wrong 

 and having resisted the temptation. We can not think of him as 

 having struggled into his present position, under adverse and discour- 

 aging conditions, in a manner which entitles him to praise. We can 

 not think of him as an oriental despot, who demands praise of Ins 

 creatures, most of whom have never studied physics or astronomy or 

 chemistry or biology, and who are therefore unable to properly appre- 

 ciate the wonders which surround them on every hand. 



We have, however, made progress, and we can all see that the pos- 

 session of such knowledge as we possess, by the masses of the people, 

 during those dark and brutal periods of religious intolerance, would 

 have made impossible those bloody quarrels over questions to which we 

 give not the slightest thought. 



