Social Problems

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886. Excerpt: ... THE DIMINUTION OF EVILS Just what do we mean, when we talk about social evils? We use the terms "good" and "evil" with a great deal of freedom; but perhaps we do not often measure our words or analyze their significance. Almost anything may be possible, if only life may continue, and with life opportunity may remain. But, if existence ceases, with it is blotted out all possibility of all desirable things. For the individual, then, the first good of all is life, because this is the one indispensable condition of all other good. The first and highest conceivable end of any living thing then must be--living. But this living is not mere existence, mere duration, though this is the prime condition of everything else. Living is only the blank form. What will you fill it out with? What will you put in it? The next thing, then, after living, is the contents of the life. It needs to be complete, full, after its kind. A complete life of a tree is one thing. The complete life of an oyster, a fish, bird, dog, horse, is another thing; that of a man, still another, and unspeakably a higher thing. The most possible, according to the nature, is the demand. It is good for a fish or an animal to be all it can be, as fish or animal. The more sides of its being that are developed, the wider, the larger its life, the more it comes in contact with, the more sensations and experiences, the more it lives. So of a man: he not only needs to live, but it is good for him that his life be filled out on all sides, below and above. If he lives only an animal life, he knows only the animal range. There are possibilities in him of heart, of brain, of soul, so linking him with the dust at his feet and the heavens that stoop to kiss his brow. His natural range is from the abyss to the empy...