SOCIETY A SCHOOL OF NATURAL HELP. 749 manded as the necessary conditions of success. They are demanded by those with whom they deal. Every mercantile or industrial exchange is a moral transaction. It introduces the question of right, the element of equity. It cannot take place without being watched by others, careful and interested to detect fraud. It calls for frankness, honesty, incorruptible integrity. And when we reflect how universal must be the system of exchange in a civilized community, how all-pervading is the element of mutual trust, how paralyzing and radically destructive is a blow to public confidence, we may readily perceive on what a grand scale society operates to vindicate the laws and constitution of the world which favor virtue and virtuous action. 13. If now, turning aside from the broad theatre of public. life, we pay attention to the relations which spring up in more retired or obscure associations, we shall see how the social feelings are educated and trained in favor of humane and generous action. The inequalities of social life are notorious, and they are beyond the reach of remedial legislation. There must be, if not rich and poor, at least richer and poorer. There will also be the more learned and the more ignorant, the stronger and the weaker. In other words, there will always be the need and call for mutual help. Society is ever presenting to each member of it these diversities of social condition, and asking for them thoughtful consideration. And, to some extent, they must be, and indeed, are considered. The result is, that pity is awakened; sympathy is excited; forbearance is evoked. The ravages of disease; the prevalence of famine; an injury that prostrates a laborer, and robs his family of the means of support; a sudden illness that demands watchful attention and kind offices of friendshipall these, and a thousand other incidents that illustrate the relative diversities and dependencies of social life, are actually the occasions for calling forth self-denying virtues, for bringing human feelings into exercise, and for lightening the ills and calamities of life by the interposition of friendly service. Society thus becomes a school for mutual help. The hardest heart is softened by the sight of suffering which it is impelled to relieve. Public sympathy is evoked to extend com 750 VICE REPELS SYMPATHY. miseration to those that need, and public indignation is ready to denounce injustice, while it takes instinctively the part of the wronged. In this way all the gentler virtues of pity and compassion and generous self-devotion are nurtured and strengthened. Society becomes actually a school for their development, and to show how successful it has been sometimes in its training, it would only be necessary to mention a few of the familiar names which the civilized world has canonized for their self-forgetting consecration to the cause of humanity and the relief of human suffering. 14. But while we speak of social sympathy we must not overlook the fact, that it is more readily extended to the virtuous than the vicious. It is difficult to enlist it on the side of the latter. Even those who are little governed by moral principle themselves, will be backward to relieve those whose wrong-doing has challenged the hardships they suffer. There may be even a measure of satisfaction in seeing them forced to struggle with the consequences of their own vice and folly, or with calamities, not of their own procuring, which wear the aspect of just providential inflictions. On the other hand, the good man is sure of respect and sympathy from all that are good, and in the hour of calamity, he will not be left to neglect. Not merely those whom he has befriended, but, in some instances, those who have merely known him by name and reputation, will rush to his rescue, and it may be that the hour of adversity may surprise him with the assurance of friendships that he had never known or imagined. We may thus perceive in how many and various ways, society, and social and civil organization, operate in the interest of virtue, and tend to confirm faith in the moral order of the world. In all its relations, hostile or friendly, to human character or energy, it is naturally, that is, according to its natural and necessary constitution, the ally of whatsoever is good, and the antagonist of whatsoever is vicious or socially injurious. T ΤΙ TIME AS A FACTOR IN THE YORAL SYSTEM, Having considered separately the relation of mos his complex nature, both to the material worl we reach a point where we are prepared to conjointly with a new element, by w modified, and by which also the vi exposure and punishment of vring an element, wid 752 VIRTUE GAINS AND VICE LOSES BY TIME would be accounted a dangerous neighbor-its very This contrast is instructive, but in tracing the results to their causes, we are led to note not onl has been already adverted to-the inherent weal every vicious compact, but the marked superior advantage which virtue reaps from the mere lapse which allows existing tendencies or causes something legitimate development. The good and the ill of s may encounter one another, and in the immediate iss last may appear to triumph. But ere long it is four there is something more than an immediate issue. day's, every hour's, delay is redressing the wrong, and ing the balance. The element of time works diversel respects virtue and vice. Let these be represented by and it adds its cyphers to them, but in the one case it su and in the other it prefixes them. 1. Bishop Butler has compared the relative inferiorit virtue when confronted by the marshaled forces of evi gross physical strength, to that of reason when compelle contend with wild beasts. Give reason time to devise p and call in its resources, and it may defy the attacks brutal rage. Taken unawares, by sudden assault, it is co paratively powerless to resist, and becomes an easy pre But it has within itself the means of supplying this defe So, in a somewhat analogous way, it is with virtue. In man cases an innocent man, falsely accused, needs nothing at a but time for his vindication. Time elucidates the obscure sets facts in a clearer light, softens the bitterness of prejudice or blind passion, allows causes to work out their results, or perhaps the really guilty to make a confession that exculpates the accused. On the other hand, vice loses by delay many of its seeming securities and advantages. It is subjected to a suspicious and TIME AS A FACTOR IN THE MORAL SYSTEM. Having considered separately the relations of man, with his complex nature, both to the material world and to society, we reach a point where we are prepared to consider these, conjointly with a new element, by which their operation is modified, and by which also the vindication of right and the exposure and punishment of wrong are promoted. This new element, which we must by no means overlook, is-Time. Bishop Butler, in his "Analogy," draws a striking picture of the commanding position and superior advantages which, in a course of ages, would be attained by a government conducted on the strict principles of justice, and maintaining in its intercourse with other nations a reputation for incorruptible integrity. It is easy to see that its conduct and policy would inspire confidence and disarm resentment; that it would give no occasion for the formation of hostile leagues combined to assault it, through apprehension of its ambition or unscrupulous designs; that in every contest into which it might be forced, it would have the sympathy of all friends of justice; that oppressed tribes or nations would naturally resort to it for protection, and that, by its own subjects, it would be regarded with a patriotic affection, increased and strengthened by its unswerving administration of exact justice. With each succeeding age, such a nation would increase in strength, even while stationary in numbers, and its whole history would illustrate the truth of the inherent strength of virtue. The very reverse of this would be the experience of a government conducted in disregard of the rights of its subjects, or its relative duties to other governments. It would provoke insurrections from within, and hostile combinations from without. If it indulged in unscrupulous violence, that violence would excite resentment, and invite indignant retribution. The memory of its wrong would be cherished by its victims, who would await the opportunity of revenge. It |
