Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898 — John Shaqi
Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898Various
History
Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898
Various
Science -- Periodicals
nation and the law of nations. Thus we find that the idea of the just,
and of what is right from man to man, is something which is found
everywhere; and as that develops culture develops; but the mere just
alone does not satisfy the human heart; the man who merely metes out
to his fellow that which the tribal law, or the law of the land,
requires of him, certainly is not up to the ideal of any man or woman
in this assembly or in this city.
There is something beyond that, and what is that? We find that it
rests in the idea of the good—that which is often brought forward in
the beautiful forms of religion, which tells man that above justice
there is something greater and nobler than mere ethics or
morality—the mere right and wrong—the mere giving what is due. It is
not enough to do that; there must be a giving of more than is due;
because the idea of the good transcends the present life—it passes
into the future life of the species; and it is only through going
above what is needed to-day that we may endow our posterity with
something greater than we ourselves possess. It is the idea of the
good, therefore, which lifts that which is merely just into a
higher—into, I might say, an immortal sphere of activity. It has
always had an intense attraction for noble souls, which history shows
us; and it is not to be supposed that that attraction will ever
diminish; it will ever increase, although its forms may change; and
finally, along with this betterment of the emotions, and of the sense
of justice—of right and of ethics and of æsthetics—we find the
constant effort and desire of all mankind, in all stages of culture,
to find out what is true, as distinct from that which is not true. You
will not be mistaken if you seek for this in the soul of the rudest
savage; he, too, likes to know the truth. The methods by which he
arrives at it, or seeks to arrive at it, are widely different from
those which you have been taught. Nevertheless, the logical force of
his mind; the methods of thought that he has; the laws that govern his
intelligence, are exactly the same as yours: and it is only with your
enlightenment you have gained more and more acquaintance with the
methods. You know something about the great discovery which has
advanced all modern science from its mediæval condition to that of the
present—of the application of the inductive system of science and
thought; and you know that it is by constant and close mathematical
study of analogy—of probability—that we exclude error little by
little from our observations—we improve more and more our instruments
of precision—we count out the errors of our observation; and we are
constantly seeking those laws which are not transient and ephemeral
only, but which are eternal and immortal. Upon those laws, finally,
must rest all our real, certain knowledge; and it is the endeavor of
the anthropologist to apply those laws to man and his development; and
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