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Untitled Article
It is closely allied to that passion for tragedy which lured the Homan ladies of a former age into the amphitheatre , to witness the unequal combat of human beings with ferocious animals , and which , even now , crowds our courts of law and our places of execution with depraved multitudes , who gloat upon scenes from which the unabused instincts of mankind would turn in loathing and in horror .
The Love of Power is another instinct almost exclusively human . "We see it in the schoolboy tyrannizing over the " fag , " and enacting all the grosser abuses of scholastic custom . In its natural and moderated development it has its uses . It secures the dominion of man over the lower animals , thus tending to self-preservation , and to the protection and perpetuity of the race . It is the natural check to
pusillanimity and cowardice * but only so long as it is not abused . In its licentious excess , it is blood-thirsty , murderous , and savage . Even while we are writing , it is torturing the civilized world by a worse than barbarous cruelty . If it begin in a moderate love of dominion , nothing will satisfy its inordinate cravings but a sea of human blood !
The Love of Possession is also an instinct purely human , salutary as tending to the supply of human wants , but too often ruinous , and proving itself " the root of all evil . " ¥ e see it in young children innocent of covetousness , not less clearly than in the aged miser clutching his gold with grizzled hand . It is more to be dreaded
than any one unchecked propensity of our nature . But it has its social uses . Even in its excess , it has given us merchandize , steam , railways , and electric telegraphs . Evil has thus been turned to good .
The Love of Display is a human instinct which has its uses . In its virtuous and moderate exercise it excites gonerous emulation , prevents our good being evil spoken of , and gives us influence and power over vice and profligacy ; but in its too general abuse it becomes a despicable vanity , often marring the best characters , and dissipating the charm of general excellence .
There are , indeed , few vices which have not in their origin a substratum of instinct ; and , on the other hand , there are few-virtues which do not harmonize with natural propensities duly controlled and rightly directed . Philanthropy and benevolence are but manifestations of the social instinct in its uncontaminated purity .
But a new view of the subject presents itself here . If man has instincts as well as the brute , and if brutes are capable not only of reason , bub of fidelity , gratitude , and other moral virtues , wherein consists the essential peculiarities of human nature ? Is man superior only in degree , not in kind ? There have not been wanting ,
philosophers who have maintained this ; and lest the facts above adduced should seem to support so degrading an hypothesis , we now propose to institute an inquiry into the grand distinctions between man and the lower animals . In pursuing this question we have no intention of trenching upon the office of the divine . The religious character of man , his dread responsibilities , his appointed state of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
It is closely allied to that passion for tragedy which lured the Homan ladies of a former age into the amphitheatre , to witness the unequal combat of human beings with ferocious animals , and which , even now , crowds our courts of law and our places of execution with depraved multitudes , who gloat upon scenes from which the unabused instincts of mankind would turn in loathing and in horror .
The Love of Power is another instinct almost exclusively human . "We see it in the schoolboy tyrannizing over the " fag , " and enacting all the grosser abuses of scholastic custom . In its natural and moderated development it has its uses . It secures the dominion of man over the lower animals , thus tending to self-preservation , and to the protection and perpetuity of the race . It is the natural check to
pusillanimity and cowardice * but only so long as it is not abused . In its licentious excess , it is blood-thirsty , murderous , and savage . Even while we are writing , it is torturing the civilized world by a worse than barbarous cruelty . If it begin in a moderate love of dominion , nothing will satisfy its inordinate cravings but a sea of human blood !
The Love of Possession is also an instinct purely human , salutary as tending to the supply of human wants , but too often ruinous , and proving itself " the root of all evil . " ¥ e see it in young children innocent of covetousness , not less clearly than in the aged miser clutching his gold with grizzled hand . It is more to be dreaded
than any one unchecked propensity of our nature . But it has its social uses . Even in its excess , it has given us merchandize , steam , railways , and electric telegraphs . Evil has thus been turned to good .
The Love of Display is a human instinct which has its uses . In its virtuous and moderate exercise it excites gonerous emulation , prevents our good being evil spoken of , and gives us influence and power over vice and profligacy ; but in its too general abuse it becomes a despicable vanity , often marring the best characters , and dissipating the charm of general excellence .
There are , indeed , few vices which have not in their origin a substratum of instinct ; and , on the other hand , there are few-virtues which do not harmonize with natural propensities duly controlled and rightly directed . Philanthropy and benevolence are but manifestations of the social instinct in its uncontaminated purity .
But a new view of the subject presents itself here . If man has instincts as well as the brute , and if brutes are capable not only of reason , bub of fidelity , gratitude , and other moral virtues , wherein consists the essential peculiarities of human nature ? Is man superior only in degree , not in kind ? There have not been wanting ,
philosophers who have maintained this ; and lest the facts above adduced should seem to support so degrading an hypothesis , we now propose to institute an inquiry into the grand distinctions between man and the lower animals . In pursuing this question we have no intention of trenching upon the office of the divine . The religious character of man , his dread responsibilities , his appointed state of