"Know, then, thyself,
presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man."
POPE.
WHAT the study of mankind is man
is as true today as when the thought was uttered by the poets and
the teachers of ages past. Man's greatest interest has always been
in himself. No subject has so engaged his attention. From it he has
learned to know his needs and his necessities, his desires and his
ambitions, and he has striven, so far as has been within his power,
to satisfy and gratify them. It is the study of himself that has
caused him to consider his fellow-man, the relationship which he
bears and the duties which he owes to him, and it has also led him
to a contemplation of the divine. Plato's exhortation, "Know
Thyself," is the expression of the same thought, but subjective
rather than objective. It is this study of himself that has caused
man to rise above his environments and brought about the
advancement, the elevation and the improvement of the human race.
And what an improvement there has
been, what an advancement he has made! The most imaginative of the
minds of the past, yes, even the most visionary, could not have
conceived of, much less have comprehended, man's condition in the
present age.
History delights to dwell upon
the golden age of Rome-Rome, mistress of the seas, center of
civilization, home of the arts and the sciences, of sculpture and of
painting. We read of glorious conquests in war, her great and
renowned men, her glorious festivals, the beauties of her
architecture, her sculpture and her paintings the golden age of
Rome, and fancy pictures all that is great and glorious and
beautiful. Great, indeed, she was in all her glory, but the glory
faded and passed away, as do all things whose foundations are laid
in the quick sands of error and not upon the rocks of everlasting
truth.
Let us pause for a moment and
consider the basic principles upon which that superstructure was
reared and without the enforcement of which it was believed human
society could not exist.
According to their views the
state was everything, the individual nothing. Man existed but for
the purposes of the state, and was valuable only so far as he was of
value to the state. They assumed that in the beginning came
government and then came man, and their beliefs are diametrically
opposed to our present beliefs that government exists for the
benefit of mankind and not mankind for the benefit of government.
Again mankind was divided and
classified, the nobility and aristocracy, the plebian or common
people, and beneath these were the slaves. A slave, who might be one
taken captive in war and of equal intelligence and education with
his master, was property, and as such was bartered and bought and
sold. As property his life was of no particular consequence and
might be taken by his master with impunity. And woman, man's only
peer, was little better than a slave. If married she was the
property of her husband, if unmarried she was the property of her
father. Like a slave, she had no rights, and having no rights she
could get no redress for wrongs. What a contrast to the fundamental
principles of all enlightened governments of to-day that in the eyes
of the law all men are equal, that the life of one human being is as
valuable as the life of another, and that neither government nor man
dare take a life without a most just and sufficient reason.
And the conception of the
relationship of man to his Creator - death was the end of all.
Except among some of the philosophers, there was no belief in a
hereafter, although thought and abstract theories were carried to
their highest points, the deepest recesses of the mind explored, the
boldest speculations upon the nature of the soul and its spiritual
existence originated and carried out. The grave was the end of all.
And the principle of the
brotherhood of man, so potent a factor in the world to-day, did not,
it could not, exist. The old primitive truth had been lost sight of,
nor was it restored until the cry of the down-trodden of France,
LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY shook the earth to its very
foundations and welled in the hearts of men. The heralding of that
principle stirred mankind from their lethargy and brought about the
final and complete overthrow of all those principles which made the
greatness and the glory of Rome. Man to-day can look down from a
most exalted position upon the past ages of the world.
But, my brethren, we are far from
perfection. We practice the great principle of the brotherhood of
man but partially, and we have much to strive for. Selfishness is
our greatest curse, and moral weakness in doing our duty is out
greatest handicap. "Count that day lost whose low descending sun,
views from thy hand no worthy action done" should be the rule and
guide of our lives; not for ourselves but for others, should be our
motto; and to endeavor to do something in the cause of humanity that
shall live when we are dead, should be our purpose. Life is action,
noblest action, and it is not measured by time. To do nothing worth
doing is no more than to sleep, and what were life if it were but
one continuous sleep:
"We live in deeds, not
in years; in thoughts, not breaths,
In feeling, not in letters on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He lives most
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."
Let us believe, my brethren, that
man will move steadily onward, that he will acquire the mental light
which will enable him to see the right, and the moral courage to do
the right as he sees it. And finally, let us have faith in humanity,
and in the coming of the day when life and light and love shall be
the one great law of the universe and its eternal harmony. |
