The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 79
The Ultimate Law of Life
The Ultimate Law of Life.
"We cannot find out God and call [ unclear: bis] Love,
But we can seek out Love and [ unclear: cr] him God;
So may we still live on with [ unclear: heav] above,
So tread the path that all the [ unclear: sain] have trod."
That expresses to me a very [ unclear: illum] ating thought—but we have profaned [ unclear: fi] name of Love, by almost always [ unclear: assoc] ing with it the idea of sex-love. [ unclear: There] no sex in soul. Tennyson, in "In [ unclear: M] oriam," expresses love for his dead [ unclear: fri] as tender and as deep as any human of traction or affection can be. When [ unclear: Per] fessor Bickerton, of Christchurch, [ unclear: t] gested the possibility of the re-birth [ unclear: at] fresh universes from the impact of [ unclear: d] suns, it seemed to me the most [ unclear: gh] atheistic idea I had ever heard of. [ unclear: H] what is it but the lowest form of [ unclear: aff] tion, which in itself is love, the [ unclear: domi] vital principle of all life, which [ unclear: from] fire-mist of the nebula evolves the [ unclear: Chri] Ideal?
The "love" we need is the [ unclear: unvei] "peace and goodwill toward men." [ unclear: pe] claimed long ago, but still unrealised [ unclear: t] cause its true source and meaning [ unclear: un] still unrecognised. Our loves and [ unclear: the] attractions necessarily govern [ unclear: on] thoughts and actions, if we let them [ unclear: th] is the fact that we have control of [ unclear: th] that makes us men. All men love [ unclear: p] tice, all men have some conception [ unclear: of] moral law and admit its force, [ unclear: yet] support institutions which flagrantly [ unclear: o] late both, and therefore we are [ unclear: con] way to anarchy and chaos, [ unclear: uless] speedily mend our ways. All [ unclear: bure] stitutions are more or less imperfect [ unclear: to] the natural result is that strong [ unclear: and] scrupulous men take advantage of [ unclear: th] imperfections in order to [ unclear: aggr] themselves at the expense of [ unclear: th] fellows.
In the process of developing [ unclear: soc] institutions, which in their [ unclear: beg] were either harmless or helpful, [ unclear: con] antagonise the well-being of man, [ unclear: t] must be destroyed, or they would [ unclear: dec] society. Age, and the very fact that [ unclear: t] lend themselves to the exploitation [ unclear: of] many by the few, give to many [ unclear: in] tions an atmosphere of [ unclear: respectal] long after they have become a [ unclear: men] human well-being. To tolerate [ unclear: ad] stitution, however old, and [ unclear: bowever] spectable, for long after it has [ unclear: ceas] minister to human well-being, breeding anarchy—to tolerate it finitely, will mean the [ unclear: destruction] civilisation. Such an institution in [ unclear: o] history was chattel slavery. [ unclear: Such] institution in the present is the [ unclear: lit] liquor traffic.