The Ultimate Law of Life.

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.