from the judgment of Infinite Rightness from the standpoint of human Rightness. If the Infinite assumed a moral censorship and made impossible the change in the millionaire's mind, It would at once neutralize his Being, i. e., destroy his Free Will, prevent him using his Reason. This would instantly defeat the object of Man's existence, for if done in one instance it would have to be done in every instance, for Infinity makes no exceptions, and the Free Will of the whole human race would be at once made impossible. "Aha!" cries the anti-Prohibitionist. "Then if the Infinite refuses to prohibit anything, what right have we finite creatures to enact prohibitory laws?" The answer is simple. Our Subconsciousnesses, our individualities, are built up by testing the rightness of our Reason. The law of Evolution and of "the survival of the fittest" is nothing but Expressed Nature's contest with experience. Even Unreasoning Nature has by the law of its Being a right to protect itself in every possible way. Reasoning Life has the same right, and if a community sees fit to prohibit the sale cr use of intoxicating liquors it has a right to do so in order to test the rightness of such a procedure. We may say that a prohibitory law unduly restricts human Free Will. It may be so, but it is not always so. What the human race has established as right and wrong is the result of Experience. The measure of a nation's civilization is to be found in the limitations within which it confines the individual. In all so-called civilized nations the rights of life and property are protected. Forgery, arson, theft and murder are very rightly prohibited, though, as we have seen, they are not prohibited by Infinite law or they would not occur as they do. Thus we see that ideas we have established as Right and Wrong are the outgrowth of Reason, Experience, and are not of Divine authority or patterned after Infinite Rightness except as they evince the working of the Infinite Urge to Rightness. When we transgress these right human laws we hurt ourselves; we cannot hurt Infinity. The opportunity to hurt ourselves is freely and fully given us by Infinity in order that we may learn not to do so by our arrival at a state of Rightness of our Own Finding. Sometimes we are impelled by elemental laws that are not fully comprehended, to do what has been established as a Wrong thing. Let us take as an illustration a suspicious husband, who in the evening, during the absence of his wife, discovers a letter which he considers fully to establish her faithlessness. Almost instantly his state of mind changes from suspicion into murder. He resolves to kill the man who has dared to rob HIM of the complete possession of his wife. Here we see the elemental Egoism of all Nature projecting itself. Every elemental atom considers itself the center of Life, and, as has been shown, every man considers himself as the center of Life in his elemental concept of himself. He resolves to show this intruder who is the Best Man-the impulse of the "survival of the fittest." The male of every species is willing to fight to the death-unless governed by Reason-to show that It is the best of its kind. This is an elemental impulse allowed by Infinity for the development of each species. We prohibit this sort of thing amongst men, as such contests are not ordinarily demonstrations of the survival of the fittest, but merely prove which contestant is better armed or takes the fewest chances of being killed. Moreover, Reason has shown better ways of allowing men to show their fitness to survive. The murderous husband, however, in re-reading the letter has another change in his state of mind, and the change is as fully and freely allowed by Infinity as was the first. His stormily working Reason decides that his wife has been the temptress and is more to blame than the man. He resolves to kill his wife, that she is not fit to survive. He will show Her his Superiority. How dare She betray Him, the center of the Universe to himself? Again the elemental law of Egoism! to be worked in the form made necessary in the development of the species when the Best Man selected the Best Mate for the propagation of the species, and felt that he had a perfect right to keep her or kill her as he saw fit. He puts a revolver in his pocket and hides by the front gate, prepared to kill her, and her paramour as well if he accompanies her home. As it happens, she comes home with some friends, and he defers carrying out his purpose until they leave. She then, seeing that something is wrong with him, asks him what is the matter, and he shows her the letter. Fortunately for her, she is able to convince him that he is absolutely wrong in his reasoning, and he again changes his state of mind. All of which goes to prove that our codes of Right and Wrong are established by our reasoning, not by Infinity itself, Which does no more than Urge us in the right direction. These illustrations are sufficient to indicate the character of the censorship of the Infinite in merging one state of mind into another. It observes its own creative fiat; that is, it observes its own laws, or chaos would be the result; it sees that everything else obeys these laws to avoid the same result. Now we ought to be able to comprehend how universal harmony is preserved in Unreasoning Nature, where everything, being Mind, wills, thinks, in perfect unison with the Infinite Mind. The continuation of this |