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THE central law of nature is the law of equilibrium. It is the law of rest, not only, but of motion, and of repose in motion; it is the indispensable law of progress. It is not merely coextensive with the law of gravity in the balancing of atoms and in the cycles of the stars. It is as inexorable in the spiritual and nloral orders, in the affairs of the human mind and will, in the preservation and advancement of social and civil life. Its violation, if persevered in, always means catastrophe. In human things, where man has the physical power to disregard it, it has always been its own avenger whenever it has been antagonized or set aside or supplanted by arbitrary human provisions. It is not destroyed by being ignored, but with gathered momentum eventually crushes its way through human interference; and then puts equipoise into the ruins, for men to begin again, if they will, as followers and not as founders of nature's laws. Erroneous theories in philosophical systems and in plans of society and in economics and education, however plausible they may appear as outlined on paper and fortified by the prophecies of enthusiasts and backed by the hopes and support of the anxious and unthinking multitude, when put upon practical trial, must prove themselves unadapted to the end, in the inevitable retribution which follows rash experiment. Great, practical questions which have come up in the histories of peoples have never received a satisfactory solution where they have not been approached in a spirit of submission to nature's central law. Unfortunately, grave, practical questions are not always thus approached, to be determined by the standard of unassailable principle, certifled fact and the logical consequences. Today, the shifting restlessness of opinions that rules in social matters seems to bid defiance to the law. In. matters of supreme social import we are constantly meeting with some new error rushing in upon a hundred others half applied; and the catastrophe is delayed. Men pass away and their schemes lose the impetus that is born of personal interest; successors are rarely heirs to great enterprise in carrying out the theories of the deposed or the departed. Yet, a certain following often remains; and so it is that now we have a hundred errors jousting for possession of the field. Superadded to disorder we have internal conflict which gives promise that the central law is preparing to manifest itself in a destruction which has not had a parallel in the history of civilizations.

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9781503337275

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