Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/67

Rh a place for charity toward the poor devil whom as yet neither charity nor logic can dispose of.

But there are other philosophers, among whom I count myself—I say it in all modesty, it runs in our family—who are not satisfied with any of these explanations, and very naturally ask: "Is the world a failure? Is it not a very good world? Is it not, in fact, as good as it can be? Were the united wisdom and goodness of the race supplemented with omnipotence and allowed to reconstruct the universe, could they improve upon the world as it is? Are these, that we name so, evils, or is it that we have failed to find out their character and use?" I purpose to answer these questions by applying to them the Law of Difference, which I conceive to be the panacea for the ills of life. Keep in mind that, as all knowledge comes to us as the result of the different, so do all emotions of pain or of pleasure. Every quality that is thinkable implies its opposite, or at least its different in degree. Happiness and misery are only relative terms. Absolute happiness cannot exist any more than a magnetic needle with only one pole. The sick man who rises for the first time for weeks from a bed of pain and is led out into the sunshine is very happy; while the strong man who has not known sickness for years is unhappy from some slight indisposition which scarcely interferes with his daily work. Why this difference? Simply from the contrast with the previous condition. He who would enjoy must suffer. The lives of some people pass so smoothly that we count them happy. They are simply in the possession of something whose value they have never known, hence it is to them worthless. If you want to know the full value of a clear conscience you must go through the hands of remorse. If you want to know the comfort of owning two shirts at a time, you must know the discomfort of owning no shirt at a time. Whence comes the pleasure we feel from our progress in knowledge? From the difference between the knowing and the not knowing of anything. Take the happiness that comes from social position in life. It arises from the fact that we are higher up than some one else. Bring all to the same level and it would be enough to make an angel weep to see how much happiness some people would lose. Many would be bankrupt. Take the tramps and vagabonds out of society, and the whole fabric would be cut down one story; for, to change the figure, they put one more round into the ladder—it matters not that it is at the bottom—and give the climber a chance to go one round higher. It is the length of the ladder that counts, no matter where the bottom is placed. What are wealth and poverty? Only relative terms. There is none so rich as the poor boy who has just received his first dollar after a week of hard work. We waste a great deal of pity on those who are born in the humbler ranks of life. It is my impression that, on the whole, it is better to be born poor, and work your way up to wealth and honor, than to have wealth and honor thrust upon you at birth, even though retained through life.