Page:The kernel and the husk (Abbott, 1886).djvu/152

136 The answer will be different, according as we use the word "natural" in the sense of "ordinary" or "orderly." One class of natural impulses, which may be called selfish or self-regarding, is perhaps more ordinarily predominant; another class, those which regard the good of others, contributes more to the progress and order of society. In the individual, as well as in society, the former or "ordinary" impulses, if unchecked, often tend to excess of passion, and what we call mental "disorder"; the atterlatter [sic] (which are seldom in excess) tend to self-control and a well-ordered mind. In the former sense, it is more "natural," because more "ordinary," to laugh when we are tickled, or to seize food when we are hungry, than to die for our country or to provide food for our children; but, in the latter sense, the nobler actions are more "natural" because more in accordance with order.

What do we mean by a well-ordered mind? We mean one in which the Will does not at once yield to the impulses from the things which seem nearest to ourselves; in which the Imagination vividly presents to us the wants of our neighbours as well as our own; in which the Reason states what can be said for and against each proposal, and the Conscience finally decides the course to be taken. Here then we see an entirely new notion of Nature, at least so far as man is concerned; a course or order of things no longer apart from human intervention, but entirely dependent upon the supremacy of the Will and Conscience aided by Reason and Imagination: and hence we are led to a double definition of human Nature as follows:—

iii. Human Nature means, sometimes the ordinary, sometimes the orderly, course of human things.

Even as to non-human Nature we sometimes find a popular tendency to call, or think, "unnatural," some phenomena which strike us as being contrary to the