t3be Conservative *
tiou of nbility are those having BO little
ability as to bo useless , and those bigheaded -
headed fools who are determined to go
it alone to their self-evident disadvan
tage , which is a sign of insane inability.
No Obligation to Humanity.
No person is born with an obligation
to parents , state , country , or anything
else , though ignorance may assert tud
reassert that "at our coming into the
world we contract an enormous debt to
humanity which we can never dis
charge. " Supreme nonsense I Human
ity itself denies such an assertion when
it holds the child irresponsible until it
arrives at an age when it assumes the
child to be capable of intelligently enter
ing upon obligations. How can a child
or person be held for responsibilities in
which it played no part ? If a man or
woman , after having been declared re
sponsible by law , enters Into rnnrriage ,
or any other relation , then and then
only is he or she held responsible. A
man owes nothing to his parents for
being born. He is mighty lucky if he
is bred well enough to be self surviving-
ly useful to others. Self-made men are
the results of accidental good breeding.
They did not make themselves. They
are simply lucky accidents so far as they
are concerned. They no more make
themselves what they are than do the
idiots , imbeciles and other xaufortuuates.
Do they owe anything to their parents ?
It must not be forgotten that parental
( largely parental ) responsibility has
been forced on parents by society and is
little more natural to man than to the
beasts of the field. Men are not over
anxious to maintain their illegitimate
children , yet such are often far more
the results of what the world calls love ,
far more naturally created than those
born in wedlock. Society will make a
great advance when it gives all chil
dren equal rights to the support of their
parents and equal hereditary rights to
property.
Humanity Does Nothing : for the Indi
vidual.
Whatever past generations have done
they did for themselves. That we
derive benefits therefrom has nothing to
do with them. If A builds a handsome
estate ho does it to gratify himself ,
vanity included. Little cares he whether
"it benefits the town , " though it tickles
his vanity to be told so. A dies and B
buys his place and gets it cheaper than
he could build ouo ( fools build houses
and wise men buy them" ) ; does B owe
anything to A for having built the
house ? If so he is under still more
obligations to him for having died ,
which A certainly did not do to benefit
B. Not one of us is working for future
generations. Vanitas vanitalem. When
a rich man dies and "leaves millions to
the public , " if we only knew him it
would be found that he was putting up
margins on. post-mortal dividends. If
msaiitWMHiiiH s = = . " ' "
' I
ho thinks to please God , superstition
rules him and ho is in reality offering a
bribe to the eternal. Often he does it
out of vanity , fearing to pass into
forgetfulness. At other times he does
it to advertise his wealth. Not ouo does
it out of unadulterated love for human
ity. Most of those beneficences are due
to a mixture of cowardly superstition ,
vanity or gross egotism. Carnegie illus
trates all three conditions combined.
Men have left millions to the public
who in their lives held it in supreme
contempt. "Love of humanity , " in a
genuine sense , was foreign to their
natures.
"Self-Made" Contradicts the Obligation.
If these millionaire public benefactors
were sincere in their claims that they
owed so much to humanity why are
they so boastfully pestiferous in pushing
their self-madeisui down the throats of
their less fortunate brethren ? Mighty
few of them have been so successful in
their own fabrication as to bo able to
continue their kind in their own chil
dren. They are generally "short-bred"
and hav < no pedigree in the line ability
sense. Only inability is under any debt
to humanity , for without it it would die.
When a child grows to citizenship he
inherits certain ready-made obligations
which were originally made to be
mutually beneficial to all concerned.
Whether they are actually beneficial to
him depends on his ability to make
them sO. Humanity , per se , will have
just as much use for him as he is capable
of making it useful to him and no more.
That it takes care of inability is due
mostly to superstition another form of
putting up margins on post-mortal
dividends and just as little from neces
sity as it can possibly help. Inability
would die a natural death but for the
nursing it gets from superstitious ignor
ance. The amount of actual good
feeling in humanity would not run a
state orphan home if left to itself to do.
The hardest thing in the world to do is
to look the truth in the face and admit
it. Hundreds have said to the writer :
"I believe what you say. Every word
of it is true ; but what is the use of say
ing it ? " One man recently said : "I
like your writings in THE CONSERVATIVE
immensely , but you are a thundering
fool for writing them unless you can
live independently of the public. " THE
CONSERVATIVE is trying to be honest
and desires honest readers. True virtue
is not self-renunciation ; it is intelligent
confidence in self-integrity.
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
Sharon , Mass.
INSTRUCTION OF USEFUL 1JIKI > S.
The Audubon Society of Washington
will ask congress to pass a "bird law. "
As an argument for protection of our
feathered friends it will show that the
egret has been hunted out to the point of
extermination from the marshes where
it has taken refuge ; that the cardinal ,
the Baltimore oriole , and the great blue
heron are nearly extinct. Worse than
all , it will be shown that the turkey
buzzard is being sacrificed to such an
extent to furnish the largo single feather
now worn so much by young ladies that
the health of the country is menaced by
the loss of its services as a scavenger.
If their beauty , their song and their
tender memories enshrined in art and
poetry fail to touch the heart of fashion's
devotees and save the birds from de
struction , perhaps utilitarian considera
tion may induce women to at least spare
us the foul and ugly but useful buzzard.
Woman's Tribune.
MONTKSO.UIKUISMS.
"The mechanic who gives his art as
an inheritance to his children has left
them a fortune which is multiplied in
proportion to their ability. "
"A man is not poor because he has
nothing but because he does not work.
( The poorest man in the community is
ho who has no ability to work. Modern
altruism makes him rich by working for
him. " )
"As men have given up their natural
independence to live under political laws
they have given up the natural com
munity of good to live under civil laws.
By the first they acquired liberty , by
the second property. "
"Men who have absolutely nothing ,
such as beggars , have many children.
These people multiply in a rich or super
stitious country , because they do not
support the burden of society , but are
themselves the burden. "
"At Rome the hospitals placed every
one at his ease except those who labor ,
except those who were industrious , ex
cept those who have land , except those
who were engaged in trade. Transient
help is far better than perpetual
charities. "
"The human mind feels such an ex
quisite pleasure in the exercise of power ;
even those who are lovers of virtue are
so oxceFsively fond of themselves that
there is no man so happy as not still to
have reason to mistrust his honest in
tentions ; and , indeed , our actions
depend on BO many things that it is
infinitely easier to do good than to do it
well. "
"It is a paralogism to say that the
good of the individual should give way
to that of the public. This can never
take place , except when the government
of the community , or , in other words ,
the liberty of the subject is concerned.
This does not affect such cases as relate
to private property ; because the public
good consists in every one's having his
property , which was given him by the
civil lawsrinvariably preserved. "
7.1
I * * * * * *
