10 Conservative.
to be iu the same condition ns chemistry
at the period of Lavoisier.
Professor Ross is among the foremost
of the world's investigators in sociology ,
and possesses iu a high degree the scien
tific spirit which is as ready to discard
the useless as to search for the useful
among the great and unchangeable facts
which it is the obligation of the scien
tific man to discover and declare. To
outlaw such a man from a university as
punishment for his occasional state
ment of conclusions reached within his
field of investigation is to inflict the
greatest possible harm upon the institu
tion itself.
Human knowledge was long restrained
by this policy. No wise man blames the
Egyptian Monk , Cosmos Indicopleustes.
because fourteen hundred years ago his
theory of the universe was incorrect.
His elaborate system , which declared
the world to be a parallelogram , flat ,
surrounded by four seas , and on their
outer edge a wall inclosing the whole
structure , with the firmament cemented
to its top , was the best that man knew
then of cosmography. But wise men do
blame the latter Christian world for its
inhospitality to the wider and truer
knowledge of Bruno and Galileo , and
the Mahometan world for its persecution
of Averroes for the same offense of ori
ginal investigation.
When it is known that science in a
university is under bonds to prejudice
or dogmatism , the usefulness of that
university is at an end and its further
existence is without reason.
Every issue that arises in the indus
trial and economic life of a people is
properly the subject of scientific analy
sis. It is known beyond dispute that
this is not a chance world , neither in its
physical structure and considered as a
mass of matter , nor in the movements
of that humanity which is the highest
expression of creative force. When the
illuminating orb of science rose , never
to set , dogmatism vanished like the
night. Any such attempt as this to re
call the shadows and bring night to re
place the endless day of scientific
knowledge is of necessity abortive. No
authority can bring back the immovable
world , nor back of that the flat world ,
with its brazen firmament. Nor can
dogmatism and reaction recall the con
ception of human society as a lawless
body , moving erratically and subject to
varying moods and a fallible will that
can , regardless of the fixed scheme of
nature , dictate a premise and conclusion.
The place of the sociologist iu the
world's system of culture requires that
he investigate the laws inherent in the
social body and demonstrate them. On
its economic side the utility of his work
is the prevention of waste of force in an
expenditure on lines which uselessly op
pose primordial law. Given knowledge
of that law , man economizes his force
by moving on its lines , and the race is
bettered in all its material conditions.
We do not say that it is always agree
able to man to know his limitations.
The cessation of life is by virtue of law
that none can repeal , but that knowl
edge of law has not made pleasant the
certainty of death. The kuovyledge of
social law , while bringing within the
vision , apparent to the senses , a less
terrifying prospect , may also be disagree
able to those who feebly despise limita
tions. But their fight against the law
is as vain as would be a denial of the
day by one who closes his eyes at the
meridian and says , "It is night. "
In all the wide fellowship of learning
every citizen of the Republic of Letters
will prieve to know that a university
which has promised as much as Stanford ,
and has so far redeemed its promise so
grandly , has suddenly been averted
from its purpose , and appears ready to
close its eyes to the daylight of science
and say , "It is night. "
WAK AND THE MOB SPIRIT.
No ono who has introduced a change
in the constitution of a state , Maohia-
velli tells us , need expect to stop it at
his will or regulate it according to his
pleasure. Those philanthropists who
have lately been recommending war as
a means of grace are now in a way to
be convinced of the truth of this aphor
ism. Their code of morality recognizes
war as a proper means of promoting hu
manity and propagating virtue. The ulti
mate end being the progress and happi
ness of the human race , the slaughter
of a number of individuals , the outrage
of their most sacred feelings , the de
struction of their most cherished posses
sions , although intrinsically deplorable
measures , become sanctified by their
high purpose. In the same way the
prosperity of our own country is an end
sufficient to justify any war in which
she engages , and the passions of hatred
and envy and revenge and greed and
ciuelty and lust , which arouse and
which are aroused by war , lose the re
prehensible character which is attributed
to them in time of peace.
Many recent occurrences should con
vince the world of what it might have
been long ago convinced , that it is im
possible to maintain different standards
of righteousness for nations and for in
dividuals. If our moralists are deter
mined to justify bloodshed by national
forces , and revenge for insults to national
authorities aod emblems , they cannot
make the populace comprehend that re
venge is an evil passion and that blood
shed is sinful. It takes an accomplished
casuist to feel righteously revengeful
when he thinks of the blowing up of the
Maine , or the killing of an American by
a Chinese mob , while he maintains an
attitude of Christian patience concern
ing his own private wrongs. Such re
finements are quite beyond the grasp of
common people. When they are taught
that it is right to kill a number of Span
ish peasants , forced to boar arms by con
scription , iu retaliation for the destruc
tion of the Maine , they cheerfully ac
cept the doctrine , and they immediately
extend it. They say that it applies to
private as well as public morals , and in
this country the negro race is now bear
ing the brunt of the application. White
men in the southern states heard with
joy the declaration of northern clergy
men that dark people were inferior
beings , and incapable of self-government ,
and these declarations are everywhere
bearing fruit.
Colorado Uarbarlty.
The burning of a negro boy at the
stake in Colorado , not by a mob , but by
an orderly assemblage of citizens ; the
horrible barbarities inflicted on the
Chinese by the troops of the "civilized"
powers ; the excesses of the London
populace on the return of the soldiers
from South Africa ; these are illustra
tions of the natural effect of stirring up
the spirit of war. It is absurd to sup
pose that soldiers in battle maintain the
calm attitude of the sheriff who hangs a
convict or of the judge who sentences
him to execution. We have before us
an Iowa paper ( the Decorah Public
Opinion , of November 14) ) , containing a
letter written by a young soldier in the
Philippines to his mother. Ho describes
an action in which he took part , and
says that he and his companions killed
120 negroes. "We never left one alive.
If one was wounded we would run our
bayonets through him. There was
nothing but dead negroes all around us. "
After the battle this brave fellow and
his comrades burnt the neighboring
town , looted the president's house ,
dropped a few tears over the grave of
one of their company , and received high
praise from their commander for their
behavior. There is nothing in this story
but the ordinary incident of warfare ;
nothing in the moral attitude of the
writer of it that is not necessitated by
war ; nothing , we must add , in the effect
on the heart and conscience of the
mother who read it , which is not the
natural result of war.
No doubt those benevolent people who
encouraged their rulers to involve the
country in war in the interests of hu
manity , are now condemning the tor
ture of the negro malefactor in Colorado.
The men who inflicted this torture will
not be affected by such reproofs. They
will retort , if they think it worth their
while , that their proceedings were as de
liberate as those of the American Con
gress when it declared war against
Spain. They will say to the argument
that the law should have taken its course
and justice be done without violence ,
that congress would not wait for arbi
tration with Spain , and was commended
for its refusal to delay by many of the
clergy. To the reproach that the pun
ishment inflicted was unusually cruel ,
they will reply with the question wheth
er it is any woree than the sufferings of
