simple momentary gratification of
sense, as, for example, an act of nutrition. The highest function
of which his nature is capable is the surrender of himself to the
universal order, the sympathetic identification of himself with
the eternal law and weal of the whole. Between those vast extremes
there are hundreds of intermediate functions, rising in worth and
authority from the direct gratifications of appetite to the ideal
appropriations of transcendental good, from the titillation given
by a pinch of snuff to the thrill imparted by an imaginative
contemplation of the redeemed state of humanity a million years
ahead. But, throughout the entire range, all the sin and guilt
from which hell is produced consist in obeying a lower motive in
preference to a higher one, making some narrow or selfish good
paramount over a wider or disinterested one. A man, educated as a
physician, practiced his profession on scientific principles, and
nearly starved on an income of seven hundred dollars a year. He
then set up as a quack, compounded a worthless nostrum, and, by
dint of impudence, advertising, and other charlatanry, made
eighteen thousand dollars a year, and justified his conduct on the
ground of his success. By falsehood and cheating he preyed on the
credulity of the public. If all men were like him, society could
not exist. The meanness of his soul, shutting him out from the
most exquisite and exalted prerogatives of human nature, is the
revenge which the universe takes on such a man the hell in which
God envelops him. A manufacturer turns out certain products by
means of a chemical process which adds seven per cent. to his
profit, but shortens the average life of his workmen five years.
All mankind would indignantly denounce him with an instinctive
recognition of his wickedness in thus erecting the profane
standard of pecuniary gain above the sacredness of the lives of
his brothers. But when of two men in deadly peril from an
approaching explosion only one can escape, and the stronger,
instead of monopolizing the chance, as he might, stands back and
lays down his life in saving the weaker, it is a deed of heroic
virtue, applauded by all men, supported by the whole moral
creation which derives new beauty and sweetness from it. It
radiates a peaceful bliss of self approval through the breast
before it is mangled and cold, and fills the soul with a serene
joy as it flies to God. The essential merit of such an action is
the su