6
THE UNIVERSITY COURIER.
INDEPENDENCE MUST HAVE LIMITS.
Independence, as defined by Webster, is of two kinds: 1st, political, by which is implied perfect freedom from obligation to our fellow men, except that which flows from the fact that men are common heirs to these rights, viz: safety, liberty and property; 2nd, natural, which, if it ever existed, would consist in the power to enjoy permanent well-being, without regard to the disposition of those from whom we are politically independent.
The exceptions to perfect freedom form the subject of this paper; that is, "What are the true limits of independence?" Man is the highest representative of nature, and is governed by the same laws. "The law of nature is dependence." Everything is dependent upon something else. The motions of the planets are dependent upon the forces of gravitation and inertia. Should both or either of these cease, the planets would be converted into vapor. It is calculated that if the earth were stopped, there would be enough heat generated to convert it into vapor in fifteen minutes.
Beginning with the forces of nature. The word forces, as here used, implies the actual energy or motion. All forces are mutually convertible and mutually dependent. We say simply that things are correlated that are convertible into each other at pleasure. Philosophy teaches us that "no force is lost." If not, the question comes up, What becomes of it after it passes beyond our recognition? This question led to experiment, and out of experiment grew the demonstration. In motion, correlation requires that where it disappears as motion, it should reappear as heat, light, or electricity. If the body is elastic, its motion is not arrested, but refracted. If the body is not elastic, its motion is stopped and converted into heat. Motion may also be converted into electricity or light. So taking heat as the initial power, light, electricity and motion may be produced.
Now if each of these great forces acted independently of the others, and were not converted into the others in time, we would have no light, no heat, nor electricity, for these forces would finally be exhausted. The world would have no vegetation, no animal life, no existence whatever, for these are all dependent upon light, heat, and electricity. There is no independence in physics—no isolated fact. Were there no mutual attraction existing in the solar system, what would become of us? Would we still continue to revolve around the sun? Would the earth still rotate on its axis? Or would we have any change of seasons? We would have none of these, for they are all in some greater or less degree, dependent upon the attraction of gravity.
Under the firm guidance of the law of the universe, not a sun, nor moon, nor planet, nor smallest messenger of the sky, is allowed to swerve from its true path. Without it, the component parts of this grand universe would be hurled into space, with no more purpose than the erring comet, which comes from parts of space unknown to make a passing obeisance to the great Sun King and surges on, probably never to return again. "There is no independence in the heavens."
Upon the earth itself the limits of independence are again observed. Were the atmosphere totally independent of the action of heat, we would have no winds, and without them, no rains, for it is known that the winds are the principal conductors of vapor. Were the growth of plants not limited by the change of seasons, there would be boundless Brazilian forest
growth in some regions, while others would be as sterile as the Sahara. Vegetable decomposition would cease, and with it the production of oxygen, and the animal kingdom would be buried in an ocean of carbon.
The food of the plant is matter whose energy is expended. But the plant takes it up, exposes it to the action of the sun's rays, and in some way converts the actual energy of the sunlight into latent energy, storing it for the use of animals. Thus plants and animals are correlated. Each furnishing a check upon the other. The animal kingdom is totally dependent upon the plant kingdom for the power of locomotion. The animal world is a world of dependence.
Society is the natural state of man. His whole constitution shows that the intention of his maker was that he should live in society, assuming relations which require man to give up some liberty. True independence for man, in this light, is that independence or self-reliance which is in direct conformity with the laws of God, and the relations which exist between man and man. Washington looked forward to the time when the world should be united as one "Grand Republic of Humanity." No man in his natural state is fully independent, for he is ever relying upon God for his existence.
Man has been under laws in all ages, from the Patriarch who governed his family, in the beginning, to the complex forms of the present. Government could not have been established by man, but is, in the nature of things, only part of the plan of the universe. The object of government can not be better expressed than in the words of the Constitution. It is to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, protect the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. Without government there would be no liberty, but in its stead despotism. Law protects us in our rights by restricting those of people who would interfere with ours. Rights must be protected, civilization, education, art, and science, fostered, and the advancement of the nation hastened. All of which could not be obtained without law.
Hence, in community, restriction is a necessity, not simply to restrain the bad, but to secure those natural gifts of God—safety, personal liberty, and property. I say natural gifts. These things are fundamental, and a regard for their protection and preservation to all men alike, is the true standard of restriction. "Liberty is the perfection of just law." With the poet,
"Laws do not put the least restriction Upon our freedom, but maintain it"
Absolute liberty would be a chariot without a driver, a ship without a pilot. It would be a northern cold, freezing the genial flow of benefit into an icicle; an avalanche of horrors descending and destroying the work of ages. Look at the French Revolution, under Louis XVI., which cost France a million of lives; like the scorpion, which having slain its enemy, gives its own death-sting. Rational liberty limits the bad; piracy, robbery, remorse, idiocy, and a long list of evils against propriety. It recognizes the mutual dependence of men, animals, and plants; turning latent into motive power, and enabling man to use the forces of nature. It extends charity and industry to the poor, administers justice, and protects the rights of all.
An absolutely independent man rides a horse which runs away with him, while a rationally independent man rides with a knife-bit, as it were, and can guide and direct his horse in the right path. And the time is coming when the limits of independence will be so adjusted that men will feel themselves truly free. And this true independence will spread like some mighty enthusiasm,
"And sweep with forceful arms to their last graves, Kings from the earth and pirates from the high seas."
E. B.