Kansas University Weekly.
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light will descend and trace in letters of gold above his head, "Charlemagne, the great and peace-loving emperor of the Romans."
鸳鸯
The Rising or the Setting Sun?
[Second place in the preliminary contest was given to C.M. Sharpe.]
"The earth moves," cried Galileo; and we in this restless, rushing age have added, 'the world moves forward, ever realizing better and nobler things.' Glorious empire has been won. Neither the infinite nor the infinitesimal has been able to stay the onward march of man's all-conquering genius. What was thought to be simple has been shown to be compound; and what was thought to be complex has been proved simple. Old foundations have been destroyed and new ones laid. That which was high has been brought low; and that which was humble has been exalted. Behold what Man has wrought!
That these things are evidences of activity none will question: but not a few earnest and thoughtful minds will deny that there has been progress. Progress, they will tell us, is movement toward a goal. It is not revolution about a fixed point, nor is it oscillation between stationary terminals. It is necessary to the idea of progress that humanity shall consciously advance toward the realization of an end satisfi highest demands of the human press must therefore these just
Whatever be our theory of life, it must in some way stand related to the interests of Man. No ethical system can find acceptance which is not some phase of the idea of human well-being. It is plainly true, moreover, that the most popular phase of the idea is that expressed in terms of happiness. We are endowed with that insatiable craving for enjoyment and behold the world in which we live offers bounteously the means with which we may satisfy our desires. Surely God has not dealt with us as in the
Hellenic myth the Olympian dealt with Tantalus. Let us therefore "take the good the gods provide us." The utmost degree of happiness should be our aim.
This argument has ever appealed to the popular mind with convincing force; and, by reason of the life resulting from its practical acceptance, the doctrine has found place in modern scientific thought. For the scientific method is one of observation; and scientific laws are merely general statements of the manner in which phenomena regularly recur. Political Economy, borrowing its fundamental conceptions from Biology, observes the phenomena of the economic organism. It sees the children of men, in pursuit of happiness, competing among themselves for the possession of those material goods which are supposed to be the indispensable conditions of well-being. It learns from History that such has ever been the conduct of mankind; and upon this data it constructs its theory. Men will ever seek their own interests. The strong will be fat and flourishing, while the weak will decline and finally succumb. The law of Natural Selection obtains in the social as in the physical world. Nay, stress and strain must ever accompany progress, and so far from the strife ever being discontinued it must continually wax fiercer and fiercer. 'The race is to the swift and the victory to the strong.'
In harmony with this theory we see in society a continually widening divergence between groups and classes. Extremes of wealth and poverty meet our view. From these social and material differences result envys, strifes and bitternesses. In the face of increasing wealth there is increasing discontent. Science and invention have accomplished wonders but to the toiling multitudes their creations seem to bring bane rather than blessing. The result has thus far been to bestow upon some few a luxury, while mere existence is made more precarious for thousands.
To stem this on-rushing tide of social woe cer-