贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > lay morals >

第3章

lay morals-第3章

小说: lay morals 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



afforded by these five precepts?

HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER。  Yes; but does that mean to  obey? and if so; how long and how far?  THOU SHALL NOT KILL。   Yet the very intention and purport of the prohibition may be  best fulfilled by killing。  THOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY。   But some of the ugliest adulteries are committed in the bed  of marriage and under the sanction of religion and law。  THOU  SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS。  How? by speech or by silence  also? or even by a smile?  THOU SHALT NOT STEAL。  Ah; that  indeed!  But what is TO STEAL?

To steal?  It is another word to be construed; and who is to  be our guide?  The police will give us one construction;  leaving the word only that least minimum of meaning without  which society would fall in pieces; but surely we must take  some higher sense than this; surely we hope more than a bare  subsistence for mankind; surely we wish mankind to prosper  and go on from strength to strength; and ourselves to live  rightly in the eye of some more exacting potentate than a  policeman。  The approval or the disapproval of the police  must be eternally indifferent to a man who is both valorous  and good。  There is extreme discomfort; but no shame; in the  condemnation of the law。  The law represents that modicum of  morality which can be squeezed out of the ruck of mankind;  but what is that to me; who aim higher and seek to be my own  more stringent judge?  I observe with pleasure that no brave  man has ever given a rush for such considerations。  The  Japanese have a nobler and more sentimental feeling for this  social bond into which we all are born when we come into the  world; and whose comforts and protection we all indifferently  share throughout our lives:… but even to them; no more than  to our Western saints and heroes; does the law of the state  supersede the higher law of duty。  Without hesitation and  without remorse; they transgress the stiffest enactments  rather than abstain from doing right。  But the accidental  superior duty being thus fulfilled; they at once return in  allegiance to the common duty of all citizens; and hasten to  denounce themselves; and value at an equal rate their just  crime and their equally just submission to its punishment。

The evading of the police will not long satisfy an active  conscience or a thoughtful head。  But to show you how one or  the other may trouble a man; and what a vast extent of  frontier is left unridden by this invaluable eighth  commandment; let me tell you a few pages out of a young man's  life。

He was a friend of mine; a young man like others; generous;  flighty; as variable as youth itself; but always with some  high motions and on the search for higher thoughts of life。   I should tell you at once that he thoroughly agrees with the  eighth commandment。  But he got hold of some unsettling  works; the New Testament among others; and this loosened his  views of life and led him into many perplexities。  As he was  the son of a man in a certain position; and well off; my  friend had enjoyed from the first the advantages of  education; nay; he had been kept alive through a sickly  childhood by constant watchfulness; comforts; and change of  air; for all of which he was indebted to his father's wealth。

At college he met other lads more diligent than himself; who  followed the plough in summer…time to pay their college fees  in winter; and this inequality struck him with some force。   He was at that age of a conversible temper; and insatiably  curious in the aspects of life; and he spent much of his time  scraping acquaintance with all classes of man… and woman… kind。  In this way he came upon many depressed ambitions; and  many intelligences stunted for want of opportunity; and this  also struck him。  He began to perceive that life was a  handicap upon strange; wrong…sided principles; and not; as he  had been told; a fair and equal race。  He began to tremble  that he himself had been unjustly favoured; when he saw all  the avenues of wealth; and power; and comfort closed against  so many of his superiors and equals; and held unwearyingly  open before so idle; so desultory; and so dissolute a being  as himself。  There sat a youth beside him on the college  benches; who had only one shirt to his back; and; at  intervals sufficiently far apart; must stay at home to have  it washed。  It was my friend's principle to stay away as  often as he dared; for I fear he was no friend to learning。   But there was something that came home to him sharply; in  this fellow who had to give over study till his shirt was  washed; and the scores of others who had never an opportunity  at all。  IF ONE OF THESE COULD TAKE HIS PLACE; he thought;  and the thought tore away a bandage from his eyes。  He was  eaten by the shame of his discoveries; and despised himself  as an unworthy favourite and a creature of the back…stairs of  Fortune。  He could no longer see without confusion one of  these brave young fellows battling up…hill against adversity。   Had he not filched that fellow's birthright?  At best was he  not coldly profiting by the injustice of society; and  greedily devouring stolen goods?  The money; indeed; belonged  to his father; who had worked; and thought; and given up his  liberty to earn it; but by what justice could the money  belong to my friend; who had; as yet; done nothing but help  to squander it?  A more sturdy honesty; joined to a more even  and impartial temperament; would have drawn from these  considerations a new force of industry; that this equivocal  position might be brought as swiftly as possible to an end;  and some good services to mankind justify the appropriation  of expense。  It was not so with my friend; who was only  unsettled and discouraged; and filled full of that trumpeting  anger with which young men regard injustices in the first  blush of youth; although in a few years they will tamely  acquiesce in their existence; and knowingly profit by their  complications。  Yet all this while he suffered many indignant  pangs。  And once; when he put on his boots; like any other  unripe donkey; to run away from home; it was his best  consolation that he was now; at a single plunge; to free  himself from the responsibility of this wealth that was not  his; and do battle equally against his fellows in the warfare  of life。

Some time after this; falling into ill…health; he was sent at  great expense to a more favourable climate; and then I think  his perplexities were thickest。  When he thought of all the  other young men of singular promise; upright; good; the prop  of families; who must remain at home to die; and with all  their possibilities be lost to life and mankind; and how he;  by one more unmerited favour; was chosen out from all these  others to survive; he felt as if there were no life; no  labour; no devotion of soul and body; that could repay and  justify these partialities。  A religious lady; to whom he  communicated these reflections; could see no force in them  whatever。  'It was God's will;' said she。  But he knew it was  by God's will that Joan of Arc was burnt at Rouen; which  cleared neither Bedford nor Bishop Cauchon; and again; by  God's will that Christ was crucified outside Jerusalem; which  excused neither the rancour of the priests nor the timidity  of Pilate。  He knew; moreover; that although the possibility  of this favour he was now enjoying issued from his  circumstances; its acceptance was the act of his own will;  and he had accepted it greedily; longing for rest and  sunshine。  And hence this allegation of God's providence did  little to relieve his scruples。  I promise you he had a very  troubled mind。  And I would not laugh if I were you; though  while he was thus making mountains out of what you think  molehills; he were still (as perhaps he was) contentedly  practising many other things that to you seem black as hell。   Every man is his own judge and mountain…guide through life。   There is an old story of a mote and a beam; apparently not  true; but worthy perhaps of some consideration。  I should; if  I were you; give some consideration to these scruples of his;  and if I were he; I should do the like by yours; for it is  not unlikely that there may be something under bot

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的