Many
suppose, (and often in its own ranks the error,) that it means a
throwing aside of law, and running riot. But, briefly, it is the
superior law, not alone that of physical force, the body, which,
adding to, it supersedes with that of the spirit. Law is the
unshakable order of the universe forever; and the law over all, and
law of laws, is the law of successions; that of the superior law, in
time, gradually supplanting and overwhelming the inferior one. (While,
for myself, I would cheerfully agree--first covenanting that the
formative tendencies shall be administer'd in favor, or at least not
against it, and that this reservation be closely construed--that
until the individual or community show due signs, or be so minor
and fractional as not to endanger the State, the condition of
authoritative tutelage may continue, and self-government must abide
its time.) Nor is the esthetic point, always an important one, without
fascination for highest aiming souls. The common ambition strains
for elevations, to become some privileged exclusive. The master sees
greatness and health in being part of the mass; nothing will do as
well as common ground. Would you have in yourself the divine, vast,
general law? Then merge yourself in it.
And, topping democracy, this most alluring record, that it alone can
bind, and ever seeks to bind, all nations, all men, of however various
and distant lands, into a brotherhood, a family. It is the old, yet
ever-modern dream of earth, out of her eldest and her youngest, her
fond philosophers and poets.
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