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THE FALL.
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violating in letter, as well as in spirit, the Messianic command, "But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also," no one could have ever dreamt of subjugating the nations of the world; nor without trampling down the equally forcible mandate, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," could any one amass wealth. The truth is that man's power of speech enables him to disguise his true feelings, not only from his fellow-beings, but, quite as often, from himself. Failing to understand the nature of the ideal set before the world by the great Propounders of Religion, the modern man seeks to hide the cancer of unhappiness at his heart by impotent sentimentality and self-deceiving ideas of his own importance and morality. The richest nation on earth may possess the most enormous amount of wealth, its country may be very beautiful to look at, and it may boast of all the luxuries of life which the ingenuity of man has ever put at the disposal of wealth, yet the question arises and must be asked, what individual happiness has been conferred upon the people constituting it? The answer in the negative is so self-evident that one need not take the trouble of recording it. It is not that we deny the great advantages of such institutions as the school, the hospital and the poor-house, but, in very truth, these very institutions furnish evidence condemnatory of our civilization. Our schools impart education, it is true, but it is also true that the education they impart tends not to advance the cause of individual happiness, but leads to atheism, impiety and godlessness. The increasing necessity for hospitals and poor-houses goes to indicate
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