THE STRENGTH OF WEAKNESS.
An unexplored moral world stretches out before us, and invites our
investigation; but neither our time, our abilities, nor the character of
our work, will permit us to do more than glance at its loveliness.
It is pleasing, however, to turn from the world of political economy, in
which "might makes right," and strength of mind and of body are employed
to oppress and exact from the weak, to that other and better, and far
more numerous world, in which weakness rules, clad in the armor of
affection and benevolence. It is delightful to retire from the outer
world, with its competitions, rivalries, envyings, jealousies, and
selfish war of the wits, to the bosom of the family, where the only
tyrant is the infant--the greatest slave the master of the household.
You feel at once that you have exchanged the keen air of selfishness,
for the mild atmosphere of benevolence. Each one prefers the good of
others to his own, and finds most happiness in sacrificing selfish
pleasures, and ministering to others' enjoyments. The wife, the husband,
the parent, the child, the son, the brother and the sister, usually act
towards each other on scriptural principles. The infant, in its
capricious dominion over mother, father, brothers and sisters, exhibits,
in strongest colors, the "strength of weakness," the power of affection.
The wife and daughters are more carefully attended by the father, than
the sons, because they are weaker and elicit more of his affection.
The dependent exercise, because of their dependence, as much control
over their superiors, in most things, as those superiors exercise over
them. Thus, and thus only, can conditions be equalized. This constitutes
practical equality of rights, enforced not by human, but by divine law.
Our hearts bleed at the robbing of a bird's nest; and the little birds,
because they are weak, subdue our strength and command our care. We love
and cherish the rose, and sympathize with the lily, which some wanton
boy has bruised and broken. Our faithful dog shares our affections, and
we will risk our lives to redress injustice done him.
Man is not all selfish. "Might does not always make right." Within the
family circle, the law of love prevails, not that of selfishness.
But, besides wife and children, brothers and sisters, dogs, horses,
birds and flowers--slaves, also, belong to the family circle. Does their
common humanity, their abject weakness and dependence, their great
value, their ministering to our wants in childhood, manhood, sickness
and old age, cut them off from that affection which everything else in
the family elicits? No; the interests of master and slave are bound up
together, and each in his appropriate sphere naturally endeavers to
promote the happiness of the other.
The humble and obedient slave exercises more or less control over the
most brutal and hard-hearted master. It is an invariable law of nature,
that weakness and dependence are elements of strength, and generally
sufficiently limit that universal despotism, observable throughout human
and animal nature. The moral and physical world is but a series of
subordinations, and the more perfect the subordination, the greater the
harmony and the happiness. Inferior and superior act and re-act on each
other through agencies and media too delicate and subtle for human
apprehensions; yet, looking to usual results, man should be willing to
leave to God what God only can regulate. Human law cannot beget
benevolence, affection, maternal and paternal love; nor can it supply
their places: but it may, by breaking up the ordinary relations of human
beings, stop and disturb the current of these finer feelings of our
nature. It may abolish slavery; but it can never create between the
capitalist and the laborer, between the employer and employed, the kind
and affectionate relations that usually exist between master and slave.