Government being an organization of power, and power always presupposing
action, motion, it becomes a matter of the gravest importance to a
people who are formulating a government that they should lay hold of the
highest sources from which action can spring—that is to say, as all
action is the result of some prime motor power, to have action which
will proceed in perfect channels, producing harmonious motion, it is
primarily essential that the motor, or moving or controlling force,
shall be of that character which in expression will move majestically
yet sympathetically against all opposition, always having in view the
fact that the presence of low forms of any development is detrimental to
all higher forms with which they come in contact, either directly or
through exerted influence.
It has previously been found that the deductions which are to be drawn
from a complete analysis of all the tendencies which governments have
exhibited during the historic age of the world, conform to the
propositions of the highest form of religious conviction, which is, that
God being the common Father of humanity, that humanity must be a common
brotherhood. Consistent with this the tendencies of government are found
to have ever been to one common form. If these propositions grow out of
the fact that the principle of unity is at all times operating to bring
about a perfect expression of itself, through humanity, the legitimate
deduction is, that the time will come when its ends will be
accomplished, and that that time will be when humanity has risen into a
complete recognition and acceptance of the fact that they are all
children of one common parent.
Principles never change. They constitute the basis of creation, the
forms of which are constantly changing under the influence of the
application of the same power. The same force which caused the matter of
which this planet is composed to first assume its orbital position and
motion, now causes the various parts of it to exhibit the almost
infinite variety of manifestation which is now presented. The same power
that was exhibited in the construction of the original rocks, is also
exhibited in the construction of the sweetest, most fragile flower. The
evidence of evolution—progress—being, that from the rocks the flower has
been produced. Ascending to the animal kingdom, motion, the result of
power applied to matter, was found manifesting itself in the simplest of
organic forms. There, as in the previous periods, it continued its
constructive workings, until the perfect animal form, man, was evolved.
In the strictest examination which can be made into the power which
controls, there can be nothing detected which would seem to, even
indicate that there is anything outside of, and superior to the
contained life, to which to attribute the direction the form takes
through which life is manifested. If this be so, the principles which
underlie the physical universe are but names for this inherent power,
which cannot be attributed to any power less than the Source of all
power. Manifested principles of action, then, which relate to matter,
may justly be considered as the perfect operation of divine law through
the physical universe.
It becomes resolved to this: that the power which is the compelling
principle of all action is at all times the same, but that it manifests
different results, as the channels through which it operates are
different Thus, the motion of the atmosphere over the surface of the
ocean exhibits power by the waves it produces; while the same power
proceeding to land bends the forests and the fields, verdure before it.
The tiller of the soil involuntarily recognizes this fact, when he
destroys all growths which exhaust the constructive power of the air and
soil except the particular one he desires to further or perfect. He
knows that to concentrate all the power upon this one, he must
concentrate its expression in the form he wishes developed. If this
process could be understood, it should be the ordinary rule in every
department of the universe. All the power there is, should be
concentrated into action through the most advanced, and consequently the
most perfect forms—perfect forms always being those which are adapted to
the highest uses.
Wherever this rule is generally applied by nature or man, the lower
existing forms disappear, and in due time the higher fill the places
they occupied. Thus, species of plants and animals are constantly
disappearing from the economy of the universe, while new and higher are
as constantly appearing. And it is to be specially observed, that where
the new exists the old dies out. This law is also distinctly visible in
the development of the different races and types of the human, all of
which a universal tendency prophesies will ultimately be merged into one
grand, all-comprehending race. The tendency to this condition was
distinctly traced in the Tendencies of Government, and was held to be
the basis for the conclusion, that, in its continuance, the condition
named would be naturally and inevitably reached. It may be stated then,
as a general rule, that the most certain method there can be to destroy
the bad—the old—and to inaugurate the reign of the good—the new—is to
attend to introducing the good in the most rapid and best manner, which
will naturally live upon and sap the life from the old, which must
necessarily pass away.
If a new race of humans is introduced among a race which is not
possessed of that capacity which makes it possible for it to develop or
assimilate to the new, it will most certainly die out. Such races are
fixed types of the human, and their characteristics can never be merged
among the general characteristics of the future common race of humanity.
The North American Indians are good examples of this fixedness, and they
will soon cease to exist upon the face of the earth; while the Negro is
an excellent representative of the capacity of evolution and also of
amalgamation. It is not to be lost sight of, that when the Anglo-Saxon
and the Negro amalgamate, the direction the amalgamation takes is always
from the black to the white, and never from the white to the black,
which is positive evidence that the Negro will ultimately be entirely
lost in the white races.
A mighty lesson is also to be gathered from observing the constructive
process of the several kingdoms of the earth, each one of which is built
upon the preceding and leads to the succeeding. The vegetable kingdom
could not exist until the elements comprising the mineral had gone
through their various processes of integration and destruction, by which
vegetable life was made possible. The vegetable, taking up the process
inherited from the mineral, began moving through the same cycle of
advancement by which the mineral had made it possible, and it gradually
merged into the animal; and so gradually that it can scarcely be decided
whether some forms of life belong to the latter or to the former. The
evolution of the animal, having ultimated in the production of the
human, it is not to be inferred that there is nothing beyond the animal
kingdom which is the fruit thereof, as the vegetable was of the mineral
and the animal was of the vegetable.
Again, the vegetable world feeds from the animal—the animal feeds from
the vegetable, which is the only source which furnishes living
protoplasmic food, upon which the animal can alone exist. Humanity takes
this protoplasmic dish either fresh from the vegetable or second-hand
from the animal. It will thus be seen that everything which nature
accomplishes serves specific purposes, and that when the supply is
exhausted the demand ceases. If this principle is followed to its
legitimate end, it will close in the life of the whole animal kingdom
being merged into humanity, which will then feed entirely from the fresh
protoplasmic dishes of the highly developed fruit of the vegetable
kingdom.
These arguments are not pursued as a necessary part of the Principles of
Government, but that the working of universal principles may be caught
sight of and made use of in the endeavor which will be made to decide
how humanity can best assist the operations of these principles as
applied in its own government. Nature being ever consistent in all her
movements in the several kingdoms, how shall “Mind” assist her in
accordance with her own principles of operation, in establishing perfect
channels for her powers to produce the perfect fruit of the animal
kingdom?
In the Tendencies of Government it was found that all movements in
government which have been made during the historic age of the world
have been in the direction of universal control, the persistence of
which course leads to the conclusion that it will be attained when
government shall be based in those principles which, proceeding from a
common centre, shall be sufficiently potent to control the entire
circumference of humanity. The limits and sphere for such a government
to exercise its power in, was found to properly extend to all matters in
which the common interests of the public are concerned as against
assumed individual interests, which would in reality be to the “greatest
good of the greatest number.”
An exemplification of the natural working of a government founded and
administered according to strictest governmental justice may be seen in
the growth and in the maintenance of the life of the tree, which may be
made to represent the tree of humanity. The tree is a complete community
within itself; all its branches and twigs, even to the extremest
distance, are dependent upon the same fountain for its controlling life
currents that the parts nearer the base are. No single branch can
maintain its life independent of the rest. Each separate one must draw
its proportion of supplies from the same source and return the stream to
its fountain when its demands upon it are completed. This power,
starting from a common fountain, is delegated to the various branches
for still further and more general distribution; but no branch can set
up a distributing process for itself in opposition to the general
process. If the branches had the power to set up processes of their own,
the inevitable result would be inharmonies in the common order, which
would work ultimate injury to all parts connected with the main body.
Thus it is with a country. It must possess a common governmental
fountain, and all divisions of it must be directly dependent upon the
common fountain. No division can be permitted to set up special channels
of administration for itself. Each must work in harmony with all others,
and all be equally dependent and dutiful to the common head. In such and
in only such can harmony prevail and life be continuous.
Having found, then, what the destiny of government must be, and having
determined its proper limits and sphere for operation, it becomes still
more essential and necessary that the true mainsprings of governmental
power shall be recognized, for without this, government would still
linger in its age of temporary resorts to get over the constantly
arising contingencies of the times. When this recognition takes place,
legislation will have accomplished its work, and the vast talent therein
expended can be turned into the channels of governmental art. It is to
attract the mind to the operation of general principles in nature that
we have thus far dealt with the material universe. In advancing into the
subtler department of mind, it cannot be for a moment supposed that an
entirely new arrangement of principles lies at its base, any more so
than that there should have been new rules of nature to introduce the
animal or the vegetable. Instead of this having been, it is perfectly
demonstrated that the same laws govern in each and all; that is to say,
that the same principles of government control them all. Bearing this in
mind, we now proceed to the consideration of the operation of principles
wherein the human mind comes to assist nature in its strife for
perfection, itself joining in the race.