Conflict in nature and life: a study of antagonism in the constitution of things. For the elucidation of the problem of good and evil, and the reconcilation of optimism and pessimism

Preface

The development of the individual mind is not apt to be a uniform movement. It has critical stages when a new thought brings about a mental revolution. The writer may be permitted to illustrate by his own experience. He may recall as the first mental acquisition which necessitated new ways of looking at things, the idea that the brain is the organ of mind — that the mental faculties are dependent on physical conditions; as the second, the conception of natural law everywhere operative, which took the place of foreknowledge and predestination — these two allied forms of doctrine having been early forced upon his conviction by logical considerations on the old assumption of the government of the universe by personal supervision; as the third, the idea that mankind have made their own gods by magnifying and deifying human nature — this came with the shock of originality, to discover at leisure, however, that it was the common property of many thinking people, and that Xenophanes had explicitly taught it more than two thousand years ago; as the fourth, the doctrine of Evolution with the multiplicity of mental

IV PREFACE.

readjustments which it necessitated; as the fifth, and last I shall name, the conception of inevitable and necessary antagonism in the constitution of things, in consequence of which the notion of universal harmony, attainable perfection, and unmixed happiness is Utopian and illusory.

This last point is the subject of this volume. It is now over twenty years since it was first suggested to the writer's mind by observation and reflection on human nature and its experiences in life. The conception may not strike the reader as "pathbreaking " by any means, yet such has it been to the author. Each of the above-named acquisitions necessitated the dropping of something as error, which had previously been held as truth. This was not less the case with the last than with any of the others. It revolutionized his method of looking at the possibilities of life, and changed the direction of his efforts with regard to those possibilities. It seemed to have a practical use, as well as philosophical interest; and it occurred to him then to work it out in some of its scientific, historical, and practical relations, with the hope that it might be of interest to others, and perhaps, not altogether without a desirable influence on conduct. The writer has been in no haste to organize his study of the subject into a book, wishing it, whenever it might take form, to be as little crude as possible. Besides, he has been too busy with more immediate and pressing interests, to make rapid progress in the systematic study of a philosophical problem having such a multiplicity of connections as this.

The writer has been more solicitous to be true than to seem original. He has been more careful to strengthen the positions taken than to create the appearance of novelty in the statement of them. Between the critic who should pronounce the book true but not new, and the other who should

PREFACE. V

think it new, but singular and fanciful, it would be preferable to believe the former the more nearly correct. The principle of the work is not altogether new, as the author has sufficiently learned since it occurred to him; but the use heretofore made of it has been only partial and fragmentary. And however new the views of some of the chapters may have at one time seemed to the writer of them to be, a further acquaintance with the literature of the subject has made sad havoc with many of his originalities; and with every hour publication is delayed, this process of destruction is going on. As an example may be named the conception of the part Conflict plays in originating and strengthening sociality and political organization, the chapter on General History having been written before reading Mandeville, and years before Herbert Spencer's chapters, and Morgan's and Tylor's works, from which quotation is made on this subject, had been published. And quite generally it is true, that the quotations which have been used to corroborate statements have been met with since the chapters were written, and sometimes inserted without changing a word of the text. Each chapter bears evidence that somebody at some time and some place has been thinking pretty much the same thing. There may be some sparks of originality — still not put out — in parts of chapters ; but if any claim of originality were made, that concerning the ensemble would, perhaps, be most likely to bear scrutiny. The effect of the whole, when all the parts are brought together as a co-operative unit, the author should hope, may go some way to convince the reader that the journey is not to be made wholly on a beaten track, nor yet wholly in vain. It is impossible to write a book without covering some ground which has often been gone over ; so that if the author has not a central principle which organizes the old facts into new rela-

VI PREFACE.

tions with new meanings, there is perhaps no very urgent need for his book. This book has been written precisely because it was believed that it embodies such a principle, able to determine a new application of known facts to an old study, and that, if, in some instances, the proof should fail, the treatment of the subject would nevertheless be usefully suggestive.

Those books are most successful which coincide with opinions already formed, or which are at least in process of formation among considerable bodies of people. The happy author is he who expresses clearly and incisively what a great many have already been feeling and thinking somewhat more vaguely. Like Socrates, he assists at the parturition of ideas. It depends much on the public temper whether an author shall be condemned for his pains or rewarded for his services. He may be sure that the leading affirmations of his book are true, and that, if appreciated, they would be fruitful of results; but he may have no assurance that the subject and his treatment of it will fall in so happily with the drift of the times as to secure attention. As this volume aims to strike the Middle Way, it has not the advantage of extremes which startle and fascinate. Its message is not so jubilant as optimism requires, nor yet so terrible as. to administer like pessimism to the delight of desperation.

The author has persistently struggled against the increasing size of the volume. Everything suggested as a foot-note has been rigorously suppressed. The intelligent reader will readily see that the chapters are but summaries on a wide range of subjects which are legitimately linked together, in one way or another, by the common principle of Conflict. This great variety of subjects, touching at certain points and appealing to different tastes, seemed to render it desirable that certain chapters, brief though they are, should be made as complete, each

PREFACE. Vll

within itself, as possible, even at the risk of some repetition. The principal literary aim has been so to make the statement, that, with a reasonable degree of care and candor in the reading, it would not be easy to mistake the meaning intended.

The Author.

New York, September, 1882.

Chapter I. Ancient Conceptions Of Antagonism And Of The Evils Of Life

SECTION. PAGE.

i. The aim — Oriental views — Chinese, Hindoos, Egyptians, Persians . i

2. Greek views — Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Cleanthes, Anaximander,

3. Conflict as an element in primitive religions . . . 4

4. Evil in fate — Herodotus, Plutarch, Seneca, Csesar, Pliny, Marcus

Aurelius, the Stoics, and early Christians 5

5. Greek poets on evil — Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes

Chapter II. Modern Views Of Physical And Moral Discord

6. Notions of evil — Diversity and relations . . . -9

7. St. Augustine's solution of the problem of evil ... 10

8. Paley and Butler on the cause of evil . . . .11

9. Leibnitz and King on evil ...... 13

10. Geological difficulties — Hitchcock and M. Secretan . . .14

11. A Philosopher, Moore, Rise and Fall, Bolingbroke, Blake,

Gcethe, Tyndall, Morselli, Hume, Erasmus Darwin, Harrison . 15

12. William Smith, Winwood Reade, Frances Power Cobbe . . 18

Mandeville, Lessing, Spenser, Prior .... 19

14. The wail of poets .... . . 21

X CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Pessimism

SECTION. PAGE.

15. Schopenhauer's pessimism . . . . . .22

16. Hartmann's more moderate pessimistic view ... 23

17. Hartmann — Why evil must outweigh good — Weighing emotions . 24

18. Hartmann— Most pleasures illusory — A gloomy picture . . 25

19. Pessimism of Humboldt and Swift . . . . .26

20. A disease of civilization — Mallock, A. Campbell, G. Smith . 27

Chapter IV. Optimism — Perfection And The Golden Ages

21. Compensation past and future for present misery . . '3°

22. Golden ages — Oriental, Greek, Jewish, Christian ... 30

23. Modernized Christian view — Walker, Hitchcock . . . 32

24. Scientists and philosophers — Lubbock, Priestly, Mill, Greg,

25. Spiritualistic optimism — Davis ..... 36

26. Socialistic and Radical — Fourier, Comte — Difficulties . . 36

27. General — Rousseau, Reade, Hartley, Royce ... 38

28. Shaftesbury, Condorcet, Godwin, Pope . . . .40

Chapter V. The Problem Stated

29. Optimism, pessimism, meliorism . . . . .44

30. Opinion drifting from optimism to meliorism ... 46

31. Different shades of meliorism — Purpose of the work . . . 47

32. Universality of Conflict — Note on pleasure . . .48

Chapter VI. Existence

SECTION. PAGE.

33. No conception possible of absolute beginning . . .51

34. Idealism, realism, perception — Draper, Huxley — Entanglement 52

35. Perceptions not copies — Cudworth, Reid, Stewart, Brown, Hamil-

ton, Porter, Spencer's transfigured realism, McCosh, Lewes 54

36. A Profession of Faith ...... "58

CONTENTS.

XI

Chapter VII. The Unit Of Physical Existence

SECTION.

37. Force and matter — Chu-hi, Faraday, Stallo, Macomber, Cooke

Maxwell, Tait and Thomson ....

38. The force unit — Boscovich, Faraday, Bayma, Birks, Wiener, Max

well, M. Couchy .......

39. Vortex atoms — Maxwell, Tait, Helmholtz and Thomson, Wurtz

Macomber ......

40. Order in the play of forces .....

Chapter VIII. 41. 42

44- 45- 46.

60. 61. 62.

63- 64.

-Newton and Young, 3irks, Norton, Hickok,

THE PRIMARY FORCES.

Attraction and repulsion as primary forces . Accounting for attraction by repulsion-

Glennie, LeSage, Walling, Croll Two primary antagonistic forces — Bayma,

Lewes, Kant, Taylor, Maxwell .....

Primal force dual and antagonistic — Lame" Attraction and repulsion in early stages of the solar system Matter acquiring new properties by loss of heat — Lockyer, Faraday, Crookes — Notes ......

Chapter IX. Chemistry And Physics

The atom incomplete of itself — Affinity for other atoms The strife of atoms and molecules Affinity proportional to contrast of sensible qualities Three different forms of attraction — their antagonists . Liberation of energy by the union of atoms and molecules The atom never at rest .....

Elasticity of gases due to atomic motion— Stallo Opposite states necessary to a working force Overcoming resistance the leading idea of mechanics Polarity in physics and chemistry Obscured antagonism in orbital and vortical motion All the working energy of nature due to antagonism CHAPTER X.

59 63

67 69

CONFLICT IN THE BIOLOGICAL FORCES,

Opposing activities within the organism — the rising scale of antagonism— Barker, Ludwig ...... 97

Waste and repair . . ... . . . 99

Breathing and circulation ...... 100

Contraction and expansion of the muscles . . . 101

Opposing factors determine the build and bulk of animals . . roi

Conflict in plant life and in life generally — Tyndall, Ward . roi

Xll CONTENTS.

SECTION. PAGE.

65. The war between species — DeCondolle, Spencer, Darwin . . 103

66. The warfare of animals — Van Benedin, Tennyson, Arnold . 105

67. Parasites — Van Benedin ...... 107

68. Compensatory action between plants and animals . . 109

69. Superiority due to Conflict . . . . . .110

70. Persistence and divergence of type . . . . no

71. Antagonism between growth and reproduction a typical example . no

Chapter XI. Antagonism In The Sphere Of Mind

72. Mind and organization — Man's mind as a product of Evolution . 112

73. Primitive man a creature of war — First inventions due to Conflict 114

74. Communal sympathy fostered by common hostility . . .117 7$. Mental action counter-action — Lewes, Griesinger, Schiff, Huxley,

Piderit, Bain, Maudsley, Luys . . . . 118

76. Analogies illustrating mental reflex action — Lewes, Spencer . 124

jj. Contrast necessary to mental action — Spencer . . . 126

78. Emotional reaction from one extreme to another . . . 126

79. Antagonism by exclusion in mental action . . . 127

80. Direct antagonism between the emotions— Buchanan . . 128

81. Passional balance in mind and in society — Hobbes, Plato, Combe,

Spinoza, Pope, Rousseau, Guizot, Buckle . . . 130

82. The will the theatre of Conflict — Hartley, Bastion . . . 133

Chapter XII. Conflict As A Factor In Morals

83. Order and utility in the social and defensive habits of animals —

Spencer, Darwin . . . . . . . 135

84. Contest determining the incipient form of order . . . 137

85. Good behavior among animals — Uncle Sam, Zeke and the oxen, self-

restraint in animals ...... 137

86. The Conflict which morality implies — Spencer, Hutcheson, Shaftes-

bury, Campbell, Hickok, Lewes, London Times, Pouchet . 141

87. The leading element of morals — Utility, stress, Stephen . . 147

88. Incipient molality among mankind — Darwin . . . 148

89. Courage and faithfulness the earliest virtues — Cicero . . 149

90. Fixing moral intuitions and habits by association — Spencer, Lewes,

Shaftesbury, Lecky . . . . - . 151

91. Virtue founded in the plurality of interest — Tacitus, Billson . 153

92. Origin and development of woman's chief virtue . . 156

93. Origin and development of the property instinct — Diderot . . 158

94. The Conflict definition of morality .... 159

95. Religion and morality — Adaptation of moral codes — Moral heroism

and survival ....... 160

96. Morality as command — A joker, Duke of Argyll, Mallock — The

sanctions of morality — Note ..... 164

CONTENTS. Xlll

Chapter XIII. General History

SECTION. PAGE.

97. History a record of Conflict ...... 169

98. War-necessity first unites people — Infancy — Shaftesbury, Condorcet,

Fiske, Cicero, Morgan, Mandeville, Spencer, Tylor . 170

99. Fealty to chiefs — Tacitus, Freeman, Lecky, McClellan — Early Ameri-

can confederations — Woolsey ..... 175

100. Origin of executive and legislative functions — Rowley, Spencer,

101. National integration and disintegration .... 181

102. Progress and reaction — Stagnant China— Japan — The Jews . 182

103. The discord of class-interests increases with development . . 185

Chapter XIV. Grecian History

104. Forms of Conflict in Greece ...... 186

105. Athenian culture ....... 187

106. Oligarchy versus democracy ...... 187

107. btate autonomy versus nationality . * - . . 188

108. State-alliances versus state-alliances ..... 191

109. Greece succumbed for want of nationality . . . 192 no. The fashion of war too strong for the traditions of kinship . 193 in. Development in Athens with stagnation in Sparta . . 195

112. The good and evil of unscrupulous conflict .... 195

113. Growing rationality versus tradition . . . . 197

Chapter XV. Roman History — The Republic

114. Early leagues among the Latin kindred .... 199

115. Struggle of different peoples on Italian soil . . . 199

116. The plebeian struggle for political rights .... 200

117. The binding and explosive forces within Rome . . . 202

118. Slavery and piracy ....... 204

119. Social and civil wars and the fall of the commonwealth . 205

Chapter XVI. Roman History— The Empire

120. Centers of conflict — Aggression versus resistance. . . . . 205

121. Debauchery within, aggression without .... 207

122. Rigidity of virtue necessary to the greatness of peoples . . 208

XIV CONTENTS.

SECTION. PAGE.

123. Developing weakness within ..... 208

124. Religious dissension — Donatists, Arians, natures of Christ, images,

125. The Blues and Greens ...... 213

126. Prelude to the fall, and fall of Constantinople . . . 214

127. Fall of the empire into municipal fragments — Roscher . . 214

128. Rise of the New from a complication of disturbance and conflict . 215

Chapter XVII. Early English History

129. Early struggles on English soil ..... 218

130. Minor conflicts — Unity and freedom through struggle — Magna

Chapter XVIII. The Feudal System

131. Paradoxes of like and unlike systems — Feudalism and patriarchalism

132. A question to whom fealty due ..... 224

133. The fall of feudalism by the growth of civilization — Freeman . 225

Chapter XIX. The Christian System Under Contact With Other Systems

134. With Judaism — Christianity composite by derivation . . 227

135. With Paganism — Became polytheistic and idolatrous . . 228

136. With the religions of the East — Gnosticism, Monachism, Mani-

137. With Mohammedanism — Without influence on each other . 232

Chapter XX. Papal Supremacy

138. The spiritual and temporal powers — The spiritual gets the upper

139. Rise of learning and decline of the Papal power . • 236

Chapter XXI. The Great Modern Conflict

140. Innovation in primitive society, and later .... 237

141. Kingcraft gained as priestcraft lost — Reformation — Finalities — Per-

secution by Protestants — Tolerance through conflict . 239

142. Political action and reaction in France and England . . . 244

143. Traditions and dogmas vs. science — Mosaic geology — Theological

"cranks" — Science and religion not antagonistic . . 244

144. Change in the war of ideas — modified persecution — Greater sensi-

bility— Loss with gain . . . . .251

145. Incompatible ideas and methods of the same mind . . 252

146. Two kinds of conservatism and two of liberalism . . . 253

CONTENTS.

XV

Chapter XXII. Antagonism As A Factor Of Evolution

SECTION.

147. Spencer's general definition of evolution

148. Spencer's more distinctive definitions of evolution

149. The line of motion under conflicting forces

150. Rhythm a corollary of antagonism

151. Conditions of mobility necessary to evolution

152. Heterogeneity under action and re-action.

153. Segregation and integration ....

154. Antagonism a necessary condition of natural selection .

155. The tendency toward equilibrium

156. The relative claims of antagonism and persistence

157. Priority of antagonism over persistence

158. Spencer's view that persistence is an ultimate datum of conscious-

159. Counter-movement — Chauncey Wright — Degradation and dissolu

tion as well as evolution — Cannot identify the maximum of gen eral development ....

160. Equilibrium — Blessedness or death ? . . . .

161. The moving equilibrium — Evolution advances pain as well as

pleasure ......

PAGE.

256 258

275 278

Chapter XXIII

PARADOXES OF FEELING IN RELATION TO FUNCTION. SECTION. PAGE.

162. Invigorating function pleasurable . . . . . 284

163. Buoyancy of temper favors early marriage and the sum of happiness 286

164. Stimulants pleasurable — Harm in excess . . . 287

165. Labor a choice of evils — The price paid for enjoyment . . 288

166. Proper labor invigorates — Mental growth and business necessity —

Work and progress — Ease versus development . . 290

167. Spencer's transmutation of labor into pleasure — Labor essentially

repugnant and becoming more so ... 292

Chapter XXIV. Man's Environment— Geological Conditions

168. Aqueous agencies conditions of life — Wearing away the land . 296

169. Volcanic and aqueous action antagonistic and co-operative . 299

XVI CONTENTS.

SECTION. PAGE.

170. Pain from the antagonistic action which makes earth habitable —

Torre del Greco ....... 302

171. Ante-geological theories of the earth — Burnet, Dick, Wesley, Gis-

Chapter XXV. Man's Environment — Atmospheric And Oceanic Currents

172. Ocean currents — Exchange of cold and warm waters makes life

173. Atmospheric currents ...... 308

174. Counter currents of air and ocean and counter causes . . 310

175. Discord and pain from the meteorological conditions of life . 310

Chapter XXVI. Man's Environment— Limitations Of The Habitable Area

176. Extending the habitable area ..... 312

177. Desolation of lands by clearing and culture — Geikie, Marsh,

Oswald — Terracing — Ruskin .... 313

178. Difficulty of conserving the soil — Immediate, versus remote, inter-

179. Absolute limitation of the habitable area . . . 320

180. Disturbances from change of climate — An ice age . . . 322

181. Oscillations of climate due to precession and eccentricity . 324

Chapter XXVII. Man's Environment — Economical Difficulties Of Limitation

182. Multiplying demands of increasing population versus supply by

increasing labor, capital, and invention . . . 328

183. Progressive exactions of multiplying wants . . . 334

184. Will all the vacant places of the earth be filled up ? . . 336

185. Change of diet through over-population — Exclusive vegetable

186. Best results from a mixed diet ..... 340

Chapter XXVIII. The Future Of Physical Environment

187. The possibility of harmony between man and his environment

considered . . . . . . . 344

188. What would relieve physical discord would deteriorate the condi-

tions of life ....... 345

189. Our present period may be the happiest — Alphonse de Con-

190. Visonary schemes for remodeling the environment . . . 350

Chapter XXIX. Origin And Conflict Of Natural Laws

191. What a law of nature is, and when it arises . . . 352

CONTENTS. Xvil

SECTION. PAGE.

192. Interruption of one train of physical sequences by another . . 354

193. Interference with organic action — Higher organisms easily dis-

194. Races and institutions conserved by sacrifice for the general good . 357

195. Exclusion of one good by another — Good from evil and evil from

Chapter XXX. Sanitary Conditions

SECTION. PAGE.

196. Ineradicable causes of disease — Malaria — Tropical heat . . 363

197. Increase of death-rate with greater density of population —

198. Conserving the feeble — Le Conte, Black, Darwin — The enfeebling

vanities —Frances Power Cobbe ..... 366

199. Mining and machine industries — Nervous diseases — Dr. Beard —

Insanity — Suicide . . . . . . 369

200. The race overweighted — Galton — Human sacrifice . . . 373

Chapter XXXI. Prospects Of The Common, Working People

201. Influence of education on the happiness of the worker — Mande-

202. High wages and short hours, saving and improvement — Brassey,

Greg, Florence Nightingale . 376

203. The drift under education to the cities and to fancy industries —

Thompson, M. Salacis — Home influence — Race education — Emily Pfeiffer-^High life in Rome — The worst most imitated— Teaching limited ... . . 379

204. Improvement and discontent — De Tocqueville, Lecky — Vanity and

degeneracy — Royce — Fashion in the church — Purifying civilization and comforting the lowly— Pleasure of discontent . 385

205 — Adjustment of the laborer to his work — Mobility and diversified

skill — Industrial education — Future changes . . 390

206. Competition among laborers — The economical harmonies —

Perry 394

XV111 CONTENTS.

207. Henry George's attack on Malthus — Ignoring capital — Persistence

— Roscher — Causes of famines — Wealth and subsistence . 396

Chapter XXXII. Influence Of The Relative Prolificacy Of Classes On Society

208. Incompatible facts — Arrest and acceleration of reproduction —

Population not necessarily stationary under high civilization . 400

209. Prolificacy in classes — Xo escape from toil— Beard — Education ver-

sus psychological elevation — Wright and Lowell — The great middle class ....... 404

210. Race multiplication — Intermixture and new races — Relative mor-

211. Development in careers — Blood and brain necessary to elevation-

Development of the individual mind — Improvement of mental

212. Recent progress — Reacting forces and the see-saw of nations —

Summary of influences affecting the coming man — Note . 417

Chapter XXXIII. The Marriage Relation

213. Protean forms of marriage ...... 420

214. Diversification of temper and increasing difficulties of marriage — Le

215. Increase of physical and mental divergencies between men and

216. Forms of divergence between the sexes — Controlling discordances

217. What marriage is — Conflicting views — Legality — The sentimental

views — Mrs. Faucett — Education of children . . . 429

218. Moral and physiological discordance — Sex strengthened with civili-

219. Marriage and prostitution — Lecky, Mandeville, Woolsey . . 433

220. The right of maternity subordinated to a higher law . . 435

221. Necessary origin of monogamic marriage under the play of social

222. Affectional freedom — Differentiated marriage — Counter elements in

223. Modifications of marriage in the future — The Nation, Morgan — No

matrimonial Utopia ...... 443

Chapter XXXIV. The Religious Consolations

224. Element of fear in primitive religions. .... 446

CONTENTS. XIX

SECTION. PAGE.

225. Immortality — Devils versus angels— Dread versus joy — Heaven and

hell corollaries — Suffering of the lost adding to the happiness

of the saved — Peter Lombard, Edwards . . . 447

226. Thinking versus believing — Doubtful compensation for loss of ani-

mistic faith . . . . . . . 451

Chapter XXXV. Pleasure And Pain Inseparable

227. Pain necessary to the consciousness of pleasure . . . 454

228. Sensation and its stimulus — Pleasures pall — Wealth and happiness

■ — Cost of pleasures — Seneca .... 455

229. Mixed character of desire — Avoiding pain and seeking pleasure —

Sully — Self-restraint as the price of pleasure Franklin's

moral algebra ....... 459

230. Overcoming opposition — Pains of labor necessary to pleasure of

attainment ...... 461

231. The measure of satisfaction with wealth and office . . 462

232. Pleasure and pain proportional — Bouillier, Hinton — Same nerves for

both — Enjoyment with high development — Mill, Wollaston 464

233. Utopia the creation of something out of nothing — Note, Saxon,

Romanes, Hinton ...... 466

Chapter XXXVI. Uses In General, Summary And Conclusion

234. The doctrine as a chart for direction — The best apt to do futile work

— Optimistic and despondent temperaments — Sully . 469

235. Artistic temperament and perfection — Panaceas — General indiffer-

ence— Chartist and anti-corn law agitations — Guidance for sanguine reformers ....... 472

236. Incompatible forms of reputed good — The sequel of prosperity —

Careers of movement ..... 475

237. The doctrine in relation to effort — Manliness of struggle — Caird —

No warrant for insensibility— Bryant .... 478

238. Not incompatible with evolution .... 479

239. Shadows of good — Ours one of the happiest of human eras . 480

240. Extremes in thought and action — Meliorism versus optimism and

241. Active minds most in need of guidance .... 482

242. Resignation — Spinoza, Seneca, Davids, Beard — Fortitude — The

dying colonels ...... 483

243. The Mean or Middle Way— The price of happiness . . 484

244. Logical value of the doctrine ..... 486

245. The directive element growing out of scientific and industrial changes ........ 486

246. Any doctrine best recommended by its truth . . . 488

CONFLICT IN NATURE AND IN LIFE,

Chapter I. Ancient Conceptions Of Necessary Antagonism And Of The Evils Of Life

Section i. — There are two leading ideas of the subject contemplated: first, conflict in the relation of things; and secondly, the discord and pain which attend such conflict. The first, or that of physical conflict, has often been conceived of without being made the basis of an explanation of the evil in the world. Many of the views which follow regard physical antagonism as quite distinct from evil, or they regard evil as having no necessary connection with antagonism. It is the design here to bring the two together and show that they are related. If there is antagonism in the constitution of nature, the evil, both physical and moral, which exists, may be largely due to this antagonism, and itself a form of it, and thus as ineradicable as the constitution of nature itself.

Dualism, antagonism, and resulting evil are fundamental conceptions in the Oriental systems of philosophy and religion.

Chinese philosophy has long recognized the opposite properties of the two cardinal elements of nature. These are primal

2 ANCIENT CONCEPTIONS. \Chap. I

force and primal matter ; the one is the Yang, the active principle, the other the Yin, the passive principle, of all movement. The Yang and Yin are thus the polar forces from which proceed all action, all evolution. The law of balance is the order of nature. The Yang and Yin lie at the base of a general philosophical system which molds religion, morals, and the practical phases of life.

In the system of the Hindoos, matter and spirit stand in certain relations of antagonism to each other. Matter only becomes active in the production of phenomena under coercion by the spiritual principle, to which, however, it yields only in a partial and refractory manner; and hence, the evils of the world. While they hold that good and evil are dispensed by the same divine hand, yet the Hindoos have their good and evil deities. Vishnu and Indra are especially concerned for the welfare of mankind, while Ravana and his legion of evil spirits seek to do evil. The Sooras and Assooras represent good and evil as embodied in spirit and matter, and are perpetually at war.

In India, the good spirits, the Sooras, are the step brothers of the evil spirits, the Assooras; as, in Egypt, Osiris, the good deity, was the twin brother of Typho, the god of evil.

Antagonism is even more pronounced in the Persian system. From the supreme and uncreated One proceeded two equal and antagonistic powers, which are forever battling for the upper hand in the control of the world. Ormuzd, the god of light, created a hierarchy of good spirits to attend to all things in the interest of good, whereupon Ahrimanes created an equal hierarchy of bad spirits to be everywhere present in the interest of evil. A good and an evil spirit attend every human being from birth to death, struggling with each other for the mastery over him.

Religions, like migrations, drifted westward, and these battle doctrines of the East have not been without influence on the religious and philosophical creeds of the West. And they acted the more readily as they fell in with the natural experiences of human life. The doctrine concerning Satan, the adversary of

Sec. 2.] GREEK VIEWS. 3

God and man, was accepted by the Jews on their acquaintance with Persian dualism, and thence it found its way into the faith of the early Christians and spread throughout the world with trie Christian system. Through a somewhat distinct line of more philosophical character, this strongly marked dualism of the Christian creed may be traced back through the Gnostics, Mani and Marcion, and the Fathers, Tatian and Justin Martyr, to the Brahminical doctrine which affirms the essential and eternal malignity of matter. This same doctrine, either by propagandism or by native reproduction, found its way into Greek philosophy, and through it into the general thought of European peoples.