THE
VIA1~0RIAN Facet Spera
VOLUME 26
NOVEMBER, 1908
NUMBER 2
OUR NATIONAL VICE J. A. Pilon. E ALL admit the existence of a moral la;w manifeste'd 'u by God to man. And though the basis of this law is the same in all, nevertheless, as a certain author reminds us, "there is no authentic copy of the morp,l law,. printed, framed and hung up by the hand of Nature in the inner sanctuary of every human heart." We all know in a general waYj that we must do good and avoid evil but we have our own peculiar notions in what good and evil consists. It seems the one thing in which God per.m its of private interpretation for, provided we follow the voice of conscience, though we may do objective wrong we cannot formally sin. The interpretation of this m'Otal law differs not only in individual from individual but even in nation fr om, nation. O路r rather it did so differ, for, with the coming of Christ, what, in the moral law was vague and indistinct, has become clear and luminous. The law of charity that previously ext ended only to one's countrym1en, now includes the most abject and the most hated; the law that told Plato and others of the ancients to kill their deformed children and expose babes of doubtful origin, now leads to the erection of foundling institutions and asylums for the crippled; the law that prompted Hannibal to put to death in cold blood three thousand prisoners to avenge the death of a grandfather, now compels man to turn the other cheek to the blows of an assailant, while harking these words of the Scriptures: "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." But though all Christian nations at the present time interpret this moral law in largely the same way, they are nevertheless differentiated among themselves by reason of what we might call national virtues and vices; That these are national virtues and vices and not different ethical standards is evidenced from
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