Chapter 4-8

8.

When not thwarted by artificial contrivances, whatever argument Nature promulgates is, Right. The further man gets away from Nature, the further he departs from right. To be right is to be natural, and to be natural is to be right. The sun shines, therefore it is right that it should shine, the rain falls, therefore it is right that it should fall, the tides ebb and flow, therefore it is right that they should ebb and flow.

Darwin’s law exists, may be seen in operation, is practicable, of daily demonstration, therefore it also is right. It is not a dream like ‘Religion,’ it is not an invention like ‘Morals,’ it is not an assumption like ‘God.’ It is a cosmic Fact, like the sunshine, the rain, and the tides! Nature does not set up Idols, does not found Superstitions, and does not invent Decalogues. These toys and fetters have been constructed by man, for his own infinite damnation.

Neither morals, laws, nor creeds are first principles, but they may (probably) have their uses. They may be convenient engines for the deletion of Lower Organisms, for extirpating individuals of infantile intellect. Indeed the secret object of all superstitions possibly is, to provide an ultra-rational sanction for fraudulent standards of Right and Wrong.

To base a Lie upon a Myth is certainly much safer than to base it on a Reality, for you cannot run a tape measure over a Myth.

Christliness, as social quietism, has never yet been accepted by men of super-eminent strength, courage, and wisdom. Such men have everywhere regarded the Christ Ideal as a model for slavish souls only, to be humored for strategic purposes but never practiced by masters, conquerors, or kings. “Don’t do as I do, but do as I say” has ever been the dicta of High Priests and Rulers, to docile multitudes.

The evolution of sovereignty satisfactorily exhibits this ethical dictatorship, as an historical commonplace. Moral codes, (always and everywhere imposed upon the common people by ‘immoral’ combinations of cumulative craft) are never obeyed by Ruling Castes.