Human nature explained
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| Newton Riddell |
From the introduction:
The object of this book is instruction,' its plan is brevity and simplicity, its inspiration is the demands, needs and necessities of humanity. During the last few years, we have been constantly urged by our audiences to place the thoughts contained in our lectures on human nature in print, that they might have a more abiding form.
The thoughts herein contained have been compiled from our lectures, thrown together at spare moments, amid the rush of an extremely busy professional life and the rattle and clatter of constant travel, they are, therefore, the expression of “The Lecturer” rather than the finished work of an author. No attempt has been made at literary perfection, but simply to place truths in those relations in which they would be best understood and accomplish the most good. All technicalities have been purposely avoided in order that the most uncultured mind might grasp the truth.
For want of time and space, the essential points of each subject have alone been touched upon; at some future time, we hope to take up each topic and give to it a more complete and finished expression. Where the author’s ambition solely for literary glory, the present volume with its many imperfections would certainly never have been issued; the book goes out, therefore, not as a competitor with the literary productions of the age, but as a messenger of truth and love; if the perusal of its pages shall bring the light of truth to the minds or kindle the fires of ambitions in the hearts of its readers if the truths it contains shall aid struggling humanity and help to better the conditions of the race, it will have served the purpose for which it was written and the author will gladly withstand the adverse criticisms its many imperfections must necessarily bring upon him. Yours in humanity’s cause.
Ruth is the power that moves the world forward, LOVE is the force that lifts it upward, by the dyna¬ mic power of these two forces the march of civilization has ever been and will continue to be onward and upward. By the dynamic power of these two forces, man has passed from savagery to civilization, from ignor¬ ance to intelligence, from the darkness of superstition to the light of Christian fellowship, from the simplicity of the primitive times to the complexity of the present age.
We are living in an age of reason, an age of thought, an age of sentiment, an age of reform, an age of progress, an age when probabilities, possibilities and responsibili¬ ties increase daily. Invention, science, thought and learning has set the wheels of civilization flying at lightning’s speed. Christianity, the Father of Human Liberty, and the public schools, the Mother of Learning, have so en¬ lightened the mind and liberated the soul as to make human slavery no longer tolerable.
The twentieth century will be the greatest battleground for human liberty the world has ever known; a battle not of arms but of minds, not of swords but of principles; a battle in which white-winged Justice shall triumphantly contend for those principles that make right might and give equality to all. There never was a time in the history of the world when there was so much evil, jealousy, hatred and selfishness coupled with intelligence as at the present hour; there never was a time when there was so much goodness, purity, virtue, kindness and sentiment, coupled with superior intelligence as at the present time; hence the contending forces of good and evil are the strongest, the battle the fiercest and its ultimatum of the greatest importance to all future ages.
Thorough knowledge of the laws governing human life — hereditary, prenatal, hygienic, social, intellectual and moral — lies at the foundation of all reform. More general knowledge of these laws is a prerequisite to the proper solution of the great problems that now confront us. A rapid evolution, born of intelligence and moral courage, is the only thing that will prevent the accumulation of evil, which will make revolution inevitable.
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