possible for government to accomplish. We all know of course that we cannot
abolish all the evils in this world by statute or by the enforcement of
statutes, nor can we prevent the inexorable law of nature which decrees
that suffering shall follow vice, and all the evil passions and folly of
mankind. Law cannot give to depravity the rewards of virtue, to indolence
the rewards of industry, to indifference the rewards of ambition, or to
ignorance the rewards of learning. The utmost that government can do is
measurably to protect men, not against the wrong they do themselves but
against wrong done by others and to promote the long, slow process of
educating mind and character to a better knowledge and nobler standards of
life and conduct. We know all this, but when we see how much misery there
is in the world and instinctively cry out against it, and when we see some
things that government may do to mitigate it, we are apt to forget how
little after all it is possible for any government to do, and to hold the
particular government of the time and place to a standard of responsibility
which no government can possibly meet. The chief motive power which has
moved mankind along the course of development that we call the progress of
civilization has been the sum total of intelligent selfishness in a vast
number of individuals, each working for his own support, his own gain, his
own betterment. It is that which has cleared the forests and cultivated
the fields and built the ships and railroads, made the discoveries and
inventions, covered the earth with commerce, softened by intercourse the
enmities of nations and races, and made possible the wonders of literature
and of art. Gradually, during the long process, selfishness has grown more
intelligent, with a broader view of individual benefit from the common
good, and gradually the influences of nobler standards of altruism, of
justice, and human sympathy have impressed themselves upon the conception
of right conduct among civilized men. But the complete control of such
motives will be the millennium. Any attempt to enforce a millennial
standard now by law must necessarily fail, and any judgment which assumes