Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876. Excerpt: ... RIGHTS AND DUTIES. One of the catch words of our generation is the word Rights. It is used in all relations, on all occasions. It is the word that every kind of man thinks to charm by. Rights of the person, rights of property, rights of capital, rights of labor, rights to the use and fruits of the earth, rights to the due share of the products of civilization, rights of thought and rights of speech, rights of belief and rights of worship, rights of criminals, rights of women and children, rights of the outcast and disfranchised, rights of aliens and idiots. The newspapers repeat the cry; books discuss the idea. The word is coupled with another equally potent and prevailing--the word Individuality. The claims of individuality are pushed to the extreme limits of antinomianism. The achievement of individuality is regarded as the triumph of the modern principle as contrasted with the principle of a former age. It is demanded that every human being shall take a road of his own; that every mind shall think, investigate and conclude for itself; that every soul shall repel dictation and tyranny, no matter from what source they come; that as no two persons are alike in the whole world, the effort to develop the unlikeness is of paramount importance; that eccentricity--flying off the centre--is an indication of greatness, that the disintegration of society, the resolution of mankind into independent atoms, will be the consummation of civilized man. This idea of the sacredness of Individuality and of the rights pertaining to it, is commonly regarded as being new and peculiar to our social system, as contrasted with that of the "old world," where individuality was not respected or considered; in an age when men were not inappropriately called "the masses"; when creed...
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