The Modern Theory of Forces [pp. 389-408]

1875.J THE MODERN THEORY OF FORCES. 391
commendable, may, when understood, appear culpable. Why
is this? Because conscious intention gives real character to
human action. "A man may smile and be a villain." On the
other hand, a frown may be in sport, like the play of a father
with his children, and thus be a sign, not of anger, but of love.
The same blow may smite down an enemy, or quicken the
merriment of a friend. The same action and act may be the
salutation of a saint, or the kiss of Judas betraying Jesus.
And so these words of Solomon have been accepted by the
world as a proverb: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but
the kisses of an enemy are deceitful," Why, again we ask,
why this varying estimate and this varying value of human actions? Again we reply, because the conscious intention gives
reai character to the action. Thus, we understand, through
our own consciousness, the apparent paradox, but the real propriety, of the statement so beautifully made by the poet-king
of Israel: "Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness."
But no such rule can be applied to the movements of matter.
It is utterly impossible even to attach to them any character,
either of merit or demerit. The blow from a falling hammer
may kill a man, and yet, by universal consent, involve not the
least moral character; while that blow, if impelled by malice
prepense, becomes murder, and the perpetrator is, by universal
consent, comdemned as guilty of a capital crime.
But more than this-long before the public may have understood his conduct and character, the man himself has understood both, as he, at first and fully, was conscious of his own intention; and long after the public may have rendered its verdict of praise or blame, the man himself has known whether he
was rightly judged.
As we study the facts of matter and of mind, further and
further do we get from the correlation of material forces with
mental action.
But more than this-while no keenness of observation and
no mechanical gauge can possibly determine the character of
an external process-such as the stern, persistent, and painful
surgery of Dr. Brown Sequard in the critical case of Mr. Sumner, which seemed intended to kill, but was designed to curethe man may even misjudge his own physical acts unless he
study his own consciousness, and thus know himself.