{"product_id":"2940012898081","title":"Modern Society","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    MODERN SOCIETY                    5\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    CHANGES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY      49\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMODERN SOCIETY.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat means this summons, oh friends! to the groves of Academe? I heard,\u003cbr\u003ein the distance, the measured tread of Philosophy. I mused: \"How grave\u003cbr\u003eand deliberate is she! How she matches thought with thought! How\u003cbr\u003epatiently she questions inference and conclusion! No irrelevance, no\u003cbr\u003eempty ballooning, is allowed in that Concord school. Nothing frivolous\u003cbr\u003eneed apply there for admission.\" And lo! in the midst of this severe\u003cbr\u003eentertainment an interlude is called for in the great theatre. The stage\u003cbr\u003emanager says, \"Ring up Puck. Wanted, an Ariel.\" And no Shakespeare being\u003cbr\u003eat hand, I, of the sex much reproved for never having produced one, am\u003cbr\u003einvited to fly hither as well as my age and infirmities will allow, and\u003cbr\u003eto represent to you that airy presence whose folly, seen from the\u003cbr\u003eclouds, is wisdom; that presence which, changing with the changes of the\u003cbr\u003eyear and of the day, may yet sing, equally with the steadfast stars and\u003cbr\u003esystematic planets,--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"The hand that made me is divine.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eModern society, concerning which you have bid me discourse to you, is\u003cbr\u003ethis tricksy spirit, many-featured and many-gestured, coming in a\u003cbr\u003equestionable shape, and bringing with it airs from heaven and blasts\u003cbr\u003efrom hell. I have spoken to it, and it has shown me my father's ghost.\u003cbr\u003eHow shall I speak of it, and tell you what it has taught me? You must\u003cbr\u003ethink my alembic a nice one indeed, since you bid me to the analysis of\u003cbr\u003ethose subtle and finely mingled forces. You have sent for me, perhaps,\u003cbr\u003eto receive a lesson instead of giving one. You may intend that, having\u003cbr\u003etried and failed in this task, I shall learn, for the future, the\u003cbr\u003edifficult lesson of holding my peace. For so benevolent, so\u003cbr\u003edisinterested an intention, I may have more occasion to thank you\u003cbr\u003ebeforehand, than you shall find to thank me, having heard me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut, since a text is supposed to make it sure that the sermon shall have\u003cbr\u003ein it one good sentence, let me take for my text a saying of the\u003cbr\u003ephilosopher Kant, who, in one of his treatises, rests much upon the\u003cbr\u003edistinction to be made between logical and real or substantial\u003cbr\u003eopposition. According to him, a logical opposition is brought in view\u003cbr\u003ewhen one attribute of a certain thing is at once affirmed and denied.\u003cbr\u003eThe statement of a body which should be at once stationary and in motion\u003cbr\u003ewould imply such a contradiction, of which the result will be _nihil\u003cbr\u003enegativum irrepræsentabile_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA real or substantial opposition is found where two contradictory\u003cbr\u003epredicates are recognized as coexistent in the same subject. A body\u003cbr\u003eimpelled in one direction by a given force, and in another by its\u003cbr\u003eopposite, is easily cogitable. One force neutralizes the other, but the\u003cbr\u003eresult is something, viz., rest. Let us keep in mind this distinction\u003cbr\u003ebetween opposites which exclude each other, and opposites which can\u003cbr\u003ecoexist, while we glance at the contradictions of all society, ancient\u003cbr\u003eas well as modern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow self-contradictory, in the first place, is the nature of man! How\u003cbr\u003esociable he is! also how unsociable! We have among animals the\u003cbr\u003egregarious and the solitary. But man is of all animals at once the most\u003cbr\u003egregarious and the most solitary. This is the first and most universal\u003cbr\u003econtradiction, that of which you find at least the indication in every\u003cbr\u003eindividual. But let us look for a moment at the contrasts which make one\u003cbr\u003eindividual so unlike to another. We sometimes find it hard to believe\u003cbr\u003ethe saying that God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth.\u003cbr\u003eThis in view of the contrast between savage and civilized nations, or\u003cbr\u003ebetween nations whose habits and beliefs differ one from the other. In\u003cbr\u003ethe same race, in the same family also, we shall find the unlikeness\u003cbr\u003ewhich seems to set the bond of nature at defiance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSee this sly priest, bland and benevolent in proportion to the narrow\u003cbr\u003elimits of the minds which he controls. He hears the shrift of the\u003cbr\u003ebrigand and assassin, of the girl mastered by passion, of the unfaithful\u003cbr\u003ewife and avenging husband. He gives an admonition, perhaps a grave one.\u003cbr\u003eHe inflicts a penance, light or severe. He does not trust his penitents\u003cbr\u003ewith the secret which can heal the plague-sores of humanity,--the secret\u003cbr\u003eof its moral power. But see the meek flock who come to him. See the\u003cbr\u003ewhole range of consciences which cannot rest without his dismissing\u003cbr\u003e_fiat_. The rugged peasant drops on his knees beside the confessional.\u003cbr\u003eHis horny palm relinquishes, without hesitation, the coin upon which it\u003cbr\u003ehas scarcely closed. Or here alights from her carriage some woman of the\u003cbr\u003eworld, bright in silks and jewels.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079008305392,"sku":"2940012898081","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012898081_p0.jpg?v=1763585230","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012898081","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}