On the other hand, more rational codes promote
peace and security, banish fear and hatred, and make for all the benefits
of civilization. Such codes are in relatively more stable equilibrium
and gradually tend to replace the others. All morality is, of course,
in one aspect, a restraint upon desire, a check upon impulse;
rebelliousness against its decrees will be perpetually recurrent until
human nature itself is completely refashioned and men have no
inordinate and dangerous desires. But while all codes of conduct are
repressive at the moment of passion, they vary widely in the degree
in which they satisfy or thwart man's deeper needs. Such institutions
as the gladiatorial games of Rome, human sacrifice, or slavery, were
fruitful of so much pain that they were bound in time to perish. In
contrast with these cruel customs, the prohibitions of the Jewish law,
the Ten Commandments, for example, were so humane, so productive of
security and concord and a deep-rooted and lasting satisfaction, that
they persisted and became the parent of much of our present day
morality. An increasing part in this progress has been played by the
conscious recognition of the advantages of code over code; but long
before such explicit perception of advantage, the blind instincts and
emotions of men were making for the gradual humanizing of morals, the
selection of ideals and laws that make for human happiness. As
civilization advances, the consideration of mere preservation counts
for less, and that of happiness for more; the margin, the breathing
space, for liberal interests, grows.
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