The book is a beautiful read to both the initiated and profane:
"Force, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void,
like that of gunpowder burned in the open air, and steam unconfined by
science; but, striking in the dark, and its blows meeting only the air,
they recoil and bruise itself. It is destruction and ruin. It is the
volcano, the earthquake, the cyclone;--not growth and progress. It is
Polyphemus blinded, striking at random, and falling headlong among the
sharp rocks by the impetus of his own blows.
The blind Force of the people is a Force that must be economized, and
also managed, as the blind Force of steam, lifting the ponderous iron
arms and turning the large wheels, is made to bore and rifle the cannon
and to weave the most delicate lace. It must be regulated by Intellect.
Intellect is to the people and the people's Force, what the slender
needle of the compass is to the ship--its soul, always counselling the
huge mass of wood and iron, and always pointing to the north. To attack
the citadels built up on all sides against the human race by
superstitions, despotisms, and prejudices, the Force must have a brain
and a law. Then its deeds of daring produce permanent results, and there
is real progress. Then there are sublime conquests. Thought is a force,
and philosophy should be an energy, finding its aim and its effects in
the amelioration of mankind. The two great motors are Truth and Love.
When all these Forces are combined, and guided by the Intellect, and
regulated by the RULE of Right, and Justice, and of combined and
systematic movement and effort, the great revolution prepared for by the
ages will begin to march. The POWER of the Deity Himself is in
equilibrium with His WISDOM. Hence the only results are HARMONY.
It is because Force is ill regulated, that revolutions prove failures.
Therefore it is that so often insurrections, coming from those high
mountains that domineer over the moral horizon, Justice, Wisdom, Reason,
Right, built of the purest snow of the ideal after a long fall from rock
to rock, after having reflected the sky in their transparency, and been
swollen by a hundred affluents, in the majestic path of triumph,
suddenly lose themselves in quagmires, like a California river in the
sands."
The values expressed throughout the text ring true regardless of fraternal status. So much so that my children are reading a modernized version from Amazon - [h=1]
Morals and Dogma for the 21st Century by Kevin Main(Author),Brian Chaput(Author),James Miller(Author),William Goodell(Author)[/h]