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Poverty - by James Platt

the philosopher, from a knowledge of His laws ; the religious men of all denominations from a faith in. His justice and mercy; yet we are all of us too apt to think that in life there is a lack of justice; and we feel pained at what we call the "hard lines" of some, and the inequalities in this world; or, as some say, its injustice, which we are told, will be remedied hereafter. " There is in human affairs one order which is the best. That order is not always the one which exists, but it is the order which should exist for the greatest good of humanity. God knows it, and wills it; man's duty it is to discover and establish it (Emile de Laveleye).

It is my belief that when an evil exists, it is man's duty to investigate, and not rest satisfied until he has got at the cause, and removed it. But mankind is too ready to put aside the "cause and effect theory," and instead, we find, that in all ages, and more especially the last few years, this consciousness of misery in the midst of plenty has induced in many enthusiastic but unbalanced minds the desire to set all things right by a proclaimed equality. In their efforts such men have shown, not the desire to ascertain and obey God's laws, but an ignorance of the Creator's method of government, and their own powerlessness (however good their
motive), in opposing by their fallacies the ordinances of the Creator. They blame in the most violent manner those men who have been more successful than their fe1lows; they would have the non-successful think that "those who have, have taken what they have from those that have not." These theorists will not see what the mind of the thinker is driven to admit, that although there may be an apparent injustice, yet this inequality is the work of God. And