Ideals of America; Analyses of the Guiding Motives of Contemporary American Life by Leaders in Various Fields of Thought and Action (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919. Excerpt: ... Ill IDEALS IN LAW By John Bradley Winslow, Chief Justice Supreme Court of Wisconsin IT HAS been said that "ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but, like the seafaring man on the waste of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny." A civilization destitute of high ideals is at best only a gilded barbarism; a people which sets up for worship the trinity of wealth, luxury, and frivolous amusement has its doom already pronounced. Industry, commerce, science, art, education, social intercourse, in fact all the organized human activities which make up what we call civilization depend for their existence upon social order, and social order in turn is dependent upon the effective protection of life, liberty, and property by law. Hence it is hardly too much to say that civilization is really law, or at least that it cannot exist in the absence of law; and if this be true then it must also be true that the civilization of any people or any age must find accurate expression in the laws of that people or age. A fundamental ideal which is not ultimately reflected with greater or less fidelity in the law can hardly be called an ideal of the age but rather the ideal of a few individuals or of a class. Yet the ideal must, of course, precede the law and frequently exists for a long time before it crystallizes into law. The reasons are obvious. Ethical and moral standards change from century to century but the change is only gradual. The law represents the prevailing thought at the time of its adoption. Manifestly there will be no change in the law until the new thought has become dominant and very markedly dominant. It must have passed the stage of mere agitation, however vigorous the agitat...