Cities and Nations.

Mr. Charles P. Parker gave last evening the third lecture of his course on Natural Religion:

Men are drawn to city life, he said, by the power found there to build up a world for oneself out of nature. All living things build themselves up out of their surroundings, but man's world is much greater and more complex than that of any animal. This new world is the product of man's reason. But can man himself be shown to be a natural product? There are arguments which point that way, but we cannot prove that human action is always in accordance with natural laws, and the results of man's action are sometimes so evil that we cannot attribute them to any national power. We can trace a progress of reason in human life, on the whole, but there is moral evil as well as pain and ugliness in the world. Before studying moral evil, we ask what is moral good. We find that all nations have standards of duty which men are expected to live up to, and which are called good. These moral codes of the nations are open to improvement. When some reformer tries to improve them, he points out some need which they do not satisfy. The ultimate appeal is to the needs of living things. Unless every real need of every living creature is satisfied, perfect good is not attained. The world as it is, therefore, cannot be called wholly good. In order to find out what are man's needs we must study individuals.