a conceivable thing that man may learn to create his food from
the elements without the slow processes of agriculture; it is
conceivable that he may master the bacteria which at present prey upon
his body, and so put an end to death. It is certain that he will
ascertain the laws of heredity, and create human qualities as he has
created the spurs of the fighting-cock and the legs of the greyhound.
He will find out what genius is, and the laws of its being, and the
tests whereby it may be recognized. In the new science of
psycho-analysis he has already begun the work of bringing an infinity
of subconsciousness into the light of day; it may be that in the
evidence of telepathy which the psychic researchers are accumulating,
he is beginning to grope his way into a universal consciousness, which
may come to include the joys and griefs of the inhabitants of Mars,
and of the dark stars which the spectroscope and the telescope are
disclosing.

All these are fascinating possibilities. What stands in the way of
their realization? Ignorance and superstition, fear and submission,
the old habits of rapine and hatred which man has brought with him
from his animal past. These make him a slave, a victim of himself and
of others; to root them out of the garden of the soul is the task of
the modern thinker.

The new morality is thus a morality of freedom. It teaches that man is
the master, or shall become so; that there is no law, save the law of
his own being, no check upon his will save that which he himself
imposes.

The new morality is a morality of joy. It teaches that true pleasure
is the end of being, and the test of all righteousness.

The new morality is a morality of reason. It teaches that there is no
authority above reason; no possibility of such authority, because if
such were to appear, reason would have to judge it, and accept or
reject it.

The new morality is a morality of development. It teaches that there
can no more be an immutable law of conduct, than there can be an
immutable position for the steering-wheel of an aeroplane. The
business of the pilot of an aeroplane is to keep his machine aloft
amid shifting currents of wind. The business of a moralist is to
adjust life to a constantly changing environment. An action which was
suicide yesterday becomes heroism today, and futility or hypocrisy
tomorrow.

This new morality, like all things in a world of strife, is fighting
for existence, using its own weapons,