who have no taste for this character of study
or reasoning. If it is found to be "_malum per se_" from the nature of
things, even those who reject the divine revelation must array
themselves against it. If it is shown to be evil by both revelation
and economic law, then all peoples, Christian and heathen, should
combine against it.

CHAPTER XVI.

RIGHTS OF MAN OVER THINGS.

Man was the last and the crowning work of the Creator. God made man in
his own image and gave him dominion over all creatures.

"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast
crowned him with glory and honor.

"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou
hast put all things under his feet:

"All the sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

"The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the seas."

This high position is in entire harmony with man's innate
consciousness of his superior powers, and of his nobler spiritual
nature, and of his rightful dominion over all the other material
creations. Man is a person, a thinking intelligent being, and is
conscious of his personality, and from his lofty height he calls all
else the lower and the inferior creatures. Wherever man is found over
the whole earth, of whatever faith or grade of civilization, he claims
this universal dominion.

Man was commanded to subdue the earth and bring it into subjection as
his servant and he is conscious of his right to use all things to
promote his comfort, convenience and welfare. Anything he can make of
service to himself he has a right to appropriate.

A tree is a thing which he may prepare for his own purposes, for fuel,
for tools, or for a dwelling, as he pleases.

Isaiah ridiculed the idolater in his time, who made an idol of wood
and worshiped it, while with another part of the same tree he built a
fire and warmed himself. A part he served and a part served him. The
whole tree was subject to him; in itself it had no rights.

Rights belong to persons, and not to things, and personality cannot be
transferred to a thing. If there is no personal owner the question of
rights is never raised. The tree, or any thing whatever, has no rights
in the matter. Rights belong to the owner, the person, not to the
thing he owns.

The game in the mountain forests and the fish in the rivers are things
with no owner and whosoever will may take and use them.

Land is a