The world works a certain way, regardless of how we perceive it. Yet we have no excuse for not perceiving it — in no culture (that I know of) is murder lauded, or cowardice. This does not mean all men are one being, connected by our roots beneath the soil of disregard, for we still flout this standard, and no one hates his own flesh. This standard is higher than we are. We know it but rarely practice it, as if it were hardwired and still completely against our nature; nor does one need to believe in a higher being to perceive this. Olive Schreiner, an atheist, asserted in her Story of an African Farm that the universe is based on a certain ethical standard which we discover sometimes only after having violated it: “In the end experience will inevitably teach us that the laws for a wise and noble life have a foundation indefinitely deeper than the fiat of any being…”
A universal standard, then: as there are physical laws, so there are spiritual or moral laws. Where they came from is a great source of debate. Are they imposed by men for self-benefit (which would negate the survival of only the best and the fittest) or are they older than man himself? Is this magic deeper than time, and broader than the systems spinning by it? We understand through what is made, and I understand the yes to this because it seems apparent here, to me, to us — to you, perhaps, as you look out beyond want to what is.
Botkin Creative 