In replying to this question, we must regard the matter in two relations. We have noticed, in the chapter on the Constitutional Varieties of the Human Mind, that while there are powers and attributes of mind which are common to all, there is an endless variety of character resulting from the diverse proportions and combinations of these several faculties, and also that there are diverse grades of mind, each having these diverse combinations. Some races of men are much lower in the scale of being, every way, than other races, while the same disparity exists among individuals of the same race.
Now when we compare individuals with each other, or when we compare races in these respects, we regard them as more or less perfect in organization with reference to the highest grade or species known to us. In this relation some minds are to be regarded as imperfect and defective in organization. And in reference to any one individual or race in this relation, we feel that the organization could be improved.
But when we regard each mind as a part of a vast system, in which the highest good of the whole will prove the highest possible good of each individual part, we are to judge of perfection in the organization of mind in another relation. If it is for the greatest happiness of the whole that there should be grades and ranks in mental powers; if disparities and varieties in organization give scope and exercise to virtues and modes of enjoyment that would be impossible were all minds exactly alike, and on the pattern of the highest in the scale of being, then the very points which are imperfections in the individual relations, become perfections in relation to the great whole. In this view, the lowest and humblest in the scale of being, when acting in his appropriate place and according to the great Creator's design, is perfect in mental construction, and is fitted to be happier in every respect than he could be if the whole system were changed by placing him among the highest in mental organization.
Just as it is with the human system—the lowly foot is perfect and complete in its place, though inferior in construction and service to the regal head and cunning hand. And should the foot be endowed with the higher gifts it would be a departure from its perfection [pg 130] in organization as related to the whole. The question, then, of the perfect nature of each human mind requires that we regard each one as a part of an infinite system demanding grades and ranks, and thus, also, relative disparities. And having proved that the chief design of the Creator is to make the best possible system, we are necessarily led to the conclusion that the lowest order of mind is as perfect in its nature, in relation to the great whole, as is the highest of all.
From the above we gain this definition:
A perfect mind, as to construction or nature, is one which is better fitted to its position in the best possible system of minds than it would be by any possible change.
In this use of the words nature and perfect it is claimed that in the preceding pages it has been proved that the mind of man is perfect in nature. Our next inquiry will relate to the perfect action of mind in respect to that which is voluntary or self-originated. In other words, we shall inquire as to the perfect moral action of the human mind, as discoverable by reason and experience, independently of revelation.
Chapter XXII. Right and Wrong—True Virtue.
Having discovered the end for which mind is made, and thus gained the idea of what is meant by perfectness, in its nature or construction, we next inquire as to what is the perfect action of mind.