\u201cIf God Does Not Exist, Is Everything Permitted?\u201d<\/a> I close with something in stark contrast to the words immediately above, something far more somber or even, perhaps, rather ferocious.\u00a0 But, first, an explanation:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCopybooks\u201d were notebooks that were used in nineteenth-century British schools.\u00a0 At the tops of their pages, at their \u201cheadings,\u201d wise maxims and proverbs were printed that the children were directed to copy multiple times, thus improving both their penmanship and, it was thought, their character.\u00a0 These maxims represented traditional morality, which, in this poem, Kipling contrasts with the fashionable \u201cgods\u201d of modern society and its new, supposedly improved<\/em> morality.\u00a0 Kipling published the poem at the end of the First World War, in which, fairly early on, his son John had been killed.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gods of the Copybook Headings\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAs I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,<\/span>
\nI make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.<\/span>
\nPeering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,<\/span>
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.<\/span><\/p>\nWe were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn<\/span>
\nThat Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:<\/span>
\nBut we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,<\/span>
\nSo we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.<\/span><\/p>\nWe moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,<\/span>
\nBeing neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,<\/span>
\nBut they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come<\/span>
\nThat a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.<\/span><\/p>\nWith the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.<\/span>
\nThey denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.<\/span>
\nThey denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.<\/span>
\nSo we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.<\/span><\/p>\nWhen the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.<\/span>
\nThey swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.<\/span>
\nBut when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,<\/span>
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: \u201cStick to the Devil you know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nOn the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life<\/span>
\n(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)<\/span>
\nTill our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,<\/span>
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: \u201cThe Wages of Sin is Death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIn the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,<\/span>
\nBy robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;<\/span>
\nBut, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,<\/span>
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: \u201cIf you don\u2019t work you die.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThen the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,<\/span>
\nAnd the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true<\/span>
\nThat All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four\u2014<\/span>
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.<\/span><\/p>\nAs it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man\u2014<\/span>
\nThere are only four things certain since Social Progress began:\u2014<\/span>
\nThat the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,<\/span>
\nAnd the burnt Fool\u2019s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;<\/span><\/p>\nAnd that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins<\/span>
\nWhen all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,<\/span>
\nAs surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,<\/span>
\nThe Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I think that \u2014 understandably, given the many years and the considerable inflation that have intervened since the late 1820s \u2014 we modern Latter-day Saints typically fail to grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice made by Martin Harris in order to publish the Book of Mormon. \u00a0 E. B. Grandin\u2019s price […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27725,56,259,27722,27737,737,9284,3112,7401,27728,27731,2601,27734,380,1570,25595,9467,740,12962,27743,27740,27746,8610,25088,27719,5688,4003,921,21713],"class_list":["post-93903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basis","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-book-of-mormon-witnesses","tag-copybook-headings","tag-e-b-grandin","tag-ethics","tag-existence","tag-eyewitness","tag-foundation","tag-gerrit-dirkmaat","tag-gerrit-j-dirkmaat","tag-god","tag-grandin","tag-joseph-smith","tag-martin-harris","tag-michael-hubbard-mackay","tag-moral","tag-morality","tag-palmyra","tag-print-shop","tag-printer","tag-printing","tag-relativism","tag-rudyard-kipling","tag-the-gods-of-the-copybook-headings","tag-three-witnesses","tag-witness","tag-witnesses","tag-witnesses-of-the-book-of-mormon"],"yoast_head":"\n
Good. And Evil.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" *** I think that -- understandably, given the many years and the considerable inflation that have intervened since the late 1820s --\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/good-and-evil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good. 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![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/12\/800px-GrandinPrintingShop.jpg\")
<\/a>