Order is the fixed law of existence, without which nothing goes as it should and as is desired. It is the shining sun of life, which lights for the traveler its twisting roads and reveals its unknown stretches and its turnings.

Among the errors common in our conduct, individual and collective, is the lack of order and the poor shouldering of its responsibilities, which leads to chaos and confusion in every kind of work.

And among the chief causes of corruption are improvisation, the disregard of rules, and the mock-ing of laws. It is no secret that order, in any society, is the proof of the measure of its progress and its civi-lization, for it is the scale of justice, security, and sta-bility, and the mark of an established life of the mind.

The smallest and humblest of tasks demands an order of its own; and many orders, above all the cosmic ones, are permanent and enduring: the individual is required to follow them, and they cannot be changed. The soil, for instance, does not grant the crop before the tilling and the sowing of the seed; yet many demand the fruit before the planting, and demand the profit before the work; and many desire to reach the summit while they flounder in a valley of muddle and neglect, or they want the goal though they have turned their backs upon it and set off walking in the opposite direction.

Everything in nature moves according to a fine and wondrous order, resting upon fixed scientific foundations; without it the universe would quake and sway — and man is but a part of this universe which order completes.

In the matters of the health of the individual and of society, in the questions of their livelihood and their culture, in the forming of qualities and inclinations, personal and public, in them both, the orders that are drawn up and followed have the deepest effect: they set the boundaries, they mark out the outlets, and they direct toward the goals.

Indifference to these orders, and neglect in valuing them, delays the course of work and casts a dark shadow of confusion over its results.

And among our errors is that every person throws the blame upon another, without settling his own share of this shortcoming and his own portion of this muddle. I once attended a meeting of a certain association over which much disorder reigned; every person criticized the prevailing confusion and blamed everyone but himself, though he had himself been one of the causes of that mischief.

This meeting of which I speak is nothing but a miniature picture of the lack of organization we see in the rest of our doings.

And this goes back to what we have grown used to: the inability to control the self and to call it to

account, to bind it to the rules of order, to bear its responsibilities, and to face its difficulties in the various fields.

Thus we see the woman, in many of her household affairs, lay the blame, when a mistake occurs, upon the husband or the children or the servants. And we see the man likewise fail to analyze the matters that arise, in their proper times, and set down no rules to guard him from crises, so that disorder rules his unknown road. And with all that, he brings the blame down upon his workmen or his wife or others. How many a time has this led to the loosening of the bonds of the family, and to the lasting misery of its members.

And we hear everyone, for example, criticize the cleanliness of the country; then we see each one of this crowd — save a few — fail to observe the rules necessary for cleanliness to exist and for its means to be preserved, whether at home or at work or on the road; so the harmful filth spreads, injuring taste and mind and body.

And when a pupil fails, the parents do not look at the neglect they have committed against the boy, nor at the indifference the pupil has shown; they direct their criticism only at the school and its system, forgetting each his own duty toward the rules of study and teaching; so muddle occurs and shortcoming follows.

Order in our work is indispensable; the individual must follow it, so that the group may follow him; then all learn to face the responsibilities which breed dignity in the soul, whet resolve in work, and create firmness in the will.

There is then no cause for casting burdens upon those to whom they do not belong, for evasion and fear grow only where there is no management and no organization, and they bequeath weakness, humiliation, and servility — and this is far indeed from removing error and setting matters right.

Rather it is courage and honesty in judging condi-tions, personal and collective, and true discernment in the cause of order, that remove muddle and bewilderment from our minds and from our society.

The many centuries in which woman lived fettered and ignorant were among the causes of this bewilderment; she did not rise to responsibilities, did not think of the consequences that means bring in their train, and gave no weight to systems; and the effects of all this were grievous upon the individual, and thence upon society.

And this is what usually happens in every primitive society over which ignorance reigns and which civilization has not reached.

Among the marks of shortcoming with us is that everyone who wants to be rid of the wrong