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 .ECT0RE5 AND ADDRESSES 
 
 
 CIJ X/I r^ACK 
 

^^C Ly/.^cAy-^ ^^ <^^ 
 
Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 WILL CUMBACK, 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 JOHN CLARK RIDPAXH. LL. D. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 
 Printed for the Author by Cranston & Curts. 
 
 1894. 
 
Copyrifiht 
 
 BY WILL CUMBACK, 
 
 1892. 
 
MARTHA H. CUMBACK, 
 
 anb mg I^augljfEr, 
 
 EliLA J. LOVEXX, 
 
 ant) mg ;§on, 
 
 WILL CUIVIBACK, 
 
 This Book is Affectionately Dedicated. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 INTRODUCTION, by John Clark Ridpath, LL. D., . . . 7 
 
 THE PUBLIC LECTURER, 27 
 
 THE INVISIBLE SOME PEOPLE, 52 
 
 THE COMMON MAN, 95 
 
 LIFE'S GREAT CONFLICT, 121 
 
 OUR NEIGHBORS, 146 
 
 THE REIGN OF KING BOGUS, 176 
 
 A SUCCESSFUL LIFE, 203 
 
 THE DOCTOR, 227 
 
 PUBLIC OPINION, 247 
 
 CONFUCIUS AND SOLOMON, 269 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A CIVILIZING FORCE, 297 
 
 THE DE:MANDS and DANGERS OF THE TIMES, . . 321 
 
 SELF-CULTURE, 347 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ODDFELLOWSHIP, 365 
 
 DECORATION-DAY 387 
 
 DOMESTIC SANITATION, 406 
 
 POLITICS AND SANITATION 416 
 
 WELC0:ME ADDRESS, 427 
 
 :\IETHODIST FRATERNITY, 440 
 
 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS, Y. M. C. A, CINCINNATI, . 448 
 
 THE METHODIST PREACHER, 454 
 
 N. P. BANKS 460 
 
 THE TOAST— THE CITIZEN SOLDIER, 467 
 
 THE TOAST— OUR GUEST, 476 
 
 LIBRARY PRESENTATION 479 
 
 5 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 AMONG the offices of friendship none is more 
 agreeable, none more consistent with the better 
 parts of our intellectual and spiritual nature, than 
 that which suggests the introduction of an author's 
 book — gift of his brain and heart — to the public by 
 some one of his associates. In such a case esteem 
 and aifectionate regard are the sentiments which in- 
 spire the choice, and to a large degree determine the 
 character of the product. It is as if friend should 
 accompany friend on the sunny morning of his mar- 
 riage-day, walking at times a few steps before him, 
 and giving him a hand, if somewhere the path be 
 narrow, and saying at the door of the crowded 
 church, " This is our guest, the groom." 
 
 It is a sentiment, a motive such as this, which 
 provokes the present introduction, and gives thereto 
 whatever value and appropriateness it may possess. 
 For a long time the writer of the same and the author 
 of this volume have journeyed much together in the 
 far-reaching highways and byways of the mortal life. 
 Each has known the other up to the period of ma- 
 turity ; each has seen upon the head of the other the 
 vertical sun-rays of the noontide pour down straight 
 from a nearly always cerulean skyj each has wished 
 well to the other; and now it is the office of the one 
 
 7 
 
8 Introduction. 
 
 to say a few words by way of introducing the book 
 of his trusted friend to the public, — it is an office 
 gladly performed, and in every sense delightful. 
 
 Some of the relations of Book and Introduction 
 are these: No introduction can make a book of some- 
 thing that is not. No book can be created, or even 
 be born again, by what another may say about it. 
 There is nothing more absolute, nothing more inde- 
 pendent, nothing that more completely is or is not 
 than a book. Many things are factitious. They are 
 made — caused to be. Contrivance, as it respects 
 many human enterprises, goes very far; but a book 
 is essential; that is, it is a thing of its own essence 
 and life. If it have no essence, no life, neither the 
 one nor the other can be given thereto by any extra- 
 neous agency. If a book is, it is. If it is not, why 
 then the deep saith. It is not in me, and the sea saith, 
 It is not in me. 
 
 True it is, however, that while an introduction 
 may not make the book, or to any considerable de- 
 gree conduce to its existence, it may mar it. It is 
 one thing to make, quite another thing to mar. The 
 office of an introduction is to say to the world : 
 " This is a book. It has certain qualities and worth. 
 Take it and read it, and you shall be better thereby," — 
 to say this, and to say it well, appropriately, mod- 
 estly, firmly, as one would introduce his friend in a 
 public assembly. But suppose the introduction be 
 bad in matter and form? How greatly, in that event, 
 will the effect be marred ! How great the difference 
 between the introduction good and the introduction 
 indifferent, mouthy, and maudlin — dreary, and devoid 
 of delicate taste ! 
 
Introduction. 9 
 
 Of the book and the introductiou to the book 
 this other thing also may well be said: that the 
 former is, in many instances, the only source of merit 
 and meaning to the latter. Indeed it is well that 
 the introduction should derive its life and sense and 
 sentiment wholly from the thing introduced. Here 
 again the analogy is from the office of friend and 
 friend before the public. When the great man comes 
 to the country town, it falls to the lot of the small 
 man to introduce him to the assemblage. What a 
 day that is for the small man ! And how the great 
 man must secretly and silently smile — not indeed 
 upon the visible face, but around the heart within — 
 at the manifest illumination and brief glory of him 
 who makes the introduction ! In such case also 
 stands, many times, the writer who essays, by words 
 of exposition and eulogium, to send off the book of 
 his friend on its unknown voyage. 
 
 Custom has exacted the introduction. As for the 
 book, that is born of the spirit. It may well sur- 
 prise to note how all things are clad about with a 
 certain penumbra of form and formality. Usage 
 takes the living thing, and clothes it in this way or 
 in that. How strong is habit — habit in the individual 
 first, in society next, and in all history finally ! The 
 modern book is the result of an evolution which has 
 been at work from the time when, in remote conti- 
 nents and inconceivably distant ages, men first began 
 to record and transmit their thoughts. History, with 
 her viewless fingers, has wrought at the production of 
 the book with as much interest and constancy as she 
 has wrought at the problem of government, at the in- 
 stitutions of religion, at the structure of language, 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 and much more than she has ever wrought at the 
 building of temples and pyramids and tombs. 
 
 In the evolution of the book precedent has given 
 much. Current custom has contributed not a little. 
 The fitness of things has added its sum. So that at 
 last the book has come — the book of paper and of 
 print, uttered in our land's language, formulated and 
 devised into chapters and paragraphs, made according 
 to usage and fashion, bearing not only its subject- 
 matter, but its style, and hailing the reader, first of 
 all, with — an Introduction. 
 
 What, then, shall we say in the way of introduc- 
 ing this volume to the public? First of all, it is ap- 
 propriate to give to the author personally such words 
 of praise as his life and work in the great society of 
 the West have so richly deserved. Few men have 
 won a larger or more enduring place in the esteem 
 and aifection of the people than has Will Cumback. 
 His acquaintance is as broad as the magnificent 
 country in which for nearly forty years he has been 
 one of the principal actors. 
 
 It was the fortune of the writer of this volume to 
 be launched into public life at the age when most 
 men are still reckoned as boys. Scarcely had he 
 passed his majority until he was already a distin- 
 guished personage. Elected to Congress at the early 
 age of twenty-five, he was at once thrown into con- 
 tact with the leading men of the Nation. He arose 
 with the dawn of that great day which was to witness 
 the renovation of the United States. He was a par- 
 ticipant in that hot and victorious struggle which re- 
 sulted in the election of Nathaniel P. Banks to the 
 Republican speakership of the House of Representa- 
 
Introduction. 11 
 
 tives. The event was the driving down of the first 
 strong stake in the new pavilion of human liberty ; 
 and it is to the everlasting honor of the author of 
 this volume that, young as he was, he was one of 
 those who helped to drive the stake and stretch the 
 first cords around the sacred place which was to be 
 dedicated to the freedom of all men and the perpe- 
 tuity of the American Union. 
 
 Since his first introduction to public life, Will 
 Cumback has been almost constantly in the conspic- 
 uous view of the people. This is said, not only of 
 the people of his own State, but of all the States 
 west of the Alleghanies. Few men have been more 
 abroad than he. In the trying ordeal of the war his 
 life was as busy and useful as that of his great con- 
 temporaries. His work as paymaster of the army 
 was one of the most serious and severe ordeals of 
 those days of unmeasured responsibilities and fiery 
 tests of virtue. Through his hands passed in pay- 
 ment to the soldiers who fought our battles more 
 than sixty millions of dollars, and at the close of the 
 trial his accounts were so clear and correct as to elicit 
 the unstinted and exceptional praise of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 This is not the place for any extended biograph- 
 ical notice of the author of the present volume ; but 
 we can not forbear to emphasize the extent and va- 
 riety of his acquaintance with his fellow-men, and 
 the degree of their confidence which he enjoys. 
 There is hardly a considerable town in all the West 
 where his figure is not known, where his voice has 
 not been heard. His life has been pre-eminently that 
 of a public man, whose thoughts and principles and 
 
12 Introduction. 
 
 conduct alike have been known and read of the 
 people. 
 
 In a time when seclusion has almost vanished, and 
 when private life itself lias been well-nigh abolished 
 by the illumination of the press and the curious scru- 
 tiny of modern society, Colonel Cumback has walked 
 abroad with the proud step of a fearless and invul- 
 nerable sjjirit. His manners and disposition have 
 won upon the affectionate regard of his fellow-men 
 at the same time that his abilities as a writer and 
 speaker have commanded their respect and admi- 
 ration. 
 
 It is one of the striking peculiarities of our age 
 that its thought and its affairs no longer draw 
 asunder. In modern life the thought and the affair 
 are blent together. Ideality no longer floats adrift 
 in one direction and business in another. They are 
 combined rather as spirit and substance in the same 
 character. Life lias been unified by the incorporation 
 of its best thought in its best action. One of the 
 most promising and interesting features of the age is 
 the marriage of thought, of literary ability, with the 
 duties and responsibilities of an active public life. 
 
 The history of England wathin the present cen- 
 tury furnishes many conspicuous examples of men of 
 that particular type which, if we mistake not, must 
 prevail more and more hereafter — the type which 
 combines within itself, on the one hand, scholarship, 
 information, mental power, and literary activity, with 
 the serious and severe discipline of official life and 
 duty on the other. The intellectual and public his- 
 tory of Great Britain would shine with greatly abated 
 luster if the names of Macaulay and Bulwer, of Dis- 
 
Introduction. 13 
 
 raeli and McCarthy and Gladstone were stricken 
 away. These men conspicuously represent the brill- 
 iant class of literary statesmen — one of the most at- 
 tractive, fascinating, and valuable types of manhood 
 known to modern history. 
 
 In America this type is unfortunately less preva- 
 lent than in England. There has been in our country 
 a strong disposition on the part of a coarse and igno- 
 rant public management to keep itself divorced from 
 the higher intelligence, and in particular from the 
 literary genius of the American people. In a country 
 where every man is supposed to be in some sense a 
 politician, it must needs be that the many can, with 
 the power of the ballot, combine to exclude from 
 trust and reputation the more gifted and accom- 
 plished sons of the morning. It is at once the hard- 
 ship and the disgrace of the Republic that it runs in 
 this direction. 
 
 The domination of party thus becomes the enemy 
 of the intellectual life in all of its manifestations. 
 The party does not, and will not, think. The batter- 
 ing-rams of the Romans did not think. They were 
 not intelligent. A catapult, whether for throwing 
 stone or throwing mud, has no thought. It has 
 neither perception nor conscience. Whatever force 
 of mind stands behind it and operates its brutal ma- 
 chinery, is, in the nature of the case, as coarse and 
 low, as selfish and sordid as the machine itself. The 
 modern party is a battering-ram of sheer force, a cat- 
 apult of personal interest and revenge — a thing of 
 violence and destruction, subserving the purposes of 
 civilization only in the sense that physical evil may be 
 said to contribute to the moral welfare of the world. 
 
14 Introduction. 
 
 Notwithstanding the adverse conditions present in 
 our country, that form of intellectual life which com- 
 bines itself with public activity has been displayed in 
 instances not a few. Among our public men there is 
 a considerable measure of literary aspiration. Some 
 have risen so high as to understand that literary fame 
 is the most truly immortal of all human monuments. 
 The great leaders of our armies have contributed by 
 their pens to that glorious record in which the story 
 of the American Civil War and its gigantic issues is 
 written for posterity. The real leaders of public af- 
 fairs — not the ostensible figure-heads of American 
 life — have shared this ambition so conspicuously 
 present in our generals. If Grant and Sherman 
 and Sheridan, Johnston and Longstreet, have written 
 of those immortal events, quarum pars magna fuerunt, 
 so in like manner have Benton and Sumner, Seward 
 and Cox and Blaine, transmitted themselves and their 
 work to posterity by their writings. 
 
 Will Cumback has been a publicist of this class. 
 His education and youthful ambitions might well have 
 led him into the broad and open field of literature. 
 Cast as he was into public life, the refinements of let- 
 ters remained with him, combining with his active 
 and arduous duties, and painting an aureole around 
 his whole official career. During the eighteen years 
 of his official life he wrote much and well on many 
 subjects. Writing, with him, so far from being an 
 irksome, mechanical task, has been a delightful passion. 
 In the intervals of official duty he has ever found an 
 agreeable occupation with his pen. 
 
 The personal sympathies, likewise, of the author of 
 this volume have drawn him to literary pursuits and 
 
Introduction. 15 
 
 literary affiliations. His companionshiji and confi- 
 dence have reached rather to men of letters and to the 
 work in which they engage than to those with whom 
 office-getting and office-holding are the principal pur- 
 suit. He is better and more widely known among the 
 intellectual classes than he is even in the official cir- 
 cles of public life. 
 
 At one time Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana, 
 Colonel Cumback strongly identified himself with his 
 office. As presiding officer of the Senate he became 
 henceforth affectionately known to the people of his 
 own State and throughout the country as Governor 
 Cumback. This title has been fondly cherished and 
 perpetuated by his friends. It seems to have been a 
 case in which the appellative fits the man. The title 
 has remained with him as an honorable and respectful 
 sobriquet, which the public will not willingly let die. 
 
 These are but glances at the life and character of one 
 of the best-known and most highly appreciated of our 
 Western public men. Governor Cumback has always 
 had a passion for public speaking. To speak is, with 
 him, so natural as to constitute almost a necessary 
 part of his every-day life. His career for many years 
 has been essentially that of a lecturer, a platform 
 orator, a maker of addresses. The wave of public 
 success has carried him in this relation into almost 
 every State of the Union. It is thus that his ac- 
 quaintance with the American people has been broad- 
 ened and deepened until it is almost universal. 
 
 Very few men upon the public platform of to-day 
 have addressed so many audiences on so many occa- 
 sions, with so great success. For him as an orator, the 
 graces of his style, the merits of his subject-matter, 
 
16 Introduction. 
 
 the magnificence of his voice, and the irapressiveness 
 and dignity of his presence on the rostrum, have com- 
 manded universal admiration and applause. In his 
 character of lecturer he has traveled from Passama- 
 quodd)'^ to San Diego, and from St. Augustine to Port 
 Angeles, addressing as large and intelligent audiences 
 as have honored almost any orator of the day. As a 
 man of the lyceum and the platform his life has been 
 pre-eminently successful. 
 
 It is from this point of view that we obtain one 
 of the best estimates of Governor Cumback^s abilities, 
 dispositions, and genius. He has evidently been 
 moved in the activities of his recent years by the pas- 
 sion of being a public teacher. This has been the pre- 
 vailing motive in determining his career on the plat- 
 form. He has had the instincts and purposes of a 
 man of the university — we may say the University of 
 Life. He has sought to teach from the rostrum, not 
 so much to instruct technically by the exposition of 
 a given theme in science or the arts, but rather to in- 
 culcate and enforce some principle of human conduct 
 tending to reform and the betterment of the age. 
 This is the secret of his inspiration as a man of the 
 platform, and the sufficient explanation of what con- 
 stitutes the major part of this volume. 
 
 Let us say that all public speech in our age derives 
 its true value from, and, if we mistal^e not, exerts its 
 true influence by, the ethical quality in it. The his- 
 tory of the American lyceum is full of interest. The 
 study has a large value to the student of philosophy 
 as well as the student of mere affairs. The lyceum in 
 America began its work with the public exposition of 
 scientific subjects. At the first the lecturer was a 
 
Intr od uction. 17 
 
 teacher of science, explaining by means of written 
 manuscript, diagrams, and charts the philosophical 
 import and governing laws of some group of natural 
 phenomena. From this the range of topics was 
 widened to include social, industrial, political, and 
 finally religious subjects. 
 
 The platform at length became a fact in American 
 civilization. The lyceum as an institution was rajjidly 
 developed. Lecturers arose by the legion. The ros- 
 trum swarmed, first with celebrities, then with speakers 
 of the middle class of talent, and finally with the 
 small — even the microscopic. Lecturing grew sud- 
 denly into great public favor. It was the fashion of 
 an epoch. Every town had its hall, every village its 
 platform and its course. 
 
 We may not speak lightly of that age in our history 
 which thus brought forth so abundantly of public 
 speech. In a democratic country such an institution 
 as the lyceum must needs flourish with a sudden blos- 
 soming and an abundance of green fruit. But we 
 should not fail to note the great impulses in American 
 public opinion which were started and driven like 
 ocean waves by the stress and wind of the rostrum. 
 He who had aught to say might arise and say it. 
 Could he persuade his fellow-men that he was right, 
 he found a following. Could he discover an issue of 
 genuine human interest, then he found a cause. He 
 might be contradicted freely by another whose opinions 
 clashed with his own. The commotion thus produced 
 was one of our fruitful sources of intellectual growth. 
 The phenomena which we here describe antedated the 
 Civil War, ran parallel therewith, reached a climax in 
 the seventh decade, and then began to sink away. 
 
 2 
 
18 Introduction. 
 
 The close student of our intellectual history as a 
 people will have noted the decline of the lyceuni. 
 For a score of years the platform was the rage of the 
 winter-time. No other fact in our current life gained 
 greater attention and popularity than that form of 
 public address known as lecturing. The reaction 
 came afterwards. Several of our great lecturers dis- 
 appeared from the stage. Among the new aspirants 
 only a few had in them the elements of greatness and 
 strength. A revolt of public sentiment against the 
 lyceum came coincidently with that severe contrac- 
 tion of our currency which passed under the high- 
 sounding name of the resumption of specie payments. 
 Hard times and a pessimistic generation followed in 
 the wake, and for a while it seemed that the lecture- 
 platform was extinct. 
 
 For seasons not a few the time went by, and the 
 lecture-course seemed to be a forgotten fact in so- 
 ciety. The appearance, however, was fortunately de- 
 lusive. The platform had not passed away, but 
 was undergoing repairs ! As a matter of fact, it had 
 been broken down by the superincumbent pressure 
 of the small. The structure which had been able to 
 sustain two or three Titans in the war epoch had 
 given w^ay under an aggregation of diminutives. 
 Such things happen in the intellectual carpentry 
 of the world. The rostrum, however, was not 
 wrecked, but only rendered untenable to the people 
 of Lilliput. A new lyceum arose in place of the 
 old — more rational, more permanent, less abounding 
 in sensations, less pyrotechnic and iridescent, but 
 better lighted with the lamp of ethical truth and the 
 radiance of enduring day. 
 
Introduction. 19 
 
 It was out of this historical and intellectual con- 
 dition that the material of the present volume was 
 evoked. Governor Cumback is one of the products, 
 as well as one of the ornaments, of the new lyceum. 
 He belongs to the age of public speakers who are 
 the survival and residue of the larger and less useful 
 class that were stranded when the old lyceum became 
 a wreck. 
 
 The new lyceum rises and flourishes. It has 
 borne as one of its principal fruits the lectures and 
 addresses which compose the subject-matter of the 
 present volume. This is a book of public speech. 
 It is the echo caught from the utterances of one who, 
 in the character of a teacher, addresses his fellow- 
 men from the platform. It is the gathering up of 
 a bundle of sheaves — of summer sheaves not yet 
 quite yellowed with the autumnal frost — from the 
 fresh harvest-field, still smelling sweet with the fra- 
 grance of golden wheat and new-cut stubble. 
 
 In this field the wealth of the gleaner lies here and 
 there. It is rimmed about with the glorious woods. 
 The strong fence, built by brawny and honest hands, 
 divides it from the unreclaimed forest beyond, and 
 protects it from the inroads of lawless creatures. 
 Above are patches of sunny cloud and the blue cur- 
 tain of an infinite sky; and in the stubble here and 
 there the mother quail have built their nests or 
 gather about the shocks of heavy grain their broods 
 of da])pled offspring. 
 
 In the following pages the author has discussed 
 many of the most important questions of the day. 
 This is a book of social science. It deals with so- 
 ciety. It recognizes the virtues of society as well as 
 
20 Introduction. 
 
 its faults and foibles. Society is the theme. It 
 echoes and re-echoes in all these addresses, and is the 
 key-note of the whole. The author himself is nothing 
 if not social in his prevailing sympathies and yearn- 
 ings. Hardly does he lift up his voice without ad- 
 dressing his thought to the existing social estate. 
 He sees behind the present form and aspect of 
 things another form and aspect more perfect, more 
 sublime. He appeals from the existing condition to 
 the ideal ; not indeed to the unattainable, but to that 
 better and nobler condition of things toward which 
 every true and thoughtful spirit reaches as towards 
 a goal. 
 
 It is from this point of view that these lectures 
 and addresses must be read and understood in order 
 to be appreciated. The author is an ethical teacher. 
 As to the moral purpose of what is here written there 
 can be no mistake. The whole purport and signifi- 
 cance of this volume is an appeal for right and 
 truth, for reform and fraternal good-will among men. 
 The author addresses himself not less to the con- 
 science than to the understanding of his auditors. 
 AVe say auditors rather than readers, for in these 
 pages the audience is ever present. The speaker is 
 here. The people are gathered. It is evening. The 
 hall is lighted. The subject is announced. Attention 
 is commanded. The theme is touched, and turned, 
 and viewed from many angles, but always in the 
 manner of the orator. Take away this element from 
 the book, and the spirit, the soul, of it departs. 
 
 Of all books, perhaps the orator's book is most 
 alive. The orator writes with his audience ever be- 
 fore him. There is the sea .of upturned faces. 
 
Introduction. 21 
 
 Here is the rostrum. The sceue is set. As his pen 
 moves, the vision is constantly before liim. Such a 
 book has only two of the grammatical persons — the 
 first and the second. The tliird is wanting. The 
 author does not speak of men, of principles, of things, 
 so much as he speaks to the living intelligence of 
 his fellow-men gathered and warmed with his pres- 
 ence and the sound of his voice. It is you and /, 
 and only rarely tliexj and it. 
 
 It is in this spirit and with this intent that Gov- 
 ernor Cumback has, in the following pages, taken uj) 
 many of the most important topics of modern society. 
 He has discussed them with the sense of a philoso- 
 pher and the soul of a philanthropist. These Lec- 
 tures and Addresses have been especially effective as 
 one of the motive forces determinative of the public 
 opinion of our day. The honesty and candor of the 
 principles expounded in these pages can no more be 
 doubted than the ability of the. writer or the cogency 
 of his argument. 
 
 The strongly moral tone pervading every chapter 
 and paragraph of this volume distinguishes it widely 
 and laudably from the majority of books composed, 
 as this is, of popular addresses. The average orator 
 is prone to trim his sails. The motive for doing so 
 is stronger with him than with the recluse of the 
 library. The orator would fain please, as well as in- 
 struct and persuade. He would fain have the ap- 
 plause, as well as the admiration, of his auditors. But 
 the auditors are not always in the right. In in- 
 stances not a few, the ethical teacher must set himself 
 firmly, unyieldingly against the time-honored preju- 
 dices and profound bias of them who hear. The 
 
22 Introduction. 
 
 temptation of the public speaker to yield a little for 
 the sake of favor is very great. 
 
 Particularly is this true in the case of one who has 
 taken large part in public life. The political leader 
 must of necessity assume the leadership by standing 
 at the head of the column aud shouting a command 
 which is but the unexpressed voice of the phalanx. 
 In a country devoted to democracy, this motive and 
 policy are stronger than in any other. To meet the 
 temptation squarely, to face the wrong when it is 
 popular, to cry aloud and spare not, to utter the truth 
 because it is the truth, to dare unpopularity and 
 detraction for the sake of a righteous cause, — all 
 these argue in him who does it, not only a large 
 measure of courage, but that peculiar moral courage, 
 the lack of which is, if we mistake not, the intellect- 
 ual and ethical weakness of our age and country. 
 
 A careful perusal of these Addresses will show no 
 moral flaw. They are absolutely impervious to the 
 base mildew which appears as applause to-night, but 
 spreads as a canker and mold in the morning. Vainly 
 will the pessimist seek to find in this volume a line or 
 word that does not ring on the moral counter wath 
 the clear resonance of the unalloyed coin of the 
 realm. Though in many places the author traverses 
 established opinions, attacks intrenched abuses, does 
 not hesitate to strike with keen sarcasm some hoary 
 respectabilities which still dominate modern society to 
 its hurt, he never for an instant forgets his attitude 
 as a teacher of morality and truth. It is a part of 
 the merited praise of this volume that its tone, its 
 purpose, its end and aim, can in no wise be mistaken. 
 
 The major portion of the subject-matter of this 
 
Introduction. 23 
 
 volume has already been heard by thou.sands of 
 people. These Addresses have, in their spoken form, 
 been received with applause on many occasions and 
 in many States. The same matter is now trans- 
 muted into literature projDcr. In the literary dress 
 the volume goes to its trial at the hands of the silent 
 reader. It may be confessed that, in this translation 
 from the platform to the library, the ordeal is severe. 
 Many things agreeably said with the graces of oratory, 
 and well received in a situation where what Lord 
 Bacon calls "the idols of the tribe" hold sway, can 
 not bear the trial of intellectual scrutiny at the busy 
 man's evening table or under the scholar's lamp. 
 INIany a brilliant paragraph, running its rapid course 
 like the skater's w^ell-draped figure, sails easily and 
 safely over the illogical and treacherous ice-flaws 
 under foot, which would instantly go down, with a 
 crash and splash, to the frozen baptism of rhetor- 
 ical death, if it dared to pause until the mental gaze 
 could be fixed upon it. Oratory has many illusions 
 that are dispelled in that truthful, candid, and serious 
 print which is the final test of all that we think 
 and say. 
 
 If we mistake not, this volume of Lectures and 
 Addresses will suffer less than is commonly the case 
 by translation from the rostrum to the printed page. 
 These orations were composed, in the first place, with 
 conscientious care. They have taken their final form 
 through much revision and study. They have been 
 perfected by use and adaptation until they have 
 reached a style and method not oflen attained in 
 written addresses. This is to say that they have 
 passed from the strictly oratorical into the literary 
 
24 Introduction. 
 
 form, and have become a series of Essays on Life and 
 Conduct. 
 
 Though the author of this volume has spoken 
 much on occasion — though he has prepared not a 
 few of the following addresses for some particular day 
 and event — the occasional quality is not conspicuous 
 in them. Governor Cumback has selected themes of 
 wider import, and therefore of larger literary capac- 
 ity, than may be found among the ordinary topics of 
 occasional oratory. A glance at the subjects of these 
 elegant papers will show how large and varied are 
 the themes. 
 
 It may be that the verve and piquancy of the 
 strictly occasional address is, to a certain extent, sac- 
 rificed by this method; but at the same time there is 
 a clear gain in literary quality and in permanence of 
 interest. If we mistake not, these Addresses will 
 endure. Both the subjects and the treatment are of 
 a kind to warrant us in the reasonable expectation of 
 a future life and interest in these scholarly and able 
 lectures. 
 
 To a very large degree this volume reveals the 
 author in its pages. In many kinds of literary work 
 we are unable to discover the writer. In other 
 kinds we catch but brief and uncertain glimpses of 
 his personality. It is so in the drama. It is so to a 
 large degree in history. In biography, likewise, the 
 writer must conceal himself behind his subject. He 
 must not idealize or mythologize his character, or 
 make him other than he was. In no other kind of 
 writing — not even in poetry and fiction — is the author 
 capable of revealing his own spirit and purpose so 
 well as in a volume of addresses. Here, indeed, h« 
 
Introduction. 25 
 
 may not be mistaken for another. Here he is himself 
 displayed. Here he speaks for himself, and not in 
 'persona. Here, if he be honest and have a trans- 
 parent soul, he Avill reveal not only his intellectual 
 capacity but also that inner ethical nature aud re- 
 ligious life which constitute the enduring and immu- 
 table basis of his power and individuality. 
 
 Of this brief pilgrimage that, we call life, no me- 
 morial or landmark can be set up by the wayside of 
 mortality more beautiful than the book. The book 
 contains the living thought, almost the life itself, of 
 the Avriter. How fairer is this to the sight of the 
 pilgrims than is some pallid and sculptured index of 
 death, done in marble, or granite, or bronze ! Let us 
 believe that the sons of men are begiuniug at last to 
 understand that the true monument is not an obelisk 
 of stone. 
 
 He who has the lofty ambition to transmit himself 
 to the century following — to make the acquaintance of 
 the unborn, to walk hand in hand with the sons and 
 daughters of another age — must freely commit his 
 living part, his thought, his spirit, his best hope to the 
 custody of the waters. This he does by sending abroad 
 his book — his book wherein the far-off day may see 
 reflected, not so much his face aud form, as the outline 
 of that immortal and wing-ed creature which sits en- 
 throned in the glow of his brain. 
 
 Gladly do we, in this half-cursive manner, send 
 forth to the public, with words of good cheer, this in- 
 teresting and valuable contribution to the oratorical 
 literature of our period. AVe doubt not that this 
 volume will receive — as it deserves to receive — at the 
 hands of the critical and the general reader a hearty 
 
 3 
 
26 Introduction. 
 
 welcome. The particular charm and glory of literary 
 effort is that the brutal law of competition can never 
 be laid upon it ! Here no man crowds another from 
 his pedestal. Here no man builds a throne for an- 
 other to occupy. Here none toils and sorrows to 
 gather the jewels and weave a crown for the brows 
 of another. Xo true book ever yet thrust another 
 from its place. No real product of literary genius 
 ever made less cordial and generous the opportunity 
 of another. On the contrary, literary taste and yearn- 
 ing grow with all the fruits they feed upon. There 
 is room for this book. 
 
 " There is place in the land of j'our labor, 
 There is room in your world of delight, 
 Where Change has not Sorrow for neighbor, 
 And day has not night." 
 
 There is room for this book, and there is room for its 
 author. There is an ample and gracious place for 
 both in the luminous thought and the open heart of 
 this best of all the ages and among this truest of all 
 the peoples. 
 
Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 THE PUBLIC LECTURER. 
 
 THE life aud profession of the public lecturer is 
 uulike that of any other. If his success on the 
 platform does not spoil him, he will greatly enjoy his 
 work, and will be a valuable factor in the improve- 
 ment and development of the age in which he lives. 
 If, however, the applause he receives from his audi- 
 ence, and the indorsement given him by the press, 
 result in impressing him that he is a very great per- 
 son, then his egotism will not only greatly interfere 
 with his relish for his profession, but will, in a still 
 greater degree, impair his usefulness in it. 
 
 But that is not confined to the lecturer. It is 
 equally true of all professions. Sensible people have 
 but little toleration for egotism. The man at the 
 bar, in the pulpit, on the platform, or anywhere else, 
 who shows that he is constantly thinking more of 
 himself than his work, will soon find that his ad- 
 mirers and followers are only the shallow aud un- 
 thinking. 
 
 If his towering egotism has not so blinded him 
 that he can observe that he fails to have the ap- 
 
 Delivered before the Chautauquan Assembly, at Silver 
 Lake, New York. 
 
 21 
 
28 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 proval of the better judgment of the thinking peo- 
 ple, thcD he becomes irritable, and that makes him 
 cynical and cranky. If the crank is carefully and 
 thoroughly analyzed, it will be found in all cases that 
 the fountain and origin of his disease, the fatal germ 
 of the complaint that has affected his whole mental 
 machinery, is egotism. 
 
 I am glad to believe and to proclaim that the 
 lecture platform, in its larger sense, is fi-ee from this 
 nuisance. He can not be sustained there. I am will- 
 ing to concede that there are abundance of cranks 
 who attempt to lecture on special topics. But they 
 do not gather about them the thinking people. Their 
 audiences are largely made of those who are hunting 
 for a sensation; those who seem to take a great deal 
 of satisfaction in being humbugged ; those who meas- 
 ure the greatness of the speaker by the magnitude of 
 his falsehoods ; those who read cheap newspapers with 
 blood-curdling pictures; and those who stand round 
 long-haired liars on the corners of the street, and 
 purchase pinchbeck jewelry and bogus liniment at 
 enormous prices. 
 
 But I assert, with no small degree of satisfaction, 
 that on the broad public platform, where the themes 
 are discussed that are demanded by the sensible peo- 
 ple who really enjoy a good lecture, there can be 
 found but few cranks. And when one does appear 
 there, he is compelled, like the ground-hog, to go 
 back to his hole as soon as he sees the dimness of his 
 own shadow. 
 
 I asserted, in the beginning, that his life and pro- 
 fession are unlike those of any other. He is, in most 
 
The Public Lecturer. 29 
 
 cases, an entire stranger to his audience. Those who 
 come to hear him have but little means in advance of 
 determining the sincerity of his jjurpose, or the 
 honesty of his heart, or the breadth of his mind. 
 They can not tell whether he has sought the platform 
 to gratify his personal vanity, or for the small fees he 
 may get for his lectures, or whether he is prompted 
 by the higher motive of instructing and entertaining 
 his fellow-men and elevatiug his race. They can not 
 know beforehand whether he is a person of broad 
 culture, or whether the few facts and illustrations that 
 he has strung together for an hour's talk are all he 
 knows on that subject. 
 
 It is but natural, in such cases, that in view of 
 these facts, and also that a fee at the door has been 
 exacted of his hearers, a feeling of doubt and distrust 
 should prevail to some extent among his auditors. 
 
 But he has a more formidable obstacle still to 
 contend with, right in the onset. There is not a 
 single tie between him and them. He is bound to 
 them by no creed, and united by no partisanship. 
 He dares not be sectarian or partisan. His mission, 
 if he be true to his profession, is to attack, in a fair, 
 manly way, the errors in all creeds, and try to broaden 
 human thought on every question of general interest. 
 As he has before him all shades of opinions and 
 beliefs, and as the individual auditor may not know- 
 in advance but that his pet theory may be assailed, 
 the audience is in the attitude of self-defense and re- 
 sistance, rather than in sympathy with the speaker. 
 
 But he has this advantage. He has a broad- 
 minded and generous audience. He has before him 
 
30 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 the elite of the town. Society may draw her lines 
 elsewhere, and make her elite out of the old families, 
 the blue-bloods, the official and professional . people ; 
 but a first circle composed of these elements alone 
 will not stand the test of honest scrutiny. 
 
 Show me the lecture-going people of a commu- 
 nity, and I will show you the real nobility. The 
 bigot will not attend lectures, because he does not 
 care to believe anything outside of his creed. The 
 crank refuses to be present, for the reason that the 
 lecturer is not mounted on his hobby. The intense 
 partisan is not found in the audience, because the 
 speaker did not vote as he did at the last election. 
 The mercenary people stay away, because there is 
 no money in it to them. The stingy people are not 
 of the number, because they have not had a compli- 
 mentary. The aristocrat refuses to be seen in an 
 audience where the cheapness of the admission brings 
 in so many common people as to make the audience 
 entirely too miscellaneous for him. The dude is not 
 of the number, because the lecture-room is not a dress 
 party and is not a suitable place for fools. 
 
 Is it not apparent, with all these eliminated, 
 and many of the same sort that might be men- 
 tioned, that the general average of the remainder 
 will go up so rapidly and to such a height that the arti- 
 ficial lines society has made for the first circle will 
 be wiped out, and a real, solid, substantial upper- 
 tendom will take the place that society has assigned 
 to the shoddy class? 
 
 It would not be true to assert that this line of 
 division is entirely correct, that it includes all the 
 
The Public Lecturer. 31 
 
 best and none of the worst, yet, in the main, the 
 audiences of the lecture-roora are the salt of the 
 town. While they are broad-minded and generous, 
 yet they do their own thinking, and stand ready to 
 challenge the soundness of the utterances of the plat- 
 form. This is especially true if the announced sub- 
 ject has any bearing on the correct conduct of life. 
 And, to my mind, this is the theme that ought to be 
 presented by the lecturer, if it rises above a mere 
 entertainment to the dignity of a lecture. 
 
 Neither the politician nor the preacher has any 
 of these difficulties in his way. The partisan 
 followers of the politician are ready to swear in ad- 
 vance, the moment their leader mounts the stump, 
 that he will say the very things they want to hear, 
 and solemnly to affirm the truth of every statement, 
 even before he has uttered a word. The preacher, in 
 most cases, has a still stronger grip on his audience, 
 and so much confidence have some members of his 
 congregation that they sleep sweetly all through 
 his discourse. 
 
 If the lecturer in the end succeeds in establish- 
 ing good and sympathetic relations between himself 
 and his audience, he will have to do so by the force 
 of his genius ; by his clear and manly statements of 
 his propositions; by his devotion to the truth; by 
 his earnest and manifest desire to benefit mankind; 
 and, above all, by an entire forgetfulness of his own 
 personality. 
 
 It can not be denied that in the community that 
 has the advantage of this honest platform work will 
 be found the broadest culture and the highest intel- 
 
32 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 ligence. The human mind is stimulated and aroused 
 by the lecturer, who, thus standing on neutral ground 
 for the truth, begins to question old, hitherto-accepted 
 opinions. This questioning spirit gathers private and 
 public libraries, and the clouds of bigotry, intolerance, 
 and ignorance are dispelled by the sunlight and gen- 
 eral dissemination of knowledge. 
 
 This is not claiming too much for the platform. 
 It goes without saying that the members of every 
 trade, calling, or profession unduly magnify the im- 
 portance of their position. They are inclined to in- 
 sist that but for them human society would not be 
 properly organized, and civilization would be com- 
 pelled to call a halt. So let it be. It is better to 
 magnify one's own work than to depreciate it. 
 
 Success comes largely from this condition of af- 
 fairs. That too much is claimed in every case can 
 not be doubted. Yet it takes so many and such 
 varied elements to make up even the sort of civiliza- 
 tion we have, that the precise effect of the absence of 
 one element can not be ascertained. It can only be 
 guessed at, without the trial of the experiment. That 
 is not practicable or possil)le, because human influences 
 are so interlaced and so dependent on each other that 
 the power and force of any one can not be definitely 
 ascertained, but can only be estimated. 
 
 While exaggeration is not to be encouraged, yet 
 the sharp and vigorous contest of each trade and pro- 
 fession to sustain the claim to stand at the front 
 has been one of the most active forces in arousing 
 the human intellect, and in pushing the human race 
 out on a voyage of discovery and invention. It 
 
The Pcblic Lecturer. , 33 
 
 has undoubtedly very much quickened the step of 
 progress. 
 
 All of this has more than compensated for the 
 huge pretensions and unwarranted assumptions that 
 have been the ridiculous phases of rivalry — the ab- 
 surd claim that each has a corner on human develop- 
 ment and a patent on the most approved method of 
 civilization. 
 
 This state of things comes largely from the strange 
 disposition of the mind of man to indulge in hobby- 
 riding. We make loud boasts of human reason. 
 We claim that its length and breadth and depth can 
 not be measured. Essayists and philosophers have 
 gloried in it; and poets without number have mounted 
 Pegasus, and from Hyperion heights have sung of the 
 infinitude of human thought. It silences the eulo- 
 gies of the metaphysician, and clips the wings of the 
 poet, and humiliates the whole human race, when 
 you exhibit the one-ideaed tendencies of man's 
 reasoning. 
 
 The comparatively few who have been able to get 
 out of this narrow channel and stand for the truth 
 wherever it may be found, have won the persecutions 
 of the t?imes in which they lived, and the honors and 
 blessings of the generations following them. Their 
 lives stand out as beacons, to warn the race to avoid 
 the shoals and shallows of mere party and sect. 
 
 There have been but a few in the past bold enough 
 to so bless the race. There will be more in the 
 coming and better future. Then justice will be done 
 to mankind personally and professionally. Nothing 
 ■will then pass for more than its real worth, and igno- 
 
34 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 raiice and siiperstitioa will not be able to suppress real 
 merit. Hasten the blessed time ! 
 
 The lecture platform is one of the most active 
 forces to hurry it along. In making this high claim, 
 I hope the suggestion may not arise in your mind 
 that in doing so I have subjected myself to the con- 
 demnation that I have passed upon the hobby-rider. 
 There is no place on the lecture platform for such. 
 He is too narrow to take it in, and too near-sighted 
 to discern anything but his hobby. The fact is, the 
 lecture platform is a most serious obstacle in his way. 
 It is erected right across the ruts in which he runs, 
 and is sustained and upheld by a people who are too 
 sensible and honest to encourage cranks, or to counte- 
 nance those who undertake to warp and twist the 
 truth so as to conceal aod give currency to the false. 
 We boast of our age. And well we may. We 
 have many things in these times to brag about. The 
 chief glory of our day, and that which gives the 
 charming luster to our civilization, is the constantly 
 growing disposition of thinking people to try to find 
 where the straight-edge of the truth is, and then to 
 bring their preconceived notions and inherited opin- 
 ions and lay them alongside, and thus discover the 
 crooks and kinks in their belief, that they may correct 
 and straighten them. 
 
 Is it too much to claim that the lecture platform, 
 elevated as it is above partisan contention and secta- 
 rian wrangling, has been the chief instrument in in- 
 citing this wider investigation and broader concep- 
 tion? Is not the lecturer, with love in his heart for 
 his race, and with a sublime reverence and a sin- 
 
The Public Lecturer. 35 
 
 cere devotion for the truth, and with the manly cour- 
 age to stand by his convictions, the gallant leader in 
 the forward march of human progress? 
 
 Unlike the preacher, who must not offend his 
 Church by questioning the soundness of her creed; 
 unlike the politician, who must not alienate the parti- 
 san devotion of his constituency by discarding a 
 single plank in the platform ; unlike the press, that 
 must cater to the prejudices of its patrons, — he is free 
 from the control and domination of any sort of fol- 
 lowing. If he is not, he ought to be, an independ- 
 ent man in the broadest sense of the word, conscious 
 that his mission is higher than the tricks of the show- 
 man or the antics of the acrobat. 
 
 The lecture platform is not the proper place to 
 exhibit celebrities. The Lecture Bureau sometimes, 
 like the circus, is looking out for novelties. They 
 do have persons on their list of attractions who have 
 in some way suddenly, and often unexpectedly to 
 themselves, attracted the general attention of the 
 public. They are put forward as lecturers. It is a 
 great mistake, and a prostitution of the platform. 
 Their proper place is in the dime museum, where there 
 is a variety of curiosities that are to be seen and not 
 heard. If brevity be the soul of wit, then the short- 
 ness of their career on the platform would give them 
 a high place on the list of humorists. 
 
 The lecture platform, like the stage, attracts a 
 great number of people, who are hungry for distinc- 
 tion, to mount it and try to secure popular favor. 
 In proportion to the numbers who undertake the 
 difficidt work, there are as many failures in the one 
 
36 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 as the other. The stage, the stump, and the platform 
 are sought for to gratify that unfortunate human weak- 
 ness, the love of popular applause, which has made 
 more fools, and the fear of its opposite has made 
 more cowards, than all other causes put together. 
 
 The success of an actor or a lecturer or any 
 public speaker is exactly jjroportioned to the dis- 
 appearance of his personality, and the appearance 
 of the character he portrays, or the subject that 
 he discusses. If you will follow the homeward- 
 bound audience, and if their talk on the way is only 
 about the j)crsonjiel of the performer, you may safely 
 affirm that he has furnished nothing else. If they 
 can only recall his humorous illustrations, then you 
 may be sure that his jokes did not illustrate. If 
 they discuss only his manner, his dress, or his prob- 
 able age; or are guessing about his habits, his poli- 
 tics, or religion, — you will be warranted in conclud- 
 ing that his thoughts are not large enough, or clear 
 enough, to call their attention from these things. 
 
 Those who make a complete success in their ef- 
 forts before the public are those who in person en- 
 tirely disappear, and leav^e only their work for con- 
 sideration and admiration. This may be regarded 
 as a very severe rule, and will limit the successful to 
 a very small number; but in the main it is correct. 
 If its application annihilates a host of pretenders, 
 and weakens the self-assurance of others, this is not 
 sufficient ground to question its accuracy. 
 
 The platform is necessary as a regulator of human 
 affairs. It is common ground, where all thoughtful 
 people may meet. 
 
The Public Lecturer. 37 
 
 Every four years, in this land of boasted light 
 aud knowledge, the politicians succeed in placing the 
 voters in grim autagouisna to each other. In the 
 intense heat of the contest and bitterness of the 
 struggle, men lose their reason, and see but one side 
 of a few political abstractions that neither they nor 
 their leaders fully comprehend. But they serve the 
 purpose to inflame party zeal, to put a few men in office, 
 and to leave behind a proscriptive and intolerant 
 spirit among the people. 
 
 We have also a spirit of dogmatism in religion, 
 that divides mankind and is at war with the sweet 
 charity that Christianity teaches — a spirit that 
 prompts the searching of lexicons aud old parch- 
 ments, to learn if a diiferent shade "of meaning may 
 not be given to a word in the Scriptures on which 
 to build a new sect or furnish a new ground of at- 
 tack on a sect already existing. Intense partisan- 
 ship is the foe to patriotism; and narrow, proscrip- 
 tive sectarianism is the enemy of Christianity. 
 
 Had we no forum where these great questions 
 could be discussed dispassionately, free from party 
 spirit, might not the bloody dagger of persecution, as 
 of old, be again the only argument of intolerance? 
 It might be regarded as extreme to assert that a 
 high degree of civilization can not be maintained 
 without such a forum. The history of the past 
 will corroborate the statement that it is here where 
 the people have found the remedies for all social 
 disorders. Here has been the chosen battle-ground 
 against intolerance in religion and oppression in gov- 
 ernment. Here justice can have a fair hearing, and 
 
38 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 the plea of mercy eau uot be denied. It is the best 
 friend to human liberty, and the open foe to any sort 
 of despotism. Where tyranny is not strong enough 
 to abolish it, it is here the common people meet 
 and agitate until their stolen rights are sur- 
 rendered. 
 
 It is from this elevated position that the human 
 mind has been awakened to a wider range of vision, 
 and aroused to a more earnest and intelligent activ- 
 ity. It has been inseparably connected with every 
 advanced step the race has made, the leader in all re- 
 forms in all the past, and is one of the mighty educa- 
 tional forces of the present time. 
 
 I am inclined to think that the lecture platform, 
 in its broadest sense, has never yet been fully appre- 
 ciated. As a civilizing force, its real value is not 
 properly estimated. 
 
 \Ye do not underestimate the importance of the 
 lecture platform in the halls of learning. The teacher, 
 preacher, doctor, or lawyer, in these days would be 
 regarded as a pretender or a quack, who would offer 
 his services to the public before he had given full 
 attendance to a complete course of lectures. 
 
 Not only in these professions, but in every de- 
 partment of science and art, the platform may be 
 found doing the same effective work. Even in the 
 privacy of- the domestic circle may sometimes be 
 found the lecture platform, for the use and benefit of 
 a single auditor. In such cases the lecturer is not 
 generally a man. He is, whether willing or unwill- 
 ing, the recipient of this home instruction ; and the 
 noble array of model husbands that adorn and beau- 
 
The Public Lecturer. 39 
 
 tify humau society attests the thoronglmess of the 
 work and the earnestness of the home lecturer. 
 
 But it is not the purpose to discuss the subject as 
 it applies to special topics of wrong and injustice, 
 where the public mind is thrown out of its every-day 
 currents and channel by some great exciting cause ; 
 nor stop to consider the special work of the platform 
 where the whole people may not attend. 
 
 We will take this platform, where everybody is in- 
 vited, and where any subject may be discussed. The 
 practical question, then, is, What is the best that can 
 be done here for the public generally? 
 
 If his topic be ethical, the lecturer ought to use all 
 his ability in holding up, in bright hues, the beauty of 
 integrity, the loveliness of virtue, and the nobility of 
 courage; and at the same time, in contrast, show in 
 strong colors the ugliness of dishonesty, the vulgar- 
 ity of vice, and the meanness of cowardice. 
 
 To have any measure of success, the lecturer will 
 have to possess that best of all gifts — common sense. 
 If he be a scholar, his attainments will be of little 
 service to him unless he has learned to present his 
 thoughts in the simplest language, so that those of 
 his audience less favored may comprehend his mean- 
 ing. The scientific man on the platform sometimes 
 makes the serious mistake of using the technical terms 
 of the scientific text-books. He could be con- 
 victed on an indictment of cruelty to — the audience. 
 If he can not impart his knowledge of science in 
 words that the audience of common people can under- 
 stand, then he ought not to invite them to hear him, 
 but state In the bills that none but scientists are 
 
40 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 wanted. In most cases, his audiences would be less 
 than that of the lawyer's in the jury-box. 
 
 He can not be said to be a brilliant success as a 
 lecturer who may be able to keep his audience in a 
 constant roar of laughter. The places exclusively 
 for laughter are the variety theaters, the minstrel per- 
 formances, and others of like kind, organized for 
 that purpose. The lecture-room is, or ought to be, 
 a very different sort of entertainment. How very 
 cheap sensible people feel on their way home, after 
 their attendance on a mere laughing entertainment, 
 you well know who have had the experience. The 
 true mission of the platform is not to make them 
 laugh alone, but to cause them to think. 
 
 Do not understand me to depreciate real, clean 
 humor. It is invaluable to intensify the interest in 
 the subject, and the lecturer who can see and happily 
 present the humorous side of the thing is the most 
 successful on the platform. But the humor must 
 arise so naturally and spontaneously from the topic 
 that it would seem that it could not be avoided. 
 The force of it is entirely broken and destroyed if 
 it appears that the lecture has been deflected out of 
 its course in order that the laugh might be 
 brought in. 
 
 It is too much to ask an intelligent people to 
 laugh again at some venerable yarn or ancient joke 
 that they have heard again and again at the corner 
 grocery or the circus. It is absolutely painful to 
 witness an audience, of an obliging disposition, try- 
 ing to force a laugh to please a speaker who has 
 glued one of those old chestnuts on his speech that 
 
'I HE Public Lecturer. 41 
 
 he may have the credit of beiiij^ a wit. And, what is 
 worse, it shortens human life by thus cruelly causing 
 an unwarranted and unexpected strain on the moral 
 and mental machinery of his hearers. It wull take 
 at least half a dozen honest laughs to repair the 
 damage. The lecturer can no more make a humorist 
 out of himself, much as he may desire to do so, than he 
 can be a painter or a poet at will; the one must be as 
 inherent as the other. 
 
 There are born humorists on the platform, who 
 not only see life as it really is, but have the rare 
 faculty of taking a bright and humorous view, and 
 yet have a fair and just conception of the dignity of 
 the position they hold. These are in demand by the 
 lecture-going public. There are so many rough 
 roads in life, so many disappointments that come at 
 all times, and from so many unexpected sources, that 
 the lecturer who will come with his subject all aglow 
 with mirth-giving humor, and for a time make 
 the lesson of life not a task but a delightful recre- 
 ation, is thrice welcome, and is hailed as a bene- 
 diction. 
 
 In attacking false theories and vicious practices, 
 he can use his humor to give a keener edge to his 
 sarcasms, to sharpen the poignancy of his ridicule, 
 and, with a bright and ready wit to guide him, he 
 can impress his thoughts upon his audience so that 
 they will not only retain them ever afterwards, but 
 be stimulated and strengthened in the conflicts that 
 may come in the future. But he must not allow^ 
 his wit to degenerate into mere drollery, or descend 
 to the low level of a shallow buffoon. The line of 
 
42 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 division between a lecture and a mere humorous 
 entertainment must be kept clear and distinct. 
 
 If the former is announced and the latter given, 
 it is a fraud on the platform and the public. The 
 thinking people are induced to attend, expecting 
 something sensible, and the minstrel-loving crowd 
 are kept away by the advertisement, and both are 
 swindled, and the platform is disgraced by the de- 
 ception. 
 
 We hear it said that the platform is losing its 
 hold on the people. It is not unusual for the lec- 
 turer, on his first visit to a town, to be informed by 
 the committee, in tones of disgust, " that the audience 
 will be small to-night; that if it were a negro show 
 the house would be full; that this is a poor town for 
 lectures." This is doubtless true of many places. 
 The reason for it is, that the platform has been 
 weakened before the demand for fun, and has become 
 as little respected as the floating voter in politics or 
 the hypocrite in religion. To use a slang phrase, it 
 has, by this means, " lost its grip " by lowering its 
 dignity. 
 
 But where the lecture platform has stood by its 
 true colors, combining a high order of entertainment 
 with valuable instruction — catering to no false preju- 
 dices, but upholding the truth — it is growing more 
 and more into popular favor. There are places in 
 this country where lecture courses of this high order 
 have been maintained for fifty consecutive years. In 
 such favorable localities may be found the largest 
 public libraries, more and better selected books in 
 the homes, a newspaper press cleansed of slander and 
 
The Public Leciurer. 43 
 
 personal abuse, aiul the brightest type of citizenship. 
 The circus will not spread its tent in such a place, 
 the whisky-saloon will not dominate in politics, and 
 the crank will flock all alone by himself. 
 
 A courageous exposition of shams, whether in 
 faith or practice, a discussion of the science of human 
 duty, and a bold assault on the many hindering 
 causes to man's mental and moral development, is 
 the true and best mission of the lecture platform ; 
 and the scholarly men and eloquent women who 
 have brought honor and glory to it, and have given 
 the platform its high position as a factor in hnman 
 reformation, are those who, with love in their hearts 
 for the race, have seen the wrongs and evils in human 
 society, and have assailed and exposed them, and have 
 thought out the remedies and presented them. 
 
 There is a power and force in the earnestness of 
 a human soul speaking from an honest heart, a music 
 in the voice of sincere philanthropy, an electric cur- 
 rent of human sympathy, that makes impressions 
 when the book and magazine would fail , entirely. 
 The elaborate volume has a double charm after the 
 lecturer has created a new interest in its contents. 
 But the truth is, if we will make an honest inventory 
 of what we know and can readily remember, we will 
 find that we are much more indebted to those we 
 have heard than to those we have read. 
 
 Take the living preacher out of the pulpit, and you 
 would remove the key-stone of the arch that upholds 
 the Church ; take the politician off the stump, and the 
 citizen would soon know less, and care less, for the 
 public welfare. Take the lecturer out of our schools, 
 
44 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 colleges, and universities, and confine the student to 
 the text-books alone, and the fewer and inferior 
 graduates would bear witness to the fact that a fear- 
 ful and destructive blow had been given to the 
 cause of education. It would then be better under- 
 stood than now what a charm is given by the living 
 teacher to hard and dry problems in mathematics ; 
 what a stimulus is imparted to the eifort to master 
 the alrSost hidden mysteries of human language, 
 to develop the occult in the natural sciences, and to 
 make clear and plain the seemingly incomprehensible 
 facts in all the learned professions. 
 
 In this country we could not dispense with the 
 lecture platform. We are a new nation with new 
 institutions; a heterogeneous mass, experimenting 
 on the best methods to give man the largest liberty, 
 and yet maintain law and order. Our aim is to se- 
 cure happy homes and the highest type of real man- 
 hood. We are therefore in a formative state. There 
 are countless unsettled questions. Full and free dis- 
 cussion can have fair play, and truth can have a 
 hearing. 
 
 The opinions of the common man guide and con- 
 trol everywhere. He having the responsibility of 
 government cast upon him, and being the ruler in 
 politics and sovereign in government, public opinion 
 becomes the autocrat in every department of human 
 affairs. 
 
 The absolute freedom of the platform from the 
 domination of party or sect makes it the most effect- 
 ual helper in directing the public mind in the chan- 
 nel that leads to the highest good to the human race. 
 
The Public Lecturer. 45 
 
 In this land of ours, where new questions con- 
 stantly arise — novel conditions with no precedent for 
 their solution — the platform prevents the twisting 
 and warping of new discoveries to fit old creeds and 
 party platitudes. It makes its quick and earnest 
 protest against putting the new wine of truth into 
 the old bottles of error, or patching the old garments 
 of ancient superstition with the new cloth of modern 
 discovery. The true and only test of the progress of 
 any age is, that the truth is not made subsidiary to the 
 false, and that the moss and dust of past generations 
 shall not be a sufficient shield against the questioning 
 spirit of the times. 
 
 Many questions of this age are not properly in 
 the domain of politics or religion. The magazine 
 and the platform are the places for their considera- 
 tion, and, in my judgment, greater liberty and latitude 
 are given to the lecturer than the writer. The pres- 
 ence of the living and earnest advocate creates a 
 deeper interest in the mind of the auditor than the 
 reader, and this adds to the force and power of the 
 platform as a teacher. 
 
 The lecturer, then, ought to be thoroughly capa- 
 ble and honest. There is no room on the platform 
 for the charlatan or the demagogue. The high and 
 holy purpose should be to present the truth. Xo 
 pandering to popular prejudice; no cowardly fear of 
 public opposition ; no anxiety to secure personal pop- 
 ularity; no mercenary motive, — should tarnish the 
 luster or make dim the glorv of this o^reat forum. 
 
 The careful reading of the history of the civil 
 and social revolutions that have occurred in the 
 
46 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 country in the last century will not fail to find that 
 some bold and fearless lecturer, having the courage 
 of his convictions, made the first assault which put 
 in motion the waves of agitation that abolished some 
 pernicious custom, that overturned some long-stand- 
 ing evil, and gave a higher tone to the thought and 
 manners of American society. 
 
 Men have shown as high a type of courage on the 
 platform as on the battle-field. Public opinion, ema- 
 nating from ignorance and prejudice, has made more 
 cowards than the most destructive weapons of war- 
 fare in the hands of an advancing army. The vic- 
 torious general may receive promotion from his 
 government and the plaudits of his countrymen, be- 
 fore the smoke of the battle that gave him his victory 
 has cleared away. The reformer, fighting for the re- 
 demption and elevation of his race, never lives long 
 enough to see and know the grandeur and glory of 
 his triumph. That can only be seen and fully appre- 
 ciated when viewed through the vista of the subse- 
 quent century. 
 
 The dross of selfishness may be intermingled with 
 the golden patriotism of the warrior ; but the philan- 
 thropy of the reformer, tried in the fires of persecu- 
 tion, is found without alloy. The warrior fights for 
 the salvation of his country, his own promotion, and 
 the cheers of his fellow-men. Tlie reformer fights 
 for the right and for the truth, that the lives of others 
 may be nobler and happier, — too often having for his 
 reward the jeers and sneers of those he is trying 
 to help. 
 
 "Why should the one, acting on the lower level, 
 
The Public Lecturer. 47 
 
 bask iu the warm sunshine of the smiles of his fel- 
 lows, while the other, on the higher plane of self-sac- 
 rifice, is scorched by the fires of persecution ? Why 
 should the one take his place in history at once, while 
 the fame of the other is compelled to await the ap- 
 proval of the generation to come ? It need not be 
 asked which has the higher order of courage, or 
 which will live longer in the memory and gratitude 
 of his race. 
 
 He only is worthy a place on the platform who 
 has the bravery to assail the wrong and defend the 
 right, to be so devoted to the nobility of his mi-ssion 
 as to be indifferent to popular approval. And while 
 the discussion of the question of knowing how to live 
 is not the only theme for the platform, yet it is here 
 that it has won the grandeur and glory of a great 
 educational force. 
 
 The need of the human race is a keener perception 
 of justice and right, a broader and deeper conception 
 of what will best conserve the welfare and happiness 
 of the whole mass. To lift men out of the ruts 
 of daily life, out of the narrow circle of supplying 
 daily needs, and to place them on higher ground, so 
 that they may have a broader conception of the glory 
 of true manhood and a clearer view of the sig- 
 nificance of human existence, is, in any department 
 of educational work, a most difficult thing to 
 accomplish. 
 
 There are a few who desire to bring out of life all 
 that is possible — who crave this higher development, 
 and they rally to the call of the platform. The great 
 mass are indifferent, and are content to live and die as 
 
48 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 their ancestors lived aud died, having had food and 
 raiment. Their religion and politics, and their no- 
 tions of the reciprocal relations of human society, 
 they have inherited. They have never troubled them- 
 selves to find any reason for any of these things. 
 They had not thought it worth while to consider 
 whether there is any better way to live ; to have 
 more health and less disease, more joy and less sor- 
 row; whether home-life might not be made sweeter 
 and more satisfying; what they might not give to, 
 and receive from, their social life; whether an in- 
 crease of knowledge of the things of e very-day life 
 really meant an addition to their stock of happiness 
 and comfort, and would enhance their value as mem- 
 bers of society. 
 
 In all the reformatory forces can there be any 
 better way devised to reach this indiiferent class, 
 and rouse them to shake off their lethargy and take 
 an interest in these things, than the public speaker? 
 What is better equipped for this work than the pub- 
 lic platform ? 
 
 And while the listless indifFerence of that class 
 who act as though it " is all of life to live," is most 
 disheartening to the philanthropist, yet when he 
 comes to consider that the whole human race would 
 have been in like condition but for the brave and 
 self-denying efforts of the reformer, he should take 
 courage. The stream of human knowledge becomes 
 broader aud deeper and clearer every day. Too 
 broad to be longer confined in the narrow channel in 
 the high places, where wealth and caste controlled it, 
 it has come down to the valleys and to the plains, and 
 
The Public Lecturer. 49 
 
 flows by the habitations and blesses the homes of the 
 common people. More and more do the human race 
 of all conditions quench their thirst from its abun- 
 dant and self-satisfying currents. And as the com- 
 mon man drinks, the light comes into his imprisoned 
 soul that ho, too, is endowed with the wonderful 
 gift of reason ; that no necessity is laid on him to 
 be the slave or follower of another; that he can 
 think, choose, and act for himself He begins to 
 magnify his own manhood, and delightfully to realize 
 the strong upholding power of his own self-respect. 
 
 AVell may we boast that our age can exhibit these 
 grander opportunities to stimulate loftier aspirations 
 in the individual man. But the quality of the civ- 
 ilization must be determined at last by the number 
 who can be induced to avail themselves of these 
 benefits. 
 
 When barbarism is the dominating force, there can 
 be no civilization worthy the name ; but the converse 
 of the proposition can not be maintained ; for where 
 there has been the highest civilization it has been in- 
 termingled with ignorance, superstition, and barba- 
 rism. The presence of this hostile influence requires 
 great effort to hold what we have already attained, 
 and adds to the difficulty of even making a little ad- 
 vance towards a better state of things. 
 
 The savage, surrounded with the darkness of barba- 
 rism, should be pitied and pardoned. The barbarian, 
 from choice closing his eyes to the light of civilization 
 all about him, is a hopeless, incorrigible obstacle to 
 progress — hopeless, so far as reaching him in any 
 way but by the magnetism of the living orator. He 
 
60 The Public Lecturer. 
 
 would not read if he could, and, in most cases, he 
 could not if he would. His social instincts, and 
 whatever there may be in him of human sympathy, 
 may cause him to be attracted by the voice of another. 
 It is the only available avenue of information to 
 him — a sort of sky-light to his darkened habitation. 
 
 Until some helping hand shall direct it, the vine 
 may crawl fruitless in the mire and weeds, poAverless 
 to lift itself to the trunk of the neighboring tree ; 
 but with a little assistance it fastens itself to its 
 sturdy neighbor, and climbs up in the sunlight, and 
 becomes strong enough to bud, blossom, and be fruit- 
 ful. The intelligent, earnest public speaker has thus 
 been the helping and guiding hand to humanity. 
 
 Here and there we find a man of wealth, a gener- 
 ous philanthropist, appreciating the value of this re- 
 formative and elevating force, who has given large 
 sums to be made a permanent and perpetual fund, so 
 that ethical lectures may be given to the common 
 people free of cost. Such men are an honor to the 
 age in which they live and die. They give a new 
 luster to our boasted civilization, and are more 
 worthy a monument than the leader in war or in 
 politics. 
 
 It is not what the few gifted and cultured persons 
 of any age may do in the fields of science or art or 
 letters that determines the progressive spirit of the 
 time. It is not that here and there an inventive 
 genius may give us improved machinery and more 
 rapid locomotion, or that accumulating wealth may 
 erect gorgeous palaces and build beautiful cities, that 
 places the crown of glory on our boasted civilization. 
 
The Public Lecturer. 51 
 
 It is not the wouderful achievements of the few, but 
 the real condition of the masses, that settles that ques- 
 tion, and gives the true measure of human progress. 
 
 If he may be lauded as a benefactor who has 
 caused two blades of grass to grow where there was 
 but one before, Avhat greater praises ought to be given 
 to him, or her, who has planted a desire for higher at- 
 tainments in the barren soil of indolence and de- 
 spondency, or developed hope in the human soul, 
 when there was only grim despair ! 
 
 "With all the possibilities in reach of humanity in 
 each and every condition of life, there ought to be 
 an increase of enjoyment, of intelligence, of integrity, 
 of nobility, of courage, all along the line. 
 
 The human mind, with its godlike capabilities, 
 need not wallow in the mire of mere animalism. 
 The light of human reason ought not to be extin- 
 guished by the fogs of ignorance and superstition. 
 The human race can come up to a longer, a better, 
 and happier life. The great obstacles are lethargy 
 and indifference. I am sincere in the belief that the 
 lecture platform is the most effective power in remov- 
 ing these obstacles. 
 
THE INVISIBLE SOME PEOPLE. 
 
 r DOUBT not some curiosity exists iu your mind:? 
 X as to what I may be able to say from so strange 
 a subject, I have delivered this lecture in various 
 places throughout the country, and sometimes, in ad- 
 vance of its delivery, some very sharp and witty 
 things have been said about the title of the lecture; 
 and if I were here simply and only for the purpose 
 of amusing you, I know nothing better I could do 
 in that direction than to quote and repeat some of 
 these pungent criticisms. That is no part of my 
 purpose; but iu order that you may have some faint 
 conception of the difficulties and trials that the title 
 of this lecture has had to undergo from time to time, 
 from the press and others, I will venture to give you 
 one circumstance that will illustrate for all. 
 
 Some years ago I was invited to lecture in a town iu 
 the southern part of Illinois. The people had erected 
 in that town a very large and beautiful church — a 
 very expensive building. They had put a high tower 
 on one corner, and a tall steeple on the other. They 
 had frescoed it and stuccoed it, and put in expensive 
 sittings and shining chandeliers, rich carpetings, and 
 a grand organ of wonderful power and compass; and 
 when the whole was completed they put a large mort- 
 
 Delivered before many Lecture Courses, and in almost 
 every State in the Union. 
 52 
 
The Ini'Isible Some People. 53 
 
 gage oil it, and dedicated it to God, subject to a 
 mortgage. Of course they then had to resort to all 
 manner of expedients to raise the money to pay the 
 interest on the mortgage, and -when the regular 
 Church festival had become intolerable and could not 
 be endured any longer, a fertile genius of the Official 
 Board of the Church suggested that they have a 
 course of lectures as the best possible method to raise 
 the money to pay the interest on the debt. The sug- 
 gestion was accepted, and the course of lectures was 
 organized, and I had the distinguished honor con- 
 ferred upon me to come down and open the course; 
 and, in looking over the list of lectures I sometimes 
 deliver, they selected this one — "The Invisible Some 
 People." They had heard something about it, and 
 wanted that. I went. They had a large audience. 
 The trustees were in high glee over the success of 
 the experiment ; but as the money for the course of 
 lectures, and for that evening's entertainment as well, 
 was to pay the debt of the church, they thought it 
 only proper to open the entertainment of the evening 
 with praver. A good minister of the town was 
 called on to perform that service, and he prayed ex- 
 ceedino-lv well, and in the kindness and benevolence 
 of his heart he thought he ought to remember the 
 lecturer, so he said: "Bless our brother, who has 
 come all the way from the State of Indiana to help 
 this Church out of her financial troubles. "Warm 
 his heart, and clear his head. He has come with a 
 message for us; he has come to tell us about — about — 
 about — we know not what it is about, O Lord, but 
 thou knowest!" 
 
54 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 I weakened a little on the name after that. There 
 is this thing about names, however, that we all recog- 
 nize to be true, that when we become well acquainted 
 with anybody, no matter if he have the crookedest 
 sort of a name, the person seems to be adapted to 
 the name and the name to the person ; there is a 
 kind of general adjustment all round, until we all 
 come to feel that no other name would suit that 
 person so well as the one he happens to have, 
 crooked as it may be. I have therefore ventured to 
 indulge the hope that, when you shall have become 
 acquainted with the lecture, you will agree that, after 
 all, it is the very name you yourselves would have 
 given it had you been present at the christening and 
 requested to make the selection. 
 
 I claim to have better reasons for the name than 
 the old German gave for calling his boy Hans. He 
 propounded this conundrum one day to his friends: 
 "Do you know why I call my boy Hans?" They 
 figured on it for a long time, and finally gave it up. 
 They could not tell for the life of them why he called 
 his boy Hans, and appealed to him. He said: "I 
 call my boy Hans because dot is his name." 
 
 There is an invisible power in the civilized world 
 known as "Some People." The influence of this 
 power is manifest everywhere, and is controlling 
 human action and seriously aifecting the well-being 
 and happiness of humanity. The wretchedness and 
 misery that this mysterious agency brings to mortals 
 seems to be beyond the reach of redress or retalia- 
 tion, for the manifest reason that while these same 
 Some People are accepted as human beings, and hold 
 
The Invisible Some People. ^h 
 
 constant intercourse with mortals, and are in no degree 
 or sense supernatural, yet, strange to tell, they are in- 
 visible and past finding out. Notwithstanding they 
 are constantly being quoted by intelligent men and 
 women, and their opinions and decisions are con- 
 stantly being reported, and the deliberate judgment 
 of Some People is being given on this, that, or the 
 other line of human conduct, by which means they 
 are regulating human affairs generally, still it is 
 impossible to find, among all those who quote so 
 freely from them, a single one who is personally ac- 
 quainted with these Some People. 
 
 These Invisible Some People seem to be partial 
 to no particular latitude or longitude, but, on the 
 contrary, may be found in strong force in every place 
 where civilization has gone. I believe it is a well- 
 settled conclusion in every community that there are 
 more Invisibles in their neighborhood than anywhere 
 else. No nation, claiming to be in advance, is free 
 from this curse. Indeed, it seems the higher the 
 style of the civilization, the more observable are the 
 operations of this invisible power, which has led some 
 to think that it is a legitimate offshoot of the highest 
 development of humanity, and that the only portion 
 of the human race free fi'om this curse are the bar- 
 barians. If that be true, then the barbarian is to be 
 congratulated in being able to demonstrate the truth 
 of the proposition that every condition of human life 
 has its advantages. I believe it is true. 
 
 I believe that this invisible annoyance confines 
 its attacks to those who are on the topmost round of 
 human advancement, and that it never descends to 
 
56 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 assail those who have not commenced to ascend. It 
 might not be safe to boldly assert this as a well-es- 
 tablished fact, yet Avhen we consider the different 
 conditions of humanity and the peculiar work and 
 apparent mission and purpose of the Invisibles, it 
 seems to be a fair inference. 
 
 We look at the barbarian in his mud hut, located 
 in the swamps, sitting with a scowl on his face, clothed 
 in the untanned skin of the wild beast he has slain 
 himself, whose club is law. He knows nothing of 
 Congress or politics. Churches or theaters; never par- 
 ticipated in a salary-grab or a Sunday-school ; never 
 saw his name in a newspaper, and does not care if he 
 ever does. With no currency to inflate or contract; 
 unconscious of the fact that there is such a thing as 
 wages, and that he ought to strike for more; with no 
 middle-man between him and the fish in the stream, 
 the game in the woods, and the berries on the bushes, 
 to speculate on nature's bounties and compel him to 
 join the Grangers for protection ; with no first-circle 
 of society to court him or snub him; with no clothes 
 for fashion to play her pranks upon, — he presents no 
 inducements for the peculiar mission of the Invisibles 
 of to-day. 
 
 In passing down and out of the brighter realms 
 of the highest point in human advancement into the 
 feebler light of partial civilization, and down farther 
 still into the darkness of barbarism, while we leave 
 behind this invisible torment, yet we find that the 
 semi-civilized and the barbarian have a kindred in- 
 visible enemy to their peace. All of their invisible 
 torments, however, are deemed by them to be super- 
 
The Invisible Some People. 57 
 
 natural. The human Invisibles are above in the 
 regions of light and knowledge — the supernatural 
 below in the domain of barbarism. 
 
 We therefore make this discovery in making the 
 descent from the highest to the lowest condition of 
 humanity, — that poor, unfortunate man, whatever may 
 be his mental or moral status, is beset with invisible 
 enemies. We also find that, in elevating him out 
 of a state of barbarism to that of civilization, we 
 simply transform his supernatural invisible enemies 
 into invisible humans; and out of the ugly witch, the 
 horrid demon, and the terror-inspiring familiar spirit 
 are created the Invisible Some People, whose powers 
 for annoying humanity are not in the least degree 
 lessened by the transformation, and who make the 
 same sort of warfare on civilized man. 
 
 Cotton Mather, one of the last and ablest defenders 
 of witchcraft, undertook to defend the delusion by 
 writing a most remarkable book, entitled " Glimpses 
 of the Invisible World." He tried to meet, in that 
 book, the difficulties that reason and good sense were 
 beginning to bring forward against the delusion. He 
 said : " In all the witchcraft which now grievously 
 vexes us, I know not whether anything be more un- 
 accountable than the trick which the witches have to 
 render themselves and their tools invisible. Witch- 
 craft," he adds, " seems to be the skill of applying 
 the plastic spirit of the world unto some unlawful 
 purposes by means of a confederacy with evil spirits. 
 Yet one would wonder how the evil spirits them- 
 selves can do some things, especially at invisibilizing 
 the crassest bodies. But," he adds, "our witches do 
 
58 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 seem to have the knack of it, and this is one of the 
 things that makes me think that witchcraft will not 
 be understood so long as there is a witch in the 
 world." Cotton Mather, in thus wrestling with the 
 witchcraft of his time, has given us a very fair de- 
 scription of the witches of our day. They ought to 
 resemble each other, as they evidently have the same 
 progenitor. 
 
 A learned writer on the ancient witchcraft says 
 "that, beyond all question, Satan is the prime mover 
 in all things pertaining to witchcraft," and brings 
 forward proof satisfactory to himself, at least, to sus- 
 tain his position. He says of Satan: "His heart is 
 beyond what the wisest may pretend unto. He has 
 perfect skill in optics, and can therefore cause that to 
 be invisible to one which is not so to another, and 
 things to appear otherwise than what they really are. 
 Learned men," he adds, "give it as a certain sign of 
 demoniacal possession Avhen the afflicted party can see 
 and hear that which no one else can discern anything 
 of, and when they can discover secret things." 
 
 Our modern witchcraft could not be better de- 
 scribed, and if the devil was really the author of the 
 invisible torments of the centuries long since past, the 
 family resemblance of our witches fixes their paternity 
 on him most exclusively. The difference in the opera- 
 tions of our witches only establishes the truth of the 
 doctrine of a learned Scotch divine of the seventeenth 
 century, that "the devil, like everybody else, im- 
 proves with age and experience." 
 
 We have a most exalted opinion of the superiority 
 of our civilization over that of any past period. For 
 
The Invisible Some People. 59 
 
 the past we have an abundance of pity, mingled with 
 no small amount of contempt. For the present times 
 we indulge in rhapsody and congratulation. Let us 
 take a sober, honest view of the two periods, and 
 then determine whether we have so much cause for 
 congratulation. 
 
 It is true that, in following the history and prog- 
 ress of the human race from the earliest history of 
 man, we find that, until within the last two hundred 
 years, no portion of the human race was free from the 
 miseries which these supernatural Invisibles inflicted 
 on terror-stricken humanity. Demonology, witchcraft, 
 and familiar spirits were so interwoven with the belief 
 of man that they not only became part and parcel of 
 his religion, but in the darker times were regarded as 
 its essential features. In tiiose times this condition 
 of the human mind was not confined to the ignorant 
 and depraved. On the contrary, the deeper the philoso- 
 pher and theologian dived into the mysteries of science 
 and theology, and the more learning they acquired, 
 the more extensive was their experience with, and the 
 more they knew of, demons and invisible torments. 
 
 Even the immortal Luther, the greatest mind of 
 many centuries, could not rise above the delusions of 
 the times. He firmly believed that the very devil in 
 person visited his room every night ; and he claimed 
 that he was often awakened out of sleep by the noise 
 made by his Satanic Majesty in his private apart- 
 ments. It is recorded that at one time, when a friend 
 stopped all night with the old reformer, the guest, 
 on hearing a noise in the small hours of the night, 
 asked Luther what produced it, Luther replied, with 
 
60 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 the most perfect composure and indifference, "that it 
 was only the devil, who was a frequent visitor, and 
 often made a disturbance in and about the premises." 
 It is also written of Luther that at one time his 
 Satanic Majesty became so noisy when on a visit to 
 the old monk, that Luther lost his temper and hurled 
 his inkstand at the old devil ; and it is recorded as a 
 fact that the stain of the ink can be seen to this day 
 on the walls of Luther's private room in the castle of 
 Wartburg. In such a state of mind, he naturally 
 accepted with implicit faith every anecdote of Satanic 
 miracles. He frequently told, in his public addresses, 
 how an aged minister had been interrupted in his de- 
 votions at the altar by the devil, who grunted behind 
 # him like a hog. He also proclaimed that on another 
 occasion the devil appeared in court as a lawyer, and 
 conducted a case through court; and he added that he 
 seemed to fill the place with the utmost propriety. 
 
 Two hundred years later than Luther we find in 
 England a law under which many a poor mortal was 
 put to death for the supposed crime of being a witch 
 or wizard. But science and religion had advanced 
 far enough to throw their clear white light upon the 
 iniquity of such a statute ; and in obedience to the 
 better sentiment of the times the British Parliament 
 repealed the law, and wiped the disgraceful thing from 
 the statutes of England. But when it was done, the 
 Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Matthew Hale, 
 and other great historic names, held up their hands in 
 holy horror at the radicalism of Parliament, and de- 
 clared that the repeal of that statute was evidence of 
 the demoralization of the times, and was a direct blow 
 
The Invisible Some People. 61 
 
 at the fundamental principles of the British Constitu- 
 tion ; and the men who did it were denounced as 
 fanatics, agitators, and humbugs. All manner of 
 epithets were applied to them for this advanced step. 
 
 So it has been, and so, I presume, it always will 
 be, where any great WTong is protected by law ; and 
 until the protection is removed and the wrong stands 
 out in all its native ugliness, the reformer will have 
 to stand persecution. But whatever progress we have 
 made in the past, and wliatever advancement we may 
 make in the future, will depend upon the number of 
 bold spirits that each age may jjroduce, who will 
 stand ready to attack wrong wherever found, whether 
 protected by law or not. 
 
 To follow the history of demonology, and study 
 the effect that the belief in the supernatural had on 
 the minds of men in the distant past, and how it 
 affected human welfare and controlled human action, 
 excites a deep and painful interest in all who were 
 thus tormented ; and with the consideration for them 
 comes the grateful feeling to us that the day of our 
 l)irth was postponed until this swarm of demons, 
 witches, and familiar spirits were compelled to flee 
 from the light of our brighter civilization, as the 
 thieves and burglars are driven to their hiding-places 
 by the light of day. They are all gone from us, 
 fled to the darker corners of the world, still to tor- 
 ment and scare the ignorant and to add incalculable 
 misery to human existence. 
 
 Having cast out these devils, and having long 
 since had our houses swept and garnished, is it true 
 that the seven other wicked spirits have taken pos- 
 
62 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 session, and is our last state worse than the first so far 
 as invisible torments are concerned ? 
 
 Mingled with our rejoicing that the supernat- 
 ural Invisibles are driven out is the very disagreeable 
 realization of a stubborn fact that a kindred curse is 
 still left to poison human enjoyment. If we wish to 
 hand over to posterity a civilization with more hap- 
 piness for humanity, then we must look at this evil in 
 all its phases, and at least weaken its power if we 
 can not destroy it. 
 
 If these miserable Some Peoi")le could be driven 
 out; if this modern witchcraft could be made to take 
 its departure, and seek out an abode in the dark 
 corners of the earth, and our generation be free from 
 its curse, it would be an advance and upward -step, 
 and add incalculably to the pleasure of living. 
 
 Had all the Invisibles gone together, the human 
 with the supernatural, it would have been the era of 
 eras in the history of man — a blessed consummation 
 that would have left us with a much purer religion 
 and a brighter civilization than we have now. Kin- 
 dred in spirit and purpose, both alike depending on 
 human credulity for existence, it seems to be a mys- 
 tery why one should be taken and the other left. 
 
 It remains for the future to determine whether, 
 in the upward march of human progress, the human 
 race will ever be able to shake off and become free 
 from all invisible torments, compelling them to fall 
 back to worry the plodding ranks of those who are 
 coming in the rear of our advancing civilization ; 
 whether human credulity will ever remain so weak 
 as to carry this curse along, as the human race steps 
 
The Invisible Some People. 63 
 
 higher into the clearer light and reaches the broader 
 plains of truth. 
 
 It may not be wise to waste time in speculating 
 on what may be possible or probable in this regard, 
 but rather to deal with these same Some People of 
 the living present, and let the future take care of 
 itself. As I have said before, the witchcraft of one 
 hundred years ago has many points of resemblance 
 in the present time. In both their mission was to 
 torment man, and the spirit of both is evil. No 
 witch ever came with a blessing for man, but was 
 thought to send disease, tempest, and death. She 
 made her attack on man at all points — his property, 
 his family, his health, and his life. 
 
 The Invisibles of to-day, with the same malevolent 
 spirit, confine their assaults in the same covert way 
 upon the character of people, and thus indirectly 
 effect the same result ; for if they can rob people of 
 their good name and blast their reputation, and thus 
 cause them to lose the confidence and respect of all 
 around them, then their property, or even their lives, 
 lose their value, which makes them, as Shakespeare 
 says, " poor indeed." 
 
 In the days of the former witchcraft, the vicious 
 and revengeful took advantage of the credulity of the 
 times, and used the delusion to gratify their personal 
 hate. A charge of witchcraft was sufficient, without 
 the slightest evidence, to bring the unfortunate sub- 
 ject of the accusation to punishment; therefore, if 
 one human being was in the way of another, that 
 other could dispose of his enemy by simply making 
 the charge. If a crime was committed, the criminal 
 
64 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 often escaped pimishment by preferring the charge of 
 witchcraft against his accuser, and, by so doing, not 
 only destroyed the credibility of the witness, but his 
 or her competency to appear in court to testify in 
 the case. 
 
 It has also happened in the administration of 
 justice in our day that the slanders and innuendoes of 
 Some People have so affected the standing and char- 
 acter of honest witnesses in court as to break the 
 force of their evidence, and, by the aid of this mod- 
 ern witchcraft, the guilty have gone unpunished. 
 
 In the former times, while all the old delusions 
 prevailed, if a man became tired of his wife and fell 
 in love with another man's wife (and they used to do 
 those things just as they do now), and she recipro- 
 cated his tender emotion, the two could jointly or 
 severally prefer the charge of witchcraft against their 
 nncongenial mates, and have them put to death as 
 sorcerers, and thus in a most complete and effectual 
 way dispose of the hindering causes of their happi- 
 ness, and, by this means, secure a divorce more certain 
 and complete than could be obtained either in Indiana 
 or Chicago. The two loving hearts could then be 
 united in matrimony, as grass-widows and widowers 
 are now, with nothing more to disturb their married 
 life than the ghosts of the departed. 
 
 In this day and age of the world no small num- 
 ber of separations and divorces are the result of this 
 kindred witchcraft of our time. The Invisibles com- 
 municate to the world that on a certain occasion the 
 husband did this or that, or the wife was guilty of 
 such an impropriety; and a credulous and unchari- 
 
The /.\ visible Some People. 65 
 
 table world, without a particle of evidence, pro- 
 nounces the sentence of guilty; and a separation and 
 divorce is not unfrequently the result. 
 
 It would seem to be true that, while the witch- 
 craft of former times has passed away, yet the credu- 
 lity that gave it life and power still remains, and 
 that there is now the same inclination to accept 
 without evidence any statement affecting the charac- 
 ter, as true, however false and absurd it may be, and 
 wanting in responsible authority. 
 
 This weakness in human credulity is now, as then, 
 giving life and power to the Invisibles. It is not 
 more strange that the intelligent scholar of long 
 ago should accept the absurd doctrine of witchcraft 
 than that his more cultivated representative of to-day 
 should accept, without any evidence, the monstrous 
 fabrications in regard to the motives and actions of 
 his neighbors on the bare authority of the Invisible 
 Some People of the community. 
 
 The state of mind that accepts the one is very 
 similar to the mental condition that gives credence to 
 the other. It is, therefore, an undeniable fact that 
 the people of to-day hold an unspotted reputation — 
 the dearest thing on earth — by a very slight tenure. 
 The credulity of the times is such in regard to all 
 charges against the character of people that the 
 breath of scandal, if not able in all cases to change 
 it from the whitest purity to the blackest infamy, is 
 ever sufficient to so tarnish it that the unfortunate 
 subject of the accusation stands suspected and watched 
 among his fellow-mortals. 
 
 Was it any more discreditable to the peo])le of one 
 5 
 
66 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 hundred years ago to accept the charge, unsupported 
 by evidence, that human action was the result of de- 
 moniacal possession, than it is for us, who claim to be 
 so much Aviser than they, to believe, without any con- 
 firmation, that evil and sinister motives influence 
 human conduct that to all appearance was prompted 
 by exactly the opposite? With all our religion and 
 civilization, with all the loud boasting about the 
 grand times in which we live, we can scarcely find a 
 community in all this land where this evil is not stir- 
 ring up a great deal of discord and strife. 
 
 In the old English form of pleading in suits to 
 eject persons from possession, they claimed the names 
 of the real parties to the action did not appear in the 
 record ; but for some reason, I know not what, ficti- 
 tious names were substituted as the plaintiff and de- 
 fendant; and these fictions were called Richard Roe 
 for one and John Doe for the other. With these 
 unreal parties to the action, the battle for the posses- 
 sion of the land was fought. If Richard was stronger 
 than John in the war of words in the pleadings, or 
 had the most convincing evidence, then some real 
 man, and his family too (if he had one), were put 
 out of the possession of their habitation, and could 
 no longer read their title clear because of the doings 
 of the invisible, intangible, unreal Richard Roe. 
 
 And so in this enlightened and Christian period 
 of the world's history, there is constant danger that 
 real persons may be ousted of their good name, and put 
 out of possession of a reputation that they have spent 
 all their lives to acquire by persons who are as mythical 
 as Richard Roe. In the history of the witchcraft de- 
 
The Invisible Some People. 67 
 
 lusion, the statistics show that more than one hundred 
 thousand people have been tried, found guilty, and 
 put to death for the crime of being a witch or wiz- 
 ard — a crime that never had an existence except in 
 the heated imagination and distempered fancy of 
 ignorant and credulous humanity. It is a most' in- 
 human and bloody record, awakening the most tender 
 sympathy for the unfortunate victims of the dreadful 
 delusion. The sea of misery flowing from it is too 
 wide and deep for human comprehension. 
 
 Turning to the modern witchcraft, while we can 
 not gather up the statistics of its dreadful work, yet 
 we have on every hand the most convincing evidence 
 that it is slaughtering reputations in much greater 
 numbers, and sweeping away good names by ac- 
 cusations of which the accused are as innocent as were 
 the victims of the ancient delusion. While the 
 former extinguished the life of one hundred thou- 
 sand, or even more than that, the latter has destroyed 
 the peace and poisoned the enjoyment of millions, 
 and produced an ocean of misery as boundless and 
 fathomless as the other. 
 
 Again, in the days of witchcraft it is recorded as 
 a fact in the history of that superstition that the 
 charge of being a witch was one of the steps often 
 taken to obtain revenge of an enemy. When two 
 persons had a difficulty in those days that stirred 
 up all the bad blood of their natures, both were in 
 haste to first fasten the obnoxious charge on the 
 other. 
 
 In these days revenge is sought by a resort to the 
 witchcraft of the times, by saying of those against 
 
68 The Ini'isible Some People. 
 
 whom hate and ill-will are directed : " Some people 
 say," '* If all rumors be true/' " There is a wonder- 
 ful amount of talk," " It is generally believed," 
 "There is evidently something wrong," "It has a 
 mysterious look." Whenever you hear persons use 
 these and kindred phrases, you may conclude that 
 they have been among the witches, and are the 
 chosen mediums to communicate the inventions of 
 the Invisibles. If you can not stop their mouths, 
 you can stop your own ears and possibly hold your 
 own tongues. 
 
 I say possibly hold your own tongues, for the 
 reason that this thing of holding the tongue is a tre- 
 mendous achievement, and very few attain the art to 
 perfection. I have known people that could hold 
 office — plenty of them. Indeed, there do not seem to 
 be offices enough to go round. I have known people 
 that could hold titles to real estate — that could hold 
 money and stocks and bonds easy enough. They 
 could hold their own and very considerable that be- 
 longs to their creditors ; but to get a good grip on 
 their tongues, and hold them from wagging, seems to 
 be beyond their holding power. 
 
 You have all heard the old conundrum — it is 
 almost too old to repeat — " Why does a dog wag its 
 tail?" The correct and logical answer is, "Because 
 the dog is the strongest." But if you ask why men 
 and women wag their tongues, the old-dog answer 
 will not do, because we sometimes find tongues wag- 
 ging men and women, and shaking them up fearfully. 
 
 The mediums the Invisible Some People use to 
 communicate with the world are properly divided into 
 
The Invisible Some People. 69 
 
 two classes — the intentional slanderers, and the un- 
 thinking tattlers who indulge in gossip from the force 
 of habit. The malicious class are mostly men, while 
 the other class are chiefly women ; yet all kinds can 
 be found in both sexes. 
 
 I trust none of the ladies here present will look 
 black at me for this apparently savage attack upon 
 their sex. Before you condemn me, allow me to ex- 
 plain ; for if I succeed in getting the good opinion 
 of anybody in this audience in delivering this lec- 
 ture, I desire above all things to have the approba- 
 tion of the ladies in my presence ; and I will ex- 
 plain by telling what once occurred right in my 
 own house — " taken by our artist on the spot," as 
 they say. 
 
 One day, when I was at home, a good neighbor 
 woman — a very fair specimen of the American 
 woman — made a fashionable call on my wife. Now, 
 all you ladies know what a fashionable call is. You 
 know it does not amount to much anyway. You 
 simply put on your good clothes, and strike out; and 
 that is about all there is in it. But it did amount to 
 something more in this case; for after due inspection 
 of the good wardrobe, the good woman lingered 
 awhile and talked about the splendid weather we 
 were having — about the glorious revival of religion 
 we had recently had in our Church; and she also 
 made some scattering remarks about the latest style 
 of woman's hat. Several tremendous questions were 
 disposed of in a very short time. Then she gently took 
 up the neighbors. She said of one neighbor : " He 
 is a splendid fellow — great, big heart, and noble, jolly, 
 
70 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 self-sacrificing spirit; the very life of the town and 
 the life of our circle." Indeed, she thought our so- 
 ciety would be very flat and insipid if it were not for 
 that good fellow, who was always ready to spend any 
 amount of time or money that the balance of us 
 should have a good time, and never seemed to care 
 anything about himself; and went on and on, and 
 gave a great many other fine points in his character, 
 and carried it to such an extent that, I am ashamed to 
 say, I was almost on the point of being envious of 
 him. But before I had quite reached that disagree- 
 able state of mind she dropped her voice — it was a 
 sort of deprecatory, confidential whisper — and said to 
 my wife : " Some People say he drinks." Of course 
 I did not envy him any more after that. 
 
 And of another she said that she was the most re- 
 ligious person she ever saw, the very highest type of 
 Christian character; and during the revival she was 
 present at every meeting, and seemed to know just 
 what to do and how to do it — was a grand assistance 
 to the pastor, and inspired the balance of us to such 
 zeal and enthusiasm that she thought that the success 
 of the revival should be given largely to the credit of 
 that good woman ; and then she gave divers and 
 sundry other reasons why she thought that that 
 woman was the most devoted Christian that ever was ; 
 and — then she dropped into a whisper again, and 
 said: "But Some People say she is not half as relig- 
 ious as she appears to be." 
 
 And of another neighbor she said : " He is the 
 wealthiest man in town, lives in the finest style, gives 
 the most magnificent entertainments, has the finest 
 
The Lw'isible Some People. 71 
 
 turn-out of any one in town. His family always 
 appears better dressed than any one else ; he gives 
 his money liberally to everything that comes along; 
 and everybody thinks he is exceedingly rich." 
 Then she dropped into a whisper again, and said : 
 " But Some People say he would not be worth a cent 
 if his debts were all paid." 
 
 In that way she went around over the whole town, 
 giving each a dab except our next-door neighbor, 
 Mrs. M. She did not say a word about her. Now, 
 while all this was going on, I was pretending to 
 read the newspaper — for she was calling on my 
 wife and not on me — but I had my weather ear open 
 all the while. 
 
 I finally laid down my paper, and I said to her : 
 " What do Some People say about Mrs. M., our next- 
 door neighbor?" She turned upon me, every feather 
 in her hat quivered, and her eyes fairly snapped, and 
 she said : " Sir, you will have to ask somebody else. 
 I have not returned ]\[rs. M.'s last call, and I never 
 intend to." I said : '' I beg your pardon, madam ; I 
 did not know that there Mas any difficulty between 
 you and Mrs. M., or I should not have spoken of 
 her." "You need not commence about that now. 
 There is no personal difficulty between Mrs. M. and 
 myself, but I can not affi^rd to compromise myself by 
 calling upon her." " What is there about our 
 neighbor that will compromise you, me, or anybody 
 else, I want to know?" "AVell," said she, " you 
 needn't be so snappish about.it;" and then looking 
 at me with a great deal of pity, as if I were the most 
 ignorant man in the whole community, she said: 
 
72 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 " AVell, Mr. Ciuiiback, if you do not know it, every 
 other gentleman and lady in this town does know it, 
 that Mrs. M. talks about her neighbors, and if 
 there is anything on earth I despise it is that. I will 
 not associate with any woman that talks about her 
 neighbors." 
 
 Now, this is the kind of Avoman I was referring 
 to, ladies. I did not have the slightest reference to 
 any of you at all, and that makes it all right, I hope ; 
 so let us part good friends at any rate. 
 
 One night, down in Southern Indiana, where I 
 delivered this lecture, as we were going down the 
 stairs at the opera-house after the lecture was over, 
 I heard the ladies talking about this part of the lec- 
 ture. I tried my level best not to hear anything they 
 said ; for you know it is mean to eavesdrop, and I 
 wanted to be honest ; and then I also thought if I did 
 hear, it would not contribute anything to my happi- 
 ness, so I did not hear much. But finally one woman 
 screamed out, in a sort of dying-swan tone, clear above 
 the din and clatter on the stairway, and said : " O, I 
 am so sorry that Mrs. Jonas was not here to-night to 
 have heard that part of the lecture !" I was struck 
 with the generosity of the woman in giving all that 
 part of the lecture to Mrs. Jonas. 
 
 The men, I regret to have it to say, are in most 
 cases prompted by malice in their assaults upon the 
 character of people. There may be a man here or 
 there, a shallow-pated gabbler, who frequents public 
 places and gives his opinion without malice, but even 
 as a slanderer he is voted a failure and an intolerable 
 bore. Men generally, when they talk scandal, do it 
 
The Invisible Some People. 73 
 
 for the express purpose of hurting somebody; and 
 the more damage they imagine they have done, the 
 keener is their enjoyment of their devilish work. 
 
 There are some men who will tell a lie, and, if 
 necessary, will swear to it, to damage the reputation 
 of a neighbor. How often in our courts of justice, 
 when men are called to testify as to the character of 
 other witnesses, has this been manifest ! A witness is 
 put on the stand to testify as to the character of 
 another witness, and is asked if he is acquainted with 
 the character of the witness sought to be impeached, 
 from the statements of the people of his neighbor- 
 hood, and the witness answers promptly that he is ac- 
 quainted with his character. He is then asked if 
 that character is good or bad, and he promptly re- 
 plies, and with a malicious relish, that " his character 
 is very bad, and everybody says so." 
 
 Fortunately for truth and justice, a cross-examina- 
 tion of the witness is the next thing in order, and the 
 opposing counsel asks him to state to the court and 
 jury the names of the persons who have made state- 
 ments derogatory to the character, and to state the 
 language in each particular case. Now the troubles 
 of the perjured slanderer begin, and he fails to mention 
 any names, but undertakes to sustain himself by in- 
 sisting that Some People have given the witness a 
 very bad name in his neighborhood. Who these 
 Some People are he can not tell. They are the Iuvi?«- 
 ible Some People that I am talking about. They can 
 not be reached by the process of the court, as they 
 are not so obliging as Katie King, of Boston, to put 
 on a material body that might be seized by the sheriff 
 
74 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 and brought into court. A searching cross-examina- 
 tion does the business for all such witnesses, and they 
 generally leave the stand having made this impres- 
 sion, if no other, that they are willing to defame their 
 neighbors, even if they have to resort to falsehood 
 and perjury to do so. 
 
 This suggests a most successful remedy for this 
 great evil. If the good men and the good women 
 would organize themselves into a kind of social court, 
 and put these defamers through a most searching 
 cross-examination, and thus compel them to admit 
 that these Some People that they are constantly quot- 
 ing have no existence in fact outside of the brain of 
 the slanderer, we would soon find that the mediums 
 of communication would rapidly disappear, and this 
 modern witchery would no longer tarnish our civili- 
 zation and religion. 
 
 The spirit of this evil work, with the shallow cre- 
 dulity that fosters and encourages it, is one of the 
 hopeless signs of the times, and takes the point off our 
 boastinp; that we are so much further on the road to 
 perfection than those who ha\^ gone before us. It not 
 only undertakes to put its false estimate on all human 
 action, but it claims to dive down deep into the se- 
 crets of every human soul, and always brings forth 
 the meanest and most sordid motives for the very 
 best acts of man, and boldly proclaims that these put 
 in operation what charity and truth would have de- 
 clared was good and benevolent in spirit as well as 
 in deed. 
 
 If the account of human life is faithfully kept, 
 and the credits wdiich humanity arc justly entitled to 
 
The Invisible Some People. 75 
 
 are placed on the proper side of the ledger, and tha 
 balance honestly struck, the result will still show that 
 we are no better than we ought to be. In the name 
 of justice and fairness, let not this modern witchery 
 cheat us out of credits without which we are hope- 
 lessly bankrupt. 
 
 In the exciting contests of human life for wealth 
 and position, our poor human nature develops a 
 wonderful amount of envy, jealousy, and often the 
 bitterest hate. The hindmost in the race are ex- 
 posed to the temptation to resort to detraction as a 
 sort of comfort for the bruises they have received, 
 and a solace for their defeats. They open commu- 
 nication with Invisibles, and endeavor by floods of 
 scandal to sweep away the good name of all who 
 have been more fortunate than they. Byron says: 
 
 " He who surpasses or subdues mankind 
 Must look down on the hate of those below." 
 
 It must be confessed that, in many cases, there can 
 not be found even this apology to justify or palliate 
 this demon-like trait in mortals. It seems that many 
 take to slander to gratify a morbid appetite they 
 seem to have for it. All such could not sleep at 
 night unless they have the comforting assurance in 
 their own minds that during the day they Jiave dam- 
 aged the good name of some fellow-mortal or made 
 their best effort to do so. 
 
 The slanderer belongs to no party or sect or 
 class of society. He is doing his evil work in 
 good and bad society alike — in the church, in politics, 
 in society at large — everywhere may be found the 
 poison from the slanderous tongue. 
 
76 The Ixi'isible Some People. 
 
 While I have given this subject some thought and 
 reflection, still I regret to say that I am not able to 
 furnish you such a description of the gossiper tribe, 
 or to give you the plans and specifications so def- 
 initely, that they may be known from other folks. 
 I am in the same unfortunate dilemma as the man 
 away back forty years ago, a very wealthy man in New 
 England, who got tired of society, tired of jiolitics, 
 tired of religion, tired of everything and everybody; 
 so he sold out all of his great possessions, and went 
 away out West, to what was then called the American 
 Desert, and built him a house hundreds of miles 
 beyond the border-laud of civilization. It is difficult 
 to tell what made him do so. 
 
 The question has been asked, " Is life worth liv- 
 ing?" and the best answer that has ever been given 
 to the question is that of Punch, who said " that it 
 depended entirely on the liver.'' It may be this 
 man had a torpid liver. But as the star of em- 
 pire rapidly moved westward, he again soon found 
 himself surrounded by civilization; and one day a 
 commissioner from the Government knocked at 
 his door, and said that the Government desired his 
 house for the meeting of the first Territorial Legis- 
 lature. In an unguarded moment he consented, and 
 put his house in shape for that tremendous event. 
 But, as a precautionary measure, he put up a card in 
 the principal reception-room of his house, aud wrote 
 this on the card in great big letters : " Loafers arc 
 requested in this house not to associate with the 
 members of the Legislature, for the reason that it is 
 almost impossible to tell the one from the other." 
 
The Invisible Some People. 77 
 
 It is equally difficult, on sight, to distinguish the 
 slanderer from the rest of us. The polished and 
 polite indulge in this vice as well as the vulgar and 
 degraded. The drunken, swaggering, profane wretch, 
 and the shameless hypocrite attempting to cover in- 
 bred meanness with the sham piety of a Peck- 
 sniff or the hollow humility of a Uriah Heep, have 
 alike the same relish for a dish of scandal. If there 
 be any distinguishing mark which all slanderers have 
 in common, it is a very weak and feeble ability 
 to mind their own business, and a well-developed 
 faculty to attend to other people's affairs. They cul- 
 tivate the latter gift for the same reason that Mark 
 Twain gave for not keeping his promises. He said 
 that he had a large and vigorous faculty for making 
 promises, but a very feeble one for keeping them, but 
 contended that it is better to have one strong and 
 healthy faculty than two weak and sickly ones. 
 
 Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, said 
 more than twenty centuries ago: "The disease of men 
 is this, — that they neglect their own fields, and go 
 and weed the fields of others; and what they require 
 from others is great, while what they lay upon them- 
 selves is verv light." 
 
 AVhere the power of these Invisibles is most felt, 
 and in what place they do the most mischief, it is not 
 easy to determine. If there be one place more than 
 another where their influence is most potent for evil, 
 it is in religious associations. Unfortunately for re- 
 ligion, there may be found in almost every religious 
 society some persons who claim that they possess 
 the most of the religion of the particular Church of 
 
78 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 which they are members; and, to use a Wall Street 
 phrase, they hold most of the stock, and have made 
 a " corner " on all the Christian graces of the Church. 
 They make their phylacteries so broad that those the 
 old Pharisees used to wear would appear exceedingly 
 narrow to them. The truth is, we can beat the Jews 
 on Pharisees. If the original stock of that century 
 were here, they would quit the business. They 
 could not compete with our modern Pharisees. The 
 fact is, their hearts are nests wherein are hatched out 
 all the whole brood of malevolent actions and pur- 
 poses, to conceal which from human inspection they 
 make a loud and constant profession of their own 
 perfection, and continually protest that they have 
 nothing but gentleness in their spirits. 
 
 "In robes of seeming truth and trust 
 Came sly dissimulation, 
 And underneath a gilded crust 
 Lurked dirty defamation." 
 
 They never lose an opportunity to sound a 
 trumpet proclaiming their own whiteness and purity. 
 In order that they may appear the whitest in the 
 flock, they spend all their spare time in blackening the 
 rest of the fold. To keep their own defects from 
 being observed, they are constantly calling attention 
 to the defects that they insist other people have. 
 
 Josh Billings describes them as persons who 
 " consider themselves as moral half-bushels, with 
 which they measure all the follies of everybody else." 
 This class of slanderers are the most artful and ac- 
 complished of the whole tribe of vilifiers, and their 
 power for evil is consequently the greatest. They 
 
The Invisible Some People. 79 
 
 deceive the simple and unsuspeetiag, by constantly 
 claiming that they are prompted to speak disparag- 
 ingly of others from a deep and abiding sense of 
 duty. They study carefully the mental and moral 
 depth of all around them. To the careful and 
 thoughtful they will drop a sugar-coated hint against 
 a neighbor, to excite prejudice and bias judgment. 
 To the shallow and gossipy they will administer a 
 "wholesale dose of scandal, to be retailed by them. 
 To real good, pious people, they will go with hypo- 
 critical tears, and deplore the faults of others, and 
 beg them to turn the erring ones into the paths of 
 right. 
 
 The great English poet has well described all 
 such in one line : 
 
 "In hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell." 
 
 While these Invisibles in Church infuse activity 
 among the members, and keep them constantly on 
 the alert, it is not that spirituality that makes Satan 
 tremble. A Church annoyed with a few of these 
 spirits is very much in the condition of the army 
 which has marched far into the enemy's country. 
 So many men must be detailed to skirmish with 
 guerrillas, and protect the lines and guard the rear, 
 that but few soldiers are left for effective fighting 
 service. 
 
 There are some Churches of whom it may be said 
 that pastor and people are constantly engaged in at- 
 tempting to protect themselves from the assaults of 
 this enemy within their lines, and have but little 
 time for any other duty ; and if they had, their war- 
 
80 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 fare for self-protectiou is by no means calculated to 
 promote that growth in grace and pious development 
 that mark the character of the perfect Christian. 
 All such Churches, who promise pea(;e and rest to the 
 sinners who may join them, will find themselves un- 
 able to perform the contract. 
 
 During the late war, two soldiers enlisted from 
 the same town, in the same regiment and company, 
 and slept in the same tent, under the same blanket. 
 One night they were talking about the war, the 
 causes of it, and their connection with it, and one of 
 them said to the other : 
 
 '' Now, 1 \vant to improve this opportunity to ask 
 you a question that has been a long time on my mind, 
 and has been a great mystery to me." 
 
 " AVhat is it?" said the other one. 
 
 " What made you enlist in the army at all?" said 
 the first; " it has always been a surprise to me." 
 
 And the wicked wretch replied (now I do not 
 want to be understood as indorsing the reply, but 
 simply state a small portion of the history of the late 
 war) that he was a married man, and that he did not 
 like war, but joined the army that he might enjoy the 
 blessings of peace. 
 
 I would not speak to that man to-morrow if I 
 would meet him ; and if he is on the pension-roll, I 
 hope they will strike him off; and if he has an office, 
 I hope they will discharge him as an offensive partisan, 
 or get rid of him in any way. 
 
 Many a good Christian man has fled from his 
 Christian home in the Church, and joined the army 
 outside for the same reason. These Invisibles are not 
 
The Invisible Some People. 81 
 
 partial to any denomination or sect. They are essen- 
 tially non-sectarian, and will attach themselves to any 
 Church that will furnish the medium through which 
 they can destroy the effectiveness of the organization. 
 You can not terrify them with the loudest shout- 
 ing, by total immersion in the deepest water, nor by 
 threats of eternal punishment. 
 
 In old times the superstitious used to nail a horse- 
 shoe over the door to keep the witches out ; and it is 
 asserted as an historical fact that no witch could cross 
 any threshold thus guarded — that they howled with 
 rage and disappointment on the outer walls. If some 
 new mode of church architecture could be devised, or 
 some new confession of faith or creed or discipline 
 could be conceived that would, with the same effective- 
 ness, keep out this modern witchcraft from the house 
 of God, the originator of the plan would be entitled 
 to take the highest seat among the noble band of re- 
 formers that have blessed the Church and the world; 
 and in all coming time his name and fame would 
 grow brighter and brighter, and the millennium would 
 come many generations sooner. 
 
 Politics is a most inviting field for this invisible 
 power. Here the demand for scandal is so persistent 
 that the Invisibles can scarcely supply the ncAvspapcrs, 
 much less the army of hungry partisan gossips, who 
 are as eager for their inventions as the newsboys are 
 for an extra edition of a paper containing a first-class 
 sensation. In politics, therefore, their inventions are 
 so hastily conceived, and sent forth in such an unfin- 
 ished state, without even a decent garb of probability 
 about them, and there are so many interested in 
 
 6 
 
82 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 exploding their fabrications and bringing them to 
 naught, that they really do less harm here than any- 
 where else. 
 
 They do succeed in surrounding the candidacy 
 for office with such an offensive atmosphere that good 
 men with a white reputation, who are a little timid, 
 have refused to make the venture. It is, however, a 
 very gratifying fact that, in all cases where the posi- 
 tion is exalted and the salary liberal, there have ever 
 been found men who could command the nerve, and, 
 for the sake of the public good, risk their reputation, 
 and jjlunge into the depths where these poisonous 
 gases and noxious vajjors were the densest, fearless 
 of political asphyxia. All such deserve well of their 
 country, and they generally receive all they deserve, 
 and more too. If these Invisibles could be driven out 
 of the Church and put out of society at large, and could 
 be made to enter into the herd of political swine that 
 have succeeded in making politics so hoggish, and the 
 whole run down the steepest place into the deepest 
 sea, it would be the beginning of a new era in the 
 history of man. 
 
 In society at large, outside of all organizations, 
 political or religious, is a most inviting field for the 
 fiendish work of this modern witchcraft, and Avell do 
 the Invisibles occupy and cultivate it. Their dark pur- 
 poses and malignant spirit are quite as manifest here 
 as elsewhere, and, as they are unceasing in their efforts, 
 they too often accomplish their diabolical designs. 
 In every cup of joy they seek to drop their poison; 
 in every circle of happiness they aim to introduce 
 misery ; in every fountain of pure friendship they 
 
The Invisible Some People. 83 
 
 endeavor to mingle hate and ill-will; and everywhere, 
 in place of harmony, they strive to substitute discord. 
 
 Against these and all other propitious conditions 
 of individuals and communities they aim their poison- 
 ous and destructive darts with the most intense malev- 
 olence. Especially does human friendshijD — that 
 sweetest cup to mortals given — excite their bitterest 
 hate, and call forth their best efforts to compass its 
 destruction. How well they succeed let the every -day 
 experience and observation of the human race answer. 
 Here and there a friendship may remain, and a confi- 
 dence be unbroken by this invisible power, until death 
 shall separate the kindred and congenial souls. Con- 
 fidence may grow and strengthen in some few in- 
 stances, heedless of the venomous whispers of the 
 imps of the Invisibles; yet in the present state of 
 human credulity, this demon-like agency can gen- 
 erally beget distrust and array friend against friend. 
 
 It is a melancholy fact that human friendship 
 seems to be too weak to stand up against the slander 
 that Shakespeare describes as having an edge sharper 
 than the sword, and whose tongue outvenoms all the 
 worms of the Xile. It often happens that many a 
 poor victim of this malignant power, after having 
 been robbed of that friend and deprived of tl^is con- 
 fidence, goes on the remainder of his life's journey 
 with a broken heart, — 
 
 "Like one that on some lonesonie road, 
 Doth walk with fear and dread; 
 And having once turned round, walks on, 
 
 And turns no more his head, 
 Because he knows a frightful fiend 
 * Doth close behind him tread." 
 
84 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 Many, I am fully conscious, will hastily pronounce 
 this picture of the power of the Invisibles as too 
 highly colored. A little honest reflection will re- 
 move all such impressions, and complete assent will 
 he given to the faithfulness of the portrait. Where 
 is the human heart but contains within its secret 
 chambers some unjust bias or prejudice against 
 others — monstrous lies deposited there by the Invis- 
 ibles, which have given such obliquity to the vision that 
 nothing but evil can be seen in the life of a neighbor 
 that was really pure and good. In whose life ex- 
 perience is there not some broken friendship, or the 
 failure to secure associations that would be sweet and 
 delightful but for the interference of these omnipres- 
 ent Some People? How much of the suspicions 
 and distrusts paralyzing social enjoyment, and sepa- 
 rating man from his fellow, blasting all the sweet 
 flowers of friendship and love, is beyond estimate. 
 
 Not only does the fear of this evil power hinder 
 and destroy social enjoyment, but it makes moral cow- 
 ards of humanity, and with a desperate strength holds 
 back and prevents advance steps that would be other- 
 wise taken for the improvement of the race. Men 
 whose souls are too broad to be confined in the nar- 
 row gauge and kept in the old ruts that custom has 
 made for them, are too often afraid to demand a bet- 
 ter state of things for fear the gossips and the envious 
 will attribute sinister motives, and covertly assail 
 their purposes ; and hence they cramp and dwarf them- 
 selves, and allow things to remain rather than " fly 
 to ills they know not of." They fear the Invisibles. 
 They would inaugurate reforms and fight for them,^f 
 
The L\ visible Scme People. 85 
 
 they only had an open enemy to combat ; but their 
 courage is not sufficient for the unequal contest with 
 the Invisibles. 
 
 And so of men and women of genius. In the 
 clearer light of their higher and better perception 
 they see the shallow shams and hollow falsehoods 
 which duller minds have accepted as real and true ; 
 yet the fear of the charge of being wild and erratic 
 has paralyzed their resolves, and compelled them to 
 remain for life compressed in the narrow circle that 
 custom has made for minds of smaller size. 
 
 The original thought of genius puts the wheels 
 of progress in motion, and shatters to atoms the long- 
 standing abuses that*custom has placed in the road to 
 human advancement, and with its energizing power 
 lifts humanity to a conception of better things and 
 a sweeter enjoyment of life. To the minds endowed 
 with genius and courage to defy the littleness of their 
 inferiors, and who have boldly given utterance to their 
 opinions, we are indebted for whatever progress we 
 have made. With the courage that makes heroes and 
 heroines, they have assailed old abuses and galvanized 
 frauds ; and, amid the whisperings of the envious and 
 the hissings of the jealous, they have put reputation 
 and even life in peril in demanding the acceptance of 
 the truth that they in their clearer and better vision 
 have discovered. 
 
 While the few of this favored class have been 
 thus bold and defiant, the many who are their equals 
 in these rare gifts, except courage, have cowered be- 
 fore this invisible power, and kept silent. As enVy 
 and jealousy are the ruling spirits in this modern 
 
86 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 witcberal't, original thought can no more be tolerated 
 than it will permit the existence of the legitimate re- 
 sults of genius — happiness and prosperity. Thus sur- 
 rounding the human family is this evil power, ready 
 to embitter every cup of joy, blast every sweet hope, 
 and hinder and, if possible, prevent every progress- 
 ive step. 
 
 In Persian mythology they have tAvo rivaling 
 deities — Ormuzd and Ahriman. The former created 
 the world beautiful and pure, and made it the abode 
 of happiness; but Ahriman came after him, and created 
 everything that is evil in it. He is charged with the 
 authorship of all evil thoughts, and with instigating 
 all wicked actions. This iuviiible power is the 
 Ahriman of our civilization; but, unlike the Persian, 
 w'e have the evil under control. As I said at the 
 outset, it is not stipernatural, but it is human. What- 
 ever of misery and suifering flows from it to the 
 human race is self-inflic'ted injury. Mortal man fur- 
 nishes the ready tongue to utter a slander, and the 
 willing ear to receive it. The gre«d with which the 
 many relish the lying tales of the backbiter, and the 
 shallow credulity with which these tales are accepted 
 and acted upon, increases the army of defamers, in- 
 tensifies their malevolence, and adds to the number 
 and magnitude of their falsehoods. 
 
 Allow me to call your attention to another curious 
 feature in the work of defamation. A great many 
 people in the world will give little or no countenance 
 to a story as it passes from mouth to mouth. They 
 will not stop to consider whether it be false or 
 true ; they take no interest while the slander is 
 
The ly visible Some People. 87 
 
 passed around in that way ; they wisely conclude it 
 is false, and let it pass unheeded. But let the same 
 scandal find its way into public print, and its whole 
 character in their estimation is changed ; they 
 strangely conclude at once that it must be true or it 
 never would have been printed. 
 
 And so true is this that the statutes of this State 
 and every other State — yea, I think the old common 
 law of England — recognize it by making printed 
 words actionable for libel, that would have sufficient 
 force to sustain a suit for slander when only spoken. 
 The type of the printer thus gives it a weight and 
 force with many people that the tongue of the 
 ecandal-monger is wholly unable to accomplish. 
 The imps of the Invisibles, by thus securing an organ, 
 succeed in re-enforcing themselves. 
 
 They no longer quote the Some People, who may 
 
 not be believed, but quote the press to back up their 
 
 fabrications. Ears that were closed to the scandal 
 
 are thus opened, and tongues that had been silent are 
 
 now active in proclaiming the falsehood. These 
 
 people are not like Robert Burns, who said : 
 
 " Some books are lies fra end to end, 
 And some great lies are never penned." 
 
 But they seem to think that a monstrous falsehood, 
 if printed in a book, or pamphlet, or newspaper, be- 
 comes a serious truth. The newspaper has not only 
 this additional influence, but its powers for evil are 
 immeasurably increased ; for while the backbiter is 
 telling his vile stuff t« a small circle around him, the 
 newspaper is telling it to thousands and tens of 
 thousands. 
 
88 The Ini'isible Some People. 
 
 The most stupendous as well as the most infa- 
 mous slander is the newspaper slander; and in some 
 of our largest cities there are newspapers whose col- 
 umns are devoted entirely to this miserable business of 
 defamation and slander. One has said most truth- 
 fully : " Year by year, thousands of men are crushed 
 by the ink-roller; and an unscrupulous man in the 
 editorial chair may smite as with the wing of a de- 
 stroying angel. What to him is commercial integ- 
 rity, professional reputation, home's sanctity, or 
 woman's honor? It seems as if he held in his hand 
 a hose, while all the harpies of sin are working at 
 the pumps; he splashes the waters of death upon the 
 best interests of society." 
 
 It is indeed, ladies and gentlemen, a matter of 
 congratulation that so few of our American news- 
 papers are so vile ; but it would be better if there 
 were fewer. And we are not entirely blameless from 
 the fault ; for so long as we crave the wonderful 
 and love the sensational, so long will the press con- 
 tinue to feed us with this moral swill ; and so long as 
 we listen to the tales of the defamers, the very atmos- 
 phere will be polluted with the stench of slander. 
 
 But I want to be just to the press. Indeed, I 
 want to be just to everybody. While I have never 
 been the editor of a newspaper, or in any way con- 
 nected with one, yet I have lived long enough to ob- 
 serve that malicious persons, knowing the power of 
 the press over the mind of man, and anxious to ob- 
 tain revenge of an enemy, will write an anonymous 
 communication, and get it in the paper if they can, 
 and then let the editor and his paper fight tKeir fight 
 
The Invisible Some People. 89 
 
 while they cowardly remain in the dark. Now, how 
 many of these anonymous communications find their 
 way to the waste-basket of the editor I know not, 
 but I doubt not a great many ; and the editor ought 
 to put all the anonymous communications — in fact, 
 every communication, whether anonymous or not, that 
 reflects upon the character of another — in the waste- 
 basket, unless he knows absolutely that the statements 
 contained therein are true, and the best interests of 
 society will be promoted by publishing them. 
 
 Some years ago I was in a Methodist Conference 
 where a member of the same, not having the best 
 ability to hold his tongue, in the excitement of de- 
 bate said a very unkind, unchristian, and unparlia- 
 mentary thing about the brother who had ]>receded 
 him in the discussion. A half dozen members of the 
 Conference at once rose to their feet to rebuke him. 
 He told them to sit down, and he would make it right, 
 which they reluctantly did. Not being as prompt in 
 making the apology as they thought proper, they 
 rose again. And he said : " Hold, brethren ; I will 
 make this thing right, now." And one of them 
 said, " Do it at once." And he put on a very meek 
 and humble expression, and said: "Brethren, if you 
 knew what I have kept back, you would not object 
 to what I have said." 
 
 So if we knew what the press keeps back, we 
 might not be inclined to criticise what they say. 
 But be that as it may, the slanderer in the press, in 
 politics, in society at large, taken altogether, casts the 
 dark shadow of barbarism over our Christian civili- 
 zation. 
 
90 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 1 believe it was the Hon. Edmuntl Burke who 
 said that the spirit of civilization was composed of 
 two parts — the spirit of religion and the spirit of the 
 gentleman. No civilization can continue to retain its 
 claim as such, and tolerate slander and defamation. 
 We can not be a nation of gentlemen, much less 
 Christians, until the higher sense of honor shall 
 expel this modern witchcraft from American society. 
 
 ^ In Japan, it is said — with hoAv much truth I do 
 
 Dot knoM', but it is really asserted to be true — that 
 when a Japanese is convinced of the fact that he is a 
 slanderer, he is seized with such terrible shame and 
 remorse that he grasps the first sword or dagger that 
 he can find, and plunges it into his body and dies, 
 rather than live with such a stain on his name — the 
 stain of a slanderer. Now, if the same penalty fol- 
 lowed the crime of backbiting in this country, whether 
 inflicted voluntarily or otherwise, cremation would 
 have to be adopted as an absolute necessity; and if 
 not, the business of the undertaker would become 
 the leading mechanical pursuit of the country, and 
 such fast horses as Maud S. and Dexter would be re- 
 quired for the hearse, and the quickest time at a 
 funeral would be the sensation of the hour. The 
 work of the census-taker for the next decade would 
 be comparatively small, and one volume would con- 
 tain the report of the commissioner of the census. 
 
 J^ There is an old story that has come down to us 
 from the centuries long since past, like this: One 
 Thomas the Rhymer so pleased the queen of the 
 fairies that, to manifest her regard for him in the 
 highest degree, she gave hnn a tongue that could not 
 
The Im'isiBLE Some People. 91 
 
 lie. It is said that he protested against the favor as 
 a very great inconvenience to hira. He could no 
 longer make love; he could not do anything at all 
 at that business, and that was a most delightful occu- 
 pation. He could not appear well at the king's court, 
 and he could not tell tales on his neighbors. 
 
 Now, if the good cpieen of Elfland were to be 
 struck with admiration for the whole American 
 people, and confer the same favor on each and all of 
 them, the inconvenience of involuntary veracity 
 would cause large numbers to be absolutely dumb. 
 And it might not be extravagant to predict that the 
 majority of us would be afflicted with a halting and 
 stammering utterance. Not that we love a lie more 
 than the truth ; but the gossips and scandal-mongers, 
 and our excessive credulity and love for the wonderful, 
 have so demoralized society that the line of demarka- 
 tion between what is true and what is false has be- 
 come so indistinct that the truth has been robbed of 
 her beauty and the false has lost its ugliness. We 
 do not speak of slander and slanderers as they de- 
 serve. In the good old Book, Solomon puts the slan- 
 derer and the murderer in the same category, and 
 there is where they properly belong. 
 
 In that wonderful poem written by Polio k, he 
 
 ?ays ; 
 
 " Slander, the vilest whelp of sin." 
 
 There has been no small amount of metaphysical 
 and scientific nonsense written in discussing that vice. 
 During the late war, when we were right in the 
 midst of it, and when our army was the largest, a 
 distinguished surgeon of the United States army was 
 
92 ' The Ini'isible Some People. 
 
 promoted to the high position of surgeon-general of 
 the army, and, having reached that position, he doubt- 
 less said to himself: " Now, I am a surgeon-general 
 of this great Republic and- of this the greatest army 
 of modern times; and I must show to the civilized 
 world that I am worthy of the distinction. I must 
 twine some fresh laurels on my name by making 
 some new discoveries, and add some fresh pages to 
 medical science;" which Avas a noble and honorable 
 ambition. In order to do this, he concluded that he 
 would dissect a lie. He would give a complete diag- 
 nosis of this great moral disease, and publish his 
 opinion in the Journal of Psychological Medicine for 
 the benefit of science ; and he did so — at least he says 
 he did — and he wrote an enormously long opinion 
 about a lie, too long to repeat hei-e now; but the 
 conclusion of the surgeon-general was, if a man tells 
 a lie on another, it is because his embolus thrombus has 
 amesic agstrasia ! 
 
 When we come to remember, ladies and gentle- 
 men, the vast number of people who are afflicted 
 with the disease that science is compelled to clothe 
 in such terrible words as ihese, and then remember 
 that the disease is contagious, hope almost dies within 
 us. These doctors are too many for us anyway, 
 sometimes. I do not refer to the size of their bills, 
 but to the tremendousness of their language. 
 
 Some years ago I was in Northwestern Iowa, in 
 January, lecturing, when the thermometer was twenty 
 degrees below zero, and they had a blizzard every 
 few minutes, and there were great snow-drifts across 
 the railroads; and I was having a fearful time. I 
 
The Ini'isible Some People. 93 
 
 met, one day, at tlie depot, a leading Indiana doctor, 
 who had gone West to grow up with the country, 
 and whom I had not seen for a quarter of a century. 
 I asked him why he had left that God-blessed coun- 
 try of Indiana to live in this abominable climate. 
 He replied that he came here for his health, that he 
 had gained thirty-four pounds, and that this climate 
 was highly beneficial. I said: ''How can it be bene- 
 ficial. Doctor, when the minute you poke your nose 
 out here it is frozen? Where do the benefits come 
 in, now?" He looked at me with pity, and, in a sor- 
 sowful tone, said: "Why, really, I thought you were 
 an intelligent man ! Why do n't you take a scientific 
 view of the subject?" I said: "Doctor, give me the 
 scientific view, so that I may not expose my ignorance 
 a^ain." He immediatelv struck an attitude, and 
 looked wiser than an owl, and said: "Don't you 
 know that these blizzards, this low temperature, these 
 deep snows, taken altogether, destroy the bacteria?" 
 I promptly replied that I had thought so ever since I 
 had been in Iowa, for the reason that I had not seen 
 any anywhere. 
 
 Now, I do not want the doctors in this audience 
 to go home under the false impression that I want 
 to ridicule their nol)le j)rofession, because no man in 
 the world has a higher opinion of the medical fra- 
 ternity than your speaker. It is only a few of them 
 that I am after. A doctor in Iiltliana, whom I knew 
 very well, and who lived on one of our principal 
 railroads, hung out his sign where everybody could 
 see it. We will call him John Jones. He had this 
 on his sign: "John Jones, Chronic Physician." It 
 
94 The Invisible Some People. 
 
 is uot the regular medical profession I am after, but 
 it is the "chronic" physician I am talking about. 
 
 But to return to the question. The need of the 
 hour is such a quickening of the moral sensibilities 
 that we will see slander and falsity in all their real 
 hatefuluess and hideousness; that those who are en- 
 gaged in this disreputable business may be shunned ; 
 and falsifiers and defamers i)ut out of the camp, as it 
 were, as the old Hebrews used to put the leper out of 
 the camp. 
 
 Then, and not until then, will the spirit of truth 
 find its way into the human heart, and bring with it 
 an impartial justice to guide all our actions and 
 guard all our words; bring with it the sweet spirit 
 of charity and love that ever looketh at the better 
 side of humanity ; bring with it the forgiving mercy 
 that ever covers with a mantle of love the many frail- 
 ties of humanity. 
 
 All hail, then, the spirit of truth, that so ele- 
 vates the character of humanity as to invest it with 
 the majesty of divinity and lend to it the charm of 
 angelic beauty ! 
 
THE COMMON MAN. 
 
 THE human race presents such an almost incom- 
 prehensible variety of conditions that, if an at- 
 tempt be made to accurately divide it into classes, dif- 
 culties intervene that seem impossible to overcome. 
 If, in the division, straight lines be insisted upon, 
 they would be as useless in teaching the lessons of 
 human life as would straight isothermal lines in in- 
 dicating climate and the temperature of the atmos- 
 phere. Any division of the human family will 
 necessarily be subject to so many modifications and 
 exceptions that tlie division w^ould be resolved back 
 into the general mass. We can only -generalize. 
 Let us, in a general way, then, assume that we 
 can find three great divisions — the upper, the middle, 
 and the lower class. There are no distinct lines of 
 division. You can not exactly tell where one class 
 ends and the other begins. Like the tints of the 
 rainbow, they fade away into each other. Yet there 
 are points where the different colors are separate 
 and distinct. To these points let us direct our 
 attention. 
 
 The favored few with extraordinary gifts will be 
 elevated above the middle class to take a position 
 in the higher. By the force of innate strength, with 
 royal step, they march to the front, and the common 
 
 Delivered at Chautauqua, New York. 
 
 95 
 
96 The Common Man. 
 
 man grants them -the right of way. Great energy, 
 antl tact and skill in directing it, coupled with good 
 natural gifts, will, by their own force, bring the for- 
 tunate possessor into the same royal road, and he, 
 too, will reach the front, and take his place with the 
 upper class. 
 
 In this money-getting and mercenary age — this 
 period where greed and gain have such a hold on the 
 human mind and so largely control human action — 
 the aristocracy of wealth claim their passport out of 
 the low and middle classes, and, with nothing to 
 show but the glare and glitter of diamonds and gold, 
 are allowed a position among the higher class by a 
 hesitating common consent. But being only pur- 
 chased, the claim is weak, and the tenure uncertain. 
 Bankruptcy sends them back again to meet with a 
 cool reception from either class from whence they 
 came. 
 
 It is very manifest that, if our age concedes high 
 position in society to wealth alone, unsupported by 
 any other claim ; if the claimant has no individual 
 and personal merits, — then let us cease at once to 
 boast of the culture and refinement of our age. The 
 vulgarity of the claim makes its concession inconsis- 
 tent with the true idea of a high and noble man- 
 hood. And even now such claimants are but the 
 faded border of the class, and add nothing to, but 
 rather detract from, the bright hues of that higher 
 class that hold their coveted place by the unques- 
 tioned force of real merit. 
 
 As I said at the outset, there are a few gifted per- 
 sons who are thrown up by the force of their own 
 
The Common Man. 97 
 
 great natural endowments, and who shine and glitter 
 in their upper sphere, and are the wonder and admi- 
 ration of the vast throng beneath them. They are 
 pointed to as the indubitable evidence that the age 
 which is honored by them is one of great progress and 
 high development. But these persons of wonderful 
 and extraordinary powers come as infrequently and 
 irregularly as the brilliant meteor, and flash across 
 the pathway of humanity and pass away. They leave 
 no light behind, and the darkness is as intense as 
 before. The careful and thoughtful student of the 
 causes that elevate the race and give us a higher 
 type of manhood will hesitate to place great credit 
 to the account of those who are conceded this daz- 
 zling brilliancy. They are so far above the masses 
 that there is no bond of union. They are in the sol- 
 itude of their own personality and originality. They 
 excite wonder, but forbid emulation. Ancient his- 
 tory, with her great orators, painters, poets, and phi- 
 losophers, will corroborate our assertion. The masses 
 of mankind were not lifted out of their ignorance 
 and vices by them, but remained, century after cen- 
 tury, in the same degraded condition. While theirs 
 was a jeweled, it was not a helping hand. 
 
 The great minds of the higher classes, who have 
 come up through the ranks of the lower classes step 
 by step, and have felt the warm beating of sympa- 
 thetic hearts, and have practically known the wants, 
 needs, and aspirations of the common mau, and the 
 difficulties that he has to contend with, are the only 
 true and worthy leaders of human progress. Between 
 them and the common man there is a strong bond of 
 
 7 
 
98 The Common Man. 
 
 union. They have left behind their foot-prints, that 
 others may follow. Through the wilderness of medi- 
 ocrity they have blazed their way to the sunlight on 
 the mountain-top of knowledge and culture. They 
 are the only teachers who can effectually reach the 
 masses, who can impress themselves on, and whose 
 lessons will be heeded by, those beneath them. 
 
 It is too often the misfortune of those having 
 great natural gifts, those who are born great, to be 
 impatient and often contemptuous of those less for- 
 tunate. Let us leave the men of great genius out of 
 the account so far as their personality is concerned. 
 They may make discoveries and give us inventions 
 that may lighten the burdens of the race; they may 
 paint pictures that may delight the eye and cultivate 
 a love of the beautiful ; they may write poems that 
 may cheer the desponding and give hope to the de- 
 spairing; but they can not take the common man by 
 the hand, and, with love in the heart and sympathy 
 beaming from the eye, lead him up to a higher con- 
 ception of his duty and his destiny. He is isolated 
 from them. We look for leaders among those who 
 have that best of gifts, the determination to bring out 
 of themselves all that is possible ; who will study 
 honestly to know their own power; who will culti- 
 vate the physical, the mental, the moral, and the spir- 
 itual at the same time, and, as a result, present a per- 
 fectly rounded and symmetrical manhood. Here may 
 be found the elements that constitute true leadership, 
 and these are the best of what we call the upper 
 class. 
 
 What a monstrosity is a drunken poet, or the 
 
The Common Man. 99 
 
 combinatioQ of a gifted painter aud a vulgar deb- 
 auchee ! Of what avail is the tongue of fire of the 
 great orator, if that tongue is false to his own convic- 
 tions of right and to the sacred truth? Of what 
 weight are the honors of statesmanship, if they are 
 tainted with the slime of bribery and corruption ? 
 Men may wonder aud admire tlie great genius, but 
 they only love and worship the true man. Lavater 
 says: "The proportion of genius to the vulgar is one 
 to a million ; but genius without tyranny, without 
 pretension — that judges the weak with equity, the su- 
 perior with humanity, and equals with justice — is like 
 one to ten millions." 
 
 If we assent to the proposition that the science of 
 the sciences is that of knowing how to live ; if man 
 is to be the focal point for all this modern light, then 
 we might properly assign to the upper class, not the 
 genius alone, or the rich, or those whom the acci- 
 dents of war or politics have given prominence, but 
 that class of men and women who, moved by a proper 
 conception of the significance of human existence, 
 have so studied, toiled, and lived as to have banished 
 some disease from the human family, or to have sup- 
 pressed some vice that preyed on the human race, or 
 to have fanned into a flame the dying embers of hu- 
 man hopes, aud awakened human souls to shake oft 
 all lethargy and to taste the sweets of higher aspira- 
 tions and the joys of nobler attainments. These 
 are the uncrowned kings and queens of the world. 
 These are the torch-bearers of our advancing civ- 
 ilization, the leaders, whose brave, patient, and lov- 
 ing spirits have led the race out of the darkness 
 
100 The Common Man. 
 
 of ignorance and superstition into the clearer light 
 of a better life. 
 
 Man is the noblest work of God, and these phi- 
 lanthropists have called the race away from the 
 bloody work of robbing smaller nations to extend 
 the dominion of greater empires, from the erection 
 of useless pyramids and obelisks, and, in more mod- 
 ern times, from the construction of heavier guns and 
 more destructive torpedoes. They have given the 
 common man a proper conception of his own dignity 
 and worth, and have deepened and widened his appre- 
 ciation of his own manhood. These are the men that 
 make the only history that is worth reading. The 
 brevity of human life makes their mission in the 
 world one of vast importance. Civilization is but 
 the aggregation of individual eftbrt and experience. 
 
 How much of human thought is buried in the 
 grave, knowing no resurrection, before it has budded, 
 blossomed, or ripened ! How many problems are 
 wrought in the recesses of modest and thoughtful 
 minds, that are never brought forth and applied to 
 human needs, but are lost to the world by the early 
 departure of the thoughtful spirit to another sphere 
 of activity ! I do not mean schemes which, by their 
 magnitude, would attract the attention of the world 
 and raise the proposer high above the common man, 
 but rather effectual remedies for the smaller ills of 
 every-day life, which are constantly making inroads 
 on our happiness. How much human, life is embit- 
 tered, and consequently shortened, by both social 
 and physical evils that ought not to be permitted to 
 exist ! 
 
The Common Man. 101 
 
 For all these, I doubt not, many a complete rem- 
 edy has been thought out, but never applied. The 
 great and practical leader is he who can call these 
 modest men to the front, and get their best thoughts 
 and reflections before the public, and put in motion 
 such waves of agitation as will stir the stagnant water 
 of society, and thus cleanse, purify, and better our 
 social and physical life. 
 
 Let not the reverence for a precedent, or the fear 
 of being denounced as an agitator, or the dread of 
 being regarded as a visionary, forever keep the com- 
 mon man in the ruts of old customs and habits. 
 Those are but shields to guard and perpetuate evils 
 that poison his life and rob him of the comfort and 
 peace of living. Why should the best thoughts of men 
 be given in a whisper under the cover and seal of conii- 
 dence? Why, in this land of free speech and free 
 press, should any sort of despotism keep silent the 
 philanthropist and the patriot ? Why is not the com- 
 moi# man emboldened to speak out, and earnestly 
 vindicate the reforms that the present disordered 
 state of things have suggested to his thoughtful mind 
 and his loving heart? The need of the hour, then, is 
 such leadership as will inspire the common man with 
 courage to assert himself, and take the position that it 
 is better to be regarded as a crank than a coward. 
 
 Rare gifts are required for the accomplishment of 
 these grand results. Such a leader must love his fel- 
 low-men, and his aifection must be so pronounced, yet 
 at the same time so free from ostentation, so unselfish 
 and self-sacrificing, that it will challenge their entire 
 confidence. He must know the common man, and 
 
102 The Common Man. 
 
 fully understand his surroundings, and place a correct 
 estimate on his capabilities. He must be persevering 
 and patient, — as Longfellow has it, " Learn to labor 
 and to wait." 
 
 Many a reform has been lost to the world, and 
 many a truth has been rejected, because it was pre- 
 sented too soon. The experience of mankind demou- 
 strates the fact that old and pernicious customs can 
 be more effectually broken np and destroyed by the 
 slow process of the siege rather than by the impet- 
 uous charge. Hnman progress has been greatly 
 hindered and retarded by the impatience of the re- 
 former. 
 
 If it be true that the only test that our civiliza- 
 tion is advancing is, that there is a constant better- 
 ment of the condition of the common man, then [ 
 assume that the position is well taken that the upper 
 class are those who, in every department of labor and 
 field of action, are accomplishing that work. They 
 stand pre-eminently ahead and above all others. 
 
 Let us now consider the common man. Let 
 us look at the great middle class of mankind. 
 Here is the grand basis upon which everything 
 rests. Here, too, we find the true gauge of the 
 intelligence, education, and religion of the age. Here 
 we find the elements of strength and power of the 
 government, and here are the sources from which 
 come justice in our laws and equity in their admin- 
 istration. Here are the great numerical forces that 
 at the ballot-box perpetuate wrong or overthrow it. 
 To this class the politician makes his most deferential 
 bow, and in his presence the statesman, with uncov- 
 
The Common Man. 103 
 
 erc'd head, ackuowledges the power of a great con- 
 serving force. Here may be found the controlling 
 power that puts on the brakes when fanaticism runs 
 the train, or fires up and adds more steam when the 
 conservative fails to make time. This great mass is 
 too heavy to be moved by the waves of j)remature 
 agitation ; and when on its own choice it is stirred, it 
 is too weighty to be quieted by weak and timid con- 
 servatism. 
 
 The common man demands fair play and equal 
 justice; and so far as he comprehends his duties as a 
 citizen and his relation to his government, he is a 
 patriot. On his intelligence and virtue depend the 
 safety of the State and the permanence of the gov- 
 ernment. The weal or woe of society rests with him. 
 The ragged and filthy battalions of ignorance and 
 vice from the gutter and the slums may make their 
 assault on law and order, may incite riot and commo- 
 tion ; but if the common man is well equipped for 
 his responsible position, the established order of 
 aifairs will not be seriously disturbed. Holding the 
 middle ground between the highest culture and the 
 densest ignorance, his position is one of the utmost 
 importance, and to qualify him to meet his require- 
 ments should be the work of the patriot and the phi- 
 lanthropist. Having an interest in the well-being of 
 society, with a strong and vigorous self-respect, there 
 is great hope of developing him. His environments 
 are all favorable and helpful. He knows that his 
 labor fills the granaries and store-houses of the world, 
 or in the line of his profession he is meeting the 
 wants and demands of his societv. On his intelli- 
 
104 The Common Man. 
 
 gence and virtue depend the peace of society, the 
 perpetuity of law aud order, aud the permanence of 
 the government. 
 
 It is a mistaken view of the philanthropist that 
 the only danger to the State and society is to be 
 found in the ignorance and vice of the lowest class ; 
 aud a constant effort is being made to elevate and 
 purify that element. The experience of the past will 
 justify the truth of the assertion that the success in 
 that direction is not commensurate with the effort. 
 
 In an advancing army, in the center of the col- 
 umn, each and every soldier must be in his proper 
 place, and hold it. If the enemy can strike a weak 
 place in the center, and break it, the capture of the 
 right and left wing will not be difficult. This great 
 middle class is the center of the column. Our hope 
 for the future rests right there. 
 
 If the upper class are those who plan wisest for 
 the betterment of the condition of humanity, and the 
 middle class are the main stay and support of all that 
 goes to make up our civilization, what, then, are the 
 difficulties that the cultivated philanthropist has to 
 contend with in eliminating the evils that effectually 
 weaken the power and the spirit of the common man ? 
 This opens too wide a field for this brief considera- 
 tion. First of all and above all, he should have a 
 sound mind in a healthy body; and he can scarcely 
 be said to have the former unless he possess the lat- 
 ter; the intricate and sympathetic relations existing 
 between the two seem to settle that question. 
 
 Why is the red rose of perfect health so seldom 
 seen on the human face, or the fire of a clear and vig- 
 
The Common Man. 105 
 
 orous intellect so seldom flashing from the eye? 
 Why are the sweet waters of human happiness so 
 often poisoned with the gall and bitterness of disease? 
 AYhy are human hopes blasted, and the energies of 
 man paralyzed by so many ills that beset him on every 
 side ? Is it not that the common man has neglected 
 the first and most important lesson in ethics — that of 
 knowing how to live? He may grasp the many 
 problems in mathematics, and may study and compre- 
 hend his constitutional rights, and have well-defined 
 views on the many platforms and creeds that are pre- 
 sented for his consideration; yet he does not know the 
 component elements of the air that he breathes or the 
 water that he drinks. He does not know how much, 
 or how often, or what he ought to eat to preserve his 
 health. The birds in the forest caroling forth the 
 evidence of perfect health, the gambols of the wild 
 deer on the prairies, and even the buzzing of count- 
 less insects all about us, teach us the humiliating 
 lesson that their active instinct gives them better san- 
 itary protection than all our boasted reason and edu- 
 cation. 
 
 The defect is not in our reason, but in our culture. 
 The upper class should, by both precept and example, 
 show the common man how to prevent disease. The 
 pulpit should rebuke the superstition that is an insult 
 to a kind and loving Father, that all our ills are the 
 wise doings of an inscrutable providence sent as the 
 chastisement of an All-Father who loves us. The 
 public schools should give in their text-books the 
 fullest information, and sanitation should be the fore- 
 most and principal study in all our schools, colleges, 
 
106 The Common Man. 
 
 and universities. There is no scarcity of knowledge 
 on the subject of hygiene, hut there has been no sys- 
 tematic or active diffusion of the same among com- 
 mon people. The overwhelming importance of the 
 subject has never been appreciated. It may be that 
 there has been a lack of presenting the subject in an 
 attractive and impressive manner. If that be so, 
 then a splendid opportunity is presented for a genu- 
 ine reformer to obviate the difficulty. Impure at- 
 mosphere, poisoned water, and indigestible food, 
 weakening the energy of the common man, and im- 
 pairing his physical force, the demand for stimu- 
 lants to repair the damage opens the door for intox- 
 icants ; and intemperance, Avith its train of vice, 
 pauperism, and crime, depletes the ranks of the 
 middle class, and assists to fill up and greatly adds 
 to the Avretchedness of the lowest class. Hope is 
 the sheet-anchor to the human soul. Disease un- 
 loosens its moorings, and the man often floats out on 
 the troubled sea of despair to be broken and wrecked 
 on its treacherous reefs. Health and hope are mu- 
 tual friends and helpers; so are disease and despair. 
 Is it not true, therefore, that when you preserve the 
 physical health of mankind you not only fortify and 
 make strong his manhood, but, at the same time, pro- 
 tect his morals? 
 
 And the same is true in regard to his intellectual 
 development. If, after the day's work is done, he 
 finds himself in his own home castle, however hum- 
 ble, with the cares of business shut out, and is tor- 
 mented with neuralgia or racked with rheumatism, 
 lie has no care to read the magazine or even to in- 
 
The Common Man. 107 
 
 vestigate the causes that produce the pains that an- 
 noy him. He courts only sleep, that the miseries of 
 his existence may be drowned in the sea of uncon- 
 sciousness. This soon becomes the fixed habit of 
 the man ; and when the disease that baffled the skill 
 of the physician has been removed by kind nature 
 herself, the man's mind has become so rusted by 
 long disuse that all craving for information beyond 
 the narrow limit of supplying his daily wants and ac- 
 cumulating property has died out, and the man ceases 
 to be any longer a useful member of society. He 
 only lives to prolong his insignificant existence, and 
 to provide for those who are so unfortunate as to be 
 dependent upon him. Caring nothing for a knowl- 
 edge of the laws that govern his physical, mental, or 
 spiritual life, he provides no library for his family, so 
 that his children grow up to manhood and woman- 
 hood only to repeat the life and bad example of the 
 parent. 
 
 It will be conceded that this state of things could 
 not be entirely corrected by improving the physical 
 health of mankind, yet it must be admitted that it 
 would go a long way in that direction. AVhile dis- 
 ease paralyzes the physical strength and endurance, 
 it is equally, and perhaps in a much greater degree, 
 the cause of mental weakness and inertia. Civiliza- 
 tion will continue to move at its present slow rate, 
 and progress with its accustomed halting step, until 
 this o-reat burden shall be lifted from humanitv. 
 
 That much has been done to lighten the load in 
 the last century can not be denied. The common man 
 of this age lives longer, and is happier, and has better 
 
108 The Common Man. 
 
 health all hi.s life, than the man of like condition a 
 hundred years ago. He is a braver soldier in time 
 of war, and a better and more intelligent citizen in 
 time of peace. Having accomplished this much, and 
 knowing from our daily cxjierience that our physical 
 organism treats disease as an intruder, and will, if 
 not crippled by our ignorance, successfully resist 
 its attack on our health and happiness, is it, then, 
 too much to assume that a higher degree of intelli- 
 gence may yet be able to present the common 
 man free from disease, perfect in health and vigor? 
 It is manifest that his Creator intended that it 
 should be so. 
 
 It may seem wdtty to the unthinking when the 
 polished skeptic asserts that '' God ought to have 
 made health contagious, and not disease." But science 
 and revelation both teach that health is from the 
 Giver of all good, and disease is the result of our 
 criminal indifference to the laws of our physical 
 beino;. It seems that it ought not to be a difficult 
 undertaking to arouse the common man to a proper 
 conception of the importance of his own health and 
 hap})iness and a correct estimate of the value and 
 significance of his own existence. That the common 
 man has no greater concern in these regards, and has 
 so imperfect a view of his own needs, powers, and 
 capabilities, would indicate that our civilization is 
 far below the line where our boasting has placed it. 
 
 Whatever of excellency our age may possess over 
 that of any past age is exactly proportioned to the 
 higher estimate the individual man of to-day may give 
 to himself, and his desire to attain to the full all the 
 
The Common Man. 109 
 
 possibilities of his mission. Is not this often all the 
 line of deniarkation between the barbarian and the 
 civilized man? The former knows nothing of him- 
 self, and cares for nothing beyond keeping himself 
 alive, while the latter, prompted by self-love, seeks 
 first of all to know himself, that he may not only 
 elevate his manhood and bring out of himself all 
 that is in him, but at the same time be a helper and 
 an elevating force to all around him. 
 
 If such sanitary measures can be devised and put 
 in practical operation as will relieve the great middle 
 class of so much physical suffering, and thus put new 
 life and strength into the body of the common man, 
 it will make the brightest page in the history of human 
 progress and development. The pulpit, the press, the 
 platform, and every other avenue communicating 
 information to the people, should be utilized to 
 arouse the public mind to the importance of this 
 most needed reform. Having relieved the common 
 man from the enervating effects of disease, and [put 
 strength into his physical powers, and driven out 
 grim despair from his heart and filled it with cheerful 
 hope, and given him a healthy and active brain, he is 
 not only ready to work, but h(! is now prepared to 
 think for himself He is now ready to investigate 
 and challenge the truth of the opinions that others 
 have made for him — dogmas that he has inherited. 
 
 Fronde said : '' In the ordinary branches of human 
 knowledge or inquiry, the judicious question of re- 
 ceived opinions has been regarded as the sign of scien- 
 tific vitality, the principle of scientific advancement, 
 the very source and root of healthy progress and 
 
110 The Common Man. 
 
 growth." This is unquestionably true. The "judicious 
 questioning" spirit in social life, in politics, and re- 
 ligion ought to be aroused. Let no old opinions or 
 practices be rejected because of their antiquity, and 
 no new ones be accepted because of their novelty. 
 Let them stand or fall after fair and impartial investi- 
 gation. Great difficulties have to be overcome to 
 accomplish this. The common man has inherited 
 opinions and habits, and he becomes associated with 
 others in like condition, and parties are formed, and 
 a name is given the organization. He glories in the 
 name, and marches proudly under its banner. Any 
 assault on his party he takes as an attack on himself. 
 For him to question the correctness of his party's 
 platform or creed seems like treason to his organiza- 
 tion and aid to the opposition. He so fears the charge 
 of being a deserter, and the persecution of those with 
 whom he has acted, that, right or wrong, he stands 
 with the organization. The reverence for inherited 
 opinions, and the despotism of party, is the strongest 
 fortress for error. The great middle class, immersed 
 in the cares of business, and often Mcaried with the 
 toils and labors of life, having less time and inclina- 
 tion for thought and reflection, find the opinion of the 
 forefathers and the ready-made platform of the party 
 a convenient substitute. Mental indolence pleads suc- 
 cessfully for their acceptance and adoption. 
 
 Who can liberate the common man? Who has 
 the tact and skill to so hold up the truth along-side of 
 the ancient creed or the party platform as to charm 
 him away from his old idols, and cause him to accept 
 the new? Are the educational forces we have now so 
 
The Common Man. Ill 
 
 well equipped that, with skillful leadership, they will 
 be sufficient for these things? Can old party lines be 
 broken, and old organizations be disbanded, and new 
 ones be formed on the high plane of solely promoting 
 the public welfare ? Can partisanship be compelled 
 to take its selfish grip from the throat of patriotism, 
 and bigotry lift its iron heel from the neck of Chris- 
 tianity? When will the roar, riot, and wrangle of 
 dogmatic disputation be silenced, that the sweet and 
 loving voice of the great Teacher may be heard, say- 
 ing, " Blessed are the merciful ; blessed are the pure 
 in heart; blessed are the peace-makers?" — so He may 
 be heard proclaiming the Golden Rule, containing the 
 whole gospel of justice, the whole gospel of mercy, 
 the whole gospel of love ? — a gospel that has lovingly 
 taken the dagger of revenge from the hand of hate, 
 and has so changed and reformed the jurisprudence 
 of all civilized lands that the cruel and pitiless "letter 
 of the law " must be construed and administered by 
 the sweet and gentle spirit of equity. 
 
 " Whatsoever ye Avould that men shoukl do unto 
 you, do ye even so unto them," has come ringing 
 down the ages, and has changed the practices and 
 purposes of the human race. But for the rigid ad- 
 herence to old dogmas — conceived, many of them, 
 in times of darkness, superstition, and persecution, 
 and coming down from generation to generation, 
 fastening themselves on men's faith as silently and 
 unconsciously as barnacles to a vessel, — but for these 
 obstructions, this elevating force would have been in- 
 comparably greater. Let the dust and debris of con- 
 flicting dogmas and speculative opinions b*» swept 
 
112 The Common Man. 
 
 away, and let the Sermon ou the Mount, with its 
 grand lessons relating entirely to human conduct, 
 stand out clearly as the guide to a nobler manhood. 
 It needs no classical scholar to interpret it. Here is 
 no discussion of doctrines, no ground for sectarian 
 wrangling. The common man can read and under- 
 stand it. It is the utterance of One who wanted man 
 to measure up to the full stature of a true manhood 
 by right living — One who was himself the very in- 
 carnation of love, mercy, justice, and truth. Pope said: 
 
 " For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 
 
 The great middle class furnishes the battle-field 
 where truth and error are constantly contending. It 
 is here where broad patriotism has to battle with nar- 
 row partisanship, where pure Christianity has its con- 
 test with dogmatic theology ; and the victories here 
 furnish the true criteria of progress, and give cast 
 and color to the civilization of the age. If it can be 
 clearly seen that the common man is shaking off the 
 shackles that have bound him, and is coming to be a 
 self-reliant thinker, then there is hope for a sure vic- 
 tory fur the truth. 
 
 Carlyle says: "Truly a thinking man is the 
 worst enemy the prince of darkness can have ; every 
 time such an one announces himself, I doubt not, there 
 runs a shudder through the nether empire, and new 
 emissaries are trained with new tactics to, if possible, 
 entrap him, and hoodwink him, and handcuff him." 
 Will not the cultivation of closer social relations 
 produce more thinkers? Is it not true that it is the 
 talks of the common man on the streets and in the 
 
The Common Man. 113 
 
 railway-car going to and from business — the swap- 
 ping of opinions at the exchange, and on the door- 
 step, and over the back-yard fence — that shake the 
 workl ? 
 
 Man's social life is the effective medium through 
 which all the other elevating forces act. Science may 
 come with some new truth by the light of which 
 u new law is revealed to guide men upward. Her 
 better implements and improved machinery lighten 
 the burden of man's life, and better supply his needs. 
 Religion stirs the divinity w^ithin him, purifies his 
 purposes, and lifts him above the material into the 
 realm of the spiritual. Giving each a fair share of 
 credit, they would accomplish much less if they were 
 not all re-enforced by the social life of man. 
 
 Guizot, the great French author and statesman, 
 earnestly assumes that France is marching at the head 
 of European civilization, and declares that she has at- 
 tained that proud position by the social life of her 
 people. Is it too much to claim that this same social 
 force has builded, as w^e all hope, a Republic good 
 and strong on the ruins of monarchy? It has ever 
 been the prime object of despotism to watch the social 
 man, to put him under surveillance, and to shadow 
 him night and day lest he might too freely speak of 
 the wrongs that had been inflicted on him, or of the 
 rights of which he had been robbed. 
 
 He will indeed be a true reformer and benefactor 
 who can devise such social schemes as will often call 
 men away from the hot pursuit of riches, or the rest- 
 less ambition to attain the w^orld's honors, and lift 
 our social life out of the gluttony and wine-drinking 
 
114 The Common Man. 
 
 that has so demoralized it, up to the higher plane of a 
 " feast of reason and a flow of soul." 
 
 It is idle to persuade a man to love his God or 
 his country, or to take an interest in the public wel- 
 fare, unless he loves his fellow-men. The reforms 
 most needed are those that will give us more health 
 and less disease ; that will liberate the human mind 
 from the bolts and bars of party and sect, and open 
 the doors for the reception of God's own truth ; that 
 will give us a higher order of social life, and more of 
 it ; that will substitute for the craving desire for 
 riches a hungering and thirsting after righteousness. 
 But just in proportion as these reforms are brought 
 forward do we, in the same degree, promote the in- 
 tellectual development of the race. 
 
 AVe sometimes sing it from our hymn-books and 
 hear it from the pulpit that this world is a vale of 
 tears and sorrow ; that this earthly life is to be en- 
 dured and not enjoyed; that we are to take our eyes 
 off the things of this world, and, with the help of 
 faith, try to see something better beyond this pro- 
 bationary state ; that salvation means escaping future 
 punishment when life's fitful dream is past. It seems 
 to me that this sort of teaching is not the best to 
 prepare us for that higher order of being. Why 
 'not teach and preach more about a present salvation ; 
 a salvation from disease ; a salvation from old hoary- 
 headed errors that have too long ruled and controlled 
 the human race ; a salvation from coveteousness and 
 avarice; a salvation from superstition, ignorance, and 
 selfishness, and, above all, a salvation from a pitiless 
 indifference to the pauperism, vice, and crime of the 
 
The Common Man. 115 
 
 lower class that are constantly with us and near us, 
 and constitute so large an element for evil in the 
 State and in society; a salvation that will recognize 
 the fact that these unfortunate ones have temporal 
 and social wants as well as spiritual needs ; a salva- 
 tion that will cause us to enter into the regeneration 
 of our next-door neighbor with at least as much en- 
 thusiasm as we take in the conversion of a heathen 
 in the burning sands of Africa or the jungles of 
 India ? 
 
 Let us now briefly consider the lowest class, com- 
 posed, it would seem very largely, of those who have 
 no aim or purpose in life — who appear unconscious 
 that man is something more than an animal — the worst 
 and lowest of them (and this is no small proportion) 
 crawling from birth to death through the cohesive 
 slime of their own vices and ignorance. Many of 
 them not only inherit this low conception of life, but 
 their environments are such that they never come in 
 close contact with anything better. Many are driven 
 into the same degraded condition by the force of 
 their own vicious habits, and take rank with the 
 worst. 
 
 If this age be, as some claim, the great epoch of 
 integration of all the great educational and reform- 
 atory forces, is it not as certainly true that ignorance 
 and vice are massing and mobilizing their wretched 
 battalions for resistance? Do we not find in our 
 cities great numbers of our lowest classes crowded 
 together in the same locality, so compactly that there 
 seems to be but little chance to break the lines and 
 establish in their midst any purifying and disiute- 
 
116 The Common Man. 
 
 grating forces? It has often been attempted; but 
 generally the brave spirits who entered the lines 
 were driven back by the pestilential surroundings. 
 This bad element holding the balance of power, it 
 has become a question of great and serious concern 
 with philanthropists and patriots as to how they may 
 make a success of municipal government so as to 
 protect rights and maintain law and order. 
 
 Having no interest in the property of the city, 
 and with but little or no conception of the duties 
 and obligations of citizenship, these lower classes be- 
 come the willing ally of the lawless, who seek to 
 place the person and property of all law-abiding citi- 
 zens under the control of the angry and unreasoning 
 mob. With the ballot in their hands, they are a 
 standing and perpetual temptation to the politician 
 to connive at their lawlessness. The statesman is 
 crowded out to make a place for the demagogue. 
 But it is not the presence of the demagogue, with 
 his foul breath and lying tongue, that needs create 
 alarm, but the ignorance and vice that make his 
 political existence a possibility. It is the domination 
 of party spirit in the middle class, superadded to the 
 purchased ballots of the lowest class, that enables the 
 brazen faces of so many of the pestilent rank to ap- 
 pear in the halls of legislation. It is this collected 
 mass of ignorance, out of reach of all good influ- 
 ences, re-enforcing itself from its own accumulating 
 wickedness, that is the standing menace to the peace 
 of society and the perpetuity of good government. 
 
 The power that holds this mass of danger and 
 evil together, and prevents either its purification or 
 
The Common Man. 117 
 
 disintegration, is the whisky-saloon. Not uufre- 
 quently, with its house of ill-repute and gambling- 
 den attachment added, it becomes the head devil in 
 tlie work of crime. Consuming the wages of those 
 who do labor, it robs them not only of the means of 
 improvement, but drunkenness comes and takes away 
 all hope or inclination for a better life, and cuts off 
 all means of escape from the infected district. The 
 upper and middle classes of men, on the border of 
 and surrounding these districts, can accomplish some- 
 thing by urging those of the lower class nearerst them 
 to turn their faces outward tow^ard the homes of 
 plenty and culture, and, with their children, often 
 come out from the atmosphere laden with profanity 
 and obscenity, and breathe the purer air of a better 
 life. No doubt many of these unfortunate ones have 
 thus been elevated and transferred to the middle 
 class. 
 
 We have taken too narrow a view of the real 
 value and benefit of the Homestead Law, giving the 
 public lands to the actual settlers without money or 
 price. In recounting its merits we have omitted the 
 most important feature of the many good results. 
 
 When we have pointed with pride to the States it 
 has added to our Union, to the new stars it has placed 
 in our national banner, and shown that it has given 
 us civilization where there was barbarism, and made 
 the wilderness and the solitary place bring forth the 
 rich and abundant harvest, we thought we had named 
 all of its substantial blessings. Nay; not so. That 
 is not a tithe of its real value. It has placed honest 
 toil in hands that would have been idle, and given 
 
118 The Common Man. 
 
 all the rewards of labor to the laborer. It has turned 
 the tide of immigrants away from our overcrowded 
 cities toward the open plains. It has made a Avay of 
 escape for the husband and Avife from the smoke, 
 the grime and crime of the densely populated places, 
 to plant their home under the clear sky, on the 
 mountain or the hill-side, or in the valley — to rear the 
 family amid the perfume of flowers and the songs 
 of birds in the forest, near where the pure water leaps 
 down the side of the mountain, or where the silent 
 and majestic river mirrors the beauties that be- 
 deck its shores. 
 
 Who but the Infinite can duly estimate the elevat- 
 ing and purifying effect of such surroundings? Let me 
 quote from Ruskin : " There is a religion in every- 
 thing around us, a calm and holy religion in the un- 
 breathing things of nature, which man would do well 
 to imitate. It is a meek and blessed influence steal- 
 ing in, as it were, unawares upon the heart. It comes 
 quietly and without excitement ; it has no terror, no 
 gloom, in its approaches ; it does not rouse up the 
 passions ; it is untrammeled by the creeds, and un- 
 shadowed by the superstitions of man ; it is fresh 
 from the hands of its Author, glowing from the im- 
 mediate presence of the Great Spirit, which pervades 
 and quickens it ; it is written on the arched sky ; it 
 looks out from every star ; it is on the sailing cloud 
 and in the invisible wind ; it is among the hills and 
 valleys of the earth, where the shrubless mountain- 
 top pierces the thin atmosphere of eternal winter, or 
 where the mighty forest fluctuates before the strong 
 wind with its dark waves of green foliage ; it is 
 
The Common Man. 119 
 
 spread out, like a legible language, upon the broad 
 face of the unsleeping ocean ; it is the poetry of 
 nature. It is this which uplifts the spirit within us 
 until it is strong enough to overlook the shadows of 
 our place of probation ; which breaks, link after 
 link, the chain that binds us to materiality ; and 
 which opens to our imagination a world of spirit- 
 ual beauty and holiness." 
 
 The common man needs not the training of the 
 college or the drill of the university that he may en- 
 joy and comprehend the teachings of nature. The 
 soul of the unlettered man leaps forth with wonder 
 and admiration at the majesty of the mountain or 
 the lake or the river, and joins joyfully in the har- 
 mony of nature's music ; for he feels that the great 
 diapason is love. It is fair to conclude that the 
 numbers of the upper and middle classes have been 
 greatly increased, and that of the lowest correspond- 
 ingly reduced, by this beneficent act of Congress. A 
 generation of stalwart men and pure women in the 
 great AVest, uncontaminated by the vices of the de- 
 praved, is the rich fruitage of that legislation. 
 
 If all this be true, then how can we find language 
 strong enough to condemn the foolishness and wick- 
 edness of Congress in giving away so many millions 
 of acres of our public domain to soulless corpora- 
 tions, thus placing the heartless and mercenary spec- 
 ulator between the poor and brave pioneer and a 
 home of his own ? Had these lands been kept for 
 the actual settler alone, as they ought to have been, a 
 great wave of pent up humanity would not have 
 swept over Oklahoma in a single day. This excit- 
 
120 The Common Man. 
 
 iug chase of thousands for a home should open the 
 eyes of senators and representatives, and the teach- 
 ings of this wonderful object-lesson ought to bring to 
 them remorse, repentance, and reform. 
 
 If, in the newer communities, the separations from 
 the vices of the city, and the sweet harmonies of na- 
 ture all about him, would tend to awaken the dor- 
 mant manhood, even of the lowest, how much more 
 might be accomplished in the older rural districts 
 and the smaller towns, with the aid of cultivated and 
 well-organized society, with the help of the school, 
 the public library, the press, and the pulpit ! Here 
 is the grand mission-field for the common man right 
 at his own door. His work is all ready for his hands 
 and his heart. He has no new language to learn; no 
 hostile climate to contend with; no long-settled and 
 unfamiliar prejudices or customs to hedge up his 
 way. Let the upper class devise the best methods, 
 and fire the soul of the common man with untiring 
 enthusiasm. Let the common man fill his own heart 
 and soul with love for his race, and countless ave- 
 nues of usefulness will open to him, and while he is 
 blessing others he will be doubly blessed himself. 
 He can not be said to have really lived who has not 
 blessed others. He has simply existed. He may 
 have had every want met. He may have had all that 
 wealth could purchase for him. He may have had 
 all the flattery that floats around those in palaces and 
 high places; but he has known nothing of the exqui- 
 site enjoyment of life, unless he has wiped a tear 
 from the face of the weeping or planted a new joy in 
 the heart of the desponding. 
 
LIFE'S GREAT CONFLICT. 
 
 HUMA^ life is a sublime and almost impenetra- 
 ble mystery. Man is a giant in the length, 
 breadth, and depth of his capabilities, powers, and 
 possibilities, and yet greatly deficient in the ability to 
 attain the highest good in this life. AVhile he in- 
 herits his physical, mental, and moral forces, and can 
 but seldom select his environments, yet, with all these 
 helps or disabilities, he is compelled, whether well or 
 ill equipped, to make the contest between good and 
 evil ; must be a factor for the weal or woe of society — 
 a blessing or a curse to his fellows. In a general 
 way, youth is bright, beautiful, careless and happy, 
 and impatient to enter the contest in life, cheered on 
 by the hope and belief of the ability to overcome all 
 obstacles, and accomplish all that any in like condi- 
 tions have done before. 
 
 The success of others is visible and real. The 
 man in middle life, who has gathered in a rich har- 
 vest of wealth and won the honors of the world, is 
 an object-lesson that the young look at with wonder 
 and admiration. What he has won is to be seen in 
 the open day. What he has lost is not to be seen or 
 known. The trophies of his triumphs are tangible 
 and visible ; but the quarter of a century of toil, of 
 
 Delivered at the Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 121 
 
122 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 plauuing and plotting, the mental and physical labors, 
 the battles with his conscience, and the humiliating 
 defeats that his moral sense has been compelled to 
 endure, are the unseen things of his career. He is 
 seen riding on the waves of the sea of life, wearing 
 the crown of the victor; but beneath that sea, in the 
 unseen depths, as in the ocean, are wreck and ruin. 
 They are not visible, and the young and inexperi- 
 enced do not even suspect their existence. The 
 green waves of the ocean, sporting on the surface, 
 cover the dangerous rocks, and tell nothing of the 
 under-currents. They make no revelation of treach- 
 erous reefs and whirlpools, nor do they reveal the 
 victims of all these hidden dangers. 
 
 So of human life. It is full of cross-currents 
 and conflicting interests. The raging of the ocean 
 in the wildest storm is calmness when compared to 
 the fierce, contending emotions and passions of human 
 life, prom])ted alone by the low and selfish motive to 
 concpier the world's wealth and honor for the glory it 
 will give the victor. 
 
 A man's contests with others are open to the 
 world. His contentions with the opposing forces of 
 nature can not be concealed. But terrible and fierce 
 as all these may be, they are but mere skirmishes. 
 The terrific battles are with himself, and they are 
 hidden from the eyes of the world. He has within a 
 keen and acute moral sense — an innate perception of 
 justice and equity. He has a perfect consciousness 
 that his highest joy comes from the guidance of this 
 monitor within. The love for his fellows re-enforces 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 123 
 
 this divine essence of the man, and they together 
 undertake to guide and control his life; but they 
 soon encounter the cross-currents of ambition and 
 avarice, supplemented with the hell-born brood of 
 envy, jealousy, and hate, and the battle is on. 
 
 You all remember Shakespeare's description of 
 the condition of mind of Brutus when conspiring 
 against the life of Caesar. He makes Brutus say : 
 
 "Between the acting of a dreadful thing 
 And the first motion, all the interim is 
 Like a phantasma or a hideous dream ; 
 The genius and the mortal instruments 
 Are there in council ; and the state of man, 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 The nature of an insurrection." 
 
 All these arise from the mere resolution to over- 
 ride conscience — only the contemplation of evil- 
 doing — producing in the soul of the great Brutus all 
 the horrors of anai'chy. The fearful and gaping 
 wounds on the body of the dead Csesar, by the dagger 
 of Brutus, so eloquently pointed at before the common 
 people by Mark Anthony, were horrible. But each 
 gash made in the body of Cfesar by Brutus made a 
 wider and deeper and more deadly one on the man- 
 hood of Brutus; and the insurrection that the murder 
 of Cffisar caused in the city of Rome was more than 
 duplicated in the souls of Brutus, Cassius, and their 
 co-conspirators. 
 
 It makes our blood run cold when we read, in 
 Shakespeare's Richard the Third, the soliloquy of 
 the wicked Richard, as he lies on the field of battle. 
 
124 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 Brutus speaks before the crime ; Richard, afterwards. 
 Both are terrible. Kiug Richard soliloquizes: 
 
 "O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! 
 The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight. 
 Cold, fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. 
 What do I fear? Myself? There 's none else by ; 
 Richard loves Richard ; that is, I am I. 
 Is there a murderer here? No, — yes; I am. 
 Then fly, — what, from myself ? Great reason. Why? 
 Lest I revenge. What? Myself on myself ? 
 I love myself. Wherefore? For any good 
 That I myself have done unto myself? 
 
 no, alas! I rather hate myself, 
 
 For hateful deeds committed bj'^ myself. 
 
 1 am a villain ! Yet I lie ; I am not. 
 
 Fool, of thyself speak well ; fool, do not flatter. 
 My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, 
 And every tongue brings in a several tale, 
 And every tale condemns me for a villain." 
 
 If the phantasma before the performing of the 
 wickedness produces such a commotion in the soul as 
 to make no less a figure than an insurrection portray 
 the condition, how much more terrible when the 
 phantasm becomes a reality, so vividly set forth by 
 King Richard's confession ! AVhile the former is the 
 W'hirlwind, the latter is the destructive cyclone of 
 recollected misdeeds. It was South who said : " No 
 honor, no fortune, can keep a man from being miser- 
 able, when an enraged conscience shall fly at him and 
 take him by the throat." 
 
 But it may be said that, while the great and 
 cultured — like Brutus and Richard, men of power 
 and influence — would thus be tormented, the com- 
 mon criminal, in the lowest condition of life, would 
 be insensible to such suffering. Charles Dickens, 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 125 
 
 who secracd to have a keener and eloser comprehen- 
 sion of the thoughts and motives of the lower classes 
 than any other writer, ancient or modern, does not 
 corroborate that theory. In the beautiful story en- 
 titled "Our Mutual Friend," Dickens has Eugene to 
 say to Mortimer Lightwood, his co-criminal: ''Invis- 
 il>Ie insects, of diabolical activities, swarm in this 
 place. I am tickled and twitched all over. Men- 
 tally, I have now committed a burglary under the 
 meanest circumstances, and the myrmidons of justice 
 are at my heels." 
 
 If the diabolical activities of the terrible swarms 
 of invisible tormentors that germinate in the blood 
 of an assaulted conscience could thus be revealed in 
 each case to the view of the bystanders, it would 
 seem that men would flee to the safe harbor of 
 their own moral sense, and seek for happiness, 
 not in greed and gain and the achievement of the 
 evanescent honors of the world, but in possessing 
 a consciousness of their own integrity, and in the 
 indescribable bliss of living in harmony with their 
 own higher manhood. 
 
 This contest is not confined to the conspirators at 
 the courts of emperors or the King Richards, or the 
 thieves and the burglars in the slums of the cities. 
 The contest comes to every rational human being, 
 high or low. It is not a contest of a day or a year, 
 but is with each and every soul from the beginning 
 to the end of life. It is the great battle of human- 
 ity, each man fighting it for himself and with him- 
 self. And the individual victories for the right, and 
 the triumphs of the innate moral sense over the 
 
126 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 strong and contending forces, furnish the criteria of 
 human advancement, and are tlie true gauge to deter- 
 mine the cast and color of our civilization. 
 
 The best education and the true religion of hu- 
 manity is that which will furnish man with the most 
 eifective weapons to combat these enemies to the 
 highest and best manhood. It gives us the science 
 of sciences — that of knowing how to live. It turns 
 our admiration and worship from the man of power 
 and position to the man of honor and honesty. It 
 elevates righteousness above riches, and makes justice 
 the crowning jewel in human life and character. It 
 is this that pushes rapidly forward the car of human 
 progress. * 
 
 Not the overpowering of monarchies that trample 
 under foot the rights of man ; not the enfranchise- 
 ment of a race from the shackles of slavery, — these 
 are not the greatest victories that give lasting hope 
 and bright assurance for the future of the race. 
 These disruptions and convulsions are the indications 
 that the individual man is coming out the victor over 
 himself; that he is rising to a fuller and broader com- 
 prehension of his dignity and worth as a man ; that 
 the manly courage that is ever standing by the side of 
 all that is true and right, is enlisting him in the army 
 of the righteous. 
 
 Law and order may prevail here, and anarchy run 
 riot there; monarchies may tumble and fall, and re- 
 publics take their places. The Nihilist, Avith his 
 demon and dynamite, may bury kings in the ruins of 
 their own palaces, and lawless Socialism may glare in 
 grim antagonism, defying the police p )wers of govern- 
 
Life's Great Conflict. Vll 
 
 ment; wars may be waged between the great powers 
 until a continent is involved in l)lood and carnage, 
 until the death-dealing shot and shell may change 
 the boundaries of empires; yet all this horrid com- 
 motion is but the surface indication of what the indi- 
 vidual man has thought and done. If he lias been 
 defeated in the fight for a noble manhood, and is cap- 
 tured by the demon of evil, surrounded with the 
 darkness of ignorance and superstition, enervated by 
 lust and intemperance, and brutalized by the assas- 
 sins of his own moral sense, then he falls an easy 
 victim to the ambitious autocrat. He can be marched 
 off with his fellows in like condition to the battle- 
 field, not knowing for what he is fighting, or why he 
 is required to die. 
 
 You can not build up and make strong the man- 
 liness of a man by merely increasing his scientific 
 knowledge. In my opinion, you develop no virtue 
 nor add anything to his courage by enabling him to 
 gras}) the mysterious problems in mathematics or in 
 having him acquire the hidden mysteries of human 
 language. These alone will make him a scholar; but 
 they will not make him a man. The very essence of 
 his life is his moral sense, — his love of right for its 
 own sake. It is this that causes him to do and dare 
 and die for the truth. It is this that gives to hu- 
 manity the majesty of divinity, and lends to human 
 action the charm of angelic beauty. It is the very 
 light of God himself, burning in the soul, dark with 
 ignorance and surrounded with the fogs of supersti- 
 tion. He has given the liglit to none other of his 
 creatures. It reveals to man his connection with the 
 
128 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 source of all life and all love. It leads him up to the 
 high plaius of justice, aud bids him walk in the flow- 
 cry fields of mercy and charity. It guides his foot- 
 steps from the paths of shame and remorse, and fills 
 his soul with the sweet consciousness of being in com- 
 plete harmony with himself. It enables him to see 
 the vulgarity of vice, and causes him to shrink back 
 from crime with horror. 
 
 That he has been thus touched by the finger of 
 the Infinite, and made an heir of immortality, magni- 
 fies and ennobles his being, — because right and jus- 
 tice and love are immortal, and to have an innate 
 perception to know them at once without the aid of 
 education or the slow process of human reasoning, 
 is to make man himself immortal. 
 
 In Leckey's '' History of Morals " the great 
 author, in discussing our moral sense, says : " While 
 each of our senses or appetites has a restricted sjihere 
 of operation, it is the function of conscience to survey 
 the whole constitution of our being, and assign limits 
 to the gratification of all our various passions and 
 desires. . Differing, not in degree, but in kind, from 
 the other princi])lcs of nature, we feel that a course 
 'jf conduct which is opposed to it may be intelligibly 
 described as unnatural, even when in accordance with 
 our most natural appetites; for to our conscience is 
 assigned the prerogative of judging and restraining 
 them all. Its power may be insignificant, but its 
 title is undisputed; and 'if it had the might as it has 
 the right, it would govern the world.' It is this fac- 
 ulty, distinct from and superior to all appetites, pas- 
 sions, and tastes, that makes virtue the supreme law 
 
LiFE'^ Great Conflict. 129 
 
 of life, and adds imperative character to the feeling 
 of attraction it inspires. It is this which is described 
 by Cicero as the god ruling in them, by the Stoics 
 as the sovereignty of reason, by St. Paul as the 
 law of nature, by Butler as the supremacy of con- 
 science." 
 
 I said in the beginning that the constitution of 
 Aian and the course of human action is a great mys- 
 tery. Now herein is the mystery. This light that 
 God has given man to cause him to know his relation 
 to the infinite and eternal, and have him comprehend 
 the dignity of his own existence, in the perversity of 
 his nature he often refuses to follow. He allows him- 
 self to be led away by the illusory lights of avarice 
 or ambition, and when his conscience rebukes him, 
 he attempts to assassinate this his best friend; and 
 then the great conflict begins, and the strife is 
 whether good or evil shall take the possession and 
 control of his life. 
 
 And this comes to every rational human being. 
 None escape. Some win such a victory in the onset, 
 and, with a determined spirit, camp on the ground, 
 and sleep Avith their armor on so constantly that the 
 evil is kept at bay. But evil is vigilant, and, waiting 
 for the distracting hours of adversity or the ener- 
 vating effects of old age, will renew the attack. In 
 the aggregate of the successes and failures, the vic- 
 tories and the defeats, we fix the level of public mor- 
 als, and determine the degree of progress we are 
 making toward the seemingly far-off yet longed-for 
 period called the millennium. 
 
 But it is not my purpose, on this occasion, to at- 
 
130 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 tempt to prophesy or philosophize. I have but little 
 confidence in my ability to do either; but I hope 1 
 may be able to be practical. 
 
 Let me say, then, that conscience holds the key 
 to human happiness. I do not think that an excep- 
 tion can be found where any human being has over- 
 ridden all moral perceptions, no matter what else he 
 may have attained in wealth or fame or what may be 
 called the world's pleasures, but that the life is a 
 wretched failure. If a man have all that heart could 
 wish, have every want met and every passion and ap- 
 petite gratified, and have his conscience against him, 
 he is a wreck and a ruin. It must be so from the 
 very constitution and organization of the soul of man. 
 It is so, because the history of the race in all ages, 
 and the experience of man everywhere, corroborates 
 its truth. Yet, with all the vast accumulation of ex- 
 perience from civilized as well as uncivilized hu- 
 manity, the demons of evil are permitted, as one 
 generation passes away, to fasten themselves on the 
 next, and are too often enabled to exhibit new phases 
 of human depravity exceeding in evil aspects any 
 that have preceded it. 
 
 That there is a constant and rapid increase of 
 scientific knowledge, and a general diffusion of the 
 same among the common people, will be conceded. 
 We watch with eagerness to see if there be in all 
 this any re-enforcing power to man's conception of 
 and love for the right. Does it aid him to mak^ his 
 conscience the dominating force of his life, and help 
 him to combat evil? Is the race growing better or 
 worse? Who can intelligently and truthfully answer 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 131 
 
 the question ? The wrecker places his false and de- 
 ceptive lights on the shore, and the commander of 
 the passing vessel, forgetting where the true light is 
 and neglecting his chart and compass, is led by the 
 delusion to be wrecked on the rocks beneath the 
 surface. 
 
 While it is claimed that the acquirement of more 
 knowledge builds up and makes stronger the self-re- 
 spect of the individual man, and thus helps in the 
 right directiou, yet it is insisted that that is more 
 than lost by the increase in number, and the deceptive 
 character of the false lights that are the attendants 
 of this progress. This is the view of the pessimist, 
 and may not be well founded. It is possible if the 
 self-love be increased, and a broader conception of 
 the significance of human existence be imparted, his in- 
 clination to seek the highest good may be strengthened. 
 
 But Plato and Montague and other great phi- 
 losophers have held that the true and only philosophy 
 of life are constancy, faith, and sincerity. What are 
 these false lights on the shores of human destiny 
 that cause man to forsake the true and divine light 
 within him, and wreck his happiness in followiug 
 these delusions ? As you look out on the vast field 
 (if human activities and ambitions in this restless age, 
 they seem to be innumerable, and some of them (to 
 the majority of humanity) almost irresistible. 
 
 One of these, and perhaps the most dangerous, is 
 the desire for riches. Man's moral sense has no more 
 deadly foe than this strange and overpowering pas- 
 sion of the human heart — a passion that can give no 
 good and sufficient reason for existence. It brings 
 
132 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 its victim dowu to the low plane of living for the 
 gratification of a single purpose — that of seeing how 
 much wealth he can gather up in a life-time. The 
 man is brutalized in the very start by basely sur- 
 rendering himself to such a controlling motive. 
 This is in no respect akin to a wise and provident 
 disposition to prepare for old age or the days when 
 affliction may come, but is a groveling avarice for a 
 great fortune. He closes his eyes to all human suffer- 
 ing, and his ears to the calls for pity, and rushes on, 
 leaving the starving to starve and the dying to die. 
 The flame of covetousness in his heart consumes or 
 sears over all the tender and sensitive chords, so that 
 his heart is hardened and his soul is withered, and 
 all capacity for real happiness is wasted and de- 
 stroyed. His insatiate desire for more wealth is 
 never satisfied, and the man, surrounded with his 
 gold and his stocks and his farms, is poor and miser- 
 able and wretched. 
 
 The remorse and shame of having denied all de- 
 mands on his benevolence, of having turned a deaf 
 ear to the cry for help from the jjoor ami the unfortu- 
 nate, and the fearful consciousness of having cheated 
 and swindled those who confided in him, and de- 
 ceived and lied times without number to compass 
 his mercenary ends, destroys such a man's peace. He 
 is compelled to plead guilty to all these and many other 
 kindred accusations that his conscience constantly 
 brings to his recollection. For consolation he foots 
 up his gains. They amount to hundreds of thou- 
 sands. He could enjoy his financial success, but his 
 outraged moral sense compels him to add up his 
 
LiF'E's Great Conflict. 133 
 
 losses. Ill the twenty-five years' contest he has lost 
 the integrity and purity of his young manhood; he 
 has lost all confidence in himself and his fellow-men; 
 he has lost all his social relations and social culture ; 
 he has lost his love for right, for truth, for his 
 fellow-men, and for his God. He has exchanged a 
 })ure young man with a happy heart and manly pur- 
 poses for a rich and wretched old villain. He has 
 lost all the sweets of his home-life ; for the hot, mad 
 passion for wealth has swept through the home like 
 the deadly simoom, drying up and consuming all his 
 love for his wife and children, and withering all 
 their regard for him. He wakes up to the sickening 
 fact that he has lost himself. If it were possible, he 
 would gladly exchange all his gains for even a small 
 per cent of his losses. 
 
 As I said in tiie beginning, his great gains are 
 visible, but his greater losses are only known to himself 
 and his God. It is true the lines of discontent and 
 defeat may be seen in his face ; his weary and hope- 
 less expression and the vacant and yet restless look 
 may not escape the observation of the discerning; 
 but the world generally sees nothing of all this, and 
 especially the young and inexperienced do not even 
 suspect his misery. They behold only his fortune, 
 and note the adoration that the world gives to his 
 wealth. By common consent in this mercenary age, 
 his wealth elevates him to a hig-her level than that 
 of the poorer class around him, and men gaze upon 
 him and glorify his success. But he is a false light 
 and a failure, and the same hard lot will come to all 
 who follow his footsteps. 
 
134 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 You will not uiulerstantl me to say that this is 
 the sad fate of all who become rich. Riches are 
 often inherited, and not unfrequently acquired by 
 the far-seeing, in complete accord with moral convic- 
 tion and without any conflict with conscience. But 
 I do declare that it is my firm and sincere belief 
 that when the mercenary spirit has the supreme con- 
 trol of human life, if every other motive is mad-e 
 subordinate and subsidiary to the acquisition of 
 money, for the love of wealth itself, such a man can 
 not be an honest man. He will be constantly at war 
 with his outraged moral sense. 
 
 We all remember the story we read in our child- 
 hood of the great magnetic mountain by the sea. If 
 a ship was so unfortunate as to land at the base of 
 this mountain, the magnetic forces within drew out 
 all the iron bolts and steel fastenings of the vessel, 
 so that it at once became a more complete wreck 
 than if it had been driven against the rocks by the 
 angry waves. So this inordinate love for money will 
 destroy all the bolts of conscience, and remove all 
 the restraints of justice, and certain moral wreck and 
 ruin will be the inevitable result. 
 
 Let us take another object-lesson from the 
 political arena. Let us note that selfish ambition is 
 as formidable an enemy to the guidance of our moral 
 sense as avarice. The well-endowed young man 
 -with a clear head and an honest heart, charmed by 
 the glamour of political life, enters the field of 
 politics. For a quarter of a century let us follow 
 him in the swim and current, until he reaches the 
 broad ocean of national fame. He has never met 
 
Life's Great Conflict. loo 
 
 with political defeat. Step by step he has ascended the 
 ladder of political preferment, and, as the world sees 
 it, he has made a grand and brilliant success. With 
 his riper experience with men and affairs, and his 
 higher elevation, has come greatly increased power, 
 until he is the acknowledged leader and idol of his 
 party. His partisan adherents follow him with their 
 cheers and adulation, and are ready to do his bidding ; 
 and the partisan press laud his wisdom, declaring 
 him to be a statesman without a peer, and prophesy 
 greater honors for the hero in the near future. To 
 the multitude he is an uncrowned king among men. 
 
 All of this is open to the world, and the young 
 man, as he looks on, regards him as having reached 
 the very acme of human glory and happiness. To 
 the looker-on these are great and substantial gains, 
 and men envy his good fortune. But let us take a 
 careful and honest inventory of his losses. Early in 
 his career he discovers that he has the rare gift of 
 controlling the thoughts and actions of men, that he 
 is endowed with that magnetic power that consti- 
 tutes a man a born leader of his fellows. It is a 
 revelation that adds more stimulus to his ambition 
 and strengthens and confirms his hopes of greater 
 conquests in the future in the domain of political 
 achievement. 
 
 His conscience reminds him that this great gift 
 is God-given, and that he must use it to put down 
 the wrong and establish the right ; that he must assail 
 existing evils; must consecrate his great power to 
 the elevation and betterment of the condition of his 
 fellow-men ; must lift men out of the gutter of igno- 
 
136 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 rauce and beastliness, and assist them to stand erect 
 in their manhood, free from vicious habits and evil 
 practices. But he soon discovers that vice is aggress- 
 ive and combative, and will resent and resist his at- 
 tempts at reform. The vicious have votes as Nvell as 
 the virtuous. His conscience bids him speak and 
 act. His ambition and caution tell him to be silent 
 and neutral. 
 
 And now the contest comes to him, and he is soon 
 found following the lead of his ambition, and con- 
 science has lost the command of his soul. The world 
 holds him a hero, while he knows himself to be a 
 skulking coward. And when his party, anxious for 
 party triumph, takes an equivocal position that, like 
 the oracles of Delphi, may mean whatever the con- 
 struction of human ingenuity may give it, he, with 
 his eloquence and powers of persuasion, declares to 
 one it means one thing, and to another the opposite; 
 and soon he has to write not only coward, but hypo- 
 crite and liar, opposite the name that the world 
 honors. 
 
 Having broken down the restraints of his moral 
 sense, he is now ready for anything to accomplish 
 his ambitious aims ; and when the ghouls of bribery 
 and corruption, that too often have their haunts near 
 official position, come to him, he falls an easy victim ; 
 and now he has to write villain and thief opposite 
 his name. While he receives the plaudits of his de- 
 ceived constituency with a smile, and assumes the 
 garb of innocence, his guilty soul makes his life 
 wretched. 
 
 I ought, perhaps, to say that while our American 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 137 
 
 politics as at present conducted is corrupting in all 
 directions, yet I do not mean that the case I have 
 put represents all who are successful. Honest men 
 often win the highest honors in politics, yet maintain 
 their integrity. 
 
 If the victim of such ruin could have remaining 
 sufficient strength, ability, and courage to give to 
 the world in detail, from first to last, the fearful con- 
 test with himself, the anguish of his soul as he felt 
 the coils of evil closing tighter and tighter about him, 
 and his moral power of resistance growing weaker 
 and weaker as he peered into the future, and it 
 promised nothing but shame for his wages and re- 
 morse as a compensation for all his work, the tragical 
 volume would be a fearful yet beneficial revelation 
 to humanity. 
 
 All fictions and tragedies are useless as teachers, 
 except so far as they truly represent what we con- 
 ceive to be the realities of life. But here is this 
 great tragedy of a human life, faithfully setting forth 
 its trials and temptations, its victories and defeats, 
 its pitiful cries for help when overcome by evil. 
 Humanity would know but too well that here 
 is no fiction, but the record of real life that in some 
 degree has come to each and all, day by day. 
 
 It is not the record of the victories over evil, 
 but rather the full knowledge of the dreadful defeats, 
 that is needed to prepare us for the great conflict, — 
 the whole truth of the agonies of a life that has be- 
 come a moral wreck. But this can not be. For at 
 the end of such a life, neither the courage nor the 
 inclination remains to o-ive the evidence of its own 
 
138 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 misdeeds. But witli tlu" li«;lit we already have, \vc 
 ought to aecomplish more and greater victories. 
 
 Wiiat humanity needs is more strength to resist 
 rather than more information of the power of the 
 enemy. To each soul comes every hour the sweet 
 and indescribable joy when we do overcome evil. 
 We need not the dying confession of the victim of 
 evil to tell us of the certain pain and penalty that 
 comes swiftly and surely when we do what conscience 
 forbids. 
 
 And then we see constantly the long train of 
 wretchedness, the malevolence and the misery, the 
 pauperism and the prisons, following the false lights 
 that mislead mankind. We have the light within 
 and the warnings without, yet all stumble, and many 
 fall and surrender to the complete domination of 
 evil. None are exempt. The restless spirits of 
 malice and malevolence, avarice and ambition, jeal- 
 ousy, envy, and falsehood, seek out and find him in 
 the populous city, and out on the border-line of 
 pioneer life ; find him in the office or on the judicial 
 bench ; find him in the pulpit, and lead him away 
 from the right and from his God. 
 
 The Israelitlsh bondmen in Egypt could sprinkle 
 the protecting blood on the door-posts to guard 
 against the expected destroying angel, and have hira 
 pass them by; but what can keep the moral sense of 
 humanity, the first-born of God's love for the race, 
 from the assaults of these demons of evil, whose com- 
 ing is not announced, but who are ever present, wait- 
 ing the favoring time to make the most effective at- 
 tack? Nothing but an ever-abounding faith in God, 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 139 
 
 and a constant and increasing love for tlio right, as 
 his best gift to humanity, will shield us in the 
 conflict. 
 
 Let not the expectation of future rcNvards, or the 
 slavish fear of punishment in the life beyond, be 
 made the incentive to nurture and develop this love 
 for the right. Such motives are unworthy a high 
 purpose. We must love the right for its own divine 
 excellence ; because it brings us near the source of 
 all justice; because it establishes our kinship with 
 Him who created love and established righteousness ; 
 because it is the bond of union between man and 
 his Maker. 
 
 This inborn ability to accurately detect the moral 
 quality of human action was the wonder and amaze- 
 ment of the ancient philosophers. Long before the 
 Bible or Christ came to man, they recognized this 
 wonderful endowment of humanity, and, without the 
 aid of divine revelation, pronounced it the work of 
 infinite wisdom. In their analysis of the constitu- 
 tion of the mind of man, they saw even then, with 
 ignorance and idolatry everywhere prevailing, that 
 conscience was created to be the anointed ruler of 
 man's conduct and the arbiter of human action. In 
 the absence of revelation, they made this mysterious 
 power in man the basis of their belief that there 
 must be a God of infinite intelligence and infinite 
 love. 
 
 When Paul stood on Mars' Hill, and spoke to the 
 Athenians, he said : " Ye men of Athens, I perceive 
 that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I 
 passed by, and beheld your devotion, I found an altar 
 
140 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 with this inscription : TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. 
 Whom thereiore ye ignorantly worship, him declare 
 I unto you." Was it this divine attribute in man, 
 towering in its more than kingly majesty above all 
 the learning of all the Greek philosophers — above the 
 wisdom of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle — that caused 
 the worshiping Greek to make this inscription on the 
 altar of his devotion ? 
 
 Grote says : '' The mythical world of the Greeks 
 opens with the gods anterior as well as superior to 
 man; it gradually descends, first to heroes, and next 
 to the human race." And another writer says: "It 
 is rivaled only by that of the Indians in its multi- 
 farious wealth, and by none in the beauty of its 
 form." They had the fauns of the fields, the nymphs 
 in the mountains and the fountains, the dryads in the 
 forests, and Muses and Graces for beauty and poetry. 
 
 But among the long lists of gods in the Hellenic 
 mythology, in all the ingenuity and beauty that may 
 be found in the writings of Grecian philosophy and 
 mythology, none could be found worthy to represent 
 conscie-nce. Hence, by this divine light within, this 
 adoration of right and justice, they searched in the 
 darkness to discover the author, and failing to find 
 him, may we not assume that this prompted the 
 Athenians, in their love and gratitude for this great 
 gift to man, to erect the altar to the UNKNOWN 
 DEITY? 
 
 When the light of Revelation came, they saw 
 then whom, as the apostle said, they ignorantly wor- 
 shiped. And when they came to know that He cre- 
 ated all things, and to understand that the material 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 141 
 
 universe is govorucd by his law, aud as they saw 
 more aud more of the evidence of his infinite wisdom 
 and boundless love in all the provisions for man in 
 the material aud moral world, then the fogs of myth- 
 ical lore that had invested the control of field aud 
 forest, winds and waves, sea and season, in the care (jf 
 the gods and goddesses of mythology, were lifted, and 
 they beheld one Supreme Ruler aud Creator, of in- 
 finite wisdom, matchless glory, aud boundless love. 
 They knew from whom came the moral power in 
 man to intuitively know justice aud equity aud right- 
 eousness. 
 
 They then learned that his infinite love had 
 stamped his own divine image on each human soul, 
 that man might have the high capacity to love God su- 
 premely and his neighbor as himself, and that he 
 m'ight do unto others as he would have them do unto 
 him. Yea, more aud better still, they read the blessed 
 story that he had sent one Man to abide with him in 
 this world of evil, to be tempted as he was tempted ; 
 One with like human passions — sent him to help mau 
 in his great contest with evil — One who was the very 
 incarnation of lo,ve aud loveliness, patience aud 
 purity ; One who gave man the only plan by whicli 
 he might make a successful battle, aud gain th 
 victory in his life-campaign against the demous of 
 evil. Not by precept only, but by the more im- 
 pressive force of example, he gave to man, by his 
 own pure life, the encouraging possibility of triumph. 
 
 None but He who knowcth all things can prop- 
 erly estimate the re-enforcing power of his divine 
 lessons and peerless example ; none else can tell what 
 
142 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 would have bceu the conditiou of humanity had not 
 tliis Great Helper been sent. 
 
 AYhile the great contest is the individual conflict 
 of every rational soul, yet, in well-organized society, 
 individuals may be massed for collective warfare, 
 oflPen.sive and defensive. But the battalions must be 
 well drilled and strong in numbers, or they will not 
 stand firm before the forces of evil. The individual 
 moral integrity of each soldier in the ranks deter- 
 mines the status at last. And the aggregation of the 
 individuals of moral worth and excellence determines 
 the strength of the foundation upon which the civil 
 and social framework of society rests. It is this that 
 gives the tone and character to our legislation, and the 
 force that brings the violators of law to answer for 
 their misdeeds. 
 
 Properly speaking, there can be no such thing as 
 a corrupt public sentiment or social disorder. When 
 these misnamed conditions exist, it is because the 
 great majority of individuals have fallen into evil 
 practices and abandoned their moral convictions. 
 Therefore, while the individual man is intensely in- 
 terested in his own triumph, his victory is a matter of 
 deep concern to all about him ; for the great ques- 
 tion constantly arising in the mind of the patriot 
 and the philanthropist is, Are the moral heroes suffi- 
 cient in numbers to uphold the pillars of good gov- 
 ernment, to maintain law and order, so that all may 
 be protected in their property, person, and char- 
 acter? So there is, to some extent, a collective as well 
 as individual conflict — "For no man liveth to 
 himself." 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 143 
 
 That the individual poAver is so weak, and even 
 the united masses of humanity so kicking in force, 
 when so much is to be gained by victory and when 
 all is to be lost by defeat, has been the wonder and 
 the perplexity of the ages. Emerson says : " The 
 philosophy of six thousand years has not searched 
 the chambers and magazines of the soul. In its ex- 
 periments there has always been a residuum it could 
 not resolve." 
 
 The patriot, the philanthropist, and the Christian 
 have studied the condition of man and his capabil- 
 ities and surroundings, and have earnestly sought for 
 more help to aid him in the contest, and have most 
 profoundly considered whether the ethical knowledge 
 they possess, and the good influences and forces they 
 can command, are being the most wisely applied. 
 
 It has been a conceded fact for a long time that 
 mankind inherit physical diseases. We are just be- 
 ginning to learn that man's moral disorders may also be 
 transmitted. Intemperance and debauchery may taint 
 and corrupt the blood, so that the virus may flow on, 
 doing its deadly work for many generations. So may 
 selfishness, malice, and avarice poison and pollute the 
 moral sense, tliat, by the same law of heredity, the 
 conscience may come to the work of life diseased and 
 disabled. 
 
 For those with inherited weak physical constitu- 
 tions, with feeble muscles and shattered nerves, we 
 have the sincerest pity, and treat them with abundance 
 of patience. AVe commiserate the unfortunates who 
 are born with consumption and scrofula as a part of 
 their inheritance, and to them we minister in mercy. 
 
144 Life's Great Conflict. 
 
 But for the conscience that has but little muscle or 
 nerve — for the nior^l sense that has inherited the 
 disease of hata, hypocrisy, or selfisliness — we make 
 but little or no allowance. We do not pity, but pun- 
 ish. Might not different treatment produce better 
 results? Might not the application of more mercy 
 and greater charity resolve a portion of the residuum 
 that Emerson speaks of? Do the philosophic re- 
 formers apprehend, with all its force, that self-respect 
 and self-love are the potent forces in the individual 
 to enable him to make a good fight? Is the great 
 reserve force sufficiently recognized? Do we not 
 cripple and destroy it by our lack of charity? Are 
 we not, in all cases, more ready to condemn than to 
 encourage? 
 
 AVhen the soldier falls on the field of battle, his 
 comrade by his side stoops tenderly over him, and 
 gives him the last drop of water from his canteen, 
 and gently, at the risk of his life, bears him off the 
 field to a place of safety, and calls the surgeon and 
 physician to minister to his wounds. Were he, when 
 his comrade fell, to rebuke him for being wounded, 
 and leave him to be trampled to death by the con- 
 tending forces, all true soldiers would denounce him 
 as a heartless wretch. Even on the field of battle 
 many escape, and come out of the bloody contest un- 
 hurt. But in life's great contest with evil all are 
 wounded. None escape. We all bear the scars the 
 enemy has given us; we all have to confess to defeat; 
 we all have known the humiliation of surrender; we 
 have all been captured. 
 
Life's Great Conflict. 145 
 
 Dr. Holland, in that wonderful book called "Bit- 
 ter Sweet," say.s : 
 
 " We have seen evil in his countless forms 
 In those poor lives; have met his armed hosts 
 In dread encounter and discomfiture ; 
 And languished in captivity to them, 
 Until we lost our courage and our faith." 
 
 As all suffer in this contest, the tie that binds us 
 to our fellow-men ought to be more tender and yet 
 stronger than that of the soldier on the field of car- 
 nage. Might we not learn a good lesson from the 
 chivalric conduct of the brave and true soldier? 
 Would it not help us all to make a better fight if, in- 
 stead of exposing the gaping wounds evil has made 
 on all about us, we would cover up with love and 
 patience their defeats, and pour in the healing stream 
 of sympathy, and give them such support, so that they 
 might not be compelled to strike their colors and be 
 marched off cajjtives, to follow for all time the black 
 flag of the demons of evil ? 
 
 " What might be done, if men were true — 
 What glorious deeds, my suffering brother — 
 Would they unite 
 In love and right, 
 And cease their scorn of one another!" 
 10 
 
WIS 
 
 OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 N a man is alive, according to biology, it 
 
 ^ is~^vhen he is in correspondence with his envi 
 ronment. Herbert Spencer says : " Life is the defi- 
 nite combination of heterogeneous changes, both 
 simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with 
 co-existences and sequences; or, more shortly, the 
 continuous adjustment of internal relations and exter- 
 nal relations." If all this be true, and it becomes 
 generally known, it is feared the list of suicides will 
 be greatly increased. If it takes all this simply to 
 live, no lazy man will be willing to exist. I very 
 much doubt if the cultivated biologist gets any more 
 comfort out of his existence than w^e do out of ours. 
 
 Herbert Spencer also tells us what our social life is. 
 He says : " The behavior of the social unit as exposed 
 to environing conditions, organic, inorganic, and su- 
 perorganic, depends on certain additional traits." 
 
 Social life as well as physical life requires corre- 
 spondence with environment. In the former, it is 
 our neighbors; in the latter, it is the atmosphere. 
 No matter what the constituent elements of the atmos- 
 phere are, we have to breathe it anyway. It does not 
 help the matter to him who breathes to put it in the 
 form of an equation, viz.: nitrogen 77j-|-oxygen 21-|- 
 
 Delivered before the Chautauquan Assembly at Crete, 
 Nebraska. 
 146 
 
Our Neighbors. 147 
 
 aqueous vapor l-nro'+carbouic acid yfo"=^atmosphere. 
 He breathes it just as freely and gets just as much 
 out of it without the equation as with it. To him 
 the whole question is one of wind; and so it seems 
 to me is the polysyllabic verbiage of the modern sci- 
 entists in regard to our social relations — too much 
 wind. 
 
 Henry Drummond, Fellow of the Royal Society, 
 has recently written a book in the biological style, 
 and has called it, "Natural Law in the Spiritual 
 World." In his chapter on Environment he says that 
 nothing in this age is more needed "than the rejuve- 
 nescence of the commonplace." When we saw Her- 
 bert Spencer, Huxley, Darwin, and others, sailing 
 around in the upper currents of the circumambient 
 atmosphere astride of the biggest words of our lan- 
 guage, we did not know, nor could we conceive, w^hat 
 they were doing. We know now. They are trying 
 to meet this pressing need of the age — they are 
 rejuvenating the commonplace. How did they dis- 
 cover that the commonplace was growing old? We 
 thought it was looking as young and fresh as usual. 
 And then we are tormented with a host of doubts as 
 to whether these modern scientists are the proper 
 physicians for the treatment of the case, even if old 
 age be conceded. 
 
 The great Huxley says: "I do not suppose that 
 the dead soul of Peter Bell, of whom the great poet 
 of nature wrote — 
 
 ' A primrose by the river's brim 
 
 A yellow primrose was to him, 
 
 And it was nothincr more' — 
 
148 Our Neighbors. 
 
 would have been a whit roused from its apathy by 
 the iuforui-itiou that the jirimrose is a dicotyh'donous 
 exogen, with a monopetalous corolla and ceutral j)la- 
 centation." 
 
 If these scientific vandals would make an assault 
 like this on an inoffensive and lovely primrose, crush- 
 ing its sweet life, and burying it beneath the weight 
 of the unpronounceable words of our inexhaustible 
 language, what mercy could we hope for, who have 
 no such charms or innocence to protect us? 
 
 If it be necessary to rejuvenate the commonplace, 
 in the name of common sense let it be done in such a 
 way that we will recognize it when it is done. The 
 strange and unaccountable thing to me is, that the 
 politicians and platform-makers have not found out 
 that there was something wrong with the common- 
 place, and tried to meet this great public want. They 
 are active in reforming everything (but themselves) ; 
 and as the old issues in politics have become thread- 
 bare, and are out at the elbows, I can but wonder 
 that some party has not "pointed with pride" to its 
 political banner unfolded to welcoming breezes, on 
 which is boldly inscribed: 
 
 "Whereas, the opposition party has so misman- 
 aged affairs that the commonplace has become prema- 
 turely old ; therefore, 
 
 ^'Resolved, That we, animated with the loftiest pa- 
 triotism and the broadest philanthropy, do declare 
 and publish that a fundamental principle of our time- 
 honored organization is a rejuvenescence of the com- 
 monplace." 
 
 If you take a small boy, and put on him his 
 
Our Neighbors. 149 
 
 fatlier's No. 8 stove-pipe hat, his No. 12 boots, and 
 an nlster that has gotten beyond any power to num- 
 ber, you have not increased the size of the boy. You 
 may even smother him. You have placed his internal 
 relations in such a condition that there can be no ad- 
 justment with his external relations, so that he can 
 liave no sort of correspondence with his environment. 
 Neither can you make a philosopher by having him 
 clothe the common ideas of every-day life in the large 
 and unused words of the language. Yet men are 
 doing this very thing, and we come to think they are 
 something more than mortal because we can not com- 
 prehend their verbiage. But they are only mortal 
 after all. They go to protest in bank, quarrel with 
 the gas company, and lose the buttons off their shirts 
 like the rest of us. 
 
 We may think we own but little personal prop- 
 erty until we have to move out of one house and into 
 another; and then we find that we have such a surplus 
 that we declare a dividend with the drayman and all 
 the bystanders who will kindly take something off our 
 hands. When the scientists undertook the rejuve- 
 nescence of the commonplace, although we knew our 
 dictionary was large, still we had no just conception 
 of the wealth of our language. It was like a move. 
 They went into the closets, into the attic, into the 
 cellar of our unabridged, and found words we did not 
 know we owned — or if we did once know, we had for- 
 gotten — and had such a surplus on hand that they were 
 able to say of the very simplest commonplace act in 
 life "that it is the transformation of an indefinite, in- 
 coherent homogeneity into definite, coherent hetero- 
 
150 Our Neighbors. 
 
 geneity, which goes on everywhere until it brings 
 about a reverse transforniatiun." All this happens 
 when you black your boots, have your picture taken, 
 put something into the contribution-box on Sunday, 
 or kiss your wife. 
 
 In order to make a complete rejuvenescence of the 
 commonplace, the biologist is obliged to divide things 
 into the absolute and the relative. It often happens 
 to be a little difficult to follow him — to see where the 
 absolute ends and the relative begins. But two of 
 the brightest of this school, the most advanced think- 
 ers, have made a rule which is so clear that, if followed 
 to the letter, it is easy. The rule, they say, is this : 
 " The absolute is conceived by a negation of conceiv- 
 ability." Having gotten this firm grip on the abso- 
 lute, it is easy enough to separate it from the relative, 
 and you may be expected to get on reasonably well. 
 
 The importance of this subject to a clear under- 
 standing of my lecture is manifest. We must know 
 the reality of our own existence; we must be abso- 
 lutely conscious of our own identity. We now know, 
 of course, by a negation of conceivability, ourselves 
 from our neighbors. If we were so far in doubt that 
 we could not tell ourselves from the neighbors, it seems 
 to me it would seriously embarrass our social life. 
 
 Do not for a moment suppose that in my biolog- 
 ical researches I have abandoned my neighbors. You 
 know the latest style of the lecture platform is the 
 prelude. The old style is to take a subject and stick 
 to it from Alpha to Omega. I think a ^conservative 
 position is about the right thing. In the new style it 
 is not required that the prelude should be a near 
 
Our Neighbors. 151 
 
 relation, a distant relation, or even a poor relation to 
 the lecture. Anything could be used as an appetizer. 
 It is thought that this mode was suggested, or rather 
 the idea was conceived, by the usual conduct of an or- 
 chestra. They detain us for a long time with a great 
 variety of sounds of sawing and scraping before they 
 launch out in unison in the grand swell. 
 
 Great latitude has been taken by those who pur- 
 sue this new mode. The lecturer announces that his 
 subject will be the tender and delicate relation of hus- 
 band and wife, and then preludes on "a tariff for 
 revenue only." He is to lecture on the subject of 
 finance, and then preludes on the average depths of 
 the Mediterranean Sea. He lectures on any theme 
 for one hundred and fifty dollars per night and local 
 expenses, and in his prelude he delivers an able and 
 exhaustive affirmative reply to the question. Is pov- 
 erty a crime ? 
 
 I think my mode the best. The prelude should 
 take a good neighborly interest in the lecture so that 
 it can join hands with it at any time, and go right 
 along with such unity of spirit and such a strong re- 
 semblance that they would be taken for brothers, — 
 twins, to make a strong case of it. 
 
 Having established the fact that we are not our 
 neighbors and our neighbors are somebody else than 
 ourselves ; that they are the environment that we 
 must correspond with in order to social life, — let us 
 consider the character and advantage of the relation. 
 
 It must be conceded that, in all civilized lands, 
 human life is longer, kinder, and nobler than it has 
 ever been before. There have been volumes of phil- 
 
152 Our Neighbors. 
 
 osopliic speciilatiou written on the motive power that 
 is pushing the human race upward to a higher plane. 
 Cranky theorists, crazy hobby-riders, and literary 
 dudes without number, claim to hold a patent right 
 on the most approved method of civilization, each 
 one pretending and claiming to have made a corner 
 on progress. 
 
 Casting aside all these pretentious assumptions 
 and looking at the condition of man as it is now, 
 and as it has been, we can but conclude that his social 
 life has been the principal factor in his improvement. 
 It is at least the effective medium through which all 
 the other elevating forces act. It must be conceded 
 that science comes daily with some new truth, by the 
 light of which some new law is revealed to guide men 
 upward. Religion stirs the divinity within and puri- 
 fies his purposes, and lifts him above the material 
 into the realm of the spiritual. Giving each a lair 
 share of credit, they accomplish much less, indeed 
 would fail, if they were not re-enforced by the so- 
 cial life of man. What could science accomplish if 
 each one were a recluse? If the knoAvledge were 
 given under the seal of secrecy, so that we dare not 
 communicate and compare ideas with our neighbors, 
 the tree of knowledge would cease to bear fruit, 
 would wither and die, and we would rapidly relapse 
 into barbarism. If there was just enough atmosphere 
 and sunshine for each human being, and his share 
 was set oif to him, and there was no common stock, 
 this world would be a cheerless and unhappy place. 
 But darker still to the man who shuts out all the 
 social light about him, and wanders through the mazy 
 
Our Neighbors. 153 
 
 cells of his soul with the dun-lighted candle of his 
 own selfish life. 
 
 The sweet flowers of love and charity, with their 
 bright hues and delicious odors, will only grow in 
 the warm sunlight and life-giving air of mutual con- 
 fidence and trust, watered with the refreshing dews of 
 human sympathy. In the soul of the man who re- 
 fuses to have neighbors, these flowers will fade, 
 wither, and die, and his barren spirit will curse him, 
 and he will soon come to hate himself. Human inge- 
 nuity has never yet invented a felon's cell so dark 
 and with such power to punish the ocoupaut, as the 
 man who is a voluntary prisoner in the narrow cell 
 of self. Not only is he rendered miserable by his 
 selfishness, but he is unfitted for the discharge of any 
 of the obligations growing out of his relations to his 
 fellow-men. By his selfishness and isolation he 
 ceases to fill his place as a neighbor, and soon has no 
 love for his country. Patriotism will only be found 
 in generous hearts. 
 
 Walter Scott, in his " Lay of the Last Minstrel," 
 had such a character in his mind when he wrote those 
 beautiful lines : 
 
 " Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
 Who never to himself hath said 
 
 This is my own, my native land? 
 Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned 
 As home his footsteps he hath turned 
 
 From wandering on a foreign strand? 
 If such there be, go, mark him well ; 
 For him no minstrel's raptures swell. 
 High though his title, proud his name, 
 Boundless his wealth as wish could claim ; 
 Despite those titles, power and pelf, 
 
154 Our Neighbors. 
 
 The wretch concentered all in self, 
 Living shall forfeit fair renown, 
 And, doubly dying, shall go down 
 To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
 Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." 
 
 The neighbors are properly divisible into two 
 classes — the neighbors in general and the neighbors in 
 particular. The neighbors in general we have no 
 voice in choosing; the neighbors in particular we 
 choose ourselves. Some never choose ; and I am not 
 certain but they act wisely, because they will to some 
 extent be responsible for the sentiments and conduct 
 of the neighbor in particular. If you select him out 
 of all your surroundings as your special friend, he is 
 supposed, to a great extent, to reflect yourself. He is 
 indeed a sort of other self. It is assuming a large re- 
 sponsibility, for the reason that the most of us have 
 all we can do to answer for our own follies. And then 
 if our neighbor in particular should deceive us, 
 and we should find he was not all tliat fancy had 
 painted him, we would become soured with all the 
 neighbors, and declaim against the whole world, — the 
 worst possible condition of mind for happiness. 
 Solomon says : " Confidence in an unfaithful man 
 in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot 
 out of joint." 
 
 And, again, it is a sort of reflection on the neigh- 
 bors in general to hold them at a distance ; so that i t" 
 we have trouble with our neighbor in particular, they 
 are inclined rather to enjoy our misery, which widens 
 the breach between us and them. It requires the 
 highest kind of qualifications to fill the office of 
 neighbor in particular, and as we have no social civil- 
 
Our Neighbors. 155 
 
 service law to regulate, and no social civil-service 
 commission to examine, it may be as well to abolish 
 office and cultivate good relations with all. 
 
 By using the term man, I am not to be supposed 
 as ignoring woman as an important factor in the 
 neighborhood. Indeed a neighborhood without her 
 would be barbarism over again. 
 
 Every room of the soul ought to be opened and 
 thoroughly ventilated. The smile and sunshine of 
 the neighbors ought to shine all through them, to 
 dispel the damp and must that will gather there if 
 they are kept closed. 
 
 The full influence of social life will be better seen 
 and felt in the towns, rather than in the cities. 
 Where the population is so dense and so often chang- 
 ing, the social life, what there is of it, is formed 
 around some existing organization or some custom 
 or habit of life. The members of the same Church 
 or literary society, or some euchre or champagne 
 parties, make up what they call their social life. 
 There is neither breadth nor depth to it. It is de- 
 cidedly shallow. The narrow circle in which they 
 move keeps them narrow and intolerant, so that the 
 best thought and largest specimens of men gener- 
 ally come from the town and country, rather than 
 the city. 
 
 In the city, too, social life is put in the strait- 
 jacket of style and fashion. It is burdened with 
 forms and ceremonies. And, as no large mind cares 
 to spend any time or give any thought about mere 
 forms, the best of society live within themselves; or, 
 w^hen hungry for social life, flee to the country, or 
 
156 Our Neighbors. 
 
 some resort wlierc tlicy are not oj^pressed with the 
 tyranny of fasliion. But in the town it takes the 
 whole population to make up a quorum for neigh- 
 borly work. This includes every order and cast of 
 mind, and every shade of opinion and belief This 
 acts like a refining fire. The dross is constantly 
 being eliminated, and the fittest survives. 
 
 The contact of soul with soul and heart with 
 heart and mind with mind, so a\A^akens our sympa- 
 thies and excites our mutual love and regard and 
 brightens our perceptions that each is giving good 
 gifts to the other, and none are the poorer. The 
 man who, with the delights and sorrows of life all 
 around him, refuses to have his life intermingled with 
 that of his neighbors; who is insensible to their suc- 
 cesses and defeats; who gives and receives no gener- 
 ous trust or confidence; who, if he has any feeling 
 for his fellow-men, has only that of suspicion and 
 mistrust; who, in short, has no neighbors, — is, in 
 his self-chosen imprisonment, more unhappy than 
 the anchorite in the desert. On the other hand, 
 the happy person in the world is he whose merry 
 laugh rings out, and falls on the ears of those about 
 him, and is sweeter to them than music, and whose 
 smile is warmer and brighter than sunshine, — one 
 who confesses by his confidence and his joy that 
 the principal source of his happiness is his 
 neighbor. 
 
 I met a good friend of 'inine, the other day, from 
 another State, and I asked him what he was doing. 
 He said he had quit politics, and had cast away every 
 ambition but one. I asked what was his pet ambi- 
 
Our Neighbors. 157 
 
 tiou now. He replied: "I am helping everybody 
 and encouraging everybody — putting all the sunshine 
 in the patlnvay of my neighbors' life ; and," he 
 added, with enthusiasm, " when I die there will be 
 the grandest demonstration in my town that has ever 
 been seen there. You must come." I told him I 
 would, if he would let me know. 
 
 The truth is, such a man ought to have a per- 
 petual lease on life. His neighbors would prefer to 
 give anything grand but a funeral. The reason is 
 that he is in perfect correspondence with his environ- 
 ment. His internal relations are perfectly adjusted 
 to his external relations. He is meeting all the de- 
 mands of sociology and biology. His neighbors will 
 stand by him, and give him a good name. To sup- 
 pose otherwise is a negation of conceivability. Con- 
 nected with this proposition is the presumption that 
 his environments are healthful — that his neighbors 
 are good average American citizens, worthy the fel- 
 lowship of such a royal brother, and have a due ap- 
 preciation of real merit. 
 
 If you want to get at the real merits of a man, 
 go right to his neighbors, and have a confidential talk 
 with them. There you will get the facts. Do not 
 go to the Post-office Department or the Treasury, 
 and read the eulogies that have been obtained by a 
 sort of duress to secure for him the appointment of 
 postmaster or whisky-gauger. There is a fearful 
 lack of reliability in the latter source of infor- 
 mation. 
 
 You can trust your neighbors. Ultimately they 
 will put a proper estimate on your value, and they 
 
158 Our Neighbors. 
 
 will stamp that value on your name, and it will go 
 for that much and uo more. You can not deceive 
 them for any great length of time. No better evi- 
 dence can be had of having lived a good life than 
 the hearty commendation of those who know us best 
 and longest. But it must be given with a vigorous 
 enthusiasm — as if it tasted good in their mouths to 
 say it. 
 
 I started out with the proposition that our social 
 life is a reformatory force, and I must stand by it. 
 The good man that I have described is largely the 
 handiwork of his environment. Get a man to hunger- 
 ing for the good opinion of those who see him daily, 
 and it is a mighty lever to lift him above mean ac- 
 tions, and a strong prop to hold him from falling 
 into vicious habits. There is absolutely no telling 
 how many mean things we would do if we had no 
 neighbors to watch us. 
 
 Another fact: We are not apt in seeing our own 
 faults. We can observe the defects of our neighbors 
 much better. We are thus enabled to reform our- 
 selves, without being compelled to confess ourselves 
 that we are simply correcting our own bad habits. 
 Our neighbors return the comjjliment, and both are 
 reformed, and neither is put to shame. 
 
 It saves a vast amount of personal humiliation, 
 and makes reformation easy for us, to simply avoid 
 copying our neighbors' follies, and thus escape the 
 chagrin of pleading guilty to our own. But none 
 but actual and permanent residents of a neighbor- 
 hood can reap this advantage. The people who are 
 constantly moving out of one neighborhood into an- 
 
Our Neighbors. 159 
 
 other, never reform. I do not mean those who are 
 compelled to move from circumstances over which 
 they have no control ; I mean such as, for a few pal- 
 try dollars in the way of speculation, will sell out 
 all their social advantages, and roam around like 
 gypsies. 
 
 You never saw or heard of a reformed gypsy. 
 He has no permanent environment. And the same 
 thing may be said of the tramp. And the reason 
 why he is a tramp is because a cruel fate has, one by 
 one, taken the social props from under him ; and as 
 he has lost the respect of all about him, he ceases to 
 have any respect for himself, and becomes a traveling 
 vagabond. He has neither internal relations, ex- 
 ternal relations, nor any other sort of relations. He 
 has no social environment. He is simply lying 
 around loose. As he despises himself, he hates every 
 other human being, and becomes a public enemy. 
 There is no hope of reforming him until you locate 
 him and surround him with neighbors who will, by 
 their kindness, wake up whatever of manhood may 
 be left in him, and create a desire within him to re- 
 enter social life. The neighbors owe that to him, 
 because the artificial distinctions of wealth and birth 
 may have elbowed him out of society, and compelled 
 him to be a tramp. 
 
 I heard a dude say the other day, in speaking of 
 a town in Tennessee, that he would not live in that 
 place, because there was not a man in the town that 
 had a pedigree. 
 
 To obtain the full measure of benefit of the re- 
 formatory force of social life, we must be on the best 
 
160 Our Neighbors. 
 
 po.s.sible terms with our ueighbors. To get around 
 all the angles and sharp corners of neighborhood life, 
 and at the same time be straight and reasonably con- 
 sistent ourselves and secure some point of contact 
 with all of them, requires the best quality of tact 
 and the highest kind of genius. It is educational. 
 To succeed, ^idll keep our wits bright and shining 
 from constant use. And the reason why some people 
 are so dull, and friendless too, is because they make 
 no effort to have a little stock in everybody. They 
 only invest in a few dullards, like themselves, and 
 consequently they become more and more stupid, and 
 are constantly depreciating. The bright people are 
 those who have an active interest in the welfare and 
 happiness of all, and in whom everybody else has 
 some stock. Such people grow brighter continu- 
 ally. Score another credit to the account of the 
 neighbors ! 
 
 Your neighbors may not vote as you do. You 
 may even be in the minority. You may be sur- 
 rounded with Democrats, Republicans, and, here and 
 there, a Greenbacker and Prohibitionist. You will 
 have to manage your politics so as to hold their re- 
 spect and esteem. 
 
 On the Sabbath, a day of rest and peace, you are 
 hardly out of your front-gate, going to Church, until 
 you meet your next-door neighbor going right the 
 other way to his Church ; and if you are not both on 
 your guard, you will find yourselves mutually pitying 
 each other's spiritual blindness. 
 
 All around you are as many different views and 
 opinions on politics, religion, and social relations gen- 
 
Our Neighbors. 161 
 
 erally, as there are different colors of glass in the 
 kaleidoscope. Yon are simply one of the small pieces 
 of glass, and, when the instrument is shaken, you 
 must take your place, and shine as best you can, and 
 help make up the picture. The circumstance that 
 shakes the pieces, and puts you in a snug fortune or 
 fat office, and your neighbor in bankruptcy, or vice 
 versa, complicates the case, and brings in envy and 
 jealousy to disturb the harmony, and calls for more 
 tact and skill to keep the peace. 
 
 Herbert Spencer, in his " Sociology," applies the 
 principles of evolution to social life. He says : " In 
 conformity to the law of evolution, every aggregate 
 tends to integrate, and to differentiate while it inte- 
 grates." This complicates the case, and makes it 
 more difficult to get on with your neighbors. They 
 will sit in judgment, not only on your politics and 
 religion, but on your habits, your solid food and your 
 liquids, on your dress and address, on your relatives — 
 including your mother-in-law — on the kind of folks 
 that come to see you and the sort of people you go 
 to see, on your prosperity and your adversity, and on 
 your successes and your failures. 
 
 Now, you must have the prejudice of this court in 
 your favor. If your integrations and differentiations 
 are all right, you can have it. If you have been 
 loaning out a large amount of charity when charity 
 was most needed, it will be paid back with interest. 
 It has always seemed to me that there is a fearful 
 shortage of charity in all neighborhoods. So many 
 people seem to be just out at the time it is most 
 needed. 
 
 11 
 
162 OrR Neighbors. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that each of us not only 
 inherits different opinions, but it must also be remem- 
 bered that in the formative period of our lives there 
 was a different atmosphere surrounding each of us. 
 To be more explicit, the governor or lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor, as the case may be, of the family may be a 
 doctor. He smells of camphor, and, in speaking oi 
 the ordinary ills of life, uses words several sizes larger 
 than the neighbors use. This may put the whole 
 family on stilts. Herbert Spencer's father may have 
 been a physician. 
 
 In another case the governor or lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor of the family may be a lawyer, and in attempt- 
 ing to manage his household, to carry his point, he 
 may introduce his court-house methods, by trying to 
 suppress the truth that is against him, and to mag- 
 nify the smallest circumstance that seems to be in 
 his favor. He will succeed better with the jury than 
 the family. The latter know him better ; but the 
 effect on the limbs of the law in that family may be 
 towards crookedness. It is said to be an absolute fact 
 that most of our politicians are lawyers or the sons of 
 lawyers. 
 
 The president or vice-president of the family may 
 be a minister. His sedentary life produces indiges- 
 tion, and he becomes morose. He hates the world, 
 and declaims vehemently against its vanities. He 
 may never see it himself, but his family discover 
 that he has mistaken a torpid liver for a quickened 
 conscience, and that may give the wrong trend to their 
 spiritual nature. 
 
 The first or second in command may be a farmer. 
 
Our Neighbors. 163? 
 
 The weather seems to be at constant war with hisr 
 business, and he spends a large portion of his time 
 and breath in contest with the inevitable. As he is 
 always beaten fighting the weather, all his boys want 
 to be something else than farmers. They become so 
 soured with their home-life that in their desperation 
 they become book agents, or worry humanity with 
 sewing-machines or life insurance or office-hunting. 
 Some drift down into the Legislature, rather than re- 
 peat the life of a farmer. And the daughters of the 
 family will elope with the vender of a patent medi- 
 cine, and take the chances on the number of wives 
 he may have elsewhere, rather than marry the honest 
 son of a neighboring widow, whose circumstances 
 compel him to till the soil. 
 
 The mechanic in the factory may be on the execu- 
 tive committee of a Trades Union. His family hear 
 constantly of strikes, and know about starvation, and 
 they enter into life with more acid than sweetness in 
 their composition. 
 
 All these and many other mitigating circumstances 
 can be pleaded in defense, when a neighbor is charged 
 with having peculiar and disagreeable traits. If every 
 neighbor in this community will diligently search for 
 tiie things that will palliate the faults of those about 
 him, and, when found, hold them up to view instead 
 of the faults themselves, it will not only produce 
 great social felicity hitherto unknown, but a boom in 
 real estate Avill follow that has no parallel in the 
 history of the place. Everybody that knew of it 
 would want to live here. 
 
 Charles Dickens, in " Barnaby Rudge," saj's: 
 
164 Our Neighbors. 
 
 "The men who learn endurance are they Avho call the 
 whole world Brother." At the same time we must 
 not forget the caution that Herbert Spencer gives us; 
 in discussing the social structure he says : " Beyond 
 unlikeness of parts resulting from development of 
 the co-ordinate agencies, there presently follow un- 
 likenesses among the agencies co-ordinated." This 
 must constantly be borne in mind, or we get things 
 mixed. 
 
 Perfect candor and absolute truth are essential to 
 good neighborly work. They are the integrating 
 forces of our social life. Falsehood and deceit dis- 
 integrate and destroy. Josh Billings is right when 
 he says: *'It is better not to know so much, than to 
 know so many things that are not so." The things 
 that are " not so " create the disturbances in all neigh- 
 borhoods. Envy, jealousy, falsehoods, and uncharity, 
 all belong to the " not-so " brood. If some effective 
 system of vaccination could be discovered, it would be 
 a great social blessing. 
 
 Water was so reverenced by certain ancient na- 
 tions that they would never desecrate it by washing 
 themselves with it. Some of our modern people 
 have the same high regard for the truth. They will 
 not bring it into general use, lest they may soil it. 
 The ancient and the modern both seem to have failed 
 to grasp the fact that the more they used these essen- 
 tials the less would be the chances of soiling them ; 
 and the water and the truth, having no affinity for 
 dirt, when left to themselves have within themselves 
 absolute powers of self-purification. We need not be 
 concerned about them ; they will take care of them- 
 
Our Neighbors. 165 
 
 selves. A liberal application of both will very 
 greatly improve the social health of the neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 And then there was never such a thing as toler- 
 ation until our higher civilization invented neighbors 
 :ind neighborhood. The fires of persecution must be 
 extinguished by the neighbors. The very essential 
 feature of toleration is to have some one to differ 
 with you, and then endure him and love him. 
 
 Let us suppose that before the war South Carolina 
 and Massachusetts had been in the same neighbor- 
 hood, and jointly borrowed a lunch-basket and gone 
 on a picnic occasionally, then Sumner would not have 
 assaulted Butler with his tongue, nor Brooks as- 
 saulted Sumner with his cane, with all the unpleasant 
 consequences which followed. Or if the Nortii and 
 South had not been so far apart that they could not, 
 in the summer evenings, all sit dow^n on the same 
 doorstep and talk over the interests of the neighbor- 
 hood, and the old folks thus be making peace, 
 while the young folks were in the grape-arbor mak- 
 ing love, we would have had no war; our benevo- 
 lent and self-sacrificing statesmen would not now be 
 lying awake at night planning a pension bill five 
 stories high, with a cellar and attic and a mansard 
 roof, so as to take in and accommodate all sorts of 
 warriors. 
 
 The neighbors form public opinion, the most 
 powerful despot in the land. The bravest tremble 
 before it, and the courts and even the law submit to 
 this autocrat. All the neighbors who do much think- 
 ing have two opinions — one for the public, and the 
 
166 Our Neighbors. 
 
 other marked confidential and private. If you have 
 treated them well, and in a whisper given them your 
 private opinion, you can in the same way obtain 
 theirs under the cover and seal of confidence. Their 
 private opinion is the best. It comes nearer the 
 truth, and has the polish of tliought and reflection. 
 
 The contest has been for centuries, and will con- 
 tinue to be, between private judgment and public 
 opinion. When the venerable despot sees the neigh- 
 bors in good relations, and finds them whispering 
 together, he trembles; for he knows the truth is com- 
 ing and a battle is to be fought — a battle of conscience 
 with party, a battle of practical religion against dog- 
 matic theology. Out from these whispering neigh- 
 bors will come some bold spirit, who will step to 
 the front, and offer his fresh, clean truth as a substi- 
 tute for the old musty error, and then the battle is on. 
 
 Some of the neighbors will stand and some will 
 retreat, as is the fact in all battles; and whatever may 
 be the result of the contest, the sequel shows that 
 the old is weaker and the new stronger, and on the 
 dial-plate of progress it is recorded that an advance 
 has been made. For the legitimate results are the 
 assassination of many a wicked law, the overthrow 
 of many a blathering demagogue, the destruction of 
 many an evil that curses and blasts the best interests 
 of humanity. It has ever been the prime object ot' 
 despotism, by a system of espionage or some other 
 device, to prevent this sort of communication, know- 
 ing that men will not care to think much, if they can 
 not have the opportunity to tell what they think. 
 
 I honestly think that the greatest reformer would 
 
Our Neighbors. 167 
 
 be he wlio could devise a plan t<j bring the ueigh- 
 bors ill still closer relations — who could in some way 
 stimulate the desire to think and increase the facil- 
 ities for telling. 
 
 There are jjossibilities far beyond what we have 
 yet attained, growing out of our social life. If the 
 seeds of truth that we gather from the harvest-field 
 of life-exj^erience could be scattered through the 
 neighborhood oftencr, reaching out to the fence-cor- 
 ners and the hedges, they would spring up and dis- 
 place the vulgar weeds of ignorance, avarice, and 
 slander, that are hiding-places for the vermin that 
 destroy the peace and liappiness of social life. It is 
 the stagnant pool that breeds the poison and sends 
 forth malaria. It is the babbling brook that has the 
 clear waters in which is life, health, and purity. 
 The grandest reformation will be the increase of 
 mutual confidence and regard, the honest and full 
 communion of heart with heart on all the many 
 questions that interest our common humanity. 
 
 In order to make the matter perfectly lucid and 
 understandable, let us again hear Herbert Spencer. 
 In considering the individual man, he says: "Always, 
 too, his degree of intelligence and the tendencies of 
 thought peculiar to him become operating causes of 
 social quiescence or social change." He also takes 
 the position that drainage of the soil produces great 
 social changes. As he runs the subject not only in 
 but under the ground, I decline to follow him, except 
 to remark that it affects the demand for quinine by 
 draining the land. 
 
 Mr. Spencer discusses that proposition under the 
 
168 Our Neighbors. 
 
 division of progressive modificatious of the environ- 
 ment, inorganic and organic. He takes the tenable 
 position that there can be no neighborhood without 
 neighbors. He says: "It is clear that heterogeneity 
 of structure is made possible only by a multiplication 
 of units. There can be no differentiation into classes 
 in the absence of numbers;" and I hope you agree 
 with him. I am positive he is correct in this. He 
 adds : " The control exercised by the aggregate over 
 its units is one ever tending to mold their activities 
 and sentiments and ideas into congruity with social 
 requirements; and these activities, sentiments, and 
 ideas, in so far as they are changed by changing cir- 
 cumstances, tend to remold society into congruity 
 with themselves." 
 
 If you doubt this, when you go to the butcher 
 for a beafsteak in the morning, ask him if that 
 is not the fact ; stop at the post-office and consult the 
 postmaster; refer the case to the justice of the peace 
 or the notary public in your neighborhood, — and with 
 united voice they "will tell you that they have noticed 
 this many a time. They will say Spencer is right 
 when he says, " They form together an immensely 
 voluminous, immensely complicated, and immensely 
 powerful set of influences." 
 
 We talk about the good common sense of the 
 people, the final court that determines all questions 
 under our form of government. Whence comes this 
 keen sense of justice, this good, square conception of 
 fair play? It comes largely from the education we 
 daily give each other on the highways and byways 
 of our life's work. A few neighbors gather around 
 
Our Neighbors. 169 
 
 a question of general interest, each with a diiferently 
 constituted mind, but all anxious to reach a right 
 conclusion, look at it, discuss it, weigh it, and finally 
 reach as near the truth as human reason is capable of 
 doing. It was this wisdom that saved the life of the 
 Nation during the Civil War, and saved the honor of 
 the Nation when her debt was sweeping thousands 
 into the maelstrom of bankruptcy. 
 
 There is too much strait-jacket in our neigh- 
 borhood life. There are rings and cliques and other 
 artificial distinctions, that keep men apart when they 
 ought to be together. Everybody not absolutely 
 lawless and vicious ought to have all the advantages 
 of neighborhood life, so that if one neighbor makes 
 a new discovery, or overtakes a new fact, or hears a 
 new story, all can have a chance at it. These little 
 political rings and cliques that divide the neighbors 
 are an unmitigated nuisance. They sow ill broadcast 
 in the community, which yields an abundant harvest 
 of gossip and jealousy. They poison the social 
 fountain and create distrust where there ought to be 
 confidence. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the neighbors have 
 their hobbies and their crotchets. Some of them 
 carry it so far as to be cranks. And even you may 
 be a little cranky yourself. Some pet notion may 
 have taken possession of your brain and crowded all 
 others out ; and you may be engaged, more than you 
 think or would be willing to confess, in trying the 
 fruitless task of bringing all your neighbors' brains to 
 the same disordered condition. And while the other 
 cranks ot the neighborhood are making the same 
 
170 Our Neighbors. 
 
 cflfurt with you, the result is a eonfliet of cranks, out 
 of which can come nothing but folly. 
 
 Ill order to accomplish social reform, every man 
 should look himself squarely in the face, and peer down 
 into the mazes of his own mental machinery, and ask 
 himself if he is a crank, and demand an honest 
 answer. We become so infatuated with our hobby 
 that Ave lose the power of honest self-examination, and 
 become oue-idead, narrow, and intolerant. As well 
 live in a lunatic asylum at once as to be compelled to 
 live in the immediate vicinity of unconscious cranks 
 running at large. You are never safe from them. 
 You are powerless in their hands. You may make 
 as many wry faces as you can, yet the crank will 
 compel you to swallow some of his hobbies, even if 
 he knows you will throw theiii up the next minute. 
 
 A crank or two can almost ruin the peace of a 
 whole neighborhood. We had better all see to it 
 that we ourselves are not one of them. You remem- 
 ber that man that Sydney Smith tells about who was 
 a crank on the subject of the north pole. No matter 
 in what place or presence, he would bring forward 
 for the consideration of the company the north pole. 
 A lit<?rary friend of his once lost his temper and 
 told him to go to the devil Avith his north pole. 
 The aggrieved crank complained to Sydney Smith of 
 the treatment he had received from his friend, when 
 Smith told him to never mind him, for he himself 
 had heard the same man speak disrespectfully of the 
 equator. 
 
 Every neighborhood has a poet, a statesman, a 
 literary critic, and a reformer. All of these have 
 
Our Neighbors. 171 
 
 views. Tlicy uot uufreqiieutly go to the great 
 length of putting their views on paper. Their prose 
 and poetry may be valuable, or it may not. But 
 when their views assume the very definite form of 
 being harnessed up in words and hitehed together in 
 sentences, the temptation to show them to the neigh- 
 bors is very strong. If they are exhibited in a 
 general way in the columns of the newspapers, you may 
 be able to get along with your neighbor's views easy 
 enough. You can read enough to get the trend 
 of his thought, so as to commend his sentiments 
 when he speaks to you about it. But when, unin- 
 vited, he invades your domicile, armed with his man- 
 uscript, you will have to call out all your reserve 
 force of grace and patience, or you Mall be rude. 
 
 The neighbors have bores, as well as cranks, to 
 contend with. Unfortunately there are no criminal 
 statutes against the bore's cruelty. Other felons are 
 fined and sent to prison for the protection of society, 
 but the bore lives on and on, and thunders his views 
 in the dull ears of old age. 
 
 There js another neighbor who will try your 
 patience. He is a good, honest fellow. In fact, he 
 is a little too honest when you sum up his whole 
 organization. He will kindly tell you each year that 
 you are looking older, and that he can plainly see 
 that you are failing. Yet all the while you will be 
 in the sunshine of his smile, and he will try to be 
 as sweet as a rose. But every rose has its thorn, 
 and in his case there seems to be more thorn than 
 rose. He unconsciously rides rough-shod over all 
 your tender sensibilities, and while vou know he has 
 
172 Our Neighbors. 
 
 no evil intent, you feel so sore after an hour's iuter- 
 view with liim, that you heartily wish he would go 
 West and grow up with the country. In fact, you 
 send him a glowing description of Dakota that the 
 owner of some town site has sent you, and hint to 
 him that it is a rich country, with a healthy climate. 
 You may even offer to assist him in getting cheap 
 transportation, and also in finding a purchaser for his 
 neighboring house and lot. 
 
 The general and rapid diffusion of the knowledge 
 of our private affairs among the neighbors may not 
 be the most agreeable thing to us, and we are not 
 able to see how tliey found us out. As a general 
 thing, we give it away, unconsciously, ourselves. 
 Dickens's theory is that the milkman gets it in his 
 milk-can, and ladles it out to all the neighbors. But 
 he was an Englishman, and knew but little or noth- 
 ing of the sterling integrity of the American milk- 
 man. We all know, and stand ready to certify, that 
 he is so honest that he will allow nothing but water 
 put iu his milk. He does that with the benevolent 
 intention to reach more families. Too often there 
 would not be milk enough to go round but for this 
 wise forethought. 
 
 But no matter how our success and defeats come 
 to be known to the neighbors, the very fact restrains 
 and regulates our lives more than we would be will- 
 ing to admit. But for this neighborly cloud of wit- 
 nesses there is no telling how many blunders and 
 indiscretions might befall us. 
 
 The doctrine of spontaneous generation in natural 
 life is exploded. There can none be found among 
 
Our Neighbors. 173 
 
 the most skeptical scientists bold euough to advocate 
 it. This false theory never did have any supporters 
 in our social life. Life comes from life everywhere. 
 Therefore reciprocal duties and obligations grow out 
 of our social relations. 
 
 As we are constantly drawing checks, we must 
 make a corresponding amount of deposits, or the 
 bank will fail. None should ever overdraw his ac- 
 count. The social bank ought not to be required to 
 carry any bankrupts. And yet we often find a 
 neighbor who acts as if the social bank has unlimited 
 deposits, that the doctrine of spontaneous generation 
 is true, and all he has to do is to draw checks and 
 to complain that the bank does not pay larger divi- 
 dends. 
 
 In this social bank, real hearty good- will is a 
 good collateral, genuine sympathy is a first-rate bond, 
 and charity for all is a splendid security. With 
 these as a basis there may be a constant run on the 
 bank, and it will stand the racket. There will be 
 no panic among the stockholders. The currency will 
 be above par all the time, because the deposits 
 will exceed the drafts, and the issues of the bank 
 will be constantly improving. Every new truth, 
 the very latest style of everything, the last story and 
 the new song that any of the neighbors have cap- 
 tured elsewhere and deposited, will be issued to us 
 all, as fresh and crisp as a new greenback and a 
 great deal more valuable. We will have large divi- 
 dends of social and mental culture, of liberal hospi- 
 tality, and of generous trust and confidence. All the 
 earnings of the bank can be divided with the stock- 
 
174 Our Neighbors. 
 
 holders. There need be no surplus fund set aside 
 for the benefit of the corporation. 
 
 Society exists for the benefit of its members, and 
 not its members for the benefit of society. We and 
 our neighbors make that society what it is. Na- 
 tional life and strength — civilization — is but the ag- 
 gregation of neighborhoods. The cast and color of 
 that civilization, the progressive spirit entering into 
 it, and the stability of the government for the pro- 
 tection of every citizen, all relate back to the indi- 
 vidual character of each member of society. 
 
 The value and brilliancy of the diamond is de- 
 pendent upon the purity of each atom composing it. 
 In like manner the individual gives character to 
 society and government, and each right-minded 
 member is a lever to lift up, and a prop to hold up, 
 his neighbor to a full comprehension of his duty and 
 his destiny. Herbert Spencer puts it in this way: 
 " The consensus of functions becomes closed as the 
 evolution advances." 
 
 But what is the coming neighbor to be ? Are the 
 rank weeds of ignorance, and its co-partner intolerance, 
 to ever grow and flourish in our neighborhood life ? 
 Are the better forces of our social life so well 
 equipped and so strong as to drive out the vandal 
 iiordes that only pillage and plunder? That is the 
 question. The hopeful optimist takes the affirmative, 
 while the despairing pessimist takes the negative, and 
 the debate goes on; but as ages and generations come 
 and go, History, with an accuracy that is certain and 
 sure, reports progress. 
 
 If you take a level and apply it to the human 
 
Our Neighbors. 175 
 
 race ri>r the last five centuries, it will be plainly seen 
 that the mental and moral altitude as well as the 
 social excellence of the man of to-day is double that 
 of the man at the other end of the level. And the 
 coming neighbor will be still broader, kinder, and in 
 every way nobler. 
 
 He will adopt the truthful and poetical sentiment : 
 
 " Conscious of right nor fearing wrong, 
 
 Because I am in love with love, 
 And the sole thing I hate is hate ; 
 For hate is death, and love is life — 
 
 A peace, a splendor from ahove ; 
 And hate a never ending strife, 
 
 A smoke, a blackness from the abj'ss, 
 
 "Where unclean serpents coil and hiss. 
 Love is the Holy Ghost within ; 
 Hate the unpardonable sin: — 
 
 Who preaches otherwise than this 
 
 Betrays his Master with a kiss." 
 
THE REIGN OF KING BOGUS. 
 
 THE reign of King Bogus began as soon in the 
 history' of the human race as there was some- 
 body to cheat, and has grown in strength and power 
 in exact proportion to the increase in the population 
 of the Avorkl and the multiplied opportunities for ex- 
 ercising his prerogative. 
 
 Not only in the more enlightened portions of the 
 ancient nations who had advanced sufficiently in civ- 
 ilization to know enough to construct some sort of 
 history of themselves, but also among the barbarous 
 tribes, depending entirely on tradition to throw its 
 light on the past, we find in all history and in all tra- 
 dition distinct and clear acknowledgment of this 
 universal monarch. 
 
 The painted and savage barbarian, who was learned 
 in nothing except war, and could handle no implement 
 but the war-club, has made war on King Bogus only 
 to be defeated. The monarchs and the statesmen, 
 the sages and the philosophers, the warriors and the 
 diplomates, the reformers and the theologians of the 
 most enlightened nations, have tried to dethrone him, 
 but have failed. 
 
 Away back, a thousand years before the Christian 
 era, we hear Solomon, the wisest and greatest mon- 
 
 Delivered on the invitation of the High-school of Greens- 
 burg, Indiana, at the chapel of the public-school building. 
 176 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. Vll 
 
 arch of his time, complaining of " divers weights and 
 measures," and that that which is "crooked can not 
 be made straight," and finally, in despair, crying out : 
 "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" King Bogus was 
 too powerful even for him. 
 
 Five hundred years after, Confucius, the mighty 
 ruler of the Chinese mind, of whom more than one- 
 fourth of the human race are the devoted disciples 
 to-day, said : " I hate a semblance which is not a 
 reality. I hate glib-tonguedness, lest it be confounded 
 with righteousness. I hate sharpness of tongue, lest 
 it be confounded with sincerity." 
 
 In one of the Suras of the Koran, we find Mo- 
 hammed saying: 
 
 " By the declining day, I swear 
 Verily man is in the way to ruin ; 
 Except such as possess faith, 
 And do the things which be right, 
 And stir one another up to truth and steadfastness." 
 
 We learn from Herodotus that, many thousand 
 years ago, the men of Egypt shaved their heads, and 
 then put on more false hair than our modern belles 
 ever dreamed of. Not only did they thus adorn 
 their heads, and then claim it as the natural growth, 
 but they also wore bogus beards of immense length 
 and breadth. 
 
 In the old Egyptian Ritual may be found a chap- 
 ter which describes the process of separating a person 
 from his sins; not by confession and repentance, as 
 is usual in other religions, but in stoutly denying 
 them. Among other things, he was required, in ad- 
 dressing the Lord of Truths, to deny specially the 
 
 12 
 
178 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 following: ^' I have committed no fraud; I have 
 not told falsehoods; I have not cheated by false 
 weights; I have not counterfeited." The oldest mon- 
 uments in Egypt contain kindred inscriptions, written 
 so long ago that their date is lost, all establishing the 
 fact that King Bogus is chronologically as far ahead 
 of Pharaoh as Pharaoh is ahead of the governor of 
 Indiana. 
 
 This king is denounced by Zoroaster, plainly 
 mentioned in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, mani- 
 festly seen by Ezekiel in his vision, has proverbs 
 hurled at him by Solomon, and is portrayed by David 
 in his words of warning in the Psalms. In a word, 
 the most ancient people, in their mythology, in their 
 sacrifices, in their religious customs and laws, con- 
 stantly recognize the ruler of mankind, all bearing 
 the strongest testimony that his power was to be 
 feared, if not respected. 
 
 Not only is this true of the ancients, but as we 
 come on down the long line of the centuries and 
 ages, the evidence accumulates, and as we emerge into 
 the brighter light of civilization and culture, is over- 
 whelming. 
 
 It might be difficult to tell, in all these different 
 periods and peoples, what have been the different 
 names and titles of the monarch. It is not impor- 
 tant. His purpose and character have ever been the 
 same, and his followers in all ages have not been 
 materially different. His adherents may have had, 
 at these different periods, other meUicds for reaching 
 the same end; but from the time whereof the mem- 
 ory of man runneth not to the contrq»'v. the piirpos<> 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 179 
 
 of King Bogus and those who follow him has been 
 to impose the spurious on nuinkiud in lieu of the 
 genuine. 
 
 His present title of "Bogus" is an American 
 name, given him in the last quarter of a century. An 
 Italian, in these Western States, about fifty years ago, 
 being a devoted follower of his majesty, put in circu- 
 lation a very large amount of bank-bills, for which 
 there was really no existing bank. His name was 
 Borghese. The swindle was so extensive and so art- 
 fully accomplished that, when the discovery was 
 made, those bank-bills, that were in everybody's 
 hands, were called after the swindler, which, by an 
 easy transition and for the sake of euphony, were 
 called " Bogus." 
 
 The genius displayed by Borghese in concocting 
 the fraud, and the talent he exhibited in executing 
 it, have not only placed his name in the larger dic- 
 tionary as a permanent addition to our language, but 
 he is immortalized by the king of all swindlers taking 
 his name as a special compliment to one of the 
 most accomplished and unscrupulous of all his 
 subjects. 
 
 It is believed that the word " Bogus" will therefore 
 find its way into every language of the earth, and 
 that every kindred, tribe, and tongue will have at 
 last the one word in common. It would be a natural 
 conclusion that, in the present day of progress and 
 reform, in the clear light of the boasted civilization 
 and culture of the nineteenth century, King Bogus 
 would lose his poj>ularity and power, and that his 
 subjects, from very shame, would not dare in open day 
 
180 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 to march under his banner and openly confess their 
 allegiance to him. 
 
 While we have overthrown many a moss-covered 
 temple, and destroyed the last vestige of" the rites 
 and ceremonies practiced therein — let the light into 
 the places made dark by superstition and ignorance — 
 and on the ruins erected structures representing 
 modern thought and the new discoveries that have 
 leaped from the brains of a nobler and more culti- 
 vated manhood, yet this old monarch has not only 
 all his old tricks and devices, but in addition he has 
 kejjt pace with the progress of the times in invent- 
 ing numberless shams and cheats to meet the new 
 order of things. He is without a peer in the line of 
 invention ; his trade-mark may be seen in all the 
 merchandise, and his methods may be observed in all 
 the circles and transactions of human life. His fol- 
 lowers are not troubled with shame. The blushing 
 is not done by the disciples of Bogus. They are 
 largely in the majority. The shamefaced are the old 
 fashioned fogies, who are all this time making them- 
 selves odd and singular by doing the square thing 
 with everybody. 
 
 Cash-Down, with his threadbare coat and un- 
 fashionable wardrobe, feels like apologizing when 
 thrown in the society of Mr. Credit, with his unpaid- 
 for purple and fine linen; and Mr. Sincerity, who is 
 so stupid and out of style as to persist in telling the 
 truth, finds that his society is not in demand like 
 that of Mr. Flattery, who has no foolish compunc- 
 tions of conscience in regard to the truth of his 
 statements. 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 181 
 
 The civilization of the present age is by no means 
 a foe to King Bogus. He finds it helps him rather 
 than hinders. His power and influence are on the 
 increase, and unless some new elements are introduced 
 into it, or some of the present elements are reorgan- 
 ized and put on a war-footing against him, he has 
 UDthing to fear. He w'ill continue in the future, as 
 m the past, to control in every department of human 
 thought and action. While we laugh at the credulity 
 of the people of the Middle Ages, who believed that 
 " if a man had his side pierced in battle, you could 
 cure him by nursing the sword that inflicted the 
 wound," we are doing the same thing when we de- 
 nounce the shams of King Bogus, and yet practice 
 them all the time ourselves, while we deplore the 
 wound, yet tenderly nurse the sword that inflicts it. 
 
 It may seem like uttering a paradox, and is there- 
 fore a risky assertion to make, yet its truth is the 
 best apology for the statement, that the generality of 
 mankind are rather fond of sham and humbug. The 
 evidence of this fact is strong, and to my mind con- 
 clusive. King Bogus has long since thrown off all 
 disguise; and in many places his swindles and cheats 
 are palpable, yet they seem to be no less acceptable 
 on that account. The public's taste has been so long 
 fed on the counterfeit and spurious that it seems 
 actually to relish it. 
 
 The empty professions of regard in society, the 
 hollow friendships of the world, the insincere decla- 
 rations of love, notwithstanding their spurious char- 
 acter is well known to the recipient, seem to be ac- 
 cepted with pleasure; and they go to make up a 
 
182 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 large portion of what the human race calls happi- 
 ness, which is very largely increased by the ability to 
 cheat back again, by a bountiful reciprocation of tiie 
 same unreal material which meets a like hearty re- 
 ception. In what is called the "■ upper-ten " of 
 American society — the envied ton of the human fam- 
 ily, is this true. King Bogus rules there without a 
 rival ; and the more perfect his system of cheats and 
 shams, the more popular is he. 
 
 The demand for new swindles and fresh humbugs 
 is constant and persistent. In the higher regions of 
 what is called the first circles, society compels the in- 
 dividual members to attempt to cheat the whole mass; 
 and although the sham rarely succeeds, and but few 
 are cheated, yet the regulations require it, the popular 
 demand for it will take no denial, and a good footing 
 in the higher walks can not be ol)tained without it. 
 To be more specific, the physically lean and thin 
 members of the aforesaid Upper-Tendom are required 
 to supplement their leanness by padding and puffing, 
 so that they may appear plump; to bury their little 
 bodies in an ocean of dry-goods, on which roll huge 
 billows of flounces crested with ribbons and buttons, 
 so that they may, at least in appearance, approximate 
 the regulation size. The pale faces must be painted 
 into freshness by the cosmetics of King Bogus, and 
 the gray hairs must be rejuvenated M'ith his paints 
 and dyes. 
 
 How long would sincerely honest persons hold 
 ])Osition in such a society — individuals who refuse to 
 indulge in any sort of sham ; who refuse to attempt 
 to cheat in conversation or dress; who never simu- 
 
The Reigm of King Bogus. 183 
 
 late a friend.sliip tbey do not feel ; who regard all 
 false pretenses with proper contempt; who are con- 
 stantly making themselves ridiculous by telling the 
 plain truth about everything and everybody; who 
 have the moral courage to look as old as they really 
 are, and have the honesty to confess it? Immense 
 wealth and overshadowing reputation might compel 
 the toleration of such eccentricities ; but nothing 
 else would prevent a prompt dismissal from the soci- 
 ety of the fashionable. 
 
 King Bogus, to maintain his control, goes to the 
 fountain of power and influence by directing public 
 opinion. Party organizations are a powerful ally to 
 him in this regard. As the great mass of men are in 
 some way connected with these organizations, the indi- 
 vidual surrenders his right of opinion to that of the 
 party, and it makes the utterances for the individual. 
 
 The world is cheated, and the forward march of 
 civilization seriously hindered, by this potent influ- 
 ence preventing mankind from speaking out what 
 they know to be true. The very best thoughts of 
 men have to be rectified through a mass of worn- 
 out platitudes, traditions, and superstitions — have to 
 be diluted and weakened by exploded dogmas — be- 
 fore they are offered to the public. They have to be 
 salted with that very indefinable something the world 
 calls orthodoxy, and peppered with platforms and 
 creeds, and then broiled on the gridiron of precedent, 
 over the red-hot coals of public opinion. All of the 
 freshness and sweetness of truth is roasted out of 
 them to make them conform to the venerable decla- 
 rations of party or sect. They are thus made unpal- 
 
184 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 atable aud imhealtiiy. They are neither digestible nor 
 nutritious. 
 
 The rich new wine of human thought, pressed 
 from the brain of the men and women of culture, 
 ought not to be put in the old bottles. King Bogus 
 liolds mankind to this error by the false pretense of 
 reverence for the fathers. This is a most grateful 
 plea to those who are too lazy to think, or too 
 craven to differ with their party. He, with a bold 
 and unblushing effrontery, tells men that they must 
 be consistent; that the organization of which they 
 are members has proclaimed a certain thing as true; 
 and, if they do not assent to it, the opposing organi- 
 zation will use them as weapons of attack; aud, to be 
 consistent, they must suppress all private judgment, 
 and go with the party. 
 
 This state of things is demoralizing. A man who 
 will profess to believe what he does not believe, aud 
 who claims to disbelieve what he knows to be true, 
 will soon be found, in all the practices of life, as crooked 
 as his faith. A man who will allow manacles to be 
 put on his faith will soon have as little respect for 
 himself as the criminal with nianacles on his limbs. 
 A sham faith will yield the certain fruit of sham 
 practice. This is one of the strongest fortresses of 
 King Bogus to command the allegiance of mankind. 
 
 We get the best thoughts of men in a whisper, 
 under the seal of confidence. When they appear in 
 public, they are clad in the full panoply of party or 
 sect, and proclaim the truth as it is found in the book 
 of creeds and platforms, and not as it is found ia 
 their own hearts. By this means King Bogus con- 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 185 
 
 troLs the politics of the world. Parties arc orgauizcd 
 and platforms promulgated, not to lift the mass of 
 men to a higher and better life, not to make life more 
 tolerable and less filled with burdens. The real ob- 
 jects of parties and platforms and politicians, in the 
 lower sense of the word, are to secure the votes. 
 To do this, there is no manly courage to enlighten 
 the mind of the voter, and attempt to reform his life 
 and remove his prejudices. He must be flattered by 
 confirming him in all his false notions, and thus secure 
 his vote. There is to be no attack on the conduct of 
 the citizen. Whatever may be his notion of vice or 
 chronic laziness, he is to be regarded as a component 
 part of the honest masses that we hear so much 
 about, and treated accordingly. No truth must be 
 told him that is offensive to him, or his vote might be 
 lost. All the ills that afflict the body politic are not 
 to be remedied by the individual reformation of the 
 citizen, but by the successful application of party ma- 
 chinery. If intemperance is filling the land with 
 paupers and tramps, the asylums with maniacs, 
 and the jails with criminals, burdening the people 
 with taxes, — remedies looking to the reformation of 
 the citizen and the punishment of the evil-doers are 
 not to be thought of, because it is wrong to pass 
 sumptuary laws. AVhat a sumptuary law is, is not 
 well understood by the average citizen ; but he is 
 made to understand, if in no other way but the pro- 
 longed pronunciation of the word "sumptuai'y," that it 
 is something dreadful ; and if the pronunciation will 
 not silence him, he is told that such laws are uncon- 
 stitutional; that they violate the great Magna Charta 
 
186 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 of humau rights; that they are inconsistent with both 
 the letter and the spirit of the organic act, the palla- 
 dium of our rights. The citizen sees at once that 
 further resistance is hopeless; and King Bogus wins 
 by the weapons of large words, when all others fail. 
 
 The citizen may sit all day on the shady side of 
 the village store and complain of the hard times, 
 while labor is beckoning him with one hand and 
 holding out to him a good reward with the other. 
 The bogus politician does not tell him to obey the 
 call and go to work. That might wound the sensi- 
 tive spirit of the citizen and voter, and drive him 
 over to the other party. He says that the result of 
 the troubles of the citizen is the legitimate effect of 
 an oppressive tariff; that the balance of trade is 
 against us and is in favor of foreign nations, and that 
 in consequence capital is robbing labor, and that it 
 is the fault of the Government that the citizen is not 
 rich, sitting in the shade. Imagine, if you please, this 
 same sovereign and voter going home late at night 
 from the caucus, with no wages in his pocket to make 
 glad the hungry household, but in their stead en- 
 deavoring to comfort the starving wife and naked 
 children, that their troubles will soon be over; that 
 Mr. Blowhard is nominated to Congress, and if he is 
 elected he will reduce the taxes and regulate the 
 tariff, and then plenty will flow on every hand. 
 
 By misfortune or foolish speculation, the citizen 
 may be staggering under a heavy load of debt. It 
 might not be agreeable to be told that he must 
 reduce his expenses and live so far within his in- 
 come as to be able each month to pay something on 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 187 
 
 his debt and thus lighten its weight, and that he 
 must keep up this rigid economy until it is all paid. 
 This would involve a self-denial — a stepping down 
 several degrees in the style of his living. He might 
 lose caste in the fashionable circles in which he moves ; 
 it might give him a threadbare coat and a done-over 
 bonnet for his wife, and last year's hats for the girls 
 and boys, and no trip East in the summer for the 
 family. This might be a very unpalatable prescrip- 
 tion to the citizen. He might refuse to take it, and 
 become offended because it w^as even offered him. 
 He is therefore told by the bogus finance doctors 
 that the Government will soon issue more currency, 
 and then the tides of prosperity will flow in and lift 
 bim and his stranded Ijark high above all the snaggy 
 mortgages and bills in bank, and the very breezes 
 from the mountain of greenbacks will send him on 
 the wide, smooth sea of financial success and pros- 
 perity. That suits him, and he goes on spending all 
 his income, and more too, expecting the Government 
 in some way to pay his debts. When the crash 
 comes, resulting from his own folly, he is ready to 
 join the strike or the commune, or anything else 
 that promises him a way to obtain revenge for his 
 failure. 
 
 The disruption of the relations between capital 
 and labor, and the senseless contest in which they are 
 engaged in attempting to destroy each other, is not 
 the result so much of the machinations of King Capi- 
 ital as it is the mischievous trading and cunning of 
 King Bogus. 
 
 It has not been long since the whole Nation 
 
188 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 turned pale at the threats of the tramp. Not that 
 the tramps were of themselves either formidable or 
 dangerous. " It is conscience that makes cowards of 
 us all." The tramps, it was feared, were but the ad- 
 vancing skirmish-line of a mighty host behind them, 
 who had taken for truth what was only intended for 
 political buncombe to secure party triumph. All par- 
 ties have been bidding for the votes of the laboring- 
 man, and, in doing so, they have gone to the extreme 
 of telling him that labor is something to be avoided 
 if possible; that it is not a badge of honor; that 
 capital is conspiring against labor, and robbing it; 
 that the bread that can only be won by toil and in- 
 dustry may be had by legislation; that the earnings 
 of one were the property of all ; that the Government 
 was nothing but organized robbery of the poor, — the 
 good old rule, " By the sweat of your brow you shall 
 eat your bread," is all well enough, but let some one 
 else do the sweating — a sort of vicarious perspira- 
 tion. 
 
 These things had been said by the press and pol- 
 iticians, and repeated and reiterated, until the guilty 
 Nation trembled and quaked with fear lest such mon- 
 strous and wicked falsehoods were actually believed 
 by those to whom they were addressed. They had 
 " sown the wind ;" the slightest breeze made them 
 dread the "whirlwind." If King Bogus is per- 
 mitted to continue to control American politics, the 
 whirlwind will come, and that at no distant day, with 
 fearful power. 
 
 We must dare to tell the people the truth ; dare 
 to tell them that the Government is powerless to help 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 189 
 
 or hiudcr them in the road to prosperity; dare to 
 tell them that success in life depends ou their own 
 skill, their own industryj their own energy in the 
 chosen work of their lives; dare to tell them that 
 men of skill, industry, and energy are in demand 
 everywhere and all the time ; that these qualities 
 command the very highest compensation ; that the 
 Government made by them is their best friend and 
 can not be their enemy ; that that Government, with 
 her strong arm, will protect their rights; that her 
 courts stand open all the time to guard their persons, 
 property, and reputation; but that their bread they 
 must win by their own industry, and their wealth by 
 the practice of economy ; that the law is the expres- 
 sion of the will of the people for the protection of 
 the rights of all, and its rigid enforcement is the best 
 guarantee for the permanence of human liberty, the 
 preservation of order, and the perpetuation of peace 
 and prosperity. 
 
 Let us have for public guides men who will 
 speak the truth and do justice ; men who wall say 
 what they believe to be true, whether they find it in 
 tlie platform of their own party or the one opposing; 
 men who will denounce the false wherever they find 
 it ; men who are better patriots than partisans. Let 
 such be the chosen leaders, and let the bogus states- 
 man be sent to the rear. 
 
 The ambition of King Bogus is boundless. He 
 does not confine his attempts at absolute rule to fash- 
 ionable society and to politics, but he even seeks to 
 sway his scepter in the Church. To accomplish tliis 
 he has a large number of his most brazen and cheeky 
 
190 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 followers enroll themselves as members, who at once 
 seek the highest seat in the synagogue, and take the 
 control if they can. From their professions they make 
 the impression that they are all wool and fast colors ; 
 but' a closer inspection of their practices shows them 
 to be shoddy that won't wash. They seem to labor 
 under the delusion that they can pass inspection by 
 making the loudest and most persistent profession of 
 their religion — that if they but continue to insist that 
 they are genuine and stick to it," mankind will yield 
 the point on no other and better evidence tluin 
 their own repeated assertions. They are the lineal 
 descendants of the same class that King Bogus had 
 some two thousand years ago standing on the corners 
 of the streets, making long prayers — who loved to be 
 called "Rabbi" in the market-places, and in secret 
 robbed even the houses of the widow. 
 
 Every age since then has produced its Pharisees, so 
 sharpened and improved that if the old original stock 
 of the first century were here, they would go out of 
 the business. We can beat the Jews on Pharisees. 
 It is a sight too ridiculous and absurd for any adequate 
 description to see and hear one of these modern 
 Pharisees, with a countenance constructed for the oc- 
 casion — his bogus visor, with sanctimonious phrase — - 
 })rating about how conscientious he is and how sanc- 
 tified he has become, while everybody who knows 
 him or her is in full knowledge of the fact that the 
 Pharisee would cheat the poor and rob the unsus- 
 pecting ; that he thinks more of a nickel than he 
 does of his own soul, the Church, or his God. 
 
 These brassy Church-members undertake to gal- 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 191 
 
 vanize therast'lves with assumed holiness; hut the 
 gilding is too thiu to deceive any but the most ig- 
 norant. The gilding soon wears off, and the brass of 
 the old Adam is seen in large and ugly spots all 
 over them. When they assail the ears of honest peo- 
 ple with their hypocritical cant, there is one word in 
 the heart of all who hear them, and one word on the 
 end of every tongue ready to be spoken, and that 
 word is — Bogus. 
 
 There is a tradition that King Bogus never 
 blushes, that he has no sense of shame, and that he 
 really glories in all his cheats and shams. This may 
 be true as to all his other cheats, but the modern 
 Pharisee is such a gorgeous swindle, such a cheat on 
 holy ground, that neither King Bogus nor the devil 
 can possibly contemplate his work without a sense 
 of mortification. 
 
 Pollok had knowledge of this bogus Christian, 
 and I can not refrain from giving his truthful descrip- 
 tion of the character. He says : 
 " He was a man 
 Who stole the livery of the court of heaven 
 To serve the devil in ; in virtxie's guise 
 Devoured the widow's house and orphan's bread ; 
 In holy phrase transacted villainies 
 That common sinners durst not meddle with. 
 At sacred feasts he sat among ttie saints, 
 And with his guilty hands touched holiest things; 
 And none of sin lamented more, or sighed 
 More deeply ; or with graver countenance, 
 Or longer prayer, wept o'er the dying man 
 Whose infant children at tlie moment he 
 Planned how to rob. In sermon style he bought, 
 And sold, and lied ; and salutations made 
 In Scripture verse. He prayed by quantity, 
 
192 1 HE Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 And with his repetitions long and loud 
 
 All knees were weary. Witii one hand he put 
 
 A penny in the urn of poverty, 
 
 And with the other took a shilling out. 
 
 On charitable lists — those trumps that told 
 
 The public ear who had in secret done 
 
 The poor a 1)enefit, and half the alms 
 
 They told of, took themselves to keep them sounding — 
 
 He blazed his name, more proud to have it there 
 
 Than in the Book of Life. Seest thou the man ? 
 
 A serpent with an angel's voice ; a gx'ave 
 
 With flowers bestrewed." 
 
 Thus King Bogus will destroy the effectiveness of 
 one Church organization by placing its control in the 
 hands of hypocrites; another is crushed by his insist- 
 ing that it must be run on business principles. For 
 this purpose he has his followers in a Church who 
 will claim that it is a sort of joint-stock concern, and 
 that it might almost pay cash dividends if it were 
 only managed, as they say in slang phrase, by " Old 
 Business." If they meant that good old business 
 principle of honesty, paying as you go, and prom- 
 ising nothing that you could not perform, and under- 
 taking nothing you could not complete, it would be 
 well enough. But they mean nothing of the sort. 
 They mean Bogus Business. 
 
 The special aversion of this class is the old meeting- 
 house. It does not matter so much that the old house 
 is well adapted for the purpose for which it was in- 
 tended ; that it is as good as the members can afford. 
 It is old and out of style, and that, with them, is suffi- 
 cient objection. To the sectarian members of the 
 Church, they will argue that, our Church ought to 
 beat all the other denominations in a church edifice; 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 193 
 
 to the pious they will assume a religious zeal they do 
 not really feel by deplering the low state of religion 
 in our Church, and claim that it is the result of the 
 want of style and finish in the meeting-house — that 
 the Lord will never meet with and bless his peoj^le in 
 such a place. 
 
 Thus they will worry, and bluster, and blow, 
 until the old house is torn down, and the congrega- 
 tion is driven to some ])ublic hall for worship. The 
 new building is commenced with about twenty-five 
 per cent of its cost pledged for its payment. During 
 its erection, perhaps twenty-five per cent more of its 
 cost is obtained from the members, and the remaining 
 fifty per cent is borrowed to finish the temple. It has 
 on one corner a fine tower, and on another the 
 tallest and most beautiful steeple in town, towering 
 above and coming nearer heaven than that of any 
 other denomination in the place ; it has a spotted 
 slate roof, and beautiful stone trimmings. In the in- 
 side may be found rich frescoing, costly stucco-work, 
 expensive sittings, shining chandeliers, stained glass, 
 and a most magnificent organ of wonderful power 
 and compass. All this is visible, and challenges ad- 
 miration. The invisible thing, that is the ghost in the 
 house, is the immense mortgage covering half its cost 
 and nearly all its worth. 
 
 At the appointed time, the beautiful structure is 
 
 solemnly dedicated to God for his own, to have 
 
 and to hold, subject to the mortgage aforesaid. 
 
 Very soon in the history of the Church the 
 
 preacher is put on half rations, and all charitable and 
 
 benevolent work ceases, so that the interest on the 
 
 13 
 
194 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 mortgage may be met. Very soou this is not suffi- 
 cient, aud the creditor takes his decree at the court, 
 and tlie sheriff takes the church, and Bogus has com- 
 pleted his work. 
 
 The fact that Church indebtedness in the country 
 is counted by the millions, and that many of the 
 Churches are on the verge of bankruptcy, furnishes 
 fearful and startling evidence of the demoralization 
 of the times. If Christian Churches will not live 
 within their means, if they sacrifice their honor to 
 gratify tlieir passion for style, what may we expect 
 will be their influence on others, and what may we 
 ho]ie for of corporations aud individuals who do not 
 claim to be regulated by the pure morality of the 
 Bible ? 
 
 The first step toward prosperity in this country, 
 and the best remedy for the ills of the times, is to 
 live within the income, pay off the old debts, and 
 contract no new ones. Let the Christians and Chris- 
 tian Churches take the lead in this necessary reform. 
 
 Bogus is too ambitious to remain in the pew. He 
 often ascends the pulpit, and, in place of preaching 
 practical Christianity, he puts on his war-paint and 
 assails all others who do not belong to aud agree 
 with that particular Church. Instead of proclaiming 
 the gospel of love and peace, he stirs up riot and 
 makes war. Instead of breathing into his flock 
 the life-giving truth of the Bible, he poisons and 
 withers their souls with the simoom t)f sectarian big- 
 otry. He magnifies sect above Christianity and dog- 
 matic creeds above the Bible. He reproducfis the 
 very sort of people tliat Christ found engaged iu the 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 195 
 
 mint, anise, and cummin, and omitting the weightier 
 matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. 
 
 The Darwinian theory is, that by a slow process 
 of development and evolution, the human family has 
 come from monkeys. King Bogus says to the pulpit, 
 you must attack that theory; science is making war 
 on religion, and you must defend it. The members 
 of the ministerial profession who are ambitious to be 
 considered stars of the first magnitude, commence to 
 declaim about protoplasm, evolution, and with kin- 
 dred high-sounding words essay to convince their 
 hearers that their grandfathers were not monkeys — a 
 theory they never did believe, and never will believe. 
 Human pride would be sufficient, without the aid of 
 religion or anything else, to prompt the rejection of 
 such distasteful nonsense. The certain results of 
 this sort of prating, as King Bogus well knows, is to 
 call the minds of the hearers from the practical du- 
 ties of Christian living, such as paying honest debts ; 
 keeping the tongue free from falsehood and slander; 
 of doing to others as you would that others should 
 do unto you ; of loving God with all the heart and 
 the neighbor as yourself. 
 
 The Church members, forgetting all these things, 
 soon like the preacher perched on the highest branches 
 of speculation, chattering his scientific gibberish. 
 Spiritually they not only confirm the theory of Dar- 
 win, that their grandfathers were monkeys, but they 
 all corroborate his notion that the evolution is so slow 
 that the changes are scarcely perceptible in three gen- 
 erations. 
 
 Athenagoras, the Greek philosopher, was annoyed 
 
196 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 at his home at Athens, by a ghost who came nightly 
 to his study and rattled a chain with great violence. 
 It turned out, so the history says, after a full investi- 
 gation that the ghost was the spirit of a man who had 
 been murdered on the premises, and had not had the 
 customary burial. The bones were carefully taken 
 up and buried with all the forms and ceremonies of 
 the times, and the ghost was satisfied, and departed, and 
 never more troubled the philosopher. If this Dar- 
 winian theory is but quietly laid away in the sepulcher 
 of forgetfulncss, the monkeys will cease to annoy the 
 pews and the pulpit, and science and religion will 
 continue in all the future to be the very best of 
 friends — a friendship which will grow and strengthen 
 as they become better acquainted. 
 
 The politics and religion of a people like ours, 
 under a Government with such large toleration, give 
 caste and color to our civilization. If Bogus can 
 exert a controlling influence in these, the management 
 of mankind elsewhere is easy. If he could be driven 
 out of politics and religion, it would be easy enough 
 to dislodge him from society at large. If in these, 
 anything less than the genuine is tolerated, it is not 
 surprising that in society and in trade the spurious 
 will win. If political shams and religious humbugs 
 were not countenanced, and mankind would accept 
 nothing but the genuine here, the shoddy in the so- 
 cial circles and the spurious in merchandise would 
 quickly disappear. People who will consent to ac- 
 cept the vaporings of the demagogue for statesman- 
 ship will be found purchasing coffee adulterated with 
 chickory; and those who give ear and faith to hyp- 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 197 
 
 ocrites in the Churches will orDameiit themselves 
 with pinchbeck jewelry ; and all who accept and pro- 
 fess a frieudshij) that they know to be hollow will be 
 found glittering in paste diamonds and drinking wine 
 labeled foreign, but in fact made in this country 
 under the immediate supervision of King Bogus, of 
 the most villainous drugs and compounds that he has 
 in his dispensary. 
 
 When these great fountains of influence are so 
 contaminated with the spurious, it is not strange that 
 flowing from it are numberless infecting streams, 
 poisoning society in all its relations. Even the plain 
 old Anglo-Saxon language has almost lost its mean- 
 ing, and is too rapidly becoming a senseless jargon. 
 
 Somebody once said : " If we can not alter things, 
 we can change their names." In this work King 
 Bogus is an expert. Not long since an old steamboat 
 was purchased to run from Chicago to Milwaukee. 
 She was carefully repainted to make her appear new, 
 and to make her seem strong she was named " The 
 Ironsides." A credulous public, captured by the new 
 paint and strong name painted in large letters on 
 the larboard and starboard and on the streamer 
 above, not only had faith in her speed, but in her 
 strength as well. They not only committed their 
 property but their bodies to " The Ironsides." On 
 the first trip her rotten timbers parted, and sent cargo 
 and passengers to the bottom of Lake Michigan. 
 
 There was recently a worthless Life Insurance 
 Company in Xew York. It had neither capital in 
 the treasury nor honesty in the management. To pop- 
 ularize the sham it Mas named " The Securitv." The 
 
198 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 name took in the crcdalons, and they came forward 
 with their money. They innocently snpposed that the 
 payment of the premium insured their lives; but it 
 soon transpired that it only insured a few rascals a 
 fast life for a few years. It also insured the arrest, 
 trial, and conviction, of the president of the com- 
 pany. He is now in the penitentiary, and the word 
 " Security" begins to have, to him, its old and real 
 meaning. 
 
 I saw in the newspapers that the " Fidelity " 
 Savings Bank had failed and could not pay one cent 
 on the dollar. The Fidelity of that bank consisted 
 in the faithful manner with which the officers embez- 
 zled the funds, and the said savings bank only saved 
 the dupes who deposited their money any further 
 sight of it. 
 
 It is a reasonably safe rule when you see an 
 article of merchandise advertised as the " Peerless," 
 or a machine called the "Matchless," to conclude 
 that there is a big cheat concealed beneath these 
 high-sounding words. When you see a nostrum that 
 claims to cure everything, you may be sure it will 
 cure nothing; and when you hear people who are 
 constantly sounding a trumpet, proclaiming their own 
 perfection, they will bear watching. 
 
 A good thing will go right along on its merits, 
 without the aid of a high-sounding name to push it. 
 So human life is estimated by the good practices, 
 rather than the loud professions. King Bogus under- 
 takes to supply the lack of merit by swindle in the 
 name, and to cover the bad practices in life by the 
 most specious professions. 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 109 
 
 On every hand we meet with people who are 
 " tired to death," " froze to death," '' tickled to death," 
 and almost everything " to death." It is a daily oc- 
 currence among older people, as well as school-girls, 
 to say that "they thought they would die" from some 
 small circumstance producing the slightest mirth or 
 the least possible fright. Something that is not ex- 
 actly agreeable, nowadays, is declared to be "per- 
 fectly awful," or "monstrous," or "horrid." Any- 
 thing that ])leases, however small the pleasure, is 
 declared to be "so sweet," "perfectly splendid," 
 "grand," and "gorgeous." The most expensive ad- 
 jectives are piled on without regard to their value. 
 In this bogus jargon, so common in all the walks of 
 life, words have hxst their meaning ; and, if this sen- 
 timental style of conversation continues to increase 
 in its extravagance and stiltiness, it will not be long 
 until talking plain common sense will be counted 
 among the lost arts. 
 
 If you were to ask me why the mere semblance 
 of a thing, known to be such, is accepted in lieu of 
 the genuine — what is the philosophy of the popularity 
 of Bogus — I should promptly answer that I do not 
 know and can not tell. 
 
 In the darker days of the world's history, man- 
 kind accepted in their belief a thousand things that 
 are now rejected. We pity their ignorance and cre- 
 dulity, and laugh at their folly ; yet we are bound to 
 admit this much in their favor, that they most sin- 
 cerely believed what they claimed to believe. To them, 
 their beliefs were not fancies, but facts; and on these 
 was their faith founded. As light increased, and as 
 
200 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 the capabilities of maukiud to see aud compreheud 
 were developed aud enlarged, their facts were found 
 to be mere fancies, and they were abandoned. This 
 we call progress, and so it is. But now it has come 
 to pass that, in both faith and practice, the manifest 
 falsity of a theory — the plain and palpably spurious 
 character of a thing — does not aifect its acceptability ; 
 so that the line of demarkation between the genuine 
 and the counterfeit is not distinct. This is not 
 progress. 
 
 For instance, the whole business of the American 
 people is done on the bogus basis that credit is cap- 
 ital. An enterprising citizen in one of our Western 
 States boasted that two years ago he was not worth 
 a cent, aud now he owed two million dollars. He re- 
 garded himself as a millionaire. Bankruptcy is the 
 legitimate result of this deception. We all see it and 
 know it, yet persist in it. 
 
 The immense financial interests of the American 
 people continually rest on the shifting sands of pub- 
 lic confidence. A few failures will start a wave of 
 distrust that will soon spread and swell into panicky 
 billows that sweep away the sandy foundation, and 
 everything resting on it is involved in a common 
 ruin. This occurs periodically, yet we learn nothing 
 from it. We are so wedded to shams, and we so 
 love the spurious, that we are continually repeating 
 the folly. 
 
 King Bogus is not only a distinguished inventor, 
 but he has ever been successful as a manufacturer. 
 In this he is without a peer. He has no power of 
 omnipotence to create a world out of nothing, but he 
 
The Reign of King Bogus. 201 
 
 can come nearer such a miracle than auy other finite 
 power. He can take the smallest possible demagogue, 
 and manufacture an immense statesman out of him, 
 and keep him before the people as such for an in- 
 credible length of time — a miracle almost as wonderful 
 as the five loaves .and two fishes, with the difference 
 that when the demagogue is used up there is nothing 
 left, not even one basketful of remains. King Bogus 
 can manufacture a reputation for literature, for law, 
 for medicine, for wisdom generally, for one of his own 
 puppets, and with it the cheat can do an immense 
 business, accumulate a fortune, and create a tremen- 
 dous sensation out of it, before a sham-loving world 
 will abandon their idolatry. 
 
 He can manufacture a remedy for every ill that 
 flesh is heir to, and have the whole world with wry 
 faces swallowing his nostrums, or with child-like con- 
 fidence bathing with his sham and worthless lini- 
 ments. So eager arc the lumian race for his rascally 
 drug-decoctions that they will even imagine they have 
 a disease, so that they may enroll themselves on the 
 list of his patients and have the delight of using his 
 nostrums. 
 
 The most powerful abettor in the work of makino 
 statesmen out of demagogues, pills out of dough, 
 lawyers out of shysters, doctors out of quacks, and 
 philosophers out of fools, is the newspaper of the 
 times. Mankind are so prone to believe what they 
 see printed that, with a very large portion of the 
 press on his side. King Bogus can make his shams 
 go right along with the powerful help of ink and 
 types. 
 
202 The Reign of King Bogus. 
 
 Tlie remedy, if it can be applied, is manifest. 
 The individual man must assert himself. He must 
 break the bonds of fashion that have bound him, 
 cease to be the mere slave of custom, free himself 
 from the dictation of dogma and cant, go with his 
 party only when his conscience and his judgment tell 
 liim that it is right, have the manly courage to de- 
 fend the truth and assail the false, reject the spuri- 
 ous and demand and accept nothing but the genuine, 
 rebel against the reign of King Bogus, and "fight it 
 out on that line" if it takes a life-time. 
 
A SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 
 
 WHEN the record of human life is made up, il 
 ought to present the happy combination of 
 oaviug accomplished the promotion of the general 
 ?ood, and at the same time have won to the indi- 
 vidual great personal achievement. Such a life is 
 i»ven and well balanced. Its completeness challenges 
 the just admiration of all observers; and its iuHusnce 
 is a blessing and a benediction. 
 
 Like an unbroken and })olished column, standing 
 alone amidst the rubbish and broken fragments of the 
 ruins of a great city, so is such a life amidst the wasted 
 and worthless lives on every side. The true destiny 
 and duty of every human being is to strive for such 
 a life, to make such an enviable record. He is not to 
 sacrifice himself for others, or others for himself. 
 While he is not to be selfish, he is not required to 
 give up his self-love. While the former is detestable 
 and degrading, the latter is commendable and en- 
 nobling. 
 
 One may summon every power that God has given 
 him, and place these precious gifts under constant 
 drill and training, and, when ready for his mission in 
 life, he may enter the contest with all his cultivated 
 forces, and with the courage of a hero and tiie 
 
 Delivered before the Literary Societies of tlie Indiana 
 State Universit}'. 
 
 203 
 
204 A Successful Life. 
 
 gallantry of a knight may fight for the victory. And 
 when it is won, it is his. He is not required to put 
 aside and refuse to accept the just promotion that his 
 bravery has won for him. While humanity grate- 
 fully accepts the benefits that his courage has won 
 for the race ; while civilization may move up a de- 
 gree or two because of his heroic removal of hinder- 
 ing causes in the way ; while halting human progress 
 is enabled to advance a step or two because of his 
 chivalry, — yet whatever of personal benefits that have 
 legitimately resulted to him are rightfully his. It is 
 his manifest duty to accept and appropriate them as 
 the trophies of his triumph. It rounds out and 
 makes symmetrical the life of the hero ; and it stands 
 before the world in its perfectness and beauty, a 
 model for imitation and a stimulus to human am- 
 bition. 
 
 The life that gives everything to others and re- 
 serves nothing for self, becomes a voluntary and un- 
 necessary sacrifice on the world's altar. While it may 
 call out the best love and sympathy of our hearts, 
 there is yet mingled with our affection a painful sense 
 of commiseration. Beautiful as it may be, the injus- 
 tice of the sacrifice is the blot on the picture. On the 
 other hand, the life that greedily grasps all for self, 
 and refuses to divide with humanity, excites only our 
 contempt and hate. The one leaning entirely to hu- 
 manity, the other leaning entirely to self, — both are 
 out of plumb. The model and beautiful life is the one 
 standing erect between the two. 
 
 I am willing to concede that this statement is 
 justly subject to modification. There have been many 
 
A Successful Life 205 
 
 times and periods in tlie history of the human race, 
 and the same ^vill doubtless occur again and again in 
 the coming future, when the individual must give up 
 all for his race or his government. In the future, as 
 in the past, he may be required to become a martyr 
 for the cause of truth. Individual man may often 
 yet be called upon to forego all personal aims, ambi- 
 tions, and desires, and ])lace everything — even life it- 
 self — on the altar of sacrifice. 
 
 It is strong if not conclusive evidence that man is 
 created in the image of his !Maker that in all times 
 and periods of the past, whenever these demands have 
 been made, many have rushed to the sacrifice as to a 
 banquet. This noble band of martyrs is the crown- 
 ing glory of our humanity in their sacrificial offerings 
 of themselves for the good of their fellow-men. 
 
 In the darker days of the world's history, it seems 
 that civilization could only be moved a degree or two 
 higher by placing the bodies of those who loved and 
 dared for the truth beneath the wheels of the car of 
 human progress. The individual was compelled to 
 die that the truth might live. It is a comforting re- 
 flection that these sacrifices, cruel and bloody as they 
 were, were not altogether vain. 
 
 "Whenever the guillotine smote off the head of a 
 martyr, it sundered a band of superstition that bound 
 the race; and from the smoldering embers of the 
 burning fagots that sent the soul of the Christian to 
 heaven in a cliariot of fire and flame, there has ever 
 been seen a luminous ray that continued to point the 
 world to the path that grew brighter and brighter. 
 
 As the human race steps higher and reaches the 
 
206 A Successful Life. 
 
 broader plains of truth, those extraordinary demands 
 on the individual will become less frequent, and in 
 the co::iing and better future they will cease alto- 
 gether, — cease when persecutions and war shall be 
 compelled to lay aside their bloody weapons, and 
 meet at the bar of reason and justice for the settle- 
 ment and adjustment of all disputed questions. 
 
 It is not my purpose to take these into account 
 on this occasion. I do not propose to consider the 
 duties that war, persecution, or pestilence may re- 
 quire of the individual man, but rather to turn aside 
 from these terrible convulsions that so disrupt the 
 rights and relations of the human family, to the con- 
 sideration of life in the more peaceful hours of hap- 
 piness and prosperity. 
 
 In view of the interesting fact that I find myself 
 the honored guest of this University, and of the more 
 interesting fact that this is Commencement occasion, 
 and that I am in the presence of so many who are 
 preparing to go hence and enter the harder school of 
 life's experience — a school whose curriculum reaches to 
 the end of life — I have chosen for the theme, as fit and 
 appropriate for the occasion, -^ A Successful Life." 
 
 An elaborate discussion of the theme can not be 
 attemi)ted. The subject is too large for the discus- 
 sion of an hour. The complete record of all the 
 trials and conflicts, the victories and defeats, the hopes 
 and fears, the aspirations and ambitions, the tempta- 
 tions and trials of a single life that has been allotted 
 full measure of threescore and ten years, would fill 
 more volumes than may be found in the libraries of 
 your societies. 
 
A Successful Life. 207 
 
 Such a record has never yet been made, and never 
 will be. All of the ethical writings of the literature 
 of the world would not make even the preface to the 
 varied experiences of one single successful human 
 life. Even the most gifted, who may have the clear- 
 est and brightest experience, could never begin to tell 
 the story of the many and varied emotions of his 
 soul. They are 
 
 "As innumerable as the stars of night, 
 Or stars of morning dew-drops, which the sun 
 Impearls on every leaf and flower." 
 
 The most that may be attempted here is to sound 
 a note or two of warning to those who are just enter- 
 ing on their life's career, that success depends more on 
 common sense than sentimentality, — that no enthusi- 
 asm is of any force that is not the result of a con- 
 viction which is the outgrowth of deep and intelli- 
 gent reflection. 
 
 Without considering seriously what is required, 
 every student expects to make his a successful life. 
 It was this that in most cases prompted the student 
 to leave the happy circle of home endearments and 
 enter these halls of learning, that he might, by the 
 aid of good mental training, make it sure. 
 
 So confident and hopeful are most students that 
 they can and will win in the race of life, that the 
 hours of college drill and training seem long and 
 tedious. They weary of the monotony of the prep- 
 aration, and are impatient to enter the lists for the 
 prizes in life, doubting not of success. The many 
 failures in life all around them do not seem to check 
 their ardor or cause them to hesitate. 
 
208 A Successful Life. 
 
 Perhaps it is well that this is so. But it would 
 be better if the many failures that are constantly be- 
 fore thera would cause them to make a more careful 
 survey of the causes producing these unhappy re- 
 sults, to the end that they might avoid the same 
 breakers that have wrecked those around them. 
 
 On every race-course the racers struggle for the 
 advantages that may be obtained in the start. It is 
 deemed by them of the first importance to secure 
 this, to promote the chances of winning. To meet 
 the obligations and duties of life, and cause it to be 
 a blessing to others and a personal success, we must 
 calculate all these advantages that may be secured in 
 the beginning of the race. The success or failure 
 depends largely on this. 
 
 Sydney Smith says : " Let every man be occupied 
 ^n the highest employment of which his nature is 
 capable, and die with a consciousness that he has 
 done his best." No man can do his best unless he 
 does the very thing his Creator intended him to do. 
 He must follow the very path in life that has been 
 chosen for him, and fulfill the mission that has been 
 so mysteriously selected for him. 
 
 To meet all the varied requirements of human 
 society, and to promote in the highest degree the 
 civilization and happiness of humanity, a countless 
 number of gifts are given to the children of men. 
 One favor is mysteriously bestowed on one, and a 
 different gift to another, and thus the numberless 
 blessings are passed around, and none are entirely 
 overlooked. To the favored few, rare and extraor- 
 dinary powers are given. 
 
A Successful Life. 209 
 
 If the student passes through the curricuhim of 
 the college, bearing away the highest honors of his 
 class, if he has neglected to look within his own 
 nature to learn what was intended for liira to do, his 
 education is not finished; it is not really commenced. 
 He must know himself so thoroughly that he will be 
 assured of what he can do best. 
 
 Having made this important discovery, he should 
 not allow himself to be diverted from this very path 
 his natural aptitudes point out that he must fol- 
 low. If he finds, as is often the case, that there 
 seems to be no special work for him to do, that one 
 path in life is as plain as another, he will be sure to 
 make this discovery, that there are many paths that 
 he is plainly forbidden to follow. These that he learns 
 are thus prohibited he must certainly avoid, and 
 make his choice from the -plainest of the others. 
 He must pursue the mission to which it leads with 
 all his soul, mind, and strength. 
 
 To the end that he may have a full and clear 
 conception of his own powers, and to intelligently 
 determine whether he is fitted for any special work, 
 the student must, at the very outset in life, divest 
 himself of all self-conceit and vanity, and diligently 
 and honestly study the deep mysteries of his own 
 being. 
 
 If he finds, in the deep recesses of his soul or in 
 the hidden chambers of his mind, the finger of God 
 pointing the way he must go, there is no choice but 
 to obey. It may not be in the direction of his de- 
 sires or ambition. Such an investigation may result 
 in humiliation and self-abasement. It may cause 
 
 14 
 
210 A Successful Life. 
 
 many a splendid air-castle to vanish. It may dispel 
 the delightful dreams and scatter the sweet delusions 
 that have blinded his vision from the sight of life's 
 realities, and brought such sweet peace and hope lo 
 his heart. It may break in pieces every idol he has 
 devoutly worshiped. It will require the highest type 
 of courage to make this necessary self-examination. 
 Mankind naturally incline to think more highly of 
 themselves than they ought to think, and to maintain 
 tills good opinion they tell more falsehoods to them- 
 selves than they do to the world. They cheat them- 
 selves in regard to themselves more than they cheat 
 others. But, unwelcome as may be the revelation, if 
 not made at the beginning by an honest and volun- 
 tary effort, it will force itself without bidding after- 
 ward. The humiliation will come some time; better a 
 time when the eyes of 'the world are not the wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 When the great genius, whether in art, eloquence, 
 or invention, startles and awakens a sleepy world by 
 his matchless performance, and gathers to himself a 
 rich harvest of fame or wealth, his ambitious specta- 
 tors seem to forget the important injunction: "Know 
 thyself." A countless throng of imitators spring up, 
 and vainly strive to reach the same eminence. They 
 forget that the genius did not climb to the point he 
 occupies ; he was there from the first. God, with his 
 own divine and omnipotent arm, lifted him there. 
 
 If he be a painter, he is but transferring to the 
 canvas the beautiful pictures with which his Maker 
 has decorated his gifted soul. If he be a poet, he is 
 but scattering the flowers on the pathway of life 
 
A Successful Life. 211 
 
 that grow so luxuriously in the garden of his soul, 
 where the seed has been sown by the Author of 
 everything that is lovely. If he be an orator, whose 
 thundering eloquence crashes through the moss- 
 covered battlements of public opinion, sweeping away 
 with its resistless force the obstacles and long stand- 
 ing abuses that custom has placed directly in the 
 way of human advancement, carrying away many an 
 ancient creed and venerable dogma, and compelling 
 mankind to search anew amid the ruins he has made 
 for the truth, it must not be forgotten that he was 
 called and endowed for this w^ork by wisdom that is 
 infinite. 
 
 As the lightning that flashes from the angry brow of 
 the cloud, burning up the noxious gases and purifying 
 the very atmosphere we breathe, is an emanation 
 from the source of all wisdom, no less are the flash- 
 ings of the orator, consuming the fogs of superstition 
 and prejudice that blind the minds and darken the 
 souls of mankind. The vast number who, possessing 
 none of these rare gifts, essay to be the peers of the 
 genius, and undertake to accomplish the same thing, 
 are but feeble imitators, and most ridiculous failures. 
 
 "Tompkins forsakes liis last and awl, 
 For literary squabbles; 
 Styles himself " Poet;" but his trade 
 Remains the same — he cobbles." 
 
 The world in all ages has been full of them ; the 
 shores of the great ocean of human life and des- 
 tiny are strewn with these wrecks — human failures, 
 stranded and broken on tlio rocks and reefs, around 
 which those with greater natural gifts have sailed in 
 
212 A SuccEsssuL Life. 
 
 safety. What bitterness and disappointment, wliat 
 mortification and remorse might have been avoided, 
 had all this vast throng of mere imitators but had 
 the courage to honestly look at their incapacity, and 
 only undertaken the work they could have done with 
 usefulness to others and honor to themselves ! It is 
 as much a duty the student owes to society as to 
 himself, that he should do well what he attempts to 
 do, that he should know how to fulfill the require- 
 ments of his life-work. 
 
 The human race, in the most advanced and culti- 
 vated portions, have but just marched out from be- 
 neath a dark cloud of ignorance and superstition. 
 The greater portion of the human family are still 
 found in the rear, groping their uncertain way in the 
 darkness and gloom of barbarism. To widen the 
 area of civilization, to bring the world more and 
 more under its influence, to wage an aggressive war 
 on the domain of barbarism and seize and occupy 
 the territory, requires that every educated human 
 being should know enough to know what he can 
 do best. 
 
 Humanity needs all the well-directed efforts of 
 every member to widen the bounds of, and perfect, 
 our civilization. The misdirected efforts and the 
 worse than wasted energy of that innumerable host 
 who are so ignorant of their own capability as to 
 spend their lives in trying to accomplish impossible 
 things, is an incalculable loss to the elevating and 
 reformatory forces. Not only a loss, but an absolute 
 hindrance. These incapables are as serious an ob- 
 struction to the forward march of civilization as the 
 
A Successful Life. 213 
 
 sick and wounded are to the movements of an army. 
 As iu war a large force of strong fighting men are 
 detailed to take care of the cripples, so in human 
 progress a heavy drain is constantly made on the in- 
 telligence of the world to correct the mistakes and 
 mend the breaches that have been made by the inca- 
 pables and the blunderers. 
 
 It may be said that failure to perform well and 
 thoroughly the duties of life does not result so nmch 
 from an unfortunate choice of work as from a lack 
 of energy to prosecute it to a successful issue. To a 
 limited extent this may be true; but a careful investi- 
 gation will, in most cases, disclose the fact that the 
 lack of energy is the result of a want of adaptation to 
 the work in hand. 
 
 There is nothing so inspiring as the delightful 
 realization that the duty to be done is fully compre- 
 hended, and that we have the ability to do and per- 
 form it well. This consciousness is electrical. It 
 touches and quickens the mental and physical activ- 
 ities, and puts the whole man to active work with 
 a speed and force beyond which he supposed he was 
 capable. 
 
 It is the failure to fully understand the work be- 
 fore us, and the distrust of the ability to do it, that 
 cause the halting and doubting and lack of energy. 
 "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good 
 we oft might win by fearing to attempt." There 
 may be a case here and there where the right path 
 in life has been chosen — when the work to be done 
 is clearly understood ; and yet the worker lags and 
 refuses to do it. The large majority are of the 
 
£14 A Successful Life. 
 
 other class I have named, and they make the rule 
 good. 
 
 There are other serious ills growing out of this 
 evil of mistaking the vocation of life. It poisons 
 the very fountain of human happiness by creating a 
 mighty host of grumblers, malcontents, and misan- 
 thropes. They may be found in every social circle, 
 and in the business marts — in every place the human 
 race meet in the varied duties of life — chilling the 
 ardor of human pursuit, and making discords in the 
 songs of human triumphs by their doleful lamenta- 
 tions and pitiful complainings. Too proud or dis- 
 honest to admit that the cause of their failure is with 
 themselves, they unjustly charge that others are con- 
 spiring against them ; and they fill their disordered 
 fancy with a thousand baseless suspicions, and become 
 the enemies of all others who are successful. En- 
 tirely conscious of the fact that he is a failure, no 
 amount of flattery can remove that dreadful fact from 
 such a person's mind ; and, looking for the reason in 
 every direction but the right one, he goes blundering 
 through life, mingling the misery he feels with the 
 joys of all others with whom he comes in contact. 
 To the more sensitive this unhappiness too often ends 
 in the mad-house, or in self-destruction. If this 
 view of the subject be correct, it becomes a matter 
 of the highest public interest to correct the evil. 
 
 In the intricate and dependent relations of human 
 life, every individual has stock in every other man. 
 His capabilities and his energies are the capital 
 basis. From these must come the dividends that 
 the individual declares to society and to himself. 
 
A Successful Life. 215 
 
 Tu a mischosen vocation, not only are the capa- 
 bilities of the individual wasted by the friction that 
 results from want of adaptation to his work, but the 
 failure to accomplish expected results soon prostrates 
 and paralyzes his energy ; and, in the noonday of 
 life, when he ought to be in the height of his useful- 
 ness and the zenith of his glory, his sun sets behind 
 the dark clouds of discontent and despair. Society 
 has lost a worker, and civilization a helper, and the 
 truth of Holy Writ is corroborated that " no man 
 liveth to himself." 
 
 That so many choose the wrong path, and so few 
 are doing what their capacity warrants them in at- 
 tempting — that in all the departments of human 
 action are found such a host of mediocres and blun- 
 derers — is very largely the fault of a false public 
 opinion. Public sentiment must enlarge her premium 
 list. The prizes must not be confined to those who 
 succeed in the learned professions or in war or in 
 politics; but the rule must be that all w^ho wisely 
 choose their calling, and then do their best in it — 
 doing, if possible, better than any who have trod the 
 same path before — let them be the heroes. Let not 
 the honor attach to the calling or profession, but to 
 the thorough and complete manner in which the duties 
 pertaining to it are performed. Let every work, 
 necessary to the well-being and happiness of the 
 human race, bring him who performs it well to the 
 same front line with every other successful life. 
 
 Whether in agriculture, in the work-shop, in the 
 mine, or in the quarry, wherever a human being is 
 using all his powers to the best advantage, and ac- 
 
216 A Successful Life. 
 
 complishing the greatest results of which he is capa- 
 ble, let the same praise be given as to those who dis- 
 tinguish themselves on the judicial bench or at the 
 bar or in the pul])it. Let the seductive charms that 
 false public opinion has lent to the few callings in 
 life be dispelled; let the ban of disfavor which has 
 been, by the same influence, placed on the many use- 
 ful vocations be removed ; let them stand with no 
 mere arbitrary merit or demerit, bidding the beginner 
 of his life's work make his choice, and promising 
 equal honor to all who do their best, — emphasizing the 
 couplet of Pope: 
 
 "Honor and shame from no condition rise; 
 Act well your part — there all the honor lies." 
 
 Let there be no more of the vicious teaching ol 
 the young that the great end and aim of life is to 
 choose a profession that will give them character and 
 position in society. Let us rather strive to impress 
 their minds that human life is a high and holy mis- 
 sion, and that each soul bears the burden of a sacred 
 trust, and that that trust can only be executed by 
 doing the most and all they can do in the range of 
 their powers; and that when the duties are well done, 
 in whatever sphere of human action it may be, the 
 successful man there is the peer of every other faith- 
 ful man, and thai his position among men can only 
 be attained in that way — by fidelity to his trust; and 
 that all other praise besides this is false and 
 worthless. 
 
 This would, it seems to me, remove a mountain of 
 difficulty and embarrassment out of the way, and a 
 
A Successful Life. 217 
 
 correct choice would then be the rule, and a wrong 
 one the exception. 
 
 When our young men see that the workl's hon- 
 ors are given for genuine merit and true manliood; 
 when public sentiment is so elevated that no profes- 
 sion ranks higher than the man who, with but one 
 talent, is using it to the best advantage ; when they 
 find that it is more honorable to be a success in a call- 
 ing within the range of their capacity than to be a fail- 
 ure in what is called the higher professions, — then, and 
 not till then, will they cease to be tempted from the 
 path designed for them. 
 
 Public opinion here, as elsewhere, with its almost 
 resistless power, controls the destinies of the indi- 
 vidual. When it is for the right, no wrong can 
 stand against it ; when it is wrong, it is an almost 
 insurmountable obstacle to progress. 
 
 Young men inheriting a wealth of physical 
 strength and vigor, with mind enough to make them 
 useful in making tunnels through the mountains or 
 spanning the rivers with bridges, in helping in the 
 construction of railways and in assisting to operate 
 them, in building cities, and in clearing away the 
 wildneruess and making it bud and blossom like the 
 rose, fitting it as a suitable abode for civilized man, 
 are seduced, by these partial awards that society 
 makes, from their grand position on the skirmish-line 
 of our advancing civilization, for which they are so 
 well adapted, to enter the learned professions, for 
 which they have no fitness. 
 
 Young men who ought to be at the forge, shap' 
 ing the iron into things of beauty and utility, and, 
 
218 A Successful Life. 
 
 with their steady and stalwart blows, filliug their 
 shops with the shining sparks from their anvils, are 
 but too often found at the bar or in the pulpit, pound- 
 ins: at the statutes and commentaries or the Old 
 and New Testaments, without sending out a spark of 
 light from either as the result of their misdirected 
 efforts. 
 
 Young men with the rose of health on their 
 cheeks, and with the bone and muscle of giants, hav- 
 ing no capacity as teachers, are pining away and 
 wasting their rich inheritance in some narrow garret 
 they call their study, delving into Greek and Latin 
 lexicons and grammars in search of the roots of 
 these dead languages, while God intended them to 
 be behind the plow, tearing up roots in the way of 
 the plowman, animated by the laudable ambition to 
 be the best farmer and have the best farm in the 
 country. 
 
 Young men, infatuated with the delusion that they 
 possess such a wealth of imagination that they can 
 become stars of the first magnitude in the firmament 
 of fiction or poetry, — who are beating their barren 
 brains, in imitation of the poet, 
 
 " Their ej'es in fine frenzy rolling,"— 
 
 would be better filling their mission by roUing logs 
 in their fathers' clearing. 
 
 In every civilized land, in all the highways and 
 byways of human action, we find the pitiful army of 
 mediocres. Among them is the briefless lawyer, the 
 starving physician, the threadbare preacher, the im- 
 pecunious teacher, all begging the world to ask them 
 
A Successful Life. 219 
 
 to do something they do not know how to do and 
 will never learu. They spend their lives in idle 
 amazement that a stubborn public will not put their 
 property, their bodies, their souls, and their children 
 under their charge and keeping. 
 
 They vainly imagine that the public are so stupid 
 as not to have discovered that they would not know 
 what to do with them if they had them. In this they 
 are sadly mistaken. The world has found out their 
 incapacity to meet the demands, and is rushing by 
 them, led only by those who have wisely chosen their 
 work and know how to do it. 
 
 It might be pertinent to ask right here, as to 
 whether there is any rule by which the individual 
 may know what path in life will most certainly lead 
 to success. 
 
 If the metaphysicians have made any clear and 
 w^ell-defiued declaration on this subject, I am not 
 aware of it. When great gifts are given to men, 
 these extraordinary powers lead the way by their own 
 innate strength. They overlap all barriers of poverty 
 or obscure birth, or any and all of the many obstruc- 
 tions that artificial society may place in the way, and 
 by their own force bring their fortunate possessor 
 into the royal way; and with his majestic step he 
 rapidly reaches the front, and demands and receives 
 merited recognition. 
 
 When the natural bent of the mind is less marked, 
 and the gifts are of the ordinary type, the path is 
 more obscure. A searching and honest examina- 
 tion will in all cases disclose the aptitude of 
 the mind, and inclinations of the soul will fur- 
 
220 A Successful Life. 
 
 nisli a reasonably sure guide to the work assigned. 
 And with that choice one must be content. He 
 must cease to indulge in the flights of a senseless and 
 unreasoning ambition to be what he can not possibly 
 attain, and must indulge in the more rational endeavor 
 to conquer all within the range of the circle wherein 
 lie is called to move. He must not halt or doubt. Ho 
 must enter into no argument with himself as to the 
 propriety of his choice, but go right forward man- 
 fully to the chosen work of his life. If the expected 
 rewards and triumphs do not come this year he must 
 have the patience and courage to wait until the 
 next, — as Longfellow has it : 
 
 "Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 Learn to labor, and to wait." 
 
 I do not mean to say that success will come as 
 the result of a correct choice of the pursuit in life. 
 It will not come without it, yet it is only one essen- 
 tial and important step. It must be supplemented 
 with a ceaseless and untiring determination to be 
 perfect in the chosen work. It may take years of 
 toil and effort, in which time there may be many dis- 
 appointments and defeats, yet the grand result is sure 
 to come at last. 
 
 In the meantime, the mental, moral, and physical 
 powers of one's being must not be enervated by the 
 poison of vicious habits. He must study and fully 
 comprehend all the laws of his entire being and 
 obey them. While he renders " unto Csesar the 
 things that are Csesar's," he must at the same time, 
 with greater homage, " render unto God the things 
 that are God's." With a clear and full comprehen- 
 
A Successful Life. 221 
 
 sion of all his powers, a conscientious conviction of 
 his duties and obligations to God and man, out of 
 even moderate abilities may come grand, concen- 
 trated powers; may come real greatness, producing 
 great results, if pushed by a will-power that makes 
 no halting or debating, and is not enervated I)y 
 doubting. 
 
 Every sound mind in a healthy body has some 
 element of greatness and power that may make itself 
 felt and recognized, if it be directed in the proper 
 course and driven by a strong, untiring determina- 
 tion to win. To cultivate and develop the natural 
 power, to find the proper direction and to strengthen 
 and bring into action this indispensable will-power, 
 is the practical education of humanity. 
 
 But even then one may make a failure. He must 
 have behind it all, and beneath it all, a strong, vigorous 
 common sense — a common sense broad enough to see 
 and comprehend every side of every practical question 
 in life — broad enough to keep the man from becoming 
 the victim of crotchets, and to keep him out of the 
 narrow ruts of the hobby-riders. He must cultivate 
 such a devotion for the truth that he will recognize 
 it and accept it, whether he finds it on the side of 
 his preconceived opinions, or opposed to them. He 
 must hail her standard, and elevate it above the 
 world's parties and creeds, and follow it, whether it 
 leads in the way of the many or the few. He must 
 have the manly courage to de^y public opinion and 
 popular clamor, and stand firm in his conviction of 
 duty and right. 
 
 While he should have proper reverence for the 
 
222 A Successful Life. 
 
 discoveries that have been made iu the past, and the 
 theories that the great miuds of the worhl have left 
 behind them, for liis guidance and direction; yet, if 
 he be a success, he must do his own thinking. By 
 constantly consulting the man within, he will develop 
 into strength. By leaning constantly on the minds 
 of others, he will become a weakling and a dwarf. 
 His destiny is in his own hands, and to work it out 
 successfully, it must be done by his own innate and 
 cultivated strength. 
 
 The world is progressing. Mankind is constantly 
 moving up to a higher and broader plane ; and each 
 forward and upward step discloses new relations, de- 
 manding new methods and requiring new plans, for 
 which the past can furnish no guide. 
 
 The self-reliant thinkers are put in the front ; 
 those who never think, but are always searching for 
 a precedent, are put in the rear. The former are the 
 famous leaders; the latter are the unknown followers. 
 
 " In the world's broad field of battle, 
 In the bivouac of life, 
 Be not like dumb, driven cattle; 
 Be a hero in the strife." 
 
 In this progressive age there are countless un- 
 claimed crowns in every department of human action, 
 brighter and richer than any that have yet been wr)n 
 or worn, awaiting the brows of the heroes worthy to 
 wear them. These crowns will be placed on the 
 heads of all those who, in their several spheres of 
 action, have taken advanced steps, and added new 
 pages to the record of human progress. 
 
 The vast volumes of human civilization are yet 
 
A Successful Life. 223 
 
 to be written. "We are but the first volume now. AVe 
 are but fairly beginning to comprehend something of 
 the laws governing mind and matter. In every di- 
 rection, therefore, new discoveries may be made, and 
 the grandest achievements may be accomplished. 
 
 These discoveries will yield rich rewards, not only 
 to the race, but to the discoverers. At this period, 
 therefore, there is no lack of incentives to attempt a 
 successful life. These incentives may be more abun- 
 dant and glorious in the coming and better future ; 
 but the past can furnish no parallel to the present in 
 this regard. If any human life is a failure now, it is 
 because of a refusal to undertake what could be 
 accomplished, or, knowing what might be done, neg- 
 lecting to do it. 
 
 Every human being that makes the most that can 
 be made out of himself, and reaches the highest possi- 
 ble development of his capacity, is but discharging a 
 duty he owes to himself and to society. To do this, 
 his work must not only be congenial to his nature, but 
 must be within the range of his capacity to perform 
 it well. As he progresses in it and with it, his com- 
 prehension of his duties will become clearer and 
 broader; and if he will then back it up with an un- 
 yielding determination to win, he will be constantly 
 finding new relations and laws hitherto hidden and 
 undiscovered in the domain of his activity. With 
 success will come growth, and with that greatly in- 
 creased power and energy; and he will thus make 
 himself a member of the royal family of the suc- 
 cessful — a family that have, and will ever have, the 
 homage of mankind. 
 
224 A Successful Life. 
 
 . Some one has given utterance to this queer ex- 
 pression, that " there is nothing so successful as suc- 
 cess ;" but it is as true as it is quaint. Many a 
 halting, doubting soul has been strengthened and 
 ([uiekened into a useful life by sini})ly learning, after 
 a single effort, that he is a success. It becomes the 
 constant and sustaining stinmlant in all the conflicts 
 and labors, the aspirations and ambitions, of after 
 life. Success re-enforces itself from itself. As the 
 rain and sunshine, the dews and the winds, cause the 
 twig to send out deeper and stronger roots, and raise 
 higher and larger its trunk, causing it to fling out 
 longer and stronger branches to be kissed by wel- 
 coming breezes : so does success deepen and enlarge 
 the capacities of man, and elevate and magnify 
 him among men; and, amid the storms of life, he 
 stands firm and strong in the well-assured conscious- 
 ness of a merit that has been tested and found to 
 be genuine. 
 
 He feels himself that he is a nobleman, recogniz- 
 ing the full truth uttered by Young : 
 
 " Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
 Does well, acts noblj' ; angels could no more." 
 
 Aside from all considerations of wealth or fame, 
 there is in success this grand developing process, 
 that of itself is worth all the effort to attain it. It 
 is the mighty educator of the race. It battles down 
 the walls of opposition, and raises higher and higher 
 the standard of human excellence and accomplish- 
 ment. It infuses into the human soul grander con- 
 ceptions of the glory and dignity of human nature, 
 and calls into action the whole strength of his being. 
 
A Successful Life. 225 
 
 It makes the weak strong; it causes the timid to be 
 bold, and fills the doubting soul with living faith. 
 It so inspires the human race with hojie and courage 
 that the impossible becomes possible, and men do and 
 dare to undertake what would seem to be beyond 
 the boundary of the finite. 
 
 But there is a higher consideration than our duty 
 to ourselves or to society. Whatever ability we may 
 have, and whatever of energy we possess to put it 
 at the work of life, is the gift of God. While we 
 should prize the praise of our fellow-men when suc- 
 cess comes, and while we should value still higher 
 the approbation of our own conscience and con- 
 sciousness that we are doing our best, yet the sweet- 
 est reward should be, that He who selected our mis- 
 sion in life, and gave the full cajiacity to meet all its 
 requirements, looks an approving smile on the record 
 of our life's usefulness. 
 
 Keeping this reward constantly in view, it drives 
 out envyings, jealousies, and so purifies the purpose 
 of the man that none of these selfish and narrow tend- 
 encies of human nature are permitted to hinder and 
 interfere with his devotion to the work of life. It is 
 not only a powerful ally to insure his success in the 
 special mission of his life ; but with this fixed })rin- 
 ciple of his life, in all his varied relations and duties 
 he measures up to the full stature of a man. It 
 sweetens, purifies, and mingles with joy the contents 
 of the cup of life's existence, so that, in sunshine and 
 in storm, in prosperity or in adversity, he bravely and 
 joyously bears the burdens of his own work, cheered 
 
 by the appreciation of his fellow-men, supported by 
 
 15 
 
226 A Successful Life. 
 
 his own self-respect, and sustained and upheld by the 
 Arm that is more than human. 
 
 Estimating the consciousness of duty well done 
 above the praise of men, and placing- the rcAvards of 
 a good conscience higher than the luxury of wealth, 
 I commend the words of the poet : 
 
 " What shall I do lest life in silence pass ? 
 
 And if it do, 
 And never prompt the bray of noisy brass, 
 
 What need'st thon rue? 
 Remember aye the ocean's deei)S are mute, 
 
 The shallows roar ; 
 Worth is the ocean, — fame is but the bruit 
 
 Along the shore. 
 
 What shall I do to be forever known ? 
 
 Thy duty ever; 
 This did full many who yet sleep unknown ; — 
 
 O never, never, 
 Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown 
 
 Whom thou knowest not? 
 By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown ; 
 
 Divine their lot. 
 
 AVhat shall I do to gain eternal life ? 
 
 Discbarge aright 
 The simple dues of which each day is rife ? 
 
 Yea, with thy might. 
 Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise. 
 
 Will life be fled. 
 While he who acts as conscience cries 
 
 Shall live, though dead." 
 
THE DOCTOR. 
 
 DURING the late war, while I was stationed in 
 Washington, I called on President Lincoln one 
 day, and he told me that Ex-Senator John B. AYeller 
 had that day applied to him for the position of com- 
 modore in the navy. The President said : " I asked 
 Mr. AVeller what he knew about naval affairs, and he 
 said he knew nothing whatever; but he added that, 
 from the character of some of the brigadier-generals 
 I had recently appointed, he thought the less he 
 knew, the better would be his chances." 
 
 It is a singular fact that this incident had entirely 
 passed out of my recollection — had been forgotten for 
 many long years — until I received the invitation from 
 the dean of this medical faculty to make this address. 
 AVhy this invitation should have so refreshed my 
 recollection, I leave you to infer. 
 
 The inscription over the doorway of the Pytha- 
 gorean schools of philosophy in ancient Greece said, 
 " Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here." I 
 understand that the inscription of the medical college 
 has been in all the past in regard to the position I 
 now occupy, " Let none but the dean of the medical 
 faculty stand here." 
 
 Delivered at the Grand Opera-house, Indianapolis, at 
 the Commencement Exercises of the Medical College of 
 Indiana. 
 
 227 
 
228 The Doctor. 
 
 For some unaccountable reason this inscription 
 has been taken down, and I have been called to fill 
 his place. If I am first to inangnrate this new de- 
 parture, I am sure I will be the last — the Alj)ha and 
 Omega of this singular experiment. It may be that 
 long indulgence in the high and strong diet of 
 Medical Science has produced satiety, and the re- 
 action has created a desire for plain and common 
 fare — that I am also to be used as a step-ladder to 
 bring these students and graduates down from the 
 tree of knowledge to the common earth on which we 
 live, move, and have our being. 
 
 It may be that, wearied of the high-sounding 
 language of the professors, the constant explosion of 
 the technical shells fired from the great medical guns 
 of the largest caliber (I was about to say bore) has 
 begotten a burning desire to hear how common 
 people talk about e very-day life. These young 
 gentlemen, who have finished their college course, 
 have won their degree by long and patient study and 
 investigation, and now propose to put the theories 
 they have learned into practice and be called some- 
 body's doctor, will soon learn what life is. 
 
 They will erelong know what a struggle it is 
 for a young man to gain such a hold on the con- 
 fidence of men and women as to allow him to treat 
 their many ills. They will soon take in the dis- 
 agreeable fact that life had a much more rosy look 
 when viewed from a distance — that the beautiful 
 fancy dissolves when they tackle its ugly reality. I 
 ought not to say anything to discourage them and 
 have them give n\) their profession before they 
 
The Doctor. 229 
 
 really begiu. I would not advise them to eliangc 
 their purpose aud be book agents, public lecturers, or 
 politicians. Let the case be very desperate before 
 you do that — a dernier ressort. It will not be out of 
 place for me to remind them that the world has 
 been wagging aloug so far without them, and even 
 now it is not calling very lustily for them to come; 
 and if they do succeed, as I earnestly hope, they will 
 have to fight for it. 
 
 If I were to undertake to give them any advice 
 as to how they can best succeed, it would have to be 
 in such a general way that it would apply as well to 
 any other profession as to that of medicine. This 
 grows out of the fact that I know so little of medical 
 science. It is not because the doctor is like other 
 professional men ; between them and the other men 
 of science there is a difference, a very considerable 
 difference. I can not exactly describe it. But 
 everybody can tell a doctor when they see him and 
 hear him. There is an indescribable something out- 
 side of the drug-store odor that conveys to the dis- 
 cerning mind on sight that he is a dispenser of pills. 
 It may be his inability to conceal his inner con- 
 sciousness that he knows more about us than we 
 know about ourselves that gives him a kind of ele- 
 vated tone or manner. Possibly the swallowing and 
 digesting of the large and mysterious words, in and 
 under which are concealed the depths of medical 
 science, unconsciously change the manner of the men. 
 If it be true that we become like what we feed on, 
 that of course would make a difference. Or it may 
 be that he is the first man with us when we are born, 
 
230 The Doctor. 
 
 and the last man with us when wo die, that lends to 
 him an air of importance that he can not entirely 
 repress, and makes his profession known on sight. 
 
 The press, the politician, the Presidential boom- 
 maker, may pretend, in a sort of mythical way, to 
 have felt the public pulse, but with the doctor it is 
 an actual reality. To common mortals is allowed the 
 privilege of hearing the music, the truth and false- 
 hood, of the human tongue ; but, in addition to all 
 that, the doctor has the right of seeing the author 
 of all tlie racket in the world, and also may inspect 
 its very coating. All these things together, and many 
 more that might be added, make the doctor different 
 from other men, so that it is not an easy task for 
 an outsider — a mere layman — to draw a picture of 
 the model doctor; to point these new disciples of 
 Esculapius to the right road to success. 
 
 The world is full of failures. The highways and 
 byways of life are strewn with human wrecks who 
 have undertaken to do something and failed. The 
 chief reason for this is, that men choose their profes- 
 sion, not because of their fitness for its requirement 
 or their aptitude for its duties, but rather because of 
 the honorable character of the profession, and to be- 
 come a member of it will give them standing and 
 influence with their fellow-men. The profession 
 ought to choose the man, and not the man the pro- 
 fession. It is better to be a brakeman on a railroad 
 and do it well, than to be a brakeman on the car of 
 human progress by blundering at something that 
 you do not and never will do well — a work for 
 which you have no natural gifts — simply to gratify 
 
The Doctor. 231 
 
 an ainlntion to be called ''Doctor" by your neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 Take a young man Avith a right level head, a 
 keen and discriminating judgment, with good sound 
 body, and one whose common sense holds the balance 
 of power and dominates over his self-conceit, and I 
 can see no reason, if he acquaints himself with the 
 mysteries of medical science, why he will not be a 
 successful physician. It must be the profession of 
 his choice, and he must have a consuming ambition 
 to stand in the front rank. He must not allow his 
 natural powers to be enervated by laziness, nor must 
 he impair his physical, mental, or moral power by bad 
 habits. In addition to all that, he must be a gentle- 
 man in the very broadest sense of the word. It may 
 be said that the average doctor will not measure up 
 to this high standard. That may be so. Yet he 
 ought to do so. His relations to society and the re- 
 sponsible nature of his noble profession demand it 
 of him. 
 
 The medical profession is exposed to peculiar 
 temptations, and the doctor ought to be strong in 
 manly purposes in order at all times to be able to suc- 
 cessfully resist them. Among other temptations is that 
 5f being pedantic. Medical knowledge is not general 
 among the people. When we boast of the general 
 diffusion of science among the masses, we must ex- 
 cept therapeutics. 
 
 We all know something of law, and under our 
 liberal and glorious constitution in Indiana, if we have 
 a good moral character, we may practice law at the 
 bar That clause in the constitution was evidently 
 
232 The Doctor. 
 
 placed there under the presiimi)ti()n that there was 
 such a general diffusion of legal knowledge among 
 the masses of men, that any man of good character 
 should practice law if he w^anted to do so. If he be 
 a voter, character is the only test to become a 
 lawyer. The constitution of the State being thus a 
 protecting segis, it is not a matter of surprise that 
 the lawyers of Indiana are men of such high char- 
 acter and exalted worth; and when we behold the 
 characterless bars of our neighboring States, we are 
 inclined to self-glorification. 
 
 The people are at the same time protected from 
 the pedantry of the bar; for the line of demarkation 
 between the lawyers and the common people is so 
 dim and indistinct that it is almost impossible to de- 
 termine w4iere the lawyers end and w'here the people 
 begin. It is entirely unsafe for a lawyer in any 
 presence to assume that he is the only lawyer pres- 
 ent, and that he possesses more legal learning than his 
 neighbors. 
 
 An so it is in theology. Some of the laymen, 
 even if they never put on any sort of cloth, can talk 
 as flippantly about creeds and dogmas, and give you 
 the Greek and Hebrew of the pivotal words of their 
 belief as accurately as if they had been born in 
 Judea, educated at Athens, and spent all their leisure 
 hours at the feet of Gamaliel. The preacher has less 
 temptation to be pedantic. And even if he is tempted, 
 be is better able to resist, for the reason that he is 
 constantly preaching to us to resist temptation, and 
 therefore has the subject constantly before him, and 
 even sleeps with his armor on. 
 
The Doctor. 233 
 
 But the doctor lias none of tliese helj).s. The 
 people know less about what he knows than anything 
 else. He may be said to have a corner on thera- 
 peutics, and the temptation to be pedantic is very 
 strong — too often too strong for the doctor. His 
 contact with his fellow-men discloses the fact that 
 they are profoundly ignorant of the things he knows 
 so well; and, standing on the elevated platform and 
 looking around at the vast plain of therapeutical ig- 
 norance beneath him, he would have to be almost 
 more than human if he did not indulge in a little 
 medical pyrotechnics — did not illuminate the dark- 
 ness with a few medical sky-rockets, explode a few 
 technical shells, and burn a few Roman-candles — for 
 the admiration of his fellow-men. 
 
 As he looks on them, a feeling of commiseration 
 takes possession of his cultivated mind. He sees be- 
 fore him the mechanic, who knoAvs all about his 
 engine or his machinery, what it can do in all its 
 parts, and what is the power in the aggregate; but 
 the poor man does not know how many bones he has, 
 or their names. He is not even aware of the fact 
 that he could not shake hands with a neighbor if it 
 were not for his pectoralis and deltoid muscles; and 
 could not take off his cap, and give three cheers for 
 his candidate, but for his subscapularis and his spina • 
 tus. The farmer can tell you all about a horse, cow, 
 or a hog, but he knows but little about how he is 
 put up himself. He knows what is good for his 
 stock — what will fatten them the fastest, and make 
 them the most thrifty and valuable; and while they 
 are healthy and flourishing under his care and atteu- 
 
234 The Doctor. 
 
 tion, ho hiuiself will bo howling with nouralgia, or 
 groaning with dyspepsia, or doiiblod up with rheuma- 
 tism. He commits his case as blindly and iguorantly 
 to the doctor as his animals do to him, and the result 
 is often more complimentary to the farmers than to 
 the doctors. The reason is, that the farmer does not 
 understand the mysterious process of digestion — does 
 not know what he ought to eat; and, together with 
 the politician, the lawyer, and the mechanic, is too 
 often sadly mistaken as to what he ought to drink. 
 It is not therefore a matter of surprise that some of 
 the weaker members of the medical profession fre- 
 quently forget themselves, and sometimes make us 
 common mortals feel our ignorance by an unneces- 
 sary display of the profundity of their acquirements. 
 I made this discovery when I was practicing law, 
 and also by my contact with army surgeons during 
 the war. At the very beginning of the war my duty 
 called me to the army hospital at Jefferson City, Mis- 
 souri. It was my first visit to such a place, and my 
 sympathies were all aroused at the wretched condi- 
 tion of the men; and I sought out the surgeon, to 
 see what could be done to make it better and pleas- 
 anter for the sick "soldier. I found the surgeon in his 
 tent, all blazing with buttons, shoulder-straps, and 
 belts and sashes ; for this was at the beginning of the 
 war. It seemed to me that he wore the uniform of 
 the army and navy too. I asked him what was the 
 principal disease of the sick soldiers. He looked 
 down on me with a pitying look, and told me it was 
 nostalgia. After a painful silence of some minutes 
 I gathered up courage to ask him if it was couta- 
 
The Doctor. 235 
 
 gious, and he replied that it Avas not infectious, and 
 was only partly contagious. I at once wrote my wife 
 that I had reached Jefferson City feeling very well, 
 but had been to the army hospital, where the nostal- 
 gia was prevailing, that it was partially contagious, 
 and that I was feeling badly. She hastened to our 
 family physician to know what nostalgia meant, and 
 he told .her it meant home-sickness. 
 
 Doctors frequently have to be called as experts — 
 men of science, to give their professional opinion on 
 a given state of facts — to aid in the administration of 
 justice. Take a case where some combative individ- 
 ual has had his nose broken and his eye blackened in 
 a street fight. The party who committed this breach 
 of the peace and dignity of the State is arrested, and 
 on trial before a jury of his peers (perhaps his supe- 
 riors) ; and the town surgeon is called in to testify as 
 to the nature and extent of the injury, so that even- 
 handed justice may be meted out to the guilty culprit. 
 Now, if the surgeon is one of the weaker class, and 
 wants to take this opportunity to spread himself, he 
 Avill look as wise as an owl, and wull deliver himself 
 in the words and figures following, to wit: "I have 
 made a most careful diagnosis of this case, and I find 
 the levator labii superioris nasi is separated from the 
 superior maxillary bone ; that the tegumentary are- 
 olar tissue is very much inflamed, which seriously in- 
 volves the orbicularis palpebrarum, and there is a 
 slight loosening of the multicuspidati." 
 
 The lawyer will endeavor to look as if he under- 
 stood it perfectly ; but he betrays a painful conscious- 
 ness that the jury does not take it all in, and so he 
 
236 The Doctor. 
 
 ventures to ask the siirgeoji : " How did you find the 
 eye of the j^rosecuting witness?" and ventures to ad- 
 monish the surgeon that the jury are not quite up to " us 
 professional men," and to speak jilainly so they may 
 understand. The surgeon replies : " I found on exam- 
 ination a contusion of the integuments under the orbit, 
 ■with extravasation of blood, and the ecchymosis of 
 the surrounding cellular tissue, which was in a tume- 
 fied state, with abrasion of the cuticle." 
 
 The very last case I had in court as a lawyer, some 
 years ago, M^as a suit against a doctor for malpractice. 
 The witnesses were nearly all })hyscians, and they 
 kindly took possession of the case. The plaintiff and 
 defendant were soon lost sight of, and the issue was 
 changed to a contest between the Allopathic and Ec- 
 lectic systems of medicine and surgery. The court- 
 room became blue from the firing and explosion of 
 the most immense technical terms from these men of 
 science. The jury became so bewildered and dazed 
 that they brought in a verdict of but one cent dam- 
 ages for my client, and failed to make any finding 
 whatever as to the merits of the Allopathic and Ec- 
 lectics, so that the people of my county are still in 
 doubt as to which is the best. Some are for one, and 
 some are for the otlier. I became so desperate that I 
 accepted an office under the Government, and will 
 never return to the practice of law unless driven to it 
 by sheer necessity. 
 
 If I fail to accomplish anything more by this ad- 
 dress than to prevent these young gentlemen, who 
 have just graduated and are about to enter on their 
 professional career, from this inexcusable habit of 
 
The Doctor. 287 
 
 using technical terms when addressing persons wlio 
 do not understand them, I will have done a good serv- 
 ice to them and to the medical profession. 
 
 Nobody knows better than the experienced phy- 
 sician long in the practice that many of the ills 
 people complain of are merely imaginary. People 
 often send for the doctor when there is really nothing 
 the matter with them ; and, of course, then medicine 
 would be an injury rather than a benefit. But if the 
 doctor were honestly and frankly to tell them so, 
 they would become offended and dismiss him, and 
 send for another who would declare them very sick. 
 Now a little pedantry might not be amiss. If the 
 doctor were to tell them that he would give them 
 some prepared chalk, the patient would be disgusted 
 at the mildness of the remedy and at the attempt of 
 the physician to belittle his sickness. 
 
 But let the same thing be administered under the 
 name of Creta prccparata, and let him prepare a wash 
 for the body of the patient, in which he puts a 
 proper proportion of Supo mollis; and then the 
 treatment will win. But the fact must be concealed 
 from the imaginary sniferer that Sapo mollis is noth- 
 ing but soft soap. A litttle Sapo mollis may be used 
 figuratively as well as literally with the same excel- 
 lent effect. 
 
 The intimate and mysterious connection betv/een 
 the human mind and the human body will work out 
 just such strange and wonderful results ; and nobody 
 understands it better or sees it oftener than the intel- 
 ligent physician. An innocent crumb of bread given 
 to a man in health will produce no perceptible effect; 
 
238 The Doctor. 
 
 yet if the doctor will examine the pulse and look at 
 the tongue^ and then put on an anxious and alarmed 
 expression, and in a capsule give him a crumb of 
 bread and tell him it is Mica ipanis, — it will be very 
 apt to produce great internal commotion. 
 
 If we have a national pie in this country — a pie 
 around which people of all kinds and conditions rally — , 
 it is the pumpkin-pie. If a pumpkin issue should be 
 raised in politics, the party that stood by the pump- 
 kin would carry th(! country by an immense majority. 
 But palatable as it is, if your physician could per- 
 suade you that you need an emetic, and a strong one 
 at that, and would administer a table-spoonful of the 
 same pie and have you swallow it quick, with a glass 
 of water immediately afterward to take the bad taste 
 out of your mouth, and tell you it was Cacurbita 
 pepo, — the chances are that it would turn the patient 
 inside out in a very brief time. 
 
 The doctor must understand psychology as well 
 as physiology. But this opens too broad a field 
 for this limited consideration, and has to be aban- 
 doned. The doctor goes to every home in the land. 
 In many of these he is the most intelligent man — the 
 greatest man that crosses the threshold of the humble 
 dwelling. To all such households he is a sort of 
 deity. He comes to them from a world, the artificial 
 distinction of which has excluded them. He is a sort 
 of connecting link between them and the far-off 
 regions of wealth, culture, and comfort. He has, 
 therefore, opportunities for instructing, elevating, and 
 civiliziu": mankind that no otlier man has. 
 
 As he is with them in their anxieties and sorrows, 
 
The Doctor. 230 
 
 he obtains control and influence over them that will 
 make him a mighty power for good, if he will avail him- 
 self of his chances.- He ought not only to be a gentle- 
 man, but he ought to have a tender, philanthropic heart 
 and a patient, loving spirit. He ought to so conduct 
 himself in their presence as to create in them a desire 
 to be like him ; to make them feel that culture and 
 refinement are not heartless and opposing forces to 
 them, but real, sympathizing friends. His own good 
 life and habits should be a constant argument in favor 
 of temperance, cleanliness, and true manliness, and a 
 perpetual rebuke to the vulgarity of vice. 
 
 If he be a man intensely interested in the common 
 welfare (and no other sort of man ought to be a phy- 
 sician), he may be the" peace-maker between Capital 
 and Labor, and bring these contending forces, that 
 always ought to be the best of friends, to a better 
 understanding and to a fair and square adjustment of 
 their respective rights. He may be a power to pre- 
 vent anarchy, and an effective obstacle in the way 
 of communism. While Wealth may turn up its nose 
 at Poverty, it must not be forgotten that Poverty, 
 too, has a nose that it may scornfully elevate at 
 AVealth. 
 
 There are well-grounded prejudices to overcome 
 with the one as well as the other. No one can do that 
 more effectually than the doctor. As the representa- 
 tive of culture, wealth, and refinement, he enters the 
 homes of the poor and lowly ; and not only cures 
 their ills, but he pours into their depressed hearts a 
 generous and stimulating sympathy; so that he can, 
 better than any one else, soften their hard and preju- 
 
240 The Doctor. 
 
 diced notions, and banish the hate from their souls 
 that they had against all those more fortunate than 
 they. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the doctor can not be 
 more effectively re-enforced in the good work. These 
 people will not be patronized. They will not allow 
 themselves to be treated as proper objects for mission- 
 ary effort. It is true, something may be done in this 
 way, but it requires the utmost tact and wisdom to be 
 effectiv-e. 
 
 If the doctor is a better patriot than partisan, as 
 he ought to be, he can undo the mischief of the 
 l)lathering demagogue who wants the votes of these 
 people, and attempts to secure their support by falsely 
 pretending that he will do something to better their 
 condition. 
 
 The model doctor ought to understand the art of 
 cooking, and teach it to his patrons. In this grand 
 country of ours, we have more good things to eat, a 
 better variety and a better quality, than any other 
 nation on the face of the earth. The disagreeable 
 fact exists, that the great mass of our people, rich as 
 well as poor, do not understand the high art of cook- 
 ing food and preparing it for the table. The cook- 
 book ought to be one of the standard works in all 
 the medical colleges, and a chair in the dissecting- 
 room set apart for this important branch. I am 
 aware that this suggestion will be received with jeers. 
 I have the consolation that all advanced thought has 
 met a like reception in all ages of the world. But 
 hear me anyway. Should not our physicians be 
 taught the high art of preventing disease as well 
 
The Doctor. 241 
 
 as cubing it? And some plan ought to be de- 
 vised whereby they would be paid better fees for the 
 jirevcntion than for the cure. It woukl astonish the 
 world if a catalogue of the " ills that flesh is heir 
 to " which had their origin in the vast amount of in- 
 digestible stuff that we eat, resulting from bad cook- 
 ing, could be prejiared and published. 
 
 Look at that dejected man. His eye is dim, and 
 his step uncertain; yet he is not old. He has a 
 hopeless and dissatisfied expression ; yet he is not 
 poor. He is rich. His epidermis (I allude to his 
 skin) looks like old gold. You would conclude that 
 his misery grew out of the fact that his mother-in- 
 law refuses to live with him, or that he has been 
 speculating in Chicago and is long on wheat and 
 short on cash, or that he had been beaten for Con- 
 gress at the last election. Yet none of these things 
 are the sources of his trouble. His domestic rela- 
 tions are as perfect as such an institution can be. 
 He does not deal in margins, for the reason that he 
 is a reader of the Indianapolis Journal and is vir- 
 tuous. He was never a candidate for any office, for 
 he despises politics as he does almost everything else. 
 The honest truth is, that he has always had too much 
 saleratus in his biscuit. His mind and body are 
 comj>letely poisoned, and it is that, and not his 
 wealth, that causes him to look like old gold, and 
 makes his soul as sad and heavy as the biscuits ^upon 
 which he has been fed. 
 
 The doctor should teach us also in regard to quan- 
 tity as well as quality of our food. The lovely 
 daughter has graduated at Vassar. Her education 
 
 1(3 
 
242 The Doctor. 
 
 is finished. After vowing eternal friendship for all 
 her class-mates, and promising to write to each and aPi 
 of them, she takes the train for home. She is so ex- 
 cited with parting wiih the dear ones at college and 
 with the prospect of meeting the dearer ones at home, 
 that she can eat nothing at the railway limch-statiou 
 except a section of a cold mince-pie and a hard-boiled 
 egg, one half-dozen fried and a like Dumber of raw 
 oysters, and a pickled })ig's-foot. On the train she 
 may have eaten a pint of ])eanuts, one half-dozen ba- 
 nanas, a few apples and oranges; she therefore comes 
 home hungry. Maternal love has anticipated that, 
 and a bountiful, warm supper awaits her. Home 
 cooking, after her boarding-school diet and continu- 
 ous fasting, whets her appetite, and she eats a good 
 square meal. The stomach rebels; and the midnight- 
 emetic of the doctor reveals the quantity and quality 
 of her daily food, and furnishes the statistics for the 
 above statement. 
 
 Some years ago, while sitting in a barber's chair 
 at Sioux City, la., the barber told me, among other 
 things, that the colored children of that city were 
 most of them sick ; and he also informed me that 
 he was a doctor, and had been called upon to exam- 
 ine and treat these cases. I said to him: "Doctor, 
 what is the matter with the colored children ?" He 
 said he " soon found out the cause, and told their 
 parents." "What did you tell them?" I asked with 
 breathless interest. " I told them," said the doctor, 
 " that they did not put diet enough in their food.'* 
 Evidently, the Vassar girl, as well as a great many 
 other people, put too much diet in their food. Here 
 
The Doctor. 243 
 
 opens a wide field for reform, aud the doctor must 
 take the lead. 
 
 The temperance reformers ought to fall in at 
 once and re-enforce the physician. I take the occa- 
 sion to boldly assert that bad cooking fries and stews 
 out the stimulating quality of our food so that the 
 grog-shop is often sought to supply the want. Good 
 cooking will go a long way towards arresting the de- 
 sire for strong drink and promoting the temperance 
 cause. 
 
 As the doctors are very particular to tell us what 
 we may and may not eat when we are sick, why not 
 have them qualify themselves to tell us what we 
 should eat, and show us how to prepare it when we 
 are in good health? The physicians should qualify 
 themselves to take the lead in all sanitary measures, 
 and should have full powers from the State to carry 
 into operation every means that will promote the 
 public health. 
 
 In this flat State of Indiana (I mean the land and 
 not the people), the thousands of miles of tile ditches, 
 that lie buried in our swamp-lands, have carried off 
 not only the surplus and stagnant water, but ague 
 enough to shake the Avorld if it were all let loose at 
 once on the earth. The country doctor ought to be 
 a whole Board of Health in himself, with full power 
 to compel the drainage of every pestilence-breeding 
 pond in the circle and range of his practice. 
 
 I want a wider field of usefulness for the medical 
 profession. That high calling has too long been 
 kept far inside of the limits of grand possibilities. I 
 desire this for tlie reason already given, and for the 
 
244 The Doctor. 
 
 additional fact that there ha.s not been that perfect 
 harmony, that sweet brotherly love, that ought to 
 characterize the members of a profession set apart to 
 the exalted art of healing human ills. The restless 
 activity of the medical mind, the division into dif- 
 ferent schools, and the limited sphere of medical ac- 
 tivity and usefulness, may in part account for this uu- 
 harmony. This wider field that I have so imper- 
 fectly pointed out would call their minds, and con- 
 centrate their efforts more especially each to his own 
 affairs, and Allopathy would smooth its wrinkled 
 front, and smile on Homeopathy, and the Eclectic 
 ■would choose the sweet, smooth waters of Hydropathy, 
 and all would go as merry as marriage-bells. 
 
 Gentlemen of the graduating class : In Dickens's 
 " Bleak House," the wife of a physician says of her 
 husband: "I never walk out with my husband but 
 I hear the people bless him, I never go into a house 
 of any degree but I hear his praises or see them in 
 grateful eyes. I never lie down at night but I know 
 that, in the course of that day, he has alleviated pain 
 and soothed some fellow-creature in time of need. I 
 know from the beds of those who are past recovery, 
 thanks have often, often gone up in the last hour for 
 his patient ministrations." 
 
 May such a eulogy be given to you in your pro- 
 fessional life ! I hope when you shall have traveled a 
 third of a century over the road, you may be able to 
 look back over its trials and sorrows, with the 
 sweet consciousness that you have been a constant 
 helper to your fellow-men. 
 
The Doctor. 245 
 
 The problem of civilizing and elevating the hu- 
 man race is an exceedingly difficult one. The process 
 is slow, and must necessarily be so. The reformer 
 as a specialist is a failure. Every man should be a 
 reformer in the sphere of his own life's work. His 
 first duty is to begin on his own life, and bring the 
 highest type of man out of himself. Then, as he 
 comes in contact with humanity in the narrower or 
 wider circles of his life's destiny, there is healing in 
 his touch. There is no profession or calling in life 
 where manly qualities may be such a power for good 
 as the one you have chosen, and this day enter upon 
 its responsible duties. 
 
 Remember that the physician, w^ho is the full pat- 
 tern of a man in the highest and broadest sense of 
 the word, does more healing by his noble and pure 
 life than he does by his drugs. * Such a physician is 
 the most important factor in civilization. As suffer- 
 ing and heart-broken humanity look to you for help, 
 you can wipe tears from the faces of the weeping, 
 and ])laut new joy in the hearts of the despairing; 
 then indeed will your lives be a grand success. With- 
 out that, it will not be high and noble living, but mere 
 low and selfish existence. He has never lived who 
 has not blessed others. He may have had all the sensu- 
 ous pleasures that riches could purchase for him; he 
 may have had every want met; he may have had all 
 the sweet odors of flattery that float around those in 
 high places; but his barren soul will curse him, and 
 he will flee like a skulking coward before the lashes 
 of his outraged conscience, and hide himself at last in 
 
246 The Doctor. 
 
 an uulionored grave. Life, with its joys and sorrows, 
 temptations and trinuiphs, its false lights and fixed 
 stars, is all before you. 
 
 I know I voice not only the sentiments of the 
 faculty, but the large assembly of friends who have 
 come hither to see you take your degree from tliis 
 honored institution, when I express the hope that you 
 may choose wisely and well your path. May eacli 
 and every one of you make life a grand success ! In 
 closing, allow me to use the sentiment of one of 
 Indiana's most gifted poets, John G. Chaffee : 
 
 " Worker and watcher in the true man's day, 
 Duty and Conscience keeping side by side, 
 God speaks, and Duty's swift feet glide 
 Into well-doing's upward leading way ; 
 And Conscience comes, with fair benignant smile, 
 When Duty's work is done, and daylight goes: 
 Sitting beside, it lulls to sweet repose, 
 Sealing approval on the heart the wiiile. "" 
 
 O concord sweet ! Would'st thou life's measure heap 
 Full to the brim of good ? Then each good find, 
 And do, let it be great or small, nor cease 
 Thy diligence to cheer and bless mankind ; 
 And thou shalt ever in thy own heart keep 
 The gentle, sweet-voiced, white-winged dove of peace." 
 
PUBLIC OPINION. 
 
 AS THIS institution of learning has for her motto 
 "Christianity and Culture," it should be the high 
 purpose of every student to be imbued with the spirit 
 -nculcated by this motto in all his coming life. 
 
 To constitute the perfect man, these two grand 
 elevating agencies should be combined. Culture 
 without Christianity might enable the student in the 
 contest in life to fight a good warfare for himself 
 alone. He might fill his coffers with treasures; he 
 might attain distinction, and have his name enrolled 
 among the great, and receive the plaudits of his 
 fellow-men. It would be mere personal triumph ; 
 and it might be that when he died, and his life's 
 work was done, the world would be worse because 
 he had been sent into it. 
 
 His culture, in such a case, would be a calamity. 
 But if the principles of Christianity animate and 
 control his life, he is lifted out of the limited sphere 
 of mere selfish ends and aims, and with his well- 
 di;illed powers and developed capabilities he makes 
 the contest for self subordinate, and secondary to the 
 noble purpose of blessing the human race in his 
 deeds, in his example, in his whole life. The thor- 
 oughly cultivated man, imbued with the spirit of 
 Christ, presents in his life and character such beauty 
 
 Delivered before the literarj* societies at Franklin College, 
 Indiana. 
 
 247 
 
248 Public Opinion. 
 
 and harmony, such complete symmetry, as makes him 
 the very highest type of true manhood and the 
 noblest work of God. 
 
 The heathen poets and philosophers, their most 
 highly cultivated orators and statesmen, when viewed 
 through the flattering perspective of a score of cen- 
 turies and the glamour that time and distance lend 
 to objects, excite our wonder and admiration. But 
 when we come to know their inner life and the aims 
 and purposes to which they devoted their cultivated 
 powers, and compare them with the cultivated Chris- ' 
 tians of to-day, they become mere dwarfs and pigmies 
 by the comparison. 
 
 The senseless idol appears hideous and con- 
 temptible in the light of the knowledge of the ever- 
 living and true God. And so, in no small degree, do 
 the human powers appear purposeless if not illumi- 
 nated and made glorious and godlike by the influ- 
 ence of the spirit of self-sacrifice and consecration to 
 the work of human redemption, that animated the 
 Author and Finisher of the Christian's faith. 
 
 Christianity, with its illuminating power, reveals 
 the divine image stamjjed on human nature, showing- 
 man not only to be godlike in the beauty and per- 
 fection of his being, but also demonstrating the 
 truth of the sacred history of the creation of man, 
 that he, of all the works of the Creator, is the 
 crowning glory. 
 
 It is then manifestly the duty of the educator to 
 teach the true ethics, that there be no divorcement 
 of religion and science in the development of the 
 
Public Opinion. 249 
 
 powers and affections of the human souL* Tj bo 
 successful in this great work he must have a clear 
 and intelligent comprehension of the obstacles and 
 hindering causes delaying and obstructing the prog- 
 ress of religion and civilization. 
 
 Every age and time in human history has pre- 
 sented new and diifereui phases of opposition to 
 human progress. Many of these have been but 
 transient and easily overcome. On this occasion I 
 propose to discuss the chief obstacle that has, in all 
 times and ages, been, when adverse to progress, its 
 most formidable enemy. 
 
 It is sometimes a friend, and then its power for 
 good is invaluable. When it is hostile, it rears its 
 formidable front, bold and defiant, against all move- 
 ments in favor of reform, and declares hostility to 
 all innovations of the habits, conduct, or even the 
 thoughts, of humanity. With imperial authority, it 
 declares that, if there be ills affecting the human 
 race, they shall not be considered and exposed; that 
 if the human mind be darkened by error and preju- 
 dice, the truth shall not come with her light to 
 banish the gloom. 
 
 This enemy, so formidable an opponent to the 
 Christian scholar in all his efforts to elevate and en- 
 lighten mankind, is Public Opinion; and I have 
 chosen it for my subject on this occasion. 
 
 The human race is so bound together in its social 
 organism, that public opinion, no matter how it may 
 be formed, to the great majority of humanity, has 
 the stamp of infallibility and the authority of divin- 
 
250 Public Opinion. 
 
 ity. Mankind, generally, subscribe without any 
 mental reservation to the truth of the maxim, Vox 
 populi, vox Dei. 
 
 In this country, and in all others where the gov- 
 ernment is in the hands of the governed, it is the 
 supreme authority, a ruler above the law and higher 
 than the courts. It writes in the statute-book such 
 legislation as is in accord with its royal pleasure, and 
 repeals the law it does not approve. If any legis- 
 lative authority has been guilty of the temerity of 
 enacting a law in defiance of its objection, it forbids 
 its enforcement by the courts, and it remains a dead- 
 letter nntil a more obedient Legislature shall atone 
 for the offense by repealing it. 
 
 In the enforcement of laws, not in themselves 
 offensive to public opinion, it declares who shall pay 
 the penalty and who shall not. The law and the 
 evidence and the court may say to the jury to con- 
 vict the criminal, but if the twelve men, sworn to 
 try the culprit by the law and the evidence, and a 
 true verdict render therein, hear the voice of public 
 opinion declare for his acquittal, they promptly bring 
 in a verdict of " Not guilty." 
 
 From the throne of its power it not only regu- 
 lates the conduct of humanity, but it issues its im- 
 perial mandate declaring what men may think and 
 speak. Brave indeed is the bold spirit who will 
 dare to defy its decree, and venture to declare that his 
 opinion is better than that of the public — braver in- 
 deed than the soldier who marches up to the mouth of 
 the enemy's guns amid the iron hail of death. Mill- 
 ions have had the physical courage to do the one, while 
 
Public Opinion. 251 
 
 but few have had the moral heroism to undertake 
 the other. 
 
 Power is always surrounded with parasites and 
 sycophantic flatterers; but no monarch, nor even all 
 the potentates of earth, great and small, have had 
 so much adulation as this autocrat. Sages and ])hi- 
 losophers pronounce him wise and just, and poet.'* 
 weave chaplets of poetic beauty about his crown, and 
 rulers and statesmen come with a servile spirit, and 
 beg to be allowed to perform the service of menials 
 to his majesty. The politician, the press, and some- 
 times the pulpit, obey the commands of public opinion 
 with the servility of slaves. 
 
 It becomes important to inquire into the legitimacy 
 of the claim of this mighty power to rule and govern 
 in the affairs of men. 
 
 Are the opinions of the masses, on the important 
 questions affecting the welfare and happiness of hu- 
 manity, formed with such care for the truth and the 
 right as to command the acceptance of their united 
 voice as infallible, to be received without challenge 
 or question ? Do all men, or even a large majority 
 of the people, reason dispassionately and without bias 
 of judgment, and carefully sift the false from the 
 true? Does the love for the truth, and the desire to 
 promote it, so pervade the popular mind as to over- 
 ride all partisan and sectarian considerations, to con- 
 quer and subdue all human passions and prejudices, 
 so that the individual contributions to the popular 
 judgment are divested of all error and superstition? 
 
 If all these propositions may be answered in the 
 affirmative, where, then, is the room for progress? 
 
252 Public Opinion. 
 
 The truth is eternal and unchangeable, and the 
 right is as immutable as the throne of God. If pop- 
 ular opinion is builded on the rock of truth, it will 
 stand ever the same. If the popular judgment is 
 ever for the right, then it can not be either revised or 
 modified. 
 
 The history of the past overthrows all these as- 
 sumptions. The conservatism of to-day was the rad- 
 icalism of yesterday. The cherished opinions and 
 well-settled convictions of the public mind, even a 
 half-century ago, on many questions are to-day, in 
 popular estimation, exploded dogmas, utterly unworthy 
 of respect. 
 
 Yet a half a century ago public opinion was as 
 imperious and impatient of contradiction as it is now. 
 It then, as now, bade men bow the knee and cringe 
 in servile obedience to its commands. 
 
 In times past it compelled men to carry fagots to 
 burn the witch, and forge tighter the chains of the 
 slave; and compelled mankind to think and declare 
 that all these things were right. In lines of crimson 
 blood it wrote its approval of the horrid persecutions 
 for opinion's sake, the very contemplation of which 
 sickens the reader of the history of the past. It 
 sent its encouraging hosannas to the mighty monarch 
 while he pillaged a neighboring power, and enslaved 
 or murdered the inhabitants because they were too few 
 to resist. 
 
 In all past times the greatest wrongs that have 
 tarnished the civilization of the different periods and 
 ages have had the support of the popular favor. 
 Crimes that are now condemned were once sustained 
 
Public Opinion. 253 
 
 by the popular jiulgment. Public opinion being 
 changeable, must of course be fallible. And why 
 should it not be so? It is but the collected judgments 
 of the weak and fallible individuals which compose 
 the human family. 
 
 To be enabled to properly estimate the value of the 
 public judgment, it becomes important to inquire how 
 individual opinions are formed, and how each ever 
 reached the conclusions that became part and parcel 
 of the public opinion. 
 
 In the first place, I think it will be conceded 
 that the great mass of humanity are not inclined to 
 seriously consider anything outside of the circle of 
 their own personal wants and comfort, and the pro- 
 motion of their own selfish aims. 
 
 On all questions affecting humanity, its interests 
 and its hopes, whether spiritual or temporal, most 
 people fall back on the opinions they received at the 
 hearthstone in childhood days, or simply subscribe to 
 the articles of faith of the Church to which they may 
 belong; and on questions of government or the 
 rights and duties of the citizen, they accept the dictum 
 of the political party of which they are partisans and 
 supporters. Instead of earnestly seeking for what is 
 truth on all the great questions pertaining to the 
 government of God and the regulation of the affairs 
 of man, they content tliemselves by declaring that the 
 tvuth is ichat they believe. 
 
 Another serious obstacle, that has ever deflected 
 the individual judgment when searching for the truth 
 and led it astray, is the personal interest in the result 
 of its conclusions. 
 
254 Public Opinion. 
 
 It is not common to find people believing and 
 acting on a theory for the truth's sake, when by so 
 doing they are combating their own interest. Poor, 
 weak, and selfish humanity believe more in them- 
 selves than they do in the truth ; or rather, they are 
 not willing to sacrifice their own cause for the cause 
 of truth. They require the truth to accommodate 
 itself to their preconceived opinions of theology and 
 politics, and must ever be ready to subserve their in- 
 dividual interest. There are, of course, many individ- 
 ual exceptions. 
 
 The great mass of humanity whose opinions make 
 up the public opinion, to which so much deference is 
 paid, reach their conclusions in this way, and of this 
 unsubstantial material is this potent agency regu- 
 lating human affairs. To pronounce it wise and in- 
 fallible, is wickedness; to worship it, is heathenish 
 idolatry; to follow it, right or wrong, is abject 
 slavery. 
 
 One of the methods resorted to by this despotic 
 power to maintain ascendency is to hurl epithets at 
 the heads of all who dare to question vhe soundness 
 of its decrees, and thus bring them into public scorn 
 and contempt. 
 
 Agitator, fanatic, " one-idead humbug," are the 
 names given all such independent spirits. The ad- 
 vantage of this mode of warfare is that the whole 
 public may engage in it. The bigger the fool the**^ 
 better the soldier, if he only have good lungs. He 
 can do more service in suppressing an insurrection 
 against public opinion than the wisest. 
 
 By this mode of defense old and long-standing 
 
Public Opinion. 255 
 
 abuses have been defended, and j)i()us frauds have 
 been protected, and the agitators have persistently 
 fought on until they have stirred the stagnant pools so 
 that the stench has become intolerable to the public 
 nostrils, and then the remedy has been accepted. 
 
 It is these so-called fanatics and agitators who 
 have led us thus far on the highway of human prog- 
 ress and our hope for the future. The opinions of 
 these bold spirits are no part of the public opinion. 
 On the contrary, their opinions are the antipodes to 
 that of the people, and the struggle has ever been 
 long and fierce, Avhether they must yield to the pub- 
 lic or that the masses will consent to be led by them. 
 
 Public opinion without this class would ever re- 
 main the same, and reform would be an imj)ossibility. 
 I am fully aware that the correctness of this state- 
 ment will be sharply questioned. 
 
 No small number of people will confess the un- 
 soundness of the judgment on important questions 
 affecting seriously the best interests of the human 
 race, but will refuse to aid the agitators to correct it, 
 for the reason that they claim that the public mind 
 is not ready for the reform. They advise that it is 
 better to let matters remain as they are, and in due 
 time all will come out right. 
 
 They seem to labor under the delusion that there 
 is a self-purifying power in public opinion — an in- 
 herent ability to cleanse itself, separate and apart 
 from the efforts of the agitator, fully able to work 
 out the desired reform, With all such, all agitation 
 is premature, and must fail. 
 
 It is the excuse of the lao;o;ard, and the shallow 
 
256 Public Opinion. 
 
 plea of the coward. The truth owes them nothing. 
 They are simply too indolent in action or craven in 
 spirit to stand for the truth against public sentiment. 
 They are "dead-heads," and will ride on any train, 
 indifferent as to who is the conductor or the direction 
 tliey travel, if they only have a free pass. They 
 readily give their assent to pid)lic opinion, no matter 
 what it may be, and so remain until the majority 
 change, and then they change. Their influence is 
 simply the negative power of numbers, and one only 
 useful to ballast the ship of public opinion when the 
 storms of agitation come. 
 
 Another fact that militates against the claim of 
 the infallibility of public opinion is, that it is more fre- 
 quently the creature of passion than of reason. 
 
 How often has it happened in the history of 
 American politics that the political party having the 
 most attractive banners, and the best music, and the 
 most skill in appealing to the passions, prejudice, and 
 selfishness of the voter, has for a time commanded the 
 largest following ! When in the white heat of polit- 
 ical excitement, the ballot-box is placed before the 
 voters, and they vote, the result is declared as the 
 calm and deliberate judgment of a free and intelligent 
 people. 
 
 The successful candidates are inducted into their 
 high stations amid the huzzahs of the public. For a 
 brief period they bask in the warm sunshine of 
 popular favor, and feast on the smiles of their admir- 
 ing countrymen. They vainly imagine they will ever 
 have and receive that public approbation so grateful 
 to human vanity. 
 
Public Opinion. 257 
 
 The extravagant expectations of the people arc 
 not realized ; the excitement abates, and symptoms of 
 a reaction in the public mind are manifest. 
 
 The minority now come to the front with their 
 platforms and promises, and hurl their epithets at the 
 victors of last year for not doing the impossible 
 things that had been expected of them. 
 
 The party in power, who have courted and 
 flattered the people, soon find that, with all the 
 fickleness of the coquette, smiles are withdrawn to 
 give place to scorn and contemjjt. On yesterday it 
 was "Hosannah," to-day it is "Cr«cify." 
 
 And so of men who vainly suppose that their 
 lease of office and power will be perpetual. The 
 fickle gales that landed them safely in the harbor of 
 popular approbation have changed their course, and 
 have become fearful hurricanes, sweeping them away 
 from human cognizance, and burying them in the 
 gulf of eternal forgetful ness. 
 
 The history of the world is full of instances of 
 men and of organizations who have builded their 
 castles on public opinion, that they supposed to be as 
 solid as the rock, and have found that the foundation 
 was laid on the drifting sands, when their castles, 
 with the hopes and treasures of the same, are tum- 
 bling to wreck and ruin. 
 
 Its power to destroy men and overthrow sects 
 and parties is terrific. Hence the most effectual 
 agencies in the world, intended by the great Ruler 
 of human destiny to purify and elevate the human 
 race, fail from very fear to undertake the work. 
 They dread the destruction that has overtaken so 
 
 17 
 
258 Public Opinion. 
 
 many in the past who have gone forth to battle with 
 public opinion. 
 
 AVhen the line of battle is formed, and they are 
 ready for the grand charge, they too often strike 
 their colors, send out the flag of truce, and surrender 
 unconditionally to the enemy. 
 
 The gifted orator, going forth to expose popular 
 errors, too often, as he stands before the upturned 
 faces of the masses and reads the feelings and opin- 
 ions of his audience, finds his virtue weakening. He 
 prefers their plaudits to their jeers. Instead of making 
 open warfare for the truth, he abandons it, and con- 
 firms the public in their prejudices and preconceived 
 opinions by his elocjuent indorsement of the wisdom 
 of the public judgment. 
 
 The press, that mighty instrumentality, that is 
 doing more than any other one influence to make the 
 public opinion what it is, too often sends forth to the 
 public such things as will suit its taste. It makes 
 the loudest profession of courage and independence; 
 but if the public taste be corrupt and depraved, it is 
 not willing to jeopardize its claim to public favor by 
 attempting to expose it. With its ingenuity and 
 sophistry, it often furnishes to the public such apol- 
 ogies for popular errors as make them acceptable to 
 those who otherwise reject them. 
 
 Popular dogmas in religion — mere inventions of 
 weak and finite minds — with the aid of sectarian big- 
 otry, may, and do, become so interwoven with the 
 faith of man as to possess all the authority of divine 
 revelation. 
 
 These dogmas may command more attention from 
 
Public Opinion. 259 
 
 the Church thau love, charity, or eveu all the Chris- 
 tian graces. They may blast all the sweet flowers that 
 bud and blossom and make the Christian's life fra- 
 grant and attractive, by the cold and chilling blasts o^ 
 sectarian wrangling and dogmatic disputation ; they 
 may rob the Christian religion of her beauty, and 
 expel the spirit of Christ from the sanctuary of God ; 
 yet if these dogmas be popular, if they are the grand 
 centers of sectarian enthusiasm, the pulpit too often has 
 not the courage to assail them. Too often the public 
 pressure in their favor compels a* silent acquiescence, 
 if it does not enforce an open advocacy, from the pul- 
 pit. From this cause the Christian religion loses its 
 simplicity, and consequently becomes shorn of its 
 power as an agency for the elevation of man to a 
 higher and better life. 
 
 Mere dogmatic theology excites in the minds of 
 its followers an ambition to conquer the world, not 
 for the cause of Christ, but for the purpose of becom- 
 ing the Church in the world, the" high ecclesiastical 
 court that may pass sentence of condemnation on all 
 religious opinions not found in its creed ; may brand 
 all who differ as heretics ; yea, more and worse than 
 that, the holder of the high commission to persecute 
 for opinion's sake all who refuse to subscribe to its 
 dogmas. To accomplish this, these dogmas must become 
 popular ; they must be so presented that they will be 
 acceptable to the pride and passions of men. Chris- 
 tianity strives to present in the Christian life such 
 faith and works as will be acceptable to God, while 
 dogmatic theology is struggling to present a Church 
 to the world that will be popular with man. 
 
260 Public Opinion. 
 
 Popular opinion generally throws its influence in 
 favor of dogmas, and this hinders the progress of re- 
 ligion by placing the ban of its disfavor on the sira- 
 <plicity of its doctrines. In the whole history of the 
 progress of civilization, it can not be found that any 
 proposed reformation of the habits of men, any plan 
 for the elevation of man — however plain and easily 
 comprehended it might be, however fortified by reason 
 and good sense — has been at once accepted. 
 
 Customs have pleaded against it; long established 
 habits have protested against the innovation ; unrea- 
 soning prejudices have battled against its acceptance; 
 and if any pecuniary interests were affected by the 
 change, then the mercenary spirit of the times has 
 forged slanders and falsehoods, and hurled them at 
 the reform and the reformers. All these, and many 
 other agencies put together, have arrayed public 
 opinion against reform and the reformers, and all must 
 be conquered in detail before the public judgment will 
 receive the new truths. It is manifest, then, that the 
 reformer must be, of all men, the wisest in the very 
 broadest definition of the word. His knowledge must 
 reach far beyond all that is taught in the curriculum of 
 a college or the university. He must know himself 
 and understand his fellow-man. He must fully under- 
 stand the motive powers that prompt human action. 
 He must remember, too, that the host of humanity who 
 do not think, control and shape to a great extent the 
 thoughts and actions of those who do think. He 
 must have a just conception of the deep morass of 
 human vice, and of the mountains of prejudice and 
 selfishness, that will be found right in the road he 
 
Public Opinion. 261 
 
 proposes to travel. He must uot forget that a large 
 portion of the human race cling as closely to the 
 opinions of their ancestors as they do to the family- 
 name, and would no more readily give up the one 
 than they would be willing to part with the other. 
 
 He must be content to work against his own in- 
 terest and his own popularity, patiently and persist- 
 ently, without often having the encouragement of 
 seeing any immediate good to repay for his toil and 
 sacrifice. The reward is in the approval of his own 
 conscience, in the smiles of God, and in the hope 
 that the coming generations will do him the justice 
 and the honor to accept the truth, and place his name 
 among those who have loved their race more than 
 themselves. He must have the courage of the lion 
 combined with the gentleness of the lamb — a courage 
 that rises to that sublime eminence of glorifying in 
 having his name cast out as evil for the sake of 
 the truth. 
 
 In all ages there have been such martyr spirits to 
 battle with public opinion. That human progress has 
 been so slow is because their nuraibers have been few. 
 But in all times and ages humanity has marched 
 along, attended with this glorious band of noble 
 spirits, imbued with a Christ-like spirit of self-sacri- 
 fice. In reviewing their conflicts with public opin- 
 ion, their persecutions for the cause of truth, their 
 dying for the regeneration of their fellow-man, we 
 have the consolation of knowing that all their sor- 
 rows were for the promotion of the best interests of 
 the race, and were not in vain. 
 
 The re-enforcement of the comparatively small 
 
262 Public Opinion. 
 
 band is the need of the hour. The great demand of 
 the times is for many volunteers for the noble service. 
 
 We can only calculate accurately the progress of 
 religion and civilization by the proportionate increase 
 of their numbers and the multiplication of their 
 forces. A religion that does not overcome human 
 selfishness, that does not warm the heart for suffering 
 humanity, that does not develop the martyr spirit, is 
 not the religion of Christ. 
 
 In the light of our civilization, of which we boast 
 so much and so loud, if there can not be found many 
 who will fearlessly fight for the right, regardless of 
 the frowns and threats of man, then indeed is our 
 civilization unworthy the eloquent eulogies constantly 
 bestowed on it by the orator and the poet. 
 
 When the last page of the world's history is writ- 
 ten, and the record of human progress is complete, 
 that page will be the brightest that records the his- 
 tory of the peerless age that sent forth the most 
 heroes and heroines — not to the field of blood and 
 carnage, but to the more glorious conflict with popu- 
 lar error and vice, — that age that can exhibit for its 
 trophies the greatest number of broken shackles of 
 ignorance and prejudice, and, consequently, the great- 
 est number of minds liberated and made free to ac- 
 cept the truth, una wed by the despotic power of 
 public oj)inion. 
 
 Do we of this age intend to contend for this hon- 
 orable place in history? If we do, then our Chris- 
 tianity and culture must be more positive and heroic. 
 A host of reformers must be placed in the field 
 who will be willing, against fearful odds, to combat 
 
Public Opinion. 263 
 
 false piiblif! sciitiniciit, — valiant soldiers who can for- 
 get themselves for the triumph of the right; sol- 
 diers free from the shackles of sectarian bigotry and 
 the fetters of party, armed with the weapons of 
 truth, and animated only by love for God and hu- 
 manity ; soldiers who, if they can not capture the 
 citadels of ignorance and superstition by storm, will 
 have the patience and perseverance to win by the 
 slower process of the siege. 
 
 That we have not now, in this day of light and 
 knowledge, such a valiant army in the field, gives 
 most conclusive evidence that our religion and civ- 
 ilization have become demoralized, and their aggress- 
 ive power weakened by the influence of a corrupt 
 public opinion. It has made moral cowards of those 
 who have been the leaders in our civilization. In- 
 stead of striving to reform public opinion, it has 
 been their policy to ascertain what opinions were 
 prevalent, that they might concur in them. 
 
 Political platforms have been constructed, and 
 parties have been organized, not to overcome and 
 correct the false notions of men, but to popularize 
 human follies, and by their aid secure power. Church 
 polity has been too often managed to shield rather 
 than punish popular vice. 
 
 It seems that in this age the highest aims of men 
 and of organizations are to secure popular favor by 
 assenting to public opinion. Those who succeed, no 
 matter how, are congratulated and envied for their 
 good fortune ; while those who dared stand for the 
 right, and battle with public opinion, and become 
 therefore unpopular, are regarded with pity, and often 
 
264 Public Opinion. 
 
 witb contempt. This world's crowns and glory are 
 given to those who are loyal to the popular will; the 
 stripes and persecutions are given to those who dare 
 rebel. 
 
 Any condition of human life exciting the admira- 
 tion of the mass of men is most eagerly sought for. 
 Prominent among these, and perhaps the chiefest, is 
 wealth. Riches, no matter how acquired, is a pass- 
 port to popular favor. In the language of Solomon, 
 " Wealth makes many friends ; but the poor is sepa- 
 rated from his neighbor." In this proverb the wise 
 old king has given us the motive jjower urging men 
 on to the acquisition of money. 
 
 Men do not strive for riches so much because of 
 its intrinsic value to them, but because of the esti- 
 mate that others place upon it. Let riches lose this 
 charm; let the poor man, if he have the same moral 
 worth, stand as v/ell in public esteem as the rich 
 man, — and this senseless struggle for the accumula- 
 tion of colossal fortunes will cease, and human ac- 
 tions will seek for higher aims and purposes. 
 
 The popular estimate of riches is begetting a mer- 
 cenary spirit that is a reproach to our religion, and a 
 blot on our civilization. This spirit obtains control 
 of the soul of man, prostrates his self-respect, weak- 
 ens and often destroys his moral sensibilities by ex- 
 citing such a desire for gain, causing him to be blind 
 to duty, and to trample under foot all social obli- 
 gations. 
 
 In the estimation of all such, wealth becomes a 
 god, and "on its altar sacrifices ease, peace, truth, 
 faiths integrity, good conscience, friends, love, charity, 
 
Public Opinion. 265 
 
 benevolence, and all the sweet and tender sympathies 
 of life." 
 
 It is one of the gigantic evils of the times. It is 
 the fonntain and origin of corruption in financial and 
 commercial life. It is making our politics a cess- 
 pool of filth and stench. It aids to create a public 
 sentiment that robs dishonesty of disgrace. Covet- 
 ousness, when once it is fastened on the human soul, 
 becomes an evil habit of the man as difficult to cure 
 as intemperance. The public estimate of riches de- 
 velops and strengthens it until the attainment of wealth 
 is the only aim of the man. Silencing the voice of 
 conscience, and deaf to the demand of duty, he goes 
 forth to prey on his fellow-man with the spirit, if not 
 the courage, of the highwayman. 
 
 As a necessary result, we have constantly some 
 new exhibition of the inventive genius of the swin- 
 dler and sharper. In trade, it is daily producing well- 
 executed conterfeits of all articles that human wants 
 demand, and substitutes them for the genuine, making 
 our age emphatically the age of shams. It is so 
 weakening man's faith in humanity that it is a com- 
 mon saying that is generally accepted as true, that 
 " every man has his price." 
 
 Humanity has lost faith in itself. Men distrust 
 each other. This mercenary spirit has driven each 
 one back into the narrow limits of his own being, 
 and he has barred the doors of confidence and 
 trust. 
 
 The conviction has settled dowm deep in the 
 minds of men that all human action is in every 
 case prompted by some selfish and mercenary motive, 
 
2()6 Public Opinion. 
 
 and professions to the contrary are regarded with sus- 
 picion and distrust. 
 
 This very serious difficulty meets the reformer 
 right at the onset. Mankind do not believe him, or 
 have faith in his propositions. They look upon his 
 projects as new devices to entrap them, and upon him 
 as the last invention of the enemy to swindle them. 
 From their selfish and money-getting stand-point 
 they can not see and believe that human action can 
 possibly become self-sacrificing. To them, duty and 
 truth bring only persecution and frowns, and are 
 senseless myths; while money is something substan- 
 tial, bringing the sweet smiles of popular favor. 
 
 This great evil, therefore, can not be remedied at 
 once. To even correct it in any great degree will 
 require patience, perseverance, and the wisest and 
 most persistent effort. 
 
 It must be corrected, or the hope for the future 
 is blasted. A race of bold and independent spirits 
 must be brought to the front whose training must 
 contain, as one of the principal elements, the infusion 
 of a manly courage to rise above all mercenary con- 
 siderations in sustaining the right and condemning 
 the wrong. Their education should develop a hero- 
 ism that would cause them to fearlessly snatch the 
 imperial scepter from Mammon, overthrow the throne 
 of his despotic power, and make hateful and hideous 
 his corrupting force. 
 
 A sentiment should be awakened disclosing to 
 humanity the legitimate and proper use of money, 
 that it is not to be prostituted to the base end of 
 gratifying a miserly greed for colossal fortune, or 
 
Public Opinion. 267 
 
 squandered on the senseless tinselry that fashion has 
 invented as tlie guise of riehes, but that it is to flow 
 in the channels that God intended to enlighten man- 
 kind. 
 
 In the Old World are two great rivers that meet 
 at a certain point, and from thence their waters 
 mingle, and within the same banks flow on to the 
 ocean. 
 
 The tributaries of one of these rivers rush down 
 the clayey hill-sides, and sweep, through the mire of 
 the morass, bearing into the common channel per- 
 petual contributions of mud and filth. The other, an 
 outlet from a lake, flows on in its crystal beauty 
 through a laud of sunshine and flowers, with the 
 water so clear that its very depths become a mirror, 
 duplicating the charming landscape on its lovely 
 shores, and reflecting back the glory of the starry 
 firmament above. 
 
 At the point of the meeting of the waters of 
 these streams, a contest at once begins between the 
 pure and the impure. For miles and leagues down 
 the stream the result of the conflict seems to be in 
 doubt, whether the waters shall become all pure or 
 all filthy; whether one shall purify the other, or the 
 whole shall be defiled. It is said that still farther 
 down the waters become purer, and before their 
 united waters reach the ocean, the whole river is as 
 pure and transparent as the drops from the clouds. 
 
 Thus this mercenary spirit is constantly contrib- 
 uting to popular sentiment the mire and dirt of 
 human corruption and selfishness. Let wider and 
 deeper' outlets be made from the pure reservoir of 
 
268 Public Opinion. 
 
 God's truth, and let broader and deeper streams flow 
 iuto these muddy waters, aud as tlie whole flows on 
 through ages of time to the ocean of eternity, may 
 these streams in a like manner cleanse public opin- 
 ion from all that is filthy aud corrupting! 
 
CONFUCIUS AND SOLOMON. 
 
 CONFUCIUS may be justly regarded as the founder 
 of the peculiar civilization of the Chinese. His 
 voluminous writings bear the same relation to the 
 Chinese that the Bible does to the believers in Chris- 
 tianity. His disciples number more than one-fourth 
 of the human race. The Confucian code is accepted 
 by more than ten times as many people as constitute 
 the population of the United States. 
 
 By the most of his followers Confucius is deified. 
 One of his most learned disciples thus eulogizes him: 
 "Confucius handed down the doctrines of Yaon and 
 Shin, as if they had been his ancestors; and elegantly 
 displayed the regulations of Wan and AVoo, taking 
 them as his models. Above he harmonized the times 
 of heaven, and below he was confined to the water 
 and the land. He may be compared to heaven and 
 earth in their supporting and containing — their over- 
 shadowing and containing all things. He may be 
 compared to the four seasons in their alternating 
 progress, and to the sun and moon in their successive 
 shining. All-embracing and vast, he is like heaven. 
 Deep and active as a fountain, he is like an abyss. 
 He is seen, and all the people reverence him; he 
 speaks, and the })eople all believe him; he acts, and 
 
 A Lecture, delivered at the Acton Lecture Course, August 
 3, 1881. 
 
 269 
 
270 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 all the people are pleased with him. Therefore his 
 fame overspreads the Middle Kingdom, and extends 
 to all barbarous tribes. Wherever ship and carriage 
 reach, wherever the strength of man penetrates, wher- 
 ever the heavens overshadow and the earth sustains, 
 wherever the sun and moon shine, wherever frosts 
 and dews fall, — all who have blood and breath un- 
 feignedly honor and love him. Hence it is said he 
 is the equal of heaven. Call him man in his ideal, 
 how earnest is he ! Call him an abyss, how deep is 
 he ! Call him Heaven, how vast is he ! Who can 
 know him but he who is indeed quick in apprehen- 
 sion, clear in discernment, of far-reaching intelli- 
 gence, and all-embracing knowledge, passing heavenly 
 virtue ?" 
 
 In the sacrificial ritual of the Chinese there may 
 be found a short account of the life of this wonderful 
 personage. This ritual closes with these words: 
 " Confucius ! Confucius ! How great is Confucius ! 
 Before Confucius there never was a Confucius! 
 Since Confucius there has never been a Con- 
 fucius! Confucius! Confucius! How great is Con- 
 fucius !" 
 
 Many more such extracts could be given of the 
 same character, showing the depth of the adoration 
 of his numerous disciples; but this will suffice for 
 the point. It might be proper to add that, although 
 twenty-three centuries have passed since this wonder- 
 ful man lived, and during that time many an ambi- 
 tious leader has arisen and for a time flourished and 
 is now forgotten, yet there is no abatement of the 
 zeal of his followers. The peaceful valley where he 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 271 
 
 died has been for all time since then, and is now, a 
 sacred spot, a resort, a place of pilgrimage for the 
 learned and superstitious. 
 
 More than two hundred years ago, when seventy- 
 four generations had passed away since his death, 
 there were twelve thousand of his descendants who 
 bore his name. There are over forty thousand now. 
 It is an honor that gives them all high rank among 
 the people, and exempts them from taxation. Over 
 sixteen hundred temples are dedicated to him, and 
 annually over sixty thousand animals are immolated 
 on the altars of sacrifice to the memory of the great 
 philosopher. His voluminous writings are com- 
 mitted to memory by thousands of his followers so 
 perfectly that if every book of all his works were 
 destroyed, they could all be restored from the memo- 
 ries of his disciples, word for word. 
 
 Confucius Mas in the height and zenith of his 
 glory about five hundred years before Christ. His 
 ethical writings are the wonder of the world, when 
 the age in which they were written and the opportuni- 
 ties he had are taken into consideration. The infidel 
 writers, especially those of France, have gone wild in 
 their admiration and eulogium of his proverbs, and 
 have boldly asserted that they excel in wisdom those 
 of Solomon, and go so far as to declare that the 
 teachings of Jesus are but a repetition of the maxims 
 of Confucius. 
 
 The appreciation of the maxims of the great phi- 
 losopher, and the depreciation of the proverbs of 
 Solomon, is one of the modern modes of warfare of 
 the skeptic in his assault on the Bible as an inspired 
 
272 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 book. Let us briefly compare these men and their 
 writings. 
 
 Both of them were of distinguished parentage. 
 Confucius was the son of the prime minister of the 
 kingdom of Loo. Solomon was the son of the great 
 warrior-king and sweet singer of Israel. Solomon 
 was the ruling monarch of Israel; and, by his wisdom 
 and the splendor of his court, was the wonder of the 
 surrounding nations a little more than one thousand 
 years before Christ was born. Solomon, therefore, 
 preceded Confucius more than five hundred years. 
 
 Both of them were animated with the same am- 
 bition to stand in the very front rank with the wisest 
 men of their times. Both, of distinguished parent- 
 age, were alike determined to add to the glory they 
 inherited the grander fame of great personal achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 Confucius rejected all idea of a divine revelation, 
 and groped his way along without the light of the 
 Word of God. Solomon went to the Lord, and asked, 
 not for long life or riches, but prayed for divine help 
 in searching for wisdom. 
 
 Confucius lived in a land where the light of the 
 knowledge of God had never penetrated the darkness 
 and gloom of heathenism all around him. Solomon 
 was the great and wise king of the very nation which 
 had been so miraculously preserved by the interpo- 
 sition of the Almighty, and who had in past times 
 given to the leaders and rulers the laws for the gov- 
 ernment of the people, and whom he intended to 
 honor by making one born of that nation to be the 
 Savior and Redeemer for all mankind. The writings 
 
Confucius and Solomon. TIZ 
 
 of Solomon, therefore, in all things, recognized God 
 and the future life; while those of Confucius were 
 confined to the narrow circle of human life, and the 
 duties and obligations arising from man's relation to 
 his fellow-man. 
 
 It is true that Solomon also discoursed largely on 
 all the relations of life. In his proverbs may be 
 found the purest ethics, the grandest poetry, the pro- 
 foundest philosophy. It discloses him to have been a 
 great statesman, a wise king and lawgiver. His pen 
 has written him on the imperishable pages of divine 
 history as a philosopher, a statesman, a poet, and a 
 sage. He not only advocated the right for its own 
 sake, but he also, with the authority of one inspired^ 
 proclaimed what God required of men. 
 
 The ethics of Confucius is the production of a 
 great mind nnaided by any true conception of divin- 
 ity ; while that of Solomon, written more than five 
 hundred years before, rises so far above him in moral 
 grandeur as to compel mankind to recognizie therein 
 the utterings of the omniscient and infinite. 
 
 Solomon announces in the very beginning of his 
 Book of Proverbs that " the fear of the Lord is the 
 beginning of wisdom." Confucius commences his 
 Book of Maxims, put in the form of a question : " Is 
 he not a man of perfect virtue who feels no discom- 
 posure, though men may take no note of him?" 
 
 These two maxims may justly be taken as key- 
 notes of the writings of these great men. The one 
 lifts man up to the consideration of the grandeur and 
 immortality of his being and existence ; the other 
 makes perfect virtue to be a placid state of mind, in 
 
 IS 
 
274 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 which stupidity is the most prominent feature. This 
 will be found to be true all through the maxims of 
 these great proverb-writers. 
 
 While in the Proverbs of Solomon it is sounded 
 out loud and clear that God is the Father of us all, 
 and that we are all bound, for his sake and in obedi- 
 ence to his command, to love, cherish, and protect each 
 other: in the maxims of the Chinese philosopher the 
 practice of virtue is urged because of the good that 
 will come to him who practices it. The one incul- 
 cates the higher love to God and man ; the other 
 makes an appeal to the selfishness of human nature 
 as an incentive to virtuous actions. The one teaches 
 an active principle of good, conveying blessings to all 
 around, while the other simply enjoins a mere passive 
 or negative condition of the human mind. The one 
 looks to the good of others, and the other to what is 
 best for self. 
 
 It would not be just or honest to say that the 
 whole code of Confucius is as narrow as human self- 
 ishness; for in his teachings we find many noble and 
 generous things that can not be too much commended; 
 yet he did recognize selfishness as the mainspring 
 and motive power of human action. 
 
 The writings of Solomon were the exact reverse 
 in this regard. In corroboration of this view of the 
 case, let us take two statements that these great writers 
 have made on the same subject — a subject that seems 
 to have engrossed the profoundest consideration of 
 both. I mean the correct conduct of human life. 
 
 Confucius says : " To be able to practice jive 
 things constitutes perfect virtue." When asked what 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 275 
 
 these five things were, he said : " Gravity, generosity 
 of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness." As a 
 reason for the practice of these five essential things, 
 he says : " If you are grave, you will be treated with 
 respect. If you are generous, you will win all. If 
 you are sincere, people will repose trust in you. If 
 you are earnest, you icill accomplish much. If you are 
 kind, this will enable you to employ the service of 
 others." 
 
 Had he been content to merely state the elements 
 that compose perfect virtue, his case would have been 
 stronger. He weakened it by giving the reasons, and 
 in that it must be regarded that, in so doing, he gives 
 us the animus of his philosophy. Perfect virtue, ac- 
 cording to this Confucian code, has its foundation and 
 origin in human selfishness ; and to that, and that 
 alone, he makes his appeal in urging its claims on his 
 followers. 
 
 To practice his five things, good as they are, no 
 reason is given that in doing so the good of others 
 will be promoted. This is not even hinted at. The 
 whole argument is as narrow as human selfishness 
 would desire it to be. He promises to pay heavy 
 dividends of personal benefits to all who will invest 
 in his scheme of perfect virtue. He says: ''When 
 one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and 
 few occasions for repentance in his conduct, he is in 
 the way to get emolument." He thus commends his 
 philosophy on the ground that it will pay. No higher 
 or broader ground is mentioned. Even generosity is 
 commended, not because its practice will scatter hap- 
 piness all around, and make mankind better, and life 
 
276 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 sweeter, and existence more tolerable, but because, by 
 so doing, it will win others to your interest, and will 
 pay cash down for all you invest in it. Kindness is 
 recommended because by it you can attach otiiers to 
 your service, and thus promote your own interest and 
 make more headway in the world. 
 
 It might be proper to remark right here that this 
 idea of perfect virtue prevails to some extent in this 
 Christian land. The practice of just the amount of 
 virtue that will pay good divideuds«iu dollars or per- 
 sonal aggrandizement is, by no means, confined to the 
 "Heathen Chinee." It must be confessed that, while 
 we claim to believe Solomon, not a few follow Con- 
 fucius in this regard. 
 
 In contrast with the five things and reasons given 
 for them by Confucius, to make a man perfect, let us 
 hear a kindred declaration of Solomon. He says : 
 " These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are 
 an abomination unto the Lord : A proud look, a lying 
 tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; an heart 
 that deviseth wicked imagination, feet that be swift 
 in running into mischief; a false witness that speaketh 
 lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren." 
 
 In the above seven things that wise king said 
 were abhorent to the Lord, it is manifest that their 
 practice is condemned for the reason that such evils 
 are against the general welfare. For this reason these 
 practices are denounced. The requirement is made 
 that these things shall be avoided on the higher and 
 broader ground that the general good requires it. 
 No mention is here made that the man who observes 
 these precepts and obeys them will have personal gain 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 277 
 
 by so doing. It was deemed sufficient that others 
 would be the losers, and for this reason he must obey. 
 
 We can not fail to observe that, in these seven 
 things that Solomon says are so hateful to God, a 
 majority of them are against lying and slauder. All 
 throuo-h the Book of Proverbs* of Solomon "we can 
 find the most terrible denunciation of the liar and 
 backbiter. He seemed to hold these sins in special 
 abhorrence, and to regard all those who were guilty 
 of them as being very detestable in the sight of a 
 kind and loving Father. Not only is the life of others 
 to be regarded as sacred in Solomon's code, but their 
 'character and reputation is to be equally free from as- 
 sault. The slanderer and the murderer are alike hate- 
 ful in the sight of God, and are put in the same 
 category. Mankind are not promised personal reward 
 if they will not shed the blood of others or slaughter 
 their good name. The good of society demands their 
 obedience to the laws of right. 
 
 The eulogists of the Confucian code, while they 
 may agree that the great philosopher in all cases did 
 not place the practice of virtue on the proper ground, 
 yet it is insisted that the code itself contains the pur- 
 est morality, and that its practice will work as great, 
 if not greater reformation on society than the observ- 
 ance of the proverbs of Solomon. This position can 
 not be maintained. Many of the maxims of Confu- 
 cius are positively bad and vicious, and must be con- 
 demned by the moral sense of mankind. They posi- 
 tively uphold and sustain what the civilized world 
 would pronounce to be evil, without any help to 
 reach such couclusiun from divine revelation. 
 
278 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 It is said that the DuK-e of Shea, one of the prov- 
 inces of China, once wont to Confucius for counsel 
 and advice, and told the philosopher that in his part 
 of the country there were those so upright that if the 
 father had stolen a sheep, the sou would bear witness 
 to the fact. Confucius replied : " Among us, in our 
 part of the country, those who are upright are differ- 
 ent from this. The father conceals the misconduct 
 of the son, and the son the misconduct of the father. 
 JJprighhiess is to he found in this.'' From time imme- 
 morial the sheep-thief has been regarded as the 
 meanest of thieves, so that " as mean as a sheep- 
 thief" has become one of the sayings of the world; 
 yet this great teacher lays down the principle for 
 the acceptance of his followers that even this crime 
 must not be ex]><)sed if the witness has to bear testi- 
 mony against a relative — that uprightness consists, 
 in all such cases, in concealing the crime and protect- 
 ing the criminal. His code of morals — if it may 
 be so called — was not even and Avell adjusted. It 
 was not consistent with itself. It does not contain 
 the elements of positive, active virtue. It is a fact in 
 the history of the Chinese that such is their char- 
 acter — selfish, cunning, and deceitful, they fairly re- 
 flect in their meanness the points of the code from 
 which they find the rules for their conduct of life. 
 
 Let us take another of the sayings of Confucius. 
 In speaking of the character of Huey, who seems to 
 have been one of the notables in China, Confucius 
 said: "Admirable, indeed, was the virtue of Huey. 
 With a single bamboo-dish of rice, a single gourd- 
 dish of drink, and living in his mean, narrow lane, 
 
COiXFUCIUS AND SOLOMON. 279 
 
 ■while others could not have endured the distress, he 
 did not allow his joy to be affected by it. Admirable, 
 indeed, is the virtue of Huey." ^Yho this model of 
 perfection ^yas, or what other characteristics he had 
 to challenge such admiration and eulogy, we know 
 not. The thing that seems to call out the praise of 
 Confucius was that his hero, without sufficient food 
 or shelter, could live in the dirt like a hog and 
 be happy. We are at liberty to suppose that this 
 pink of perfection was a lazy loafer, too indolent 
 to Avork for sufficient food — a kind of unwashed 
 dead-beat, who had not sufficient energy to be a 
 tramp, and, content in his filth, was as jolly as Mark 
 Tapley. 
 
 That this dirty model has millions of followers in 
 China, the history of that country and the specimens 
 who come to our shores furnish conclusive evidence. 
 Confucius has made virtue cheap — as cheap as dirt. 
 The Chinese being the earnest and sincere followers 
 of Confucius, their civilization and condition in this 
 regard are fair types of his philosophy. It seems to 
 us a strange sort of moral philosophy that the sweet 
 flowers of virtue may be best cultivated in the soil 
 of filth and indolence. Solomon says : " Seest thou 
 a man diligent in business, he shall stand before 
 kings. He shall not stand before mean men." 
 
 As a people, the Chinese are avaricious. In this 
 they follow the teachings of their master. In the bi- 
 ography of this great philosopher it is said that at 
 one time he went to dispense wisdom to the people 
 of the kingdom of Wei. Yen Yew acted as the 
 driver of his carriage. While on the way, the sage 
 
280 Confucius a^d Solomon. 
 
 asked Yen Yew, " How numerous are the people of 
 this kiugclom?" and when told that they were very 
 numerous, Yen Yew asked that since they were thus 
 numerous, what more shall be done for them? "En- 
 rich them," was the reply of Confucius. "And what 
 more shall be done after they are enriched?" was the 
 next question put to the sage. " Teach them," was 
 the reply of Confucius. 
 
 It must be constantly borne in mind that all these 
 sayings are like Holy Writ to the devotees of this 
 great leader. Whatever he said, they make the rule 
 of their lives. Riches first, and intelligence after- 
 ward. Riches before righteousness, before justice. 
 This is the model code that infidel philosophy pre- 
 sents to the world for man's acceptance, in place of 
 the teachings of Solomon, and the words of Him who 
 spoke as never man spake. 
 
 Hear Solomon : "A good name is rather to be 
 chosen than great riches." " The rich and the poor 
 meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all." 
 " By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches 
 and honor and life." " Better is the poor that walk- 
 eth in his integrity than he that is perverse in his 
 way, though he be rich." 
 
 It will scarcely be questioned that, in all places 
 and in every condition and degree of progress and 
 civilization, the mercenary spirit has ever been found 
 to be the chief hindering cause to the elevation and 
 improvement of the human race. It is so in all 
 Christian countries where the Bible is read and be- 
 lieved. If this evil spirit is found so formidable 
 among people whose religion condemns it, how much 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 281 
 
 more powerful must it be for evil under a system that 
 fosters and encourages it ! 
 
 On the subject of parental authority, Confucius 
 was almost, if not quite, a monomaniac. Absolute 
 and unqualified submission to parents was his hobby, 
 and connected with that, and as a corollary to it, he 
 inculcated the most slavish submission to superiors. 
 It will be found in his writings, that after discoursing 
 most voluminously on the different sorts of crime, 
 and the proper penalty due to each offense, and after 
 classifying and enumerating them, he lays down this 
 maxim as a well-considered conclusion of the whole 
 matter : " Of the three thousand crimes included 
 under the five kinds of punishment, there is none 
 greater than disobedience to parents." In all cases 
 it was the absolute right of the parent to command, 
 and the imperative duty of the child to obey. To 
 this rule there was no exception. It did not alter the 
 case that the sou had reached mature manhood, 
 and the mind of the parent had been enfeebled by age 
 or disease. The wickedness of the order of the 
 father, a command at variance with all sense of right 
 or decency, did not modify the rule. Rebellion 
 against parental authority in any case was, in his 
 mind, the darkest of crimes, and could not, under 
 any circumstances, be tolerated. To prevent the ex- 
 ercise of private judgment on the part of the son, and 
 to make the rule absolute, he made this declaration: 
 " AVhen his parents are in error, the son, with a 
 humble spirit, a pleasing countenance, and a gentle 
 tone, must point out the error to them. If they do 
 not receive his reproof, he must strive more and more 
 
282 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 to be dutiful to them and respectful toward them until 
 they are pleased, and then he must again point out 
 the error. If a son, in performing his duty to his 
 parents, has thrice endeavored to correct them with- 
 out their listening to him, ihen, weeping and lamenting, 
 he must follow their commands J' 
 
 To further show how absolute was the authority 
 of the father over the son, allow me to quote from the 
 sacred book of poetry, in which Confucius often recurs 
 to this subject. In that book he teaches by questions 
 and answers. He asks this question : " In marrying 
 a wife, how ought a man to proceed ?" His answer 
 is : " He must consult his parents." If the father 
 consented to the marriage of the son, he could 
 marry; if he refused, then he dare not disobey. If 
 the father agreed to the marriage of the son, the son 
 was not permitted to go in search of a wife con- 
 genial to his taste, or in accordance with his notions 
 of what constituted female beauty and accomplish- 
 ments. That whole business was done by the father. 
 It is the rule yet in China. The bridegroom is never 
 permitted to see his bride until after they are married. 
 
 While the Chinese have made a great many won- 
 derful and beautiful fabrics, and have constructed the 
 most elaborate and intricate specimens of mechanism 
 that have puzzled the whole world, they are not per- 
 mitted, under their code, to engage in that delightful 
 yet difficult business of making love. The iron code 
 of Confucius, on the subject of parental authority, 
 has been so rigidly enforced that the manufacture of 
 this precious article by the boys and girls is strictly 
 forbidden and prevented. 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 283 
 
 It is, indeed, a sad thing to consider, wlien we are 
 In'ought face to face with the fact, that all the many 
 believers of Confucius — more than one-fourth of the 
 whole human race — of all that are now living, and of 
 all those who have died in the last twenty-odd cen- 
 turies, not one man of all that countless throng has 
 ever had the sweet experience of courting the girls ! 
 In our civilization, that most deligh.tful portion of our 
 life's experience is the last to depart from our mem- 
 ories, and in the evening of life is most frequently 
 recalled. When the weight of many years, and the 
 numerous sorrows of life so press us down as to make 
 even the grave look inviting, then these sweet mem- 
 ories of our youth come again to cheer and brighten 
 the winter of old age, and for a time the recollection 
 of these joys chase away the griefs that in later life 
 fasten themselves to our life's experience. These 
 tender remembrances not only cheer old age, but 
 they soften the withered hearts, and fill them with 
 love and charity for the young. Without it, the old 
 ao;e of the Chinese must be cheerless and ploomv. 
 
 This brings us to consider one of the most fatal 
 defects in the whole Confucian system. The great 
 philosopher took no account of looman. She was 
 nothing in his estimation. Not only was this his 
 theory, but he put it into practice by abandoning his 
 wife and child because they diverted his mind from 
 his studies. As a result, women in China are but 
 little more than chattels. They are the slaves of the 
 men. The girls are sold to those who are looking 
 for wives for their sons. To have a large family of 
 handsome and accomj)li.sliod daughters is a source of 
 
284 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 great profit to the father. He disposes of his fine 
 stock to those who will bid the most for them. I have 
 not been able to fiud a single word of condemnation 
 in all the fine philosophy of Confucius against this 
 brutality — not one word. 
 
 Low, indeed, is the type of civilization that ex- 
 cludes the wives and mothers from all social position. 
 Blunted must be the moral sense of a people who 
 treat women with no more consideration than they do 
 animals. Yet such is the civilization of China. 
 Women have no social position there. They are not 
 allowed to attend the theater, or any other public as- 
 semblage. Even among the best and most polished 
 in Chinese society, women are not, in any sense, re- 
 garded as the equal of men ; nor are they permitted 
 to enjoy with them even the society of their own 
 homes. 
 
 When a mandarin gives an entertainment to his 
 friends, his wife (or wives, as the case may be) may be 
 permitted to invite a few of her female friends to 
 witness the games and revelry of the men from a lat- 
 tice gallery. Neither the wives nor the friends 
 invited are allowed any other participation in the 
 festivities. Even this much is regarded as a great 
 condescension and concession to the women. 
 
 In order to a fuller and clearer appreciation of 
 the point here made against the Confucian system, it 
 must not be forgotten that Confucius undertook to 
 discourse on the whole round of duties and obliga- 
 tions of human life. Ethics was his principal theme. 
 He pointed out the remedy for abuses in society and 
 to reform the civil government. AVith the greatest 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 285 
 
 particularity he made and proclaimed rules to meet 
 every condition of man, communities, and states. He 
 not only lays down the law for sovereigns and rulers — 
 the treatment due the governed, and the duty and 
 conduct of the governed — but he enters the family 
 circle, and, with tedious particularity, tells what the 
 child must be taught at this age, and then what it 
 must learn when it is a year older; the kind of gar- 
 ments it must wear, and how they must be made. 
 He has a code of etiquette, — the mode and manner of 
 sacrificing; the duty of parents; the obligations of 
 children, — until one becomes wearied with its long- 
 drawn-out prolixity. He seemed to fear that he 
 would omit something that would leave the world in 
 doubt as to what should be done in some new relation 
 that might arise in the various phases of life. 
 
 Being a sage and counselor, in his later life we 
 find him visited from all parts of the Chinese Empire 
 by those who had heard of his wisdom, asking him 
 all manner of questions, covering every conceivable 
 case or condition in human life. To all these ques- 
 tions, many of which were very shallow, he gave his 
 answers with all the pomp and circumstance of an 
 oracle. All of his replies to these interrogatories, 
 whether they were wise or foolish, were recorded as 
 wise maxims, and are to-day a part of the proverbial 
 teachings of this philosopher, which are like Holy 
 AVrit to the millions who take him for their guide. 
 
 But in all this vast mass of ethical law, the 
 rights of woman are entirely ignored. Not a sen- 
 tence demanding her elevation ; not a proverb de- 
 nouncing the brutality of man's treatment ; not a 
 
286 CoivFUcius AND Solomon. 
 
 word of denunciation of the despotism tb.at made hei 
 a mere chattel and a slave. Yet the evil was con- 
 stantly before him. 
 
 Even a generation or two after he died, another 
 great teacher of the Chinese, and a most fulsome 
 eulogist of Confucius, gave the rule that should gov- 
 ern the conduct of the wives. It is a most shameful, 
 one-sided argument in favor of oppression, and a per- 
 emptory demand of women to submit in all things to 
 their husbands. He closes his appeal in these words : 
 " Wives, we can not but impress these words on your 
 memories. For the male to be firm and the female 
 to be flexible, is what reason points out as a proper 
 rule." " But," he adds, '' in this world, you con- 
 stantly meet with a class of husbands who foolishly 
 love and respect their wives too much, as if they were 
 more honorable, or suj)erior to themselves. If any- 
 thing occur, they are afraid to go before them, and 
 thus the woman becomes the roaring lioness of Ho- 
 tung, or the female fowl that announces the morning." 
 
 The heart sickens, and we turn away with loath- 
 ing from a code of ethics so utterly heartless and 
 inhuman. We become weary with its mere plati- 
 tudes. A civilization that robs woman of her rights, 
 that banishes her gentle influence from the social 
 circle, that makes one-half of the human family — and 
 that the better half — mere chattels and slaves, is not 
 worthy of the name. The degradation of the wives 
 and mothers will have a terrible reflex influence on 
 the sons and husbands, robbing them of true man- 
 hood, producing a race of cowards and poltroons. 
 And such are the Chinese. Their soldiers wear 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 287 
 
 quiited petticoats, satin boots, aud bead necklaces, 
 carry umbrellas and fans, and go to a night attack with 
 lanterns in their hands, being more afraid of the 
 darkness than of exposing themselves to the enemy. 
 
 We turn, therefore, with relief and delight from 
 the Confucian Code to the Proverbs of Solomon. In 
 the VQry conclusion of that wonderful book, and as 
 the climax of his poetic eloquence, he commends the 
 virtuous woman. He exalts her in his grand and 
 wonderful eulogiuni as he does no other personage of 
 whom he discourses. Fully comprehending all the 
 excellencies of her nature and the beauties of her 
 character, with the skill of an artist he forms them into 
 a chaplet of beauty, and with it crowns her the queen 
 of society, demanding for her the homage and admi- 
 ration of the world. Such homage she has ever re- 
 ceived in all lands where the Bible is the code, and 
 not that of Confucius. 
 
 I can not refrain from a few quotations from his 
 grand eulogy. After stating that the virtuous woman 
 is of more priceless value than rubies, he says : " The 
 heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She 
 will do him good, aud not evil, all the days of her 
 life. She riseth while it is yet night, and giveth 
 meat to her household. She layeth her hands to the 
 spindle, and her hands hold the distaif. She stretcheth 
 out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth 
 her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the 
 snow for her househeld : for all her household are 
 clothed with scarlet. Her husband is known in the 
 gates, when he sitteth with the elders of the land. 
 Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall 
 
288 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with 
 wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 
 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and 
 eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children rise 
 up, and call her blessed ; her husband also, and he 
 blesseth her." 
 
 Had Confucius, in like manner, exalted woman ; 
 had he, when he became the ruler of the Chinese 
 mind, broken the shackles that bound her, and de- 
 nounced the tyranny that oppressed her, and called 
 her forth from her prison, and crowned her the 
 queen of the social circle, investing her with equal 
 rights with man, — the higher civilization of China 
 would then be the enduring monument to his glory 
 and real greatness. The rank of his greatness would 
 have been as much higher as justice is higher than op- 
 pression, and as Christian civilization is above barba- 
 rism. That he did not do so, is a matter of surprise 
 and regret ; for it must be confessed that there is much 
 in the maxims of the philosopher that show that he 
 was animated with a high sense of justice. 
 
 His system of political ethics and his code of 
 morals, imperfect as they are, were far in advance of 
 his people. He was, doubtless, the chief instrument 
 in lifting the Chinese people to a higher plane, and 
 in infusing into the Chinese mind a love for learning 
 that has resulted in a better civilization than can be 
 found in any other portion of Eastern Asia. 
 
 While all this is true, yet his writings do not 
 show him to have possessed the elements of a I'adical 
 reformer. He was not a bold and heroic man. His 
 idea of a virtuous life was of a nes:ative and conserv- 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 289 
 
 ative type. He was manifestly a very vain man. 
 His frequent allusions to himself show him to have 
 been a most pronounced egotist. He says, in regard 
 to himself: "At fifteen I had my mind bent on learn- 
 ing ; at thirty I stood firm ; at forty I had no doubts ; 
 at fifty I knew the decrees of Heaven ; at sixty my ear 
 was an obedient organ for the reception of the truth ; 
 at seventy I could follow what my heart desired, 
 without transgressing what was right." His claim 
 that he knew the decrees of Heaven was a bid that 
 he should be worshiped as something more than 
 human — as a sort of deity. From one end to the 
 other it is a bold and unqualified claim of his excel- 
 lence and godlike perfection. 
 
 The delight with which he received the flattery 
 that was so bountifully bestowed on him discloses 
 the fact that he possessed this frailty, so common to 
 mortals, in no common measure. As it is impossible 
 for an egotist to become a great reformer, it is more 
 than probable that his strong desire to reform his 
 fellow-men was largely modified by the more power- 
 ful motive to be popular. And while he, doubtless, 
 saw the oppression of women in every household in 
 the land — and, from his apparent kindness of heart, 
 it is but fair to presume that he deplored it — yet it 
 was an evil the correction of which would have 
 wrought a revolution in every household, and he dare 
 not risk his reputation as a sage and counselor in 
 attacking this popular crime. 
 
 In further corrobation of the fact that he was an 
 exceedingly vain man and an unblushing egotist, I 
 may be permitted to give a few more of his sayings 
 
 19 
 
290 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 in regard to liimself. He says : " lu a hamlet of ten 
 families there may be found one as honorable and 
 sincere as I am, but not so fond of learning." At 
 another time and place he said: "After the death of 
 King Wan, was not the cause of truth lodged in mef 
 If heaven had wished to let the cause of truth per- 
 ish, then 1, a future mortal, should not have had 
 such relation to that cause." Again he says : " My 
 studies lie low, but my penetration rises high." His 
 disciple, Yen, returning from the court, Confucius 
 asked him: ''How are you so late?" and Yen re- 
 plied : " We had government business." Confucius 
 replied: "It must have been family aifairs. If there 
 had been government business, though I am not now 
 in office, I should have been consulted about it." 
 We find all through his sayings this same offensive 
 self-conceit. In his conduct, by his eccentric bearing 
 and huge assumptions, he was constantly making the 
 effort to convince those about him that he was some- 
 thing more than mortal, and he could not conceal his 
 satisfaction when he found that his followers acceded 
 to his pretensions. 
 
 Let us turn again to Solomon, and draw a parallel 
 between him and Confucius in this regard. Solomon, 
 when he wrote his proverbs, was the great king of a 
 mighty nation, at a time when she was in the very 
 zenith of her glory — a peerless monarch, whose wis- 
 dom was the magnet that drew all the wise men and 
 philosophers of the world to his capital. The daz- 
 zling splendor of his court, and the grandeur and 
 magnificence that seemed to gather about him and 
 attend him all through his reign, excited the wonder 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 291 
 
 and envy of every other monarch of his time. The 
 exalted position he held, and the honors that were 
 conferred upon him, only served to make him more 
 humble. 
 
 Not only did he have all the glory that gathers 
 about the throne of a great monarchy, but the dis- 
 tinction that has secured the immortality of his fame 
 was awarded him to build a temple which M^as to be 
 the admiration of the nation and the wonder of the 
 world — a temple around which would gather all the 
 tribes of Israel in mass, once each year, for the cele- 
 bration of the great feast of the passover — a temple 
 which should thus be surrounded by his whole peo- 
 ple ; and while the mighty hosts sang and shouted 
 praises to God for the deliverance from the bondage 
 of Egypt, the great throng at the same time would 
 gratefully remember their great king, who had thus 
 magnified all the ceremonies of Jewish worship. 
 
 Few are the men in history, either sacred or pro- 
 fane, who have been so honored, and none who have 
 shown such humility from such an exalted position. 
 In his Book of Proverbs not a boastful word can be 
 found — not a sentence indicating any assumption of 
 superiority. He seemed intent only on calling the 
 attention of his fellow-men to such precepts and 
 principles, the practice of which would make the 
 world better and their own lives happier. 
 
 In all his proverbs we do not find the misty and 
 negative philosophy of Confucius, but a bold and 
 manly assault on sin and iniquity wherever it might 
 be fi)und, or by whomsoever it might be practiced. To 
 call attention to himself in the spirit of self-adulation 
 
292 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 seemed to be no part of his purpose. In the Book 
 of Eeclesiastes he speaks of his high position, not in 
 terms of self-praise or in a spirit of vainglory, but 
 to enforce the great truth that no mere earthly 
 honors or pleasures are sufficient to satisfy the im- 
 mortal mind of man. He frankly admits that, while 
 he had reached the very topmost round in the lad- 
 der of human promotion, all earthly greatness was 
 but vanity and vexation of spirit. He gives to the 
 world this chaj^ter of his experience in the following 
 Avords : 
 
 '^ I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jeru- 
 salem. I made me great works ; I builded me houses; 
 I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and 
 orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of 
 fruit; I made me pools of water, to water therewith 
 the wood that bringeth forth trees; I got me 
 servants and maidens, and had servants born in my 
 house ; also I had great possessions of great and 
 small cattle above all that were before me in Jeru- 
 salem ; I gathered me also silver and gold, and the 
 peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces ; I got 
 me men singers and women singers, and the delights 
 of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of 
 all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than 
 all that were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom 
 remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes de- 
 sired, I kept not from them; I withheld not my 
 heart from any joy ; for my heart rejoiced in all my 
 labor: and this was my portion of all my labor. Then 
 I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, 
 and on the labor that I had labored to do : and, 
 
COIVFUCIUS AND SOLOMON. 293 
 
 beliokl, all was vauity and vexation of spirit, and 
 there was no profit under the sun." 
 
 These words, thus quoted from this book in the 
 Bible, show the spirit and tenor of that wonderful 
 sermon of Solomon. After considering every phase 
 of human life, and the many things that excite the 
 passionate ambition of men, at the very end of the 
 book, he says : " Let us hear the conclusion of the 
 whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; 
 for this is the whole duty of man." 
 
 It is claimed by the admirers of Confucius that it 
 was he, and not Christ, who first proclaimed the 
 Golden Rule. This is not true. The maxim of Con- 
 fucius, upon which this claim Avas based, is not a 
 golden rule. He says : " What you do not want 
 done to yourself, do not to others." It is only the 
 negative side to the principle of reciprocity. It 
 is not golden, because it is negative. The Golden 
 Rule of Christ is: "All things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do unto you, do ye even so to 
 them." 
 
 This, the grandest maxim of Confucius, falls as far 
 short of that of the Savior as the sluggish, stationary 
 civilization of the Chinese is inferior to the active, 
 positive, and progressive civilization of the followers 
 of Solomon and Christ. The style of the writings of 
 Solomon is much superior to that of Confucius. 
 That of the former shows him to have been possessed 
 of a mind with clear, well-defined and positive con- 
 victions. 
 
 The writings of Confucius disclose that his great 
 mind was inclined to soar away into the misty regions 
 
294 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 of mere seutimeutality. Many of bis maxims are so 
 airy and extravagant that it is impossible to compre- 
 hend their meaning. In some instances, if the 
 translation of his writings be correct, it is impossible 
 to believe that he himself nnderstood what he wrote. 
 His meaning is very often exceedingly obscure, and 
 is frequently entirely incomprehensible. In his book 
 entitled " The Doctrine of the Mean," this defect in 
 style is the most observable. In his argument in 
 favor of the practice of sincerity, he says : " Hence, 
 to entire sincerity there belongs ceaselessness. Not 
 ceasing, it continues long. Continuing long, it evi- 
 dences itself. Evidencing itself, it reaches far. Reach- 
 ing far, it becomes large and substantial. Large and 
 substantial, it becomes high and brilliant. Large and 
 substantial, this is how it contains all things. High 
 and brilliant, this is how it overspreads all things. 
 Reaching far and continuing long, this is how it per- 
 fects all things. So large and substantial, the indi- 
 vidual possessing it is the co-equal of earth. So high 
 and brilliant, it makes him the co-equal of heaven. 
 So far-reaching and long continuing, it makes him 
 infinite. Such being its nature, — without any display, 
 it becomes manifested ; without any movement, it pro- 
 duces changes; and without any effort, it accomplishes 
 its ends. The way of heaven and earth may be com- 
 pletely declared in one sentence : They are without 
 any doubleness, and so they produce things in a way 
 that is unfathomable." 
 
 Had Solomon or Christ in their teachings said 
 anything in their writings so silly and mysterious, 
 what a point of assault it would have been for the 
 
Confucius and Solomon. 295 
 
 iufidel ! Huw would siicli transceiuleut nonseu.sc have 
 been held up by the skeptic as couclusive evidence 
 that the claim of the diviue iuspiration of the Bible 
 is a fraud ! Yet they send forth their polished eulo- 
 gium of the Chinese philosopher, who utters these 
 airy nothings, as the very embodiment of wisdom and 
 philosophy. 
 
 The result of the teachings of Solomon and 
 Christ is a Christian civilization. The result of the 
 teachings of Confucius is the civilization of the 
 Chinese; a civilization like that produced by the 
 system of Buddha, of Bralnnanism, of Mohammed — 
 a stationary civilization. What China was a thou- 
 sand years ago, she is to-day. There is no progress. 
 There is no reasonable hope that, so long as she 
 clings to the doctrines of Confucius and rejects the 
 Bible, she will ever move upward to any higher 
 plane. Her only mark of distinction will continue 
 to be the almost endless number of her people. 
 The men of China will remain the enemies of prog- 
 ress, with no true conception of human duty or 
 destiny ; the women will remain mere chattels and 
 slaves, and the somber mantle of superstition will 
 continue to envelop the whole race in the darkness 
 of heathenism. 
 
 What our Christian religion is, and what it is 
 doing for the elevation of the human race, presents 
 such an incontrovertible array of facts that they are 
 silencing the enemies of the Christian system. It is 
 overthrowing the thrones of despotism; it is dispell- 
 ing the dark clouds of superstition that had settled 
 down on the human soul; it is awakening in the 
 
296 Confucius and Solomon. 
 
 mind of man a proper conception of its powers and 
 capabilities; it is calling into exercise all those great 
 gifts, with the inspiring faith that God has impressed 
 his own image on every soul of man, and invested 
 him with his own immortality. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AS A CIVILIZING FORCE. 
 
 THE most powerful factor in the civilization of the 
 world and the elevation of the human race is 
 the Christian religion. The pure morality of the 
 teachings of Christ, and their beauty reflected on the 
 ages for nearly two thousand years from his own life 
 and conduct among men, has changed the whole na- 
 ture and purpose of the human race. It has not only 
 dispelled the dark cloud of ignorance and supersti- 
 tion that enveloped the human family, but the human 
 mind, stupefied with the gross sensuality of barba- 
 rism, and besotted with the vices that seem inseparably 
 connected with it, has been awakened to a better and 
 fuller comprehension of its powers, and aroused and 
 stirred to attain the higher and nobler manhood that 
 the Christian religion reveals. 
 
 As a result, human life is longer and every day 
 happier. The cruel savage nature has been softened 
 and subdued, and the deep and ugly lines of hate and 
 revenge that marred and made hideous the human 
 face have given place to the beautiful smiles of regard 
 and love. The better comprehension of the laws 
 that bring health and strength, and the importance of 
 their observance, has banished many diseases that 
 preyed on humanity, and the rose of health has been 
 implanted on the bloated and faded face of humanity. 
 
 Delivered at the Chautauquaa Assembly at Long Beach, 
 California. 
 
 297 
 
298 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 Year bv year more comfortable houses are beiug 
 built for lK)uies, and iu every direction are discovered 
 improvements for the betterment of the condition of 
 the human family. With this has also come a clearer 
 and broader comprehension of the rights of man. 
 He has grown mentally and morally as well as 
 physically. He has come to see and know that the 
 humblest peasant has the same right to life and lib- 
 erty and the pursuit of happiness as the proudest 
 monarch on his throne, and this subtle and potent 
 influence is overthrowing despotism, breaking the 
 chains of slavery, and sapping the very foundation 
 of tyranny and oppression. 
 
 There is no culture that has so touched man on 
 every side and bettered his condition as Christian 
 culture. A civilization without Christ is not worthy 
 the name. Before he came into the world, I concede, 
 there were vast empires, with great armies and power- 
 ful navies ; man had reached a high degree of art, 
 and architecture had given him gorgeous palaces 
 and beautiful cities ; he had poetry and music. 
 
 But what was the condition of the great mass of 
 humanity? They were groping their uncertain way 
 in darkness and doubt, with no just conception of their 
 own powers, with little or no knowledge of duty or 
 deotiny, almost as helpless and powerless to care for 
 themselves as the beasts of the field. And their 
 mighty men, their statesmen and rulers, their mon- 
 archs and commanders of their armies, were but 
 -iupes in the hands of soothsayers and magicians, or 
 governed by the uncertain and meaningless ravings 
 of a priestess at Delphi, The lives of millions and 
 
Christianity as a Cii ihzixg Force. 299 
 
 the flestiuies of empires were determined by the di- 
 rection that a bird might fly, when some great enter- 
 prise was to be inaugurated. One generation fol- 
 lowed another in the same dark and hopeless path, 
 and no light came to show them a better way. The 
 great masses of men were pinched with hunger and 
 fell victims to famine, or were destroyed by the pes- 
 tilence " that walketh in darkness or wasteth at noon- 
 day," or perished on the field of battle to gratify the 
 lust for power and dominion of the bloody despots 
 who claimed authority to rule. 
 
 This is not an overdrawn picture. The profane 
 historian will corroborate the statement. The condi- 
 tion of the heathen world to-day shows a like deplor- 
 able condition of humanity. 
 
 I am aware that the learned skeptic and the highly 
 cultivated scientist, in attempting to write the history 
 of civilization and human progress, seek for other 
 causes, and construct theories about the climate and 
 purer blood and higher nobility of race, and give 
 these the credit for human development. But these 
 theories will not stand the test of fair and honest in- 
 vestigation. Let us take our own race — the noble 
 Anglo-Saxon — a race that has produced men of the 
 stamp of a Hampden, or a Washington, or a Lincoln, 
 or a Gladstone ; a race that can justly boast of 
 grander achievements in science and art and in letters 
 than any other ; a race that has gone in triumph all 
 around the world, and taken possession of the isles 
 of the sea by the thousands ; a race with a literature 
 unequaled among the nations of the earth ; a race 
 that in the last century has furnished the world the 
 
300 Christianity as a CiriiiziNC Force. 
 
 railroad, the stcaiiiHliip, the telegrai)h, the telephone, 
 the sewing-machiue, the electric light ; a race that 
 has put in every home all manner of labor-saving 
 machines, and thus lightened the burdens of man's life 
 and saved him from the wear and tear of manual 
 labor; a race in all respects bold and aggressive, 
 presenting the highest and best type of manhood. 
 
 But follow backward the history of this race 
 until you reach the point where they had not heard of 
 Christ. With the same climate, the same blood flow- 
 ing through their veins, and the same nobility of 
 race, whatever that may be, what do we find? We 
 find barbarians dressed in the skins of beasts they 
 had themselves slain, living in wretched hovels, the 
 victims of the lowest vices, and as ignorant as the 
 naked savage at the equator, or the barbarian at the 
 North Pole. They had no history. They had done 
 nothing to make history. They seemed to emerge 
 from the fog-bank of legend and mythology. 
 
 It seems almost incredible that so noble and 
 mighty a people should have been once so low in the 
 scale of being — a people existing on the lowest ani- 
 mal plane, utterly destitute of any of the culture and 
 •refinements that noM' so distinguish them, and with 
 little or no conception of human rights, and almost 
 wholly without any civil government. From such a 
 j)it of degradation has the Anglo-Saxon been lifted. 
 Even human life had no sacredness, and, by law, 
 bloody murder could be atoned for by the payment of 
 a small sum of money. Yet the skeptic talks flip- 
 pantly about that indefinable something, as innate no- 
 bility of race, that has brought the Anglo-Saxon up. 
 
Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 301 
 
 Why was it dormant so long? As late as the 
 tenth century, according to the code of King Ath- 
 elstan, the taking of human life could be paid for in 
 money, and the price was fixed by law according to 
 the rank of the person murdered. Fifteen hundred 
 dollars was the value of the life of a king; seven 
 hundred and fifty the life of a prince; four hundred 
 was paid for a bishop; two hundred dollars was the 
 value of a sheriff; one hundred for slaying a priest, 
 and thirteen dollars for murdering an ordinary man. 
 Whether any value was attached to the life of a 
 woman, I am not advised ; but I presume not. 
 
 And the little history we have of the Anglo-Saxon 
 before they accepted Christianity shows that these in- 
 fluences outside of Christianity, which the infidel claims 
 are so potent, had no effect upon them. They made 
 no progress. Century after century they remained 
 in the same beastly condition of filth and degradation. 
 
 It is fair to conclude that it was not their noble 
 blood, or the favoring breezes of a temperate zone, 
 that have called into being this better and higher 
 order of manhood. It is the inspiration of the great 
 truths of man's immortality, the inhaling of the pure 
 precepts and teachings of a sinless Christ, and the 
 blood that has wrought this revolution is that shed 
 on Calvary for the sins of the world. 
 
 Whether under the equator, or the ice-bound 
 regions at the poles ; whether in the land of per- 
 petual and ever-blooming flowers ; whether in the 
 land of eternal snows and ice ; whether on the tops 
 of the sterile mountain crags, above the clouds, or in 
 the fertile valley covered with never fading verdure, 
 
302 Christianity as a Civilizisg Force. 
 
 or in the isles of the sea, where man has accepted 
 Christ and made his life and teachings his guide, is 
 found this noble manhood and purer civilization. 
 
 Latitude and longitude, race and climate, do not 
 seem to change, or in the least degree to modify the 
 effect. Where Christianity is accepted, its salutary 
 effects can be seen alike in every nation, people, or clime. 
 The effort to rob it of its well-won laurels as 
 the miglity civilizing agency is a miserable failure. 
 The boldest and most reckless infidel has not yet 
 had the audacity to undertake to show that the high- 
 est types of men, and the haj>piest homes, and the 
 best laws, and the most permanent and most liberal 
 governments, are found in other than Christian lands. 
 
 In Leckey's '' History of Rationalism " may be found 
 this eloquent tribute to a pure Christianity ; and, 
 coming from one w^ho is regarded as high authority 
 among skeptics, may justly be regarded as a glorious 
 triumph for the cause so dear to all Christian hearts. 
 He says: "If we were to judge the present position 
 of Christianity by the tenets of ecclesiastical history, 
 if we were to measure it by the orthodox zeal of the 
 great doctors of the past, we might well look upon 
 its prospects with the deepest despondency and 
 alarm. 
 
 " The spirit of the fathers has incontestably faded. 
 The days of Athanasius and Augustine have passed 
 away, never to return. The whole course and tend- 
 ency of thought is flowing in another direction. 
 The controversies of bygone centuries ring with a 
 strange hoUow'ness on the ear. 
 
 "But if, turning from ecclesiastical historians, we 
 
Christianity as a Civilizixg Force. 303 
 
 apj)ly the exclusively moral test Avhich the New 
 Testament so invariably antl so emphatically en- 
 forces; if we ask whether Christianity has ceased to 
 produce the living fruits of love and charity and 
 zeal for the truth, the conclusion we should arrive at 
 wonld be very different. If it be true Christianity 
 to dive, with a passionate charity, into the darkest 
 recesses of misery and vice, to irrigate every quarter 
 of the. earth with the fertilizing stream of an almost 
 boundless benevolence, and to include all societies of 
 humanity in the circle of an intense and efficacious 
 sympathy; if it be true Christianity to destroy and 
 weaken the barriers which had separated class from 
 class, and nation from nation, to free war from its 
 harshest elements, and to make a consciousness of es- 
 sential equality and of genuine fraternity dominate 
 over all accidental differences; if it be, above all, true 
 Christianity to cultivate a love of truth for its own 
 sake, a spirit of candor and tolerance towards those 
 with whom we differ, — if these be the marks of true 
 and healthy Christianity, then never since the days 
 of the apostles has it been so vigorous as at the 
 present." 
 
 The assaults that have been made on Christianity 
 by the polished skeptical historians, who claimed to 
 have solved the mysterious problem of human prog- 
 ress, have not been aimed at its code of morals, but 
 rather at the Church as an organization. 
 
 The Church claiming civil authority, or allied 
 with and the main supporter of despotism, is not 
 the Church of Christ. A Church claiming the right 
 to compel mankind to accept her dogmas — a Church* 
 
304 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. \ 
 
 knowiug no toleration, and whose hands are red with 
 the blood of persecution — is no more the representa- 
 tive of Christianity than the car of Juggernaut or 
 the guillotine of the French Revolution. 
 
 In the darker ages, when education was confined 
 to the few, and ignorance for the many was regarded 
 as the mother of devotion, these things were done, 
 and the wrongs and outrages were charged up to the 
 account of religion. But Christianity is one thing, 
 and religion is another. A religion that is not per- 
 meated with the spirit of Christ, and is not under its 
 supreme control, is not the Christian religion. 
 
 Yet with all the evils growing out of a union of 
 Church and State, and all the bloody history of such 
 an unholy alliance, Guizot, the historian, felt com- 
 pelled to make this confession : " Notwithstanding 
 all the evil, all the abuses, Avhich may have crept 
 into the Church — notwithstanding all the acts of tyr- 
 anny of which she has been guilty — we must still 
 acknowledge her influence on the progress and cul- 
 ture of the human intellect to have been beneficial; 
 that she has assisted in its development rather than its 
 compression, in its extension rather than its con- 
 finement." 
 
 Henry Thomas Buckle, in his wonderful " History 
 of Civilization," attempts to count Christianity out as 
 one of the important factors in the progress and de- 
 v^elopment of the race. He says : " Looking at 
 things upon a large scale, the religion of mankind 
 is the effect of their improvement, and not the 
 cause of it." 
 
 While we deny in toto the truth of the statement, 
 
Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 305 
 
 yet admitting its correctness, he pays a compliment to 
 religion. If, as he argues, intellectual activity must 
 precede religious convictions, then the fact that the 
 improved man grasps at Christianity as a round in a 
 ladder to raise him higher in his aspirations to at- 
 tain to the noblest and best, is a confession that 
 Christianity is at last, if not at first, an elevating force. 
 
 The impartial historian of the human race, who 
 writes not to bolster up a jjreconceived opinion, but 
 to find out the mysterious forces that awaken the 
 human mind to even a feeble conception of its powers, 
 and continues to rouse it to a wider range of vision, 
 must give Christianity the first, and not the last place. 
 Impress upon the benighted mind of the barbarian, on 
 the feeble intellect of the child, that God is the 
 Father of all, and has stamped his own divine image 
 on every soul ; and that the infinite and boundless 
 love of the All-Father goes out to all his children; 
 that all alike are equal to him ; and this life is but 
 the preparatory life for* the better one beyond, — and 
 then you have the very starting-point on the high- 
 way of human progress. 
 
 Let the great truth be accepted that one omnis- 
 cient God created the universe, and made laws for its 
 government ; and the desire to know the operation of 
 those evidences of his wisdom and goodness energizes 
 the human mind and stirs the human soul as nothing 
 else has ever done. Science is the child of Chris- 
 tianity, and not the parent; and knowledge is not the 
 forerunner, but the follower. 
 
 To comprehend and understand the laws that God 
 has made governing mind and matter, is the highest 
 
 20 
 
306 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 aim of science. To accomplish this, oue scientist 
 brings the magnifying power of the telescope on the 
 countless worlds above him; and another puts the 
 atoms of matter under the microscope, and compels 
 them to surrender their mysteries, and disclose where 
 the finger of the Unseen has written the law for their 
 govern menl. The learned metaphysician invades the 
 inner temple of God's creation, the very sanctum 
 sanctorum of his omnipotent work, the human 
 mind; and he is overwhelmed with the evidences that 
 the Maker and Author of all this mystery had not 
 only infinite intelligence, but was moved with bound- 
 less love. 
 
 The biography of these learned men, in many 
 cases, Avould disclose the fact that a Christian moth- 
 er's love revealed to them their first knowledge of 
 the existence of the All-Father, and incited them to 
 cultivate and develop their mental powers to the 
 highest point, that they might penetrate the myster- 
 ies of his works. This Avas the grand incentive that 
 put the youthful student at his life's work. If the 
 mother had been a disciple of Confucius, or the wor- 
 shiper of the blind god of Chance, or an evolution- 
 ist, the learned scientist would never have penetrated 
 the arcanum of nature. But with an ingratitude 
 strange as it is senseless, some of these scientists, in 
 their later life, ambitious to be called advanced think- 
 ers, attempt to reason God out of his own universe, 
 and to ascribe all the wonder, majesty, power, beauty, 
 goodness, and harmony of his works to the accidents 
 of chance or the effect of an indefinable evolution. 
 
 Well did the sweet singer of Israel say, " The 
 
Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 307 
 
 fool Ims said in his heart there is uo God." But all 
 the folly does not arrest the march of truth. As the 
 generations come and go, the dial-plate of human 
 progress records that an advance has been made. 
 The motive power and elevating force that is thus 
 surely lifting the human race to a higher plane is the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 What, then, is the secret of this power ? What is 
 the essential quality, the essence, of this reformatory 
 and elevating force? 
 
 To these questions would come a great variety of 
 answers. The sectarian would declare that it Avas the 
 construction put on the teachings of Scripture by his 
 Church, and the adherence to the venerable forms and 
 ceremonies adopted long since by ecclesiastical courts 
 and councils. Another, rejecting the idea of a reign of 
 law, and having the fullest faith in a constant and con- 
 tinual intervention of special providence, would an- 
 swer that the Almighty directed every movement, and 
 that man was the mere passive agent, responding 
 only to the supernatural influences thus brought to 
 bear upon him. Some would reply with l(»ng statis- 
 tical tables, showing the number of ministers and 
 churches and Sabbath-schools, colleges and universi- 
 ties, the millions and hundreds of millions who have 
 their names on the Church-rolls, and the great wealth 
 they possess to carry forward the work of evangelis- 
 ing the world. Some would claim that the strength 
 of religion consisted in an abiding faith and trust; 
 and others, in ceaseless work for the cause of Christ. 
 The rejilies M'ould be too numerous to repeat. It 
 might safely be asserted that all of them would 
 
308 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 contain some truth, and perhaps none of them would 
 be free from error. 
 
 In order to solve the difficult problem, let us re- 
 duce the question to the very narrowest bounds. 
 Take an individual Church of any denomination, and 
 Jet us try to discover the measure of its power and in- 
 fluence on those who live within the sound of its 
 church-bell. It is not the costly edifice erected for 
 worship, the height of the church-steeple, the width 
 of its richly carpeted aisles, its expensive pews, its gor- 
 geous frescoing, or its grand organ. It is not that the 
 members are the wealth and fashion of the town or 
 city, or that the great and influential fill the pews. 
 It is not that it has a choir that can compete with 
 the opera in the excellence of musical performance. 
 It is not that the minister may have a world-wide rep- 
 utation for eloquence, so that people cross the continent, 
 and even the ocean, that they may have it to say that 
 they have seen and heard him. A Church may have 
 all these and many other apparent advantages, yet if 
 the spirit of the Master is not there, they are none of 
 his. They are not in the battle of sin and wrong; it 
 is the mere dress-parade. It is not the forward march ; 
 it is but marking time. 
 
 The power of Christianity is not visible. The 
 visible and material that attach themselves to re- 
 ligious observances may add to their force; and they 
 may detract from it. If religious worship is the mere 
 observance of Church requirement; if the tone and 
 manner of it is but the compliance with the fashion and 
 style of religious ceremony, — then nothing is accom- 
 plished by it. It is a mere travesty on Christianity, 
 
Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 309 
 
 The strength of the Church is not her wealth, or 
 her ancient creeds, or the pomp of her ceremonies. 
 The Pharisee had all these things at the time of the 
 Savior; yet the Master denounced him as a hypocrite 
 and a robber. 
 
 The power and force of any organization consists 
 in the number of its members who are so imbued 
 with the spirit of Christ that the chief ambition of 
 their lives is to be as near like him as it is possible 
 for poor, weak human nature to be. This invisible 
 power is the force that has elevated man and revo- 
 lutionized the world, and is constantly widening the 
 area of civilization. It drives out the dark brood of 
 evil spirits — hate, malice, envy, jealousy, avarice, and 
 pride — and calls in love, charity, benevolence, and 
 humility. These godlike sjjirits take control of hu- 
 man life and action ; as the new man comes in con- 
 tact with his fellow-men, they see the great change 
 and note the conversion ; and thus the divine leaven 
 goes out into the social life of humanity, and silently 
 yet surely works reformation. And just in propor- 
 tion as the individual Church sends out this blessed 
 influence from its walls is it strong, and an important 
 factor in the improvement of the race. The persons 
 w^ho have this spirit may be poor and without influ- 
 ence, yet they do the work at last. 
 
 The great mass of the business Avorld, and those 
 whose large fortunes beget a disposition to spend 
 their time in the gratification of their tastes and ap- 
 petites, may sneer, or at least give but little thought to 
 the comparatively few who gladly hear the church-bell, 
 and with sincere and earnest hearts go to the place of 
 
310 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 prayer and worship. They do not stop to consider, 
 that all those little churches are centers of influence; 
 that here conscience is awakened to a keener con- 
 ception of right and justice; that here is given a 
 deeper and broader view of the significance of human 
 existence ; and that these forces modify and correct 
 public sentiment; that they form public opinion, and 
 write the statutes against wrong, and bring the vio- 
 lator of law to justice. It does much more than this: 
 it gives a sense of safety and security to every citi- 
 zen in constantly giving him better laws and a more 
 stable government. It stills the angry and unreason- 
 ing mob, and prompts the courts to go forward in the 
 faithful and impartial enforcement of law. 
 
 And while the people who give no thought and 
 care nothing for Christianity, in their hot pursuit for 
 riches, or their restless ambition to attain the world's 
 honors, may ignore the little church and the Christians 
 who love it, yet to it are they indebted for the pro- 
 tection of their fortunes ; and they also fail to remem- 
 ber that the right to worship God, untrammeled, led 
 our fathers to land on the sterile rocks of New Eng- 
 land, and found a government where the honors of 
 official position would be in the reach, not of a royal 
 family only, but of every citizen. 
 
 The preaching of the gospel, and the general dis- 
 semination of the knowledge of the ethics of the 
 New Testament, is the source of opposition and agi- 
 tation when great social and civil wrongs exist. It 
 is the death-knell of tyranny. It wrests from the 
 grip of tyrants the right they have stolen from men. 
 It has overthrown many a despot, and limited the 
 
Christianity AS a Civilizing Force. 311 
 
 prerogative of many a monarch, and restored to op- 
 pressed humanity what God had given to his children. 
 
 The stern and staltwart Puritan hurled his anathe- 
 mas at the wicked and cruel oppressions of a British 
 king, and the War of the Revolution, the Declaration 
 of Independence, and the American Union with its 
 broad toleration and equal rights for all, were the result. 
 
 The cupidity of the British slave-trader had fast- 
 ened on the Colonies the curse of human slavery, and 
 Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin made it very 
 profitable to the slaveholder, so that it not only in- 
 trenched itself behind the mercenary interests of the 
 slaveholder, but secured constitutional guarantees 
 and laws for its protection. When the muttering 
 storm of agitation began to be heard, it fortified itself 
 with compromises, and placed its supporters in the 
 chair of State and on the Supreme Bench, and thought 
 itself secure. But Thomas Jefferson said, in speak- 
 ing of its perpetuity, that " he trembled when he 
 remembered that God was just, and that some time the 
 alarm would come like a fire-bell in the night." So 
 it did come. And it came from those who had been 
 taught the Golden Rule, " Whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do unto you, do you even so unto them." 
 
 Beneath all the tinkering of politicians and the 
 compromise legislation of law-makers, was the con- 
 science of the Nation awakened and aroused, and 
 clamored for justice to the downtrodden race. It 
 could not be hushed by expedients. The toys and 
 tricks of mere policy could not lure it away from its 
 unswerving devotion and allegiance to principle. The 
 Agitation went on and on, and deeper and wider be- 
 
312 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 came its current, until it swept from the face of the 
 land the last vestige of the offending evil. 
 
 From whence came this quickened conscience and 
 this uncompromising moral sense? AVhy did millions 
 of men rush to the deadly conflict? AVliat was it 
 that made liberty so dear and slavery so hateful and 
 hideous? Who can get the consent of his mind that 
 the philosophy of the scientist, or the labored statis- 
 tics of the political economist, could have Avrought 
 out such a revolution ? AVho will be bold enough to 
 deny that it was the Christ of the ages, with his stately 
 stepping, demanding equal justice to all men? 
 
 There is another great evil, whose dark shadow 
 falls across every hearth-stone in the land. It is a 
 standing menace to the peace and happiness of every 
 home in the Nation. It is the open foe to education 
 and religion. It has done more to hinder and retard the 
 civilization of the race than any other evil. In every 
 community may be found the wretched victims of this 
 curse, with broken and shattered constitutions, and 
 dazed and bewildered intellects. In every jail, peni- 
 tentiary, and lunatic asylum may be found the count- 
 less numbers sent there by this wicked business. The 
 statistics of crime, pauperism, and insanity it fur- 
 nishes are appalling. Every true Christian Church 
 in the land is the open foe to this enemy of human- 
 ity, and every true minister of the gospel of Christ 
 is constantly stirring up the consciences of his mem- 
 bers to keep up the warfare. 
 
 The most casual observer can but note the con- 
 stantly rising tide of public sentiment against the 
 men Mho make drunkards. The victories gained 
 
Christianity as a Ciiilizing Force. 313 
 
 here and there over this great enemy, give new zeal 
 and energy to the conflict. The agitation will go on. 
 
 The mercenary spirit of this money-getting age, 
 that recognizes nothing but riches as the one object 
 worthy of attainment, resents the agitation, and treats 
 it as an impertinent interference with its plans. The 
 partisan politics of the country is also arrayed against 
 this great moral movement, as a disturber of the 
 scheme to utilize the evil for the accomplishment of 
 political ends. But over all these great obstacles the 
 waves of agitation rise higher and higher. What is 
 troubling the waves ? Why are not these powerful op- 
 ponents able to produce a calm, and allow this busi- 
 ness to go on undisturbed? It might be done if the 
 doors of every church were closed, every Bible 
 burned, and the sweet rest and contentment of the 
 Sabbath-day turned into a day of amusement and 
 dissipation. 
 
 Here again is the Christ of the ages lifting man 
 up to a higher conception of his duty and his des- 
 tiny, and here, too, is he fulfilling the prophecy he 
 made of himself, that he came not to bring peace but 
 strife. First pure, and then peaceable, is the language 
 of St. James. 
 
 The fearful conflicts between capital and labor, 
 causing the nations to turn pale with fear lest every- 
 thing may be involved in a common ruin, indicate that 
 the mercenary spirit of the times is a most formidable 
 obstacle to the elevation of the race. The temporary 
 expedients adopted from time to time do not reach 
 far enough to give assurance that the danger is less- 
 ened. It is but postponing the destruction that may 
 
314 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 come like a cyclone aiul sweep everything before it. 
 The capitalist must have a deeper humanity and more 
 active charity, so that he will love man more than 
 money. The laboring man must have a clearer con- 
 ception of the great principles of justice and right. 
 Both must let the Golden Rule of the Savior, " What- 
 soever ye M'ould that men should do unto you, do ye 
 even so unto them," have the supreme control of their 
 conduct in dealing with their fellow-men. These 
 words of the Master put into practical operation will 
 still the tumult, and calm the angry waves of con- 
 tention, as surely as they did when, in the storm, the 
 affrighted disciples came to him in their fear and 
 said, " Master, Master, we perish," and he rose and 
 rebuked the winds and the waves, and said, " Peace, 
 be still," and there was a great calm. 
 
 What other refuge that gives any assurance of 
 safety in the future? The disorganizing and disinte- 
 grating theories of the Communist, the red banner of 
 the Socialist, do not cure but surely aggravate the dis- 
 order. The rule-or-ruin policy of the many organiza- 
 tions, which claim to have the interests of the laboring 
 class at heart, defeat the very end they desire to ac- 
 complish, and often compel the State to protect prop- 
 erty rights at the point of the bayonet, to shed the 
 blood of her own people to maintain the majesty and 
 supremacy of her own laws. That simply postpones 
 the evil for the time. The innocent may suffer with 
 the guilty, and the innocent blood shed may be used 
 by the craft of the designer to fan anew the flames 
 of discontent, and a more determined resistance to 
 law and order may be organized which calls for more 
 
Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 315 
 
 bayonets and blood. That the ship of State wonld 
 have been wreeked long ago, I have no doubt, had we 
 not had the Master on board. 
 
 If this mercenary-spirit age succeeds, as it is at- 
 tempting to do, in casting Him overboard, dethron- 
 ing God and deifying Mammon, then all is lost. 
 The virtue and intelligence of men are the founda-' 
 tion principles of good government — especially in a 
 republican form of" government, where every man, 
 with his ballot in his hand, impresses himself on the 
 statute-book, and places men of his kind at the helm 
 to guide the State and execute her will. 
 
 President Washington, in his "Farewell Ad- 
 dress," said: "Of all the dispositions and habits that 
 lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are 
 indispensable supports. In vain would that man 
 claim the tribute of ])atriotism who labors to subvert 
 the great pillars of human hajjpiness — those firmest 
 props of the duties of men and citizens." If we 
 would have capital and labor cease their warfare, and 
 extend the hand of friendship each to the other; if 
 we would correct the false notion that it is disgrace- 
 ful to be poor and a crime to be rich, — then we must 
 instill in the minds of all men the pure ethics of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 This remedy goes to the very seat of the disorder, 
 and a permanent cure will be the certain result. In 
 addition to the higher conception of justice and right, 
 it infuses a kindlier and more unselfish and self-sacri- 
 ficing spirit among men. 
 
 When great calamities came in ancient times — 
 when famine or pestilence, with a fearful scourge; or 
 
316 Christianity as a Cwilizing Force. 
 
 when destruction appeared in fire or flood or vol- 
 canic eruptions to sweep away the homes and prop- 
 erty of the race, — the efforts of the more fortunate 
 were to placate the anger of the gods, and to offer 
 sacrifices to appease the wrath of imaginary divini- 
 ties. The unfortunate were left to perish. 
 
 In any Christian land, where any city or town is 
 desolated by fire or flood, and hundreds of families 
 are made homeless by the devouring elements, as 
 soon as the news of the disaster is carried over the 
 land with the speed of lightning, it is made the busi- 
 ness of the whole people, at once, to extend the hand 
 of hell) and sympathy. The swiftest agencies that 
 can be commanded are put in requisition to carry 
 the benefactions of sympathetic humanity to the suf- 
 fering. 
 
 Or, if the dread pestilence is found doing its 
 deadly work upon any portion of the people, and the 
 cry for help is made, how our best physicians and 
 most skillful nurses, with a heroism that is godlike, 
 laden with the means of relief, hasten to the infected 
 district, and battle with contagion and death to save 
 humanity ! And if the calamity has overtaken great 
 numbers, as has been the case in our country within 
 the last few years, other nations, peoples, and cities 
 show by their sympathy and gifts that the mighty 
 oceans which surround us are too narrow to sep- 
 arate us from humanity on the other side of the 
 world. 
 
 These grand demonstrations of benevolence have 
 done more to magnify our civilization and exemplify 
 the progressive characteristics of this age than all our 
 
Christianity as a Ciitlizixg Force. 317 
 
 wonderful inventious or the rapid accumulation of 
 luxury and wealth. 
 
 If the attempt be made to take the crown of 
 glory from the Christian religion, let it not be for- 
 gotten that, with all the culture and the abundant 
 wealth that was in the world, they had no asylums 
 for the blind, no houses of refuge for the insane, be- 
 fore He came into the world ; that these, and a great 
 many other kindred benevolences, have risen and 
 grown to great proportions as the legitimate result 
 of the teachings of the Savior, and his attention and 
 love for the unfortunate while among men. 
 
 Xot only is this sweet spirit of charity one to an- 
 other developing a kindred spirit among men, but it 
 is reaching out to the settlement of differences among 
 Christian nations. The time is not distant when all 
 nations under the influence of Christianity will not 
 appeal to the arbitrament of the sword; but, free 
 from passion and not blinded with national pride, 
 will peaceably settle all disputes by a fair and just 
 arbitration, and men will learn war no more. Be- 
 fore His coming, prisoners of war were either con- 
 demned to death or perpetual slavery by the most 
 powerful and cultivated Nations. In the intervals of 
 peace, they were whetting their swords for another 
 conflict. 
 
 The signs of the times indicate a fulfillment of 
 the announcement made at His birth by the heavenly 
 host, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace and good-will to men." It is impossible to 
 contemplate the life and sayings of our Savior with- 
 out falling in love with all that is pure and good. 
 
318 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 A Hindoo once said to one of our missionaries : 
 "Reviling our gods, criticising our Shasters, and ridi- 
 culing our ritual will accomplish nothing; but the 
 story you tell of Him who loved, and pitied, and 
 came and sought, and suffered, and rose again, — that 
 story, sir, will overthrow our temples, destroy our 
 ritual, abolish our Shasters, and extinguish our gods." 
 The heathen was correct ; and if such be the eifect 
 of the story of Jesus among the heathen, it will not 
 be the less wonderful in this enlightened Nation. 
 
 Our temples of selfishness and covctousness will 
 fall before the assaults of Christ's pure teaching and 
 example. Bloody and cruel war will flee before the 
 white banner of })eace ; and slander, " the foulest whelp 
 of sin," will hide away from the presence of uni- 
 versal charity. Such has been the fruit of a pure 
 Christianity ever since its introduction in the world. 
 
 One has said : " Unlike the Jewish religion, it was 
 bound by no local ties, and was equally adaj^ted for 
 every nation and every class. Unlike Stoicism, it 
 appealed in tlie strongest manner to the affections, and 
 offered all the charms of a sympathetic worship. Un- 
 like the Egyptian religions, it united with its distinct- 
 ive teaching a pure and noble system of ethics, and 
 proved itself capable of realizing it in action. It 
 proclaimed, amid a vast movement of social and 
 national amalgamation, the universal brotherhood of 
 mankind. Amid the softening influence of philoso- 
 phy and civilization, it taught the supreme sanctity of 
 love. To the philosopher it was at once the echo of 
 the highest ethics of the later Stoics, and the expan- 
 sion of the best teachings of the school of Plato." 
 
CHRISTIA.\n V AS A CllILIZING FORCE. 319 
 
 In these latter clays, especially among our young 
 men, it is claimed as a sign of mental independence 
 and advanced thought to reject Christianity and 
 ado])t the notions of modern infidelity. But it is a 
 baseless fallacy. The chain of errors and superstitions 
 that bound the human mind have been removed by 
 the enlightening and liberating force of Christianity, 
 and no mind is so free as the one thoroughly imbued 
 with the spirit of Christ. 
 
 Dr. Channing says: "I call that mind free which 
 is not passively formed by outward circumstances, 
 which is not swept away by the torrent of events, 
 which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but 
 which bends events to its own improvement, and 
 acts from an inward spring, from immutable prin- 
 ciples, which it has deliberately espoused. 
 
 " I call that mind free which resists the bondage 
 of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself 
 and copy the past, which does not enslave itself to 
 precise rules, but forgets what is behind, listens to 
 new and higher monitions of conscience, and re- 
 joices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exer- 
 tions. I call that mind free which is jealous of its 
 own freedom, which guards itself from being merged 
 in others, which guards its empire over itself as no- 
 bler than the empire of the world. In fine, I call 
 that mind free which, conscious of its affinity with 
 God, and confiding in his promises by Jesus Christ, 
 devotes itself faithfully to the unfolding of all its 
 powers, which passes the bounds of time and death, 
 which hopes to advance forever, and which finds in- 
 exhaustible power in the prospect of immortality." 
 
320 Christianity as a Civilizing Force. 
 
 The mental bondage of the idolater ^Yho attrib- 
 uted every storm, every disease, every eclipse of the 
 sun or moon, to an incensed God; who thought he 
 was surrounded with witches, hobgoblins, and familiar 
 spirits; who was in constant fear lest the malice of an 
 enemy should fasten on him the dreadful charge of 
 witchcraft, and have him put to death for holding 
 communication with demons, — is too horrible to con- 
 template. 
 
 The power of the gospel has broken link after 
 link of these chains of ignorancie and superstition, 
 and the most enlightened of the human race are 
 marching out of the prison that has so long confined 
 them. 
 
 It is in no sense the evidence of advanced thought 
 to extinguish the flaming torch that has lighted the 
 way, and is leading the human race out of the dark 
 vale of barbarism up to that higher plane of a better 
 and clearer conception of their relations to their fel- 
 low-men and their Creator. 
 
 With the overwhelming and conclusive evidence 
 that the motive power of all human advancement is 
 in what Christ said and did while in the world, the 
 man that would rob the world of that light is the 
 enemy of his own soul, and the open foe to the best 
 interests of his fellow-men. 
 
THE DEMANDS AND DANGERS OF 
 THE TIMES. 
 
 WHAT has brought tliis great assembly here to- 
 day? It may be answered, This is Old Set- 
 tlers' Day. But it can not be tliat curiosity to see 
 those we have seen most and longest has attracted so 
 many from their homes. That we honor and love the 
 heroic old settlers, we can not doubt ; but thoy are no 
 curiosity. Neither are we here as partisans or secta- 
 rians; for before me are all shades of political opin- 
 ions and religious beliefs. Have we not been drawn 
 hither by that invisible cord of human sympathy 
 that binds us all together? Did we not hunger for 
 this social feast, and long to look into each other's 
 faces, that we might give comfort and joy each to the 
 other? The smaller meetings of our political party 
 or the household of our Church faith does not meet 
 entirely the larger want of the human soul. The ir- 
 repressible desire comes up to meet the whole flim- 
 ily — everybody. So human ingenuity has invented 
 county fairs, old settlers' meetings, and other innocent 
 deceptions and devices, that this want may be met; 
 that everybody may come, and meet high up on a 
 plane above the world's strifes and contentions; that 
 we, in the broadest and most comprehensive sense, 
 
 Address delivered at the Annual Reunion of the Pioneer 
 Association, Hunt's Grove, Ohio, Saturday August 4, 1888. 
 
 21 321 
 
322 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 may have fbll()\v.sbip and communion with our com- 
 mon humanity. It is a good thing to do. We go 
 hence broader and better every way. We become 
 less of the partisan and more of the patriot ; we carry 
 down to our daily lives more toleration and less 
 bigotry. We unload, on all such days as this, some of 
 our selfishnesss, and take on more charity. We lose 
 many a narrow prejudice, and find a broader frater- 
 nity. It is for this we are here. AVe rally round the 
 old settlers, and utilize them for this high purpose. 
 Do not understand me as depreciating the old settlers. 
 In many points they represent this higher life. They 
 were unselfish, self-sacrificing ; and, whatever else may 
 be said of them, they did not fail to cultivate their 
 social natures. In that regard they exceeded their 
 children. We may claim to have more education and 
 culture than they ; but they were more generous and 
 self-sacrificing. Bold and brave pioneers fifty years 
 ago, they contended with difficulties of which we now 
 know but little, except we see that it developed grand, 
 heroic qualities. 
 
 When we leave behind our buying and selling, 
 and thus come together to inhale this purer atmos- 
 phere, we are simply following in the footsteps of 
 those of the olden time, of which the old settler is 
 the representative. I do not claim to be able to ex- 
 pound the philosophy of the proposition ; yet it is 
 true that all reforms have their origin in man's social 
 life. Just in proportion as this is developed do we 
 bring the race up to the full stature of manhood and 
 womanhood. You may develop the intellectual and 
 cultivate the spiritual nature of man ; but he will be 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 323 
 
 a weakling and a dwarf, failing to fulfill his mission 
 in life, if his social life is neglected. His intellect 
 will be clouded, and his spirit heavy, and his counte- 
 nance gloomy, unless the great social want of his 
 life is met. Solomon says : " Iron sharpeneth iron : 
 so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." 
 When the artificial barriers that wealth and birth 
 have erected are broken down, and the rings and 
 cliques that fashion and folly may create are dissolved, 
 and the whole mass meet on perfect equality as we 
 do to-day, a reformatory and elevating influence seems 
 to result from the contact, and we all go hence better 
 equipped for the contest in life. If you want to know 
 the degree of civilization of any nation. State, or 
 community, get the exact gauge of the social life, 
 and you will reach a correct conclusion without diffi- 
 culty. The highest type of man is the one who is 
 the most ardent lover of his race. 
 
 Philanthropy is the basis of our social life, and hence 
 is the active agency in sharpening the intellect, warm- 
 ing the heart, and quickening the energy to fight the ills 
 that destroy human happiness. The best quality of cit- 
 izens and the bravest soldiers are the legitimate result 
 of this high social culture, producing a people that will 
 maintain the right in times of peace and are invinciblO 
 in war. When the people are all anxious to come to-- 
 gether, not to witness the contest in the bloody arena, 
 as did the ancient Romans, but to taste the sweets 
 of social life, and talk of the days that have gone 
 and com])are them with the present, it is a good 
 omen. It is a prophecy of a better future. Away 
 back in the centuries, religious fimaticism led men to 
 
.'!24 Demands and Dangers or the 7 imes. 
 
 think tlie only safety for their souls M'as to flee from 
 society, and live the life of a hermit in caves and 
 cells in the desert. But it was an awful failure. 
 They became so inhuman that they refused to see the 
 faces of their own mothers, spurned from their 
 presence their own children, and died in their filthy 
 dungeons like beasts. They failed to comprehend the 
 very essence of Christianity. They never began to 
 inhale its sweet and refreshing spirit. A great 
 writer has truly said that true Christianity is to de- 
 stroy or weaken the barriers which separate class 
 from class, to make a consciousness of essential 
 equality dominate over all accidental differences. 
 This can only be done by social contact. Men must 
 come around a common altar, and lay their hearts 
 often together that they may be warmer, and, with 
 united hands, vow each to the other that no man 
 liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. 
 
 No recluse can be a reformer. The reformer 
 must know his fellow-men ; and reforms must be 
 planted in the open field of every-day life, and 
 have the constant sunlight of human sympathy. 
 They must take root in our social life, and as they 
 grow and ripen, they will stand the storms of dis- 
 cussion and the frosts of persecution. As the heat 
 refines the silver, and eliminates dross from the 
 gold, so do the warm debates and heated discussions 
 of all differences among men result in the survival 
 of the best thought. 
 
 These old settlers remind us forcibly that more 
 generations than one have come, fulfilled the work as- 
 signed them, and have gone. These few that are 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 325 
 
 left are the relics of former times. lu their life- 
 time there have been many great changes, and in 
 many directions great progress. We haye advantages 
 and improvements that they in their younger days 
 never dreamed of. And on occasions like this, we are 
 inclined to brag and bluster over them, and look back 
 with mingled pity and contempt on the simplicity of 
 their methods and the smallness of their results. 
 While we can point to our increased locomotion, to 
 our telegraph, to our telephone, tf) our improved ma- 
 chinery in every direction, to our electric lights and 
 gushing gas-wells, and many other evidences of 
 progress, yet we must not conclude that we are so 
 much better than they because in their life-time all 
 this progress has been made. The civilization that 
 civilizes is that which makes man kinder and nobler. 
 Let us take in all the surroundings before we in- 
 dulge in boasting. We must look at the debtor 
 side of the ledger as well as the credit side, in order 
 to strike a correct balance of the account. What 
 evil has come with all this good ? '' Watchman, 
 what of the night?" 
 
 That these labor-saving machines and great dis- 
 cov^eries and inventions have infused new life and 
 energy in the minds of men, and put the human race 
 at work with all their might, can not be doubted. 
 Wealth has been placed in sight and within the reach 
 of all. In the struggle for riches, men have forgot- 
 ten their obligations to society and their duties to the 
 Government. They have tossed aside the considera- 
 tion that is due the jiublic welfare, and ignored the 
 claims upon them as citizens, in their hot anxiety to 
 
320 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 compass their own personal aims. They have left 
 the high and difficult task of good government to the 
 idlers and vicious classes. The politics of the coun- 
 try is largely in the hands of those who care but 
 little for law and order. While the industrious man 
 is accumulating wealth, the tramp and the vagrant 
 are at the caucus or the political convention. While 
 the good citizen, as he thinks himself, is making 
 money, the loafer is choosing men of his own kind to 
 waste it or steal it. 
 
 I have but little patience with the sort of political 
 sanctification that, with an assumed air of superior 
 virtue, wraps the robe of the Pharisee about itself, 
 and declares that it will have nothing to do with the 
 dirty pool of politics. As the worst elements in so- 
 ciety are the most powerful and positive forces in 
 politics, men are now nominated for office with direct 
 reference to securing this vicious influence. The 
 decent and intelligent of all parties must come to the 
 front and take control of their political parties, or 
 the precious, patriotic blood of two wars for the 
 preservation and perpetuation of human liberty will 
 have been spilled in vain. Am I overstating the 
 case when I assert that the supreme questions for a 
 candidate for the people's suffrage are not qualifica- 
 tion and character for honor and integrity, but can 
 he get the support of the " b'hoys " — is he a gooti 
 mixer and a hustler? 
 
 By this state of things, we scarce secure second- 
 rate men for President or governor, about third- 
 rate men for Congress, and for our State Legisla- 
 ture so poor a quality that they can not be rated, 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 327 
 
 excc])t tlu^y iniglit be properly ternietl the vulgar 
 fraction of" our politics. There are indivitliial excep- 
 tiou8. I 8j)eak in general terms. You can not se- 
 cure a good executive out of a mere mixer, nor will 
 a Congress of hustlers be of any service to the 
 country ; and a Legislature composed largely of men 
 who were candidates because they would set 'em up 
 to the boys, will do anything to deplete the public 
 treasury. Yet men talk seriously of civil-service 
 reform, of engrafting it on the dying and rotten 
 branches of our political system. The people, the 
 very source and fountain of power, must be re- 
 formed They must be brought to see tliat the best 
 legacy they can leave to their children is the rich 
 blessing of good government — better than gold or 
 silver, land, stocks, and bonds. To that end a halt 
 must be called in the hot pursuit for wealth, and 
 time enough must be taken to dislodge the bum- 
 mer, to retire the mere mixer, and discharge the 
 hustler from the responsibility of managing the af- 
 fairs of State. 
 
 The better elements must take control of our 
 public affairs. We must have bone and sinew and 
 strong muscle in our political virtue. We must put 
 clown lawlessness, enforce the good laws, and repeal 
 all statutes that were made for mere private or par- 
 tisan interests, and are inimical to the public good. 
 It were far better for posterity that the institutions 
 of civil and religious liberty, for which our Revolu- 
 tionary fathers fought, bled, and died ; to establish 
 and to preserve, which our brothers, with equal zeal 
 and patriotism, went to the field of carnage and 
 
328 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 death when the recent attempt was made to dissolve 
 the Union, — I say it were far better for our children 
 that we give them these inestimable gifts unimpaired 
 than leave them large sums of money. To accomplish 
 this, every good citizen and patriot must turn his 
 attention to our politics. He will have to study to 
 comprehend his country's needs, and then have the 
 courage to compel his party to accept a policy that 
 will reach that end. I do not speak as a party 
 man. We are here as citizens of a common country, 
 with a common interest in the general welfare, and 
 to consider the things that reach that object; and I 
 address myself to you as patriots and lovers of your 
 race. If we who are animated with high concep- 
 tions of duty will come to the front, we can reform 
 the many abuses that have stealthily crept into the 
 management of political parties. And right here is 
 the place for effective work for the reformer. Here 
 is a fine field for the patriot and the philanthropist. 
 Commence reform at the very bottom, and then 
 build up sure and strong. Awaken the conscience 
 of men so that they will make the public interest 
 their interest. Have the great controlling masses as 
 jealous of the reputation of the State as they are of 
 their own families. Let the great, honest public 
 heart be ambitious for the enactment of such laws as 
 will best subserve the peace, happiness, and prosper- 
 ity of the greatest number, and then see to it that 
 they are strictly enforced. If the experiment of 
 free government in the end should prove to be a 
 failure, that would not establish the proposition that 
 man is not capable to govern himself, but that he 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. -529 
 
 simply failed to appreciate the importance of per- 
 sonal attention to the public welfare, and neglected to 
 faithfully administer the great trust given him. We 
 inherit largely our political opinions as we do our 
 physical form and mental capabilities. This keeps 
 alive political parties. One political party or the 
 other has the charge, and is responsible for the man- 
 agement of the State. Through these party organi- 
 zations the good is often made to serve the bad, for 
 the reason that the evil is active while the good is 
 passive. If the great moneyed monopolies or the 
 liquor league select the Legislature, so that the laws 
 are made against the public welfare and to subserve 
 private interests, it is but the legitimate result of the 
 indifference of the best men of the party to their 
 public duties. Out of this indifference comes the 
 demagogue, with his foul breath and lying tongue, to 
 sow the seeds of discord and discontent among the 
 ignorant, which will yield the bitter fruits of lawless- 
 ness and anarchy. It is not the presence of the 
 demagogue that need create alarm, but the circum-- 
 stance that makes his existence a possibility. 
 
 We have met to-day with glad and grateful 
 hearts, and I doubt not that some of you who hear 
 me will wonder why I do not present the brighter side 
 of our national life. It would be more agreeable for 
 me to do so, did I not think the time has come 
 when the pulpit, the press, and the platform should 
 sound a note of warning of present dangers and 
 greater ones approaching. What is the cause of this 
 failure to look carefully after the precious trust com- 
 mitted to us? Why this criminal indifference to the 
 
330 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 national safety? Are we losing our love for our 
 country and our race? What has deadened our 
 moral sense and extinguished our patriotic fervor? 
 In reply, I would answer that we are becoming too 
 mercenary. We place too high an estimate on riches. 
 The almighty dollar has come-between us and duty. 
 Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, tiie 
 golden calf of Aaron has more charm than the tab- 
 lets of Moses containing the commandments of God. 
 To be industrious and provident is as commendable 
 as laziness and extravagance is detestable. But money 
 is to be earned as a means to secure a useful and 
 happy life, and not as the sole end and aim of exist- 
 ence. The man whose only purpose in life is to see 
 how many dollars he can gather together in half a 
 century, has lived and moved on the lowest and nar- 
 rowest possible plane. Love, charity, and benevo- 
 lence, and all the tender sensibilities of life will flee 
 from such a soul, and a hateful brood — avarice, cov- 
 etousness, distrust, and dishonesty — will occupy the 
 wrecked and ruined spirit, and he may die rich in 
 money but poor in friends, and poorer still in the re- 
 grets of his fellow-men. 
 
 In such a land of plenty, our educational institu- 
 tions should be as perfect as it is possible for man to 
 make them, and our scholars should be the most tin- 
 ished and thorough of any Nation in the world. There 
 being no censorship of the press, and being, as we 
 are to a great degree, free from the superstitions and 
 dogmas of the older nations, we ought, as a Nation, 
 to be able to present to the world a literature that 
 would make a new and brighter era in the history of 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 33 i 
 
 letters — a literature whose excellence would com- 
 mand the attention and admiration of the world — 
 the dogmas of the darker ages being abandoned, 
 and American thoughts and ideas substituted. AVe 
 ought to have such an ap])reciation of the dignity of 
 our citizenship as to seek the highest attainment of 
 all the graces and culture that so adorn and beautify 
 human character. No Nation should excel us in our 
 social qualities or exceed us in the charms of polite 
 intercourse. Oin- national advantages demand of us 
 that we should stand in the very front rank in sci- 
 ence, in art, in religion — in all that it is possible for 
 humanity to attain in this life. The health and vigor 
 of our national life ought not to be poisoned and 
 weakened by corruption in high places, and the honor 
 and fair fame of the American character should be 
 free from the stain of official dishonesty. To be 
 worthy the position that our national advantages and 
 liberal form of government have given us among the 
 family of nations, our national reputation as a Chris- 
 tian people should be above reproach. 
 
 We are compelled to admit the fact that we have 
 not yet attained to that high position. We are too 
 often made to blush with shame at the disgusting dis- 
 closures of breaches of faith and trust by those who 
 should be models of integrity and purity. And so 
 frequent are these exposures of knavery, in financial 
 circles as well as in official positions, that it is cre- 
 ating a feeling of disgust and alarm, and most search- 
 ing and vigorous investigation is the order of the 
 times to detect and punish the guilty. The popular 
 demand for these prosecutions and the vigor dis- 
 
.^32 Dej/ands and Dangers of the Times.. 
 
 phiycd ill ferreting out these criminals, is a healthy 
 indication, and worthy of all commendation. But the 
 arrest, trial, and conviction of a defaulting cashier of 
 a bank here and there, and the dismissal from office 
 of an unfaithful public servant, does not seem to 
 remedy the evil or arrest the tide of dishonesty and 
 corruption that is sweeping over the land. On the 
 contrary, these crimes seem more frequent, and our 
 Nation is rapidly losing its high character for integ- 
 rity, and the disgraceful appellation of swindler and 
 sharper are attaching odium to the reputation of 
 the American citizen because of the frequent de- 
 falcation of public officers and the dishonesty of 
 those who have been made the custodians of the 
 funds of others. In order to discover the remedy 
 for this disorder, we must find the cause that pro- 
 duces it. The skillful and intelligent physician Avill 
 not undertake to cure a patient afflicted with ulcers 
 by healing up a sore here and there on the surface of 
 the body, but will seek to cleanse the blood of his 
 patient of the poison that produces the eruption. If 
 we would cure the Nation's evil, we must not expect 
 to accomplish it with mere applications to its surface 
 indications, but we must go to the very bottom and 
 ajiply the remedy to the very source from whence it 
 comes. Whence, then, comes this evil ? 
 
 Manifestly the rich and abundant blessings that 
 God has so bountifully bestowed on the American 
 people are being perverted by them, and they yet 
 may make them curses instead of benefactions. 
 Among the many blessings he has given us are the 
 inexha^istible resources of the country and the indomi- 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. ;);>3 
 
 table energy of her people. We are misusing the 
 one, and consequently misdirecting the other. The 
 mere accumulation of wealth has become too much 
 the end and aim of the American citizen, and to this 
 base use is he prostituting his soul, mind, aud 
 strength. The inordinate desire for riches is beget- 
 ting a mercenary spirit that is a reproach to our re- 
 ligion and a blot on our civilization. It is prostrating 
 the self-respect of tlie American citizen, weakening 
 his moral power, aud, as a consequence, is the source 
 from whence conies this flood-tide of fraud and dis- 
 honesty. Public sentiment is becoming so poisoned 
 by this mercenary spirit that wealth, no matter how 
 acquired, brings Avith it position and influence that 
 can be secured in no other way. Wealth seems to 
 cover a multitude of sins. Whether we intend it or 
 not, we are teaching our children by our example that 
 the chief end of mau is to become rich. While we may 
 tell them with our lips that God is the true, only 
 proper object of worship, yet they see but too plainly 
 that Mammon has possession of our hearts. They 
 see all around them practices, that are essentially dis- 
 honest, commended aud upheld because they pay well. 
 They see how the wealthy villain, who managed the 
 corrupt ring that robbed the public treasury, is 
 feted and toasted, and perchance elected or appointed 
 to some high position of trust and influence by men 
 who profess to be patriots and Christians. This 
 has occurred so often that they have concluded that 
 success in corruption and rascality makes it honor- 
 able. They have noted that greed and the desire for 
 gain override duty and trample under foot the sacred 
 
334 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 tie of social obligation, so that in the scale of pul)li( 
 .estimation, the acquisition of money outweighs all the 
 other aims and purposes of human existence. They 
 have seen " how wealth has become a god, and how on 
 its altar are sacrificed ease, peace, truth, faith, integ- 
 rity, good conscience, friends, love, charity, and all 
 the sweet and tender sensibilities of life." 
 
 In this money-getting atmosphere they are reared 
 and trained; and when childhood's day is done, with 
 all the ardor of young life they enter the lists for 
 the prize. Their education has taught them that 
 conscience is a weight that may easily beset them in 
 the race, and that it must be laid aside — candor must 
 be driven out, and deceit must take its place; that 
 plain, single-purposed honor must give place to 
 double-faced and cunning hypocrisy; that religion 
 may be loudly professed, but never practiced, except 
 where it will pay ; that Christ, with his purifying 
 power, must be expelled from the soul, and that Satan 
 must reign supreme. This grasping spirit is thus 
 imparted to the young, and becomes part of their 
 very nature, and they enter on their career in life 
 with it as the controlling motive power i>f all their 
 actions. 
 
 The evil effects of this training may be seen in 
 commercial circles as well as in professional life; in 
 the mechanic and merchant as well as in the poli- 
 tician ; in the lowest and humblest vocations. It is 
 everywhere and all-pervading. We come in contact 
 with and feel its malign power constantly. This 
 strange and undue estimate we place on the value of 
 money is the fountain and origin of the corruption of 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 335 
 
 the times. It is poisoning the life-blood of the 
 Nation, and marring the beauty of our free institu- 
 tions with the ugly ulcers of official dishonesty. It 
 is creating a public sentiment in which dishonesty is 
 not disgraceful. It is the great obstacle in the way 
 of social, political, and moral reformation. It hardens 
 the heart of man, effaces the divine image thereon, 
 and sends him forth among his fellow-men a selfish 
 demon. It places the material above the spiritual 
 and eternal. It dethrones God, and deifies Mammon. 
 It closes man's eyes to the beauty and glory of the 
 universe of God, and, with his great endowments, 
 imprisons him in the dark and narrow cell of his own 
 selfish soul. It turns his thoughts from the contem- 
 plation of what is right and duty, and from the high 
 consideration of what is truth, to the groveling in- 
 quiry of what will pay. 
 
 So strong and powerful is this spirit that its in- 
 fluence has become imperial. If the politician, rising 
 above the bribes and corruptions of the times, de- 
 nounces and exposes the rascally combinations that 
 have become so common, he is threatened that he will 
 be voted down unless he keeps silent. If the press 
 dare expose the swindles that are concocted to rob 
 the unsuspecting, the withdrawal of patronage is the 
 weapon used to bring it to time. If the minister of 
 the gospel is too free in denouncing covetousness, 
 and holding up too specially its enormities, and turn- 
 ing attention to the perpetration of its wrongs, his 
 support is withheld by those who love riches more 
 than righteousness. This state of things is the most 
 formidable obstacle in the way of progi'ess and re- 
 
336 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 form, and is the chief liiudering cause in the way of 
 our advancing civilization. 
 
 Whatever is a source of wealth, no matter how 
 acquired — even if the business be a curse to the race, 
 and at war with the best interests of humanity — must 
 not be held up with all of its enormities to the pub- 
 lic gaze. The money power forbids it, and the sub- 
 serviency of the times yields a cowardly submission. 
 We have an illustration of the effect produced on a 
 large scale in our country during the present century. 
 When slave-labor was unprofitable, there was uni- 
 versal assent to and confession of the sin and wrong 
 of slavery, even from the slaveholders themselves. 
 But when the cotton-gin was invented, and, as a con- 
 sequence, wealth began to flow into the coffers of the 
 master from the labors of the involuntary servant, 
 the sin was first excused, then denied, and at last a 
 subservient clergy was compelled to preach that the 
 abomination was patriarchal and divine. 
 
 But equally culpable with the clergy were the 
 politicians of those times, who came with their com- 
 promises and Fugitive-slave Law as their offering at 
 the altar of Mammon; and the highest tribunal, not 
 to be outdone in devotion to the money power, pro- 
 claimed from their exalted position, and under the 
 solemnity of their official oath, that, in this land of 
 freedom, and under a Constitution made to perpet- 
 uate the blessings of liberty for all coming time to 
 those who choose to live under it, one class of men 
 had no rights that another, of lighter color, were 
 bound to respect. It not only compelled the pulpit 
 and the press and the judiciary to submit to its de- 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 337 
 
 mands, but when the people, in the exercise of their 
 Constitutional right, peacefully, at the ballot-box, ex- 
 pressed their condemnation of the system, it trampled 
 the flag of our country under foot, declared the 
 Union of the States dissolved, and appealed to the 
 sword to maintain its position. 
 
 Had slave-labor not been a source of great wealth 
 to those interested in it, these disgraceful facts would 
 have no place in our history, nor would precious 
 patriotic blood have been required to wash out the dark 
 stain of human bondage. The blood poured out in 
 the great conflict, and the immense treasure expended, 
 evince the power and danger of this mercenary spirit 
 which brought the Nation to the very verge of ruin. 
 The same spirit is again sowing the seeds of dissen- 
 sion", that may grow and bring again the harvest of 
 blood and anarchy. It is arraying capital against 
 labor, and labor against capital. Capital is oppress- 
 ing labor; and labor, by combinations and strikes, is 
 seeking to impair the value of capital. Mutually de- 
 pendent on each other — the one being helpless with- 
 out the other — yet this mercenary spirit has engaged 
 them in the senseless attempt to weaken and destroy 
 each other. 
 
 This state of things enables the restless spirits of 
 the Old World who have stirred up revolution and 
 anarchy in other nations, and many of whom have 
 fled to our shores as fugitives from justice, to organ- 
 ize secret associations, the purposes of which are to 
 overthrow law and order, and to put person and 
 property at the mercy and under the control of the 
 mob. As a consequence, it is becoming more and 
 
338 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 more frequent iu our cities to witness processions 
 with banners upon which are inscribed sentiments 
 that threaten to trample all law and good govern- 
 ment in the dust, and are intended as a menace to 
 coerce a compliance with their demands to avoid the 
 havoc of riot and anarchy. 
 
 These clubs and secret associations have had suf- 
 ficient strength to overthrow monarchies and king- 
 doms, where no right of suffrage gave them a voice 
 in the government. How much more is their power 
 for evil in this land of ours, where, with the ballot 
 in their hands, they seduce the statesman to become 
 the demagogue, and through him succeed in intro- 
 ducing their lawless and turbulent spirit in the very 
 halls of legislation ! The extortion and oppression of 
 the great moneyed monopolies give life and vigor to 
 these dangerous combinations, and unless the evil is 
 speedily remedied, an explosion will come that will 
 shake, if not destroy, the very foundation of the Gov- 
 ernment. To refuse to see the danger that is thus 
 menacing the prosperity of our National life, is the 
 most criminal folly. 
 
 Another evil growing out of this rampant spirit of 
 money-getting is the recklessness in trade and spec- 
 ulation. . But a few years ago, with plenty on every 
 hand, with our banking system on the firmest basis, 
 with faith and hope cheering on the toiling millions, 
 the country was startled with the intelligence of the 
 failure of those in whom the whole people had con- 
 fidence. The public mind at once became panic- 
 stricken, confidence fled, bankruptcy and ruin followed, 
 industry was prostrated, want looked in at the door of 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 33& 
 
 the lal)orer, and the progressive spirit of the times was 
 broken, and its energy paralyzed. This great calam- 
 ity was the legitimate result of a few men undertaking 
 to enrich themselves by purchasing worthless stocks 
 and bonds with which to cheat their customers; but 
 as their customers refused to be cheated, they were 
 compelled to keep their worthless trash, and fail. 
 
 Its corrupting power goes farther still, and, ex- 
 tending into every circle of life, is the chief promoter 
 of extravagance by inducing the less fortunate in 
 obtaining wealth to make a show of success by adopt- 
 ing the expensive style of those who have the means 
 to sustain expensive living. All manner of false- 
 hood is resorted to by such to enable them to hold the 
 much-coveted position, even for a brief period. They 
 soon go down, covered with disgrace and dishonor. 
 This mercenary spirit is no recent manifestation. It 
 is co-existent with our National life and prosperity. 
 It has grown with our growth, and strengthened with 
 our strength. The evils that I have mentioned are 
 but a few that are the legitimate result of its con- 
 trolling power. The evils are so numerous and so 
 palpable that the earnest demand of the times is for 
 an effective remedy for this disordered state of things. 
 The disease being universal, contaminating the whole 
 mass, the remedy, to be effectual, must not be ap- 
 plied to classes, but to the whole people. What, 
 then, is the remedy for this disorder? In this age of 
 progress, and in this land of rapid growth and devel- 
 opment, no remedy which arrests the energy of the 
 American citizen and holds him in check will be ac- 
 cepted by him. Acquisitiveness is the driving force 
 
340 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 of liis eliaraeter, and has given the impetus to our 
 National growth. Any remedy that would weaken 
 that force, even if practical, is by no means desiiable. 
 Such a remedy would be attended with greater evils 
 than it remedied. 
 
 Let a new spirit be infused into the American 
 people in this regard. Let honor and integrity be 
 the badges of American nobility, instead of wealth. 
 The elevation of the life purpose of the American 
 citizen, and the reformation of our public sentiment, 
 must, to a great degree, be the work of the educated 
 minds of the Nation. The power which is to go forth 
 and stem this torrent of corruption, the influence that 
 is to purify society and instill higher aims and pur- 
 poses in the hearts of men, and to impart to the 
 American citizen a more elevated conception of a true 
 manhood, must be sent out from schools, colleges, 
 and universities. 
 
 In all ages and times in the past, the best culti- 
 vated minds have guided the direction of the senti- 
 ments and opinions of the mass of mankind, and 
 have been the leaders in civilization. It is so at 
 the present time, and will continue to be in all the 
 future. They are writing the books that constitute 
 our literature. They are editing the papers we are 
 reading daily. They are preaching the sermons we 
 hear every Sabbath. They are on the platform, lectur- 
 ing on law, medicine, politics, philosophy, theology, 
 and, in fact, all the themes that interest and in- 
 struct mankind. In these, and in infinite other 
 methods, they are guiding and controlling the public 
 mind. From these influences much of our public 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 341 
 
 seutimeut is formed, and from this source our civ- 
 ilization, in a great degree, receives its cast and 
 color. 
 
 That an enlightened and Christian Nation should 
 have become so absorbed in the pursuit of wealth, 
 and thus brought upon ourselves such a magnitude 
 of evil to corrupt and weaken our National life, sug- 
 gests the inquiry that those who have in the past been 
 prepared in our halls of learning for leadership in our 
 civilization have not been well prepared. Is our educa- 
 tional system deficient in this regard ? Is there not. 
 down deep in the human soul, an attribute of nobil- 
 ity that it does not reach ? Should not the graduates 
 be as familiar with ethics as mathematics? Why so 
 much of the classics, and so little of the science of 
 knowing how to live? As the mental power of the 
 student is developed and strengthened in the attempt 
 to comprehend the laws that govern matter, and in 
 demonstrating the propositions of mathematics, and in 
 grasping the almost hidden mysteries of the laws o/ 
 language, why may not a more complete and ethical 
 training of ethics at the same time be brino-ino; forth 
 in the soul a deeper and broader charity, a more 
 active and unselfish benevolence, and a keener per- 
 ception of duty to God and man? 
 
 If any part of the education of the student be 
 thorough, let the preference be given to the inculca- 
 tion of the dignity and nobility of his being. Let the 
 glory of living up to the requirement of Him whose 
 image they bear be so deeply impressed on their 
 youthful minds that, when mature life shall come with 
 all its duties and obligations, it will be the supreme 
 
342 Demaxds .L\n Daxgers of the Times. 
 
 priuciple of their lives — guiding and leading all their 
 thoughts, words, and actions, above all sordid and 
 selfish aims. In the cultivation of the mind of the 
 student, let the training contain, as one of the princi- 
 pal elements, an inspiration of manly courage to rise 
 above all mercenary considerations in sustaining the 
 right and condemning the wrong. Our educated 
 minds should be filled with a heroism that would 
 boldly snatch the imperial scepter from Mammon, 
 overthrow the throne of his despotic power, and, with 
 their cultivated powers, make hateful and hideous the 
 evils which have made dim the glory and tarnished 
 the luster of our civilization. 
 
 As the overflowings of the Nile bear the dead 
 carcasses from the barren sands, and leave benind on 
 the sterile shores a rich and life-giving deposit, which 
 calls forth an alnindant harvest and beautifies the 
 desert with fruits and flowers, so should an influence 
 go out from our literary institutions that would purify 
 the land from corruption, and make the places now 
 barren for God and humanity to bring an abundant 
 harvest of justice and righteousness, and cause the 
 desert of selfishness to be beautified with the sweet 
 flowers of benevolence and charity. 
 
 The mental activity of this age is not a more 
 distinct and marked characteristic than its impressi- 
 bility. The cultivated mind, prompted by a heart 
 throbbing with a pure and active sympathy for hu- 
 manity, in these stirring times can demand and have 
 a hearing, and leave an im23ression on the restless 
 American mind that never could be made in any 
 former time. The fact that the whole energies of 
 
Demands and Dangers of the Times. 343 
 
 the American people are aroused, aud the mental 
 powers drawn out to the utmost tension in the con- 
 flict of life, is the best ground of hope, and affords 
 encouragement for the scholar and philanthropist to 
 undertake the work of guiding these activities in 
 purer channels and directions to the attainment of 
 higher and nobler ends. As in the roar of battle 
 and the smoke of conflict the flag of his country "ex- 
 cites the deepest admiration of the soldier, if bravely 
 borne, so in life's struggle, amid the mists and fogs of 
 selfishness, will the banner of truth be hailed and 
 cheered, if it be found in the hands of those who 
 dare to fight to death the errors that have blasted 
 the hopes and happiness of humanity. This is a most 
 opportune time for the elevation of the life-purpose 
 of the American citizen. There seems to be now, 
 beneath the sordid and selfish in his character, an 
 active and keener perception of right and wrong, 
 and an earnest longing for the truth. While the 
 American citizen is acting on a grade below his rank, 
 and while the mercenary spirit of the time has 
 lowered his high aims and purposes, and filled his 
 sonl with selfishness, yet down deep in his heart may 
 still be found an earnest desire for a higher and 
 better life. The bitter experiences of life, in his 
 struggle for wealth, have taught him the deceitful- 
 ness of riches. The promised compensation for the 
 great sacrifice he made to obtain it never came. The 
 sweet cup of joy, for which he labored and toiled, he 
 finds filled with the bitter waters of remorse. The 
 recollection of life's conflict brings not the coveted 
 peace and content for which he hoped, but faithful 
 
344 Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 memory fills his heart with shame and regret. He 
 finds but too often that he is envied by the rich and 
 hated by the poor, for whom he has shown no sym- 
 pathy. If the thonghtful and educated minds have 
 anything better to jiropose, he is now ready to give 
 it a fair consideration. 
 
 Then let the painter portray on the canvas the 
 hideousness of selfishness. Let the poet put songs of 
 charity and benevolence in the souls of men. Let the 
 scholarly orator thunder his anathemas at the cor- 
 ruptions of Mammon. Let the press, with its un- 
 measured power, burst the fetters that have bound 
 it, and boldly assail this mercenary spirit and all the 
 ills it has brought on the human race. Let the min- 
 ister of the gospel, with the boldness of a Paul or 
 the fiery eloquence of a Peter, impress the great 
 truth of Christianity on the hearts of men, that if 
 they have not the unselfish and self-sacrificing spirit 
 of Christ, they are none of his. Let art, by her 
 beauty, attract man away from the altar of Mammon. 
 Let poetry soften his heart and inspire his soul. 
 Let the power of logic impart to him a higher and 
 broader conception of his being and mission; let 
 religion impress on his mind the great truth of his 
 immortality and let its purifying power cleanse his 
 soul from all selfishness, and lead him to love God 
 supremely, and his neighbor as himself. 
 
 Then will the grand forward march of our civili- 
 zation be resumed, and nobler ends and higher aims 
 animate humanity. The halting steps of human 
 progress will be quickened; confidence among men 
 will be restored; and peace and good-will Avill bring 
 
Demands a.\d Daxgefs of the Times. 345 
 
 joy and contentment to the hearts of men. Capital 
 will cease to oppress labor, and labor will lay aside 
 its weapons of warfare against capital, and cordially 
 extend the hand of help and sympathy. The arti- 
 ficial distinctions that this mercenary age has created 
 between the rich and the poor will cease to be rec- 
 ognized. Wealth will no longer be a badge of 
 honor, and poverty will not be disgraceful. The 
 honest man, wherever found, will be the nobleman 
 that men Avill deliglit to honor. 
 
 The surplus money that is now prostituted to the 
 base use of gratifying a miserly greed for colossal 
 fortune, or scpiandered on the senseless tinselry that 
 fashion and folly have invented as the guise and garb 
 of riches, will be diverted in a thousand new chan- 
 nels to encourage and enlighten mankind. Our edu- 
 cational institutions will no longer languish for want 
 of support, but the wealth which has been used to 
 corrupt and debase man will furnish more teachers, 
 more extensive libraries and cabinets, and complete 
 endowments, so that the sons and daughters of the 
 poor, as well as the rich, may participate in all the ad- 
 vantages of a liberal education. 
 
 As' the evil power has been nourished and 
 strengthened by feeding on itself, so will the remedy 
 be eifectively increased by its own application ; and 
 every effort made in the elevation of man will re- 
 enforce itself with double power ; and grandly and 
 gloriously will the work of the regeneration of the 
 American citizen move on. Then will that righteous- 
 ness that exalteth a nation call down the smiles of 
 heaven on a happy and prosperous people ; and then, 
 
^4G Demands and Dangers of the Times. 
 
 in the completeness of his character aucl the nobility 
 of his being, will the American citizen be hailed as 
 rightfully bearing the commission of the Almighty 
 as the leader in the great work of liberating, enlight- 
 ening, and elevating the human race. 
 
SELF-CULTURE. 
 
 C"^ ROWTH and development is manifestly the law 
 T of the Creator. In the natural world this growth 
 is not the eifect of culture, but the effect of the op- 
 eration of the unseen yet resistless law of God. We 
 see its wonderful work on every hand. It challenges 
 both admiration and astonishment. 
 
 From the brown earth in the spring-time comes 
 forth an endless variety of plants and grasses from 
 seeds so small as to defy the search of the curious, 
 carpeting the earth with a covering too beautiful for 
 human art to successfully imitate, hiding the desola- 
 tions made by the frosts of winter. The little germ 
 hidden in the earth sends forth a lily of such beauty 
 and loveliness that even Solomon in all his glory was 
 not arrayed like unto it. From the smallest acorn 
 this mysterious power calls out the little shrub which, 
 by the slow growth and development of a century or 
 two, becomes the giant oak, the storm-defying king 
 of the forest. The barren branches of the solitary 
 tree in the field, when the warm and smiling month 
 of May comes and drives away the frosts, are bidden, 
 by this wonderful law, to clothe themselves with 
 fresh foliage, and are required each year to become 
 longer and stronger, throwing farther and wider their 
 
 Delivered at a meeting of young men on the Acton As- 
 sembly ground. 
 
 :^47 
 
o48 Self-Culture. 
 
 refreshing shade to the panting herds seeking their 
 protecting shelter. 
 
 In the animal as well as in the vegetable kingdom 
 we see on every hand the wonderful results of this 
 mysterious force. Man himself comes up from feeble 
 and helpless infancy to the full stature and strength 
 of strong manhood by the operation of this law, and 
 not by any will-power of his own. His physical 
 growth is in the hands of his Maker, and man has 
 no voice or control over it. He may desire it ever 
 so much, yet he can not add a single cubit to his 
 stature. 
 
 Man being the crowning glory of all the works of 
 his Creator — the most beautiful and wonderful work 
 of all, his form shaped by the hand of Divinity that 
 he might a])pear, as well as be, the lord of all cre- 
 ated things — God has expressly forbidden that man 
 should mar the beauty of his own perfect work. He 
 reserves his physical grow^th to himself, and man can 
 not hinder or cliange it. All nature in this regard is 
 like the Author, unchanging and unchanged, forever 
 the same. 
 
 But God gave to man a portion of his own divine 
 nature in bestowing on him the wonderful power of 
 reasoning, and then placed the mental and moral 
 growth in man's own keeping, holding him respon- 
 sible for the result. He simply planted the seeds in 
 the human mind and soul, and bade mnn cultivate 
 and develo]) himself. Man's destiny in these regards 
 is with himself. He may, if he chooses, by an 
 earnest and constant cultivation of the natural pow- 
 ers his Maker has given him, grow on through all 
 
Self-Culture. 340 
 
 the days of his life. The iiicutal and moral man 
 raay be constantly putting forth longer and stronger 
 branches, and be beautified with fresher and brighter 
 foliage. He may be a dwarf or a giant, just as he 
 may elect. Fi-om this stand-point I will present a 
 few thoughts to the young men who are here to-day. 
 
 Real manhood — full, true, and complete man- 
 hood — should be the highest ambition of every young 
 man. It is above wealth and higher than position. 
 It Avas my fortune, a long time ago, to have known 
 the Hon. W. P. Fessenden, of Maine. He w^as one 
 of the brightest and ablest men this country has ever 
 produced. You will remember he was appointed to 
 the high position of Secretary of the Treasury. Fill- 
 ing the position for some time, he was recalled to *he 
 Senate of the United States by his State. His kind 
 and genial manner and his high sense of justice and 
 honor won all the hearts of the heads of bureaus, 
 clerks, and subordinates of the treasury, so that when 
 the day came that he was to retire, they came in a 
 body to manifest their respect, and to express their 
 regret at the separation. He made them a speech 
 that has no superior for eloquence, truth, and beauty 
 in the English language. I regret that I have not 
 preserved it so that I might read it to-day. 
 
 The thought that so impressed me in his address 
 was this : He said to those young men that no posi- 
 tion was higher than that of a true gentleman ; that 
 a man, in all that the word imports, outranked any 
 position that man could hold. It struck me with 
 great force, and I have never forgotten it. It is to 
 this manhood that I want to call your attention 
 
350 Self-Culture. 
 
 to-day. Our young men are looking forward to the 
 attainment of wealth or office or position. These 
 glittering prizes dazzle their eyes, and attract their 
 vision, and excite their hopes and ambition. The 
 false notion Jargely prevails with our young men and 
 boys that if these be beyond their reach, there is not 
 much else worth striving for, and they give up and 
 simply float along, consenting to be nothing and no- 
 body in the world. Our false education has led us 
 into this error. 
 
 When I was a boy at school, when the last great 
 day of school came, and we were on hand Avith a 
 great exhibition of our acquirements, some eloquent 
 lawyer or minister would make a speech to us, and 
 teH us that some of us would be President or gov- 
 ernor or something of the sort. We, a lot of tow- 
 headed urchins, would look at each other and smile 
 at the insane suggestion. We could not grasp it; it 
 was too far off. You tell a boy that he is going to 
 be something in the future, and to begin now. If 
 you convince him that he will become au author, he 
 will sharpen his pencil and commence at once. If 
 you tell him he will be a painter, he will beg you 
 for a nickel to buy a box of paint, and commence 
 daubing without delay. But you tell him that he is 
 to be a banker or the President of the United States, 
 and he does not know how to begin, and becomes 
 discouraged, and thinks you are fooling with him. 
 
 I have often seen, and you have seen, parents, 
 with maternal pride and fatherly affection, exhibit 
 their children, witli the remark that they intend to 
 make a President out of that boy ; or, if they are 
 
Self-Culture. 351 
 
 less ambitious, they will say that they will make a 
 lawyer or a doctor or a preacher out of him. Thus 
 from infancy it has been rung in our ears that we are 
 to be something in the way of holding office or hav- 
 ing a professional standing among men. The profes- 
 sion or the position is made to outrank the man. 
 Did you ever hear a parent say that he intended to 
 make a man simply out of his boy — a man in honor, 
 a man in education, a man socially and intellectually? 
 The advantage of holding out this ambition to a boy 
 is, that he can commence on it at once, and work at 
 it all the time. As soon as he concludes that he will 
 be a man he can begin. No matter how poor he is, 
 he does not need any capital to set up the business 
 of being a man. 
 
 If he has any bad habits he can commence on. 
 them. He can spit the chew of tobacco out of his 
 mouth before habit fastens it there for all his life. 
 He can throw aside his cigar, and spend the money 
 that he wastes in that way for good books and mag- 
 azines. He can cut loose from all vile associates who 
 teach him to be profane and vulgar. He can put 
 aside the dime novel and all such flashy reading that 
 causes him to want to be a pirate, and read something 
 that 'will make him want to be a man. He can stt)p 
 going to the saloon, and join the Good Templars, and 
 start in the smooth road of temperance and sobriety. 
 All this he can do at once. If he wants to practice 
 politeness and act like a gentleman^ he has a chance 
 to cultivate these gifts by being kind to his mother, 
 and obedient to his father, and polite to his sister. 
 All this any boy can do if he simply determines to 
 
352 Self- Cul i ure. 
 
 make a man out of himself. The result is with him; 
 and if, when he becomes twenty-one years of age, 
 and can vote, and is counted a man, he is yet igno- 
 rant, vulgar, and uncouth, corrupted by bad habits, 
 it is the result of his own choice. 
 
 He may, by cultivation and watchfulness, keep 
 his eye towards the better side of humanity, and fill 
 his soul with charity and love for the human family, 
 so that out of the abundance of his heart his mouth 
 will speak words of praise of all about him, binding 
 mankind in the sweet bonds of confidence and trust; 
 or he may expel charity from his soul, and fill his 
 heart with envy and jealousy ; and then from the 
 corrupt fountain within him will come defamation 
 and backbiting, his wicked and lying tongue befoul- 
 ing and soiling the reputation of all about him with 
 the venomous slime of slander — '' slander, the foulest 
 whelp of sin." 
 
 He may polish himself until he may sparkle like 
 a diamond, or he may remain all his life as rough as 
 the stone in the quarry. He may be so cultivated 
 and refined as to confirm the declaration of Holy 
 AVrit, that he is but a '' little lower than the angels," 
 or he may remain as ignorant as the beasts of the 
 field. He may preserve the purity and innocence of 
 childhood, or he may become as vicious as a demon. 
 He may, by the kindness of his soul and' the gentle- 
 ness of his spirit, carry joy and happiness with him 
 wherever he goes, and be hailed with glad welcome 
 by his fellow-men ; or he may become a terror and a 
 curse to all who may be so unfortunate as to be com- 
 pelled to associate with him. It is within his [)ower 
 
Self-Culture. 353 
 
 to be an example of virtue, illustrating in his daily 
 life, and in all his contact with his fellow-meu, the 
 beauties of the Christian religion, his very presence 
 being a foretaste of the world beyond ; or he may be 
 so vile that his presence would suggest that he was 
 an envoy from the regions of perdition. He may 
 have in possession a soul filled with joy and content- 
 ment, rejoicing gratefully in the many blessings in 
 life, loving and being loved ; or he may have a soul 
 poisoned with hate and ill-will, tossed on the angry 
 billows of discontent, despising and being despised. 
 He may become a bold and manly opponent to 
 popular wrong, defying public clamor, standing all 
 the time for right, or a skulking coward, fleeing be- 
 fore the harmless roar of public opinion. He may 
 be a man of decision, seeing the path of duty before 
 him and the difficulties in the way, and proceeding 
 at once to overcome them, thus making his life a 
 grand success and furnishing an example of what de- 
 cision and force of character may accomplish, believ- 
 ing with the poet, — 
 
 " What you can do, or dream you can, begin it : 
 Genius has boldness, power, and magic in it ; 
 Only engage, and then the mind grows heated ; 
 Begin, and then the work Mill be completed," — 
 
 or he may halt and hesitate, — 
 
 " Lose the day loitering, 't will be the same story — 
 To-morrow, the next day, more dilatory ; 
 The indecision brhigs its own delays, 
 And days are lost lamenting over days." 
 
 He may become an honest and honored citizen, or 
 a loafer and a dead-beat. Possibilities for good, as 
 well as possibilities for evil, may be his just due in 
 
354 Self- Cul i ure. 
 
 accordanco witli lii.s own election and the heed he 
 takes to his ways. He makes his choice himself, and 
 shapes his own future. Circumstances over which he 
 may have no control may modify the result in some 
 degree; but the main truth still stands, that self-cul- 
 ture makes the man. 
 
 The mistake that our young men and boys make 
 is, that they do not put a proper estimate on real man- 
 hood. They may have a longing to be lawyers, doc- 
 tors, ministers, or politicians, and as that involves a 
 good deal of study and the cost of an education, they 
 give up, and float along without any definite object in 
 view. It is no honor to be a lawyer or a doctor or a 
 politician unless you possess real manhood. 
 
 Have you never seen a law^yer who had no hold 
 on the public confidence? The profession did not 
 help him or give him a character. Did you never see 
 a doctor who was the victim of such bad habits that 
 nobody respected him? His being a physician, though 
 a successful one, did not give him the good opinion 
 of those about him. 
 
 There are politicians who may have been in some 
 degree successful, yet so destitute of principle and 
 honor and having so few of the true elements of real 
 manhood, that nobody will trust them. On the other 
 hand, have you not seen men carrying hods, driving 
 drays, working in ditches and at the mechanic's 
 bench, who were noble men, the soul of honor and 
 honesty, who had the good-will and confidence of all 
 with W'hom they came in contact? Is it not nobler to 
 be a man doing your duty well and faithfully in the 
 circle you are called to move in, respecting yourself 
 
Self-Culture. 355 
 
 and compelling the respect of others in the hiunble 
 walks of life, than in what is falsely called the higher 
 circles to be known as a knave and a cheat? 
 
 If you, young men, will fix your eye on real man- 
 hood, and determine to have it — to bring out all that 
 is good in you and develop to the highest degree the 
 gifts God has given you — you will be in demand in 
 the coming future. An observing world will compel 
 the mediocres and incapables to stand aside and make 
 a place for you. The world needs more men. It 
 will need them much more in the future. In politics 
 we have so many voters and so few real men under- 
 standing the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, 
 that the Nation is often on the very verge of anarchy, 
 and some despairing souls are ready to say that the 
 days of our Republic are nearly numbered. The 
 State needs more men who have in their youth 
 studied the form of the Government and the history 
 of the country, so that they can silence the vaporings 
 of the demagogue, and vote down the blathering poli- 
 tician who would take advantage of the voter. 
 
 We need more intelligent men in the Church; 
 men who do not regard the Church as simply a ship 
 to carry them safely over the troubled sea of life, and 
 land them safely in heaven with as little expense and 
 self-sacrifice as possible, but men who see in the re- 
 ligion of Christ the means not only of saving man- 
 kind, but also as a mighty civilizing agency to lift 
 mankind out of the pit of ignorance and degradation 
 to a full and complete comprehension of their rights 
 and duties to each other and to God ; men who so 
 iove to be useful that they will stand ready, not to 
 
356 Self-Culture. 
 
 do as little as they can and retain their place in the 
 Church, but be willing and anxious to make large 
 sacrifices for the good of our common humanity. 
 Religion languishes to-day and the Church is shorn 
 of her power, not because so few men belong to the 
 Church, but because there are so few who really com- 
 prehend the value of the religion of Christ to them- 
 selves and to the w^orld, and who put so low an es- 
 timate on its vahie that they are not willing to sac- 
 rifice much to promote it. 
 
 The temperance cause is often injured by the in- 
 temperate zeal and lack of intelligence of those who 
 have charge of it. Men, forgetting that all public 
 laws must, in a free government like this, have their 
 fountain and origin in a public opinion that must 
 come from the calm and dispassionate judgment, — 
 men thus rush hastily forward to pass extreme penal 
 enactments ; and, when they are on the statute-book, 
 there is no healthy and vigorous public opinion to 
 compel their enforcement, and they remain a dead- 
 letter; and the rum-seller goes on with his work of 
 ruin and death, and laughs at their folly. The men 
 are but children in mind and judgment. They have 
 grown physically to manhood, but their uncultivated 
 minds have had little or no attention, and they know 
 not how to manage this great evil. History is but 
 repeating itself. If boys and young men would 
 spend their leisure moments in looking after what 
 has been in the past, and keep pace with the current 
 events of the times, they would know better how to 
 meet the responsibilities of their manhood than we 
 men are meeting the demands upon us. 
 
Self- Culture. 357 
 
 In passiug through the country this last winter, 
 going through several States, I have found at all the 
 railway stations men standing with a vacant stare, 
 looking as though they had not a hope or purpose in 
 life. I have thouglit that Darwin must have been a 
 traveler, and it was from seeing these sights that he 
 was led to the promulgation of his theory that man 
 was the progeny of the ape. These men, thus stand- 
 ing and gaping at the busy world, were once boys 
 like you, but refused to think of their future or 
 make any provision for their coming manhood ; and 
 you see the sad result. 
 
 It was Plato who said that " man is a two-legged 
 animal without feathers;" and although he said it 
 away back in the Dark Ages, if he lived now, he 
 would repeat it, and stick to it. 
 
 Many a poor boy will say : " How can I be a man ? 
 I am an orphan ;" or, " ^ly father is too poor to 
 help me ; and how can I develop my mind, when I 
 can not find the books, or command the means of 
 culture?" We have in this country both public and 
 private libraries within the reach of all who are 
 ready to read ; and our young men waste time each 
 week that would, if applied to study, give them the 
 contents of a volume of knowledge. The intelligence 
 is at your command, if you really want it. The tree 
 of knowledge is full of ripe fruit ; and her laden 
 boughs are reaching out towards you, if you will only 
 partake of it. It is within the reach of all. We 
 have good sermons preached every Sabbath, that are 
 full of truth, thought, and information. You can 
 learn there without cost, if you will attend. AVe 
 
358 Self-Culture. 
 
 have Sabbath-schools that are free to all, with intelli- 
 gent teachers; here you can find help. Come to this 
 fountain of knowledge. Education and help is abun- 
 dant on every hand, if you will avail yourself of it. 
 
 Let me say another thing by way of encourage- 
 ment. If an observing world around you finds you 
 are really doing your best to be a man, you will find 
 help and words of encouragement on every hand. 
 Boys and young men make the mistake that what 
 they do is not noticed, and that they have no charac- 
 ter and standing in society. That is a fatal error. 
 Every boy and young man in this community has a 
 character and standing, as well as the men. If you 
 visit the saloons, and loaf around the town from day 
 to day, and do nothing ; if yon associate with dis- 
 reputable people, it does not escape observation; and 
 the community around you are making up their minds 
 in regard to your future. If, on the other hand, you 
 are taking heed to your ways, seeking good associ- 
 ations, forming habits of industry and economy, and 
 are trying all the time to improve your manners, you 
 will have it all put to your credit ; and you will soon 
 hear words of commendation from those whose good 
 opinion you desire to have. 
 
 And right here let me say a word to older persons 
 who are present. When you see a boy doing his 
 duty and trying to be a man, you ought not to fail to 
 let him know that you observe it, and give him 
 credit with an emphasis for all the good you see in 
 him. It will cost us nothing to praise him • and it 
 will do us good, as well as him. If we were as ready 
 to commend boys as we are to condemn them, and as 
 
Self- Cvl ture. 8 5 9 
 
 ready to praise thorn as we are to blame them, we 
 would be doiuj^ them a good service. Boys and young 
 men like to be appreciated, as well as older people; 
 and a kind word now and then will re-enforce a boy 
 wonderfully, and help make a man out of him. You 
 can in that way obtain the regard of the boy ; and 
 your good cheer Avill help him in his fight against 
 bad habits and evil associates. 
 
 Among the bad habits that destroy all hopes for 
 a true manhood is the habit of visiting drinking- 
 saloons, and drinking there. It breaks down the 
 self-respect of a young man. It puts him in associa- 
 tion with the very worst young men of the town. 
 He soon finds himself drifting away from good soci- 
 ety, and is counted with the vicious and depraved. 
 He is compelled to take that society, being all that is 
 left him. All of their wickedness becomes his ; and 
 while his better nature and the consequences cause 
 him often to halt and revolt, yet he feels that good 
 people will not talvc him back into their confidence; 
 and he goes on in his downward career, and becomes 
 a drunkard, a tramp, or a criminal. The road to 
 manhood is not through or by the grog-shop. You 
 must give up the saloon, or abandon the idea of be- 
 coming a man in all that the word imports. The 
 saloon has taken many a l)oy and young man, and, 
 in less time than it takes for a course in college, it 
 has graduated him a drunkard, a pauper, or a crimi- 
 nal. It has never graduated a man. Even those 
 who are not so unfortunate are debased and degraded 
 by strong drink. 
 
 Id)>^ness is another enemv to the attainment of 
 
360 Self-Culture. 
 
 manhood. A boy or young man wlio can consent to 
 go clay after day without work or trying to improve 
 himself, will never reach manhood. He may grow 
 up to the stature of manhood — he may become old 
 enough to vote; but he will never be a man. He 
 will fill no place in the w^orld, and Avill be the slave 
 and serf of the men of energy and industry. 
 
 I have seen some young men in my town — and I 
 doubt not that the same sights may be seen here — 
 standing day after day, leaning against the houses 
 or hitching-racks, without seeming to have a single 
 ambition to be or accomplish anything, — so lazy that 
 they would not even grow to the height of a man 
 physically if it required any effort on their part. Is 
 there not some way by which the eyes of such may be 
 opened, so that they may peer into the future, and see 
 that there is a noble manhood before them that they 
 may attain if they will wake up and make the effort? 
 Are there not Christian people and humanitarians in 
 every town who will speak a word of encouragement, 
 and inspire a hope in these dejected hearts, and help 
 them as they push out in the stream of active life ? 
 
 Some young men will say that it is no use for 
 them to try to do much ; that they have no natural 
 talents like others. In thirty years of active life 
 I have been compelled to modify my opinions 
 about these natural gifts. There is not much differ- 
 ence, after all, in the natural powers of men. I am 
 led to conclude that these gifts are very evenly di- 
 vided. Once in a century some great genius will 
 come to the world, and flash like a meteor or a comet 
 across the path of humanity ; but the great mass of 
 
Self-Culture. 361 
 
 men are very much alike. That one sneceeds better 
 than another is because he had in his boyliood a 
 glimpse of the glory of true manhood, and, having 
 faith that he could attain il, he determined to have 
 it; and, while other boys were halting and idling 
 away their time or weakening their powers with 
 bad habits, he rushed past them ; and when the time 
 came to be a man, he was a man. Then the world 
 would say. What gifts God has given that young man ! 
 
 Other young men will say, I can not make my 
 life a success because of poverty. Poverty is a bless- 
 ing to a young man, if he has the real, true grit. It 
 is an obstacle in his way that calls out his energy to 
 surmount it ; and if he wins — as win he can if he 
 determines to do so — the victory will be greater and 
 the reward sweeter than if somebody's money put 
 him through. 
 
 Poor young men have this advantage over rich 
 ones — when a poor young man shows, by his energy 
 and industry, that he intends to be a man, he excites 
 the sympathy of all good people, and they are in- 
 clined to help him. They are not expecting so much 
 from him, and if he exhibits the true metal they will 
 rally round him and assist him. This I know from 
 absolute experience. I have gone the rough road of 
 poverty in my boyhood, and I know how it is. And 
 while I thought it was very severe then, I look back 
 and thank God with a sincere gratitude that my 
 father did not, and could not, give money to make 
 me indolent and worthless, as it often does. Poor as 
 you may be, and moderate as you may think your 
 abilities, may be you have some element of greatness 
 
302 Self-Culture. 
 
 and power within yon iliat may make itself felt and 
 recognized if yon go at the work of life in earnest, 
 determining to succeed. 
 
 Do not forget, also, that yon mnst learn to do 
 something well. Do not fail to remember that it is 
 infinitely more honor to be a good mechanic than a 
 poor lawyer ; that it is better to be a brakeman on a 
 railroad than a brakeman on the train of human prog- 
 ress by trying to do something that you are not 
 adapted to. All work that is useful to the human 
 race is honorable to the worker, and the honor in- 
 creases in exact proportion to the perfectness of its 
 accomplishment. A trade or calling of some kind 
 within the range of your capacity is absolutely essen- 
 tial. But the difficulty will be presented, that if you 
 do prepare for manhood, you will not be able to find 
 a place to work. Be not content with finding a place. 
 Make a place ; that you can do. If you do your 
 work well, and are honest and intelligent, the very 
 necessities of human affairs will make a place for 
 you. The world is fnll of half-men, half-skilled, 
 half-hearted, half-energy, half-honest men. If you 
 are a full pattern of a man in the circle in which you 
 are called to move, by common consent the others will 
 stand aside for you. 
 
 As the race of man improves, as new life and en- 
 ergy is infused into every department of human so- 
 ciety, that new energy will produce new work and 
 more of it, the comforts of life will have to be pro- 
 vided for this better type of manhood, and there will 
 be enough to do. This Nation wastes enough each 
 year in her vices and in her extravagance to give 
 
Self-Culture. 363 
 
 work to the wliole human family in providing for 
 what the world really needs. 
 
 And, again, let me ask this question : Do you 
 not really want to be a man for the glory there is in 
 real manhood ; a man as perfect as human nature can 
 be ; a man in harmony with himself, in harmony with 
 his fellow-men, in harmony with his God; a man so 
 developed and cultiv^ated that he meets all the de- 
 mands made upon him by his social, his intellectual, 
 and his moral nature ; a man that comprehends his 
 responsibility in living, and who has a heart so in 
 sympathy with his fellow-men that he is ready to rise 
 above self and selfish ends when the demand is made, 
 and, to the extent of his ability, assist in bearing the 
 burden of others; a man whose whole soul sings to 
 him the sweetest songs of approval when each day's 
 work is done ; a man whose conscience will cheer 
 him on with the welcome plaudit, " Well done, good 
 and faithful servant?" That nobility of manhood, in 
 this good land of ours, with her free schools, her 
 cheap literature, her open Churches, is for every boy 
 and young man here. He can have it, if he wants it. 
 He can command it, if he will take heed to his ways. 
 No power can keep him from it. Nobody has a pat- 
 ent on this, the noblest work of God. To obtain it, 
 it is not necessary that your father should be rich or 
 a man of distinction. It is free -and 023en to every 
 one who has the energy and the industry and the 
 manliness to commence now to win it. You can not 
 fight this battle for manhood with a substitute. You 
 must win by your own strong heart and patient en- 
 durance. If your purpose be pure and unselfish; if 
 
364 Self- Cul ture. 
 
 you want to make return to the great Creator for the 
 gifts that he has given you; if you want to be a man, 
 filling your place in the world, and making mankind 
 better all the time by your good work and better in- 
 fluence, — tiien will come that more than human help, 
 the Divine power, to re-enforce you in the conflict. 
 
 It can not but be that any rational mind, under- 
 taking to fulfill his mission among men, will fail till 
 it seek for that Spirit that animated the sinless life 
 of the only perfect Being that was ever on the earth. 
 Every young man, therefore, with the loftiest aspira- 
 tions, desiring to be as perfect in his humanity as our 
 fallen nature will admit, will be a Christian. It 
 purifies the purpose of his life, magnifying, expand- 
 ing, and extending it beyond this earthly conflict, 
 holding out an eternity of joy, peace, and love Avith 
 the best and purest that have lived in the world. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ODDFELLOWSHIP. 
 
 WE LIVE in a practical age. As Odd Fellows 
 we must be able to give good aud sufficient 
 reasons for our existence as an Order. What is the 
 equivalent for the time and money spent in perpet- 
 uating this organization? Why this pomp and pa- 
 rade, these gorgeous regalias, and those large aud 
 costly lodge-rooms? Is our Order a helper in ele- 
 vating and civilizing mankind? Does it do a work 
 that would not be done but for us? In the short 
 time that I will claim your attention, my brethren, 
 and this large assembly of friends, I will try to an- 
 swer these plain and pertinent questions. 
 
 It was the great Edmund Burke who said that 
 *'the spirit of civilization is composed of two parts — 
 the spirit of religion aud the spirit of a gentleman." 
 Assuming this to be true and a correct definition, we 
 may justly claim that our Order is a mighty civiliz- 
 ing force. In the first place, Oddfellowship makes 
 belief in God and the essential truths of Christianity 
 the very corner-stone of her temple. No man can 
 enter the threshold of the lodge until he has given 
 his sincere assent to this article of our faith. The 
 great moral maxims of the Christian religion are 
 found all through the ritual and go to make up the 
 Odd Fellow creed. 
 
 Delivered at Pi-ovidence, Rhode Island, and at a public 
 meeting of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows. 
 
 365 
 
366 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 We make war agaiust vice in all its forms, not 
 only because it is injurious to the human well-being, 
 but because it is forbidden by a kind and loving 
 Heavenly Father. AVhile we do not claim to be a 
 religious institution, we do insist that the spirit of 
 religion permeates our Order and is its best feature. 
 AVe simply claim to be a helper to raise man to a 
 nobler and higher life. Tried by the broader test 
 that whatever makes man kinder and nobler, more 
 useful and self-sacrificing, is in accordance with the 
 spirit of Plim who founded the Christian system, it 
 might be claimed that our Order, both in faith and 
 practice, is in some degree an exponent of the pure 
 ethics of the Bible. Oddfellowship, having in no 
 small degree the spirit of religion, has within it the 
 elements of culture to make those within the range 
 of its influence gentlemen in the broadest sense of 
 the word. 
 
 AVhat constitutes the gentleman? In an old 
 English law-book a gentleman is defined to be, 
 " One who, without any title, bears a coat of arms, 
 or whose ancestors have been freemen ;" and accord- 
 ing to another old book, " Whosoever studieth in the 
 universities, who is familiar with the laws of the 
 realm, who professeth the liberal arts and sciences, 
 and, to be short, who can live idly, without manual 
 labor, will bear the port, charge, and with the coun- 
 tenance of a gentleman, he shall be called a gentle- 
 man." That might do for an ancient English gentle- 
 man ; but to us it has some of the ear-marks of the 
 latest and most improved style of the genuine Amer- 
 ican loafer. 
 
The Philosopiiy OF Oddfellowship. 367 
 
 It is to be conft'S.sed with .shame that we free 
 and independent Americans have not entirely rid 
 ourselves of the English prejudices in favor of wealth 
 and birth, and still associate gentility with those who 
 claim to have had distinguished parentage, or who have 
 inherited somebody's wealth. But the better judg- 
 ment of the American mind defines the gentleman to 
 be one who, in all things, according to his opportu- 
 nities, is the highest type of real manhood. This 
 places all men on their individual merits, and, 
 rising above all questions of rank or riches, opens 
 the way to the highest position to all who have self- 
 love or self-respect enough to seek to attain it. 
 
 It is the mission of Oddfellowship to develop 
 and strengthen this self-respect in all w^ho connect 
 themselves with the Order. It takes no cognizance 
 of the wealth, culture, or literary attainments of those 
 who knock at our doors for admission. It only looks 
 carefully at the manly qualities of the applicant. 
 When admitted, he knows that that was his only pass- 
 port. He therefore knows that he must be a gentle- 
 man to maintain his position. He begins to have a 
 deeper respect for himself, and commands the respect 
 of his brethren. He finds that the tone of the lodge 
 is above mean actions and vicious habits; and he 
 commences the work of self-reformation, if he has 
 been the victim of bad habits in the past. 
 
 Every effort of man to make himself more just 
 to himself will bring with it a corresponding desire 
 to be more generous to others. Create in man an 
 ambition to be noble, to bring out of himself all that 
 the opportunities will allow him to do, and you have 
 
368 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 from that time, within him as a motive power and 
 animating force, the spirit of a gentleman. The pur- 
 poses, principles, and peculiar organization of our 
 Order seem to be exactly adapted to this work. 
 Fraternizing human hearts on a platform broader 
 than party, wider than sectarianism, induces a gener- 
 ous spirit of toleration, and breaks down prejudice. 
 It cultivates large charity for the opinions of others, 
 and is a friend to the promotion of truth, and a foe 
 to error. Binding these men together with the 
 strong bands of Friendship, Love, and Truth, for the 
 high and holy purpose of alleviating human suffer- 
 ing and bearing one another's burdens, makes the 
 individual joy sweeter, and the personal burdens of 
 life lighter. 
 
 In order to prevent men from becoming selfish, 
 they must be reached through their social nature. 
 They must often be called away from the buying and 
 selling and getting gain, and be made to see and feel 
 that life is something nobler than this. They must 
 be taught that the sweet consciousness of being help- 
 ful to their fellows is the most delightful cup of joy 
 that this life affords ; that the thing this world needs 
 is not more money nor more brains ; but more heart, 
 more sympathy, more self-sacrifice. It ought not to 
 be, as it is, one of the proverbs of the world, that 
 " Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands 
 mourn." The truthfulness of this proverb is a sad 
 commentary on the condition of the human race ; not 
 only the inhumanity of positive acts of cruelty, but 
 the blasting indifference that sweeps over and through 
 society like the simoom of Sahara, drying up all the 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 369 
 
 refreshing fountains of human sympathy, withering 
 and blighting the sweet flowers of friendship and 
 love, and poisoning the soul with envy, slander, and 
 avarice. 
 
 This disordered state of things has made this 
 Order, and others of like character, a necessity. 
 Men wanted to come around a common altar and 
 lay their hearts together, that they might be warmer, 
 and with united hands vow, each to the other, that 
 no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to him- 
 self As the scales that avarice had placed over his 
 eyes begin to fall off, as the hard crust of selfishness 
 that had inclosed his heart is removed, he begins to 
 see new beauties in the lives of others, and the liber- 
 ated heart begins to beat and throb for others' woes. 
 It must be conceded that the chief cause of the self- 
 ishness of' the world — the lack of sympathy among 
 men, and the reason why human society is so filled 
 w^ith jealousy — is, that mankind stand so far apart as 
 never to know each other. 
 
 The mountain, when seen from a distance, repels 
 the beholder with its beetling cliffs, it* cold and bar- 
 ren rocks, and its snow-covered crest. But on a 
 nearer approach may be seen the sparkling brook, 
 leaping, laughing ; among the rocks may be seen the 
 flowers here and there, lending their sweetness to 
 charm the beholder from the contemplation of the 
 rougher aspect ; and the experienced eye may dis- 
 cover in the caverns and gulches the indubitable 
 evidence that the forbidding surface covers mines of 
 the most precious metals. The mountain exterior 
 
 may be rough and repulsive, but its heart is filled 
 
 24 
 
370 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 with gold and silver and the most precious metals. 
 So of human character. Let its dark and forbidding 
 aspects be inspected by him who carries the lamp of 
 charity, and whose soul sends out the light of truth 
 aud love, and a thousand new beauties appear, which, 
 but for this nearer and better approach^ would never 
 have been discovered. 
 
 "What might be done if men were wise, — 
 
 What glorious deeds, my suffering brother, — 
 Would they unite in love and right, 
 And cease their scorn of one another? 
 
 Oppression's heart might be imbued 
 
 With kindling drops of loving kindness. 
 
 And knowledge pour from shore to shore 
 Light on the eyes of mental blindness. 
 
 All slavery, warfare, lies, and wrongs, 
 All vice and crime, might die together; 
 
 And wine and corn, to each man born, 
 Be fi'ee as warmth in summer weather. 
 
 The meanest wretch that ever trod. 
 
 The deepest sunk in guilt and sorrow. 
 Might stand erect in self-respect, 
 
 And share the teeming world to-morrow. 
 
 What might be done ? This might be done. 
 And more than this, my suffering brother, — 
 
 More than the tongue ere said or sung, — 
 If men were wise and loved each other." 
 
 Seizing hold of this important fact, we have or- 
 ganized this Order, and to cultivate nearer fraternal 
 relations among men is our high purpose. That we 
 have succeeded in the past, and are succeeding now, 
 all true and earnest Odd Fellows know to a cer- 
 tainty. The Odd Fellow may be poor ; he may iiave 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 371 
 
 hard and rough hands and a sunburnt face; he may 
 feel that a cold and indifferent world passes him by, 
 careless of his toils and burdens; but he knows that, 
 with his labor-stained and scanty wardrobe, he will 
 meet with a hearty welcome from his brethren wher- 
 ever he may meet them, and a willing ear and a 
 sympathetic heart for all the sorrows of his life. In 
 coming to his lodge-room, he knows he will meet ' 
 there the very ones who were first at his bedside 
 when the heavy hand of disease was laid upon him ; 
 will meet there those who kept their untiring vigils 
 by his side through the long nights of his suffering, 
 and who assuaged his pain with the tender touch of 
 fraternal regard; those who, when disease has wasted 
 his strength, and robbed his wife and children of the 
 support that his strong arm had brought — when 
 gaunt want came in and sat doAvn in his household 
 as a guest by the side of poverty — unlocked the 
 treasure of the lodge, and, if that was empty, opened 
 the inexhaustible treasure of generous hearts, and 
 drove away want, and bade plenty come in and abide 
 at his hearth, a constant guest. 
 
 He knows, further, that if death should lay his 
 cold hand upon him, that if an indifferent world 
 should pass by on the other side, these, his brethren, 
 would, with tenderness and sorrow, follow him to the 
 grave. He knows that, living or dead, they will 
 not forsake him; that when he is buried they will 
 cherish his memory, and continue to make a practical 
 demonstration of their regard by protecting his widow 
 from want, and by clothing and educating his orphan 
 children. He has himself borne these burdens and 
 
372 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 performed these kindly offices for others. He has 
 been au eye-witness to such humane ministrations. 
 He knows that it is not the mere empty profession of 
 charity. He has given as well as received; and, 
 whatever may be his wealth or position in life, he is 
 made to feel, at a common altar, consecrated to this 
 sacred work, that he is the peer of any of the noble 
 men who constitute this fraternal baud. And so he is. 
 It can not but be that men bound together by 
 the performance of such kindly deeds toward each 
 other will develop for each other the strongest fraternal 
 feeling. In this world of disappointment and trial, 
 in this cup of life that has so much of bitterness and 
 gall, making the spirit to flag and the heart to become 
 weak, there is no tonic so agreeable to take as human 
 sympathy. And the time when the heart will most 
 gratefully remember and appreciate kindness is the 
 time of adversity. Leigh Hunt wrote : 
 
 "Abou Ben-Adhem (may his tribe increase!) 
 Awoke one night from a sweet dream of peace, 
 And saw within the moonlight in his room, 
 Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, 
 An angel writing in a book of gold. 
 Exceeding peace had made Ben-Adhem bold, 
 
 , And to the presenile in the room he said : 
 * What writest thou ?' The vision raised its head. 
 And with a look made all of sweet accord, 
 Answered: 'The names of those who love the Lord.' 
 'And is mine one?' said Abou. 'Nay, not so,' 
 Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low. 
 But cheerily still, and said: *I pray thee, then, 
 Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.' 
 The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 
 It came again with a great wakening light, 
 And showed the names that love of God had blest, 
 And lo ! Ben-Adhem's name led all the rest." 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 373 
 
 This is the holy bond that binds our Order 
 together in closer relations than men in the ordinary 
 ties of life are bound. These blessed results are not 
 confined to the lodge-room. We feel kinder towards 
 all men. It makes us better citizens. There is 
 nothing selfish about the teaching or practice of the 
 true Odd Fellow. While we have all the faults that 
 are common to humanity, while we make no claim to 
 perfection of character, yet we do insist that the 
 teachings we are constantly receiving in the lodge- 
 room cause us to be more charitable and tolerant 
 with our fellow-men. There are no men who indulge 
 less in slander, or who are slower in holding up to 
 the public gaze the faults of humanity, than members 
 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There 
 are no men who average better in the honesty of theii 
 lives or manly purpose than members of our Order. 
 
 One of the noblest ambitions of human life is the 
 earnest desire to stand high in the good opinion oi 
 the best. It is a mighty lever to lift a man above 
 mean actions, and a strong prop to hold him from 
 falling into vicious habits. 
 
 What better agency can be found to stimulate this 
 ambition than our Order ? Character is the only test 
 that admits to membership, and to hold the one the 
 Odd Fellow must maintain the other. This develops 
 his self-respect. It calls out his manly qualities, and 
 suppresses the sordid and selfish tendencies of his 
 nature. The bravest and best soldier is always the 
 best loved and has the most friends at home. Such 
 a soldier places too high an estimate on his reputation 
 to stain it with cowardice. The skulks and cowards 
 
374 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 are those who never put any value on the good opinion 
 of others. The same rule will apply in the contest in 
 life. Those most anxious to stand well in the good 
 opinion of the virtuous and the best will make the 
 bravest fight against the temptation to form evil 
 habits, and will fight longest and stand firmest for 
 the right. 
 
 Therefore I proclaim it as my belief that whatever 
 prompts these fraternal relations, and magnifies this 
 sort of self-respect, is in the interest of humanity 
 and the correct conduct of human life. It seems to 
 me that this proposition is self-evident, that the theory 
 and practice of our Order does have this effect. I do 
 not include in this statement those who only have a 
 name in the Order — those who belong to it but do 
 not apprehend its cl\practer, and stand so far off as 
 not to imbibe its spirit, and never drink from its 
 deep, fraternal fountains. To be an Odd Fellow in 
 spirit and in truth there must be a full comprehension 
 of the aims and purposes of the Order, and a devoted 
 consecration to its work. A spirit of self-sacrifice 
 must be cultivated, and a cheerful willingness to bear 
 the burdens of others. To such an Odd Fellow 
 connection with the Order is a continual joy. His 
 work comes like a benediction to his own soul. He 
 has never really lived who has not blessed others. 
 He may have existed ; he may have passed his 
 allotted time from the cradle to the grave, but he has 
 known nothing of the exquisite enjoyment of life. 
 He may have had all that wealth could purchase for 
 him; he may have been supplied with every want; 
 he may have inhaled all the sweet odors of flattery 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 375 
 
 that float around those iu high places; but his soul 
 will at last be as barren as a desert if he has never 
 wiped a tear from the face of the weeping, or planted 
 a new joy in the heart of the desponding. The poet 
 in his fancy wrote : 
 
 " Man hath two attendant angels 
 Ever waiting at his side ; 
 With him wheresoe'er he wanders, 
 Wheresoe'er his feet abide. 
 
 One to warn him when he darkleth, 
 
 And rebuke him if he stray ; 
 One to leave him to his nature, 
 
 And so let liim go his way. 
 
 Two recording spirits, reading 
 
 All his life's minutest part; 
 Looking in his soul and listening 
 
 To the heatings of his heart, — 
 
 Each, with pen of fire electric, 
 
 Writes the good and evil wrought ; 
 
 Writes with truth that adds not, errs not, 
 Purpose, action, word, and thought." 
 
 Taking the poet's fancy for fact, how would 
 men shrink from the inspection of the record they 
 are daily making! How would its each page be 
 shaded with the dark lines of selfishness; how would 
 it be marred with the somber hue of covetousness, 
 and too often smeared with the blood-stains of in- 
 justice and cruelty ! Did they question its accuracy, 
 how would their denial put tongues in the gaping 
 wounds they have made in the peace and happiness 
 of others, to testify against them ! How would the 
 bony fingers of gaunt want and shrunken poverty 
 
376 The Philosophy of Oddfelloivsh/'-. 
 
 point out their deliiiquoncies, and, from the depths of 
 sin and shame, from the purlieus of wieliedness and 
 the slums of degradation, come that most woeful of 
 all cries, pleading in their ears, "No man careth for 
 my soul !" How many might be saved if, when ad- 
 verse winds begin to drift them away, they received 
 a helping hand or strengthening look, or even a lov- 
 ing word, from those about them! But, failing to 
 receive any help, and chilled M-ith the indiiference of 
 those from whom they expect re-enforcements, these 
 despairing, souls give up all resistance, and, floating 
 out on the whirlpool of dissipation, are broken and 
 crushed on the rocks of their own vicious habits. 
 
 The world is filled with the wail of those who 
 are being destroyed by the weight of their own vices, 
 and on every hand is heard the harsh note of con- 
 tention and strife. Men meet in the arena of life, 
 and struggle for the mastery. Men look complacently 
 on the ruin of others, and rejoice at it if their own in- 
 terests are promoted by it. 
 
 The grand object of our Order is to right the 
 wrongs that hatred and selfishness have fastened on 
 our social life, and to develop love and charity for 
 our neighbors. It is one of the divisions of organ- 
 ized resistance to the assaidts of malice on the peace 
 and happiness of mankind. To be good soldiers in 
 this army, we must see to it that our own hearts 
 foster no evil. Not only must we expel envy, jeal- 
 ousy, and hate, but the embers of love and charity 
 for others must be fanned into a flame, so that we 
 will joyously, as well as bravely, fight for the redemp- 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 377 
 
 tion of our fellow-men. To this work the attention 
 of the best minds must be turned at once. 
 
 The percentage of ignorance and worthlessness is 
 fearfully large among men. When we come to re- 
 member that they constitute so large an element of 
 power in this Government, it is alarming, and por- 
 tends evil for our National stability. It is the high- 
 est patriotic duty to purify the fountain of power. 
 If the people are virtuous and intelligent, their rep- 
 resentatives and servants will be upright, and justice 
 and good government will prevail everywhere. 
 
 While our Order takes no part in political strife 
 in a partisan sense, yet the first duty an Odd Fellow 
 learns, even before he is declared to be a member, is 
 to be faithful to his country. There is one patriotic 
 duty we can do, — to be right ourselves. That duty 
 we ought to keep constantly before us. Our beloved 
 Order requires of us that we should be honest, up- 
 right, and faithful citizens, teaching all about us, by 
 example, the beauty of integrity and purity, so that 
 our presence and life Mill be a constant rebuke to 
 the vulgarity of vice. The Odd Fellow should by 
 word and deed — and by his money, if he have any 
 surplus — encourage the desponding, impart hope to 
 the despairing, and procure employment for those 
 who would work if they had a chance ; to see to it 
 that the many neglected children are brought into 
 our free schools; to inspire in their young hearts to 
 be something more than tramps. There is so much 
 to be done all around us that we may all have a 
 chance to work. None of us, my brethren, is so 
 
378 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 poor and insignificant but he can do something for 
 our common humanity. It requires no large capi- 
 tal or extensive influence to do good if our hearts are 
 enlisted in the work. As Odd Fellows, let us not 
 forget the aims and purposes of our Order. Let us 
 also remember that the world will judge us by our 
 works, and not by our professions. 
 
 The age in which we live is so eminently practical 
 that mere profession counts for nothing if not sus- 
 tained by corresponding action. The world is sick 
 and tired of the " sounding brass and tinkling cym- 
 bal " of empty profession. The old rule, " By their 
 fruits ye shall know them," has never been more rig- 
 idly enforced than now. We must l)e able to stand 
 the test. When in forty years we find the whole 
 American continent checkered with railways, connect- 
 ing ocean with ocean, binding the zones together with 
 iron links ; when we lay the telegraph wire in the 
 depths of the sea, and enable the Old and the New 
 World to talk familiarly together ; when on the high 
 towers of our great cities Edison swings out to an as- 
 tonished and admiring world his electric light, so that 
 the very midnight darkness flees away seeking a place 
 to hide, and the domes and spires and gorgeous pal- 
 aces appear as at midday ; when the telephone en- 
 ables a whole city to talk together as if around the 
 same table, — we begin to boast of this grand age, we 
 look with pity and contempt on the ages past. 
 
 We talk of our rapid progress and higher civili- 
 zation. It remains to be seen what are the substan- 
 tial advantages of these grand discoveries. That can 
 only be told when sufficient time shall disclose to Avhat 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 379 
 
 extent their influence and power elevate and better 
 the condition of the great mass of humanity. 
 
 If this boasted civilization reaches man where he- 
 may be found, and fills him with the noblest aspira- 
 tions to be like his Creator, to make his life nobler 
 and his heart kinder, then let the song of praise be 
 sung; let the shout ring out loud and clear, that man, 
 immortal man, is coming up by our improved loco- 
 motion to a higher plane ; that the electric light has 
 made him see, with a brighter and clearer vision, his 
 duty and his destiny, and that the telegraph and tel- 
 ephone have put the language of truth and soberness 
 to his lips. Then we can say with joyful huzzahs, 
 " All hail, progress !" But if this can not be truth- 
 fully said, then let our boasting cease. If the lever of 
 human progress is not long enough to reach man 
 wherever he may be found — if it is not strong enough 
 to lift him to a better life — it is not worth the name. 
 Man must be the focal point for all this modern 
 light, or it is no better than darkness. The chiefest 
 and best science is that of knowing how to live. 
 
 When the last page of the history of the race is 
 written, and the record of human progress is com- 
 plete, that page will be the brightest that contains 
 the record of that peerless time in which more was 
 accomplished than in any other period in subduing 
 hate and conquering human selfishness, in elevating the 
 great mass of humanity out of the marshes and ma- 
 laria of discord and strife to the high and generous 
 plane of regard for others' rights and reputation, 
 where they may inhale the pure atmosphere of mutual 
 confidence and respect. It will outshine the boasted 
 
380 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 times that produced here and there a mighty warrior, 
 a gifted statesman or au orator, an accomplished 
 painter or an eminent poet. These men of wonderful 
 power and gifts come once in a century, and flash 
 across the pathway of humanity like a brilliant meteor. 
 The golden age will be when men, of whatever talent 
 or station, come to a better understanding of them- 
 selves and their relations to God and their fellow-men. 
 
 We have given too much attention and worship to 
 the individual genius and not enough to the ordinary 
 man. Let not so much care be given to improved 
 machinery and increased locomotion, but rather let 
 the deep concern be for a higher type of man. Let 
 us take a broader view. Law, science, education, art, 
 and society must all have for their j)rime object the 
 improvement of the common man. With the religion 
 of Christ in the forefront, let all these be helpers in 
 the grand work of redeeming man from the many 
 ills that poison his life. 
 
 The grand mission of our Order is to bring men 
 into better relations. If filling the heart of man with 
 love for his fellow-men crowds out wrong from his 
 life, then Oddfellowship is a blessing. If visiting the 
 sick and the suffering, burying the dead and educating 
 the orphan, make the heart of man softer, and expel 
 selfishness from his nature, toning down the harsh- 
 ness of his character, and making him kinder and 
 gentler, then is our Order to be hailed as a benedic- 
 tion. If overlooking the mere artificial distinctions 
 society makes between the rich and the poor, and the 
 bringing of all good men up to the same level, mak- 
 ing character the only test, and giving the same hon- 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 381 
 
 ors to all alike, and permittiug all to participate in 
 the same benefits, — if these be calculated to raise man 
 above the mercenary spirit of the times, and teach 
 him to live for nobler ends and aims and hiolier pur- 
 poses, then indeed must Oddfellowship be hailed as a 
 benefactor to the race. If the cultivation and devel- 
 opment of man's social nature make the burden and 
 ills of life less heavy, and the joys of life sweeter and 
 more enduring, then may Ave justly claim that this 
 institution is largely increasing the sum total of hu- 
 man happiness. 
 
 We who love her principles and joyfully ])artici- 
 pate in her beneficent practices most sincerely believe 
 it does accomplish all these things. Therefore we 
 hail with pride the standard of Oddfellowship, and on 
 this occasion come together rejoicing in the triumphs 
 of the past and animated with high hopes for the 
 future. 
 
 For many years our Order has existed. While 
 she has improved the methods of working, she has 
 never for an instant been diverted from the humane 
 purpose of her organization. She has moved steadily 
 forward, taking no part in partisan warfare or secta- 
 rian wrangling, but all the time and constantly seeking 
 to fraternize mankind and elevate human character. 
 With the divisions and classifications of human so- 
 ciety our Order holds no communion. Party and^ect, 
 that too often produce discord and strife, find no 
 countenance in our lodges. The politician is expressly 
 forbidden to attempt to use the Order for partisan 
 purposes. He is no more permitted to lay his hands 
 on her altar than was Uzzah, the Benjamite, to touch 
 
382 The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 
 
 the Ark of the Cov'euant. It is our constant practice 
 and purpose to unite mankind in deeds of benedic- 
 tion ; for discord, to substitute good-will ; to drive 
 Hate from the throne he has usurped, and crown Love 
 the empress of man's heart. 
 
 It has been urged as an objection to our Order, that 
 it is a secret society. A half a century ago this was 
 a most formidable objection in the way of our Order. 
 Year by year the narrowness of this objection has be- 
 come more and more manifest, until its opposition has 
 become so feeble that it is not worthy of notice now. 
 It is not pretended by the most stubborn opponent of 
 the secret character of our Order that our principles 
 or practices are not made public, but that we meet 
 behind barred doors, and that none but members are 
 permitted to take part in our deliberations. The 
 common sense of mankind has long since pronounced 
 this a most trivial objection. All organizations — re- 
 ligious, benevolent, or political — have their private 
 and confidential meetings, and rightfully and prop- 
 erly have their own secrets that they withhold from 
 the world outside. Every well-conducted family is 
 a secret society in the same degree that we are, and 
 every individual has locked in his own breast a vol- 
 ume that will ever remain a sealed book to the rest 
 of mankind. Against all these there can be found 
 non^ so stupid as to urge an objection. 
 
 When all other organizations allow the world to 
 know all they do; when domestic planning is done 
 on the house-top or on the street; when the most 
 radical objector to secret societies will make public 
 proclamation of all his thoughts and purposes, — then, 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowship. 383 
 
 and not until then, will we seriously consider the pro- 
 priety of dispensing with the services of the outside 
 and inside sentinel. 
 
 It is also urged against us that we profess more 
 than we practice. To this charge we plead guilty. 
 Candor compels us to do so ; but in doing so, we 
 must be permitted at the same time to claim that we 
 have no patent right on this human frailty. It is 
 one of the strange phases of human character that 
 our profession does run so far ahead of our practice. 
 It is one of the impenetrable mysteries that is be- 
 yond the bound of human philosophy. All mankind 
 are at fault in a greater or less degree, both individ- 
 ually and in their associated capacities. Even polit- 
 ical parties and politicians are not entirely free from 
 the fault. The Odd Fellows come as near practicing 
 ■what they profess as anybody ; and, but for the fear 
 that I would be charged with being an enthusiast, I 
 would say that we come nearer. 
 
 To establish this fact, I would call, as corrobo- 
 rating witnesses, the many poor men who are this 
 day on beds of affliction, and whose sufferings are in- 
 creased because of their inability to put on their re- 
 galia, and march with their brethren, and participate 
 in the joys of this occasion, but whose hearts are at 
 the same time made glad that the beneficial pro- 
 visions of our Order prevent want from re-enforcing 
 affliction. I would call on the many widows of our 
 deceased brethren, the burden of whose grief has 
 been lightened and the bitterness of whose sorrow 
 has been assuaged by the sympathy and relief given 
 by the brethren of the deceased. I would call on the 
 
384 The Philosophy of Oddfellow ship. 
 
 many orphans, an almost countless multitude, to tell 
 if we have not, in compliance with our promise and 
 with our profession, fed, clothed, and educated them — 
 if we have not been a father to the fatherless. I 
 would call on you, my bretliren, to say if your daily 
 life has not been lifted to a higher plane by the fra- 
 ternal spirit of our Order; if it has not toned down 
 the asperities of your temper, has not made your 
 spirit kinder and gentler, and your hearts more un- 
 selfish and self-sacrificing. 
 
 If we would continue to retain the confidence of 
 mankind, and maintain our existence as an Order, 
 we must continue to be true to our profession. Let 
 not the unparalleled prosperity of our Order and its 
 growth into popular favor cause us, in the pride of 
 our hearts, to lose sight of the simplicity of her aims 
 and purposes. Let not our large and stately lodge- 
 rooms, the costly regalia, and the pomp and pride of 
 such a gala-day as this, call our minds from the 
 grander mission of fraternizing human hearts and 
 alleviating human suffering. Let us be able to stand 
 the test. All worthy organizations have more to fear 
 from prosperity than persecution. This is our danger 
 now. Let us begin our next year with high re- 
 solves to be true to ourselves, true to humanity, true 
 to God. 
 
 We live in a boastful age. High claims are made 
 for the progressive characteristics of this present time. 
 The improvements in locomotion, in communication, 
 the labor-saving machines, and a thousand other in- 
 ventions, are called to bear testimony to human prog- 
 ress. Old forms and usages are abandoned, and new 
 
The Philosophy of Oddfellowshjp. 385 
 
 ones accepted to take their place. Yeuerable systems 
 are abolished, and ancient customs are neglected be- 
 cause of their antiquity. The organic laws of gov- 
 ernment are made to give place to new constitutions, 
 and old statutes are constantly being repealed or 
 amended. Is all this real or imaginary progress? 
 It is real, if man be the focal point for all this mod- 
 ern light. If the changes and novelties of this rest- 
 less age result in leading him to a loftier plane, from 
 which he will have a clearer conception of his duty 
 and his destiny ; if they be constantly bringing him into 
 better relations with his fellow-men, and investing him 
 with all the rights God gave him ; if they be infusing 
 into his soul a better conception of the dignity and 
 nobility of his being, and inspiring him with the 
 high purpose to fulfill his mission in life, — only so far 
 as they accomplish this may we boast. A civilization 
 that does not do this, a reform that does not reach 
 man, is not worthy of the name. 
 
 The Independent Order of Odd Fellows will de- 
 mand an honorable place in the battle-line. In the 
 thickest of the fight we will bear our banner of 
 "Friendship, Love, and Truth," and if we see no 
 flaming words in the skv, as did Constantine the 
 Great, we will move forward with the same words in 
 our hearts, "By this sign we conquer." 
 
 It is but natural in such work, so congenial to 
 her taste and her gentler nature, we should have the 
 earnest co-operation of woman. Woman, first at the 
 tomb of the Savior and last at the cross, with her 
 loving heart has, in all ages and times, been a minis- 
 tering angel to the suffering. In our Christian civil- 
 
 25 
 
886 The Philosophy of Oddfellow shw. 
 
 izatiou, where her merits are fully recognized and all 
 her many good works duly appreciated, she has a 
 wider sphere for usefulness. We are cheered to-day 
 by the presence of the Daughters of Rebekah. To 
 their helping hand our rapidly growing Order is in- 
 debted for its increasing usefulness. Encouraged by 
 the approving smiles of our sisters, we here renew 
 our pledges of fidelity to our sacred trust, and enter 
 on another year with renewed zeal, and animated 
 with the hope that we may be instrumental in 
 hastening the coming of the good time described by 
 Pollok: 
 
 "Love took the place of law; where'er you met 
 A man, you met a frieiid, eiucere ar.d true. 
 Kind words foretold as kind a heart within. 
 Words as they sounded meant, and promises 
 Were made to be performed. Thrice happy days! 
 Philosophy was sanctified, and saw 
 Perfection, that she thought a fable long. 
 Revenge his dagger dropped, and kissed the hand 
 Of Mercy. Pride stooped and kissed Humility. 
 
 . . . Falsehood laid aside 
 Her many-colored cloak, and bowed to Truth ; 
 And Treachery upward from his mining came, 
 And walked above the ground with righteous Faith; 
 And Covetousness unclenched his sinewy hands, 
 And oped his door to Charity." 
 
DECORATION-DAY. 
 
 IT IS well to devote one day at least in the year 
 to the consideration of those high and noble 
 qualities that constitute heroism. The decoration of 
 the graves of the men Avho fell in battle and those 
 who outlived the dangers of war, but have since 
 joined their fallen comrades, brings closely to our 
 thoughts these godlike attributes of humanity. 
 
 Heroism has a broader and dee])er meaning than 
 that of fearlessly braving danger and death. Man's 
 devotion to a principle that he conceives to be 
 founded in truth and justice — a principle that, ap- 
 plied to human society, promotes the general good 
 and greatly increases the sum total of human happi- 
 ness — must be the inspiring cause to his gallantry 
 and courage. It is this devotion to principle, and 
 not the indiiference to death, that makes him a hero. 
 AYhile such a man has a broader view of life than 
 tlie narrow and selfish possibly can have, and con- 
 sequently his existence has more significance than 
 that of others, yet he is willing to die, if need be, 
 tliat the truth may live. 
 
 There are no second-class qualities in the con- 
 stituent elements that make up the heroic. Heroism 
 gives to human life the majesty of divinity and the 
 
 Delivered on Decoratioii-day, <>u the invitation of the 
 G. A. R. Post of Greensburg, Tad. 
 
 387 
 
8 8 8 Decora tion-Da y. 
 
 charm of augelic beauty, because the man comes out 
 of himself and declares for the promotion of the 
 general welfare, even if he has to become a martyr 
 to his convictions. Self-sacrifice is the very essence 
 of heroism and the essential quality of courage. 
 Whether in war or in peace, we honor and love a 
 self-sacrificing spirit; and we to-day decorate the 
 grave of the dead soldier, not simply because of his 
 courage, or thankfulness that he prevented the dis- 
 solution of the Union and the success of secession, 
 but because he exhibited the divine trait of self- 
 sacrifice, the highest and most essential element of 
 true heroism. 
 
 And let me say to the comrades here to-day, who 
 feel the burden of old age and suffer from the pains 
 of disease contracted in the service, and, in addition, 
 endure the constant bitterness that comes from the 
 pinchings of poverty, — let me say, notwithstanding 
 all these things, you have a rich inheritance. The 
 man of wealth, who had no part in the great struggle, 
 who could not or did not enlist when you enlisted, 
 but became rich while you were giving all for your 
 country, would now give all his wealth if he could 
 have the same record that you have made. If you 
 envy him liis ease and comforts, he envies you more 
 that you are enrolled among the heroes. Man is njt 
 rich for what he has, but for what he is. 
 
 Whatever, then, may be your lot, and whatever 
 of adversity may be your portion, do not depreciate 
 the great fact of your life, that when the Nation 
 needed men you had the heroism to be a man. And 
 if you have no landed estate, or money, or stocks 
 
Decora tion-Da y. 389 
 
 and bunds to leave your children, you can leave them 
 something that all their lives they will regard as a 
 far richer inheritance, that their father was a brave 
 soldier — that he was willing to die that his country 
 mio;ht live. The old Roman said: "God likes to 
 see if your hands are pure, not if they are full." 
 
 If troubles come in the future from within or with- 
 out, and the life of our young Nation is assailed 
 from any quarter, what a mighty army of the sons of 
 the heroes would rise, prompted by the heroism they 
 inherited, and go to battle, if need be, and make a 
 record like that of their fathers ! Let it be a con- 
 solation and comfort — yea, more, a daily inspiring 
 joy — that you have widened and deepened the cur- 
 rent of American patriotism, and not only saved the 
 country from the great peril that threatened her ex- 
 istence thirty years ago, but you have infused a 
 spirit int o Am erican citizenship that will guide and 
 protect the American Union for a century to come. 
 
 The dogma, born of despotism, and sustained by 
 selfishness and upheld by greed and gain, that one 
 man has the right to buy or sell another man, and 
 appropriate his toil, and make chattels of his wife 
 and children, was shot to death by the Union soldier, 
 and buried out of sight when victory came — buried 
 to know no resurrection — and the bright sun of a 
 newer and brighter and better civilization rose upon 
 us after the surrender at Appomattox. 
 
 When years and centuries have come and gone, 
 it will be said of you, my comrades, by the faithful 
 historian, that to you is the meed of honor to be 
 given. It will be the pride of coming generations to 
 
390 Decora tign-Da y. 
 
 trace back their lineage to the very men whom I 
 have the honor to address to-day. Let no soldier 
 complain ; let no Grand Army man depreciate his 
 proud position, whatever may be the ills or misfor- 
 tunes that may beset him ; let what he has done for 
 his country, for liberty, for humanity, be a con- 
 stant source of joy ^ and let the consciousness of hav- 
 ing done his duty cheer his heart in the darkest days 
 of adversity. 
 
 A whole generation has been born and are now 
 citizens since you enlisted. They honor and revere 
 your fidelity and your self-sacrifice. Those still liv- 
 ing who were, not active participants with you in 
 the great struggle at tlie front, yet who know so well 
 the uncertainties and anxieties of the great conflict — 
 they honor you still more, and the Government has 
 opened wide her treasury and is doing more than any 
 other Nation in the world to show the full appreci- 
 ation of, not only her brave defenders who survive, 
 but the widows and orphans of those who fell in 
 battle or have since died from the hard service in the 
 field or camp. And while their compensation may 
 not be equal in all cases, while too much may be paid 
 in some cases and not enough io others, yet all good 
 soldiers will give their country the credit of aiming to 
 be just and impartial in her bounties. It is not the 
 fault of the law that injustice is done; but the im- 
 possibility of making a law, that is general in its ap- 
 plication, meet equally and fairly in individual cases. 
 
 But this is not the time nor the occasion for the 
 discussion of these things. We have met to-day to 
 honor the dead, to cast upon their last resting-place 
 
Decora iiox-Da v. 39 1 
 
 the fresh, bright May flowers as an earnest of our ap- 
 preciation of what they have done for us, and en- 
 kindle anew in our hearts the flames of patriotic de- 
 votion to our young Republic. The impulse that 
 prompts the assemblage of this great multitude comes 
 from our higher and nobler nature. It is the divinity 
 that stirs within us. By the observance of this day, 
 and the performance of these sad ceremonies, we 
 magnify our humanity and do honor to our manhood. 
 The moldering bodies of the dead heroes, the oc- 
 cupants of the narrow earthen houses that we cover 
 with the beautiful flowers of this smiling month of 
 May, are all unconscious of our words of praise and 
 eulogy and tender deeds of remembrance. We are 
 powerless to make these dead ears hear again. Whether 
 their spirits take cognizance of what we are so lov- 
 ingly doing we know not — we hope it may be so; 
 but of this we are well assured, that we awake the 
 best purposes in the souls of the living. The flowers 
 Ave have strewn on their graves will soon disappear; 
 but the spirit of patriotism and self-sacrifice that 
 comes welling up in our hearts will make us nobler 
 all our lives. The flowers that we give to the dead 
 in the morning, perish and are gone in the evening; 
 but in their stead come in the hearts of those who 
 gave them the perennial plants of a deeper revei-ence 
 for the Ruler and Maker of us all — a nobler and 
 loftier patriotism, a warmer love, and a more tolerant 
 spirit for our fellow-men. For this we left behind 
 our personal cares and conflicts, our greed for gain, 
 our buying and selling, our selfishness and sordid 
 aims, our political strifes and religious differences. 
 
892 Decoration-Day. 
 
 While these flowers keep green and fresh our re- 
 membrance of the dead, they are, at the same time, 
 educators of the living. We catch the noble spirit 
 that animated the departed ones, and go hence bet- 
 ter soldiers in the battle of life, more generous 
 towards each other, and more self-sacrificing for the 
 good of the whole family of man. 
 
 This oneness of purpose, this unity of sympa- 
 thy and feeling, when the occasion that brings it 
 about is noble and elevating, goes a long way 
 towards breaking down the walls of separation that 
 divide man from his fellows. It so warms up our 
 hearts that the senseless, impracticable theories and 
 foolish dogmas which only produce strife and di- 
 vision, lose their power, and never fully regain it. 
 Prejudices, often unfounded and bitter, can not exist 
 in hearts moved by a common sympathy ; and the 
 silken chord that this day brings us nearer together 
 will leave us in closer relations than it found us. 
 
 The proverb-writer says that " it is better to go 
 to the house of mourning than feasting." While we 
 beautify the grave of the hero with fresh flowers, 
 and for even a day cause delicious odors to float 
 around his last resting-place, does not the very act of 
 the kind hands that bring these sweet tokens, and 
 the motive that prompts it, so beautify the life and 
 character of the actor that the sweet incense of a 
 nobler charity goes out from the heart forever after- 
 Avard? Every age has its martyrs and heroes. The 
 sacrificial offerings of these noble spirits seem to be 
 essential to the elevation of the race. 
 
 When we follow the Savior as he went among 
 
Decora tion-Da y. 393 
 
 men we are charmed and astonished at his grand 
 utterances in that wonderful Sermon on the Mount ; 
 we love and adore iiim as he goes among the poor 
 and the sick, and comforts and heals them ; but 
 when we behold him dying on Calvary for his prin- 
 ciples and to promote human salvation,' we tenderly 
 and humbly bow our heads, and confess the divinity 
 of his mission. So stubbornly does the human race 
 resist progress, it seems that the corner-stone of 
 every temple of civilization must be builded on the 
 bones of its martyred founder. This has been the 
 history of the race from Calvary until now. The 
 martyrs did not die in vain. We can recall no period 
 where great human rights have been wrested from 
 the grip of tyrants, and where man has regained 
 what God gave him, that the recovered gifts have 
 not been stained with the blood of the hero and mar- 
 tyr. The records of huuian progress and civilization 
 confirm the truth of this statement. All the past so 
 speaks to us. Whether it will be so in all the future, 
 we can only speculate. But this we can confidently 
 assert, that the martyr-spirits of every age will call 
 out the best affection and reverence of those who 
 survive them ; and, if not with flowers, in some way 
 they will gather around their graves, and testify to 
 their high a})preciatiou of the value to humanity of 
 their noble lives and grander deaths. 
 
 Let us not then, on this occasion, confine our 
 contemplation to the death of the soldier, but let us 
 consider his life as well. Let us remember, at the be- 
 ginning of his soldier-life, the sad j)artiug with wife 
 and children, with father and mother, with brother 
 
394 Decora tion-Da y. 
 
 and sister ; the bitter separation from her whom love 
 has associated with all his plans of happiness for the fu- 
 ture that love and hope have painted so rosy and bright. 
 The exchange from the sweet liberty of home, the 
 kindness of those who love him, for the harsh 'and 
 unsympathetic commands of his superior officer, is the 
 first crucial test of his patience. The terrible leveling 
 process, that places the virtuons, refined, and cultured 
 soldier in the same mess, and in constant contact 
 with the depraved and ignorant ; the dreadful mili- 
 tary necessity that, in the suppression of the good 
 sense of the private soldier, under military law, re- 
 quires absolute obedience and submission to the in- 
 ferior mind; the long dinnerless and supperless 
 marches, and the weary and anxious nights on the 
 picket, a target for the enemy, — I need not dwell 
 upon here. Many before me in this audience have 
 now in their minds a thousand memories that make a 
 picture far more vivid than any poor words of mine 
 can paint. The lesson that we learn is, that from the 
 time the soldier shoulders his musket until he falls 
 in battle, his whole life is heroic. It requires the 
 same heroism to do the daily duties of the soldier 
 cheerfully as it does to march up to the enemy's guns 
 amid the iron hail of death. If doing honor to the 
 dead soldier excites within us the self-sacrificing 
 spirit of the martyr, let not his life fail to make its 
 impressive lesson on us as well. 
 
 This life of ours is a battle. Within us are fierce, 
 contending passions, that must be conquered and 
 made obedient to the law of justice and right. Over 
 them we must hold the mastery. Our social and po- 
 
Decora tion-Da y. 395 
 
 Htical life does not always result in the survival of the 
 fittest, but the survival of the worst, compelling us to 
 be submissive and bide our time. A large stock of pa- 
 tience must be had all the time, to act as an emollient to 
 keep down the inflammation and irritation constantly 
 produced by the little annoyances that seem insepa- 
 rably connected with our existence. Is it not true that 
 the heroic lives of our soldiers inspire the living with 
 more courage, a deeper reverence for law and order, 
 and a more patient endurance of the ills of human life ? 
 In every aspect of the occasion, the day is well spent. 
 It is due the soldier and the cause for which he died 
 that we should decorate his grave, and keep fresh and 
 green our memory of his life and death. It is due the 
 living that one day of the year should be set apart to 
 the contemplation of the high cpialities that make life 
 heroic. It is not the mere physical courage or the 
 self-sacrifice of these brave men that reaches our 
 hearts and aflPects our lives. AVhen we pass the 
 grave of the man who died in the contest to establish 
 the fact that he had the best physical development, 
 and was thereby entitled to wear the belt as the 
 champion prize-fighter of the Avorld ; when we read 
 of the romantic and shallow sentimentalism that 
 prompted a brave and gallant knight to lay down 
 his life to prove that his lady-love was more charm- 
 ing than that of his antagonist ; when, in turning the 
 pages of ancient and modern history, we read of the 
 countless number who have been compelled to go to 
 battle at the command of some despot to increase the 
 area of his tyranny, or to rob, pillage, and enslave 
 the people of a weak neighboring province, — we have 
 
396 Decoratioa-Dav. 
 
 no such sublimo feelings as we have to-day around 
 the graves of our own heroes. The godlike motive 
 that prompted them to make the sacrifioe is the in- 
 spiring cause of our love and admiration. 
 
 These men believed, as \ve believe, that a dissolu- 
 tion of the American Union, the erection of a rival 
 Government on the soil where our Revolutionary 
 fathers established but one, would, in the end, result 
 in the overthrow and destruction of the. principles of 
 free and representative government; that our fathers 
 made the American Union the custodian of the price- 
 less jewels of civil and religious liberty, and the dis- 
 solution of the one meant the possible destruction of 
 the other; that to maintain the proposition that man 
 could govern himself without the intervention of the 
 kings, the very Government made by the patriots of 
 the Revolution for that high and holy purpose should 
 not be rent asunder by secession and resistance to its 
 supreme authority. These men fought, bled, and died 
 rather than trust to the experiment of risking the 
 preservation of these precious rights to the scattered 
 fragments of a broken Union. To them the old starry 
 flag, baptized with the blood of our noble sires, was a 
 banner of beauty. They followed it in the storm of 
 battle and in the smoke of deadly conflict because it 
 was tlie symbol of a Government where all men were 
 free and all men were equal. It was for such a Gov- 
 ernment that our fathers went to battle. It was for 
 such a Government that their sons, our brothers, 
 whose graves we decorate to-day, gave up their lives, 
 and are numbered by the thousands in this beautiful 
 cemetery. They died to make perpetual and enduring 
 
Decora tiox-Da v. 397 
 
 the Constitution and the Union, forged and shaped 
 for freemen in the fire and flame of the Revohition of 
 1776. The high and holy trust imposed upon us and 
 our children is to keep and maintain that which 
 our fathers and brothers died to save. Neither the 
 one nor the other would have shouldered the musket 
 or borne a sword to establish or maintain a Govern- 
 ment that would not stand as guardian for the rights 
 of the humblest citizen. 
 
 They fought for a free ballot, and an honest count 
 of the ballot when cast, that bloody and despotic in- 
 timidation should not deter the voter, and that the 
 filthy fingers of fraud should not touch his ballot 
 when deposited. They died that the blessings of a 
 Gov^ernment of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people might, like the dews of heaven, descend on all 
 alike, and not that it should be used as a wicked in- 
 strument in the hands of corrupt rings to make the 
 rich richer and the poor poorer. They battled for 
 solid principle, and not «for the empty and mean- 
 ingless declarations of mere party platforms. They 
 elevated single-purposed patriotism far above double- 
 faced partisanship. They had a higher conception of 
 politics than that it is a mere game by which a host of 
 hungry politicians are to secure places where they can 
 grow fat and flourish at the public expense on un- 
 earned salaries. Such was the spirit and purpose of 
 our noble sires in their contest with Great Britain. 
 
 The patriots of this generation, when the day of 
 trial came, when the dissolution of the American 
 Union or the dread realities of civil war presented 
 themselves, did not hesitate, but rushed to the con- 
 
398 Decora tiox-Da v. 
 
 flict by the millions; when defeat and disaster came, 
 they, like the fathers, closed up the ranks and re- 
 newed the battle, and, like them, fought on for years 
 until they gained the victory. It was glorious to 
 build such a Government; it was no less glorious to 
 defend and uphold it. The patriot son ought to be 
 given, by all who now live and by the generations 
 which come after us, the same honorable place in his- 
 tory as the grand Revolutionary father. Side by side 
 let them stand on the grand monument that their 
 own achievements have built for them, equal in pa- 
 triotism, equal in self-sacrifice, commanding from 
 mankind equal gratitude and homage. Let both 
 alike be guides to us and our children. Let the glo- 
 rious deeds of both give a double assurance to our 
 hope that, come what may, the American Union will 
 ever stand. As we contemplate their glorious work, 
 let us be cheered with the belief that the same patri- 
 otism that brought this good Government into exist- 
 ence, and has kept and gujy-ded it amid the surging 
 billows of secession and rebellion, will not be want- 
 ing when other dangers come in the future. 
 
 Having such noble men to lay the foundations of 
 our Republic, and having those no less worthy to de- 
 fend and protect the blessings of freedom ; looking at 
 the blood and treasure that has been spilled at both 
 periods, and the intense agony and self-sacrifice at- 
 tending each crisis of our Nation's history, we would 
 be recreant to our trust if we did not look without 
 fear or flinching at all the dangers that seem yet to 
 threaten the life of the Nation. Not only should we 
 boldly look at these dangers, but, with the same spirit 
 
Decora tion-D. w. 399 
 
 that animated those who died for us in both wars, we 
 should brave all danger, and put aside all selfish ends 
 to remove them. 
 
 Peace has her triumphs as well as war. It will 
 be better for us to remember that, for more than half 
 a century before the Revolution, our fathers gave 
 great importance to the faithful and thorough educa- 
 tion of their children. They not only tau{/hf. the 
 natural sciences and the science of governm/>it^ but 
 tlie lessons of morality and religion were detvly im- 
 pressed on their minds. The private soldiers who 
 followed Washington, and suffered with him all the 
 privations of the Revolution, were not an ignorant 
 and brutal soldiery, thirsting for revenge and the 
 blood of their enemies, but, for the most [Kirt, were 
 men of such broad culture and such lofty conceptions 
 of human ricrhts as to make them invincible. The 
 common soldiers of the American army at the time of 
 the Revolution outranked, in their education, mjit 
 of the lords and nobles of England. Had the kiflg 
 and Parliament of Great Britain taken the trouble to 
 inform themselves as to the real character of the Col- 
 onists, they would never have been guilty of the folly 
 of attempting to conquer them. William Pitt was 
 the only man who comprehended the situation, and 
 he boldly told them the truth ; but they would not 
 believe him. Had not the men of 1776 been men of 
 thought and culture — men whose hearts had been 
 made strong and pure by the inculcation of the prin- 
 ciples of morality and religion, thus doubling their 
 power — they Mould have failed to meet the demands 
 of their time. 
 
400 Decora tion-Da y. 
 
 The founclation-stoues of this republicau Govern- 
 ment are intelligence and virtue. This has been the 
 foundation from the first, and is now. On these the 
 pillars of civil and religious freedom will remain un- 
 shaken amid all the storms and conflicts incident to 
 human government. They are the cohesive powers 
 that bind the people and States together, on the one 
 hand resisting tyranny and oppression, and on the 
 other warding off* the evils of anarchy and lawless- 
 ness. Where there is such a general dissemination of 
 intelligence and virtue among the people, the happy 
 medium in government is found, which results in pro- 
 tection to person and property without infringing on 
 the God-given rights of any. That a free govern- 
 ment can stand on no other foundation, the history of 
 the world abundantly proves. 
 
 With a wide and extended suffrage, our danger is 
 the existence of vice and ignorance among the peojile. 
 Mexico, with her ignorant population, is an example 
 in point. She has made the attempt, time and again, 
 to establish a free government. She has not now, 
 nor has she had for half a century, a permanent gov- 
 ernment. The dark and bloody waves of rebellion 
 and revolution sweep, year after year^ over the face of 
 her fertile plains, and carry away the resources of her 
 people, and debauch and demoralize the already de- 
 graded masses of men. The common people, too 
 ignorant and degraded to know their rights, are but 
 tools in the hands of military leaders and political 
 adventurers. In many places in Mexico, at all times, 
 there is no government, no protection, no law, no lib- 
 erty, no order. In place of all these are the horrors 
 
Decora t ion- Da y. 401 
 
 of disorder, lawlessness, and anarchy. Such has been 
 the history of Mexico for years, and so it will con- 
 tinue to be until religion and civilization shall be 
 diffused among the people. Spain attempted to found 
 a republic, but failed for the reason that the common 
 people had not the necessary virtue and intelligence 
 to maintain it. 
 
 If we be patriots, worthy of our honored fathers 
 and fallen brothers and the rich inheritance the one 
 gave us and the other defended, we must make war 
 on ignorance and vice ; we must, individually and 
 collectively, do all within our power to enlighten 
 the minds and purify the hearts of those who are to 
 have the right of suffrage, and to be invested with 
 sovereign power in the future. When we shall have 
 enlightened and purified the American mind and 
 heart, then that vilest of all creatures, that has ever 
 been the greatest enemy and curse of our free gov- 
 ernment, the demagogue, will hide his face in shame, 
 and be driven by an enlightened and elevated public 
 opinion to conceal himself in obscurity. His poison- 
 ous breath will no longer pollute our politics, and 
 his false tongue will cease to sow the seeds of discord 
 and discontent among the people. 
 
 It is not the existence of the demagogue that 
 needs create alarm. It is the circumstance of igno- 
 rance and depravity that makes his existence a pos- 
 sibility. No politician would be bold enough to 
 attempt to array capital against labor, and labor 
 against capital, and put these dependencies at war 
 with each other, if he knew that a large majority of 
 
 the people whom he addressed had sufficient intelli- 
 
 26 
 
402 Decora tio.\ -Da y. 
 
 gence to expose his falsehood, and the virtue and 
 independence to condemn it. The true statesman 
 would not halt and hesitate in telling the voters the 
 real truth and the whole truth, uumixed with sophis- 
 try, if he felt assured that they would comprehend 
 and appreciate it. The political parties would not 
 proclaim platforms and principles that, like the Del- 
 phic oracles, may mean one thing or another, to 
 catch the voters of all shades of opinion and preju- 
 dice, if we, the people, had a higher degree of intel- 
 ligence and a keener sense of honor in our voting 
 population. No political organization would have 
 power enough to hold the voter to the support of 
 men of notorious bad character, and push them 
 through to success by the aid of party machinery. 
 AVe have abundant evidence on every hand of the 
 existence of this great danger; and he is not worthy 
 the high distinction of being an American citizen 
 who will not do all in his power to aid in the eleva- 
 tion, enlightenment, and purification of the American 
 character. 
 
 President Washington, in his Farewell Address 
 to the American people, says: "Of all the dispo- 
 sitions and habits which lead to political prosperity, 
 religion and morality are iudespensable supports. 
 In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriot- 
 ism who should labor to subvert these great pillars, 
 these foremost props of the duties of men and 
 citizens." 
 
 Another danger that stands in the way of the 
 elevation of the character of the American citizen, 
 and unfits him for the rightful discharge of his 
 
Decora t ion-Da y. 403 
 
 duties as such, is the mercenary spirit that has 
 stolen into his life. The mere accumulation of 
 wealth has become too much the chief aim of the 
 American citizen, and to this base use is he prosti- 
 tuting his soul, mind, and strength. This mercenary 
 spirit has been begotten by our inordinate desire 
 for riches, and is a reproach to our religion, and a 
 blot on our civilization. 
 
 Comrades, we can scarcely realize the fact, yet it 
 is true, that almost a quarter of a century has gone 
 since you took arms to save your country. Almost 
 a whole generation are now voters who were un- 
 born when secession and rebellion called you to the 
 front to preserve the Union and compel obedience to 
 her authority. 
 
 Comrades, as we, when children, used to gather 
 around the white-haired Revolutionary sire, and hear 
 of his participation in that great struggle, and the 
 trials and sacrifices then made to lay the founda- 
 tions of the American Republic, so will the children 
 of this new generation, as the years come and go, 
 gather around you, and listen with the same interest 
 to the many incidents and sacrifices made by you in 
 your patriotic and successful efltbrt to keep what 
 our Revolutionary fathers had given us. You who 
 entered the army in the full strength and vigor of 
 middle life and are now old men, and you. who were, 
 in 1861, just entering your manhood, fired with the 
 ardor of youth and enthusiasm, are ali'eady prema- 
 turely aged from the hard service of army life. 
 Year after year, as you gather around the graves of 
 fallen comrades, you will find new and fresh mouu'"* 
 
404 Decora tion-Da y. 
 
 to decorate, and fewer and feebler hands to assist 
 yon. And when the time does come when the last 
 soldier calls the mnster-roll, and there is none left 
 to respond, no elbow to touch, and no soldier-step 
 by your side, and when you shall take your place 
 with your comrades, your sons and dant^hters will 
 come with the brightest flowers, and after them 
 their children, generation after generation, to attest 
 your fidelity to the American Union. The little 
 hillocks that mark the resting-places of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic, with all their silent and 
 solemn surroundings, will be as shrines where devo- 
 tion to country, self-sacrifice, and all those high and 
 noble qualities that go to make up the true soldier, 
 will be instilled into the hearts of the coming gen- 
 erations. A higher, nobler, and law-abiding citizen- 
 ship in time of peace, a better and braver soldiery in 
 time of war, and a jjerpetual Union of the States — 
 the only protecting segis of human liberty — will be 
 some of the results of the grand soldier record you 
 have left behind you. 
 
 Shakespeare has Mark Antony say over the dead 
 body of Csesar: 
 
 "The evil that men do hves after them; 
 The good is oft interred with their bones." 
 
 This is the oft-quoted proverb of the Bard of Avon, 
 
 and is accepted as true. It is meant that evil is a 
 
 positive force, going on forever, and that virtue and 
 
 courage perish with their possessor, or soon after he 
 
 ceases to exist. I reject the proverb as false. The 
 
 converse is nearer the truth. The good influences 
 
 that brave men exert never die. The courage, the 
 
Decora ti ox-Da y. 405 
 
 self-sacrifice, the broad and exalted patriotism of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic, will be silent yet 
 potent forces that will nerve the hearts of all coming 
 generations to rally to the Nation's standard when- 
 ever the honor or the life of the Nation is a^^jailed. 
 
 " Is this the land our fathers loved, 
 
 The freedom which they fought to win? 
 Is this the soil they trod upon ? 
 
 Are these the graves they slumber in ? 
 Are we their sons, by whom are borne 
 The mantles whith the dead have worn? 
 And shall we crouch above their graves. 
 
 With craven soul and fettered lip. 
 Yoked in with marked and branded slavet,. 
 
 And tremble at a master's whip ? 
 By their enlarging souls, which burst 
 
 The bands and fetters round them set , 
 By the free pilgrim spirit nursed 
 
 Within our inmost bosom yet, — 
 By all around, above, below, 
 Be ours the eternal answer — No !" 
 
DOMESTIC SANITATION. 
 
 THE importance of the subject we have met to 
 consider can not be overestimated. Perfect 
 health is the choicest blessing given to man. How 
 to secure it, and how to retain it, are the most im- 
 portant questions ever presented to the human mind. 
 Health is the foundation principle upon which rest 
 all our hopes, our happiness, our success, our every- 
 thing in life. Sucli are the intimate and mysterious 
 relations between the human body and the human 
 mind that when the f(n'mer is diseased, the latter is 
 in like manner disordered. Hope, happiness, and 
 often reason, flee when the body is diseased, and the 
 invalid becomes a burden to himself and a source of 
 trouble and anxiety to all interested in him. 
 
 Disease is the penalty for violated law. If the 
 human race would study the laws of hygiene, and 
 would try to know the mysteries of their own being, 
 and faithfully observe what is required^ the roses of 
 health would adorn every cheek and the light of 
 hope and joy would flash from every eye. The brain, 
 now clouded and befogged, would be clear, and an 
 impetus would be given to progress and civilization 
 that would disclose how, in its pitiless fetters, disease 
 binds and holds back the energies of the human race. 
 Mental and physical weakness would not begin at 
 
 Delivered before a Sanitary Convention at Greensburg, Ind. 
 406 
 
Domestic Sanitation. 407 
 
 threescore years, but a whole century would be re- 
 quired to exhaust the poMcr and usefulness of the 
 improved man. He would not only double his power 
 and happiness, but he would also double the years 
 of his life. The riper and richer experiences of his 
 life, now lost, would be an incalculable benefit to the 
 world. Men die now just as their lives begin to be 
 of the most value to mankind. It takes a man a 
 half a century, even if he is blessed with health, to 
 know himself and his fellow-men. In no less time 
 can he gain even an imperfect knowledge of the du- 
 ties and obligations growing out of the relations ex- 
 isting between him and them. Even if he is not 
 hindered and fettered with disease, he can not know 
 how to meet all that is due to his God, his country, and 
 his fellow-men until twoscore or more of years have 
 steadied the impetuosity of his youth, and reason and 
 experience have cooled the fervor of his hope and 
 imagination, and so trained his judgment as to show 
 him how he can best fulfill his mission in life. The 
 human race, inheriting the seeds of disease, and then 
 disobeying the laws for the preservation of health, 
 die just as they ought to be at the prime of life. 
 
 If the present generation were to begin now to 
 study and faithfully to practice the laws of hygiene, 
 while they could greatly improve their condition in 
 every way, they would still have to combat the ills 
 they have inherited. It would take two or three 
 generations to eliminate the diseases that are heredi- 
 tary ; but it could be done. Nature, the great phy- 
 sician, is constantly struggling to expel the diseases 
 that are born with us, and if she were re-enforced 
 
408 Domestic Sanitatiojv. 
 
 with a life obedient to the laws of health, she would 
 iu the end succeed in expelling from the human 
 body all the diseases that flesh is heir to. It seems 
 strange that an effort has to be made to create in the 
 public mind an interest in a subject of such, vital im- 
 portance to each individual. It is a matter of aston- 
 ishment that we are so ignorant of the rules and reg- 
 ulations, the observance of which would add so much 
 to our comfort and our power. Even the quality 
 and quantity of food we ought to eat, the hours of 
 sleep we require, the kind of clothing we should 
 wear, and the amount of labor we can perform, man- 
 ual or mental, are matters of which most of us know 
 but little, and, stranger still, we care less. We con- 
 stantly violate the laws of health, and groan and 
 complain when the penalty is inflicted, as it surely 
 will be. In this department there is no forgiveness 
 of sin, yet the certain and speedy infliction of the 
 dreaded penalty does not produce reformation. 
 
 In the country the farmer will breathe malaria 
 from a pestilence-breeding pond year after year until 
 his whole system is poisoned. He aches with the 
 chills and is scorched with the fever, and has added 
 neuralgia to complete his misery, yet he rarely in- 
 quires as to the cause of his ill-health ; and if he 
 knows, he will not spend a day to remove the source 
 of his trouble by draining the pond. In the towns 
 and cities dwellings are crowded together, and the 
 garbage and the slops from the houses are thrown iu 
 the streets and alleys, and from the rotting mass 
 comes the deadly typhus or the pestilence that walk- 
 eth in darkness to kill and destroy the people. Cen- 
 
Domestic Sanitation. 409 
 
 turies came and went before any steps were taken to 
 avoid such a calamity. 
 
 Tiie preservation of the public health everywhere 
 is a proper subject of legislation. The public mind 
 is becoming more and more awakened to this sub- 
 ject, and laws are being enacted that will to some 
 extent remedy the evils that have so unnecessarily 
 afflicted the human race. But to make legislation 
 effectual to remedy any evil, there must be an enlight- 
 ened public sentiment in regard to it. It is of the 
 utmost importance that in all our common schools the 
 laws of health should be taught, and no teacher ought 
 to have a certificate as a teacher who could not pass a 
 thorough examination on this branch of education. 
 
 It is but a small part of the evil that can be 
 reached by law. You can not prevent gluttony by 
 law, nor can you by law compel bathing. The 
 children must be taught the importance of absti- 
 nence and the necessity of cleanliness, so that they 
 will voluntarily undertake the preservation of their 
 health. Physiology is a more important branch of 
 education than grammar or geology. It should never 
 be omitted in the course of training. The process of 
 digestion ought to be taught thoroughly, and all 
 ought to know what is digestible and what is not. 
 
 As far as it is practicable to do so, the art of 
 cooking should be taught in our schools, and it ought 
 to be regarded as a greater accomplishment for a 
 young lady to prepare a first-rate loaf of bread than 
 to move gracefully in the waltz — to know more 
 about biscuits than bangs, and fritters than frizzes. 
 She ought to so understand and practice the laws of 
 
410 Domestic Sanitation. 
 
 health that her pure and healthy blood would paint 
 the roses in fast colors — roses that would excite more 
 admiration than the five-cent article purchased at the 
 drug-store, which has to be daily renewed. The le- 
 gitimate effect of tobacco and alcohol on the stomach 
 and brain, ought to be impressed upon the mind of 
 every scholar of our public schools, that there would 
 be fewer drunkards and chewers and smokers of the 
 vile weed in the next generation. 
 
 A host of bold reformers ought to be sent into 
 what is called the first circles of American society, 
 and make it fashionable to be healthy. It seems to 
 be entirely out of style to be vigorous and strong 
 among the bon-ton. To have the tic-douloureux, or to 
 be full of malaria, and to be the constant owner of a 
 first-rate article of neuralgia, will make up, in fash- 
 ion's eye, for a shortage of bank-stocks or money. 
 Indeed, you can make a pretty fair specimen of up- 
 per-tendom out of a little blue blood and a long list 
 of complaints. Those who are not compelled to rush 
 around to watering-places and medical springs; those 
 who eat three square meals every day ; those who 
 can go to sleep without opiates, and wake up with- 
 out a fearful headache, hold a very doubtful position 
 in the fashionable world. They will require an 
 abundance of wealth, some distinguished relations, 
 and plenty of grit and independence, to maintain 
 their standing. All this ought to be reversed. If 
 our social life were formed on a different basis, and if 
 it were deemed low and vulgar to parade a long list 
 of ills, most of which are imaginary, and it were re- 
 garded as the very height of fashion to be well and 
 
Domestic Sanitation. 411 
 
 hearty, we would soon see an improvement in the 
 health of the upper circles. 
 
 It seems that an aristocracy based on disease, 
 high-toned invalidism, is not just the thing to estab- 
 lish the fact that this is a progressive age. To accom- 
 plish this reform, it will be required to make a radical 
 change in the customs of social life. The intemper- 
 ance and gluttony of the midnight dinner will have 
 to be aljolisbed, and the feast of reason and the flow 
 of soul will have to be substituted. It is the chain- 
 paign of the night before that lays the foundation for 
 the veal pain the next day, if you will tolerate so old 
 and bad a pun as that. It is a serious obstacle to 
 social life, as well as detrimental to health, that an 
 expensive banquet, with a silver-plate accompaniment, 
 is necessary and essential to social existence. All 
 who can not afford it, and who think too much of 
 their health to sacrifice it in this way, abandon society 
 and live within themselves, rather than pay such a 
 high price for the little return they get from the 
 fashionable world. Thus it seems that our health is 
 sacrificed on the altar of custom and fashion, as well 
 as to gratify our gluttony and intemperance. And 
 while it may not be said that we are a sickly looking 
 people, yet it may be asserted that a real healthy 
 countenance is rarely seen among those in mature 
 life, and, when seen, attracts attention and remark. 
 Health ought to be the rule and disease the excep- 
 tion ; and so it might be, if we would be so impressed 
 ■with the importance of the subject as to give the mat- 
 ter our constant and earnest attention. 
 
 In this beautiful land of ours, with our clear blue 
 
412 Domestic Sanitation. 
 
 sky, our delightful climate, our grand and lofty 
 mountains and lovely valleys, our streams of pure 
 spring-water gushing from the hills, we have more 
 doctors in proportion to the population than any 
 other nation on the earth ; and, notwithstanding all 
 these and many other natural advantages to preserve 
 our health, we manage to have aches and pains and 
 sickness enough to furnish them all some sort of sub- 
 sistence. If the streets and alleys of our towns and 
 cities were kept clean, and tile-ditches were placed 
 all through our low lands; if we would regulate our 
 diet, quit the use of tobacco, beer, and whisky, and 
 bathe regularly and persistently, it would take the 
 practice of a whole county to furnish a decent sup- 
 port to one doctor, instead of forty or fifty subsisting 
 off our misery. 
 
 In some countries disease results from the over- 
 crowded population, low wages, and high price of 
 food, and consequent starvation. No such reason 
 exists in this land of ours. In this regard we are 
 the most favored people in the world. There is 
 plenty of room and an abundance of food, and that 
 of the best quality, and the industrious can command 
 such compensation for their work as will bring plenty 
 into every home. We ought to be the healthiest and 
 most vigorous people on the face of the earth ; yet 
 we are not. We are not as strong as we seem to be. 
 That fact was disclosed during our late war. When 
 the drafts were ordered, many an apparently able- 
 bodied man, who had carefully concealed the fact that 
 he was diseased, and succeeded so well that nobody 
 suspected that there was anything wrong with his 
 
Domestic Sanitation. 413 
 
 health, uuder the searching examination of the army- 
 surgeon was compelled to surrender the secret, and 
 was thus prevented from taking part in the glory of 
 the war, and had to beat an ignominious retreat to- 
 ward home. And the healthy men we sent to the 
 service were of such delicate constitutions that many 
 of them contracted disease there, and are now on 
 our pension-rolls. I can but think it was a bad 
 stroke of policy for Congress to order the publica- 
 tion of the long list of our pensioners; tor if these 
 lists fall into the hands of other nations, it is to be 
 feared that they will conclude that we are so weak 
 and effeminate a people that they will all want to 
 pick a quarrel with us, under the mistaken idea that 
 they can whip us. 
 
 Disease affects us religiously as well as socially. 
 I have known those who (.'laimed to hate the world, 
 and to live far above all its pomps and vanities, and 
 who had persuaded themselves that it was the legiti- 
 mate result of their deep religious convictions, when, 
 in truth and in fact, they could not make a distinc- 
 tion between a quickened conscience and a torpid 
 liver. Want of physical health not only impairs our 
 spiritual vigor, but it puts us out of harmony with 
 ourselves and everybody else. It begets a spirit of 
 worry, and engages mankind in the senseless combat 
 with the inevitable. This too often becomes the fixed 
 habit of our lives, even after the cause is removed. 
 This shortens life. It re-enforces disease. If the 
 truth were written on the tombstones, they would tell 
 the tale of the vast numbers who found a premature 
 grave in their attempts to control what was entirely 
 
414 Domestic Sanitation. 
 
 out of their jurisdiction, and then worrying them- 
 selves because of their failure. 
 
 I am not certain but I am traveling out of the 
 bounds and purpose of this Convention. If I am 
 doing so, I will venture the remark in self-defense 
 that a community of grumblers and complainers are 
 in the very worst possible sanitary condition, and are 
 the most proper subjects for a Board of Health or a 
 Hygiene Convention. What I may say is not to be 
 regarded in the nature of a Presidential Message, and 
 therefore I feel warranted in taking some latitude; 
 and if I do wander beyond the lines, the Convention 
 will have too much sense to follow me. I wish to 
 congratulate our health officer, Dr. French, on the 
 intellectual feast he has been preparing for us, as dis- 
 closed by the program for the day and the evening. 
 He has secured for our instruction and entertainment 
 able and experienced men, and the subjects they have 
 selected are so practical that I am sure, in their con- 
 sideration, they will present them so clearly that 
 those of us who do not claim to be professional and 
 scientific will be able to comprehend them, and will 
 profit largely by hearing them. 
 
 It seems to me it is a shame and a disgrace that 
 the American people, so intelligent on many sub- 
 jects, should be so ignorant in regard to the subject 
 we have met to consider. I trust this meeting will 
 be the beginning of many to come after it, and that 
 it may be the means of creating a spirit of inquiry 
 and investigation, so that we may all know better 
 how to take care of our liealth and life. 
 
 I know you will all join most heartily in the 
 
Domestic Sanitation. 415 
 
 earnest welcome Dr. French has extended to these 
 distinguished gentlemen, who are here as our teach- 
 ers and guides. The greatest science of all is to know 
 how to live. The true test of progress is not that of 
 our inventions for rapid locomotion, or the quick 
 transmission of our thoughts to those at a great dis- 
 tance, but is rather the process by which we are able 
 to present the highest type of real manhood. Man is 
 the noblest work of God. From the human brain 
 have come the wonderful conceptions, revealing some 
 hitherto hidden laws of the universe of God. Man 
 ought to know, first of all, the laws that will bring 
 him up to the highest point of perfection, physically 
 and mentally. Let not the locomotive, the telegraph, 
 the telephone, the electric light, the cloud-capped 
 towers, and the gorgeous palaces, tell of his genius 
 and his power, and he at the same time be a dwarf 
 and an invalid. Let him be as God intended, in the 
 beauty and perfection of his being, the crowning 
 glory of all. 
 
POLITICS AND SANITATION. 
 
 THE program discloses so many interesting topics 
 for this afternoon that I am admonished to be 
 very brief. The committee have assigned to me for 
 a subject, "Politics and Sanitation," and in so doing 
 I can but think that they concluded that if I were 
 not well posted in hygiene, I might know something 
 of politics; and I credit them with a broad and lib- 
 eral disposition to help me out. But to discuss the 
 two together, and successfully show that there is a 
 logical connection between the front and the rear of 
 my subject, may be so difficult that I may lose in the 
 end all that was gained in the beginning. 
 
 I heard of a preacher, once, who took for his 
 text, "Agree with thine adversary quickly, while 
 thou art in the way with him," etc. He said he 
 would first try to impress his hearers with the neces- 
 sity of agreement ; secondly, he would show that the 
 adversary is the devil; and, thirdly and finally, he 
 would make a practical application of the first and 
 second propositions. His plea in favor of harmony 
 was admirable, and even poetical; and he made a 
 great success out of his secondly, " And the adversary 
 is the devil;" but when he came to unite the two, 
 and make his practical application, he found himself 
 
 Address by Hon. Will Cuiiiback, before the State Sanitary 
 Convention, at Lafayette, Indiana. 
 416 
 
Politics axd San it ai ion. 417 
 
 very unexpectedly advocating agreement with the 
 devil. The situation was embarrassing, and he in- 
 voked the prayers of the pious, or he would fail on 
 his thirdly. I may make a like unfortunate ending. 
 
 The real purpose of this meeting is to discuss and 
 consider the best means to promote the health of the 
 physical body, and not the disorders of the body- 
 politic. I feel warranted in the belief that I am to 
 be jjermitled to wander out of the path the Board of 
 Health has made, and roam around in a larger field, 
 and discuss political health. The assignment of such 
 a topic is my license to do so; and yet tiiat part of 
 the subject is too broad for the brief time that is 
 allowed me. 
 
 That the health of the body-politic is bad, all will 
 concede ; that the political atmosphere is charged 
 Avith malaria, and that we are constantly inhaling the 
 poison, can not be denied; that there is no improve- 
 ment in this respect over former periods will also be 
 admitted, and the hope for a better state of things is 
 exceedingly faint. 
 
 An Indiana statesman, some years ago, gravely 
 said to a large audience of his countrymen, on a pub- 
 lic occasion: "Things are in a very bad condition in 
 this country; and if there is not a change, things 
 will remain about as they are." I fully agree 
 with this truthful and profound remark. When a 
 contagion comes, and the public health is threatened 
 with an epidemic, by quarantine and pest-house regu- 
 lations the diseased may be separated from the 
 healthy ; the garbage may be buried, the filth may be 
 carted off, the pestilence-breeding pond may be 
 
418 Politics and Sanitation. 
 
 drained, and the Board of Health may be able to head 
 oir the disease and arrest the epidemic. 
 
 All of that is only a recent discovery. It has not 
 been many years since, that the presence of an epi- 
 demic was universally regarded as the undoubted evi- 
 dence of the displeasure of the Almighty, and to 
 battle against it was not to be thought of, beyond 
 invoking his mercy. But the reign of law is now 
 better understood. The human race, having learned 
 that the causes of disease are natural and not super- 
 natural, have come to understand that, if the cause is 
 removed, the effect will cease, and health will take the 
 place of disease. 
 
 We have not learned the way to heal our polit- 
 ical disorders; or, if we have learned anything, we 
 have not tried the remedy. We have an epidemic 
 every four years. We have just come out of one. 
 The fever was broken on the fourth of this month, 
 but the public pulse is yet weak and irregular. 
 Everybody has been feeling the public pulse, and it 
 is exhausted. The public tongue is still heavily coated 
 W'ith the poison of the campaign, and the general 
 condition of the body-politic is very much worse 
 than it was before the contagion appeared; and if 
 some life-giving tonics are not promptly and intelli- 
 gently applied, it will not reach its normal condition 
 before another quadrennial attack. 
 
 During the existence of the epidemic you can have 
 no quarantine or pest-house, for the reason that all 
 take the disease at once. You can not remove the 
 garbage ; for the partisan press dump an additional 
 quantity on your door-step every morning; and the 
 
Politics aad Samitation. 419 
 
 public speakers come and scatter these heaps of filth 
 among the people; and then the people put some of 
 it on poles and transparencies, and carry it through 
 the streets; and the political atmosphere becomes so 
 poisoned that a morbid appetite is created for slander, 
 and good men actually relish filth and enjoy a lie. 
 The blood becomes so corrupted that the ugly and 
 health-destroying ulcers of fraud at the jiolls appear 
 on the body-politic — sores that never heal, but con- 
 tinue to poison the vital fountain from which comes 
 our political health. 
 
 And right here may I not begin to tie the two 
 ends of my subject together, to establish a sort of a 
 connection between them — one that is not altogether 
 imaginary, either? The relations between the mind 
 and the body are mysteriously and incomprehensibly 
 intimate. If you touch one, you affect the other. If 
 one is hurt, the other is wounded by the same blow. 
 If the man who, for the time being, inhabits the body 
 allows his manhood to be soiled, he will in some 
 measure cease to care for the cleanliness of his body. 
 If men spend a whole campaign in throwing dirt at 
 their adversaries, each flinging as much as he receives, 
 so that all are covered with the black mire of defama- 
 tion, they will conclude that they can not be clean any 
 way, and will neglect the bath-tub, and the body will 
 soon become as filthy as its inhabitant, and physical 
 disorder will be begotten by moral disease. When 
 men are conscious that they have acted the hog in 
 politics, they are apt to conclude to be a hog, and be 
 done with it, I am sure I have seen men who were 
 once neat and cleanly, but who became active in poli- 
 
420 Politics and Sanitation. 
 
 tics for a few years, doing the dirty work for the party, 
 and they became as filthy in their person as the work 
 they were engaged in. 
 
 A man who will soil his mouth with all the cam- 
 paign slanders of a red-hot political contest will soon 
 begin to have so little respect for that opening in his 
 countenance that he will make it the receptacle of 
 other things, the odor of which can not be suppressed 
 with cardamon-seed or burnt coffee. And if this 
 proposition be true, the converse can not be false. If 
 dirt will strike out, it will also strike in. If a man 
 never washes his body, he will not be careful to keep 
 his spirit clean ; so that dirt and disease will re-en- 
 force disease, and the propriety of the discussion of 
 politics and sanitation becomes dimly apparent. 
 
 Our fathers in Indiana, twenty years ago, had 
 rather an unhappy time. If they could not raise a 
 good crop of corn they had a fine yield of malaria, 
 from the timber as well as from the cleared land. 
 The smallest patch of ground would produce ague 
 enough for a large family, lasting the year round. 
 
 It may now be denied, but I make bold to assert, 
 that it was his necessities, rather than his knowledge 
 of hygiene, that induced the Indiana farmer to under- 
 drain his land. His experience taught him that carp 
 and cabbage could not be raised in the same patch at 
 the same time. And I presume that when the tile- 
 ditches took off the surface-water and the chills and 
 fevers at the same time, he simply concluded that he 
 had become acclimated, and had beaten the ague by a 
 large majority. It was, with him, not a contest for 
 protection against disease, but a struggle for revenue 
 
Politics and Sanitation. 421 
 
 only, and for subsistence exclusively. Out of man's 
 direst extremity come the grand discoveries that 
 lighten the burdens of his life, and sweeten the cup 
 of his existence. The malaria not only gave the 
 people the shakes, but even a worse evil : The quack 
 doctor, like the gnat and the mosquito, came out of 
 the swamps. With his lancet and his leeches, he took 
 out of the bodies, emaciated with disease, what little 
 of life and strength was left. 
 
 Returning to the political situation, we find that 
 the political field is situated on the low, flat region of 
 Bummerdom ; that tlie better citizen allows the ticket 
 to be made, and the caucuses and primaries to be 
 held in that unhealthy region ; and he stays away, 
 and the bummer is the boss. The press and the 
 politician, recognizing that this boss is the most active 
 and aggressive man in politics, the editorial and the 
 key-note are written and sounded at his dictation, and, 
 instead of draining the ]>ond, it becomes more and 
 more unhealthy ev^ery year. Out of this pestilence re- 
 gion comes the demagogue, the quack doctor of poli- 
 tics, and his foul breath and false tongue cause honest 
 men to hold their noses and stop their ears in his pres- 
 ence. If the good men of the country will take hold 
 of politics, attend the primaries, and lift it out of the 
 low grounds, and bring it up to the higher plains of 
 decency and respectability, the health of the body- 
 politic will so improve that quack doctors will dis- 
 appear; and when a political campaign comes, we 
 will have a discussion of the principles involved in 
 the contest, and slander and falsehood will go with 
 the demagogue and the quack. 
 
422 Politics and Sanitation. 
 
 We think it was Ijarbaric for our ancestors, a few 
 hundred years ago, when there was an eclipse of the 
 sun or moon, to come out with drums and kettles and 
 make a great racket to scare away the eclipse. And 
 60 it was. But how much less so for a political party 
 to attempt to drive the opposition from the field by 
 having the largest torch-light procession, and by yell- 
 ing the loudest and longest? Like the Indiana 
 farmer, we will be driven, from sheer necessity, to 
 drain our political pond. We will have to establish 
 a Board of Health for our politics alone, and they 
 can co-operate with the present board. 
 
 Again, I can make the connection between the 
 Alpha and Omega of my subject. The late hours of 
 political meetings, the howling and yelling of our 
 midnight parades, the drunkenness which too often 
 follows and is part of the revelry, undermining the 
 health of the citizen, are proper subjects for a joint 
 meeting of the two boards. But neither the one 
 Board of Health nor the other, nor both together, 
 will work out any reform until the best minds of the 
 country can be enlisted in the work. 
 
 The enervating effects of poisoned atmosphere and 
 ignorance, or a total disregard of the laws of health, 
 make the human race an easy prey to the pestilence 
 that walketh in darkness and wasteth at noonday. 
 When the destroyer appears, men will cease their 
 buying and selling, and, panic-stricken, will organize 
 for sanitary purposes. But the enemy has the advan- 
 tage. How much better to anticipate his coming, 
 and coolly and wisely prevent it ! It is the dead and 
 decaying carcass that attracts the vulture. Intem- 
 
Politics and Sanitation . 428 
 
 ppranco, gluttony, and filth in like manner attract 
 disease. 
 
 You may think that it is not just to thus portray 
 our political condition ; that the picture is too highly 
 colored ; that the case is not so desperate, and the 
 danger is not so great; that the diagnosis of our 
 political disease is not fairly made. If you so think, 
 i hope you may be right and I may be wrong. I 
 make it on this basis : The better citizen is animated 
 with the desire to promote the general good, while 
 the vicious element of society is led by some mer- 
 cenary and selfish motives. 
 
 It is a poor compliment to our common humanity 
 to say that the latter is the more uncompromising of 
 the two. And yet such is the fact. Virtue is quiet, 
 happy, and content. Vice is restless, active, and ag- 
 gressive. In this land of universal suffrage it is easy 
 to be seen which element the aspiring politician 
 strives to placate. 
 
 Virtue comes with a smiling face and a conserv- 
 ative spirit to persuade, and with a reason to con- 
 vince. Vice comes with knit brow and clenched 
 fists, and demands; and while virtue gently expos- 
 tulates, vice boldly, and with horrid imprecations, 
 threatens; and while the virtuous outnumber the 
 vicious, yet what the latter lack in numbers they 
 more than make up in clamor; and political parties 
 and politicians yield to force rather than risk their 
 opposition, knowing that it is easier to keep the good 
 citizen in the party lines than the bummer. If the 
 latter will not obey the behest of party, and rebels, 
 bis fault is promptly forgiven and his offense is 
 
424 Politics and Sanitation. 
 
 coodonetl ; but the good citizen must vote an un- 
 scratcbed ticket every time, or lose his standing in 
 his party. If he rebels for conscience' sake, the 
 brand of unreliability is put on him, and he must 
 ■wear it and abandon all hope of political preferment. 
 There is a fearful lack of combativeness in our polit- 
 ical virtue ; and from this, more than any other 
 cause, comes the disease to the body-politic. 
 
 In hygiene we know that dead animal and vege- 
 table matter in the neighboring pond, under the rays 
 of the burning August sun, is poisoning the atmos- 
 phere ; but we conclude that in some way the air will 
 purify itself, and we go on about our affairs and risk 
 the consequences. In politics we know that the bad 
 elements of society are polluting the public virtue, 
 are controlling the legislation and terrifying the 
 courts, yet a correction of the evil would involve a 
 conflict, and we say " Peace, peace," when there is no 
 peace, and seem to think that in s^me mysterious way 
 the evil will correct itself. Evil is evil, and that con- 
 tinually. It never corrects itself. 
 
 "VYe are a Nation of freemen. No portion of the 
 American people are born with saddles on their backs 
 for another portion to ride on, and a soldier with a 
 bayonet to keep the rider from being throw^n. Every 
 man is a sovereign, and none are serfs. The responsibil- 
 ity of preserving the political health lies at every man's 
 door, as it does of the public health. Yea, more; for 
 he may not be able always to control the one, but he 
 can aid to organize the better elements; so, with firm- 
 ness and courage, he can prevent serious disorder in 
 the other. It must be done now, before the health of 
 
Politics and Sanitation. 425 
 
 the body-politic becomes so feeble that it will not 
 rally under proper treatment. If we wait until the 
 poison has inflamed every nerve, and diseased every 
 muscle and fiber of our political system, until the de- 
 lirium of anarchy sounds the note of warning, then it 
 is too late, and dissolution is near and certain. 
 
 Do not put me down as a croaker. I am more of 
 an optimist than a pessimist. I do believe there is 
 yet health and strength enough in the patient, if 
 wisely applied, to banish the disorders that now so 
 impair his vigor and threaten his life. Assuming, for 
 the sake of my subject, that a political Board of 
 Health has been organized, and is now in session, is 
 there no work they can do together? Is there no 
 common enemy against which they can mass their 
 forces and fight to advantage? Can politics and sani- 
 tation, shoulder to shoulder, make a grand charge on 
 any of the enemies' works? They can. 
 
 Look at that whisky-saloon. Out of it come 
 gaunt want and shrunken poverty ; out of it come 
 ignorance, disease, and discontent. It is the rendez- 
 vous of the idle horde that go from thence to the 
 caucus to vote down good men and vote up their own 
 class. Out of that come shattered health, broken 
 constitutions, delirium tremens, and death. Out of 
 that come communism and crime. While it poisons 
 the blood of its victims, it is also corrupting the life of 
 the Nation. The treatment must be prompt and 
 heroic. The patient has yet vigor enough to survive 
 it. If the saloon can be closed, and the vast sums of 
 money that now flow into it can be used to purchase 
 homes, clothing, food, and school-books for the families 
 
426 Politics and Sanitation.] 
 
 of the drunkard, it will not be long until no more 
 tramps will be seen on their weary j)ilgrimage of 
 want and shame; idle men will not be seen shivering 
 on our street-corners, without an aim or hope in life ; 
 and our social and political fabric will not be in 
 constant danger from a communistic earthquake, or 
 of being buried beneath the red-hot lava of anarchy. 
 The ashes from the crater of the one may be seen 
 even now, falling here and there, and the listening 
 ear may hear the deep and portentous rumbling of 
 the other. Let politics and sanitation join hands, 
 and wisely and firmly apply the remedy. Let the 
 citizen come out of the primary department of parti- 
 sanship up to the high-school of patriotism and phi- 
 lanthropy. Let quacks and demagogues be reduced 
 to the ranks, and let the commissions to lead be 
 given to the honest and capable men who love their 
 race and country more than they prize money and 
 position. 
 
WELCOME ADDRESS. 
 
 WORDS of welcome are the forerunners of love 
 and joy, and always bring with them that 
 happiness which is their constant attendant. The 
 welcomes of this world make up a very large portion 
 of its enjoyment. They sweeten life's bitter cup, 
 and make lighter its heavy burden. How the dearly 
 prized welcome, that the weary know awaits them at 
 the end of the toil of the day, nerves the almost 
 paralyzed arm for the struggle, and strengthens and 
 supports the tottering limbs to bear the burden that 
 otherwise would be insupjwrtable ! How grateful 
 to the heart to know we are welcome, and how full 
 of sweet music are the loving words that bear the 
 message ! How the consciousness that our coming 
 has brought to those to whom we come the blessings 
 of joy and peace fills our own souls with the same 
 comfort! 
 
 If the home welcomes enable the weary and heavy- 
 laden of this world to better endure their toil, and 
 with more courage perform the duties of life, may I 
 not say that the hearty welcomes we receive each 
 year at the place appointed for our meetings quicken 
 our zeal, and sweeten our labor, and cause us to be 
 more devoted and self-denying in promoting the 
 good work? 
 
 Delivered at the meeting of the Indiana State Sunday- 
 school Convention, at Anderson, Indiana. 
 
 427 
 
428 Welcome Address. 
 
 I am sure such is the fact. On this, our first 
 assembly together, we have not only the hearty 
 welcome of all the good people of this young and 
 growing city, tendered to us in the eloquent words 
 of our brother, but, comiug as we do from different 
 and distant parts of this great State, we welcome 
 each other to this annual convocation ; and, being 
 bound together in a common cause by a kindred 
 sympathy, we together lift our voices in praise and 
 thankfulness that another year has been given for 
 work ; that we have one more year of experience, one 
 more year of usefulness ; that we are older, and, I trust, 
 better soldiers in the contest with vice and sin. Let 
 us, then, while we are gratefully receiving this, the 
 hearty welcome of our friends at Anderson, tender 
 to each other the earnest congratulations of grateful 
 hearts. 
 
 The good brother has told us, in earnest and stir- 
 ring language, the magnitude and importance of this 
 work. Who among us but feels honored in being 
 permitted to bear a part in if? Who among us but 
 loves all those who, by their devotion and self- 
 sacrifice, are doing good and effective service to 
 the cause ? 
 
 On the plains of Bethlehem, at the birth of the 
 Savior, a sin-cursed world was made to hear the glad 
 tidings that that event would bring peace on earth 
 and good-will among men. His advent was wel- 
 comed by this grand, prophetic announcement. To 
 my mind there is no instrumentality more effective 
 in hastening the complete fulfillment of this prophecy 
 than the work in which we are engaged. 
 
Welcome Address. 429 
 
 The mission of Christ was one of peace — the thing 
 above all others that the world needs — the blessing 
 that it will certainly have, so soon as every knee 
 shall bow to him, and every tongue shall confess his 
 name. Not only will the nations cease to meet each 
 other on the field of blood, but the wicked spirit of 
 strife will be driven out of men's hearts; and in 
 every nation, in every community, in every house- 
 hold, and in every heart the sweet spirit of peace 
 and love will reign supreme. While it may be that 
 that happy day is in the far-distant future, yet it is 
 no less true the assurances of its certain coming 
 are each day becoming stronger. Civilization every- 
 where is elevating the great mass of humanity, and 
 enlarging the sphere of thought and action ; and 
 hand in hand with it is Christianity, with its open 
 Bible and Sabbath-schools and other agencies to 
 purify the heart of man, leading him upward to a 
 higher and better life. 
 
 Thus rapidly the great work of human regenera- 
 tion goes gloriously and grandly forward. One after 
 another the wicked contrivances to keep man in igno- 
 rance and rob him of the rights God has given him 
 are being compelled to surrender to the advancing 
 hosts of light and truth ; and, let the croakers say 
 what they may, there has been no time in the history 
 of the world when it has been blessed with so many 
 wise heads and pure hearts as now. He is stone- 
 blind who can not see it, and a miserable backslider 
 who proclaims to the contrary. 
 
 To bear a hero's part in this work of reformation 
 ought to be the ambition of every one of us. The 
 
430 Welcome Address. 
 
 luxuries that wealth may bring, in some degree com- 
 pensate for the toil and care to acquire it. The ap- 
 plause of men, and being elevated to high position, arc 
 doubtless gratifying to our pride and self-love ; but, 
 after all, there is no such consolation in any and all 
 these things as that which flows to the heart in the 
 delightful consciousness that we are the honored in- 
 struments in making the world wiser and better, and 
 that when our work is done and we go to our 
 graves — soon, alas! to be forgotten — we will leave 
 mankind in some degree better and happier because 
 of our work. 
 
 In the pursuit of wealth or fame, we may not at- 
 tain either until near the end of life; and if it brings 
 enjoyment, we are permitted to have it but a little 
 time ; but this blessed work pays us for all time, and 
 ever and constantly brings to the heart of the worker 
 a deep current of joy and consolation. The prospect, 
 as well as the retrospect, of the good fills the soul 
 with joy and j)eace. In all this joy the selfish have 
 no part. Wealth may come, and may gather around 
 its possessor a host of sycophants and heartless flat- 
 terers ; fame may sound your name to the end of the 
 earth, and write you down among the high and the 
 great; yet to the one who may have attained all these, 
 if he can not feel that he intends using any of them 
 for the elevation of his fellow-man, or has never 
 thought or done anything for anybody but himself, 
 the shame and remorse will come, and turn all the 
 sweets of life to bitterness and ashes. 
 
 If you ask me to point out the happiest man in 
 any community, I will not go to the mansions of 
 
Welcome Address. 431 
 
 wealth, or confine my search to those who have at- 
 tained distinction, but will try to find that one in 
 whose heart is strongest the spirit of self-sacrifice ; 
 who has visited the home of the poor ; Avho has, ani- 
 mated by the spirit of the Master, scattered his bene- 
 factions among the lowly; who has ever been ready, 
 when a good work is to be done, to ask himself, not 
 how little he could do, but how much to promote 
 it — one who could forget himself and deny himself for 
 the general good. 
 
 The Sabbath-school work is purely an unselfish 
 work ; and I feel confident that, in searching for the 
 happiest man, I would find him in that work. I say, 
 then, the more we can do in this work, and the bet- 
 ter we can do it, the happier we will be. Sunday- 
 school work is no longer an experiment. It needs 
 no argument in its favor. Its utility in making the 
 world better, and consequently happier, is a fact so 
 well established that none can be found to gainsay 
 or deny it. 
 
 In the few remarks that I may add, I will avoid 
 the well-beaten track of Sunday-school commenda- 
 tion, but will consider, rather, the best mode of in- 
 creasing the efficiency of the institution. The great 
 minds of the world have recently been turned to the 
 consideration of this important question, and have 
 brought to light many important plans which, Avhen 
 put in operation, have given great progress to the 
 good work, and have caused our Sunday-schools to 
 keep pace with our constantly advancing civilization. 
 Yet we must not be content with present attainments. 
 The very little time devoted to Sunday-school instruc- 
 
432 Welcome Address. 
 
 tion makes it a question of the greatest moment as to 
 bow that time can be best employed. 
 
 In this fast age youth hurries away to manhood and 
 womanhood, and in that fleeting period all, or nearly 
 all, of this Sunday-school work is to be done, and but 
 fifty-two hours each year for this kind of instruction. 
 Each moment, therefore, is golden ; and how to avoid 
 wasting the precious time, and how it may be best 
 employed, should be well considered at this Conven- 
 tion. I will beg to offer a few thoughts now on the 
 subject, and leave to others who have a riper experi- 
 ence and a better com])rehension of the subject, to 
 enlarge and farther instruct us on this point at our 
 subsequent sittings, 
 
 I will spend no time in making suggestions as to 
 how we should open and close the school, farther 
 than to say that all the exercises should be of such a 
 character, and conducted in such a manner, as to com- 
 mand the undivided attention and interest of the 
 children, so that no other means will be necessary to 
 maintain the most perfect order in the school. To 
 accomplish this, a great many most excellent methods 
 have been suggested by those who have considered 
 the subject, and here, as well as elsewhere, is very 
 marked improvement in all our schools. All these 
 plans, however, will fail if those who have charge of 
 the school, and more especially the superintendents, 
 have not a double portion of the love of Christ and 
 Sunday-school work in their hearts. But I will not 
 stop to consider this question, but will, for a few mo- 
 ments, offer some suggestions as to what we should 
 teach the children in the time allotted for that por- 
 
Welcome Address. 433 
 
 tion of Sunday-school Avork; and although I have 
 been for twenty-five years a Sunday-school teacher, 
 and have felt the deepest interest in the work, yet I 
 confess I feel unfit to instruct on this point. 
 
 In my experience of a quarter of a century there 
 have been many changes in the manner of teaching, as 
 well as in the things taught; yet it must be confessed 
 that some of these changes have not been improve- 
 ments; and as these changes have been introduced, 
 one after another, in our teaching department, I con- 
 fess that sometimes I have felt a desire to seek for 
 the old paths. The Sunday-school is exclusively a 
 Christian institution. It is no part of Sunday-school 
 work to instruct in the- sciences. For the instruction 
 in the arts and sciences we have our excellent com- 
 mon schools, seminaries, colleges, and universities, 
 and the whole week for that work. It is deviating 
 from the real purpose of Sunday-schools to devote 
 any of the time to the acquisition of this sort of in- 
 struction. I would go further, and say that, in my 
 judgment, it is not a wise employment of the time of 
 the Sunday-school in studying the biography of the 
 groat men of the Bible, or stopping to learn all about 
 the geography and topography of the countries in 
 which they lived, and in which the great events men- 
 tioned in the Scriptures occurred. It is important to 
 know all these things. Let them be taught elsewhere 
 than in the Sunday-school. Had we another liour 
 each Sabbath for our labor, we might consider these 
 things profitably in the Sabbath-school; but as that 
 is impracticable, I think it better to spend the little 
 time we have more wisely. 
 
 '28 
 
434 Welcome Address. 
 
 As I said before, the Sabbath-school is pre-emi- 
 Dently a Christian institution. Christ is the great 
 central point of attraction ; and it seems to me that, 
 when we meet our classes, we should adopt the lan- 
 guage of the great apostle to the Gentiles and know 
 nothing but Christ and him crucified for the sins of 
 the world. I know that the objection will at once be 
 made that the theme, because of the want of variety, 
 would lack interest. This is a hasty and ill-consid- 
 ered objection. The Sunday-school teacher who is 
 qualified to teach will find that the variety and mag- 
 nitude of the subject, rather than any other cause, 
 will be a subject of embarrassment. 
 
 At the very threshold we have the goodness of 
 God in sending his Son to die for the sins of the world. 
 What a delightful theme for the teacher, and how prof- 
 itable for teacher and scholar ! Its consideration opens 
 the book of nature, with its endless pages, on which are 
 written in bright and glowing characters His love for 
 man. The teacher can take his class, and show on 
 every side that this beautiful world — with its rivers 
 and mountains, its music and flowers and inexhausti- 
 ble stores of wealth, all for man and his happiness — 
 is provided by the same kind Father who sent his 
 Son to die that we might, in endless elornlty, bask in 
 the sunshine of eternal joy. The very beginning of 
 Christ's history turns the Bible student's attention to 
 this great and important feature of the Christian re- 
 ligion, and has made more for the cause ten thousand 
 fold than all the terrors that have been held up be- 
 fore men for violated law. Nothing so softens the 
 heart of robollious ninn aiul arrests him in a course of 
 
Welcome Address. 435 
 
 rrime as a thorough belief that the almighty, om- 
 uipotent God loves him and desires his happiness in 
 time and throughout eternity. It begets love in 
 his own heart, and repentance and obedience quickly 
 follow. 
 
 We can not, then, commence the study of Christ's 
 mission in the world without having our hearts 
 turned to God in love. We love him because of the 
 indisputable, evidence that he first loved us. He 
 who loves God obeys him, and obedience to his com- 
 mands makes the Christian. But when we come to 
 the record of the sinless life of Christ, and what he 
 has said for our guidance, then our thoughts are 
 turned to the other important feature of our religion, 
 that strikes down all selfish pride, and brings peace 
 and joy to the world, — that of loving our neighbor as 
 ourselves. It is impossible to read and contemplate 
 the life and sayings of our Savior without falling in 
 love with all that is good and pure. 
 
 We often present before our children the life of 
 some good man or woman as a model for them ; but 
 human nature is frail, and some blemishes are found 
 in the human model that mar the beauty and weaken 
 its force and influence. But nut so with that of 
 Christ. The beauty of tlie teachings of Christ is in 
 their plainness and simplicity. In these his lessons 
 are like his life. It is worthy of remark that it is 
 not what he said that is made the foundation of the 
 wrangling and disputation that have impaired the 
 good influence of the Church. In his enlarged view 
 of the work he came to do, he made no point on 
 modes or ceremonies. On the other hand, he looked 
 
436 Welcome Address. 
 
 with pity on the hypocrisy of those who made broad 
 their phylacteries and attended only to forms, to the 
 neglect of the purification of the heart. And here I 
 claim we have an argument in favor of what I insist 
 should be taught in our Sabbath-schools. 
 
 In our Bible-classes we have, in almost every 
 school, the members of diflPerent Churches, and many 
 who have no Church relations, and perhaps no v/ell- 
 settled religious opinions. I have often witnessed in 
 those classes the warmest disputes on doctrinal points, 
 the fiercest wrangle as to whether this Church plat- 
 form or that is according to what Paul or Peter 
 taught, and the whole hour of teaching was worse 
 than wasted, and the sincere student who came to 
 learn what the Bible taught went away confused and 
 doubting. I have ever regarded with abhorrence 
 these theological wars, and I am glad to know that 
 they are becoming less frequent. To my mind they 
 are objectionable in every place, and especially so in 
 the Sabbath-school. 
 
 To avoid this controversy, take the word of Him 
 who spake with divine authority. Evi ry word is 
 aimed at sin ; every sentence of Christ is a lever to 
 lift man to a higher, purer, and better life. He pro- 
 nounces his blessing on the pure in heart, on the 
 merciful, and on him who thirsteth, not after dis- 
 tinction and wealth, but after righteousness. He pro- 
 nounces his benediction on the peace-maker, and 
 commands man to do unto others as he would have 
 others do unto him. His declarations against harbor- 
 ing revenge or ill-will in the heart are clear and ex- 
 plicit, and he commands us that we must love even 
 
Welcome Address. 437 
 
 our enemies. He condemns slander, and inculcates 
 charity. He denounces hypocrisy, and teaches hon- 
 esty in motive as well as action. He shows the folly 
 of covetousness, and points the mind to the consid- 
 eration of true and substantial riches. He shows 
 that to God we must look for all our blessings; and 
 then he teaches us how to pray to him. 
 
 But time would fail me to go further in mention- 
 ing the many points in this code that has been the 
 foundation of all sound legislation for the protection 
 of man's God-given rights. The words of Christ, as 
 they have become disseminated among the nations of 
 the earth, have been for the healing of the nations. 
 Bad laws have been repealed; the thrones of despot- 
 ism have fallen before the doctrine of the universal 
 equality and brotherhood of man. No slavery or 
 tyranny can long exist in any nation where the teach- 
 ings of Christ are everywhere known and believed 
 by the people. In the light of the Gospel of Christ, 
 oppression is seen in all its hideousness, and must 
 hide away among the nations where there is no 
 Bible — no Christ. 
 
 Christ's teachings not only make him who fol- 
 lows them happy, but the dissemination of this truth 
 promotes the general welfare of the State, and makes 
 strong and permanent the very pillars of liberty and 
 freedom. 
 
 It is, then, the highest patriotism to proclaim his 
 word, and fill the hearts of men with his gospel ; and, 
 to my mind, the attempt to exclude the reading 
 of the Bible in our common schools is a piece 
 of wicked folly, not in line with the march of our 
 
438 Welcome Address. 
 
 advancing and enlightened civilization. What gives 
 so mnch force to all he said is tlie fact that his life 
 was an illustration of thff beauty and simplicity of his 
 teachings. He had the right to pronounce his bless- 
 ing on the merciful ; for his mission to this world was 
 one of love and mercy. He could lay down the law 
 to love our enemy ; for his last prayer was a petition 
 of forgiveness for the cruel, bloody men who put him 
 to death. It is his gentle and loving spirit, mani- 
 fested in his life and presented to the world, that 
 is overthrowing selfishness and making men more 
 and more like him. The subject is too large to 
 attempt any elaboration of it on an occasion of this 
 kind. It was only my purpose to call your atten- 
 tion to it, that it might be fully considered at this 
 Convention. 
 
 I think the Uniform Lesson is a grand conception. 
 It serves to stimulate teacher and scholar, to know that,' 
 all over this broad land, the same lessons are being 
 taught and learned each Sabbath. But let that uni- 
 formity be the theme I have suggested. Why should 
 W'C wander over the time of the old dispensation for 
 types and shadows of the promised Messiah, when we 
 can go at once to the New Testament, and there read his 
 life and learn from his own words what his religion is? 
 Why spend much time, when we have so little for 
 Sabbath-school instruction, in the dim light of mys- 
 terious prophecy, or stumble in the types and sacri- 
 fices, after the prophecies have been fulfilled, and the 
 Son of Righteousness has arisen, and the great sacrifice 
 fice for sinners been made? Let us go to the fount- 
 ain at once, and learn of Christ. Let his life, his 
 
Welcome Address. 439 
 
 deeds, and his words be constantly our theme ; and 
 let us continually, and with humble hearts, seek for 
 the same spirit; and let us hope that all of us, and 
 those we represent and try to teach, may have all the 
 benefits of his great atonement. 
 
METHODIST FRATERNITY. 
 
 \ T the General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
 ■l\. copal Church, hekl two years ago in Baltimore, 
 of which Conference my colleague and myself had the 
 honor to be members, it was the great pleasure of that 
 body to welcome Rev. Dr. James A. Duncan and 
 L. C. Garland, LL. D., as fraternal delegates from the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church", South. Not only were 
 we made happy by their manly and eloquent words, 
 conveying to us your fraternal regards, but we were 
 filled with a still deeper joy by the love-letter sent us 
 by the venerable Doctor Pierce, whose afflictions pre- 
 vented his coming to us in person with his colleagues. 
 May we be permitted to join with you in gratitude 
 and thankfulness that God, in his goodness, has spared 
 his useful and holy life to still stand as a living monu- 
 ment of that past when we were one Church organi- 
 zation, and to plead with an eloquence akin to inspi- 
 ration for Christian unity, peace, and love in the 
 whole Methodist family? Could you all have been 
 present, and have seen for yourselves the warm and 
 earnest greeting given these honored brethren, and 
 heard the hearty responses of the bishops, ministers, 
 and laymen of that large body of the representatives 
 of our Church, or the eloquent words of my colleague. 
 
 Delivered before the General Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, at Atlanta, Georgia, May, 1878. 
 440 
 
Methodist Fraternity. 441 
 
 no poor words of mine were needed to convince you 
 that, witli the Methodist Episcopal Church we have 
 the honor to represent, fraternity is a living reality. 
 
 We have come to say so to you, we deem our- 
 selves fortunate and honored that the proper authority 
 selected us at this time to come, and, as well as we 
 may, respond to the loving message you sent us at 
 Baltimore. It is indeed a matter of congratulation 
 and joy that, in the Methodist Church in this country, 
 there exists to-day a better understanding than at any 
 period since the separation. The red-hot coals of 
 difference that had been fanned into a flame by the 
 blasts of ^var are dying out, and there is nothing left 
 now but the ashes of former conflicts. We can not 
 afford to quarrel over that. There is not enough in 
 it to hinder complete fraternity. 
 
 We come, then, tendering to you the affection and 
 good-will of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 rejoice in the hope that you will not allow us to do 
 more than yourselves in binding the Methodist family 
 in the bonds of a sincere and earnest Christian frater- 
 nity. We are here to-day to give our hearty indorse- 
 ment of the Church we represent to the eloquent 
 words of one of your fraternal messengers at Balti- 
 more. He said to us: "But what is fraternity? Is 
 it only a quadrennial ceremony, a sort of ecclesias- 
 tical court formality, a specious parade of public ad- 
 dresses? Is it a mere form? Sir, I humbly conceive 
 that Christian fraternity is something more than such 
 solemn mockery — something deeper, more vital, and 
 more sacred. It is a great Christian movement, 
 giving concurrent expression to the great brotherly 
 
442 Methodist Fraternity. 
 
 kindness of more than a million hearts. It is a sub- 
 lime Christian alliance, in which charity becomes su- 
 preme over all disputations, and reaffirms its meaning, 
 its power, and its consequences." 
 
 These grand and sublime words of the now de- 
 parted Dr. Duncan sent a thrill of joy to the vast 
 assembly who had the privilege of listening to him. 
 We accept his definition, and in a like spirit come to 
 you, bringing with us the hearty " Amens " of more 
 than a million and a half of Methodists. And why 
 should it not be so? If our religion is not broad 
 enough to take in the whole Methodist family; if it 
 be too weak to conquer hate and overcome revenge; 
 if our Christian charity is too narrow to extend 
 beyond State lines, and is cramped in sectional 
 boundaries, — then had we all better look into the gen- 
 uineness of our conversion. 
 
 The politicians, for personal aggrandizement or 
 party triumph, may attempt to renew past differences 
 and fan the dying embers of past conflicts, but the 
 Christian man can take no part in such a work. The 
 very essence of the Christian religion is love, and her 
 voice is ever for peace. It seems to me, therefore, 
 that at this time there is a large responsibility resting 
 on the Methodists of this Nation. We are the largest 
 denomination. We should take the lead in all good 
 works. What better work can we do than, by ex- 
 ample as well as precept, to bring these many million 
 American citizens to a proper understanding with, 
 and a right appreciation of, each other? Such a 
 work not only subserves the great interests of re- 
 ligion, but it kindles anew the patriotic fires that 
 
Methodist FrateRi\itv. 443 
 
 lighted the way of a commou ancestry from the 
 thralklom of oppression to the enjoyment of liberty. 
 
 Skepticism may scoif, and infidelity may sneer; 
 but the truth still stands, that there can be no civil- 
 ization worthy the name that is not the outgrowth of 
 Christianity. We who profess to love the gospel 
 must so have it in our hearts that we will show in 
 all our intercourse with each other that it is our 
 guide, our rule of faith and practice. I am fully 
 convinced that, if our free institutions are maintained, 
 if our tolerant form of government remains in per- 
 petuity, it will not be because of our armies, our 
 navies, our increasing population, our many States 
 reaching from ocean to ocean and covering this mighty 
 continent, but rather because, in all this vast popula- 
 tion and in every part of all these States, there may 
 be found so many Christian men and women teaching 
 by precept and exami)le the pure and elevating doc- 
 trines of the Christian system. From the family 
 altars is to go out a silent influence strong enough to 
 still the ragings of revolution, to extinguish the erup- 
 tions of anarchy, to inspire a deep and profound rev- 
 erence for law and order, to so clear the vision of 
 mankind that prejudice will not be mistaken for con- 
 science or policy for principle. 
 
 As Methodists we must measure up to the de- 
 mands upon us. On this question of fraternity we 
 are rapidly coming up. Indeed, we are recognized as 
 being already in advance. At our last General Con- 
 ference we had, as a fraternal messenger from the 
 Presbyterian Church, that distinguished divine, ihe 
 Rev. Dr. F. S. Patton, of Chicago. He was present 
 
444 Methodist Fraternity. 
 
 when your delegates were iutroduced, and heard your 
 kind words to us. At the session following he was 
 presented, and delivered his message. He alluded to 
 the eloquent words of your fraternal delegates, and, 
 with a joyful countenance and hearty emphasis, he 
 said to us: "I congratulate you on this happy con- 
 summation." But with a sorrow that he could not 
 conceal, he added: *'My only regret is, that your 
 Church, in this respect, is so far in advance of ours." 
 The Presbyterian Church, North and South, seems 
 like a sea whose waters roll apart, because a ledge of 
 rocks lifts its persistent head above the waves. We 
 have been trying to remove the obstruction, to blast 
 the rock. Committees have set, and editors have 
 written, and private correspondence has been under- 
 taken, with results that fall short of complete success. 
 But what is not done by one agency will be done by 
 another ; for there is a tide of Christian brotherhood 
 rising fast, both North and South, which, when it 
 shall have reached its full, will hide, deep and out of 
 sight, the rocks of bitter memory. The tides of 
 human feeling, like the ocean, come not at human 
 bidding, but are under divine control. And we are 
 thankful for the fact that this tide, which is setting 
 fast, though it rises too slow for those who are im- 
 patient of delay, rises at the same time too surely to 
 make it safe for those who stand in the way of its ad- 
 vance. If we are worthy the compliment paid us 
 by Dr. Patton ; if the tide of fraternal feeling in the 
 Methodist Church has risen higher than that of any 
 other sister Church ; if we do love each other more, 
 and seem more willing to forget, — let us then pray 
 
Methodist Fraternity. 4-45 
 
 God that he may honor us with a rapid growth in 
 grace in this direction, that we Methodists may be 
 first to raise the shout that the work of conciliation 
 is complete, that love reigns and rules in American 
 Methodism. 
 
 Not many months ago, the President of these 
 United States and his Cabinet came to this good city 
 of Atlanta, to shake hands with your distinguished 
 governor and the good people of this State of Geor- 
 gia. The whole Nation read with interest and grati- 
 tude the speeches made by the President and his 
 Cabinet, and the responses made by your governor 
 and other distinguished statesmen of Georgia. The 
 telegraph sowed the good seed all over the continent, 
 with the quickness of lightning. The American 
 people caught the good spirit that prompted the kind 
 words then uttered by all the speakers; and a strange, 
 sweet peace seemed to settle down on the hearts of all 
 good citizens, accompanied with a stronger hope and 
 a better confidence for the future. After all, they 
 but represented what politics may do in the work of 
 conciliation. They pointed to the country's banner 
 as the source of their inspiration. 
 
 AVe are all here to-day to show what religion 
 may do to bring the hearts of the people of a com- 
 mon country in closer sympathy, holding higher than 
 any other banner the banner of the Cross. The good 
 seed was sown by them all over this land. Some 
 fell among thorns and briers of deep-rooted preju- 
 dices, and were choked to death ; some fell on the 
 stony ground of mere policy, and will be scorched 
 and blasted in the heat of the next political cam- 
 
446 Methodist Fraternity. 
 
 })aign ; some fell on the hard wayside of Amorican 
 2)()litics, to be devoured, if not by the devil, by liis 
 familiar, the American demagogue. The good seed 
 sown by your representatives at Baltimore two years 
 ago, and, I trust, that which we have come to sow 
 here, has fallen and will fall on good ground, and 
 bring forth abundantly ; and after a while, and that at 
 no distant day, we will all shout and sing together 
 at a glorious harvest home. 
 
 Let us, then, hold higher and still higher the 
 banner of the Cross as the truest and best ensi^rn of 
 the grand and rapidly increasing hosts that are de- 
 manding peace and good-will; and as men take cog- 
 nizance of our fraternal spirit and brotherly kind- 
 ness, they will, whether skeptic or believer, be 
 compelled to say as did Constantine the Great, " By 
 this sign we conquer." 
 
 Let us not halt and doubt. Let us not wait 
 until complete fraternity comes, as come it will^ 
 from other influences. Let the Methodists of this 
 country, under the blessing of God, overcome any 
 difficulties in the way, and usher in the happy day 
 of complete harmony. They can do it, if they will. 
 The Methodist preacher reaches every community in 
 the land. He is everywhere. He does more to mold 
 that potent influence, ])ublic opinion, than anybody 
 else. We can do more, then, from the peculiar organ- 
 ization of our Church, than any other religious body, 
 if we will be but true to God, true to our country, 
 and true to the demands of our advancing civili- 
 zation. 
 
 AVe are here to say, in behalf of the Methodist 
 
Methodist Fraternity. 447 
 
 Episcopal Church, tliat she heartily rejoices in your 
 prosperity, as we are confident you rejoice in ours. 
 Let us know each other better, and we will love each 
 other more. We, then, on behalf of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, earnestly invite you to send us 
 your fraternal messengers when we meet in General 
 Conference two years hence in Cincinnati. Let these 
 words of love continue to be spoken and heard. 
 Let this honest courtship go on, and after a while it 
 may be said of us : " Whom God hath joined to- 
 gether, let no man put asunder/' 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
 
 Y. M. C. A., CINCINNATI, O. 
 
 THE number of distinguished gentlemen that fol- 
 low me admonishes me, notwithstanding the lati- 
 tude given by your worthy president, that I must be 
 brief. It Avill be out of my power to adduce any ar- 
 gument, or bring forward au}^ array of facts, that will 
 better commend the Association to the public than the 
 able and interesting report of your worthy corre- 
 sponding secretary. And when I consider, in con- 
 nection with that report, the report of the treasurer, 
 it is a matter of astonishment, and yet of congratula- 
 tion, that so much has been done with the money ex- 
 pended ; and I feel that if all the good men of your 
 city could see it, there would be a simultaneous opening 
 of hearts and pocket-books to sustain this good cause. 
 I am exceedingly gratified that it is my privilege 
 to meet with you on this anniversary of your Associ- 
 ation, and to congratulate you and rejoice with you 
 over the good you have accomplished in the past 
 year; but I should be far happier if I felt prepared 
 to add anything to the interest of this occasion, or if, 
 by any words of mine, I could inspire you to greater 
 zeal in this good work. I accepted your kind invi- 
 tation to be present to-night in the hope that I might 
 be benefited by coming ; and I am happy to say that 
 my hope has already been realized. 
 
 An Address to the Young Men's Christian Association of 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, Twcntj'-first Anniversary. 
 448 
 
y. M. C. A. 440 
 
 To the Christian philanthropist and patriot, with 
 his soul awakened, purified, and enlarged, with ear- 
 nest love to God and his fellow-men, as he looks 
 abroad at the vice and crime in our country, and the 
 mighty obstacles in the way of its removal, how 
 sadly true are the words of the Savior : " The har- 
 vest truly is great, and the laborers are few!" Yet 
 we thank God and take courage from the fact that 
 there are more now engaged in the work of the 
 world's salvation than ever before, and that while the 
 army of the Lord has increased in numbers, it has 
 also increased in efficiency and power. And to that 
 comparatively small band who have been fighting so 
 bravely to bring a rebellious world in harmony with 
 the good government of God, there has been no re- 
 enforcement so timely and effective as the Young 
 Men's Christian Association. Composed as it is of 
 Christians of every name, untrammeled in its glori- 
 ous work by any sectarian aims or objects, with only 
 " God and humanity " on its banners, and with the 
 teachings of the Savior for its rules of faith and 
 practice, this united band of active Christian work- 
 ers goes forth to war against Satan in his very strong- 
 hold, and may and does rescue his captives from the 
 very gates of hell itself. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association may be 
 fitly called the skirmish-line of the army of Christ, 
 preparing constantly the way for greater and grander 
 conquests for the hosts of the Lord. Such Asso- 
 ciations may and do reach a large class who have 
 hitherto been overlooked and neglected ; and es- 
 pecially is it true in a large city like this. It is 
 
 29 
 
450 K M. C. A. 
 
 almost useless to pray with a hungry mau before 
 you have fed him, and to give the Testament to 
 the naked before you have clothed him, or obtain 
 the ear of the stranger until you have convinced 
 him by substantial acts of friendship that you are 
 really his friend. Or, as St. James has it, " What 
 doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he 
 hath faith and hath not works? Can faith save him? 
 If a brotiier or sister be naked and destitute of daily 
 food, and one of you say unto them. Depart in peace, 
 be ye warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give 
 them not those things which are needful to the body ; 
 what dotli it ])rofit?" 
 
 If I understand the workings of these Associa- 
 tions, the aim is to seek out the destitute, and by 
 acts of kindness and Christian sympathy commend to 
 them the religion of Christ. In this way the fallow 
 ground is broken up, and their hearts are made ready 
 for the good seed of the gospel. 
 
 Another interesting and very important feature in 
 your work is to seek out the young men who are 
 strangers in your great city — young men whom the 
 calls of business have separated from the commu- 
 nion of Ivindred spirits and from the sweet and sa- 
 cred influence of father, mother, and sister. This 
 separation has made them sad and lonely ; and when 
 the hours ot leisure come, they fall an easy prey to 
 evil influences, and soon are seen in the gilded sa- 
 loons of sin and crime. It is indeed a glorious work 
 to lead such away from the grog-shop and gambling- 
 hell and the dens of pollution, and turn their feet in 
 the paths of virtue and honor. How many such in 
 
y. M. C. A. 451 
 
 years to come, will rise up and call you blessed ; and 
 how sweet will be your old age, if then you have the 
 gracious consolation that God has honored you by 
 making you the instrument of saving a single soul 
 from a life of sin and infamy in this world, and if 
 then you can look forward with un waning faith that, 
 when God judges the world, the sacred hand of the 
 blessed Savior will place even one star in your crown 
 in the day of your rejoicing ! 
 
 The range of duty and usefulness for Christian 
 young men in this day and age of the world, and es- 
 pecially in this free Government of ours, is almost 
 without limit. They must make themselves felt 
 everywhere, and leave their impress for good on the 
 State as well as the Church ; and while the work to 
 be done is of incalulable magnitude, yet the motives 
 to incite to action are of the highest and most en- 
 nobling character. 
 
 It is too late in the day to deny that the suprem- 
 acy of our institutions depends upon the dissemi- 
 nation of Bible truth in the hearts of tlie people. 
 That question was settled long ago, and the great 
 truth uttered long since, that it is " righteousness that 
 exalteth a nation," is no longer doubted. It is not 
 our mighty armies or our gallant navies, our many 
 and populous cities bound together by the iron bands 
 of our numerous railways, our lofty mountains, our 
 extended plains of unsurpassed fertility, our majestic 
 rivers, our commerce, or our money, that constitute 
 our National strength. It is not any or all of these 
 that give us the assurance that the blessings of civil 
 and religious liberty will be the rich inheritance of 
 
452 V. M. C. A. 
 
 those who may come after us. If justice is firmly es- 
 tablished, and the blessings of liberty secured to our 
 posterity, we must be a Nation that fears God and 
 keeps his commandments. The more true religion 
 we have, the purer and stronger will be our love for 
 our country. True patriotism is the child of Chris- 
 tianity. In India and other idolatrous nations they 
 have no word in their language that means love of 
 country. The divine law as thundered forth from 
 Sinai, and the pure and just doctrines of Him who 
 spake as never man spoke, are found, after the ex- 
 perience of many centuries, to be the best guides for 
 the best government of men. It is a code that 
 tolerates no despotism, no slavery, no inequality be- 
 fore the law. 
 
 The Bible, then, should not only be read in our 
 churches and in our families, but the divine truths 
 and moral precepts should be instilled in the hearts 
 of the young at all our public schools. [Immense 
 and prolonged applause.] And from my stand-point 
 I must say that the exclusion of the Bible therefrom 
 is as unwise and unpatriotic as it is wicked and sense- 
 less. [Enthusiastic applause.] Look at Mexico and 
 some of the pretended Republics of South America, 
 and you will see the practical results of this policy. 
 Their attempts to maintain a republican form of gov- 
 ernment, with a voting population almost entirely 
 ignorant of Bible truth, have in all cases been a mis- 
 erable failure. Revolution and anarchy are the legit- 
 imate results, and in those Governments it can scarcely 
 be said that there is safety to either person or 
 property. 
 
y. M. C. A. 453 
 
 The situation of" our country at this present time 
 is peculiar and interesting. The enfranchisement of 
 a large number of citizens, who, before their citizen- 
 ship was declared, had been kept in slavery and ig- 
 norance; the recent expansion of our territorial lim- 
 its, by which is added a large number of persons 
 to our population, not noted for their virtue or intel- 
 ligence ; the constant influx of ignorant Chinese, who 
 know nothing of our form of government, our civ- 
 ilization, or our religion, who may become citizens 
 and voters, — all admonish us that this is no time to 
 lower the standard of religious instruction, or to ex- 
 clude the Bible from our common schools. 
 
 These are stirring times in which God has called 
 us into being, and we must be up and doing, and 
 show ourselves equal to the grave duties required of 
 us. If this mass of ignorance is to be enlightened 
 and Christianized and qualified for the duties of citi- 
 zenship, the work must, in the main, be done by the 
 Christian young men of the day. It must be done. 
 The perpetuity of the blessings of civil and religious 
 liberty depends upon its accomplishment. 
 
 Let ns, then, with honest hearts, ask God to guide 
 us in the work before us, and grant us courage to do 
 our whole duty in the promotion of his cause ; and 
 while we rejoice at the growing greatness and power 
 of our young, free Nation, let us accept the higher and 
 sweeter consolation that our growth as a people in 
 virtue and intelligence is more rapid still. 
 
THE METHODIST PREACHER. 
 
 A COMMITTEE, duly authorized and empowered, 
 have imposed upon me the (kity of introducing 
 to you, as visitors to your body, the Southeast In- 
 diana, the North Indiana, and the Northwest Indi- 
 ana Conferences. I take great pleasure in perform- 
 ing the service thus required of me, and beg to tender 
 you and them my hearty and earnest congratulations 
 that the opportunity is thus offered you to look again 
 into each other's faces, and again to grasp each other 
 by the hand, and once more to talk over your con- 
 flicts and joys, your trials and your triumphs, your 
 few defeats and many glorious victories, and generally 
 to encourage each other in this, the most important 
 work that can engage the attention of man — the sal- 
 vation of the world. 
 
 I have no doubt that those of you who once met 
 in one Conference, and have now for so long a time 
 been separated from each other, have looked forward 
 to this meeting with the brightest anticipations of 
 happiness in being permitted to meet old, tried, and 
 true companions in the service of our blessed Master. 
 We of the laity beg to express the hope that you 
 may all more than realize the happiness you antici- 
 pate, and ask that we, too, may have a share with you 
 on this joyous occasion. 
 
 Address at Indianapolis, Indiana, at the meeting of the 
 four Conferences of that State, in 1866. 
 454 
 
The Methodist Preacher. 455 
 
 God, in tlie plenitude of liis mercy and grace, so 
 blessed your labors in the rapid increase of members 
 of one Church, and the opening for you of so many 
 new fields of labor, that a division of the Conference 
 became a matter of absolute necessity in order that 
 the work be more eifectiially done. In that noble 
 spirit of self-sacrifice that has ever so pre-eminently 
 characterized the Methodist ministry, you then broke 
 up the tender and sacred tics that bound you to one 
 Conference, in the anxiety to promote only the 
 cause of Christ, For this sacrifice, as for all others 
 that you have made in this cause, a glorious reward 
 awaits you. 
 
 And as I look over this vast assembly of minis- 
 ters, and see that they are mostly young men, I am 
 sadly admonished of the fact that but few remain 
 who met together in the old Indiana Conference. 
 To the great majority of the noble spirits who then 
 met, the Great Captain of our salvation has said, " It 
 is enough, come up higher;" and they have passed 
 from a mortal life of labor and conflict to an immortal 
 life of rest and reward, and, with the palms of vic- 
 tory in their hands, are to-day having their reunion 
 around the throne of God. Let us indulge in the 
 comforting belief that their happy and sanctified 
 spirits are fully cognizant of this happy meeting of 
 their brethren here. And while w^e sing to-day that 
 grand old hymn, — 
 
 "Come, let ns join our friends above, 
 That have obtained the prize, 
 And on the eagle wings of love 
 To joys celestial rise," — 
 
456 The Methodist Preacher. 
 
 can we not almost hear them echo back to us those 
 other graucl words? — 
 
 " Let all the saints terrestrial sing 
 With those to glory gone ; 
 For all the servants of our King 
 In heaven and earth are one. 
 
 One family we dwell in Him — 
 
 One Church above, beneath — 
 Though now divided by the stream. 
 
 The narrow stream of death. 
 
 One army of the living God, 
 
 To his command we bow; 
 Part of the host has crossed the flood, 
 
 And part are crossing now." 
 
 I remember many of those glorious and brave 
 men, and could mention their names and give many 
 incidents in the history of their great usefulness; 
 but I will leave that duty to others more competent 
 to perform it. I see before me a few of their old 
 associates, who will doubtless favor us with a recital 
 of some of the noble deeds of the departed. Neither 
 they nor their labors will ever be forgotten. " Blessed 
 are the dead that die in the Lord, for their works do 
 follow them." 
 
 It was these men, with you, my aged brethren, at 
 a time when you were few and widely separated from 
 each other, and when Indiana was comparatively a 
 wilderness, who, overcoming difficulties and surmount- 
 ing obstacles with a courage and fidelity to the cause 
 akin to that of St. Paul's, laid deep and strong the 
 foundations of the Methodist Church in Indiana. 
 Their devotion and yours entitle you and them to the 
 brightest place in the history of pioneer life in our 
 
The Methodist Preacher. 457 
 
 State. Let us, who are younger and who are enjoy- 
 ing the fruits of the labors of our seniors, learn wis- 
 dom from their example, and humbly pray that we, 
 too, may have in a large measure the same courage and 
 self-sacrificing spirit in promoting the cause of Christ. 
 
 As one of the results of their services, I see be- 
 fore me more than a half thousand ministers of the 
 gospel, representing a membership of one hundred 
 thousand Methodists in Indiana. That the mantles 
 of the departed have fallen on those that are worthy, 
 I have but to point to our well-built churches in 
 every neighborhood, town, and city, to our flourish- 
 ing colleges in all parts of the State, and to our ex- 
 cellent and prosperous university. But time will 
 forbid that I should even mention, much less enlarge 
 on, the many evidences of the rapid growth and prog- 
 ress of our beloved Church in Indiana. 
 
 We are permitted, under the providence of God, 
 to live at a most interesting period of the Nation's 
 history. The civil Government waked up to the 
 truth, long since uttered by John Wesley, that 
 "slavery is the sum of all villainies;" and amid the 
 clangor of arms and the din of strife, the awakened 
 conscience of the Nation proclaimed the freedom of 
 the oppressed. The cruel and wicked laws of the 
 Slave States, which forbade that the slave should be 
 taught to read, fell with the accursed system that 
 called them into existence, and to-day these people 
 are holding out their hands to us for the bread of life. 
 They not only have all the claims of a common hu- 
 manity upon us, but we owe them a debt of gratitude 
 besides for their loyalty to the Government, and for 
 
458 The Methodist Preacher. 
 
 tlieii- effective aid and active sympathy in preserving 
 from destruction this tenijjle of civil aud religious 
 liberty. Let us open wide to them the doors of the 
 temple of knowledge, and lead them in the paths of 
 righteousness, and they will become, not only good 
 and faithful citizens and effectual co-workers in up- 
 holding this good Government of ours, but will be 
 also valuable auxiliaries in the salvation of the 
 world. 
 
 I am fully impressed with the belief that our 
 Missionary Committee duly appreciate the importance 
 of this work, and will give to its promotion their 
 well-known piety and ability. Let the Methodist 
 Church in the future, as in the past, do more than 
 her full share of this missionary work. But this is 
 not all the work that this changed state of things 
 has made for earnest Christians. The doors that had 
 been closed against all those wdio spoke against the 
 great National sin are now open, and each day the 
 South is coming nearer the enjoyment of her Consti- 
 tutional rights. 
 
 The free press, the free pulpit, and the free speech 
 that slavery had for years banished from the Slave 
 States are being rapidly restored to them, and a full 
 and complete enjoyment of those blessings guaranteed 
 to the people by the Government, and protected by 
 her strong arm, will enable the great truths of civil 
 and religious liberty, planted there by the loyal and 
 the good, to germinate and bring forth the peaceable 
 fruits of loyalty to God and this good Government 
 under which we live. New duties and responsibil- 
 ities are upon us. Let us not hesitate, but go up at 
 
The Methodist Preacher. 459 
 
 once and possess the land. No reconstruction will 
 be so eiFectual as that which will enlighten the mind, 
 purify the heart, and convert the soul. If w^e can 
 bring a rebellious people in harmony with the govern- 
 ment of God, they will be in full accord with the 
 civil authority. 
 
 But I am saying too much in introducing those 
 who were before old acquaintances. I again con- 
 gratulate you that you are thus brought together, 
 and will close by expressing the hope that all our 
 hearts may be so warmed by the grace of God and 
 this meeting together, that we may go hence with new 
 zeal in the promotion of every good work ! 
 
N. P. BANKS. 
 
 AFTER more than a third of a century has come 
 and gone, the remnant of that gallant band who 
 for nine weeks stood together and voted for N. P. 
 Banks for presiding officer of the Thirty-Fourth Con- 
 gress are permitted to meet in this beautiful Capital, 
 where the great contest was fought and won. With 
 mingled joy and gratitude we hail our great leader 
 iu that contest, and with a delight that no words can 
 express we grasp his hand and send up a sincere in- 
 vocation that when we, who may be left, shall meet 
 again in the future, he, too, may come and preside 
 at our banquet. But with the joy come the tears 
 of memory, that three-fourths of our number have 
 finished their work and crossed the dark river. Let 
 us indulge in the pleasing belief that their spirits are 
 here to take glad cognizance that they are as fresh iu 
 our memories as they were at the adjournment of the 
 Congress that gave them all a place in the history of 
 the Kepublic. 
 
 The faithful historian will not fail to record the 
 2d of February, 1856, when that brave old apostle 
 of human liberty, Joshua R. Giddings, administered 
 the oath of office to Speaker N. P. Banks, as the 
 commencement of a new era in the young Republic. 
 
 Delivered at Washington, D. C, at the Reunion of the 
 Members of Congress who voted for the Honorable N. P 
 Banks for Speaker. 
 
 460 
 
iV. p. Banks. 461 
 
 It planted a new hope in the heart of the slave, and 
 gave a new fear to his master. Liberty smiled at 
 the victory ; and slavery trembled with rage at its 
 first great defeat. Freedom, and not slavery, was to 
 name the committees and shape the legislation in the 
 people's House of Congress. Our success gave new 
 courage to the moral sense of the patriotic masses, 
 and a new impetus to the agitation that had awak- 
 ened the conscience of the Nation. In the newer 
 and brighter pages of progress and civilization that 
 have since been written, let each page show that our 
 nine weeks' contest for the speakership, and our glo- 
 rious victory, made possible all the grander results 
 that followed. 
 
 AVe have met to-day to honor our great leader — to 
 exchange greetings, and recall the incidents of that 
 great struggle. AVe rejoice that among the living to 
 greet the few that remain, is the gallant hero of that 
 contest — our leader then, our idol now. Let us con- 
 gratulate the couutry that the House of Representa- 
 tives has now the benefit of his ripe experience and 
 of a courage that threescore and ten years have not 
 weakened. If we could have but one of our number 
 to sit in the House of Representatives, and the roll 
 were called as to whom it should be, the voice of 
 the living and the spirits of the dead of our number 
 would answer as aforetime, N. P. Banks! Long may 
 he live to sit in the councils of the Nation, and to 
 aid in perfecting what was begun in his election to 
 the speakership — the securing of the inalienable 
 rights of every American citizen, be he white or 
 black ! 
 
462 JV. P. Banks. 
 
 Two of our uumber — Justin S. Morrill, of Ver- 
 mont, and John Sherman, of Ohio — are, and have been 
 for many years, honoring their respective States and 
 the whole Nation by their great ability, spotless integ- 
 rity, and patriotic devotion to the best interests of 
 tlic country, in the Senate of the United States. This 
 leads me to proclaim it as my belief that if the rest of 
 us were in the Senate, it would greatly contribute to 
 the dignity of that branch of Congress, and add 
 largely to the general average of respectability and 
 usefulness of its members. 
 
 Senator Morrill is the author of the measure that 
 has enabled our country to manufacture her own goods, 
 thus furnishing labor and good wages to the laboring 
 classes, and compelling the foreign manufacturer who 
 seeks our markets, that have been created by the en- 
 terprise and energy of our own people, to pay for the 
 privilege of selling their cheap products, — thus fur- 
 nishing a revenue to carry on the war, sustaining 
 constantly the National credit, and enabling us to 
 suppress the Rebellion. It has furnished the revenue 
 to rapidly extinguish our great National debt, and 
 put the Nation's credit on a better basis than that of 
 any other Nation on the face of the earth. 
 
 John Sherman has been in Congress ever since 
 this event that has called us together, except the four 
 years he was Secretary of the Treasury. During 
 those four years he so managed the finances as to 
 resume specie payment — a consummation that public 
 clamor and the prophets of evil pronounced an ini- 
 jjossibility. It took courage, but he had it ; and 
 while everybody predicted ruin and disaster if the 
 
N. P. Banks. 463 
 
 attempt were made ; yet, under his wise management, 
 resumption came as gently as the dew falls at mid- 
 night; and the credit and honor of the Nation were 
 saved. While the soldier saved the Nation's life, John 
 Sherman saved her honor, which is dearer than life. 
 Both alike are heroes, deserving equal honor from a 
 grateful people. In the Senate chamber, John Sher- 
 man has no superior for broad statesmanship, devotion 
 to his country's best interests, and for the courage oi 
 his convictions. He has made it a matter of so much 
 distinction to be a United States Senator from Ohio, 
 that there is a reasonably well-founded rumor that 
 citizens of Ohio, and even residents of New York, 
 are inclined to spend large sums of money for the 
 honor of being his colleague. There is but one way 
 by which the country can show the full appreciation 
 of the great service John Sherman has rendered; and 
 in doing so the Nation will honor itself more than 
 him. I hope some of our later reunions will be at 
 the White House. 
 
 Among our number, and the senior in years, is 
 our honorable and venerable friend, Francis E. Spin- 
 ner. He was the intimate and trusted friend of 
 Lincoln, Stanton, and Chase, and a valued counselor 
 of all of them during the great Civil War. For 
 fourteen years the Treasurer of the United States, 
 with the care of billions of money, there is no stain 
 on his integrity, his signature on the greenbacks 
 being the only crooked official act. His efficiency 
 and fidelity in every position is a part of the well- 
 known history of the country, and the whole Nation 
 takes pride in doing honor to the old veteran. 
 
464 N. P. Banks. 
 
 These are some of the living men who in that 
 great contest voted for Banks. I need not speak of 
 the distinguished dead of our number. They have 
 their sure place in history, and their fame is secured 
 in the hearts of a grateful country. 
 
 The great apostle, writing to the Hebrews, in 
 speaking of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, 
 Moses, and others, said: "And what shall I more 
 say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, 
 and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephtha; of 
 David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets : who 
 through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- 
 ness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of 
 the sword, out of weakness became strong, waxed 
 valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of 
 the aliens." So time would fail mo to speak of each 
 of our noble band. Among the names I have not 
 mentioned are the Gideons, the Davids, the Samuels, 
 and the rest of the circle of patriots who assisted in 
 freeing the oppressed; who waxed valiant in fight to 
 save the life of the Nation; who stopped the mouths 
 of opposition lions; who wrought righteousness in 
 pensioning the soldiers of the Republic ; and who 
 aided the Government to turn to flight the armies of 
 the Confederacy. 
 
 I do not claim to have a marked personal resem- 
 blance to the apostle Paul, but I have not the slight- 
 est doubt that I feel on this occasion even more 
 intensely than he did when he was discoursing of the 
 faith of the worthy saints of those Old Testament 
 and barbaric times. I say more intensely, because 
 
N. P. Banks. 465 
 
 ray enthusiasm has a better and sounder basis. In 
 many respects the remnant of our jxjlitical Israel is 
 superior to the heroes mentioned by the apostle. 
 Moses acted so badly that he was only permitted to 
 look at the promised land, while Barak refused to take 
 his army and go and fight Sisera until a prophetess 
 by the name of Deborah (and another man's wife at 
 that) would go with him. Samson allowed his wife 
 to get away with him on the riddle business, and 
 then he killed and stripped the garments off of thirty 
 men, and paid his bet with the Philistines in second- 
 hand clothing. And Jacob got up a mean combine 
 and trust on Laban, his father-in-law, in the cattle 
 business. But when we come to Joseph we take off 
 our hats. Paul has us there. We may have the 
 equals of Joseph in our little circle, but he has never 
 had a superior in ancient or modern times. 
 
 Between the past and the present there are no 
 missing links. We old men hold that connecting 
 position, and with the most of us it seems to be the 
 only office that has been persistently searching for 
 us. And yet, with our long experience and close ob- 
 servation of men and affairs, we might be useful to 
 the country if a loud call should be made for our 
 services. As just now the antique seems to be the 
 latest fad, some of us would make splendid ornaments 
 to decorate and beautify an Administration. We 
 have not found it delightful or profitable to play the 
 dark-horse act during the convulsions of nominating 
 Conventions. But we take comfort in the fact that 
 we are sovereigns, and not servants. In that dramatic 
 period, from 1856 to 1866, we played well our part 
 
 30 
 
466 N. P. Banks. 
 
 in the first act. Let us wear the laurels we have 
 won, gracefully. We can do as they do on the east- 
 ern coast of Old Virginia, "Live on oysters and past 
 recollections." Let us be smiling, jolly old optimists, 
 and not whining, complaining pessimists. Let us en- 
 deavor to feel as our own Whittier did when he wrote 
 these lines : 
 
 " O, sometimes gleams upon our sight, 
 Through present wrong, the Eternal Right ; 
 And step by step, since time began, 
 We see the steady gain of man. 
 
 For still the new transcends the old 
 In signs and tokens manifold : — 
 Slaves rise up men; the olive waves. 
 With roots deep set in battle-graves. 
 
 Through the harsh noises of our day 
 A low sweet prelude finds its way ; 
 Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear 
 A light is breaking calm and clear. 
 
 Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
 For olden times and holier shore ; 
 God's love and b'essing, then and there, 
 Are now, and here, and everywhere." 
 
THE TOAST— THE CITIZEN SOLDIER. 
 
 A NEW generation has been born, and has had 
 xJL thrust upon them the duties of citizenship, since 
 the close of our Civil War. To that generation the 
 beginning, the continuance, and the end of the war — 
 the causes that brought it on, its tragic events, and 
 its glorious results — can only be known from history 
 and tradition. Their knowledge of the attending en- 
 vironments, from the beginning to the close, is as 
 limited and imperfect as is ours of the great Revolu- 
 tionary struggle that resulted in the formation and 
 establishment of the Republic. History and tradi- 
 tion may turn their brightest lights on the condi- 
 tions that existed nearly thirty years ago, yet, viewed 
 now through this vista of three decades, the picture 
 thus drawn gives them a view of the real situation as 
 shadowy as the photograph does of the true character 
 of the living person it represents. 
 
 All has been done in that direction that human 
 genius and ability can possibly accomplish. The 
 statesman, the philosopher, the historian, the poet, 
 have done their utmost to aid posterity in seeing the 
 lights and shadow^s of this, the greatest event in hu- 
 man history, — the greatest because it was to settle 
 the question w^iether a Republic like ours had the 
 inherent strength to maintain her own existence ; a 
 question that interested the human race in every part 
 
 Responded to at the Loj'al Legion Banquet, at Indianapolis. 
 467 
 
468 The Toast— The Citizen Soldier. 
 
 of the civilized world. Because if the civilized man 
 could uot govern himself— was uot able to formulate 
 a government that would protect him in all his rights 
 as a man without the domination of kings and stand- 
 ing armies — then the reign of tyranny must be per- 
 petual, and despotism continue to rob man of the 
 privileges that inhered in his very manhood, causing 
 him to remain the mere tool and serf of another. 
 The monarchs of the world and their courts laughed 
 and took courage at our calamity, while oppressed 
 man in all the domain of despotism, the world over, 
 wept and prayed for our triumph. Thus our Civil 
 War was uot only the great event of the century, but, 
 as the years come and go and we get farther and 
 farther from 1861, we become convinced that it re- 
 quires no gift of prophecy to declare that the bene- 
 ficial effects of our glorious triumph in saving the 
 young Republic from dissolution has made it the event 
 in the history of civil government. 
 
 It may have seemed to us, in the beginning, to be 
 a contest only to assert the supremacy of the General 
 Government, and maintain and preserve the Union 
 of the States. Looking at it now, we see that it had 
 a much broader and deeper significance. It was to 
 determine and solve the question whether the com- 
 mon man could be trusted with the solemn responsi- 
 bility of sovereignty ; whether even-handed justice 
 to every man was not a stronger element of power 
 in the policy of civil government than the might 
 of monarchs backed by standing armies and ships 
 of war ; whether the virtue and intelligence of the 
 citizen is not a better safeguard to national stabil- 
 
The Toast— The Citizen Soldier. 469 
 
 ity than well-equipped fortifications and the most de- 
 structive weapons of warfare. 
 
 If the gifted minds who have tried to make the 
 neAv generations see the war, with its tremendous 
 import, as it really existed, and have been only able 
 to dimly outline the causes that brought it about and 
 the spirit with which it was conducted, I can not hope 
 to throw a single additional ray of light on the picture. 
 And even those of us who do recall these stirring 
 times, who enlisted in the prime and vigor of our 
 young manhood, did not then begin to comprehend 
 the grandeur and glory of the times. We thought 
 we were fighting for our Constitution, our Union, 
 and our flag. We see, now, that in doing so we were 
 making battle for humanity everywhere. In antici- 
 pation that our Civil War would destroy our national 
 unity, the emperor of France took advantage of the 
 disordered condition of Mexico, and sent Maximilian 
 to that unhappy Republic, declared him the emperor, 
 and held him on the throne by French bayonets. But 
 the success of the Union army compelled the French 
 to evacuate Mexico, and the Mexicans took possession 
 of their own country, caj)tured Maximilian, tried, con- 
 victed, and shot him as a usurper, and re-established 
 the Republic on a firmer basis than before. Since 
 then the liberty-loving people of France have driven 
 Napoleon into exile, and established a Republic on 
 the ruins of monarchy — a Republic which grows 
 stronger every day in the love and confidence of the 
 French. 
 
 Is it too much to assume that the success of our 
 armies and the maintenance of national authority 
 
470 The Toast — The Citizen Soldier. 
 
 made Gladstone the friend of human liberty and 
 caused him to p:ive a listening car to the wrongs 
 that had been inflicted on Ireland, making his last 
 days glorious by wresting from the British Empire 
 the rights they had stolen from the Irish ? Who will 
 be bold enough to assume that Dom Pedro would 
 have been driven from Brazil, and the Republic es- 
 tablished there, had we failed to maintain the unity 
 of our own Republic? That our country stood the 
 strain of the great Civil War, and came out without 
 the stain of oppression on her escutcheon, stronger 
 and purer than at the beginning, has awakened and 
 aroused the spirit of liberty in the downtrodden 
 everywhere. The laboring classes are more pro- 
 nounced in their demands for their rights. The abo- 
 lition of slavery removed the stigma that chattel man- 
 hood had placed upon labor. We now see that the 
 young and proud emperor of Germany concedes that 
 it is best to bow his imperial ear to listen to the 
 prayers of the laboring classes of his people, and call 
 a council to devise means for their relief. W^e see also 
 the czar of the Russias doubling his guard, and 
 trembling with guilty fear in his castle, dreading the 
 wrath of his oppressed people and the vengeance of 
 the friends of the Siberian exile. The South Ameri- 
 can Republics send their trusted representatives to 
 gather round our hearthstone, to promote closer com- 
 mercial and fraternal relations, and to learn the les- 
 son here and imbibe the progressive and independent 
 spirit that has made our national success the wonder 
 and admiration of the civilized world. 
 
 The Union soldier did not know, when fighting 
 
The Toast— The Citizen Soldier. 471 
 
 to save the Republic, for how much he fought. The 
 magnitude of his triumph will ouly be known when 
 despotism is a thing of the past, and man everywhere 
 stands erect in his own liberated and glorious man- 
 hood. Could the soldier of the Repu*blic have seen 
 it then, as We see it now, it would have added more 
 patience and courage in defeat and heightened his joy 
 in the hour of victory. 
 
 But I am digressing. I am expected to say some- 
 thing about the cause of the war, and the incidents 
 attending its inception. It is generally spoken of as 
 a sectional strife, a conflict between North and South. 
 But there is nothing in latitude and longitude to cause 
 a disturbance. It was not the location of the par- 
 ties that made them meet on the battle-field as ene- 
 mies. It has been conceded, on all hands, that the 
 system of human bondage that British cupidity had 
 fastened on the Colonies was the inciting cause. The 
 slaveholder would tolerate no discussion of slavery in 
 the territory where it existed. Some brave spirits at- 
 tempted it, but did it at the peril of their lives. So 
 that the freedom of the press was silent, the pulpit 
 was muzzled, and liberty of speech on the public 
 platform was absolutely suppressed in the domain of 
 slavery. 
 
 The monstrous assumption that one man had the 
 right to buy and sell another man as a chattel, and 
 that no discussion of it could be tolerated, would 
 necessarily be resisted by a high-spirited and liberty- 
 loving people. It was an incongruity in a free Re- 
 public. Peace was only preserved and war deferred 
 because the friends of the slaveholder held the reins 
 
472 The Toast^The Citizen Soldier. 
 
 of Government. When the people in their sovereign 
 capacity, and in strict compliance with the Constitu- 
 tion, took the National Government out of their 
 hands, then the slaveocracy prepared for war. Before 
 open hostilities commenced, the American Congress 
 offered them such terms of peace, as, if accepted, 
 would liave blackened the good name of the Repub- 
 lic forever. 
 
 Some one has said : "Against stupidity, even 
 the gods are powerless." The Secessionists were 
 too mad and too stupid to accept the terms ; and 
 from that hour slavery was doomed. The Con- 
 federates expected sectional pride to carry the whole 
 South against the Government, and party pride to di- 
 vide the North, and thus give them an easy victory. 
 They underestimated the patriotism of the American 
 people. They were sadly mistaken in both of their 
 assumptions. There were thousands and hundreds of 
 thousands of patriotic men in the South who loved 
 the whole Union more than a section; and the first 
 gun fired at the flag at Fort Sumter snapped all party 
 ties in the North ; the partisan became the patriot, 
 and men of all parties rushed to the defense of the 
 Nation as to a banquet. The few who attempted to 
 make party capital out of the Nation's calamity be- 
 came so infamous that it is not probable that any 
 will ever follow their example in the future. 
 
 I am well aware that all these facts have been 
 often repeated ; and my only apology for again refer- 
 ring to them is, that the topic assigned me seems to 
 demand it. They are the inexorable facts of Ameri- 
 can history, that give the terminal point to American 
 
The To AST—The Citizen Soldier. 473 
 
 slavery, and indicate the commencement of a higher 
 and better civilization. 
 
 Twenty-nine years ago, in this beautiful month 
 of May, the capital of our State was the rendezvous 
 of men who had come from the farm, the Avorkshop, 
 the office, and the pulpit, to maintain the Nation's 
 honor and uphold the Nation's flag. Twice as many 
 responded to the President's call as were invited, — as 
 would doubtless have been the case if the call had 
 been for ten times the number. The companies that 
 were accepted were envied by those less fortunate; 
 and they were mustered into the service, and put into 
 camp; and the work of regimental organization com- 
 menced. The citizen became the soldier. When the 
 private put oft' the long-tailed coat, and put on the 
 bob-tailed roundabout, and discarded the slouched or 
 plug hat for the natty cap, and the officer assumed 
 the double-breasted blue coat garnished with brass 
 buttons and epaulets, and secured with a fiery red 
 silk sash and bright leather sword-belt — to which 
 were added yellow buckskin gauntlets on his hands and 
 arms, and his hat covered with plumes and feath- 
 ers — and the faces of private and officer were bronzed 
 by the wind and sun of the drill-ground, the change 
 was something amazing. If the numerous creditors 
 left behind had come to camp then, they w^ould not 
 have known to whom to present their accounts. If 
 the citizen could have acquired the duties of the 
 soldier as easily as he could put on the uniform, it 
 would have simplified matters, and very greatly re- 
 lieved the situation. 
 
 It would be a large volume that would contain all 
 
474 The Toast — The Citizen Soldier. 
 
 the absurd sayings and doings of the first moutb of a 
 volunteer regiment's existence. The disposition to 
 discuss the propriety of every military order, and the 
 inclination to complain about the regulations of camp- 
 life, was a ludicrous exhibition of the citizen in 
 soldier's clothes. The inflated mental condition of 
 the little, shallow man who had by some accident a 
 commission, and the humiliation of the man of sense 
 who was obliged to obey his military superior, pre- 
 sented a grotesque picture. The independent citizen, 
 in the majesty of his sovereignty and the pride of his 
 individuality, had never before been required to obey 
 the dictum of another. It was an interesting study 
 in camp-life to note the questioning spirit with which 
 he met these new and extraordinary demands of mil- 
 itary life. 
 
 But he had given up his business, and all the 
 air-castles that hope and expectation had created 
 therefrom ; he had given up home, the dearest place 
 on earth ; he had left those he loved in tears ; he was 
 now called upon to surrender himself, to give up his 
 individuality, to realize the accomplishment of the 
 high purpose that prompted it all — the perpetuity of 
 the Union of the States and the salvation of 
 his country. And he did it — did it like a hero, as 
 he was. 
 
 The citizen, in fighting these great battles with 
 himself, and the victory his patriotism won in be- 
 coming the soldier of the Republic, displayed as 
 high a type of courage and as noble a spirit of self- 
 sacrifice as he ever did afterwards on the battle-field. 
 As his patriotic fire transformed the independent 
 
The Toast— The Citizen Soldier. 475 
 
 citizen into the self-denying soldier, let the same 
 })raise be giv^en for his enlistment as for his faith- 
 ful service to the end, and let our sentiment be, as 
 it will be of all coming generations, "All honor 
 
 TO THE CITIZEN SOLDIER OF THE REPUBLIC !" 
 
THE TOAST— OUR GUEST. 
 
 BEING "our guest" on this occasion, it would not 
 be in accord with the rules of hospitality even 
 mildly to protest against the requirement to respond 
 to a toast so personal to myself. Allow me, how- 
 ever, to say that it is not comfortable for a modest 
 man to speak of himself, and an intelligent audience 
 such as this can not endure egotism. But my grate- 
 ful aj)i)reciation of the fact that I am thus honored 
 by being your guest, ought to make any demand you 
 choose to make of me an agreeable one. There have 
 been guests in all ages and times; but I can not im- 
 agine that any of them, }>ublic or private, has ever 
 been more honored or made happier than your guest 
 at this banquet, which you have so generously and 
 kindly given him. 
 
 Banquets are as old, yea older, than civilization. 
 Alexander the Great and Belshazzar gave great feasts, 
 and banquets were common with the Greeks and 
 Romans. And, following down the current of Amer- 
 ican history to our own time, we find, all along the 
 line of the centuries and ages, that banquets have 
 held their place, while many other customs have dis- 
 appeared. I imagine that they have been thus con- 
 tinued because they gratified the social wants of 
 
 Responded to by Mr. Cumback at a banquet giv^en in his 
 honor by his neighbors. 
 476 
 
The Toast— Our Guest. 477 
 
 humanity, and they will exist as long as man loves his 
 neighbor. 
 
 Banquets have been given from many different 
 reasons, and sometimes to compass selfish, political, 
 or personal aims. When given to an honored guest, 
 it has been generally because the guest has, by some 
 great feat in war, politics, or literature, attracted the 
 attention and wonder of mankind — sometimes, and 
 indeed often, because he has been lifted to high posi- 
 tion in the State or the Government, or promoted to 
 an exalted place in one of the many fraternal organ- 
 izations of human society. The banquet is thus 
 made the chosen medium for his neighbors and 
 friends to express their gratification and appreciation 
 of his good fortune, and to show their joy at his 
 promotion. But even then it has happened, in some 
 instances, that selfish and sinister purposes were con- 
 cealed in the hospitality. But not so here and 
 to-night. 
 
 I never read, heard, or knew of such a banquet 
 as this, — your guest a quiet private citizen, plodding 
 along day by day, doing n(»thing extraordinary, ac- 
 complishing no wonderful works, holding no position 
 in the State or Government, controlling no gifts of 
 office or patronage, and powerless to make any ade- 
 quate return for the great honor you confer upon 
 him. Most banquets exhibit the worthiness of the 
 guest ; this one proves the magnanimity of the host — 
 a host composed of my neighbors, with whom I have 
 lived for more than a third of a century. It is in- 
 deed an honor, the grateful appreciation of which I 
 can find no w^ords to express. When I received the 
 
478 The Toast— Our Guest. 
 
 invitation from one hundred of my neighbors to be 
 your guest on this occasion, I asked myself the 
 question, What have I done to merit this distinction? 
 I coukl find no answer. But now I see that you in- 
 tend, by this banquet, to let me know that I have 
 your regard and confidence. 
 
 The most successful man, after all, is not the one 
 who wins great honors from the State or builds up a 
 colossal fortune, but he who secures the love and 
 confidence of those who have known him best and 
 longest. You have given this banquet that I might 
 feel that my uneventful life has not been a failure. 
 I regard this as the great event of my life ; and in 
 my own name, as well as in the name of my wife and 
 children, I give you the sincere thanks of a grateful 
 heart, conscious that I am now one of those for- 
 tunate ones who have received more than they 
 deserved. 
 
 Heaven bless your generous hearts ! This is a 
 new incentive to try to be more worthy such noble 
 fellowship as this. 
 
 "Let us live for those who love us, 
 
 For those who know us true ; 
 For the heaven that smiles above us, 
 
 And awaits our spirits, too ; 
 For the cause that lacks assistance, 
 For the wrong that needs resistance. 
 For the justice in the distance. 
 
 And the good that we may do." 
 
LIBRARY PRESENTATION. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MAJOR WALKER. 
 /I AJOE, — This company of military gentlemen 
 
 i> 1 have taken possession of your quarters with no 
 hostile intent. However formidable our appearance in 
 numbers or in rank, I am permitted to assure you 
 that your servants are true men, and no spies; that no 
 assault upon your person or your liberty is intended; 
 that all weapons are sheathed save those of wit, all 
 bonds unthought of save those of friendship, and all 
 explosives removed save the bloodless artillery of 
 Heidsic or the Widow Clicquot. 
 
 It is my pleasing duty on this occasion to be the 
 mjedium, in behalf of my brethren and assistants in 
 the Pay Department of this district, through which 
 shall pass this goodly piece of furniture, and the 
 books which fill its shelves, into hands so well worthy 
 to receive them as your own. The gift tells its own 
 story without feeble words of mine. It is the off- 
 spring of our friendship for our chief — a friendship 
 which each one of us shares ; which binds us to you 
 by more than official ties, of which your official re- 
 lation to us has been simply the opportunity and not 
 the cause. 
 
 It is difficult for me to address you, Major, in 
 
 Address of ^lajor S. A. Walker, and response on the pre- 
 sentation of a library to Major Cumback by the oflBcers re- 
 porting to him for duty. 
 
 479 
 
480 Library Presentation. 
 
 terms which, out of this circle, would not be consid- 
 ered those of adulation ; but less forcible would fail to 
 express the sentiments of the donors of the gift. 
 We feel that your administration of the affairs of 
 this department has exhibited remarkable traits of 
 character on your part. You can say to one, " Go, 
 and he goeth;" to another, '' Come, and he coraeth;" 
 but we are all witnesses here this day that justice is 
 administered with an even hand, and, moreover, that 
 no authority or pride of place has ever been able to 
 make you haughty or dictatorial. You are the most 
 approachable of men ; no mystery of sublime author- 
 ity surrounds you, nor do supercilious looks and 
 lofty bearing ever remind us that our presence is an 
 impertinence. 
 
 We regard this freedom from vanity a rcmai'kable 
 aud worthy trait of yours. Major, in these days when 
 every staflF officer is as chary of his presence as an 
 Oriental monarch, aud when it is only after low 
 obeisance made that we can obtain our just dues of a 
 quartermaster. 
 
 You have proved, moreover, that the work of your 
 department can be done, and well done, without 
 a punctilious straining for official regularity and 
 needless waste of red tape. AVe trust you have found 
 us not the less willing to obey because you are not 
 always straining the reins of authority over us. And 
 if there has been any alacrity for duty on our part, 
 any disposition to exceed written instructions in 
 furtherance of your wishes, it has all been because we 
 felt we were called, not servants, but friends. It is 
 easy for the bride at the altar to promise to honor 
 
Library Presentation. 481 
 
 and obey when first she has plighted to love. We 
 believe our readiness of service has a similar cause. 
 If friendship can thus dignify and ennoble dry offi- 
 cial relationships, we may well say, " Solem e mundo 
 tollunt, qui tollunt amicltiam." 
 
 This offering, Major, has been long in contem- 
 plation. At one time, since its inception, we feared 
 that the machinations of friendly politicians in your 
 neighboring State might make this gift, contrary to 
 our intentions, a parting one. It is a matter of great 
 satisfaction to each one of us to think that their loss 
 is our exceeding gain, and that this present is not the 
 memento of an intercourse ended, but the emblem of 
 one long to continue. We trust that the nature of 
 our present you will regard as not otherwise than 
 complimentary. 
 
 Silver and gold, in forms of cunning workman- 
 ship, though proper emblems of the purity and value 
 of our regard, are always fair plunder for house- 
 breakers, and, moreover, never enter into and make 
 a part of daily life, as we desire our memory should. 
 A horse, or a pair of them, is a pleasant thing, both 
 to give and to possess ; but ten years from now, 
 stumbling with age and burdened with equine infirm- 
 ities, such a gift would be but a paltry symbol of the 
 friendship we trust may be perpetual. But books — 
 how well they suit the cultivated mind of him who 
 receives them, and how fitly do they symbolize the 
 regard of those who bestow ! 
 
 We shall be omnipresent with you henceforth. 
 
 On those shelves there is thought for every mood, 
 
 tense, and case of existence. There is humor and 
 
 31 
 
482 Library Presentation. 
 
 wit, should you be despondent; in trouble, there is 
 consolation; counsel, when you need it; and a ready 
 fortification in facts and history, for use in the forum 
 or at the bar. Thus, by the nature of our gift, have 
 we incorporated ourselves into your existence, and 
 made Shakespeare, and Irving, and Prescott, and all 
 the worthies of literature, suggestive of ourselves. 
 For thus invading the sanctum of your inner life, our 
 pure friendship is our only apology. 
 
 And, Major, in years to come, when the weari- 
 some days of war are over; when the trying and un- 
 satisfactory life we are leading, which is made endur- 
 able only by the thought that others are suffering 
 more than we, and that the sorrowing land puts trials 
 at the door of all ; when our Nation's deliverance is 
 accomplished, — 
 
 " When the mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall 
 answer sea, 
 And mountain unto mountain call, 'Praise God, for we are 
 free !' " — 
 
 when in our quiet homes by the Atlantic shore, by 
 Northern lakes, or by the winding waters of the 
 West, we shall have resumed callings we have will- 
 ingly relinquished, — then, what a pleasure to each 
 one of us the thought that in the public positions to 
 which you are likely to be called we are still remem- 
 bered; and, more than all, in the private sanctity of 
 the home which your presence adorns, and where you 
 love to be — among the dearest of earth, in the fond 
 circle of your family — we, though a scattered band, 
 have, by virtue of this evening's gift, a place in your 
 household, a home in your memory. 
 
Library Presentation. 483 
 
 RESPONSE OF MAJOR CUMBACK. 
 
 Major Walker and Gentlemen, — I know 
 your generous natures too well to expect me to make 
 a suitable response, taken, as I am, at this great dis- 
 advantage. I am overwhelmed with the conscious- 
 ness of my unworthiness to receive from you this 
 maguificent token of your regard. Your kindness to 
 me during our official intercourse, your promptness 
 and cheerfulness in complying with all my wishes, 
 and your disposition to throw the mantle of charity 
 over my faults, has borne with it the very comfort- 
 ing assurance that I have your confidence and regard. 
 But when you tender to me this splendid symbol of 
 your affection, to take with me through all the journey 
 of life, keeping me constantly with you, although we 
 may be separated, you touch the tenderest chords of 
 my heart, and I am prevented from making such a 
 response as it is meet that I should make. 
 
 I can only say that I accept, with more gratitude 
 than I can now express, this evidence of your regard, 
 pledging you that I will endeavor to be more worthy 
 your esteem by a faithful performance of my duties. 
 The Major has told us that the work has been well 
 done in this district, and in his generosity has im- 
 properly given me the credit for it. I agree with 
 him that the work has been done well, but to you 
 all, and not to me, belongs the praise. 
 
 Let us all, gentlemen, renew our vows to be more 
 vigilant and active in upholding our glorious Gov- 
 ernment in this her hour of trial ; and when the 
 hoarse, discordant notes of War shall be followed by 
 
484 Library Presentation. 
 
 the gentle whisper of Peace, if our names are not as 
 high on the scroll of fame as others, we will bear 
 with us the proud consciousness of having done oui 
 duty. As one of our members has so well sung: 
 
 "There is a joy, which, midst all joy, 
 
 Sits crowned upon a tlirone — 
 The only one without alloy — 
 
 It springs from duty done ; 
 And he whose throbbing bosom glows 
 
 With this supreme delight, 
 Does more than dream — he sees, he knows ; 
 
 The future makes all right." 
 
 Gentlemen, I will preserve this gift just as it 
 now stands before me. I wall take it w^ith me to the 
 home I love so well, and when the days of my life 
 are numbered, I will give it as a rich legacy to my 
 children, teaching them to honor your worth, emu- 
 late your virtues, and to be like you, faithful and 
 vigilant in the discharge of every duty demanded of 
 them by their country. 
 
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