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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18936-8.txt b/18936-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abf080d --- /dev/null +++ b/18936-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8878 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great +Teachers, by Elbert Hubbard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers + +Author: Elbert Hubbard + +Release Date: July 29, 2006 [EBook #18936] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Little + Journeys + To the Homes of Great Teachers + + + Elbert Hubbard + + + Memorial Edition + + + + + Printed and made into a Book by + The Roycrofters, who are in East + Huron, Erie County, New York + + Wm. H. Wise & Co. + New York + + Copyright, 1916, + By The Roycrofters + + + + + CONTENTS + + + MOSES 9 + + CONFUCIUS 41 + + PYTHAGORAS 69 + + PLATO 97 + + KING ALFRED 123 + + ERASMUS 149 + + BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 183 + + THOMAS ARNOLD 217 + + FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 245 + + HYPATIA 269 + + SAINT BENEDICT 293 + + MARY BAKER EDDY 327 + + + + +[Illustration: MOSES] + +MOSES + + + And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt + thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. + And God said, moreover, unto Moses: Thus shalt thou say unto the + children of Israel, The Lord God of your Fathers, the God of + Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto + you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all + generations. + + --_Exodus iii: 14, 15_ + + +MOSES + +Moses was the world's first great teacher. He is still one of the +world's great teachers. Seven million people yet look to his laws for +special daily guidance, and more than two hundred millions read his +books and regard them as Holy Writ. And these people as a class are of +the best and most enlightened who live now or who have ever lived. + +Moses did not teach of a life after this--he gives no hint of +immortality--all of his rewards and punishments refer to the present. If +there is a heaven for the good and a hell for the bad, he did not know +of them. + +The laws of Moses were designed for the Now and the Here. Many of them +ring true and correct even today, after all this interval of more than +three thousand years. Moses had a good knowledge of physiology, hygiene, +sanitation. He knew the advantages of cleanliness, order, harmony, +industry and good habits. He also knew psychology, or the science of the +mind: he knew the things that influence humanity, the limits of the +average intellect, the plans and methods of government that will work +and those which will not. + +He was practical. He did what was expedient. He considered the material +with which he had to deal, and he did what he could and taught that +which his people would and could believe. The Book of Genesis was +plainly written for the child-mind. + +The problem that confronted Moses was one of practical politics, not a +question of philosophy or of absolute or final truth. The laws he put +forth were for the guidance of the people to whom he gave them, and his +precepts were such as they could assimilate. + +It were easy to take the writings of Moses as they have come down to us, +translated, re-translated, colored and tinted with the innocence, +ignorance and superstition of the nations who have kept them alive for +thirty-three centuries, and then compile a list of the mistakes of the +original writer. The writer of these records of dreams and hopes and +guesses, all cemented with stern commonsense, has our profound reverence +and regard. The "mistakes" lie in the minds of the people who, in the +face of the accumulated knowledge of the centuries, have persisted that +things once written were eternally sufficient. + +In point of time there is no teacher within many hundred years following +him who can be compared with him in originality and insight. + +Moses lived fourteen hundred years before Christ. + +The next man after him to devise a complete code of conduct was Solon, +who lived seven hundred years after. A little later came Zoroaster, then +Confucius, Buddha, Lao-tsze, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle--contemporaries, or closely following each other, their +philosophy woven and interwoven by all and each and each by all. + +Moses, however, stands out alone. That he did not know natural history +as did Aristotle, who lived a thousand years later, is not to his +discredit, and to emphasize the fact were irrelevant. + +Back of it all lies the undisputed fact that Moses led a barbaric people +out of captivity and so impressed his ideals and personality upon them +that they endure as a distinct and peculiar people, even unto this day. +He founded a nation. And chronologically he is the civilized world's +first author. + +Moses was a soldier, a diplomat, an executive, a writer, a teacher, a +leader, a prophet, a stonecutter. Beside all these he was a farmer--a +workingman, one who when forty years of age tended flocks and herds for +a livelihood. Every phase of the outdoor life of the range was familiar +to him. And the greatness of the man is revealed in the fact that his +plans and aspirations were so far beyond his achievements that at last +he thought he had failed. Exultant success seems to go with that which +is cheap and transient. All great teachers have, in their own minds, +been failures--they saw so much further than they were able to travel. + + * * * * * + +All ancient chronology falls easily into three general divisions: the +fabulous, the legendary, and the probable or natural. + +In the understanding of history, psychology is quite as necessary as +philology. + +To reject anything that has a flaw in it is quite as bad as to have that +excess of credulity which swallows everything presented. + +It is not necessary to throw away the fabulous nor deny the legendary. +But it is certainly not wise to construe the fabulous as the actual and +maintain the legendary as literally true. Things may be true +allegorically and false literally, and to be able to distinguish the one +from the other, and prize each in its proper place, is the mark of +wisdom. + +If, however, we were asked to describe the man Moses to a jury of sane, +sensible, intelligent and unprejudiced men and women, and show why he is +worthy of the remembrance of mankind, we would have to eliminate the +fabulous, carefully weigh the traditional, and rest our argument upon +records that are fair, sensible and reasonably free from dispute. + +The conclusions of professional retainers, committed before they begin +their so-called investigations to a literal belief in the fabulous, +should be accepted with great caution. For them to come to conclusions +outside of that which they have been taught, is not only to forfeit +their social position, but to lose their actual means of livelihood. +Perhaps the truth in the final summing up can best be gotten from those +who have made no vows that they will not change their opinions, and have +nothing to lose if they fail occasionally to gibe with the popular. + +On a certain occasion after Colonel Ingersoll had delivered his famous +lecture entitled, "Some Mistakes of Moses," he was entertained by a +local club. At the meeting, which was of the usual informal kind known +as "A Dutch Feed," a young lawyer made bold to address the great orator +thus: "Colonel Ingersoll, you are a lover of freedom--with you the word +liberty looms large. All great men love liberty, and no man lives in +history, respected and revered, save as he has sought to make men free. +Moses was a lover of liberty. Now, wouldn't it be gracious and generous +in you to give Moses, who in some ways was in the same business as +yourself, due credit as a liberator and law-giver and not emphasize his +mistakes to the total exclusion of his virtues?" + +Colonel Ingersoll listened--he was impressed by the fairness of the +question. He listened, paused and replied: "Young man, you have asked a +reasonable question, and all you suggest about the greatness of Moses, +in spite of his mistakes, is well taken. The trouble in your logic lies +in the fact that you do not understand my status in this case. You seem +to forget that I am not the attorney for Moses. He has more than two +million men looking after his interests. I am retained on the other +side!" + +Like unto Colonel Ingersoll, I am not an attorney for Moses. I desire, +however, to give a fair, clear and judicial account of the man. I will +attempt to present a brief for the people, and neither prosecute nor +defend. I will simply try to picture the man as he once existed, nothing +extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice. As the original office of +the State's Attorney was rather to protect the person at the bar than to +indict him, so will I try to bring out the best in Moses, rather than +hold up his mistakes and raise a laugh by revealing his ignorance. +Modesty, which is often egotism turned wrong side out, might here say, +"Oh, Moses requires no defense at this late day!" But Moses, like all +great men, has suffered at the hands of his friends. To this man has +been attributed powers which no human being ever possessed. + +Moses lived thirty-three hundred years ago. In one sense thirty-three +centuries is a very long time. All is comparative--children regard a man +of fifty as "awful old." I have seen several persons who have lived a +hundred years, and they didn't consider a century long, "and thirty-five +isn't anything," said one of them to me. + +Geologically, thirty-three centuries is only an hour ago. It does not +nearly take us back to the time when men of the Stone Age hunted the +hairy mammoth in what is now Nebraska, nor does thirty-three centuries +give us any glimpse of the time when tropical animals, plants and +probably men lived and flourished at the North Pole. + +Egyptian civilization, at the time of Moses, was more than three +thousand years old. Egypt was then in the first stage of senility, +entering upon her decline, for her best people had settled in the +cities, and this completes the cycle and spells deterioration. She had +passed through the savage, barbaric, nomadic and agricultural stages and +was living on her unearned increment, a part of which was Israelitish +labor. Moses looked at the Pyramids, which were built more than a +thousand years before his birth, and asked in wonder about who built +them, very much as we do today. He listened for the Sphinx to answer, +but she was silent, then as now. The date of the exodus has been fixed +as having probably occurred during the reign of the Great Pharaoh, +Mineptah, or the nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty. The date is, say, fourteen +hundred years before Christ. An inscription has recently been found +which seems to show that Joseph settled in Egypt during the reign of +Mineptah, but the best scholars now have gone back to the conclusions I +have stated. + +At the time of the Pharaohs, Egypt was the highest civilized country on +earth. It had a vast system of canals, an organized army, a goodly +degree of art, and there were engineers and builders of much ability. +Philosophy, poetry and ethics were recognized, prized and discussed. + +The storage of grain by the government to bank against famine had been +practised for several hundred years. There were also treasure-cities +built to guard against fire, thieves or destruction by the elements. It +will thus be seen that foresight, thrift, caution, wisdom, played their +parts. The Egyptians were not savages. + + * * * * * + +About five hundred years before the birth of Moses there lived in Arabia +a powerful Sheik or Chief, known as Abraham. This man had a familiar +spirit, or guide, or guardian-angel known as Yaveh or Jehovah. All of +the desert tribes had such tutelary gods; and all of these gods were +once men of power who lived on earth. The belief in special gods has +often been held by very great men: Socrates looked to his "demon" for +guidance; Themistocles consulted his oracle; a President of the United +States visited a clairvoyant, who consented to act as a medium and +interpret the supernatural. This idea, which is a variant of ancestor +worship, still survives, and very many good people do not take journeys +or make investments until they believe they are being dictated to by +Shakespeare, Emerson, Beecher or Phillips Brooks. These people also +believe that there are bad spirits to which we must not harken. + +Abraham was led by Jehovah; what Jehovah told him to do he did; when +Jehovah told him to desist or change his plans, he obeyed. Jehovah +promised him many things, and some of these promises were fulfilled. + +Whether these tutelary gods or controlling spirits had any actual +existence outside of the imagination of the people who believed in +them--whether they were merely pictures thrown upon the screen by a +subconscious spiritual stereopticon--is not the question now under +discussion. Something must be left for a later time: the fact remains +that special providences are yet relied upon by sincere and intelligent +people. + +Abraham had a son named Isaac. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, or +Israel, "the Soldier of God," so called on account of his successful +wrestling with the angel. And Jacob was the father of twelve sons. All +of these people believed in Jehovah, the god of their tribe; and while +they did not disbelieve in the gods of the neighboring tribes, they yet +doubted their power and had grave misgivings as to their honesty. +Therefore, they had nothing to do with them, praying to their own god +only and looking to him for support. They were the chosen people of +Jehovah, just as the Babylonians were the chosen people of Baal; the +Canaanites the chosen people of Ishitar; the Moabites the chosen people +of Chemos; the Ammonites the chosen people of Rimmon. + +Now Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, and his brethren were +naturally jealous of him. So one day out on the range they sold him into +slavery to a passing caravan, and went home and told their father the +boy was dead, having been killed by a wild beast. To make the matter +plausible they took the coat of Joseph and smeared it with the blood of +a goat which they had killed. Nowadays, the coat would have been sent to +a chemist's laboratory and the blood-spots tested to see whether it was +the blood of beast or human. But Jacob believed the story and mourned +his son as dead. + +Now Joseph was taken to Egypt and there arose to a position of influence +and power through his intelligence and diligence. How eventually his +brethren, starving, came to him for food, there being a famine in their +own land, is one of the most natural and beautiful stories in all +literature. It is a folklore legend, free from the fabulous, and has all +the corroborating marks of the actual. + +For us it is history undisputed, unrefuted, because it is so natural. It +could all easily happen in various parts of the world even now. It shows +the identical traits of human nature that are alive and pulsing today. + +Joseph having made himself known to his brethren induced some of them +and their neighbors to come down into Egypt, where the pasturage was +better and the water more sure, and settle there. The Bible tells us +that there were seventy of these settlers and gives us their names. + +These emigrants, called Israelites, or Children of Israel, account for +the presence of the enslaved people whom Moses led out of captivity +three hundred years later. + +One thing seems quite sure, and that is that they were a peculiar people +then, with the pride of the desert in their veins, for they stood +socially aloof and did not mix with the Egyptians. They still had their +own god and clung to their own ways and customs. + +That very naive account in the first chapter of Exodus of how they had +two midwives, "and the name of one was Shiphrah and the other Puah," is +as fine in its elusive exactitude as an Uncle Remus story. Children +always want to know the names of people. These two Hebrew midwives were +bribed by the King of Egypt--ruler over twenty million people--in +person, to kill all the Hebrew boy babies. Then the account states that +Jehovah was pleased with these Hebrew women who proved false to their +master, and Jehovah rewarded them by giving them houses. + +This order to kill the Hebrew children must have gone into execution, if +at all, about the time of the birth of Moses, because Aaron, the brother +of Moses, and three years older, certainly was not killed. + +Whether Moses was the son of Pharaoh's daughter, his father an +Israelite, or both of his parents were Israelites, is problematic. Royal +families are not apt to adopt an unknown waif into the royal household +and bring him up as their royal own, especially if this waif belongs to +what is regarded as an inferior race. The tie of motherhood is the only +one that could over-rule caste and override prejudice. If the daughter +of Pharaoh, or more properly "the Pharaoh," were the mother of Moses, +she had a better reason for hiding him in the bulrushes than did the +daughter of a Levite, for the order to kill these profitable workers is +extremely doubtful. The strength, skill and ability of the Israelites +formed a valuable acquisition to the Egyptians, and what they wanted was +more Israelites, not fewer. + +Judging from the statement that there were only two midwives, there were +only a few hundred Israelites--perhaps between one and two thousand, at +most. + +So leaving the legend of the childhood of Moses with just enough mystery +mixed in it to give it a perpetual piquancy, we learn that he was +brought up an Egyptian, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and that it +was she who gave him his name. + +Philo and Josephus give various sidelights on the life and character of +Moses. The Midrash or Commentaries on the History of the Jews, composed, +added to or modified by many men, extending over a period of twenty +centuries, also add their weight, even though the value of these +Commentaries is conjectural. + +Egyptian accounts of Moses and the Israelites come to us through +Hellenic sources, and very naturally are not complimentary. These +picture Moses, or Osarsiph, as they call him, as an agitator, an +undesirable citizen, who sought to overturn the government, and failing +in this, fled to the desert with a few hundred outlaws. They managed to +hold out against the forces sent to capture them, were gradually added +to by other refugees, and through the organizing genius of Moses were +rounded into a strong tribe. + +That Moses was their supreme ruler, and that to better hold his people +in check he devised a religious ritual for them, and impressed his god, +Jehovah, upon them, almost to the exclusion of all other gods, and thus +formed them into a religious whole, is beyond question. No matter what +the cause of the uprising, or who was to blame for it, the fact is +undisputed that Moses led a revolt in Egypt, and the people he carried +with him in this exodus formed the nucleus of the Hebrew Nation. And +further, the fact is beyond dispute that the personality of Moses was +the prime cementing factor in the making of the nation. The power, +poise, patience and unwavering self-reliance of the man, through his +faith in the god Jehovah, are all beyond dispute. Things happen because +the man makes them happen. + + * * * * * + +The position of the Israelites in Egypt was one of voluntary vassalage. +The government was a feudal monarchy. The Israelites had come into Egypt +of their own accord, but had never been admitted into the full rights of +citizenship. This exclusion by the Egyptians had no doubt tended to fix +the Children of Israel in their religious beliefs, and on the other +hand, their proud and exclusive nature had tended to keep them from a +full fellowship with the actual owners of the land. + +The Egyptians never attempted to traffic in them as they did in slaves +of war, being quite content to use them as clerks, laborers and +servants, paying them a certain wage, and also demanding an excess of +labor in lieu of taxation. In other words, they worked out their +"road-tax," which no doubt was excessive. Many years later, Athens and +also Rome had similar "slaves," some of whom were men of great intellect +and worth. If one reads the works of modern economic prophets, it will +be seen that wage-workers in America are often referred to as "slaves" +or "bondmen," terms which will probably give rise to confusion among +historians to come. + +Moses was brought up in the court of the king, and became versed in all +the lore of the Egyptians. We are led to suppose that he also looked +like an Egyptian, as we are told that people seeing him for the first +time, he being a stranger to them, went away and referred to him as +"that Egyptian." He was handsome, commanding, silent by habit and slow +of speech, strong as a counselor, a safe man. That he was a most +valuable man in the conduct of Egyptian official affairs, there is no +doubt. And although he was nominally an Egyptian, living with the +Egyptians, adopting their manners and customs, yet his heart was with +"his brethren," the Israelites, who he saw were sore oppressed through +governmental exploitation. + +Moses knew that a government which does not exist for the purpose of +adding to human happiness has no excuse for being. And once when he was +down among his own people he saw an Egyptian taskmaster or foreman +striking an Israelitish workman, and in wrath he arose and killed the +oppressor. The only persons who were witnesses to this affair were two +Hebrews. The second day after the fight, when Moses was attempting to +separate two Hebrews who had gotten into an altercation with each other, +they taunted him by saying, "Who gavest thee to be a ruler over +us?--wilt thou also kill us as thou didst the Egyptian?" + +This gives us a little light upon the quality and character of the +people with whom Moses had to deal. It also shows that the ways of the +reformer and peacemaker are not flower-strewn. The worst enemies of a +reformer are not the Egyptians--he has also to deal with the Israelites. + +I once heard Terence V. Powderly, who organized the Knights of +Labor--the most successful labor organization ever formed--say, "Any man +who devotes his life to helping laboring men will be destroyed by them." +And then he added, "But this should not deter us from the effort to +benefit." + +As the Hebrew account plainly states that the killing of all the male +Hebrew children was carried out with the connivance of Hebrew women who +pretended to be ministering to the Hebrew mothers, so was the flight of +Moses from Egypt caused by the Hebrews, who turned informants and +brought him into disgrace with Pharaoh, who sought his life. + +Very naturally, the Egyptians deny and have always denied that the order +to kill children was ever issued by a Pharaoh. They also point to the +fact that the Israelites were a source of profit--a valuable asset to +the Egyptians. And moreover, the proposition that the Egyptians killed +the children to avoid trouble is preposterous, since no possible act +that man can commit would so arouse sudden rebellion and fan into flame +the embers of hate as the murder of the young. If the Egyptians had +attempted to carry out any such savage cruelty, they would not only have +had to fight the Israelitish men, but the outraged mothers as well. The +Egyptians were far too wise to invite the fury of frenzied motherhood. +To have done this would have destroyed the efficiency of the entire +Hebrew population. An outraged and heartbroken people do not work. + +When one person becomes angry with another, his mental processes work +overtime making up a list of the other's faults and failings. + +When a people arise in revolt they straightway prepare an indictment +against the government against which they revolted, giving a schedule of +outrages, insults, plunderings and oppressions. This is what is politely +called partisan history. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a literary indictment +of the South by featuring its supposed brutalities. And the attitude of +the South is mirrored in a pretty parable concerning a Southern girl who +came North on a visit, and seeing in print the words "damned Yankee," +innocently remarked that she always thought they were one word. A +description of the enemy, made by a person or a people, must be taken +cum grano Syracuse. + + * * * * * + +When Moses fled, after killing the Egyptian, he went northward and east +into the land of the Midianites, who were also descendants of Abraham. +At this time he was forty years of age, and still unmarried, his work in +the Egyptian Court having evidently fully absorbed his time. + +It is a pretty little romance, all too brief in its details, of how the +tired man stopped at a well, and the seven daughters of Jethro came to +draw water for their flocks. Certain shepherds came also and drove the +girls away, when Moses, true to his nature, took the part of the young +ladies, to the chagrin and embarrassment of the male rustics who had +left their manners at home. The story forms a melodramatic stage-setting +which the mummers have not been slow to use, representing the seven +daughters as a ballet, the shepherds as a male chorus, and Moses as +basso-profundo and hero. We are told that the girls went home and told +their father of the chivalrous stranger they had met, and he, with all +the deference of the desert, sent for him "that he might eat bread." + +Very naturally Moses married one of the girls. + +And Moses tended the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law, taking the +herds a long distance, living with them and sleeping out under the +stars. + +Now Jethro was the chief of his tribe. Moses calls him a "priest," but +he was a priest only incidentally, as all the Arab chiefs were. + +The clergy originated in Egypt. Before the Israelites were in Goshen, +the "sacra," or sacred utensils, belonged to the family; and the head of +the tribe performed the religious rites, propitiating the family deity, +or else delegated some one else to do so. This head of the tribe, or +chief, was called a "Cohen"; and the man who assisted him, or whom he +delegated, was called a "Levi." The plan of making a business of being a +"Levi" was borrowed from the Egyptians, who had men set apart, +exclusively, to deal in the mysterious. Moses calls himself a Levi, or +Levite. + +After the busy life he had led, Moses could not settle down to the +monotonous existence of a shepherd. It is probable that then he wrote +the Book of Job, the world's first drama and the oldest book of the +Bible. Moses was full of plans. Very naturally he prayed to the +Israelitish god, and the god harkened unto his prayer and talked to him. + +The silence, the loneliness, the majesty of the mountains, the great +stretches of shining sand, the long peaceful nights, all tend to +hallucinations. Sheepmen are in constant danger of mental aberration. +Society is needed quite as much as solitude. + +From talking with God, Moses desired to see Him. One day, from the +burning red of an acacia-tree, the Lord called to him, "Moses, Moses!" + +And Moses answered, "Here am I!" + +Moses was a man born to rule--he was a leader of men--and here at +middle life the habits of twenty-five years were suddenly snapped and +his occupation gone. He yearned for his people, and knowing their +unhappy lot, his desire was to lead them out of captivity. He knew the +wrongs the Egyptian government was visiting upon the Israelites. Rameses +the Second was a ruler with the builder's eczema: always and forever he +made gardens, dug canals, paved roadways, constructed model tenements, +planned palaces, erected colossi. He was a worker, and he made everybody +else work. It was in this management of infinite detail that Moses had +been engaged; and while he entered into it with zest, he knew that the +hustling habit can be overdone and its votaries may become its +victims--not only that, but this strenuous life may turn freemen into +serfs, and serfs into slaves. + +And now Rameses was dead, and the proud, vain, fretful and selfish +Mineptah ruled in his place. It was worse with the Israelites than ever! + +The more Moses thought of it the more he was convinced that it was his +duty to go back to Egypt and lead his people out of bondage. He himself, +having been driven out, made the matter a burning one with him: he had +lost his place in the Egyptian Court, but he would get it back and hold +it under better conditions than ever before! + +He heard the "Voice"! All strong people hear the Voice calling them. And +harkening to the Inner Voice is simply doing what you want to do. + +"Moses, Moses!" + +And Moses answered, "Lord, here am I." + +The laws of Moses still influence the world, but not even the orthodox +Jews follow them literally. We bring our reason to bear upon the +precepts of Moses, and those which are not for us we gently pass over. +In fact, the civil laws of most countries prohibit many of the things +which Moses commanded. For instance, the eighteenth verse of the +twenty-second chapter of Exodus says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to +live." Certainly no Jewish lawyer nor Rabbi, in any part of the world, +advocates the killing of persons supposed to be witches. We explain that +in this instance the inspired writer lapsed and merely mirrored the +ignorance of his time. Or else we fall back upon the undoubted fact that +various writers and translators have tampered with the original +text--this must be so, since the book written by Moses makes record of +his death. + +But when we find passages in Moses requiring us to benefit our enemies, +we say with truth that this was the first literature to express for us +the brotherhood of man. + +"Thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth +the words of the righteous." Here we get Twentieth-Century Wisdom. And +very many passages as fine and true can be found, which prove for us +beyond cavil that Moses was right a part of the time, and to say this +of any man, living or dead, is a very great compliment. + +In times of doubt the Jewish people turn to the Torah, or Book of the +Law. This book has been interpreted by the Rabbis, or the learned men, +and to meet the exigencies of living under many conditions, it has been +changed, enlarged and augmented. In these changes the people were not +consulted. Very naturally it was done secretly, for inspired men must be +well dead before the many accept their edict. To be alive is always more +or less of an offense, especially if you be a person and not a +personage. + +The murmurings against Moses during his lifetime often broke into a +rumble and a roar. The mob accused him of taking them out into the +wilderness to perish. To get away from the constant bickering and +criticisms of the little minds, Moses used to go up into the mountains +alone to find rest, and there he communicated with his god. It was +surely a great step in advance when all the Elohims were combined into +one Supreme Elohim that was everywhere present and ruled the world. +Instead of dozens of little gods, jealous, jangling, fearful, fretful, +fussy, boastful, changing walking-sticks to serpents, or doing other +things quite as useless, it was a great advance to have one Supreme +Being, dispassionate, a God of Love and Justice, "with whom can be no +variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." This gradual +ennobling of the conception of Divinity reveals the extent to which man +is ennobling his own nature. + +Up to within a very few years God had a rival in the Devil, but now the +Devil lives only as a pleasantry. Until the time of Moses, the God of +Sinai was only the God of the Hebrew people, and this accounts for His +violence, wrath, jealousy, and all of those qualities which went to make +up a barbaric chief, including the tendency of His sons and servants to +make love to the daughters of earth. + +It is probable that the idea of God--in opposition to a god, one of many +gods--was a thought that grew up very gradually in the mind of Moses. +The ideal grew, and Moses grew with the ideal. + +Then from God being a Spirit, to being Spirit, is a natural, easy and +beautiful evolution. + +The thought of angels, devils, heavenly messengers, like Gabriel and the +Holy Ghost, constantly surrounding the Throne, is a suggestion that +comes from the court of the absolute monarch. The Trinity is the +oligarchy refined, and the one son who gives himself as a sacrifice for +all the people who have offended the monarch is the retreating vision of +that night of ignorance when all nations sought to appease the wrath of +their god by the death of human beings. + +God to us is Spirit, realized everywhere in unfolding Nature. We are a +part of Nature--we, too, are Spirit. When Moses commands his people that +they must return the stray animal of their enemy to its rightful owner, +we behold a great man struggling to benefit humanity by making them +recognize the laws of Spirit. We are all one family--we can not afford +to wrong or harm even an enemy. + +Instead of thousands of warring, jarring families or tribes, we have now +a few strong federations of States, or countries, which, if they would +make war on one another, would today quickly face a larger foe. Already +the idea of one government for all the world is taking form--there must +be one Supreme Arbiter, and all this monstrous expense of money and +flesh and blood and throbbing hearts for purposes of war, must go, just +as we have sent to limbo the jangling, jarring, jealous gods. Also, the +better sentiment of the world will send the czars, emperors, kings, +grand dukes, and the greedy grafters of so-called democracy, into the +dust-heap of oblivion, with all the priestly phantoms that have obscured +the sun and blackened the sky. The gods have gone, but MAN IS HERE. + + * * * * * + +The plagues that befell the Egyptians were the natural ones to which +Egypt was liable: drought, flood, flies, lice, frogs, disease. The +Israelites very naturally declared that these things were sent as a +punishment by the Israelitish god. I remember a farmer, in my childhood +days, who was accounted by his neighbors as an infidel. He was struck by +lightning and instantly killed, while standing in his doorway. The +Sunday before, this man had worked in the fields, and just before he was +killed he had said, "dammit," or something quite as bad. Our preacher +explained at length that this man's death was a "judgment." Afterward, +when our church was struck by lightning, it was regarded as an accident. + +Ignorant and superstitious people always attribute special things to +special causes. When the grasshoppers overran Kansas in Eighteen Hundred +Eighty-five, I heard a good man from the South say it was a punishment +on the Kansans for encouraging Old John Brown. The next year the +boll-weevil ruined the cotton crop, and certain preachers in the North, +who thought they knew, declared it was the lingering wrath of God on +account of slavery. + +Three nations unite to form our present civilization. These are the +Greek, the Roman and the Judaic. The lives of Perseus, Romulus and Moses +all teem with the miraculous, but if we accept the supernatural in one +we must in all. Which of these three great nations has contributed most +to our well-being is a question largely decided by temperament; but +just now the star of Greece seems to be in the ascendant. We look to art +for solace. Greece stands for art; Rome for conquest; Judea for +religion. + +And yet Moses was a lover of beauty, and the hold he had upon his people +was quite as much through training them to work as through his moral +teaching. Indeed, his morality was expediency--which is reason enough +according to modern science. When he wants them to work, he says, "Thus +saith the Lord," just the same as when he wishes to impress upon them a +thought. + +No one can read the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth +chapters of Exodus without being impressed with the fact that the man +who wrote them had in him the spirit of the Master Workman--a King's +Craftsman. His carving the ten commandments on tablets of stone also +shows his skill with mallet and chisel, a talent he had acquired in +Egypt, where Rameses the Second had thousands of men engaged in +sculpture and in making inscriptions in stone. + +Several chapters in Exodus might have been penned by Albrecht Durer or +William Morris. The commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any +graven image," was unmistakably made merely to correct a local evil: the +tendency to worship the image instead of the thing it symbolized. People +who do not contribute to the creation of an object fall easy victims to +this error. With all the stern good sense that Moses revealed, it is +but fair to assume that he did not mean the command to be perpetual. It +was only through so much moving about that the Jews seemed to lose their +art spirit. + +And certainly the flame of art in the Jewish heart has never died out, +even though at times it has smoldered, for wherever there has been peace +and security for the Jews, they have not been slow to evolve the talent +which creates. History teems with the names of Jews who, in music, +painting, poetry and sculpture, have devoted their days to beauty. And +the germ of genius is seen in many of the Jewish children who attend the +manual-training and art schools of America. + +Art has its rise in the sense of sublimity. It seems at times to be a +fulfilment of the religious impulse. The religion which balks at work, +stopping at prayer and contemplation, is a form of arrested development. + +The number of people in the exodus was probably two or three thousand. +Renan says that one century only elapsed between the advent of Joseph +into Egypt and the revolt. Very certain it was not a great number that +went forth into the desert. A half-million women could not have borrowed +jewelry of their neighbors--the secret could not have been kept. And in +the negotiations between Moses and the King, it will be remembered that +Moses asked only for the privilege of going three days' journey into the +wilderness to make sacrifices. It was a kind of picnic or religious +campmeeting. A vast multitude could not have taken part in any such +exercise. We also hear of their singing their gratitude on account of +reaching Elim, where there were "twelve springs and seventy palm-trees." +Had there been several million people, as we have been told, the +insignificant shade of seventy trees would have meant nothing to them. + +The distance from Goshen in Egypt to Canaan in Palestine was about one +hundred seventy-five miles. But by the circuitous route they traveled it +was nearly a thousand miles. It took forty years to make the passage, +for the way had to be fought through the country of foes who very +naturally sought to block the way. Quick transportation was out of the +question. The rate of speed was about twenty-five miles a year. + +Here was a people without homes, or fixed habitation, beset on every +side with the natural dangers of the desert, and compelled to face the +fury of the inhabitants whose lands they overran, fearful, +superstitious, haunted by hunger, danger and doubt. By night a man sent +ahead with a lantern on a pole led the way; by day a cavalcade that +raised a cloud of dust. One was later sung by the poets as a pillar of +fire, and the other a cloud. Chance flocks of quail blown by a storm +into their midst were regarded as a miracle; the white exuding wax of +the manna-plant was told of as "bread"--or more literally food. + +Those who had taken part in the original exodus were nearly all +dead--their children and grandchildren survived, desert born and savage +bred. Canaan was not the land flowing with milk and honey that had been +described. Milk and honey are the results of labor applied to land. +Moses knew this and tried to teach this great truth. He was true to his +divine trust. Through doubt, hardship, poverty, misunderstanding, he +held high the ideal--they were going to a better place. + +At last, worn by his constant struggle, aged one hundred twenty, "his +eye not dim nor his natural force abated"--for only those live long who +live well--Moses went up into the mountain to find solace in solitude as +was his custom. His people waited for him in vain--he did not return. +Alone there with his God he slept and forgot to awaken. His pilgrimage +was done. "And no man knoweth his grave even unto this day." + +History is very seldom recorded on the spot--certainly it was not then. +Centuries followed before fact, tradition, song, legend and folklore +were fused into the form we call Scripture. But out of the fog and mist +of that far-off past there looms in heroic outline the form and features +of a man--a man of will, untiring activity, great hope, deep love, a +faith which at times faltered, but which never died. Moses was the first +man in history who fought for human rights and sought to make men free, +even from their own limitations. "And there arose not a prophet since +Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." + + + + +[Illustration: CONFUCIUS] + +CONFUCIUS + + + The highest study of all is that which teaches us to develop those + principles of purity and perfect virtue which Heaven bestowed upon + us at our birth, in order that we may acquire the power of + influencing for good those amongst whom we are placed, by our + precepts and example; a study without an end--for our labors cease + only when we have become perfect--an unattainable goal, but one + that we must not the less set before us from the very first. It is + true that we shall not be able to reach it, but in our struggle + toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to + our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same + direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties + with which we have been gifted to the best possible account. + + --_"The Annals" of Confucius_ + + +CONFUCIUS + +The Chinese comprise one-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth. There +are four hundred millions of them. + +They can do many things which we can not do, and we can do a few things +which they have not yet been able to do; but they are learning from us, +and possibly we would do well to learn from them. In China there are now +trolley-cars, telephone-lines, typewriters, cash-registers and American +plumbing. China is a giant awaking from sleep. He who thinks that China +is a country crumbling into ruins has failed to leave a call at the +office and has overslept. + +The West can not longer afford to ignore China. And not being able to +waive her, perhaps the next best thing is to try to understand her. + +The one name that looms large above any other name in China is +Confucius. He of all men has influenced China most. One-third of the +human race love and cherish his memory, and repeat his words as sacred +writ. + +Confucius was born at a time when one of those tidal waves of reason +swept the world--when the nations were full of unrest, and the mountains +of thought were shaken with discontent. + +It was just previous to the blossoming of Greece. + +Pericles was seventeen years old when Confucius died. Themistocles was +preparing the way for Pericles; for then was being collected the +treasure of Delos, which made Phidias and the Parthenon possible. During +the life of Confucius lived Leonidas, Miltiades, Cyrus the Great, +Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes. And then quite naturally occurred the battles +of Marathon, Salamis and Thermopylæ. Then lived Buddha-Gautama, +Lao-tsze, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Pythagoras, Pindar, +Æschylus and Anacreon. + +The Chinese are linked to the past by ties of language and custom beyond +all other nations. They are a peculiar people, a chosen people, a people +set apart. Just when they withdrew from the rest of mankind and +abandoned their nomadic habits, making themselves secure against +invasion by building a wall one hundred feet high, and settled down to +lay the foundations of a vast empire, we do not know. Some historians +have fixed the date about ten thousand years before Christ--let it go at +that. There is a reasonably well-authenticated history of China that +runs back twenty-five hundred years before Christ, while our history +merges into mist seven hundred fifty years before the Christian era. + +The Israelites wandered; the Chinese remained at home. Walls have this +disadvantage: they keep people in as well as shut the barbarians out. +But now there are vast breaches in the wall, through which the +inhabitants ooze, causing men from thousands of miles away to cry in +alarm, "the Yellow Peril!" And also through these breaches, Israelites, +Englishmen and Yankees enter fearlessly, settle down in heathen China, +and do business. + +It surely is an epoch, and what the end will be few there are who dare +forecast. + + * * * * * + +This then is from the pen of Edward Carpenter, the Church of England +curate who was so great a friend and admirer of our own Walt Whitman +that he made a trip across the sea to join hands with him in preaching +the doctrine of democracy and the religion of humanity. + + In the interior of China, along low-lying plains and great + river-valleys, and by lake-sides, and far away up into hilly and + even mountainous regions, + + Behold! an immense population, rooted in the land, rooted in the + clan and the family, + + The most productive and stable on the whole Earth. A garden one + might say--a land of rich and recherche crops, of rice and tea and + silk and sugar and cotton and oranges; + + Do you see it?--stretching away endlessly over river-lines and + lakes, and the gentle undulations of the low-lands, and up the + escarpments of the higher hills; + + The innumerable patchwork of civilization--the poignant verdure of + the young rice; the somber green of orange-groves; the lines of + tea-shrubs, well hoed, and showing the bare earth beneath; the + pollard mulberries; the plots of cotton and maize and wheat and yam + and clover; the little brown and green tiled cottages with + spreading recurbed eaves, the clumps of feathery bamboo, or of + sugar-canes; + + The endless silver threads of irrigation canals and ditches, + skirting the hills for scores and hundreds of miles, tier above + tier, and serpentining down to the lower slopes and plains-- + + The accumulated result, these, of centuries upon centuries of + ingenious industry, and innumerable public and private + benefactions, continued from age to age; + + The grand canal of the Delta plain extending, a thronged waterway, + for seven hundred miles, with sails of junks and bankside villages + innumerable; + + The chain-pumps, worked by buffaloes or men, for throwing the water + up slopes and hillsides, from tier to tier, from channel to + channel; + + The endless rills and cascades flowing down again into pockets and + hollows of verdure, and on fields of steep and plain; + + The bits of rock and wildwood left here and there, with the angles + of Buddhist or Jain temples projecting from among the trees; + + The azalea and rhododendron bushes, and the wild deer and pheasants + unharmed; + + The sounds of music and the gong--the Sin-fa sung at eventide--and + the air of contentment and peace pervading; + + A garden you might call the land, for its wealth of crops and + flowers, + + A town almost for its population. + + A population denser, on a large scale, than anywhere else on + earth-- + + Five or six acre holdings, elbowing each other, with lesser and + larger, continuously over immense tracts, and running to plentiful + market centers; + + A country of few roads, but of innumerable footpaths and waterways. + + Here, rooted in the land, and rooted in the family, each family + clinging to its portion of ancestral earth, each offshoot of the + family desiring nothing so much as to secure its own patrimonial + field, + + Each member of the family answerable primarily to the family + assembly for his misdeeds or defalcations, + + All bound together in the common worship of ancestors, and in + reverence for the past and its sanctioned beliefs and accumulated + prejudices and superstitions; + + With many ancient, wise, simple customs and ordinances, coming down + from remote centuries, and the time of Confucius, + + This vast population abides--the most stable and the most + productive in the world. + + * * * * * + + And Government touches it but lightly--can touch it but lightly. + + With its few officials (only some twenty-five thousand for the + whole of its four hundred millions), and its scanty taxation (about + one dollar per head), and with the extensive administration of + justice and affairs by the clan and the family--little scope is + left for government. + + The great equalized mass population pursues its even and accustomed + way, nor pays attention to edicts and foreign treaties, unless + these commend themselves independently; + + Pays readier respect, in such matters, to the edicts and utterances + of its literary men, and the deliberations of the Academy. + + * * * * * + + And religious theorizing touches it but lightly--can touch it but + lightly. + + Established on the bedrock of actual life, and on the living unity + and community of present, past and future generations. + + Each man stands bound already, and by the most powerful ties, to + the social body--nor needs the dreams and promises of Heaven to + reassure him. + + And all are bound to the Earth. + + Rendering back to it as a sacred duty every atom that the Earth + supplies to them (not insensately sending it in sewers to the sea), + + By the way of abject commonsense they have sought the gates of + Paradise--and to found on human soil their City Celestial! + + +The first general knowledge of Confucius came to the Western world in +the latter part of the Sixteenth Century from Jesuit missionaries. +Indeed, it was they who gave him the Latinized name of "Confucius," the +Chinese name being Kung-Fu-tsze. + +So impressed were these missionaries by the greatness of Confucius that +they urged upon the Vatican the expediency of placing his name upon the +calendar of Saints. They began by combating his teachings, but this they +soon ceased to do, and the modicum of success which they obtained was +through beginning each Christian service by the hymn which may properly +be called the National Anthem of China. Its opening stanza is as +follows: + + Confucius! Confucius! + Great was our Confucius! + Before him there was no Confucius, + Since him there was no other. + Confucius! Confucius! + Great was our Confucius! + +The praise given by these early Jesuits to Confucius was at first +regarded at Rome as apology for the meager success of their +ministrations. But later scientific study of Chinese literature +corroborated all that the Jesuit Fathers proclaimed for Confucius, and +he stands today in a class with Socrates and the scant half-dozen whom +we call the saviors of the world. + +Yet Confucius claimed no "divine revelation," nor did he seek to found a +religion. He was simply a teacher, and what he taught was the science of +living--living in the present, with the plain and simple men and women +who make up the world, and bettering our condition by bettering theirs. +Of a future life he said he knew nothing, and concerning the +supernatural he was silent, even rebuking his disciples for trying to +pry into the secrets of Heaven. The word "God" he does not use, but his +recognition of a Supreme Intelligence is limited to the use of a word +which can best be translated "Heaven," since it tokens a place more than +it does a person. Constantly he speaks of "doing the will of Heaven." +And then he goes on to say that "Heaven is speaking through you," "Duty +lies in mirroring Heaven in our acts," and many other such New-Thought +aphorisms or epigrams. + +That the man was a consummate literary stylist is beyond doubt. He spoke +in parables and maxims, short, brief and musical. He wrote for his ear, +and always his desire, it seems, was to convey the greatest truth in the +fewest words. The Chinese, even the lowly and uneducated, know hundreds +of Confucian epigrams, and still repeat them in their daily conversation +or in writing, just as educated Englishmen use the Bible and Shakespeare +for symbol. + +Minister Wu, in a lecture delivered in various American cities, compared +Confucius with Emerson, showing how in many ways these two great +prophets paralleled each other. Emerson, of all Americans, seems the +only man worthy of being so compared. + +The writer who lives is the man who supplies the world with portable +wisdom--short, sharp, pithy maxims which it can remember, or, better +still, which it can not forget. + +Confucius said, "Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you +one corner, and it is for you to find the other three." + +The true artist in words or things is always more or less +impressionistic--he talks in parables, and it is for the hearer to +discover the meaning for himself. + +An epigram is truth in a capsule. The disadvantage of the epigram is the +temptation it affords to good people to explain it to the others who are +assumed to be too obtuse to comprehend it alone. And since explanations +seldom explain, the result is a mixture or compound that has to be +spewed utterly or taken on faith. Confucius is simple enough until he is +explained. Then we evolve sects, denominations and men who make it their +profession to render moral calculi opaque. China, being peopled by human +beings, has suffered from this tendency to make truth concrete, just as +all the rest of the world has suffered. Truth is fluid and should be +allowed to flow. Ankylosis of a fact is superstition. Confucius was a +free-trader. + + * * * * * + +China has always been essentially feudal in her form of government. +China is made up of a large number of States, each presided over by a +prince or governor, and these States are held together by a rather loose +federal government, the Emperor being the supreme ruler. State rights +prevail. State may fight with State, or States may secede--it isn't of +much moment. They are glad enough, after a few years, to get back, like +boys who run away from home, or farmhands who quit work in a tantrum. +The Chinese are very patient--they know that time cures all things, a +truth the West has not yet learned. States that rebel, like individuals +who place themselves beyond the protection of all, assume grave +responsibilities. + +The local prince usually realizes the bearing of the Social +Contract--that he holds his office only during good behavior, and that +his welfare and the welfare of his people are one. + +Heih, the father of Confucius, was governor of one of these little +States, and had impoverished himself in an effort to help his people. +Heih was a man of seventy, wedded to a girl of seventeen, when their +gifted son was born. When the boy was three years old the father died, +and the lad's care and education depended entirely on the mother. This +mother seems to have been a woman of rare mental and spiritual worth. +She deliberately chose a life of poverty and honest toil for herself +and child, rather than allow herself to be cared for by rich kinsmen. +The boy was brought up in a village, and he was not allowed to think +himself any better than the other village children, save as he proved +himself so. He worked in the garden, tended the cattle and goats, mended +the pathways, brought wood and water, and waited on his elders. Every +evening his mother used to tell him of the feats of strength of his +father, of his heroic qualities in friendship, of deeds of valor, of +fidelity to trusts, of his absolute truthfulness, and his desire for +knowledge in order that he might better serve his people. + +The coarse, plain fare, the long walks across the fields, the climbing +of trees, the stooping to pull the weeds in the garden, the daily bath +in the brook, all combined to develop the boy's body to a splendid +degree. He went to bed at sundown, and at the first flush of dawn was up +that he might see the sunrise. There were devotional rites performed by +the mother and son, morning and evening, which consisted in the playing +upon a lute and singing or chanting the beauty and beneficence of +creation. + +Confucius, at fifteen, was regarded as a phenomenal musician, and the +neighbors used to gather to hear him perform. At nineteen he was larger, +stronger, comelier, more skilled, than any other youth of his age in all +the country round. + +The simple quality of his duties as a prince can be guessed when we are +told that his work as keeper of the herds required him to ride long +distances on horseback to settle difficulties between rival herders. The +range belonged to the State, and the owners of goats, sheep and cattle +were in continual controversies. Montana and Colorado will understand +this matter. Confucius summoned the disputants and talked to them long +about the absurdity of quarreling and the necessity of getting together +in complete understanding. Then it was that he first put forth his +best-known maxim: "You should not do to others that which you would not +have others do to you." + +This negative statement of the Golden Rule is found expressed in various +ways in the writings of Confucius. A literal interpretation of the +Chinese language is quite impossible, as the Chinese have single signs +or symbols that express a complete idea. To state the same matter, we +often use a whole page. + +Confucius had a single word which expressed the Golden Rule in such a +poetic way that it is almost useless to try to convey it to people of +the West. This word, which has been written into English as "Shu," +means: My heart responds to yours, or my heart's desire is to meet your +heart's desire, or I wish to do to you even as I would be done by. This +sign, symbol or word Confucius used to carve in the bark of trees by the +roadside. The French were filled with a like impulse when they cut the +words Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, over the entrances to all public +buildings. + +Confucius had his symbol of love and friendship painted on a board, +which he stuck into the ground before the tent where he lodged; and +finally it was worked upon a flag by some friends and presented to him, +and became his flag of peace. + +His success in keeping down strife among the herders, and making peace +among his people, soon gave him a fame beyond the borders of his own +State. As a judge he had the power to show both parties where they were +wrong, and arranged for them a common meeting-ground. + +His qualifications as an arbiter were not, however, limited to his +powers of persuasion--he could shoot an arrow farther and hurl a spear +with more accuracy than any man he ever met. Very naturally there are a +great number of folklore stories concerning his prowess, some of which +make him out a sort of combination Saint George and William Tell, with +the added kingly graces of Alfred the Great. Omitting the incredible, we +are willing to believe that this man had a giant's strength, but was +great enough not to use it like a giant. + +We are willing to believe that when attacked by robbers, he engaged them +in conversation and that, seated on the grass, he convinced them they +were in a bad business. Also, he did not later hang them, as did our old +friend Julius Cæsar under like conditions. + +When twenty-seven he ceased going abroad to hold court and settle +quarrels, but sending for the disputants, they came, and he gave them a +course of lectures in ethics. In a week, by a daily lesson of an hour's +length, they were usually convinced that to quarrel is very foolish, +since it reduces bodily vigor, scatters the mind, and disturbs the +secretions, so the man is the loser in many ways. + +This seems to us like a very queer way to hold court, but Confucius +maintained that men should learn to govern their tempers, do equity, and +thus be able to settle their own disputes, and this without violence. +"To fight decides who is the stronger, the younger and the more skilful +in the use of arms, but it does not decide who is right. That is to be +settled by the Heaven in your own heart." + +To let the Heaven into your heart, to cultivate a conscience so +sensitive that it can conceive the rights of the other man, is to know +wisdom. + +To decide specific cases for others he thought was to cause them to lose +the power of deciding for themselves. When asked what a just man should +do when he was dealing with one absolutely unjust, he said, "He who +wrongs himself sows in his own heart nettles." + +And when some of his disciples, after the Socratic method, asked him how +this helped the injured man, he replied, "To be robbed or wronged is +nothing unless you continue to remember it." When pushed still further, +he said, "A man should fight, only when he does so to protect himself +or his family from bodily harm." + +Here a questioner asked, "If we are to protect our persons, must we not +learn to fight?" + +And the answer comes, "The just man, he who partakes moderately of all +good things, is the only man to fear in a quarrel, for he is without +fear." + +Over and over is the injunction in varying phrase, "Abolish +fear--abolish fear!" When pressed to give in one word the secret of a +happy life, he gives a word which we translate, "Equanimity." + + +The mother of Confucius died during his early manhood. For her he ever +retained the most devout memories. + +Before going on a journey he always visited her grave, and on returning, +before he spoke to any one, he did the same. On each anniversary of her +death he ate no food and was not to be seen by his pupils. This filial +piety, which is sometimes crudely and coarsely called "ancestor +worship," is something which for the Western world is rather difficult +to appreciate. But in it there is a subtle, spiritual significance, +suggesting that it is only through our parents that we are able to +realize consciousness or personal contact with Heaven. These parents +loved us into being, cared for us with infinite patience in infancy, +taught us in youth, watched with high hope our budding manhood; and as +reward and recognition for the service rendered us, the least we can do +is to remember them in all our prayers and devotions. The will of Heaven +used these parents for us, therefore parenthood is divine. + +That this ancestor worship is beautiful and beneficial is quite +apparent, and rightly understood no one could think of it as +"heathendom." Confucius used to chant the praises of his mother, who +brought him up in poverty, thus giving a close and intimate knowledge of +a thousand things from which princes, used to ease and luxury, are +barred. + +So close was he to nature and the plain people that he ordered that all +skilful charioteers in his employ should belong to the nobility. This +giving a title or degree to men of skill--men who can do things--we +regard as essentially a modern idea. + +China, I believe, is the first country in the world to use the threads +of a moth or worm for fabrics. The patience and care and inventive skill +required in first making silk were very great. But it gives us an index +to invention when we hear that Confucius regarded the making of linen, +using the fiber of a plant, as a greater feat than utilizing the strands +made by the silkworm. Confucius had a sort of tender sentiment toward +the moth, similar to the sentiments which our vegetarian friends have +toward killing animals for food. Confucius wore linen in preference to +silk, for sentimental reasons. The silkworm dies at his task of making +himself a cocoon, so to evolve in a winged joy, but falls a victim of +man's cupidity. Likewise, Confucius would not drink milk from a cow +until her calf was weaned, because to do so were taking an unfair +advantage of the maternal instincts of the cow. It will thus be seen +that Confucius had a very fair hold on the modern idea which we call +"Monism," or "The One." He, too, said, "All is one." In his attitude +toward all living things he was ever gentle and considerate. + +No other prophet so much resembles Confucius in doctrine as Socrates. +But Confucius does not suffer from the comparison. He had a beauty, +dignity and grace of person which the great Athenian did not possess. +Socrates was more or less of a buffoon, and to many in Athens he was a +huge joke--a town fool. Confucius combined the learning and graces of +Plato with the sturdy, practical commonsense of Socrates. No one ever +affronted or insulted him; many did not understand him, but he met +prince or pauper on terms of equality. + +In his travels Confucius used often to meet recluses or monks--men who +had fled the world in order to become saints. For these men Confucius +had more pity than respect. "The world's work is difficult, and to live +in a world of living, striving and dying men and women requires great +courage and great love. Now we can not all run away, and for some to +flee from humanity and to find solace in solitude is only another name +for weakness." + +This sounds singularly like our Ralph Waldo who says, "It is easy in the +world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live +after our own; but the Great Man is he who in the midst of the crowd +keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." + +Confucius is the first man in point of time to proclaim the divinity of +service, the brotherhood of man, and the truth that in useful work there +is no high nor low degree. In talking to a group of young men he says: + +"When I was keeper of the herds I always saw to it that all of my cattle +were strong, healthy and growing, that there was water in abundance and +plenty of feed. When I had charge of the public granaries I never slept +until I knew that all was secure and cared for against the weather, and +my accounts as true and correct as if I were going on my long journey to +return no more. My advice is to slight nothing, forget nothing, never +leave things to chance, nor say, 'Nobody will know--this is good +enough.'" + +In all of his injunctions Confucius never has anything in mind beyond +the present life. Of a future existence he knows nothing, and he seems +to regard it as a waste of energy and a sign of weakness to live in two +worlds at a time. "Heaven provides us means of knowing all about what is +best here, and supplies us in abundance every material thing for present +happiness, and it is our business to realize, to know, to enjoy." + +He taught rhetoric, mathematics, economics, the science of government +and natural history. And always and forever running through the fabric +of his teaching was the silken thread of ethics--man's duty to man, +man's duty to Heaven. Music was to him a necessity, since "it brings the +mind in right accord with the will of Heaven." Before he began to speak +he played softly on a stringed instrument which perhaps would compare +best with our guitar, but it was much smaller, and this instrument he +always carried with him, suspended from his shoulder by a silken sash. +Yet with all of his passion for music, he cautioned his disciples +against using it as an end. It was merely valuable as an introduction to +be used in attuning the mind and heart to an understanding of great +truth. + +Confucius was seventy-two years old at his death. During his life his +popularity was not great. When he passed away his followers numbered +only about three thousand persons, and his "disciples," or the teachers +who taught his philosophy, were seventy in number. + +There is no reason to suppose that Confucius assumed that a vast number +of people would ever ponder his words or regard him as a prophet. + +At the time that Confucius lived, also lived Lao-tsze. As a youth +Confucius visited Lao-tsze, who was then an old man. Confucius often +quotes his great contemporary and calls himself a follower of Lao-tsze. +The difference, however, between the men is marked. Lao-tsze's teachings +are full of metaphysics and strange and mystical curiosities, while +Confucius is always simple, lucid and practical. + + * * * * * + +Confucius has been revered for twenty centuries, revered simply as a +man, not as a god or as a divinely appointed savior. He offered no +reward of heaven, nor did he threaten non-believers with hell. He +claimed no special influence nor relationship to the Unseen. In all his +teachings he was singularly open, frank and free from all mystery or +concealment. In reference to the supernatural he was an agnostic. He +often said, "I do not know." He was always an inquirer, always a +student, always open to conviction. History affords no instance of +another individual who has been so well and so long loved, who still +holds his place, and who, so far as his reasoning went, is unassailed +and unassailable. Even the two other great religions in China that rival +Confucianism--Buddhism and Taoism (the religion of Lao-tsze)--do not +renounce Confucius: they merely seek to amend and augment him. + +During his lifetime Confucius made many enemies by his habit of frankly +pointing out the foibles of society and the wrongs visited upon the +people by officials who pretended to serve them. Of hypocrisy, +selfishness, vanity, pretense, he was severe in his denunciation. + +Politicians at that time had the very modern habit of securing the +office and then leaving all the details of the work to menials, they +themselves pocketing the perquisites. As Minister of State, Confucius +made himself both feared and detested on account of his habit of +summoning the head of the office before him and questioning him +concerning his duties. In fact, this insistence that those paid by the +State should work for the State caused a combination to be formed +against him, which finally brought about his deposition and exile, two +things which troubled him but little, since one gave him leisure and the +other opportunity for travel. + +The personal followers of Confucius did not belong to the best society; +but immediately after his death, many who during his life had scorned +the man made haste to profess his philosophy and decorate their houses +with his maxims. Humanity is about the same, whether white or yellow, +the round world over, and time modifies it but little. It will be +recalled how John P. Altgeld was feared and hated by both press and +pulpit, especially in the State and city he served. But rigor mortis had +scarcely seized upon that slight and tired body before the newspapers +that had disparaged the man worst were vying with one another in glowing +eulogies and warm testimonials to his honesty, sincerity, purity of +motive and deep insight. A personality which can neither be bribed, +bought, coerced, flattered nor cajoled is always regarded by the +many--especially by the party in power--as "dangerous." Vice, masked as +virtue, breathes easier when the honest man is safely under the sod. + +The plain and simple style of Confucius' teaching can be gathered by the +following sayings, selected at random from the canonical books of +Confucianism, consisting of the teachings of the great master which were +gathered together and grouped by his disciples and followers after his +death: + + The men of old spoke little. It would be well to imitate them, for + those who talk much are sure to say something it would be better to + have left unsaid. + + Let a man's labor be proportioned to his needs. For he who works + beyond his strength does but add to his cares and disappointments. + A man should be moderate even in his efforts. + + Be not over-anxious to obtain relaxation or repose. For he who is + so, will get neither. + + Beware of ever doing that which you are likely, sooner or later, to + repent of having done. + + Do not neglect to rectify an evil because it may seem small, for, + though small at first, it may continue to grow until it overwhelms + you. + + As riches adorn a house, so does an expanded mind adorn and + tranquillize the body. Hence it is that the superior man will seek + to establish his motives on correct principles. + + The cultivator of the soil may have his fill of good things, but + the cultivator of the mind will enjoy a continual feast. + + It is because men are prone to be partial toward those they love, + unjust toward those they hate, servile toward those above them, + arrogant to those below them, and either harsh or over-indulgent to + those in poverty and distress, that it is so difficult to find any + one capable of exercising a sound judgment with respect to the + qualities of others. + + He who is incapable of regulating his own family can not be capable + of ruling a nation. The superior man will find within the limits of + his own home, a sufficient sphere for the exercise of all those + principles upon which good government depends. How, indeed, can it + be otherwise, when filial piety is that which should regulate the + conduct of a people toward their prince; fraternal affection, that + which should regulate the relations which should exist between + equals, and the conduct of inferiors toward those above them; and + paternal kindness, that which should regulate the bearing of those + in authority toward those over whom they are placed? + + Be slow in speech, but prompt in action. + + He whose principles are thoroughly established will not be easily + led from the right path. + + The cautious are generally to be found on the right side. + + By speaking when we ought to keep silence, we waste our words. + + If you would escape vexation, reprove yourself liberally and others + sparingly. + + There is no use attempting to help those who can not help + themselves. + + Make friends with the upright, intelligent and wise; avoid the + licentious, talkative and vain. + + Disputation often breeds hatred. + + Nourish good principles with the same care that a mother would + bestow on her newborn babe. You may not be able to bring them to + maturity, but you will nevertheless be not far from doing so. + + The decrees of Heaven are not immutable, for though a throne may be + gained by virtue, it may be lost by vice. + + There are five good principles of action to be adopted: To benefit + others without being lavish; to encourage labor without being + harsh; to add to your resources without being covetous; to be + dignified without being supercilious; and to inspire awe without + being austere. Also, we should not search for love or demand it, + but so live that it will flow to us. + + Personal character can only be established on fixed principles, for + if the mind be allowed to be agitated by violent emotions, to be + excited by fear, or unduly moved by the love of pleasure, it will + be impossible for it to be made perfect. A man must reason calmly, + for without reason he would look and not see, listen and not hear. + + When a man has been helped around one corner of a square, and can + not manage by himself to get around the other three, he is unworthy + of further assistance. + + + + +[Illustration: PYTHAGORAS] + +PYTHAGORAS + + + Consult and deliberate before you act, that thou mayest not commit + foolish actions. For 't is the part of a miserable man to speak and + to act without reflection. But do that which will not afflict thee + afterwards, nor oblige thee to repentance. + + --_Pythagoras_ + + +PYTHAGORAS + +With no desire to deprive Mr. Bok of his bread, I wish to call attention +to Pythagoras, who lived a little more than five hundred years before +Christ. + +Even at that time the world was old. Memphis, which was built four +thousand years ago, had begun to crumble into ruins. Troy was buried +deep in the dust which an American citizen of German birth was to +remove. Nineveh and Babylon were dying the death that success always +brings, and the star of empire was preparing to westward wend its way. + +Pythagoras ushered in the Golden Age of Greece. All the great writers +whom he immediately preceded, quote him and refer to him. Some admire +him; others are loftily critical; most of them are a little jealous; and +a few use him as a horrible example, calling him a poseur, a pedant, a +learned sleight-of-hand man, a bag of books. + +Trial by newspaper was not invented in the time of Pythagoras; but +personal vilification has been popular since Balaam talked gossip with +his vis-a-vis. + +Anaxagoras, who gave up his wealth to the State that he might be free, +and who was the teacher of Pericles, was a pupil of Pythagoras, and used +often to mention him. + +In this way Pericles was impressed by the Pythagorean philosophy, and +very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gave Pythagoras as an +authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow +him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted +silence optional; whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live +for a year without once asking a question or making an explanation. In +aggravated cases he made the limit five years. + +In many ways Pythagoras reminds us of our friend Muldoon, both being +beneficent autocrats, and both proving their sincerity by taking their +own medicine. Pythagoras said, "I will never ask another to do what I +have not done, and am not willing to do myself." + +To this end he was once challenged by his three hundred pupils to remain +silent for a year. He accepted the defi, not once defending himself from +the criticisms and accusations that were rained upon him, not once +complaining, nor issuing an order. Tradition has it, however, that he +made averages good later on, when the year of expiation was ended. + +There are two reasonably complete lives of Pythagoras, one by Diogenes +Laertius, and another by Iamblichus. Personally, I prefer the latter, as +Iamblichus, as might be inferred from his name, makes Pythagoras a +descendant of Æneas, who was a son of Neptune. This is surely better +than the abrupt and somewhat sensational statement to the effect that +his father was Apollo. + + * * * * * + +The birthplace of Pythagoras was Samos, an isle of Greece. He was born +of wealthy but honest parents, who were much in love with each other--a +requisite, says Pythagoras, for parentage on its highest plane. It is +probable that Pythagoras was absolutely correct in his hypothesis. + +That he was a very noble specimen of manhood--physically and +mentally--there is no doubt. He was tall, lithe, dignified, commanding +and silent by nature, realizing fully that a handsome man can never talk +as well as he looks. + +He was quite aware of his physical graces, and in following up the facts +of his early life, he makes the statement that his father was a +sea-captain and trader. He then incidentally adds that the best results +are obtained for posterity where a man is absent from his family eleven +months in the year. This is an axiom agreed upon by many modern +philosophers, few of whom, however, live up to their ideals. +Aristophanes, who was on friendly terms with some of the disciples of +Pythagoras, suggested in one of his plays that the Pythagorean domestic +time-limit should be increased at least a month for the good of all +concerned. + +Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle make frequent references to Pythagoras. In +order to impress men like these, the man must have taught a very exalted +philosophy. In truth, Pythagoras was a teacher of teachers. And like all +men who make a business of wisdom he sometimes came tardy off, and +indulged in a welter of words that wrecked the original idea--if there +were one. + +There are these three: Knowledge, Learning, Wisdom. And the world has +until very recent times assumed that they were practically one and the +same thing. + +Knowledge consists of the things we know, not the things we believe or +the things we assume. Knowledge is a personal matter of intuition, +confirmed by experience. Learning consists largely of the things we +memorize and are told by persons or books. Tomlinson of Berkeley Square +was a learned man. When we think of a learned man, we picture him as one +seated in a library surrounded by tomes that top the shelves. + +Wisdom is the distilled essence of what we have learned from experience. +It is that which helps us to live, work, love and make life worth living +for all we meet. Men may be very learned, and still be far from wise. + +Pythagoras was one of those strange beings who are born with a desire to +know, and who finally comprehending the secret of the Sphinx, that there +is really nothing to say, insist on saying it. That is, vast learning is +augmented by a structure of words, and on this is built a theogony. +Practically he was a priest. + +Worked into all priestly philosophies are nuggets of wisdom that shine +like stars in the darkness and lead men on and on. + +All great religions have these periods of sanity, otherwise they would +have no followers at all. The followers, understanding little bits of +this and that, hope finally to understand it all. Inwardly the initiates +at the shrine of their own conscience know that they know nothing. When +they teach others they are obliged to pretend that they, themselves, +fully comprehend the import of what they are saying. The novitiate +attributes his lack of perception to his own stupidity, and many great +teachers encourage this view. + +"Be patient, and you shall some day know," they say, and smile frigidly. + +And when credulity threatens to balk and go no further, magic comes to +the rescue and the domain of Hermann and Kellar is poached upon. + +Mystery and miracle were born in Egypt. It was there that a system was +evolved, backed up by the ruler, of religious fraud so colossal that +modern deception looks like the bungling efforts of an amateur. The +government, the army, the taxing power of the State, were sworn to +protect gigantic safes in which was hoarded--nothing. That is to say, +nothing but the pretense upon which cupidity and self-hypnotized +credulity battened and fattened. + +All institutions which through mummery, strange acts, dress and ritual, +affect to know and impart the inmost secrets of creation and ultimate +destiny, had their rise in Egypt. In Egypt now are only graves, tombs, +necropolises and silence. The priests there need no soldiery to keep +their secrets safe. Ammon-Ra, who once ruled the universe, being finally +exorcised by Yaveh, is now as dead as the mummies who once were men and +upheld his undisputed sway. + + * * * * * + +The Egyptians guarded their mysteries with jealous dread. + +We know their secret now. It is this--there are no mysteries. + +That is the only secret upon which any secret society holds a caveat. +Wisdom can not be corraled with gibberish and fettered in jargon. +Knowledge is one thing--palaver another. The Greek-letter societies of +our callow days still survive in bird's-eye, and next to these come the +Elks, who take theirs with seltzer and a smile, as a rare good joke, +save that brotherhood and good-fellowship are actually a saving salt +which excuses much that would otherwise be simply silly. + +All this mystery and mysticism was once official, and later, on being +discarded by the authorities, was continued by the students as a kind of +prank. + +Greek-letter societies are the rudimentary survivals of what was once an +integral part of every college. Making dead languages optional was the +last convulsive kick of the cadaver. + +And now a good many colleges are placing the seal of their disapproval +on secret societies among the students; and the day is near when the +secret society will not be tolerated, either directly or indirectly, as +a part of the education of youth. All this because the sophomoric mind +is prone to take its Greek-letter mysteries seriously, and regard the +college curriculum as a joke of the faculty. + +If knowledge were to be gained by riding a goat, any petty crossroads, +with its lodge-room over the grocery, would contain a Herbert Spencer; +and the agrarian mossbacks would have wisdom by the scruff and detain +knowledge with a tail-hold. + +There can be no secrets in life and morals, because Nature has so +provided that every beautiful thought you know and every precious +sentiment you feel, shall shine out of your face so that all who are +great enough may see, know, understand, appreciate and appropriate. You +can keep things only by giving them away. + +When Pythagoras was only four or five years old, his mother taught him +to take his morning bath in the cold stream, and dry his baby skin by +running in the wind. As he ran, she ran with him, and together they sang +a hymn to the rising sun, that for them represented the god Apollo. + +This mother taught him to be indifferent to cold, heat, hunger, to exult +in endurance, and to take a joy in the glow of the body. + +So the boy grew strong and handsome, and proud; and perhaps it was in +those early years, from the mother herself, that he gathered the idea, +afterward developed, that Apollo had appeared to his mother, and so +great was the beauty of the god that the woman was actually overcome, it +being the first god at which she had ever had a good look. + +The ambition of a great mother centers on her son. Pythagoras was filled +with the thought that he was different, peculiar, set apart to teach the +human race. + +Having compassed all there was to learn in his native place, and, as he +thought, being ill appreciated, he started for Egypt, the land of +learning. The fallacy that knowledge was a secret to be gained by word +of mouth and to be gotten from books existed then as now. The mother of +Pythagoras wanted her son to comprehend the innermost secrets of the +Egyptian mysteries. He would then know all. To this end she sold her +jewels, in order that her son might have the advantages of an Egyptian +education. + +Women were not allowed to know the divine secrets--only just a few +little ones. This woman wanted to know, and she said her son would +learn, and tell her. + +The family had become fairly rich by this time, and influential. Letters +were gotten from the great ones of Samos to the Secretary of State in +Egypt. And so Pythagoras, aged twenty, "the youth with the beautiful +hair," went on his journey to Egypt and knocked boldly at the doors of +the temples at Memphis, where knowledge was supposed to be in stock. +Religion then monopolized all schools and continued to do so for quite +some time after Pythagoras was dead. + +He was turned away with the explanation that no foreigner could enter +the sacred portals--that the initiates must be those born in the shadows +of the temples and nurtured in the faith from infancy by holy virgins. + +Pythagoras still insisted, and it was probably then that he found a +sponsor who made for him the claim that he was a son of Apollo. And the +holy men peeped out of their peep-holes in holy admiration for any one +who could concoct as big a lie as they themselves had ever invented. + +The boy surely looked the part. Perhaps, at last, here was one who was +what they pretended to be! Frauds believe in frauds, and rogues are more +easily captured by roguery than are honest men. + +His admittance to the university became a matter of international +diplomacy. At last, being too hard-pressed, the wise ones who ran the +mystery monopoly gave in, and Pythagoras was informed that at midnight +of a certain night, he should present himself, naked, at the door of a +certain temple and he would be admitted. + +On the stroke of the hour, at the appointed time, Pythagoras, the youth +with the beautiful hair, was there, clothed only in his beautiful hair. +He knocked on the great, bronze doors, but the only answer was a faint, +hollow echo. + +Then he got a stone and pounded, but still no answer. + +The wind sprang up fresh and cold. The young man was chilled to the +bone, but still he pounded and then called aloud demanding admittance. +His answer now was the growling and barking of dogs, within. Still he +pounded! After an interval a hoarse voice called out through a little +slide, ordering him to be gone or the dogs would be turned loose upon +him. + +He demanded admittance. + +"Fool, do you not know that the law says these doors shall admit no one +except at sunrise?" + +"I only know that I was told to be here at midnight and I would be +admitted." + +"All that may be true, but you were not told when you would be +admitted--wait, it is the will of the gods." So Pythagoras waited, +numbed and nearly dead. + +The dogs which he had heard had, in some way, gotten out, and came +tearing around the corner of the great stone building. He fought them +with desperate strength. The effort seemed to warm his blood, and +whereas before he was about to retreat to his lodgings he now remained. + +The day broke in the east, and gangs of slaves went by to work. They +jeered at him and pelted him with pebbles. + +Suddenly across the desert sands he saw the faint pink rim of the rising +sun. On the instant the big bronze doors against which he was leaning +swung suddenly in. He fell with them, and coarse, rough hands seized his +hair and pulled him into the hall. + +The doors swung to and closed with a clang. Pythagoras was in dense +darkness, lying on the stone floor. + +A voice, seemingly coming from afar, demanded, "Do you still wish to go +on?" + +And his answer was, "I desire to go on." + +A black-robed figure, wearing a mask, then appeared with a flickering +light, and Pythagoras was led into a stone cell. + +His head was shaved, and he was given a coarse robe and then left alone. +Toward the end of the day he was given a piece of black bread and a bowl +of water. This he was told was to fortify him for the ordeal to come. + +What that ordeal was we can only guess, save that it consisted partially +in running over hot sands where he sank to his waist. At a point where +he seemed about to perish a voice called loudly, "Do you yet desire to +go on?" + +And his answer was, "I desire to go on." + +Returning to the inmost temple he was told to enter a certain door and +wait therein. He was then blindfolded and when he opened the door to +enter, he walked off into space and fell into a pool of ice-cold water. + +While floundering there the voice again called, "Do you yet desire to go +on?" + +And his answer was, "I desire to go on." + +At another time he was tied upon the back of a donkey and the donkey was +led along a rocky precipice, where lights danced and flickered a +thousand feet below. + +"Do you yet want to go on?" called the voice. + +And Pythagoras answered, "I desire to go on." + +The priests here pushed the donkey off the precipice, which proved to be +only about two feet high, the gulf below being an illusion arranged with +the aid of lights that shone through apertures in the wall. + +These pleasing little diversions Pythagoras afterward introduced into +the college which he founded, so to teach the merry freshmen that +nothing, at the last, was as bad as it seemed, and that most dangers are +simply illusions. + +The Egyptians grew to have such regard for Pythagoras that he was given +every opportunity to know the inmost secrets of the mysteries. He said +he encompassed them all, save those alone which were incomprehensible. + +This was probably true. + +The years spent in Egypt were not wasted--he learned astronomy, +mathematics, and psychology, a thing then not named, but pretty well +understood--the management of men. + +It was twenty years before Pythagoras returned to Samos. His mother was +dead, so she passed away in ignorance of the secrets of the gods--which +perhaps was just as well. + +Samos now treated Pythagoras with great honor. + +Crowds flocked to his lectures, presents were given him, royalty paid +him profound obeisance. + +But Samos soon tired of Pythagoras. He was too austere, too severe; and +when he began to rebuke the officials for their sloth and indifference, +he was invited to go elsewhere and teach his science of life. And so he +journeyed into Southern Italy, and at Crotona built his Temple to the +Muses and founded the Pythagorean School. He was the wisest as well as +the most learned man of his time. + + * * * * * + +Some unkind person has said that Pythagoras was the original charter +member of the Jesuits Society. The maxim that the end justifies the +means was the cornerstone of Egyptian theology. When Pythagoras left +Egypt he took with him this cornerstone as a souvenir. That the priests +could hold their power over the masses only through magic and miracle +was fully believed, and as a good police system the value of organized +religion was highly appreciated. In fact, no ruler could hold his place, +unsupported by the priest. Both were divine propositions. One searches +in vain for simple truth among the sages, solons, philosophers, poets +and prophets that existed down to the time of Socrates. Truth for +truth's sake was absolutely unimagined; freethought was unguessed. + +Expediency was always placed before truth. + +Truth was furnished with frills--the people otherwise would not be +impressed. Chants, robes, ritual, processions, banging of bells, burning +of incense, strange sounds, sights and smells: these were considered +necessary factors in teaching divine truth. + +To worship with a noise seems to us a little like making love with a +brass band. + +Pythagoras was a very great man, but for him to eliminate theological +chaff entirely was impossible. So we find that when he was about to +speak, red fire filled the building as soon as he arose. It was all a +little like the alleged plan of the late Reverend T. DeWitt Talmage, +who used to have an Irishman let loose a white pigeon from the +organ-loft at an opportune time. + +When Pythagoras burned the red fire, of course the audience thought a +miracle was taking place, unable to understand a simple stage-trick +which all the boys in the gallery who delight in "Faust" now understand. + +However, the Pythagorean School had much virtue on its side, and made a +sincere and earnest effort to solve certain problems that yet are vexing +us. + +The Temple of the Muses, built by Pythagoras at Crotona, is described by +Iamblichus as a stone structure with walls twenty feet thick, the light +being admitted only from the top. It was evidently constructed after the +Egyptian pattern, and the intent was to teach there the esoteric +doctrine. But Pythagoras improved upon the Egyptian methods and opened +his temple on certain days to all and any who desired to come. Then at +times he gave lectures to women only, and then to men only, and also to +children, thus showing that modern revival methods are not wholly +modern. + +These lectures contain the very essence of Pythagorean philosophy, and +include so much practical commonsense that they are still quoted. These +are some of the sayings that impressed Socrates, Pericles, Aristotle and +Pliny. What the Egyptians actually taught we really do not know--it was +too gaseous to last. Only the good endures. Says Pythagoras: + + Cut not into the grape. Exaltation coming from wine is not good. + You hope too much in this condition, so are afterwards depressed. + Wise men are neither cast down in defeat nor exalted by success. + Eat moderately, bathe plentifully, exercise much in the open air, + walk far, and climb the hills alone. + + Above all things, learn to keep silence--hear all and speak little. + If you are defamed, answer not back. Talk convinces no one. Your + life and character proclaim you more than any argument you can put + forth. Lies return to plague those who repeat them. + + The secret of power is to keep an even temper, and remember that no + one thing that can happen is of much moment. The course of justice, + industry, courage, moderation, silence, means that you shall + receive your due of every good thing. The gods may be slow, but + they never forget. + + It is not for us to punish men nor avenge ourselves for slights, + wrongs and insults--wait, and you will see that Nemesis unhorses + the man intent on calumny. + + A woman's ornaments should be modesty, simplicity, truth, + obedience. If a woman would hold a man captive she can only do it + by obeying him. Violent women are even more displeasing to the gods + than violent men--both are destroying themselves. Strife is always + defeat. + + Debauchery, riot, splendor, luxury, are attempts to get a pleasure + out of life that is not our due, and so Nemesis provides her + penalty for the idle and gluttonous. + + Fear and honor the gods. They guide our ways and watch over us in + our sleep. After the gods, a man's first thought should be of his + father and mother. Next to these his wife, then his children. + +So great was this power of Pythagoras over the people that many of the +women who came, hearing his discourse on the folly of pride and +splendor, threw off their cloaks, and left them with their rings, +anklets and necklaces on the altar. + +With these and other offerings Pythagoras built another temple, this +time to Apollo, and the Temple to the Muses was left open all the time +for the people. + +His power over the multitude alarmed the magistrates, so they sent for +him to examine him as to his influence and intents. He explained to them +that as the Muses were never at variance among themselves, always living +in subjection to Apollo, so should magistrates agree among themselves +and think only of being loyal to the king. All royal edicts and laws are +reflections of divine law, and therefore must be obeyed without +question. And as the Muses never interrupt the harmony of Heaven, but in +fact add to it, so should men ever keep harmony among themselves. + +All officers of the government should consider themselves as runners in +the Olympian games, and never seek to trip, jostle, harass or annoy a +rival, but run the race squarely and fairly, satisfied to be beaten if +the other is the stronger and better man. An unfair victory gains only +the anger of the gods. + +All disorders in the State come from ill education of the young. +Children not brought up to be patient, to endure, to work, to be +considerate of their elders and respectful to all, grow diseased minds +that find relief at last in anarchy and rebellion. So to take great care +of children in their infancy, and then leave them at puberty to follow +their own inclinations, is to sow disorder. Children well loved and kept +close to their parents grow up into men and women who are an ornament to +the State and a joy to the gods. Lawless, complaining, restless, idle +children grieve the gods and bring trouble upon their parents and +society. + +The magistrates were here so pleased, and satisfied in their own minds +that Pythagoras meant the State no harm, that they issued an order that +all citizens should attend upon his lectures at least once a week, and +take their wives and children with them. + +They also offered to pay Pythagoras--that is, put him on the payroll as +a public teacher--but he declined to accept money for his services. In +this, Iamblichus says, he was very wise, since by declining a fixed fee, +ten times as much was laid upon the altar of the Temple of the Muses, +and not knowing to whom to return it, Pythagoras was obliged to keep it +for himself and the poor. + + * * * * * + +Churchmen of the Middle Ages worked the memory of Pythagoras great +injustice by quoting him literally in order to prove how much they were +beyond him. Symbols and epigrams require a sympathetic hearer, otherwise +they are as naught. + +For instance, Pythagoras remarks, "Sit thou not down upon a bushel +measure." What he probably meant was, get busy and fill the measure with +grain rather than use it for a seat. + +"Eat not the heart"--do not act so as to harrow the feelings of your +friends, and do not be morbid. + +"Never stir the fire with a sword"--do not inflame people who are +wrathful. + +"Wear not the image of God upon your jewelry"--do not make religion a +proud or boastful thing. + +"Help men to a burden, but never unburden them." This saying was used by +Saint Francis to prove that the pagan philosophers had no tenderness, +and that the humanities came at a later date. We can now easily +understand that to relieve men of responsibilities is no help; rather do +we grow strong by carrying burdens. + +"Leave not the mark of the pot upon the ashes"--wipe out the past, +forget it, look to the future. + +"Feed no animal that has crooked claws"--do not encourage rogues by +supplying them a living. + +"Eat no fish whose fins are black"--have nothing to do with men whose +deeds are dark. + +"Always have salt upon your table"--this seems the original of "cum +grano salis" of the Romans. + +"Leave the vinegar at a distance"--keep sweet. + +"Speak not in the face of the sun"--even Erasmus thought this referred +to magic. To us it is quite reasonable to suppose that it meant, "do not +talk too much in public places." + +"Pick not up what falls from the table"--Plutarch calls this +superstition, but we can just as easily suppose it was out of +consideration for cats, dogs or hungry men. The Bible has a command +against gleaning too closely, and leaving nothing for the traveler. + +"When making sacrifice, never pare your nails"--that is to say, do one +thing at a time: wind not the clock at an inopportune time. + +"Eat not in the chariot"--when you travel, travel. + +"Feed not yourself with your left hand"--get your living openly and +avoid all left-handed dealings. + +And so there are hundreds of these Pythagorean sayings that have vexed +our classic friends for over two thousand years. All Greek scholars who +really pride themselves on their scholarship have taken a hand at them, +and agitated the ether just as the members of the Kokomo Woman's Club +discuss obscure passages in Bliss Carman or Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Learned +people are apt to comprehend anything but the obvious. + + * * * * * + +The School of Pythagoras grew until it became the chief attraction of +Crotona. The size of the town was doubled through the pilgrims who came +to study music, mathematics, medicine, ethics and the science of +government. + +The Pythagorean plan of treating the sick by music was long considered +as mere incantation, but there is a suspicion now that it was actual +science. Once there was a man who rode a hobby all his life; and long +after he was dead, folks discovered it was a real live horse and had +carried the man long miles. + +Pythagoras reduced the musical scale to a mathematical science. In +astronomy he anticipated Copernicus, and indeed, it was cited as the +chief offense of Copernicus that he had borrowed from a pagan. +Copernicus, it seems, set the merry churchmen digging into Greek +literature to find out just how bad Pythagoras was. This did the +churchmen good, but did not help the cause of Copernicus. + +Pythagoras for a time sought to popularize his work, but he soon found +to his dismay that he was attracting cheap and unworthy people, who came +not so much out of a love of learning as to satisfy a morbid curiosity +and gain a short cut to wisdom. They wanted secrets, and knowing that +Pythagoras had spent twenty years in Egypt, they came to him, hoping to +get them. + +Said Pythagoras, "He who digs, always finds." At another time, he put +the same idea reversely, thus, "He who digs not, never finds." + +Pythagoras was well past forty when he married a daughter of one of the +chief citizens of Crotona. It seems that, inspired by his wife, who was +first one of his pupils and then a disciple, he conceived a new mode of +life, which he thought would soon overthrow the old manner of living. + +Pythagoras himself wrote nothing, but all his pupils kept tablets, and +Athens in the century following Pythagoras was full of these Pythagorean +notebooks, and these supply us the scattered data from which his life +was written. + +Pythagoras, like so many other great men, had his dream of Utopia: it +was a college or, literally, "a collection of people," where all were on +an equality. Everybody worked, everybody studied, everybody helped +everybody, and all refrained from disturbing or distressing any one. It +was the Oneida Community taken over by Brook Farm and fused into a +religious and scientific New Harmony by the Shakers. + +One smiles to see the minute rules that were made for the guidance of +the members. They look like a transcript from a sermon by John Alexander +Dowie, revised by the shade of Robert Owen. + +This Pythagorean Community was organized out of a necessity in order to +escape the blow-ins who sailed across from Greece intent on some new +thing, but principally to get knowledge and a living without work. + +And so Pythagoras and his wife formed a close corporation. For each +member there was an initiation, strict and severe, the intent of which +was absolutely to bar the transient triflers. Each member was to turn +over to the Common Treasury all the money and goods he had of every kind +and quality. They started naked, just as did Pythagoras when he stood at +the door of the temple in Egypt. + +Simplicity, truth, honesty and mutual service were to govern. It was an +outcrop of the monastic impulse, save that women were admitted, also. +Unlike the Egyptians, Pythagoras believed now in the equality of the +sexes, and his wife daily led the women's chorus, and she also gave +lectures. The children were especially cared for by women set apart as +nurses and teachers. By rearing perfect children, it was hoped and +expected to produce in turn a perfect race. + +The whole idea was a phase of totemism and tabu. + +That it flourished for about thirty years is very certain. Two sons and +a daughter of Pythagoras grew to maturity in the college, and this +daughter was tried by the Order on the criminal charge of selling the +secret doctrines of her father to outsiders. + +One of the sons it seems made trouble, also, in an attempt to usurp his +father's place and take charge of affairs, as "next friend." One +generation is about the limit of a Utopian Community. When those who +have organized the community weaken and one by one pass away, and the +young assume authority, the old ideas of austerity are forgotten and +dissipation and disintegration enter. So do we move in circles. + +The final blow to the Pythagorean College came through jealousy and +misunderstanding of the citizens outside. It was the old question of +Town versus Gown. The Pythagoreans numbered nearly three hundred people. +They held themselves aloof, and no doubt had an exasperating pride. No +strangers were ever allowed inside the walls--they were a law unto +themselves. + +Internal strife and tales told by dissenters excited the curiosity, and +then the prejudice, of the townspeople. + +Then the report got abroad that the Pythagoreans were collecting arms +and were about to overthrow the local government and enslave the +officials. + +On a certain night, led by a band of drunken soldiers, a mob made an +assault upon the college. The buildings were fired, and the members were +either destroyed in the flames or killed as they rushed forth to escape. +Tradition has it that Pythagoras was later seen by a shepherd on the +mountains, but the probabilities are that he perished with his people. +But you can not dispose of a great man by killing him. Here we are +reading, writing and talking yet of Pythagoras. + + + + +[Illustration: PLATO] + +PLATO + + + How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to the + question, "How does love suit with age, Sophocles--are you still + the man you were?" + + "Peace," he replied; "most gladly have I escaped that, and I feel + as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master." + + That saying of his has often come into my mind since, and seems to + me still as good as at the time when I heard him. For certainly old + age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax + their hold, then, as Sophocles says, you have escaped from the + control not of one master only, but of many. And of these regrets, + as well as of the complaint about relations, Socrates, the cause is + to be sought, not in men's ages, but in their characters and + tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel + the pressure of age, but he who is of an opposite disposition will + find youth and age equally a burden. + + --_The Republic_ + + +PLATO + +A thinking man is one of the most recent productions evolved from +Nature's laboratory. The first man of brains to express himself about +the world in an honest, simple and natural way, just as if nothing had +been said about it before, was Socrates. + +Twenty-four centuries have passed since Socrates was put to death on the +charge of speaking disrespectfully of the gods and polluting the minds +of the youths of Athens. During ten of these centuries that have passed +since then, the race lost the capacity to think, through the successful +combination of the priest and the soldier. These men blocked human +evolution. The penalty for making slaves is that you become one. + +To suppress humanity is to suppress yourself. + +The race is one. So the priests and the soldiers who in the Third +Century had a modicum of worth themselves, sank and were submerged in +the general slough of superstition and ignorance. It was a panic that +continued for a thousand years, all through the endeavor of faulty men +to make people good by force. At all times, up to within our own decade, +frank expression on religious, economic and social topics has been +fraught with great peril. Even yet any man who hopes for popularity as +a writer, orator, merchant or politician, would do well to conceal +studiously his inmost beliefs. On such simple themes as the taxation of +real estate, regardless of the business of the owner, and a payment +of a like wage for a like service without consideration of sex, the +statesman who has the temerity to speak out will be quickly relegated +to private life. Successful merchants depending on a local constituency +find it expedient to cater to popular superstitions by heading +subscription-lists for the support of things in which they do not +believe. No avowed independent thinker would be tolerated as chief ruler +of any of the so-called civilized countries. + +The fact, however, that the penalty for frank expression is limited now +to social and commercial ostracism is very hopeful--a few years ago it +meant the scaffold. + +We have been heirs to a leaden legacy of fear that has well-nigh +banished joy and made of life a long nightmare. + +In very truth, the race has been insane. + +Hallucinations, fallacies, fears, have gnawed at our hearts, and men +have fought men with deadly frenzy. The people who interfered, trying to +save us, we have killed. Truly did we say, "There is no health in us," +which repetition did not tend to mend the malady. + +We are now getting convalescent. We are hobbling out into the sunshine +on crutches. We have discharged most of our old advisers, heaved the +dulling and deadly bottles out of the windows, and are intent on +studying and understanding our own case. Our motto is twenty-four +centuries old--it is simply this: KNOW THYSELF. + + * * * * * + +Socrates was a street preacher, with a beautiful indifference as to +whether people liked him or not. To most Athenians he was the town fool. +Athens was a little city (only about one hundred fifty thousand), and +everybody knew Socrates. The popular plays caricatured him; the topical +songs misquoted him; the funny artists on the street-corners who modeled +things in clay, while you waited, made figures of him. + +Everybody knew Socrates--I guess so! + +Plato, the handsome youth of nineteen, wearing a purple robe, which +marked him as one of the nobility, paused to listen to this uncouth man +who gave everything and wanted nothing. + +Ye gods! But it is no wonder they caricatured him--he was a temptation +too great to resist. + +Plato smiled--he never laughed, being too well-bred for that. Then he +sighed, and moved a little nearer in. + +"Individuals are nothing. The State is all. To offend the State is to +die. The State is an organization and we are members of it. The State is +only as rich as its poorest citizen. We are all given a little sample of +divinity to study, model and marvel at. To understand the State you must +KNOW THYSELF." + +Plato lingered until the little crowd had dispersed, and when the old +man with the goggle-eyes and full-moon face went shuffling slowly down +the street, he approached and asked him a question. + +This man Socrates was no fool--the populace was wrong--he was a man so +natural and free from cant that he appeared to the triflers and +pretenders like a pretender, and they asked, "Is he sincere?" + +What Plato was by birth, breeding and inheritance, Socrates was by +nature--a noble man. + +Up to this time the ambition of Plato had been for place and power--to +make the right impression on the people in order to gain political +preferment. He had been educated in the school of the Sophists, and his +principal studies were poetry, rhetoric and deportment. + +And now straightway he destroyed the manuscript of his poems, for in +their writing he had suddenly discovered that he had not written what he +inwardly believed was true, but simply that which he thought was proper +and nice to say. In other words, his literature had been a form of +pretense. + +Daily thereafter, where went Socrates there went Plato. Side by side +they sat on the curb--Socrates talking, questioning the bystanders, +accosting the passers-by; Plato talking little, but listening much. + +Socrates was short, stout and miles around. Plato was tall, athletic and +broad-shouldered. In fact, the word, "plato," or "platon," means broad, +and it was given him as a nickname by his comrades. His correct name was +Aristocles, but "Plato" suited him better, since it symbols that he was +not only broad of shoulder, but likewise in mind. He was not only noble +by birth, but noble in appearance. + +Emerson calls him the universal man. He absorbed all the science, all +the art, all the philosophy of his day. He was handsome, kindly, +graceful, gracious, generous, and lived and died a bachelor. He never +collided with either poverty or matrimony. + + * * * * * + +Plato was twenty-eight years old when Socrates died. For eight years +they had been together daily. After the death of Socrates, Plato lived +for forty-six years, just to keep alive the name and fame of the great +philosopher. + +Socrates comes to us through Plato. Various other contemporaries mention +Socrates and quote him, some to his disadvantage, but it was left for +Plato to give us the heart of his philosophy, and limn his character for +all time in unforgetable outline. + +Plato is called the "Pride of Greece." His contribution to the wealth of +the world consists in the fact that he taught the joys of the +intellect--the supreme satisfaction that comes through thinking. This is +the pure Platonic philosophy: to find our gratifications in exalted +thought and not in bodily indulgence. Plato's theory that five years +should be given in early manhood to abstract thought, abstaining from +all practical affairs, so as to acquire a love for learning, has been +grafted upon a theological stalk and comes down to our present time. It +has, however, now been discarded by the world's best thinkers as a +fallacy. The unit of man's life is the day, not the month or year, much +less a period of five years. Each day we must exercise the mind, just as +each day we must exercise the body. We can not store up health and draw +upon it at will over long-deferred periods. The account must be kept +active. To keep physical energy we must expend physical energy every +day. The opinion of Herbert Spencer that thought is a physical +function--a vibration set up in a certain area of brain-cells--is an +idea never preached by Plato. The brain, being an organ, must be used, +not merely in one part for five years to the exclusion of all other +parts, but all parts should be used daily. To this end the practical +things of life should daily engage our attention, no less than the +contemplation of beauty as manifest in music, poetry, art or dialectics. +The thought that every day we should look upon a beautiful picture, read +a beautiful poem, or listen for a little while to beautiful music, is +highly scientific, for this contemplation and appreciation of harmony is +a physical exercise as well as a spiritual one, and through it we grow, +develop, evolve. + +That we could not devote five years of our time to purely esthetic +exercises, to the exclusion of practical things, without very great +risk, is now well known. And when I refer to practical affairs, I mean +the effort which Nature demands we should put forth to get a living. +Every man should live like a poor man, regardless of the fact that he +may have money. Nature knows nothing of bank-balances. In order to have +an appetite for dinner, you must first earn your dinner. If you would +sleep at night, you must first pay for sweet sleep by physical labor. + + * * * * * + +Plato was born on the Island of Ægina, where his father owned an estate. +His mother was a direct descendant of Solon, and his father, not to be +outdone, traced to Codrus. + +The father of Socrates was a stonecutter and his mother a midwife, so +very naturally the son had a beautiful contempt for pedigree. Socrates +once said to Plato, "Anybody can trace to Codrus--by paying enough to +the man who makes the family-tree." This seems to show that genealogy +was a matter of business then as now, and that nothing is new under the +sun. Yet with all his contempt for heredity, we find Socrates often +expressing pride in the fact that he was a "native son," whereas Plato, +Aspasia, the mother of Themistocles, and various other fairly good +people, were Athenian importations. + +Socrates belonged to the leisure class and had plenty of time for +extended conversazione, so just how much seriousness we should mix in +his dialogues is still a problem. Each palate has to season to suit. +Also, we can never know how much is Socrates and how much essence of +Plato. Socrates wrote nothing, and Plato ascribes all of his wisdom to +his master. Whether this was simple prudence or magnanimity is still a +question. + +The death of Socrates must have been a severe blow to Plato. He at once +left Athens. It was his first intention never to return. He traveled +through the cities of Greece, Southern Italy and down to Egypt, and +everywhere was treated with royal courtesies. + +After many solicitations from Dionysius, Tyrant of Syracuse, he went to +visit that worthy, who had a case of philosophic and literary scabies. +Dionysius prided himself on being a Beneficent Autocrat, with a literary +and artistic attachment. He ruled his people, educated them, cared for +them, disciplined them. + +Some people call this slavery; others term it applied socialism. +Dionysius wanted Syracuse to be the philosophic center of the world, and +to this end Plato was importuned to make Syracuse his home and dispense +his specialty--truth. + +This he consented to do. + +It was all very much like the arrangement between Mæcenas and Horace, or +Voltaire and Frederick the Great. The patron is a man who patronizes--he +wants something, and the particular thing that Dionysius wanted was to +have Plato hold a colored light upon the performances of His Altruistic, +Beneficent, Royal Jackanapes. But Plato was a simple, honest and direct +man: he had caught the habit from Socrates. + +Charles Ferguson says that the simple life does not consist in living in +the woods and wearing overalls and sandals, but in getting the cant out +of one's cosmos and eliminating the hypocrisy from one's soul. + +Plato lived the simple life. When he spoke he stated what he thought. He +discussed exploitation, war, taxation, and the Divine Right of Kings. +Kings are very unfortunate--they are shut off and shielded from truth +on every side. They get their facts at second hand and are lied to all +day long. Consequently they become in time incapable of digesting truth. +A court, being an artificial fabric, requires constant bracing. Next to +capital, nothing is so timid as a king. Heine says that kings have to +draw their nightcaps on over their crowns when they go to bed, in order +to keep them from being stolen, and that they are subject to insomnia. + +Walt Whitman, with nothing to lose--not even a reputation or a hat--was +much more kingly walking bareheaded past the White House than Nicholas +of Russia or Alfonso of Spain can ever possibly be. + +Dionysius thought that he wanted a philosophic court, but all he wanted +was to make folks think he had a philosophic court. Plato supplied him +the genuine article, and very naturally Plato was soon invited to +vacate. + +After he had gone, Dionysius, fearful that Plato would give him a bad +reputation in Athens--somewhat after the manner and habit of the +"escaped nun"--sent a fast-rowing galley after him. Plato was arrested +and sold into slavery on his own isle of Ægina. + +This all sounds very tragic, but the real fact is it was a sort of +comedy of errors--as a king's doings are when viewed from a safe and +convenient distance. De Wolf Hopper's kings are the real thing. +Dionysius claimed that Plato owed him money, and so he got out a +body-attachment, and sold the philosopher to the highest bidder. + +This was a perfectly legal proceeding, being simply peonage, a thing +which exists in some parts of the United States today. I state the fact +without prejudice, merely to show how hard custom dies. + +Plato was too big a man conveniently either to secrete or kill. Certain +people in Athens plagiarized Doctor Johnson who, on hearing that +Goldsmith had debts of several thousand pounds, in admiration exclaimed, +"Was ever poet so trusted before!" Other good friends ascertained the +amount of the claim and paid it, just as Colonel H. H. Rogers graciously +cleared up the liabilities of Mark Twain, after the author of +"Huckleberry Finn" had landed his business craft on a sandbar. + +And so Plato went free, arriving back in Athens, aged forty, a wiser and +a better man than when he left. + + * * * * * + +Nothing absolves a reputation like silence and absence, or what the +village editors call "the grim reaper." To live is always more or less +of an offense, especially if you have thoughts and express them. Athens +exists, in degree, because she killed Socrates, just as Jerusalem is +unforgetable for a similar reason. The South did not realize that +Lincoln was her best friend until the assassin's bullet had found his +brain. Many good men in Chicago did not cease to revile their chiefest +citizen, until the ears of Altgeld were stopped and his hands stiffened +by death. The lips of the dead are eloquent. + +Plato's ten years of absence had given him prestige. He was honored +because he had been the near and dear friend of Socrates, a great and +good man who was killed through mistake. + +Most murders and killings of men, judicial and otherwise, are matters of +misunderstandings. + +Plato had been driven out of Syracuse for the very reasons that Socrates +had been killed at Athens. And now behold, when Dionysius saw how Athens +was honoring Plato, he discovered that it was all a mistake of his +bookkeeper, so he wrote to Plato to come back and all would be +forgiven. + + * * * * * + +Those who set out to live the Ideal Life have a hard trail to travel. +The road to Jericho is a rocky one--especially if we are a little in +doubt as to whether it really is the road to Jericho or not. Perhaps if +we ever find the man who lives the Ideal Life he will be quite unaware +of it, so occupied will he be in his work--so forgetful of self. + +Time had taught Plato diplomacy. He now saw that to teach people who did +not want to be taught was an error in judgment for which one might +forfeit his head. + +Socrates was the first Democrat: he stood for the demos--the people. +Plato would have done the same, but he saw that the business was extra +hazardous, to use the phrase of our insurance friends. He who works for +the people will be destroyed by the people. Hemlock is such a rare and +precious commodity that few can afford it; the cross is a privilege so +costly that few care to pay the price. + +The genius is a man who first states truths; and all truths are +unpleasant on their first presentation. That which is uncommon is +offensive. "Who ever heard anything like that before?" ask the literary +and philosophic hill tribes in fierce indignation. Says James Russell +Lowell, "I blab unpleasant truths, you see, that none may need to state +them after me." + +Plato was a teacher by nature: this was his business, his pastime, and +the only thing in life that gave him joy. But he dropped back to the +good old ways of making truth esoteric as did the priests of Egypt, +instead of exoteric as did Socrates. He founded his college in the grove +of his old friend Academus, a mile out of Athens on the road to Eleusis. +In honor of Academus the school was called "The Academy." It was +secluded, safe, beautiful for situation. In time Plato bought a tract of +land adjoining that of Academus, and this was set apart as the permanent +school. All the teaching was done out of doors, master and pupils seated +on the marble benches, by the fountain-side, or strolling through the +grounds, rich with shrubs and flowers and enlivened by the song of +birds. The climate of Athens was about like that of Southern California, +where the sun shines three hundred days in the year. + +Plato emphasized the value of the spoken word over the written, a thing +he could well afford to do, since he was a remarkably good writer. This +for the same reason that the only man who can afford to go ragged is the +man with a goodly bank-balance. The shibboleth of the modern schools of +oratory is, "We grow through expression." And Plato was the man who +first said it. Plato's teaching was all in the form of the "quiz," +because he believed that truth was not a thing to be acquired from +another--it is self-discovery. + +Indeed, we can imagine it was very delightful--this walking, strolling, +lying on the grass, or seated in semicircles, indulging in endless talk, +easy banter, with now and then a formal essay read to start the +vibrations. + +Here it was that Aristotle came from his wild home in the mountains of +Macedonia, to remain for twenty years and to evolve into a rival of the +master. + +We can well imagine how Aristotle, the mountain-climber and horseman, at +times grew heartily tired of the faultily faultless garden with its high +wall and graveled walks and delicate shrubbery, and shouted aloud in +protest, "The whole world of mountain, valley and plain should be our +Academy, not this pent-up Utica that contracts our powers." + +Then followed an argument as to the relative value of talking about +things or doing them, or Poetry versus Science. + +Poetry, philosophy and religion are very old themes, and they were old +even in Plato's day; but natural science came in with Aristotle. And +science is only the classification of the common knowledge of the common +people. It was Aristotle who named things, not Adam. He contended that +the classification and naming of plants, rocks and animals was quite as +important as to classify ideas about human happiness and make guesses at +the state of the soul after death. + +Of course he got himself beautifully misunderstood, because he was +advocating something which had never been advocated before. In this lay +his virtue, that he outran human sympathy, even the sympathy of the +great Plato. + +Yet for a while the unfolding genius of this young barbarian was a +great joy to Plato, as the earnest, eager intellect of an ambitious +pupil always is to his teacher. Plato was great in speculation; +Aristotle was great in observation. Well has it been said that it was +Aristotle who discovered the world. And Aristotle in his old age said, +"My attempts to classify the objects of Nature all came through Plato's +teaching me first how to classify ideas." And forty years before this +Plato had said, "It was Socrates who taught me this game of the +correlation and classification of thoughts." + + * * * * * + +The writings of Plato consist of thirty-five dialogues, and one essay +which is not cast in the dramatic form--"The Apology." These dialogues +vary in length from twenty pages, of, say, four hundred words each, to +three hundred pages. In addition to these books are many quotations from +Plato and references to him by contemporary writers. Plato's work is as +impersonal as that of Shakespeare. All human ideas, shades of belief, +emotions and desires pass through the colander of his mind. He allows +everybody to have his say. + +What Plato himself thought can only be inferred, and this each reader +does for himself. We construct our man Plato in our own image. A +critic's highest conception of Plato's philosophy is the highest +conception of the critic's own. We, however, are reasonably safe in +assuming that Plato's own ideas were put into the mouth of Socrates, for +the one intent of Plato's life was to redeem Socrates from the charges +that had been made against him. The characters Shakespeare loved are the +ones that represent the master, not the hated and handmade rogues. + +Plato's position in life was that of a spectator rather than that of an +actor. He stood and saw the procession pass by, and as it passed, +commented on it. He charged his pupils no tuition and accepted no fees, +claiming that to sell one's influence or ideas was immoral. + +It will be remembered that Byron held a similar position at the +beginning of his literary career, and declared i' faith, he "would not +prostitute his genius for hire." He gave his poems to the world. Later, +when his income was pinched, he began to make bargains with Barabbas and +became an artist in per centum, collecting close, refusing to rhyme +without collateral. + +Byron's humanity is not seriously disputed. Plato also was human. He had +a fixed income and so knew the worthlessness of riches. He issued no +tariff, but the goodly honorarium left mysteriously on a marble bench by +a rich pupil he accepted, and for it gave thanks to the gods. He said +many great things, but he never said this: "I would have every man poor +that he might know the value of money." + +"The Republic" is the best known and best read of any of Plato's +dialogues. It outlines an ideal form of government where everybody would +be healthy, happy and prosperous. It has served as inspiration to Sir +Thomas More, Erasmus, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Morris, Edward +Bellamy, Brigham Young, John Humphrey Noyes and Eugene Debs. The +sub-division of labor, by setting apart certain persons to do certain +things--for instance, to care for the children--has made its appeal to +Upton Sinclair, who jumped from his Utopian woodshed into a rubber-plant +and bounced off into oblivion. + +Plato's plan was intended to relieve marriage from the danger of +becoming a form of slavery. The rulers, teachers and artists especially +were to be free, and the State was to assume all responsibilities. The +reason is plain: he wanted them to reproduce themselves. But whether +genius is an acquirement or a natural endowment he touches on but +lightly. Also, he seemingly did not realize "that no hovel is safe from +it." + +If all marriage-laws were done away with, Plato thought that the men and +women who were mated would still be true to each other, and that the +less the police interfered in love-relations, the better. + +In one respect at least, Plato was certainly right: he advocated the +equality of the sexes, and declared that no woman should be owned by a +man nor forced into a mode of life, either by economic exigency or +marriage, that was repulsive to her. Also, that her right to bear +children or not should be strictly her own affair, and to dictate to a +mother as to who should father her children tended to the production of +a slavish race. + +The eugenics of "The Republic" were tried for thirty years by the Oneida +Community with really good results, but one generation of communal +marriages was proved to be the limit, a thing Plato now knows from his +heights in Elysium, but which he in his bachelor dreams on earth did not +realize. + +In his division of labor each was to do the thing he was best fitted to +do, and which he liked to do. It was assumed that each person had a +gift, and that to use this gift all that was necessary was to give him +an opportunity. That very modern cry of "equality of opportunity" harks +back to Plato. + +The monastic impulse was a very old thing, even in the time of Plato. +The monastic impulse is simply cutting for sanctuary when the pressure +of society gets intense--a getting rid of the world by running away from +it. This usually occurs when the novitiate has exhausted his capacity +for sin, and so tries saintship in the hope of getting a new thrill. + +Plato had been much impressed by the experiments of Pythagoras, who had +actually done the thing of which Plato only talked. Plato now picked the +weak points in the Pythagorean philosophy and sought, in imagination, to +construct a fabric that would stand the test of time. + +However, all Utopias, like all monasteries and penitentiaries, are made +up of picked people. The Oneida Community was not composed of average +individuals, but of people who were selected with great care, and only +admitted after severe tests. And great as was Plato, he could not +outline an ideal plan of life except for an ideal people. + +To remain in the world of work and share the burdens of all--to ask for +nothing which other people can not have on like terms--not to consider +yourself peculiar, unique and therefore immune and exempt--is now the +ideal of the best minds. We have small faith in monasticism or +monotheism, but we do have great faith in monism. We believe in the +Solidarity of the Race. We must all progress together. Whether +Pythagoras, John Humphrey Noyes and Brigham Young were ahead of the +world or behind it is really not to the point--the many would not +tolerate them. So their idealism was diluted with danger until it became +as somber, sober and slaty-gray as the average existence, and fades as +well as shrinks in the wash. + +A private good is no more possible for a community than it is for an +individual. We help ourselves only as we advance the race--we are happy +only as we minister to the whole. The race is one, and this is monism. + +And here Socrates and Plato seemingly separate, for Socrates in his life +wanted nothing, not even joy, and Plato's desire was for peace and +happiness. Yet the ideal of justice in Plato's philosophy is very +exalted. + +No writer in that flowering time of beauty and reason which we call "The +Age of Pericles" exerted so profound an influence as Plato. All the +philosophers that follow him were largely inspired by him. Those who +berated him most were, very naturally, the ones he had most benefited. +Teach a boy to write, and the probabilities are that his first essay, +when he has cut loose from his teacher's apron-strings and starts a +brownie bibliomag, will be in denunciation of the man who taught him to +push the pen and wield the Faber. + +Xenophon was more indebted, intellectually, to Plato than to any other +living man, yet he speaks scathingly of his master. Plutarch, Cicero, +Iamblichus, Pliny, Horace and all the other Roman writers read Plato +religiously. The Christian Fathers kept his work alive, and passed it on +to Dante, Petrarch and the early writers of the Renaissance, so all of +their thought is well flavored with essence of Plato. Well does Addison +put into the mouth of Cato those well-known words: + + It must be so--Plato, thou reasonest well!-- + Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, + This longing after immortality? + Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, + Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul + Back on herself, and startles at destruction? + 'T is the divinity that stirs within us; + 'T is heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, + And intimates eternity to man. + +All of that English group of writers in Addison's day knew their Plato, +exactly as did Cato and the other great Romans of near two thousand +years before. From Plato you can prove that there is a life after this +for each individual soul, as Francis of Assisi proved, or you can take +your Plato, as did Hume, and show that man lives only in his influence, +his individual life returning to the mass and becoming a part of all the +great pulsing existence that ebbs and flows through plant and tree and +flower and flying bird. And today we turn to Plato and find the +corroboration of our thought that to live now and here, up to our +highest and best, is the acme of wisdom. We prepare to live by living. +If there is another world we better be getting ready for it. If heaven +is an Ideal Republic it is founded on unselfishness, truth, reciprocity, +equanimity and co-operation, and only those will be at home there who +have practised these virtues here. Man was made for mutual service. This +way lies Elysium. + +Plato was a teacher of teachers, and like every other great teacher who +has ever lived, his soul goes marching on, for to teach is to influence, +and influence never dies. Hail, Plato! + + + + +[Illustration: KING ALFRED] + +KING ALFRED + + + A saint without superstition, a scholar without ostentation, a + warrior who fought only in defense of his country, a conqueror + whose laurels were never stained with cruelty, a prince never cast + down by adversity, nor lifted up to insolence in the hour of + triumph--there is no other name in English history to compare with + his. + + --_Freeman_ + + +KING ALFRED + +Julius Cæsar, the greatest man of initiative the world has ever seen, +had a nephew known as Cæsar Augustus. + +The grandeur that was Rome occurred in the reign of Augustus. It was +Augustus who said, "I found your city mud and I left it marble!" The +impetus given to the times by Julius Cæsar was conserved by Augustus. He +continued the work his uncle had planned, but before he had completed +it, he grew very weary, and the weariness he expressed was also the old +age of the nation. There was lime in the bones of the boss. + +When Cæsar Augustus said, "Rome is great enough--here we rest," he +merely meant that he had reached his limit, and had had enough of +road-building. At the boundaries of the Empire and the end of each Roman +road he set up a statue of the god Terminus. This god gave his blessing +to those going beyond, and a welcome to those returning, just as the +Stars and Stripes welcome the traveler coming to America from across the +sea. This god Terminus also supplied the world, especially the railroad +world, a word. + +Julius Cæsar reached his terminus and died, aged fifty-six, from +compulsory vaccination. Augustus, aged seventy-seven, died peacefully +in bed. + +The reign of Augustus marks the crest of the power of Rome, and a crest +is a place where no man nor nation stays--when you reach it, you go over +and down on the other side. + +When Augustus set up his Termini, announcing to all mankind that this +was the limit, the enemies of Rome took courage and became active. The +Goths and Vandals, hanging on the skirts of Rome, had learned many +things, and one of the things was that, for getting rich quick, conquest +is better than production. The barbarians, some of whom evidently had a +sense of humor, had a way of picking up the Termini and carrying them +inward, and finally they smashed them entirely, somewhat as country +boys, out hunting, shoot railroad-signs full of holes. + + * * * * * + +In the Middle Ages the soldier was supreme, and in the name of +protecting the people he robbed the people, a tradition much respected, +but not in the breach. + +To escape the scourge of war, certain families and tribes moved +northward. It was fight and turmoil in Southern Europe that settled +Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and produced the Norsemen. And in making for +themselves a home in the wilderness, battling with the climate and +unkind conditions, there was evolved a very strong and sturdy type of +man. + +On the north shore of the Baltic dwelt the Norsemen. Along the southern +shore were scattered several small tribes or families who were not +strong enough in numbers to fight the Goths, and so sought peace with +them, and were taxed--or pillaged--often to the point of starvation. +They were so poor and insignificant that the Romans really never heard +of them, and they never heard of the Romans, save in myth and legend. +They lived in caves and rude stone huts. They fished, hunted, raised +goats and farmed, and finally, about the year Three Hundred, they +secured horses, which they bought from the Goths, who stole them from +the Romans. + +Their Government was the Folkmoot, the germ of the New England Town +Meeting. All the laws were passed by all the people, and in the making +of these laws, the women had an equal voice with the men. + +When important steps were to be taken where the interests of the whole +tribe were at stake, great deference was paid to the opinions of the +mothers. For the mother spoke not only for herself, but for her +children. The mother was the home-maker. The word "wife" means weaver; +and this deference to the one member of the family who invented, +created, preparing both the food and the clothing, is a marked Teutonic +instinct. Its survival is seen yet in the sturdy German of the middle +class, who takes his wife and children with him when he goes to the +concert or to the beer-garden. So has he always taken his family with +him on his migrations; whereas the Greeks and the Romans left their +women behind. + +South America was colonized by Spanish men. And the Indians and the +Negroes absorbed the haughty grandee, yet preserved the faults and +failings of both. + +The German who moves to America comes to stay--his family is a part of +himself. The Italian comes alone, and his intent is to make what he can +and return. This is a modified form of conquest. + +The Romans who came to Brittany in Cæsar's time were men. Those who +remained "took to themselves wives among the daughters of Philistia," as +strong men ever are wont to do when they seek to govern savage tribes. +And note this--instead of raising the savages or barbarians to their +level, they sink to theirs. The child takes the status of the mother. +The white man who marries an Indian woman becomes an Indian and their +children are Indians. With the Negro race the same law holds. + +The Teutonic races have conquered the world because they took their +women with them on their migrations, mental and physical. And the moral +seems to be this, that the men who progress financially, morally and +spiritually are those who do not leave their women-folk behind. + + * * * * * + +When we think of the English, we usually have in mind the British Isles. +But the original England was situated along the southern shore of the +Baltic Sea. This was the true Eng-Land, the land of the Engles or +Angles. To one side lay Jute-Land, the home of the Jutes. On the other +was Saxony, where dwelt the Saxons. + +Jute-Land still lives in Jutland; the land of the Saxons is yet so +indicated on the map; but Eng-Land was transported bodily a thousand +miles, and her original territory became an abandoned farm where +barbarians battled. + +And now behold how England has diffused herself all over the world, with +the British Isles as a base of supplies, or a radiating center. Behind +this twenty miles of water that separates Calais and Dover she found +safety and security, and there her brain and brawn evolved and expanded. +So there are now Anglo-Americans, Anglo-Africans, Anglo-Indians, +Anglo-Australians, and Anglo-New-Zealanders. As the native Indians of +America and the Maoris of New Zealand have given way before the onward +push and persistence of the English, so likewise did the ancient Britons +give way and were absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons; and then the Saxons, +being a little too fine for the stern competitor, allowed the Engles to +take charge. And as Dutch, Germans, Slavs and Swedes are transformed +with the second generation into English-Americans when they come to +America, so did the people from Eng-Land fuse Saxons, Norsemen, Jutes, +Celts and Britons into one people and fix upon them the indelible stamp +of Eng-Land. + +Yet it is obvious that the characters of the people of England have been +strengthened, modified and refined by contact with the various races she +has met, mixed with and absorbed. To influence others is to grow. Had +England been satisfied to people and hold the British Isles, she would +ere this have been outrun and absorbed by Spain or France. To stand +still is to retreat. It is the same with men as it is with races. +England's Colonies have been her strength. They have given her poise, +reserve, ballast--and enough trouble to prevent either revolution, +stagnation or introspection. + +Nations have their periods of youth, manhood and old age. Whether +England is now passing into decline, living her life in her children, +the Colonies, might be indelicate to ask. Perhaps as Briton, Celt, Jute +and Saxon were fused to make that hardy, courageous, restless and sinewy +man known as the Englishman, so are the English, the Dutch, the Swede, +the German, the Slav, transplanted into America, being fused into a +composite man who shall surpass any type that the world has ever seen. +In the British Isles, just as in the great cities, mankind gets +pot-bound. In the newer lands, the roots strike deep into the soil, and +find the sustenance the human plant requires. + +Walls keep folks in as well as shut other folks out. The British Isles, +rock-faced and sea-girted, shut out the enemies of England without +shutting the English in. A country surrounded by the sea produces +sailors, and England's position bred a type of man that made her +mistress of the seas. As her drum-taps, greeting the rising sun, girdle +the world, so do her lighthouses flash protection to the mariner +wherever the hungry sea lies in wait along rocky coasts, the round world +over. England has sounded the shallows, marked the rocks and reefs, and +mapped the coasts. + +The first settlement of Saxons in Britain occurred in the year Four +Hundred Forty-nine. They did not come as invaders, as did the Romans +five hundred years before; their numbers were too few, and their arms +too crude to mean menace to the swarthy, black-haired Britons. These +fair stranger-folk were welcomed as curiosities and were allowed to +settle and make themselves homes. Word was sent back to Saxony and +Jute-Land and more settlers came. In a few years came a shipload of +Engles, with their women and children, red-haired, freckled, tawny. They +tilled the soil with a faith and an intelligence such as the Britons +never brought to bear: very much as the German settlers follow the +pioneers and grow rich where the Mudsock fails. Naturally the +fair-haired girls found favor in the sight of the swarthy Britons. +Marriages occurred, and a new type of man-child appeared as the months +went by. More Engles came. A century passed, and the coast, from Kent +to the Firth of Forth, was dotted with the farms and homes of the people +from the Baltic. There were now occasional protests from the original +holders, and fights followed, when the Britons retreated before the +strangers, or else were very glad to make terms. Victory is a matter of +staying-power. The Engles had come to stay. + +But a new enemy had appeared--the Norsemen or Danes. These were +sea-nomads who acknowledged no man as master. Rough, bold, laughing at +disaster, with no patience to build or dig or plow, they landed but to +ravish, steal and lay waste, and then boarded their craft, sailing away, +joying in the ruin they had wrought. + +The next year they came back. The industry and the thrift of the Engles +made Britain a land of promise, a storehouse where the good things of +life could be secured much more easily than by creating or producing +them. And so now, before this common foe, the Britons, Jutes, Celts, +Saxons and Engles united to punish and expel the invaders. + +The calamity was a blessing--as most calamities are. From being a dozen +little kingdoms, Britain now became one. A "Cyng," or captain, was +chosen--an Engle, strong of arm, clear of brain, blue of eye, with long +yellow hair. He was a man who commanded respect by his person and by his +deeds. His name was Egbert. + +King Alfred, or Elfred, was born at Wantage, Berkshire, in the year +Eight Hundred Forty-nine. He was the grandson of Egbert, a great man, +and the son of Ethelwulf, a man of mediocre qualities. Alfred was shrewd +enough to inherit the courage and persistence of his grandfather. Our D. +A. R. friends are right and Mark Twain is wrong--it is really more +necessary to have a grandfather than a father. + +English civilization begins with Alfred. If you will refer to the +dictionary you will find that the word "civilization" simply means to be +civil. That is, if you are civilized you are gentle instead of +violent--gaining your ends by kindly and persuasive means, instead of +through coercion, intimidation and force. + +Alfred was the first English gentleman, and let no joker add "and the +last." Yet it is needless and quite irrelevant to say that civilized +people are not always civil; nor are gentlemen always gentle--so little +do words count. Many gentlemen are only gents. + +Alfred was civil and gentle. He had been sent to Rome in his boyhood, +and this transplantation had done him a world of good. Superior men are +always transplanted men: people who do not travel have no perspective. +To stay at home means getting pot-bound. You neither search down in the +soil for color and perfume nor reach out strong toward the sunshine. + +It was only a few years before the time of Alfred that a Christian monk +appeared at Edin-Borough, and told the astonished Engles and Saxons of +the gentle Jesus, who had been sent to earth by the All-Father to tell +men they should love their enemies and be gentle and civil and not +violent, and should do unto others as they would be done by. The natural +religion of the Great Spirit which the ancient Teutonic people held had +much in it that was good, but now they were prepared for something +better--they had the hope of a heaven of rest and happiness after death. + +Christianity flourishes best among a downtrodden, poor, subdued and +persecuted people. Renan says it is a religion of sorrow. And primitive +Christianity--the religion of conduct--is a beautiful and pure doctrine +that no sane person ever flouted or scoffed. + +The parents of Alfred, filled with holy zeal, allowed one of the +missionary monks to take the boy to Rome. The idea was that he should +become a bishop in the Church. + +Ethelred, the elder brother of Alfred, had succeeded Ethelwulf, his +father, as King. The Danes had overrun and ravished the country. For +many years these marauding usurpers had fed their armies on the products +of the land. And now they had more than two-thirds of the country under +their control, and the fear that they would absolutely subjugate the +Anglo-Saxons was imminent. Ethelwulf gave up the struggle in despair and +died. Ethelred fell in battle. And as the Greeks of old in their terror +cast around for the strongest man they could find to repel the Persian +invaders, and picked on the boy Alexander, so did the Anglo-Saxons turn +to Alfred, the gentle and silent. He was only twenty-three years old. In +build he was slight and slender, but he had given token of his courage +for four years, fighting with his brother. He had qualities that were +closely akin to those of both Alexander and Cæsar. He had a cool, clear +and vivid intellect and he had invincible courage. But he surpassed both +of the men just named in that he had a tender, sympathetic heart. + +The Danes were overconfident, and had allowed their discipline to relax. +Alfred had at first evidently encouraged them in their idea that they +had won, for he struck feebly and then withdrew his army to the marshes, +where the Danish horsemen could not follow. + +The Danes went into winter quarters, fat and feasting. Alfred made a +definite plan for a campaign, drilled his men, prayed with them, and +filled their hearts with the one idea that they were going forth to +certain victory. And to victory they went. They fell upon the Danes with +an impetuosity as unexpected as it was invincible, and before they could +get into their armor, or secure their horses, they were in a rout. Every +timid Engle and Saxon now took heart--it was the Lord's victory--they +were fighting for home--the Danes gave way. This was not all +accomplished quite as easily as I am writing it, but difficulties, +deprivations and disaster only brought out new resources in Alfred. He +was as serenely hopeful as was Washington at Valley Forge, and his +soldiers were just as ragged. He, too, like Thomas Paine, cried, "These +are the times that try men's souls--be grateful for this crisis, for it +will give us opportunity to show that we are men." He had aroused his +people to a pitch where the Danes would have had to kill them all, or +else give way. As they could not kill them they gave way. Napoleon at +twenty-six was master of France and had Italy under his heel, and so was +Alfred at the same age supreme in Southern Britain--including Wessex and +Mercia. He rounded up the enemy, took away their weapons, and then held +a revival-meeting, asking everybody to come forward to the +mourners'-bench. There is no proof that he coerced them into +Christianity. They were glad to accept it. Alfred seemed to have the +persuasive power of the Reverend Doctor Torrey. Guthrum, the Danish +King, who had come over to take a personal hand in the looting, was +captured, baptized, and then Alfred stood sponsor for him and gave him +the name of Ethelstan. He was made a bishop. + +This acceptance of Christianity by the leaders of the Danes broke their +fierce spirit, and peace followed. Alfred told the soldiers to use their +horses to plow the fields. The two armies that had fought each other now +worked together at road-making and draining the marshes. Some of the +Danes fled in their ships, but very many remained and became citizens of +the country. The Danish names are still recognizable. Names beginning +with the aspirate, say Herbert, Hulett, Hubbard, Hubbs, Harold, Hancock, +are Danish, and are the cause of that beautiful muddling of the "H" that +still perplexes the British tongue, the rule governing which is to put +it on where it is not needed and leave it off where it is. The Danes +called the Engles, "Hengles," and the Engles called a man by the name of +Henry, "Enry." + +In saving Wessex, Alfred saved England for the English people; for it +was from Wessex, as a center, that his successors began the task of +reconquering England from the Danes. + + * * * * * + +With the rule of Alfred begins the England that we know. As we call +Herodotus the father of history, so could we, with equal propriety, call +Asser, who wrote in the time of Alfred, the father of English history. +The oldest English book is the "Life of Alfred" by Asser the monk. + +That Asser was a dependent on his subject and very much in love with +him, doubtless gave a very strong bias to the book. That it is right in +the main, although occasionally wrong as to details, is proved by +various corroborating records. + +The king's word in Alfred's time was law, and Alfred proved his modesty +by publicly proclaiming that a king was not divine, but only a man, and +therefore a king's edicts should be endorsed by the people in Folkmoot. +Here we get the genesis of popular government, and about the only +instance that I can recall where a very strong man acting as chief ruler +renounced a part of his power to the people, of his own accord. Kings +usually have to be trimmed, and it is revolution that does the shearing. +It is the rule that men do not relinquish power of their own +accord--they have to be disannexed from it. + +Alfred, however, knew the popular heart--he was very close to the common +people. He had slept on the ground with his soldiers, fared at table +with the swineherd's family, tilled the soil with the farmer folk. His +heart went out to humanity. He did not overrate the average mind, nor +did he underrate it. He had faith in mankind, and knew that at the last +power was with the people. He did not say, "Vox populi, vox Dei," but he +thought it. Therefore he set himself to educating the plain people. He +prophesied a day when all grown men would be able to read and write, and +when all would have an intelligent, personal interest in the government. + +There have been periods in English history when Britain lagged woefully +behind, for England has had kings who forgot the rights of mankind, and +instead of seeking to serve their people, have battened and fattened +upon them. They governed. George the Third thought that Alfred was a +barbarian, and spoke of him with patronizing pity. + +Alfred introduced the system of trial by jury, although the fact has +been pointed out that he did not originate it. It goes back to the hardy +Norseman who acknowledged no man as master, harking back to a time when +there was no law, and to a people whose collective desire was supreme. +In fact, it has its origin in "Lynch Law," or the rule of the +Vigilantes. From a village turning loose on an offender and pulling him +limb from limb, a degree of deliberation comes in and a committee of +twelve are selected to investigate the deed and report their verdict. + +The jury system began with pirates and robbers, but it is no less +excellent on that account, and we might add that freedom also began with +pirates and robbers, for they were the people who cried, "We +acknowledge no man as master." + +The early Greeks had trials by jury--Socrates was tried by a jury of +five hundred citizens. + +But let the fact stand that Alfred was the man who first introduced the +jury system into England. He had absolute power. He was the sole judge +and ruler, but on various occasions he abdicated the throne and said: "I +do not feel able to try this man, for as I look into my heart I see that +I am prejudiced. Neither will I name men to try him, for in their +selection I might also be prejudiced. Therefore let one hundred men be +called, and from these let twelve be selected by lot, and they shall +listen to the charges and weigh the defense, and their verdict shall be +mine." + +We sometimes say that English Common Law is built on the Roman Law, but +I can not find that Alfred ever studied the Roman Law, or ever heard of +the Justinian Code, or thought it worth while to establish a system of +jurisprudence. His government was of the simplest sort. He respected the +habits, ways and customs of the common people, and these were the Common +Law. If the people had a footpath that was used by their children and +their parents and their grandparents, then this path belonged to the +people, and Alfred said that even the King could not take it from them. + +This deference to the innocent ways, habits and natural rights of the +people mark Alfred as supremely great, because a great man is one great +in his sympathies. Alfred had the imagination to put himself in the +place of the lowly and obscure. + +The English love of law, system and order dates from Alfred. The +patience, kindliness, good-cheer and desire for fair play were his, +plus. He had poise, equanimity, unfaltering faith and a courage that +never grew faint. He was as religious as Cromwell, as firm as +Washington, as stubborn as Gladstone. In him were combined the virtues +of the scholar and patriot, the efficiency of the man of affairs with +the wisdom of the philosopher. His character, both public and private, +is stainless, and his whole life was one of enlightened and magnanimous +service to his country. + + * * * * * + +In the age of Augustus there was one study that was regarded as more +important than all others, and this was rhetoric, or the art of the +rhetor. The rhetor was a man whose business it was to persuade or +convince. + +The public forum has its use in the very natural town-meeting, or the +powwow of savages. But in Rome it had developed and been refined to a +point where the public had no voice, although the boasted forum still +existed. The forum was monopolized by the professional orators hired by +this political clique or that. + +It was about like the political "forum" in America today. + +The greatest man in Rome was the man who could put up the greatest talk. +So all Roman mammas and matrons had their boys study rhetoric. The +father of Seneca had a school of oratory where rich Roman youths were +taught to mouth in orotund and gesticulate in curves. He must have been +a pretty good teacher, for he had two extraordinary sons, one of whom is +mentioned in the Bible, and a most exemplary daughter. + +Oratory as an end we now regard as an unworthy art. The first requisite +is to feel deeply--to have a message--and then if you are a person of +fair intelligence and in good health, you'll impress your hearers. But +to hire out to impress people with another's theme is to be a +pettifogger, and the genus pettifogger has nearly had his day. + +History moves in circles. The Chicago Common Council, weary of rhetoric, +has recently declined to listen to paid attorneys; but any citizen who +speaks for himself and his neighbors can come before the Council and +state his case. + +Chief Justice Fuller has given it as his opinion that there will come a +day in America when damage-cases will be taken care of by an automatic +tribunal, without the help of lawyers. And as a man fills out a request +for a money-order at the Post-Office, so will he file his claim for +damages, and it will have attention. The contingent fee will yet be a +misdemeanor. Also, it will be possible for plain citizens to be able to +go before a Court of Equity and be heard without regard to law and +precedent and attorney's quillets and quibbles, which so often hamper +justice. Justice should be cheap and easy, instead of costly and +complex. + +Evidently the Chief Justice had in mind the usages in the time of King +Alfred, when the barrister was an employee of the court, and his +business was to get the facts and then explain them to the King in the +fewest possible words. + +Alfred considered a paid advocate, or even a counselor, as without the +pale, and such men were never allowed at court. If the barrister +accepted a fee from a man suing for justice, he was disbarred. + +Finally, however, the practise of feeing in order to renew the zeal of a +barrister grew so that it had to be tolerated, because things we can't +suppress we license, and a pocket was placed on each barrister's back +between his shoulders where he could not reach it without taking off his +gown, and into this pocket clients were allowed slyly to slip such +gratuities as they could afford. + +But the general practise of the client paying the barrister, instead of +the court, was not adopted for several hundred years later, and then it +was regarded as an expeditious move to keep down litigation and punish +the client for being fool enough not to settle his own troubles. + +In England the rudimentary pocket still survives, like the buttons on +the back of a coat, which were once used to support the sword-belt. + +In America we have done away with wigs and gowns for attorneys, but +attorneys are still regarded as attaches of the court, even though +one-half of them, according to Judge DeCourcy of Boston, are engaged +most of the time in attempts to bamboozle and befog the judge and jury +and defeat the ends of justice. Likewise, we still use the word "Court," +signifying the place where lives royalty, even for the dingy office of a +country J. P., where sawdust spittoons are the bric-a-brac and +patent-office reports loom large, and justice is dispensed with. We now +also commonly call the man "the Court." + + * * * * * + +Alfred was filled with a desire to educate, and to this end organized a +school at the Ox Ford, where his friend Asser taught. This school was +the germ of the University of Oxford. Attached to this school was a +farm, where the boys were taught how to sow and plant and reap to the +best advantage. Here they also bred and raised horses and cattle, and +the care of livestock was a part of the curriculum. It was the first +College of Agriculture. + +It comes to us as somewhat of a surprise to see how we are now going +back to simplicity, and the agricultural college is being given the due +and thoughtful consideration which it deserves. Twenty years ago our +agricultural college was considered more or less of a joke, but now that +which adds greatly to the wealth of the nation, and the happiness and +well-being of the people, is looked upon as worthy of our support and +highest respect. + +Up to the time of Alfred, England had no navy. For the government to own +ships seemed quite preposterous, since the people had come to England to +stay, and were not marauders intent on exploitation and conquest, like +the Norsemen. + +But after Alfred had vanquished the Danes and they had settled down as +citizens, he took their ships, refitted them, built more and said: "No +more marauders shall land on these shores. If we are threatened we will +meet the enemy on the sea." + +In a few years along came a fleet of marauding Norse. The English ships +on the lookout gave the alarm, and England's navy put out to meet them. +The enemy were taken by surprise, and the fate that five hundred years +later was to overtake the Spanish Armada, was theirs. + +From that time to this, England has had a navy that has gradually grown +in power. + +Let no one imagine that peace and rest came to Alfred. His life was a +battle, for not only did he have to fight the Danes, but he had to +struggle with ignorance, stupidity and superstition at home. To lead men +out of captivity is a thankless task. They always ask when you take away +their superstition, "What are you going to give us in return?" They do +not realize that superstition is a disease, and that to give another +disease in return is not nice, necessary or polite. + + +Alfred died, at the age of fifty-two, worn out with his ceaseless labors +of teaching, building, planning, inventing and devising methods and +means for the betterment and benefit of his people. + +After his death, the Danes were successful, and Canute became King of +England. But he was proud to be called an Englishman, and declared he +was no longer a Dane. + +And so England captured him. + +Then came the Norman William, claiming the throne by right of +succession, and successfully battling for it; but the English people +reckoned the Conqueror as of their own blood--their kith and kin--and so +he was. He issued an edict forbidding any one to call him or his +followers "Norman," "Norse" or "Norsemen," and declared there was a +United England. And so he lived and died an Englishman; and after him no +ruler, these nine hundred years, has ever sat on the throne of the +Engles by right of conquest. + +Both Canute and William recognized and prized the worth of Alfred's +rule. The virtues of Alfred are the virtues that have made it possible +for the Teutonic tribes to girdle the globe. It was Alfred who taught +the nobility of industry, service, education, patience, loyalty, +persistence, and the faith and hope that abide. By pen, tongue, and best +of all by his life, Alfred taught the truths which we yet hold dear. And +by this sign shall ye conquer! + + + + +[Illustration: ERASMUS] + +ERASMUS + + + We see not a few mortals who, striving to emulate this divine + virtue with more zeal than success, fall into a feeble and + disjointed loquacity, obscuring the subject and burdening the + wretched ears of their hearers with a vacant mass of words and + sentences crowded together beyond all possibility of enjoyment. And + writers who have tried to lay down the principles of this art have + gained no other result than to display their own poverty while + expounding abundance. + + --_Erasmus on "Preaching"_ + + +ERASMUS + +Erasmus was born in Fourteen Hundred Sixty-six, and died in Fifteen +Hundred Thirty-six. No thinker of his time influenced the world more. He +stood at a pivotal point, and some say he himself was the intellectual +pivot of the Renaissance. + +The critics of the times were unanimous in denouncing him--which fact +recommends him to us. + +Several Churchmen, high in power, live in letters for no other reason +than because they coupled their names with that of Erasmus by reviling +him. Let the critics take courage--they may outwit oblivion yet, even +though they do nothing but carp. Only let them be wise, and carp, croak, +cough, cat-call and sneeze at some one who is hitching his wagon to a +star. This way immortality lies. Erasmus was a monk who flocked by +himself, and found diversion in ridiculing monkery. Also, he was the +wisest man of his day. Wisdom is the distilled essence of intuition, +corroborated by experience. Learning is something else. Usually, the +learned man is he who has delved deep and soared high. But few there be +who dive, that fish the murex up. Among those who soar, the ones who +come back and tell us of what they have seen, are few. Like Lazarus, +they say nothing. + +Erasmus had a sense of humor. Humor is a life-preserver and saves you +from drowning when you jump off into a sea of sermons. A theologian who +can not laugh is apt to explode--he is very dangerous. Erasmus, Luther, +Beecher, Theodore Parker, Roger Williams, Joseph Parker--all could +laugh. Calvin, Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards never gurgled in glee, +nor chortled softly at their own witticisms--or those of others. + +Erasmus smiled. He has been called the Voltaire of his day. What +Rousseau was to Voltaire, Luther was to Erasmus. Well did Diderot say +that Erasmus laid the egg which Luther hatched. Erasmus wrote for the +educated, the refined, the learned--Luther made his appeal to the plain +and common mind. + +Luther split the power of the Pope. Erasmus thought it a calamity to do +so, because he believed that strife of sects tended to make men lose +sight of the one essential in religion--harmony--and cause them simply +to struggle for victory. Erasmus wanted to trim the wings of the papal +office and file its claws--Luther would have destroyed it. Erasmus +considered the Church a very useful and needful organization--for social +reasons. It tended to regulate life and conduct and made men +"decentable." It should be a school of ethics, and take a leading part +in every human betterment. Man being a gregarious animal, the +congregation is in the line of natural desire. The excuse for gathering +together is religion--let them gather. The Catholic Church is not two +thousand years old--it is ten thousand years old and goes back to Egypt. +The birth of Jesus formed merely a psychosis in the Church's existence. + +Here he parted company with Luther, who was a dogmatist and wanted to +debate his ninety-five theses. Erasmus laughed at all religious +disputations and called them mazes that led to cloudland. Very +naturally, people said he was not sincere, since the mediocre mind never +knows that only the paradox is true. Hence Erasmus was hated by +Catholics and denounced by Protestants. + +The marvel is that the men with fetters and fagots did not follow him +with a purpose. Fifty years later he would have been snuffed out. But at +that time Rome was so astonished to think that any one should criticize +her that she lost breath. Besides, it was an age of laughter, of revolt, +of contests of wit, of love-bouts and love-scrapes, and the monks who +lapsed were too many to discipline. Everybody was busy with his own +affairs. Happy time! + +Erasmus was part and parcel of the Italian Renaissance. Over his head +blazes, in letters that burn, the unforgetable date, Fourteen Hundred +Ninety-two. He was a part of the great unrest, and he helped cause the +great unrest. Every great awakening, every renaissance, is an age of +doubt. An age of conservatism is an age of moss, of lichen, of rest, +rust and ruin. We grow only as we question. As long as we are sure that +the present order is perfect, we button our collars behind, a thing +which Columbus, Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Leonardo and +Gutenberg, who all lived at this one time, never did. The year of +Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, like the year Seventeen Hundred +Seventy-six, was essentially "infidelic," just as the present age is +constructively iconoclastic. We are tearing down our barns to build +greater. The railroadman who said, "I throw an engine on the scrap-heap +every morning before breakfast," expressed a great truth. We are +discarding bad things for good ones, and good things for better ones. + + * * * * * + +Rotterdam has the honor of being the birthplace of Erasmus. A storm of +calumny was directed at him during his life concerning the irregularity +of his birth. "He had no business to be born at all," said a proud +prelate, as he gathered his robes close around his prebendal form. But +souls knock at the gates of life for admittance, and the fact that a man +exists is proof of his right to live. The word "illegitimate" is not in +the vocabulary of God. If you do not know that, you have not read His +instructive and amusing works. + +The critics variously declared the mother of Erasmus was a royal lady, a +physician's only daughter, a kitchen-wench, a Mother Superior--all +according to the prejudices preconceived. In one sense she was surely a +Mother Superior--let the lies neutralize one another. + +The fact is, we do not know who the mother of Erasmus was. All we know +is that she was the mother of Erasmus. Here history halts. Her son once +told Sir Thomas More that she was married to a luckless nobody a few +months after the birth of her first baby, and amid the cares of raising +a goodly brood of nobodies on a scant allowance of love and rye-bread, +she was glad to forget her early indiscretions. Not so the father. The +debated question of whether a man really has any parental love is +answered here. + +The father of Erasmus was Gerhard von Praet, and the child was called +Gerhard Gerhards--or the son of Gerhard. The father was a man of +property and held office under the State. At the time of the birth of +the illustrious baby, Gerhard von Praet was not married, and it is +reasonable to suppose that the reason he did not wed the mother of his +child was because she belonged to a different social station. In any +event the baby was given the father's name, and every care and attention +was paid the tiny voyager. This father was as foolish as most fond +mothers, for he dreamed out a great career for the motherless one, and +made sundry prophecies. + +At six years of age the child was studying Latin, when he should have +been digging in a sand-pile. At eight he spoke Dutch and French, and +argued with his nurse in Greek as to the value of buttermilk. + +In the meantime the father had married and settled down in honorable +obscurity as a respectable squire. Another account has it that he became +a priest. Anyway, the little maverick was now making head alone in a +private school. + +When the lad was thirteen the father died, leaving a will in which he +provided well for the child. The amount of property which by this will +would have belonged to our hero when he became of age would have +approximated forty thousand dollars. + +Happily, the trustees of the fund were law-wolves. They managed to break +the will, and then they showed the court that the child was a waif, and +absolutely devoid of legal rights of any and every kind. He was then +committed to an orphan asylum to be given "a right religious education." +It's a queer old world, Terese, and what would have become of Gerhard +Gerhards had he fallen heir to his father's titles and estate, no man +can say. He might have accumulated girth and become an honored +burgomaster. As it was he became powder-monkey to a monk, and scrubbed +stone floors and rushed the growler for cowled and pious prelates. + +Then he did copying for the Abbe, and proved himself a boy from Missouri +Valley. + +He was small, blue-eyed, fair-haired, slender, slight, with a long nose +and sharp features. "With this nose," said Albrecht Durer, many years +later, "he successfully hunted down everything but heresy." + +At eighteen he became a monk and proudly had his flaxen poll tonsured. +His superior was fond of him, and prophesied that he would become a +bishop or something. + +Children do not suffer much, nor long. God is good to them. They slide +into an environment and accept it. This child learned to dodge the big +bare feet of the monks--got his lessons, played a little, worked his wit +against their stupidity, and actually won their admiration--or as much +of it as men who are alternately ascetics and libertines can give. + +It was about this time that the lad was taunted with having no name. +"Then I'll make one for myself," was his proud answer. + +Having entered now upon his novitiate, he was allowed to take a new +name, and being dead to the world, the old one was forgotten. + +They called him Brother Desiderius, or the Desired One. He then amended +this Latin name with its Greek equivalent, Erasmus, which means +literally the Well-Beloved. As to his pedigree, or lack of it, he was +needlessly proud. It set him apart as different. He had half-brothers +and half-sisters, and these he looked upon as strangers. When they came +to see him, he said, "There is no relationship between souls save that +of the spirit." + +His sense of wit came in when he writes to a friend: "Two parents are +the rule; no parents the exception; a mother but no father is not +uncommon; but I had a father and never had a mother. I was nursed by a +man, and educated by monks, all of which shows that women are more or +less of a superfluity in creation. God Himself is a man. He had one son, +but no daughters. The cherubim are boys. All of the angels are +masculine, and so far as Holy Writ informs us, there are no women in +heaven." + +That it was a woman, however, to whom Erasmus wrote this, lets him out +on the severity of the argument. He was a joker. And while women did not +absorb much of his time, we find that on his travels he often turned +aside to visit with intellectual women--no other kind interested him, at +all. + + * * * * * + +To belong to a religious order is to be owned by it. You trade freedom +for protection. The soul of Erasmus revolted at life in a monastery. He +hated the typical monks--their food, their ways of life, their +sophistry, their stupidity. To turn glutton and welcome folly as a +relief from religion, he said, was the most natural thing in the world, +when men had once started in to lead an unnatural life. Good food, +daintily served, only goes with a co-ed mental regimen. Men eat with +their hands, out of a pot, unless women are present to enforce the +decencies. Women alone are a little more to be pitied than men alone, if +'t were possible. + +Through emulation does the race grow. Sex puts men and women on their +good behavior. + +Man's desire for power has caused him to enslave himself. Writes +Erasmus, "In a monastery, no one is on his good behavior, except when +there are visitors, but I am told that this is so in families." + +The greasy, coarse cooking brought on a nice case of dyspepsia for poor +Erasmus--a complaint from which he was never free as long as he lived. +His system was too fine for any monastic general trough, but he found a +compensation in having his say at odd times and sundry. At one time we +hear of his printing on a card this legend, "If I owned hell and a +monastery, I would sell the monastery and reside in hell." Thereby did +Erasmus supply General Tecumseh Sherman the germ of a famous orphic. +Sherman was a professor in a college at Baton Rouge before the War, and +evidently had moused in the Latin classics to a purpose. + +Connected with the monastery where Erasmus lived was a printing-outfit. +Our versatile young monk learned the case, worked the ink-balls, +manipulated the lever, and evidently dispelled, in degree, the monotony +of the place by his ready pen and eloquent tongue. When he wrote, he +wrote for his ear. All was tested by reading the matter aloud. At that +time great authors were not so wise or so clever as printers, and it +fell to the lot of Erasmus to improve upon the text of much of the copy +that was presented. + +Erasmus learned to write by writing; and among modern prose-writers he +is the very first who had a distinct literary style. His language is +easy, fluid, suggestive. His paragraphs throw a shadow, and are pregnant +with meaning beyond what the lexicon supplies. This is genius--to be +bigger than your words. + +If Erasmus had been possessed of a bit more patience and a jigger of +diplomacy, he would have been in line for a bishopric. That thing which +he praised so lavishly, Folly, was his cause of failure and also his +friend. + +At twenty-six he was the best teacher and the most clever scholar in the +place. Also, he was regarded as a thorn in the side of the monkery, +since he refused to take it seriously. He protested that no man ever +became a monk of his own accord--he was either thrust into a religious +order by unkind kinsmen or kicked into it by Fate. + +And then comes the Bishop of Cambray, with an attack of literary +scabies, looking for a young religieux who could correct his manuscript. +The Bishop was going to Paris after important historical facts, and must +have a competent secretary. Only a proficient Latin and Greek scholar +would do. The head of the monastery recommended Erasmus, very much as +Artemus Ward volunteered all of his wife's relatives for purposes of +war. + +Andrew Carnegie once, when about to start for Europe, said to his +ironmaster, Bill Jones, "I am never so happy or care-free, Bill, as when +on board ship, headed for Europe, and the shores of Sandy Hook fade from +sight." + +And Bill solemnly replied, "Mr. Carnegie, I can truthfully say for +myself and fellow-workers, that we are never so happy and care-free as +when you are on board ship, headed for Europe." + +Very properly Mr. Carnegie at once raised Bill's salary five thousand a +year. + +The Carthusian Brothers parted with Erasmus in pretended tears, but the +fact was they were more relieved than bereaved. + +And then began the travels of Erasmus. + +The Bishop was of middle age, with a dash of the cavalier in his blood, +which made him prefer a saddle to the cushions of a carriage. And so +they started away on horseback, the Bishop ahead, followed at a +discreet distance by Erasmus, his secretary; and ten paces behind with +well-loaded panniers, rode a servant as rearguard. + +To be free and face the world and on a horse! Erasmus lifted up his +heart in a prayer of gratitude. He said that it was the first feeling of +thankfulness he had ever experienced, and it was the first thing which +had ever come to him worth gratitude. + +And so they started for Paris. + +Erasmus looked back and saw the monastery, where he had spent ten +arduous years, fade from view. + +It was the happiest moment he had ever known. The world lay beyond. + + * * * * * + +The Bishop of Cambray introduced Erasmus to a mode of life for which he +was eminently fitted. It consisted in traveling, receiving honors, +hospitality and all good things in a material way, and giving his +gracious society in return. Doors flew open on the approach of the good +Bishop. Everywhere he went a greeting was assured. He was a +Churchman--that was enough. Erasmus shared in the welcomes, for he was +handsome in face and figure, had a ready tongue, and could hold his own +with the best. + +Europe was then dotted with monasteries, nunneries and other church +institutions. Their remains are seen there yet--one is really never out +of sight of a steeple. But the exclusive power of the Church is gone, +and in many places there are only ruins where once were cloisters, +corridors, chapels, halls and gardens teeming with life and industry. + +The "missions" of California were founded on the general plan of the +monasteries of Europe. They afforded a lodging for the night--a +resting-place for travelers--and were a radiatory center of +education--at least all of the education that then existed. + +In California these "missions" were forty miles apart--one day's +journey. In France, Italy and Germany they were, say, ten miles apart. +Between them, trudged or rode on horseback or in carriages, a +picturesque array of pilgrims, young and old, male and female. To go +anywhere and be at home everywhere, this was the happy lot of a church +dignitary. + +The parts in church institutions were interchangeable; and by a system +of migration, life was made agreeable, and reasonable honesty was +assured. I have noticed that certain Continental banking institutions, +with branches in various cities, keep their cashiers rotating. The idea +was gotten from Rome. Rome was very wise--her policies were the +crystallizations of the world-wisdom of centuries. The church-militant +battle-cry, "The world for Christ," simply means man's lust for +ownership, with Christ as an excuse. If ever there was a man-made +institution, it is the Church. To control mankind has been her desire, +and the miracle is that, with a promise of heaven, a threat of hell, and +a firm grip on temporal power--social and military--she was ever induced +partially to loosen her grip. To such men as Savonarola, Luther and +Erasmus, do we owe our freedom. These men cared more for truth than for +power, and their influence was to disintegrate the ankylosis of custom +and make men think. And a thought is mental dynamite. No wonder the +Church has always feared and hated a thinker! + +The Bishop of Cambray was not a thinker. Fenelon, who was later to +occupy his office, was to make the bishopric of Cambray immortal. +Conformists die, but heretics live on forever. They are men who have +redeemed the cross and rendered the gallows glorious. + + * * * * * + +And so the Bishop of Cambray and his little light-haired secretary fared +forth to fame and fortune--the Bishop to be remembered because he had a +secretary, and the secretary to be remembered because he grew into a +great teacher. + +At each stopping-place the Bishop said mass--the workers, students and +novitiates quitting their tasks to hear the words of encouragement from +the lips of the great man. Occasionally Erasmus was pushed forward to +say a few words, by the Bishop, who had to look after his own personal +devotions. The assembled friends liked the young man--he was so bright +and witty and free from cant. They even laughed out loud, and so, often +two smiles were made to grow where there were no smiles before. + +Leisurely they rode--stopping at times for several days at places where +the food and drink were at their best, and the society sulphide. At +nunneries and monasteries were always guest-chambers for the great, and +they were usually occupied. + +Thus it was that every church-house was a sort of university, depending +of course on the soul-size of the Superior or Abbe. These constant +journeyings and pilgrimages served in lieu of the daily paper, the +Western Union Telegraph, and the telephone. Things have slipped back, I +fear me, for now Mercury merely calls up his party on the long-distance, +instead of making a personal visit--the Angel Gabriel as well. We save +time, but we miss the personal contact. + +The monastic impulse was founded on a human need. Like most good things, +it has been sadly perverted; but the idea of a sanctuary for stricken +souls--a place of refuge, where simplicity, service and useful endeavor +rule--will never die from out the human heart. The hospice stands for +hospitality, but we have now only a hotel and a hospital. + +The latter stands for iodoform, carbolic acid and formaldehyde; the +former often means gold, glitter, gluttony and concrete selfishness, +with gout on one end, paresis at the other and Bright's Disease between. + +The hospice was a part of the monastery. It was a home for the homeless. +There met men of learning--men of wit--men of brains and brawn. You +entered and were at home. There was no charge--you merely left something +for the poor. + +Any man who has the courage, and sufficient faith in humanity to install +the hospice system in America will reap a rich reward. If he has the +same faith in his guests that Judge Lindsey has in his bad boys, he will +succeed; but if he hesitates, defers, doubts, and begins to plot and +plan, the Referee in Bankruptcy will beckon. + +The early universities grew out of the monastic impulse. Students came +and went, and the teachers were a part of a great itinerancy. Man is a +migratory animal. His evolution has come about through change of +environment. Transplantation changes weeds into roses, and the +forebears of all the products of our greenhouses and gardens once grew +in hedgerows or open fields, choked by unkind competition or trampled +beneath the feet of the heedless. + +The advantage of university life is in the transplantation. Get the boy +out of his home environment; sever the cord that holds him to his +"folks"; let him meet new faces, see new sights, hear new sermons, meet +new teachers, and his efforts at adjustment will work for growth. +Alexander Humboldt was right--one year at college is safer than four. +One year inspires you--four may get you pot-bound with pedant prejudice. + +The university of the future will be industrial--all may come and go. +All men will be university men, and thus the pride in an imaginary +proficiency will be diluted to a healthful attenuation. To work and to +be useful--not merely to memorize and recite--will be the only +initiation. + +The professors will be interchangeable, and the rotation of intellectual +crops will work for health, harmony and effectiveness. + +The group, or college, will be the unit, not the family. The college was +once a collection of men and women grouped for a mutual intellectual, +religious or economic good. + +To this group or college idea will we return. + +Man is a gregarious animal, and the Christ-thought of giving all, and +receiving all, some day in the near future will be found practical. The +desire for exclusive ownership must be sloughed. + +Universities devoted to useful work--art in its highest sense: head, +hand and heart--will yet dot the civilized world. The hospice will +return higher up the scale, and the present use of the word +"hospitality" will be drowned in its pink tea, choked with +cheese-wafers, rescued from the nervous clutch of the managing mama, and +the machinations of the chaperone. A society built on the sands of +silliness must give way to the universal university, and the strong, +healthful, helpful, honest companionship and comradeship of men and +women prevail. + + * * * * * + +The objective point of the Bishop was the University of Paris. + +Here in due time, after their lingering ride from Holland, the Bishop +and his secretary arrived. They settled down to literary work; and in +odd hours the beauty and wonder of Paris became familiar to Erasmus. The +immediate task completed, the Bishop proposed going home, and thought, +of course, his secretary was a fixture and would go with him. But +Erasmus had evolved ideas concerning his own worth. He had already +collected quite a little circle of pupils about him, and these he held +by his glowing personality. At this time the vow of poverty was looked +upon lightly. And anyway, poverty is a comparative term. There were +monks who always trudged afoot with staff and bag, but not so our +Erasmus. He was Bishop of the Exterior. + +The Bishop of Cambray, on parting with Erasmus, thought so much of him +that he presented him with the horse he rode. + +Erasmus used to take short excursions about Paris, taking with him a +student and often two, as servants or attendants. Teaching then was +mostly on an independent basis, each pupil picking his tutors and paying +them direct. + +Among other pupils whom Erasmus had at Paris was a young Englishman by +the name of Lord Mountjoy. A great affection arose between these two, +and when Lord Mountjoy returned to England he was accompanied by +Erasmus. + +At London, Erasmus met on absolute equality many of the learned men of +England. We hear of his dining at the house of the Lord Mayor of London, +and there meeting Sir Thomas More and crossing swords with that worthy +in wordy debate. + +Erasmus seems to have carried the "New Humanism" into England. It has +been said that the world was discovered in Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, +but Man was not discovered until Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six. This is +hardly literal truth, since in Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, there was a +theologico-scientific party of young men in all of the European +Universities who were reviving the Greek culture, and with it arose the +idea of the dignity and worth of Man. To this movement Erasmus brought +the enthusiasm of his nature. Perhaps he did as much as any other to fan +the embers which grew into a flame called "The Reformation." + +He constantly ridiculed the austerities, pedantry, priggishness and +sciolism of the old-time Churchmen, and when a new question came up, he +asked, "What good is there in it?" + +Everything was tested by him in the light of commonsense. What end does +it serve and how is humanity to be served or benefited by it? + +Thus the good of humanity, not the glory of God, was the shibboleth of +this rising party. + +Erasmus gave lectures and taught at Cambridge, Oxford and London. + +Italy had been the objective point of his travels, but England had, for +a time, turned him aside. In the year Fifteen Hundred, Erasmus landed at +Calais, saddled his horse, and started southward, visiting, writing, +teaching, lecturing, as he went. The stimulus of meeting new people and +seeing new scenes, all tended toward intellectual growth. + +The genius monk made mendicancy a fine art, and Erasmus was heir to most +of the instincts of the order. His associations with the laity were +mostly with the nobility or those with money. He was not slow in asking +for what he wanted, whether it was a fur-lined cloak, a saddle, top +riding-boots, a horse, or a prayer-book. He made no apologies--but took +as his divine right all that he needed. And he justified himself in +taking what he needed by the thought that he gave all he had. He +supplied Sir Thomas More the germ of "Utopia," for Erasmus pictured +again and again an ideal society where all would have enough, and none +suffer from either want or surfeit--a society in which all would be at +home wherever they went. + +Had Erasmus seen fit to make England his home, his head, too, would have +paid the forfeit, as did the head that wrote "Utopia." What an absurd +use to make of a head--to separate it from the man's body! + +Italy received Erasmus with the same royal welcome that England had +supplied. Scholars who knew the Greek and Roman classics were none too +common. Most monks stopped with the writings of the saints, as South +Americans balk at long division. + +Erasmus could illumine an initial, bind a book, give advice to printers, +lecture to teachers, give lessons on rhetoric and oratory, or entertain +the ladies with recitations from the Iliad and the Odyssey. + +So he went riding back and forth, stopping at cities and towns, +nunneries and monasteries, until his name became a familiar one to every +scholar of England, Germany and Italy. Scholarly, always a learner, +always a teacher, gracious, direct, witty, men began to divide on an +Erasmus basis. There were two parties: those for Erasmus and those +against him. + +In Fifteen Hundred Seventeen, came Luther with his bombshells of +defiance. This fighting attitude was far from Erasmus--his weapons were +words. Between bouts with prelates, Luther sent a few thunderbolts at +Erasmus, accusing him of vacillation and cowardice. Erasmus replied with +dignity, and entered into a lengthy dispute with Melanchthon, Luther's +friend, on the New Humanism which was finding form in revolution. + +Erasmus prophesied that by an easy process of evolution, through +education, the monasteries would all become schools and workshops. He +would not destroy them, but convert them into something different. He +fell into disfavor with the Catholics, and was invited by Henry the +Eighth to come to England and join the new religious regime. But this +English Catholicism was not to the liking of Erasmus. What he desired +was to reform the Church, not to destroy it or divide it. + +His affairs were becoming critical: monasteries where he had once been +welcomed now feared to have him come near, lest they should be +contaminated and entangled. It was rumored that warrants of arrest were +out. He was invited to go to Rome and explain his position. + +Erasmus knew better than to acknowledge receipt of the letter. He headed +his horse for Switzerland, the land of liberty. At Basel he stopped at +the house of Froben, the great printer and publisher. He put his horse +in the barn, unsaddled him, and said, "Froben, I've come to stay." + + * * * * * + +I was mousing around the other day in a book that is somewhat disjointed +and disconnected, and yet interesting--"The Standard Dictionary"--when I +came across the word "scamp." It is a handy word to fling, and I am not +sure but that it has been gently tossed once or twice in my direction. +Condemnation is usually a sort of subtle flattery, so I'm not sad. To +scamp means to cut short, to be superficial, slipshod, careless, +indifferent--to say, "Let 'er go, who cares--this is good enough!" If +anybody ever was a stickler for honest work, I am that bucolic party. I +often make things so fine that only one man out of ten thousand can buy +them, and I have to keep 'em myself. + +You know that, when you get an idea in your head, how everything you +read contains allusions to the same thing. Knowledge is mucilaginous. +Well, next day after I was looking up that pleasant word "scamp," I was +reading in the Amusing Works of Erasmus, when I ran across the word +again, but spelled in Dutch, thus, "schamp." Now Erasmus was a +successful author, and he was also the best authority on paper, inks, +bindings, and general bookmaking in Italy, Holland or Germany. Being a +lover of learning, and listening to the lure of words, he never wallowed +in wealth. But in his hunt for ideas he had a lot of fun. Kipling says, +"There is no hunt equal to a man hunt." But Kip is wrong--to chase a +thought is twice the sport. Erasmus chased ideas, and very naturally +the preachers chased Erasmus--out of England, through France, down to +Italy and then he found refuge at Basel with Froben, the great Printer +and Publisher. + +Up in Frankfort was a writer-printer, who, not being able to answer the +arguments of Erasmus, called him bad names. But this gentle pen-pusher +in Frankfort, who passed his vocabulary at Froben's proofreader, Erasmus +in time calls a "schamp," because he used cheap paper, cheap ink and +close margins. Soon after, the word was carried to England and spelled +"scamp"--a man who cheats in quality, weight, size and count. But the +first use merely meant a printer who scamps his margins and so cheats on +paper. I am sorry to see that Erasmus imitated his enemies and at +times was ambidextrous in the use of the literary stinkpot. His +vocabulary was equal to that of Muldoon. Erasmus refers to one of +his critics as a "scenophylax-stikken," and another he calls a "schnide +enchologion-schistosomus." And perhaps they may have been--I really do +not know. + +But as an authority on books Erasmus can still be read. He it was who +fixed the classic page margin--twice as wide at the top as on the +inside; twice as wide at the outside as the top; twice as wide at the +bottom as at the side. And any printer who varies from this displays his +ignorance of proportion. Erasmus says, "To use poor paper marks the +decline of taste, both in printer and in patron." After the death of +Erasmus, Froben's firm failed because they got to making things cheap. +"Compete in quality, not in price," was the working motto of Erasmus. + +All of the great bookmaking centers languished when they began to scamp. +That worthy wordissimus at Frankfort who called Erasmus names gave up +business and then the ghost, and Erasmus wrote his epitaph, and thus +supplied Benjamin Franklin an idea--"Here lies an old book, its cover +gone, its leaves torn, the worms at work on its vitals." + +The wisdom of doing good work still applies, just as it did in the days +of Erasmus. + +Erasmus proved a very valuable acquisition to Froben. He became general +editor and literary adviser of this great publishing-house, which was +then the most important in the world. + +Besides his work as editor, Erasmus also stood sponsor for numerous +volumes which we now know were written by literary nobodies, his name +being placed on the title-page for commercial reasons. + +At that time and for two hundred years later, the matter of attributing +a book to this man or that was considered a trivial affair. Piracies +were prevalent. All printers revised the work of classic authors if they +saw fit, and often they were specially rewarded for it by the Church. It +was about this time that some one slipped that paragraph into the works +of Josephus about Jesus. The "Annals" of Tacitus were similarly +doctored, if in fact they were not written entire, during the Sixteenth +Century. It will be remembered that the only two references in +contemporary literature to Jesus are those in Josephus and Tacitus, and +these the Church proudly points to yet. + +During the last few years of his life Erasmus accumulated considerable +property. By his will he devised that this money should go to educate +certain young men and women, grandchildren and nephews and nieces of his +old friend, Johann Froben. He left no money for masses, after the usual +custom of Churchmen, and during his last illness was not attended by a +priest. For several years before his death he made no confessions and +very seldom attended church service. He said, "I am much more proud of +being a printer than a priest." + +A statue of Erasmus in bronze adorns one of the public squares in +Rotterdam, and Basel and Freiburg have honored themselves, and him also, +in like manner. + +As a sample of the subtle and keen literary style of Erasmus, I append +the following from "In Praise of Folly:" + + The happiest times of life are youth and old age, and this for no + reason but that they are the times most completely under the rule + of folly, and least controlled by wisdom. It is the child's freedom + from wisdom that makes it so charming to us; we hate a precocious + child. So women owe their charm, and hence their power, to their + "folley," that is, to their obedience to the impulse. But if, + perchance, a woman wants to be thought wise, she only succeeds in + being doubly a fool, as if one should train a cow for the + prize-ring, a thing wholly against Nature. A woman will be a woman, + no matter what mask she wear, and she ought to be proud of her + folly and make the most of it. + + Is not Cupid, that first father of all religion, is not he stark + blind, that he can not himself distinguish of colors, so he would + make us as mope-eyed in judging falsely of all love concerns, and + wheedle us into a thinking that we are always in the right? Thus + every Jack sticks to his own Jill; every tinker esteems his own + trull; and the hobnailed suitor prefers Joan the milkmaid before + any of milady's daughters. These things are true, and are + ordinarily laughed at, and yet, however ridiculous they seem, it is + hence only that all societies receive their cement and + consolidation. + + Fortune we still find favoring the blunt, and flushing the forward; + strokes smooth up fools, crowning all their undertakings with + success; but wisdom makes her followers bashful, sneaking and + timorous, and therefore you commonly see that they are reduced to + hard shifts; must grapple with poverty, cold and hunger; must lie + recluse, despised, and unregarded; while fools roll in money, are + advanced to dignities and offices, and in a word have the whole + world at command. If any one thinks it happy to be a favorite at + court, and to manage the disposal of places and preferments, alas, + this happiness is so far from being attainable by wisdom, that the + very suspicion of it would put a stop to advancement. Has any man a + mind to raise himself a good estate? Alas, what dealer in the world + would ever get a farthing, if he be so wise as to scruple at + perjury, blush at a lie, or stick at a fraud and overreaching? + + It is the public charter of all divines, to mold and bend the + sacred oracles till they comply with their own fancy, spreading + them (as Heaven by its Creator) like a curtain, closing together, + or drawing them back, as they please. Thus, indeed, Saint Paul + himself minces and mangles some citations he makes use of, and + seems to wrest them to a different sense from what they were first + intended for, as is confessed by the great linguist, Saint Hieron. + Thus when that apostle saw at Athens the inscription of the altar, + he draws from it an argument for the proof of the Christian + religion; but leaving out great parts of the sentence, which + perhaps if fully recited might have prejudiced his cause, he + mentions only the last two words, namely, "To the Unknown God"; and + this, too, not without alteration, for the whole inscription runs + thus: "To the Gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to all Foreign and + Unknown Gods." + + 'T is an imitation of the same pattern, I will warrant you, that + our young divines, by leaving out four or five words in a place and + putting a false construction on the rest, can make any passage + serviceable to their own purpose; though from the coherence of what + went before, or follows after, the genuine meaning appears to be + either wide enough, or perhaps quite contradictory to what they + would thrust and impose upon it. In which knack the divines are + grown now so expert that the lawyers themselves begin to be jealous + of an encroachment on what was formerly their sole privilege and + practise. And indeed what can they despair of proving, since the + forementioned commentator did upon a text of Saint Luke put an + interpretation no more agreeable to the meaning or the place than + one contrary quality is to another. + + But because it seemed expedient that man, who was born for the + transaction of business, should have so much wisdom as should fit + and capacitate him for the discharge of his duty herein, and yet + lest such a measure as is requisite for this purpose might prove + too dangerous and fatal, I was advised with for an antidote, and + prescribed this infallible receipt of taking a wife, a creature so + harmless and silly, and yet so useful and convenient, as might + mollify and make pliable the stiffness and morose humor of man. Now + that which made Plato doubt under what genus to rank woman, whether + among brutes or rational creatures, was only meant to denote the + extreme stupidness and Folly of that sex, a sex so unalterably + simple that for any one of them to thrust forward and reach at the + name of wise, is but to make themselves the more remarkable fools, + such an endeavor being but a swimming against the stream, nay, the + turning the course of Nature, the bare attempting whereof is as + extravagant as the effecting of it is impossible: for as it is a + trite proverb, that an ape will be an ape, though clad in purple, + so a woman will be a woman, that is, a fool, whatever disguise she + takes up. And yet there is no reason women should take it amiss to + be thus charged, for if they do but rightly consider, they will + find to Folly they are beholden for those endowments wherein they + so far surpass and excel Man; as first for their unparalleled + beauty, by the charm whereof they tyrannize over the greatest of + tyrants; for what is it but too great a smatch of wisdom that makes + men so tawny and thick-skinned, so rough and prickly-bearded, like + an emblem of winter or old age, while women have such dainty, + smooth cheeks, such a low, gentle voice, and so pure a complexion, + as if Nature had drawn them for a standing pattern of all symmetry + and comeliness? Besides, what greater or juster aim and ambition + have they than to please their husbands? In order whereunto they + garnish themselves with paint, washes, curls, perfumes, and all + other mysteries of ornament; yet, after all, they become acceptable + to them only for their Folly. Wives are always allowed their humor, + yet it is only in exchange for titillation and pleasure, which + indeed are but other names for Folly; as none can deny, who + consider how a man must dandle, and kittle, and play a hundred + little tricks for his helpmate. + + But now some blood-chilled old men, that are more for wine than + wenching, will pretend that in their opinion the greatest happiness + consists in feasting and drinking. Grant it be so; yet certainly in + the most luxurious entertainments it is Folly must give the sauce + and relish to the daintiest delicacies; so that if there be no one + of the guests naturally fool enough to be played upon by the rest, + they must procure some comical buffoon, that by his jokes and + flouts and blunders shall make the whole company split themselves + with laughing; for to what purpose were it to be stuffed and + crammed with so many dainty bits, savory dishes, and toothsome + rarities, if after all this epicurism, the eyes, the ears, and the + whole mind of man, were not so well foisted and relieved with + laughing, jesting, and such like divertisements, which, like second + courses, serve for the promoting of digestion? And as to all those + shoeing-horns of drunkenness, the keeping every one his man, the + throwing high jinks, the filling of bumpers, the drinking two in a + hand, the beginning of mistresses' healths; and then the roaring + out of drunken catches, the calling in a fiddler, the leading out + every one his lady to dance, and such like riotous pastimes--these + were not taught or dictated by any of the wise men of Greece, but + of Gotham rather, being my invention, and by me prescribed as the + best preservative of health: each of which, the more ridiculous it + is, the more welcome it finds. And indeed, to jog sleepingly + through the world, in a dumpish, melancholy posture, can not + properly be said to live. + + + + +[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON] + +BOOKER T. WASHINGTON + + + There is something in human nature which always makes people reward + merit, no matter under what color of skin merit is found. I have + found, too, that it is the visible, the tangible, that goes a long + way in softening prejudices. The actual sight of a good house that + a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion + about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build. The + individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in + the end, make his way regardless of his race. + + --_Booker T. Washington_ + + +BOOKER T. WASHINGTON + +This is a story about a Negro. The story has the peculiarity of being +true. The man was born a slave in Virginia. His mother was a slave, and +was thrice sold in the market-place. This man is Booker T. Washington. + +The name Booker was a fanciful one given to the lad by playmates on +account of his love for a certain chance dog-eared spelling-book. Before +this he was only Mammy's Pet. The T. stood for nothing, but later a +happy thought made it Taliaferro. + +Most Negroes, fresh from slavery, stood sponsor to themselves, and chose +the name Washington; if not this, then Lincoln, Clay or Webster. + +This lad when but a child, being suddenly asked for his name, exclaimed, +"Washington," and stuck to it. + +The father of this boy was a white man; but children always take the +status of the mother, so Booker T. Washington is a Negro, and proud of +it, as he should be, for he is standard by performance, even if not by +pedigree. + +This Negro's father is represented by the sign _x_. By remaining in +obscurity the fond father threw away his one chance for immortality. We +do not even know his name, his social position, or his previous +condition of turpitude. We assume he was happily married and +respectable. Concerning him legend is silent and fable dumb. As for the +child, we are not certain whether he was born in Eighteen Hundred +Fifty-eight or Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, and we know not the day or +the month. There were no signs in the East. + +The mother lived in a log cabin of one room, say ten by twelve. This +room was also a kitchen, for the mother was cook to the farmhands of her +owner. There were no windows and no floor in the cabin save the +hard-trodden clay. There were a table, a bench and a big fireplace. +There were no beds, and the children at night simply huddled and cuddled +in a pile of straw and rags in the corner. Doubtless they had enough +food, for they ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table--who, +by the way, wasn't so very rich. + +One of the earliest recollections of Black Baby Booker was of being +awakened in the middle of the night by his mother to eat fried chicken. +Imagine the picture--it is past midnight. No light in the room save the +long, flickering streaks that dance on the rafters. Outside the wind +makes mournful, sighing melody. In the corner huddled the children, +creeping close together with intertwining arms to get the warmth of each +little half-naked body. + +The dusky mother moves swiftly, deftly, half-frightened at her task. + +She has come in from the night with a chicken! Where did she get it? +Hush! Where do you suppose oppressed colored people get chickens? + +She picks the bird--prepares it for the skillet--fries it over the +coals. And then when it is done just right, Maryland style, this mother +full of mother-love, an ingredient which God never omits, shakes each +little piccaninny into wakefulness, and gives him the forbidden +dainty--drumstick, wishbone, gizzard, white meat, or the part that went +through the fence last--anything but the neck. + +Feathers, bones, waste are thrown into the fireplace, and what the +village editor calls the "devouring element" hides all trace of the +crime. Then all lie down to sleep, until the faint flush of pink comes +into the East, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the mountain-tops. + + * * * * * + +This ex-slave remembers a strange and trying time, when all of the +colored folk on the plantation were notified to assemble at the "big +house." They arrived and stood around in groups, waiting and wondering, +talking in whispers. The master came out, and standing on the veranda +read from a paper in a tremulous voice. Then he told them that they were +all free, and shook hands with each. Everybody cried. However, they were +very happy in spite of the tears, for freedom to them meant heaven--a +heaven of rest. Yet they bore only love towards their former owners. + +Most of them began to wander--they thought they had to leave their old +quarters. In a few days the wisest came back and went to work just as +usual. Booker T.'s mother quit work for just half a day. + +But in a little while her husband arrived--a colored man to whom she had +been married years before, and who had been sold and sent away. Now he +came and took her and the little monochrome brood, and they all started +away for West Virginia, where they heard that colored men were hired to +work in coalmines and were paid wages in real money. + +It took months and months to make the journey. They carried all their +belongings in bundles. They had no horses--no cows--no wagon--they +walked. If the weather was pleasant they slept out of doors; if it +rained they sought a tobacco-shed, a barn, or the friendly side of a +straw-stack. For food they depended on a little cornmeal they carried, +with which the mother made pone-cakes in the ashes of a campfire. Kind +colored people on the way replenished the meal-bag, for colored people +are always generous to the hungry and needy if they have anything to be +generous with. Then Providence sent stray, ownerless chickens their way, +at times, just as the Children of Israel were fed on quails in the +wilderness. Once they caught a 'possum--and there was a genuine banquet, +where the children ate until they were as tight as drums. + +Finally they reached the promised land of West Virginia, and at the +little village of Maiden, near Charleston, they stopped, for here were +the coal mine and the salt-works where colored men were hired and paid +in real money. + +Booker's stepfather found a job, and he also found a job for little +Booker. They had nothing to live on until pay-day, so the kind man who +owned the mine allowed them to get things at the store on credit. This +was a brand-new experience--and no doubt they bought a few things they +did not need, for prices and values were absolutely out of their realm. +Besides, they did not know how much wages they were to get, neither +could they figure the prices of the things they bought. At any rate, +when pay-day came they were still in debt, so they saw no real +money--certainly little Booker at this time of his life never did. + + * * * * * + +General Lewis Ruffner owned the salt-works and the coalmine where little +Booker worked. He was stern, severe, strict. But he believed Negroes +were human beings, and there were those then who disputed the +proposition. + +Ruffner organized a night-school for his helpers, and let a couple of +his bookkeepers teach it. At this time there was not a colored person in +the neighborhood who could spell cat, much less write his name. A few +could count five. Booker must have been about ten years old when one day +he boasted a bit of his skill in mathematics. The foreman told him to +count the loads of coal as they came out of the mine. The boy started in +bravely, "One--two--three--four--dere goes one, dere goes anoder, +anoder, anoder, anoder, anoder!" + +The foreman laughed. + +The boy was abashed, then chagrined. "Send me to the night-school and in +a month I'll show you how to count!" + +The foreman wrote the lad an order which admitted him to the +night-school. + +But now there was another difficulty--the boy worked until nine o'clock +at night, the last hour's work being to sweep out the office. The +night-school began at nine o'clock and it was two miles away. + +The lad scratched his head and thought and thought. A great idea came to +him--he would turn the office clock ahead half an hour. He could then +leave at nine o'clock, and by running part of the way could get to +school at exactly nine o'clock. + +The scheme worked for two days, when one of the clerks in the office +said that a spook was monkeying with the clock. They tried the plan of +locking the case, and all was well. + +Booker must have been about twelve years old, goin' on thirteen, when +one day as he lay on his back in the coalmine, pushing out the broken +coal with his feet, he overheard two men telling of a very wonderful +school where colored people were taught to read, write and cipher--also, +how to speak in public. The scholars were allowed to work part of the +time to pay for their board. + +The lad crawled close in the darkness and listened to the conversation. +He caught the names "Hampton" and "Armstrong." Whether Armstrong was the +place and Hampton was the name of the man, he could not make out, but he +clung to the names. + +Here was a school for colored people--he would go there! That night he +told his mother about it. She laughed, patted his kinky head, and +indulged him in his dream. + +She was only a poor black woman; she could not spell ab, nor count to +ten, but she had a plan for her boy--he would some day be a preacher. + +This was the very height of her imagination--a preacher! Beyond this +there was nothing in human achievement. The night-school came after a +day of fourteen hours' work. Little Booker sat on a bench, his feet +dangling about a foot from the floor. As he sat there one night trying +hard to drink in knowledge, he went to sleep. He nodded, braced up, +nodded again, and then pitched over in a heap on the floor, to the great +amusement of the class, and his own eternal shame. + +The next day, however, as he was feeling very sorrowful over his sad +experience, he heard that Mrs. Ruffner wanted a boy for general work at +the big house. + +Here was a chance. Mrs. Ruffner was a Vermont Yankee, which meant that +she had a great nose for dirt, and would not stand for a "sassy nigger." +Her reputation had gone abroad, and of how she pinched the ears of her +"help," and got them up at exactly a certain hour, and made them use +soap and water at least once a day, and even compelled them to use a +toothbrush; all this was history, well defined. + +Booker said he could please her, even if she was a Yankee. He applied +for the job and got it, with wages fixed at a dollar a week, with a +promise of twenty-five cents extra every week, if he did his work +without talking back and breaking a tray of dishes. + + * * * * * + +"Genius! No hovel is safe from it!" says Whistler. + +Genius consists in doing the right thing without being told more than +three times. + +Booker silently studied the awful Yankee woman to see what she really +wanted. He finally decided that she desired her servants to have clean +skins, fairly neat clothing, do things promptly, finish the job and keep +still when they had nothing to say. + +He set himself to please her--and he did. + +She loaned him books, gave him a lead-pencil, and showed him how to +write with a pen without smearing his hands and face with ink. + +He told her of his dream and asked about Armstrong and Hampton. She told +him that Armstrong was the man and Hampton the place. + +At last he got her consent to leave and go to Hampton. + +When he started she gave him a comb, a toothbrush, two handkerchiefs and +a pair of shoes. He had been working for her for a year, and she +thought, of course, he saved his wages. He never told her that his money +had gone to keep the family, because his stepfather had been on a strike +and therefore out of work. + +So the boy started away for Hampton. It was five hundred miles away. He +didn't know how far five hundred miles is--nobody does unless he has +walked it. + +He had three dollars, so he gaily paid for a seat in the stage. At the +end of the first day he was forty miles from home and out of money. He +slept in a barn, and a colored woman handed him a ham-bone and a chunk +of bread out of the kitchen-window, and looked the other way. + +He trudged on east--always and forever east--towards the rising sun. + +He walked weeks--months--years, he thought. He kept no track of the +days. He carried his shoes as a matter of economy. + +Finally he sold the shoes for four dollars to a man who paid him ten +cents cash down, and promised to pay the rest when they should meet at +Hampton. Nearly forty years have passed and they have never met. + +On he walked--on and on--east, and always forever east. + +He reached the city of Richmond, the first big city he had ever seen. +The wide streets--the sidewalks--the street-lamps entranced him. It was +just like heaven. But he was hungry and penniless, and when he looked +wistfully at a pile of cold fried chicken on a street-stand and asked +the price of a drumstick, at the same time telling he had no money, he +discovered he was not in heaven at all. He was called a lazy nigger and +told to move on. + +Later he made the discovery that a "nigger" is a colored person who has +no money. + +He pulled the piece of rope that served him for a belt a little tighter, +and when no one was looking, crawled under a sidewalk and went to +sleep, disturbed only by the trampling overhead. + +When he awoke he saw he was near the dock, where a big ship pushed its +bowsprit out over the street. Men were unloading bags and boxes from the +boat. He ran down and asked the mate if he could help. "Yes!" was the +gruff answer. + +He got in line and went staggering under the heavy loads. + +He was little, but strong, and best of all, willing, yet he reeled at +the work. + +"Have you had any breakfast? Yes, you liver-colored boy--you, I say, +have you had your breakfast?" + +"No, sir," said the boy; "and no supper last night nor dinner +yesterday!" + +"Well, I reckoned as much. Now you take this quarter and go over to that +stand and buy you a drumstick, a cup of coffee and two fried cakes!" + +The lad didn't need urging. He took the money in his palm, went over to +the man who the night before had called him a lazy nigger, and showing +the silver, picked out his piece of chicken. + +The man hastened to wait on him, and said it was a fine day and hoped he +was well. + + * * * * * + +Arriving at Hampton, this colored boy, who had tramped the long, weary +miles, stood abashed before the big brick building which he knew was +Hampton Institute. + +He was so little--the place was so big--by what right could he ask to be +admitted? + +Finally he boldly entered, and in a voice meant to be firm, but which +was very shaky, said, "I am here!" and pointed to the bosom of his +hickory shirt. + +The Yankee woman motioned him to a chair. Negroes coming there were +plentiful. Usually they wanted to live the Ideal Life. They had a call +to preach--and the girls wanted to be music-teachers. + +The test was simple and severe: would they and could they do one useful +piece of work well? + +Booker sat and waited, not knowing that his patience was being put to +the test. + +Then Miss Priscilla, in a hard, Neill Burgess voice, "guessed" that the +adjoining recitation-room needed sweeping and dusting. She handed Booker +a broom and dust-cloth, motioned to the room, and went away. + +Oho! Little did she know her lad. The colored boy smiled to +himself--sweeping and dusting were his specialties--he had learned the +trade from a Yankee woman from Vermont! He smiled. + +Then he swept that room--moved every chair, the table, the desk. He +dusted each piece of furniture four times. He polished each rung and +followed around the baseboard on hands and knees. + +Miss Priscilla came back--pushed the table around and saw at once that +the dirt had not been concealed beneath it. She took out her +handkerchief and wiped the table top, then the desk. + +She turned, looked at the boy, and her smile met his half-suppressed +triumphant grin. + +"You'll do," she said. + + * * * * * + +General Samuel C. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, and the +grandfather of Tuskegee, was a white man who fought the South valiantly +and well. + +He seems about the only man in the North who, at the close of the war, +clearly realized that the war had just begun--that the real enemies were +not subdued, and that these enemies were ignorance, superstition and +incompetence. + +The pitiable condition of four million human beings, flung from slavery +into freedom, thrown upon their own resources, with no thought of +responsibility, and with no preparation for the change, meant for them +only another kind of slavery. + +General Armstrong's heart went out to them--he desired to show them how +to be useful, helpful, self-reliant, healthy. For the whites of the +South he had only high regard and friendship. He, of all men, knew how +they had suffered from the war--and he realized also that they had +fought for what they believed was right. In his heart there was no hate. +He resolved to give himself--his life--his fortune--his intellect--his +love--his all, for the upbuilding of the South. He saw with the vision +of a prophet that indolence and pride were the actual enemies of white +and black alike. The blacks must be taught to work--to know the dignity +of human labor--to serve society--to help themselves by helping others. +He realized that there are no menial tasks--that all which serves is +sacred. + +And this is the man who sowed the seeds of truth in the heart of the +nameless black boy--Booker Washington. Armstrong's shibboleth, too, was, +"With malice toward none, but with charity for all, let us finish the +work God has given us to do." + + * * * * * + +I do not know very much about this subject of education, yet I believe I +know as much about what others know about it as most people. I have +visited the principal colleges of America and Europe, and the methods of +Preparatory and High Schools are to me familiar. I know the +night-schools of the cities, the "Ungraded Rooms," the Schools for +Defectives, the educational schemes in prisons, the Manual-Training +Schools, the New Education (first suggested by Socrates) as carried out +by G. Stanley Hall, John Dewey, and dozens of other good men and women +in America. I am familiar with the School for the Deaf at Malone, New +York, and the School for the Blind at Batavia, where even the sorely +stricken are taught to be self-sufficient, self-supporting and happy. I +have tumbled down the circular fire-escape at Lapeer with the inmates of +the Home of Epileptics, and heard the shouts of laughter from lips that +never laughed before. I have seen the Jewish Manual Training School of +Chicago transform Russian refugees into useful citizens--capable, +earnest and excellent. I know a little about Swarthmore, Wellesley, +Vassar, Radcliffe, and have put my head into West Point and Annapolis, +and had nobody cry, "Genius!" + +Of Harvard, Yale and Princeton I know something, having done time in +each. I have also given jobs to graduates of Oxford, Cambridge and +Heidelberg, to my sorrow and their chagrin. This does not prove that +graduates of the great universities are, as a rule, out of work, or that +they are incompetent. It simply means that it is possible for a man to +graduate at these institutions and secure his diploma and yet be a man +who has nothing the world really wants, either in way of ideas or +services. + +The reason that my "cum laude" friends did not like me, and the cause of +my having to part with them--getting them a little free transportation +from your Uncle George--was not because they lacked intelligence, but +because they wanted to secure a position, while I simply offered them a +job. + +They were like Cave-of-the-Winds of Oshkosh, who is an ice-cutter in +August, and in winter is an out-of-door horticulturist--a hired man is +something else. + +As a general proposition, I believe this will not now be disputed: the +object of education is that a man may benefit himself by serving +society. + +To benefit others, you must be reasonably happy: there must be animation +through useful activity, good-cheer, kindness and health--health of mind +and health of body. And to benefit society you must also have patience, +persistency, and a firm determination to do the right thing, and to mind +your own business so that others, too, may mind theirs. Then all should +be tinctured with a dash of discontent with past achievements, so you +will constantly put forth an effort to do more and better work. + +When what you have done in the past looks large to you, you haven't done +much today. + +So there you get the formula of Education: health and happiness through +useful activity--animation, kindness, good-cheer, patience, persistency, +willingness to give and take, seasoned with enough discontent to prevent +smugness, which is the scum that grows over every stagnant pond. + +Of course no college can fill this prescription--no institution can +supply the ingredients--all that the college can do is to supply the +conditions so that these things can spring into being. Plants need the +sunlight--mushrooms are different. + +The question is, then, what teaching concern in America supplies the +best quality of actinic ray? + +And I answer, Tuskegee is the place, and Booker Washington is the man. + +"What!" you exclaim. "The Ideal School a school for Negroes, instituted +by a Negro, where only Negroes teach, and only Negroes are allowed to +enter as students?" + +And the answer is, "Exactly so." + +At Tuskegee there are nearly two thousand students, and over one hundred +fifty teachers. There are two classes of students--"day-school" and +"night-school" students. The night-school students work all day at any +kind of task they are called upon to do. They receive their board, +clothing and a home--they pay no tuition, but are paid for their labor, +the amount being placed to their credit, so when fifty dollars is +accumulated they can enter as "day students." + +The "day students" make up the bulk of the scholars. Each pays fifty +dollars a year. These all work every other day at manual labor or some +useful trade. + +Tuskegee has fully twice as many applicants as it can accommodate; but +there is one kind of applicant who never receives any favor. This is the +man who says he has the money to pay his way, and wishes to take the +academic course only. The answer always is: "Please go elsewhere--there +are plenty of schools that want your money. The fact that you have money +will not exempt you here from useful labor." + +This is exactly what every college in the world should say. + +The Tuskegee farm consists of about three thousand acres. There are four +hundred head of cattle, about five hundred hogs, two hundred horses, +great flocks of chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys, and many swarms of +bees. It is the intention to raise all the food that is consumed on the +place, and to manufacture all supplies. There are wagon-shops, a +sawmill, a harness-shop, a shoe-shop, a tailor-shop, a printing-plant, a +model laundry, a canning establishment. Finer fruit and vegetables I +have never seen, and the thousands of peach, plum and apple trees, and +the vast acreage of berries that have been planted, will surely some day +be a goodly source of revenue. + +The place is religious, but not dogmatically so--the religion being +merely the natural safety-valve for emotion. At Tuskegee there is no +lacrimose appeal to confess your sins--they do better--they forget them. + +I never heard more inspiring congregational singing, and the use of the +piano, organ, orchestra and brass band are important factors in the +curriculum. In the chapel I spoke to an audience so attentive, so alert, +so receptive, so filled with animation, that the whole place looked like +a vast advertisement for Sozodont. + +No prohibitive signs are seen at Tuskegee. All is affirmative, yet it is +understood that some things are tabu--tobacco, for instance, and strong +drink, of course. + +We have all heard of Harvard Beer and Yale Mixture, but be it said in +sober justice, Harvard runs no brewery, and Yale has no official brand +of tobacco. Yet Harvard men consume much beer, and many men at Yale +smoke. And if you want to see the cigarette-fiend on his native heath, +you'll find him like the locust on the campus at Cambridge and New +Haven. But if you want to see the acme of all cigarette-bazaars, just +ride out of Boylston Street, Boston, any day at noon, and watch the boys +coming out of the Institute of Technology. + +I once asked a Tech Professor if cigarette-smoking was compulsory in his +institution. "Yes," he replied; "but the rule is not strictly enforced, +as I know three students who do not smoke." + +Tuskegee stands for order, system, cleanliness, industry, courtesy and +usefulness. There are no sink-holes around the place, no "back yards." +Everything is beautiful, wholesome and sanitary. All trades are +represented. The day is crammed so full of work from sunrise to sunset +that there is no time for complaining, misery or faultfinding--three +things that are usually born of idleness. At Tuskegee there are +no servants. All of the work is done by the students and +teachers--everybody works--everybody is a student, and all are teachers. + +We are all teachers, whether we will it or not--we teach by example, and +all students who do good work are good teachers. + +When the Negro is able to do skilled work, he ceases to be a problem--he +is a man. The fact that Alexandre Dumas was a Negro does not count +against him in the world's assize. + +The old-time academic college, that cultivated the cerebrum and gave a +man his exercise in an indoor gymnasium, or not at all, has ruined its +tens of thousands. To have top--head and no lungs--is not wholly +desirable. The student was made exempt from every useful thing, just as +the freshly freed slave hoped and expected to be, and after four years +it was often impossible for him to take up the practical lessons of +life. He had gotten used to the idea of one set of men doing all the +work and another set of men having the culture. To a large degree he +came to regard culture as the aim of life. And when a man begins to +pride himself upon his culture, he hasn't any to speak of. Culture must +be merely incidental, and to clutch it is like capturing a butterfly: +you do not secure the butterfly at all--you get only a grub. + +Let us say right here that there is only one way in which a Negro, or a +white man, can ever make himself respected. Statute law will not do it; +rights voted him by the State are of small avail; making demands will +not secure the desired sesame. If we ever gain the paradise of freedom +it will be because we have earned it--because we deserve it. A +make-believe education may suffice for a white man--especially if he has +a rich father, but a Negro who has to carve out his own destiny must be +taught order, system, and quiet, persistent, useful effort. + +A college that has its students devote one-half their time to actual, +useful work is so in line with commonsense that we are amazed that the +idea had to be put into execution by the ex-slave as a life-saver for +his disenfranchised race. Our great discoveries are always accidents: we +work for one thing and get another. I expect that the day will come, and +erelong, when the great universities of the world will have to put the +Tuskegee Idea into execution in order to save themselves from being +distanced by the Colored Race. + +If life were one thing and education another, it might be all right to +separate them. Culture of the head over a desk, and indoor gymnastics +for the body, are not the ideal, and that many succeed in spite of the +handicap is no proof of the excellence of the plan. Ships that go around +the world accumulate many barnacles, but barnacles as a help to the +navigator are an iridescent dream. + +A little regular manual labor, rightly mixed with the mental, eliminates +draw-poker, highballs, brawls, broils, Harvard Beer, Yale Mixture, +Princeton Pinochle, Chippee dances, hazing, roistering, rowdyism and the +bulldog propensity. The Heidelberg article of cocked hat and insolent +ways is not produced at Tuskegee. At Tuskegee there is no place for +those who lie in wait for insults and regard scrapping as a fine art. As +for college athletics at the Orthodox Universities, only one man out of +ten ever does anything at it anyway--the college man who needs the +gymnasium most is practically debarred from everything in it and serves +as a laughing-stock whenever he strips. Coffee, cocaine, bromide, +tobacco and strong drink often serve in lieu of exercise and ozone, and +Princeton winks her woozy eye in innocency. + +Freedom can not be bestowed--it must be achieved. Education can not be +given--it must be earned. Lincoln did not free the slaves--he only freed +himself. The Negroes did not know they were slaves, and so they had no +idea of what freedom meant. Until a man wants to be free, each kind of +freedom is only another form of slavery. Booker Washington is showing +the colored man how to secure a genuine freedom through useful +activity. To get freedom you must shoulder responsibility. + +If college education were made compulsory by the State, and one-half of +the curriculum consisted of actual, useful manual labor, most of our +social ills would be solved, and we would be well out on the highway +towards the Ideal City. + +Without animation, man is naught--nothing is accomplished, nothing done. +People who inspire other people have animation plus. + +And animation plus is ecstasy. In ecstasy the spirit rushes out, runs +over and saturates all. Oratory is an ecstasy that inundates the hearer +and makes him ride upon the crest of another's ideas. + +Art is born of ecstasy--art is ecstasy in the concrete. Beautiful music +is ecstasy expressed in sound, regulated into rhythm, cadence and form. +"Statuary is frozen music," said Heine. + +A man who is not moved into ecstasy by ecstasy is hopeless. A people +that has not the surging, uplifting, onward power that ecstasy gives, is +decadent--dead. + +The Negro is easily moved to ecstasy. Very little musical training makes +him a power in song. At Tuskegee the congregational singing is a feature +that, once heard, is never to be forgotten. Fifteen hundred people +lifting up their hearts in an outburst of emotion--song! Fifteen hundred +people of one mind, doing anything in unison--do you know what it means? +Ecstasy is essentially a matter of sex. In art and religion sex can not +be left out of the equation. The simple fact that in forty years the +Negro race in America has increased from four million to ten million +tells of their ecstasy as a people. "Only happy beings reproduce +themselves," says Darwin. Depress your animal and it ceases to breed; so +there are a whole round of animals that do not reproduce in captivity. +But in slavery or freedom the Negro sings, and reproduces--he is not +doomed nor depressed--his soul arises superior to circumstance. + +Without animation, education is impossible. And the problem of the +educator is to direct this singing, flowing, moving spirit of the hive +into useful channels. + +Education is simply the encouragement of right habits--the fixing of +good habits until they become a part of one's nature, and are exercised +automatically. + +The man who is industrious by habit is the only man who wins. The man +who is not industrious except when driven to it, or when it occurs to +him, accomplishes little. + +Man gets his happiness by doing: and work to a slave is always +distasteful. The power of mimicry and imitation is omitted--the owner +does not work--the strong man does not work. Ergo--to grow strong means +to cease work. To be strong means to be free--to be free means no work! + +It has been a frightfully bad education that the Negro has had--work +distasteful, and work disgraceful! And the slave-owner suffered most of +all, for he came to regard work as debasing. + +And now a Negro is teaching the Negro that work is beautiful--that work +is a privilege--that only through willing service can he ever win his +freedom. Architecture is fixed ecstasy, inspired always by a strong man +who gives a feeling of security. Athens was an ecstasy in marble. + +Tuskegee is an ecstasy in brick and mortar. + +Don't talk about the education of the Negro! The experiment has really +never been tried, except spasmodically, of educating either the whites +or the blacks in the South--or elsewhere. + +A Negro is laying hold upon the natural ecstasy of the Negro, and +directing it into channels of usefulness and excellence. Can you +foretell where this will end--this formation of habits of industry, +sobriety and continued, persistent effort towards the right? + +Booker Washington, child of a despised race, has done and is doing what +the combined pedagogic and priestly wisdom of ages has failed to do. He +is the Moses who by his example is leading the children of his former +oppressors out into the light of social, mental, moral and economic +freedom. + +I am familiar in detail with every criticism brought against Tuskegee. +On examination these criticisms all reduce themselves down to three: + +1. A vast sum of money has been collected by Booker Washington for his +own aggrandizement and benefit. + +2. Tuskegee is a show-place where all the really good work is done by +picked men from the North. + +3. Booker Washington is a tyrant, a dictator and an egotist. + +If I were counsel for Tuskegee--as I am not--I would follow the example +of the worthy accusers, and submit the matter without argument. Booker +Washington can afford to plead guilty to every charge; and he has never +belittled himself by answering his accusers. + +But let the facts be known, that this man has collected upward of six +million dollars, mostly from the people of the North, and has built up +the nearest perfect educational institution in the world. + +It is probably true that many of his teachers and best workers are +picked people--but they are Negroes, and were selected by a Negro. The +great general reveals his greatness in the selection of his generals: it +was the marshals whom Napoleon appointed who won for him his victories; +but his spirit animated theirs, and he chose them for this one +reason--he could dominate them. He infused into their souls a goodly +dash of his own enthusiasm. + +Booker Washington is a greater general than Napoleon. For the Tuskegee +idea no Waterloo awaits. And as near as I can judge, Booker Washington's +most noisy critics are merely camp-followers. + +That the man is a tyrant and a dictator there is no doubt. He is a +beneficent tyrant, but a tyrant still, for he always, invariably, has +his own way in weighty matters--in trivialities others can have theirs. +And as for dictatorship, the man who advances on chaos and transforms it +into cosmos is perforce a dictator and an egotist. + +Booker Washington believes he is in the right, and he makes no effort to +conceal the fact that he is on earth. In him there is no disposition to +run and peep about, and find himself a dishonorable grave. All live men +are egotists, and they are egotists just in proportion as they have +life. Dead men are not egotists. Booker Washington has life in +abundance, and through him I truly believe runs the spirit of Divinity, +if ever a living man had it. A man like this is the instrument of Deity. + +Tuskegee Institute has applications ahead all the time, from all over +America, for competent colored men and women who can take charge of +important work and do it. Dressmakers, housekeepers, cooks, farmers, +stockmen, builders, gardeners, are in demand. The world has never yet +had enough people to bear its burdens. + +Recently we have heard much of the unemployed, but a very little search +will show that the people out of work are those of bad habits, which +make them unreliable and untrustworthy. The South, especially, needs the +willing worker and the practical man. And best of all the South knows +it, and stands ready to pay for the service. + +A few years ago there was a fine storm of protest from Northern Negroes +to the effect that Booker Washington was endeavoring to limit the Negro +to menial service--that is, thrust him back into servility. The first +ambition of the Negro was to get an education so that he might become a +Baptist preacher. To him, education meant freedom from toil, and of +course we do not have to look far to see where he got the idea. Then +when Tuskegee came forward and wanted to make blacksmiths, carpenters +and brick-masons out of black men, there was a cry, "If this means +education, we will none of it--treason, treason!" It was assumed that +the Negro who set other Negroes to work was not their friend. This phase +of the matter requires neither denial nor apology. We smile and pass on. + +In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-seven, the Negro was practically +disenfranchised throughout the South, by being excluded from the +primaries. He had no recognized ticket in the field. For both the blacks +and the whites this has been well. To most of the blacks freedom meant +simply exemption from work. So there quickly grew up a roistering, +turbulent, idle and dangerous class of black men who were used by the +most ambitious of their kind for political ends. To preserve the peace +of the community, the whites were forced to adopt heroic measures, with +the result that we now have the disenfranchised Negro. + +Early in the Eighties, Booker Washington realized that, politically, +there was no hope for his race. He saw, however, that commerce +recognized no color line. We would buy, sell and trade with the black +man on absolute equality. Life-insurance companies would insure him, +banks would receive his deposits, and if honest and competent, would +loan him money. If he could shoe a horse, we waived his complexion; and +in every sort and kind of craftsmanship he stood on absolute equality +with the whites. The only question ever asked was, "Can you do the +work?" + +And Booker Washington set out to help the Negro win success for himself +by serving society through becoming skilled in doing useful things. And +so it became Head, Hand and Heart. The manual was played off against the +intellectual. + +But over and beyond the great achievement of Booker Washington in +founding and carrying to a successful issue the most complete +educational scheme of this age, or any other, stands the man himself. He +is one without hate, heat or prejudice. No one can write on the lintels +of his doorpost the word, "Whim." He is half-white, but calls himself a +Negro. He sides with the disgraced and outcast black woman who gave him +birth, rather than with the respectable white man who was his sire. + +He rides in the Jim Crow cars, and on long trips, if it is deemed +expedient to use a sleeping-car, he hires the stateroom, so that he may +not trespass or presume upon those who would be troubled by the presence +of a colored man. Often in traveling he goes for food and shelter to the +humble home of one of his own people. At hotels he receives and +accepts, without protest or resentment, the occasional contumely of the +inferior whites--whites too ignorant to appreciate that one of God's +noblemen stands before them. For the whites of the South he has only +words of kindness and respect; the worst he says about them is that they +do not understand. His modesty, his patience, his forbearance, are +sublime. He is a true Fabian--he does what he can, like the royal +Roycroft opportunist that he is. Every petty annoyance is passed over; +the gibes and jeers and the ingratitude of his own race are forgotten. +"They do not understand," he calmly says. He does his work. He is +respected by the best people of North and South. He has the confidence +of the men of affairs--he is a safe man. + + + + +[Illustration: THOMAS ARNOLD] + +THOMAS ARNOLD + + + Let me mind my own personal work; keep myself pure and zealous and + believing; laboring to do God's will in this fruitful vineyard of + young lives committed to my charge, as my allotted field, until my + work be done. + + --_Thomas Arnold_ + + +THOMAS ARNOLD + +Thomas Arnold was born in Seventeen Hundred Ninety-five, and died in +Eighteen Hundred Forty-two. His life was short, as men count time, but +he lived long enough to make for himself a name and a fame that are both +lasting and luminous. Though he was neither a great writer nor a great +preacher, yet there were times when he thought he was both. He was only +a schoolteacher. However, he was an artist in schoolteaching, and art is +not a thing--it is a way. It is the beautiful way--the effective way. + +Schoolteachers have no means of proving their prowess by conspicuous +waste, and no time to convince the world of their excellence through +conspicuous leisure; consequently, for histrionic purposes, a +schoolteacher's cosmos is a plain, slaty gray. Schoolteachers do not +wallow in wealth nor feed fat at the public trough. No one ever accuses +them of belonging to the class known as the predatory rich, nor of being +millionaire malefactors. They have to do their work every day at certain +hours and dedicate its results to time. + +For many years Thomas Arnold has been known as the father of his son. +Several great men have been thus overshadowed. The father of Disraeli, +for instance, was favored by fame and fortune, until his gifted son +moved into the limelight, and after that Pater shone mostly in a +reflected glory. Jacopo Bellini was the greatest painter in Venice until +his two sons, Gian and Gentile, surpassed him, and history writes him +down as the father of the Bellinis. Lyman Beecher was regarded as +America's greatest preacher until Henry Ward moved the mark up a few +notches. The elder Pitt was looked upon as a genuine statesman until his +son graduated into the Cabinet, and then "the terrible cornet of horse" +became known as the father of Pitt. Now that both are dust, and we are +getting the proper perspective, we see that "the great commoner" was +indeed a great man, and so they move down the corridors of time +together, arm in arm, this father and son. That excellent person who +carried the gripsacks of greatness so long that he thought the luggage +was his own, Major James B. Pond, launched at least one good thing. It +was this: "Matthew Arnold gave fifty lectures in America, and nobody +ever heard one of them; those in his audience who could no longer endure +the silence slipped quietly out." + +Matthew Arnold was a critic and writer who, having secured a tuppence +worth of success through being the son of his father, and thus securing +the speaker's eye, finally got an oratorical bee in his bonnet and went +a-barnstorming. He cultivated reserve and indifference, both of which he +was told were necessary factors of success in a public speaker. + +And this is true. But they will not make an orator, any more than long +hair, a peculiar necktie, and a queer hat will float a poet on the tide +of time safely into the Hall of Fame. + +Matthew Arnold cultivated repose, but instead of convincing the audience +that he had power, he only made them think he was sleepy. Major Pond, +having lived much with orators, and thinking the trick easy, tried +oratory on his own account, and succeeded as well as did Matthew Arnold. +No one ever heard Major Pond: his voice fell over the footlights, dead, +into the orchestra; only those with opera-glasses knew he was talking. + +But to be unintelligible is not a special recommendation. Men may be +moderate for two reasons--through excess of feeling and because they are +actually dull. + +Matthew Arnold has slipped back into his true position--that of a man of +letters. The genius is a man of affairs. Humanity is the theme, not +books. Books are usually written about the thoughts of men who wrote +books. Books die and disintegrate, but humanity is an endless +procession, and the souls that go marching on are those who fought for +freedom, not those who speculate on abstrusities. + +The credential of Thomas Arnold to immortality is not that he was the +father of Matthew and eight other little Arnolds, but it lies in the +fact that he fought for a wider horizon in life through education. He +lifted his voice for liberty. He believed in the divinity of the child, +not in its depravity. Arnold of Rugby was a teacher of teachers, as +every great teacher is. The pedagogic world is now going back to his +philosophy, just as in statesmanship we are reverting to Thomas +Jefferson. These men who spoke classic truth, not transient--truth that +fits in spite of fashion, time and place--are the true prophets of +mankind. Such was Thomas Arnold! + + * * * * * + +If Thomas Arnold had been just a little bigger, the world probably would +never have heard of him, for an interdict would have been placed upon +his work. The miracle is that, as it was, the Church and the State did +not snuff him out. + +He stood for sweet reasonableness, but unintentionally created much +opposition. His life was a warfare. Yet he managed to make himself +acceptable to a few; so for fourteen years this head master of a +preparatory school for boys lived his life and did his work. He sent out +his radiating gleams, and grew straight in the strength of his spirit, +and lived out his life in the light. + +His sudden death sanctified and sealed his work before he was subdued +and ironed out by the conventions. + +Happy Arnold! If he had lived, he might have met the fate of Arnold of +Brescia, who was also a great teacher. Arnold of Brescia was a pupil of +Abelard, and was condemned by the Church as a disturber of the peace for +speaking in eulogy of his master. Later, he attacked the profligacy of +the idle prelates, as did Luther, Savonarola and all the other great +church-reformers. When ordered into exile and silence, he still +protested his right to speak. He was strangled on order of the Pope, his +body burned, and the ashes thrown into the Tiber. The Baptists, I +believe, claim Arnold of Brescia as the forerunner of their sect, and +certain it is that he was of the true Roger Williams type. + +Thomas Arnold, too, was filled with a passion for righteousness. His +zeal for the upright, manly life constituted his strength. Of course he +would not have been executed, as was Arnold of Brescia--the times had +changed--he would simply have been shelved, pooh-poohed, deprived of his +living and socially Crapseyized. Death saved him--aged forty-seven--and +his soul goes marching on! + + * * * * * + +The parents of Thomas Arnold belonged to the great Middle Class--that +class which Disraeli said never did any thinking on its own account, but +to the best of its ability deferred to and imitated the idle rich in +matters of religion, education and politics. + +Doctor Johnson maintained that if members of the Middle Class worked +hard and economized, it was in the hope that they might leave money and +name for their children and make them exempt from all useful effort. + +"To indict a class," said Burke, "is neither reasonable nor right." But +certain it is that a vast number of fairly intelligent people in England +and elsewhere regard the life of the "aristocracy" as very desirable and +beautiful. + +To this end they want their boys to become clergymen, lawyers, doctors +or army officers. + +"Only two avenues of honor are open to aspiring youth in England," said +Gladstone--"the Army and the Church." + +The father of Thomas Arnold was Collector of Customs at Cowes, Isle of +Wight. Holding this petty office under the Government, with a half-dozen +men at his command, we can easily guess his caliber, habits, belief and +mode of life. He was respectable; and to be respectable, a Collector of +Customs must be punctilious in Church matters, in order to be acceptable +to Church people, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. The parents of +Thomas Arnold very naturally centered their ambitions for him on the +Church, as he was not very strong. + +When the child was only six years old, the father died from "spasm of +the heart." At this time the boy had begun to take Latin, and his +education was being looked after by a worthy governess, who daily +drilled his mental processes and took him walking, leading him by the +hand. On Sundays he wore a wide, white collar, shiny boots and a stiff +hat. The governess cautioned him not to soil his collar, nor to get mud +on his boots. + +In later years he told how he looked covetously at the boys who wore +neither hats nor boots, and who did not have a governess. + +His mother had a fair income, and so this prim, precise, exact and +crystallized mode of education was continued. Out of her great love for +her child, the mother sent him away from home when he was eight years +old. Of course there were tears on both sides; but now a male man must +educate him, and women were to be dropped out of the equation--this that +the evil in the child should be curbed, his spirit chastened, and his +mind disciplined. + +The fact that a child rather liked to be fondled by his mother, or that +his mother cared to fondle him, was proof of total depravity on the part +of both. + +The Reverend Doctor Griffiths, who took charge of the boy for two years, +was certainly not cruel, but at the same time he was not exactly human. +In Nature we never hear of a she-lion sending her cubs away to be looked +after by a denatured lion. It is really doubtful whether you could ever +raise a lion to lionhood by this method. Some goat would come along and +butt the life out of him, even after he had evolved whiskers and a mane. + +After two years with Doctor Griffiths, young Arnold was sent to +Manchester, where he remained in a boys' boarding-house from his tenth +to his fourteenth year. To the teachers here--all men--he often paid +tribute, but uttered a few heretical doubts as to whether discipline as +a substitute for mother-love was not an error of pious but overzealous +educators. + +At sixteen years of age he was transferred to Corpus Christi College at +Oxford. In Eighteen Hundred Fifteen, being then twenty years of age, he +was elected a Fellow of Oriel College, and there he resided until he was +twenty-four. + +He was a prizeman in Latin, Greek and English, and was considered a star +scholar--both by himself and by others. Ten years afterwards he took a +backward glance, and said: "At twenty-two I was proud, precise, stiff, +formal, uncomfortable, unhappy, and unintentionally made everybody else +unhappy with whom I came in contact. The only people I really mixed with +were those whose lives were dedicated to the ablative." + +When twenty-four he was made a deacon and used to read prayers at +neighboring chapels, for which service he was paid five shillings. Being +now thrown on his own resources, he did the thing a prizeman always +does: he showed others how. As a tutor he was a success: more scholars +came to him than he could really take care of. But he did not like the +work, since all the pupil desired, and all the parents desired, was that +he should help the backward one get his marks, and glide through the eye +of a needle into pedagogic paradise. + +At twenty-six he was preaching, teaching and writing learned essays +about things he did not understand. + +From this brief sketch it will be seen that the early education of +Thomas Arnold was of the kind and type that any fond parent of the +well-to-do Middle Class would most desire. He had been shielded from all +temptations of the world; he could do no useful thing with his hands; +his knowledge of economics--ways and means--was that of a child; of the +living present he knew little, but of the dead past he assumed and +believed he knew much. + +It was purely priestly, institutional education. It was the kind of +education that every well-to-do Briton would like to have his sons +receive. It was, in short, England's Ideal. + + * * * * * + +Rugby Grammar School was endowed in Sixteen Hundred Fifty-three by one +Laurence Sherif, a worthy grocer. The original gift was comparatively +small, but the investment being in London real estate, has increased in +value until it yields now an income of about thirty-five thousand +dollars a year. + +In the time of Arnold there were about three hundred pupils. It is not a +large school now; there are high schools in a hundred cities of America +that surpass it in many ways. + +Rugby's claim to special notice lies in its traditions--the great men +who were once Rugby boys, and the great men who were Rugby teachers. +Also, in the fact that Thomas Hughes wrote a famous story called, "Tom +Brown at Rugby." + +Rugby Grammar School was one hundred twenty-five years old when Sir +Joshua Reynolds commissioned Lord Cornwallis to go to America and fetch +George Washington to England, that Sir Joshua might paint his portrait. + +For a hundred years prior to the time of Arnold, there had not been a +perceptible change in the methods of teaching. The boys were herded +together. They fought, quarreled, divided into cliques; the big boys +bullied the little ones. Fagging was the law; so the upper forms +enslaved the lower ones. There was no home life, and the studies were +made irksome and severe, purposely, as it was thought that pleasant +things were sinful. + +If any better plan could have been devised to make study absolutely +repulsive, so the student would shun it as soon as he was out of school, +we can not guess it. + +The system was probably born of inertia on the part of the teachers. The +pastor who pushes through his prescribed services, with mind on other +things, and thus absolves his conscience for letting his congregation go +drifting straight to Gehenna, was duplicated in the teacher. He did his +duty--and nothing more. + +Selfishness, heartlessness and brutality manipulated the birch. Head was +all; heart and hand nothing. This was schoolteaching. As a punishment +for failure to memorize lessons, there were various plans to disgrace +and discourage the luckless ones. Standing in the corner with face to +the wall, and the dunce-cap, had given place to a system of fines, +whereby "ten lines of Vergil for failure to attend prayers," and ten +more for failure to get the first, often placed the boy in hopeless +bankruptcy. If he was a fag, or slave of a higher-form boy, cleaning the +other's boots, scrubbing stairs, running on foolish and needless +errands, getting cuffs and kicks by way of encouragement, he saw his +fines piling up and no way ever to clear them off and gain freedom by +promotion. + +Viewed from our standpoint, the thing has a ludicrous bouffe air that +makes us smile. But to the boy caught in the toils it was tragic. To +work and evolve in an environment of such brutality was impossible to +certain temperaments. Success lay in becoming calloused and indifferent. +If the boy of gentle habits and slight physical force did not sink into +mental nothingness, he was in danger of being bowled over by disease and +death. + +Indeed, the physical condition of the pupils was very bad: smallpox, +fevers, consumption, and breaking out with sores and boils, were common. + +Thomas Arnold was thirty-three years old when he was called as head +master to Rugby. He was married, and babies were coming along with +astonishing regularity. He had taken priestly orders and was passing +rich on one hundred pounds a year. Poverty and responsibility had given +him ballast, and love for his own little brood had softened his heart +and vitalized his soul. + +As a writer and speaker he had made his presence felt at various college +commencements and clergymen's meetings. He had challenged the brutal, +indifferent, lazy and so-called disciplinary methods of teaching. + +And so far as we know, he is the first man in England to declare that +the teacher should be the foster-parent of the child, and that all +successful teaching must be born of love. + +The well-upholstered conservatives twiddled their thumbs, coughed, and +asked: "How about the doctrine of total depravity? Do you mean to say +that the child should not be disciplined? What does Solomon say about +the use of the rod? Does the Bible say that the child is good by +nature?" + +But Thomas Arnold could not explain all he knew. Moreover, he did not +wish to fight the Church--he believed in the Church--to him it was a +divine institution. But there were methods and practises in the Church +that he would have liked to forget. + +"My sympathies go out to inferiority," he said. The weakling often +needed encouragement, not discipline. The bad boy must be won, not +suppressed. + +In one of these conferences of clergymen, Arnold said: + +"I once chided a pupil, a little, pale, stupid boy--undersized and +seemingly half-sick--for not being able to recite his very simple +lesson. He looked up at me and said with a touch of spirit: 'Sir, why do +you get angry with me? Do you not know I am doing the best I can?'" + +One of the clergymen present asked Arnold how he punished the boy for +his impudence. + +And Arnold replied: "I did not punish him--he had properly punished me. +I begged his pardon." + +The idea of a teacher begging the pardon of a pupil was a brand-new +thing. + +Several clergymen present laughed--one scowled--two sneezed. But a +Bishop, shortly after this, urged the name of Thomas Arnold as master of +Rugby, and added to his recommendation this line: "If elected to the +office he will change the methods of schoolteaching in every public +school in England." + +The ayes had it, and Arnold was called to Rugby. The salary was so-so, +the pupils between two and three hundred in number--many were home on +sick-leave--the Sixth Form was in charge. + + +The genius of Arnold was made manifest, almost as soon as he went to +Rugby, by the way in which he managed the boys who bullied the whole +school, and what is worse, did it legally. + +Fagging was official. + +The Sixth Form was composed of thirty boys who stood at the top, and +these boys ran the school. They were boys who, by reason of their size, +strength, aggressiveness and mental ability, got the markings that gave +them this autocratic power. They were now immune from authority--they +were free. In a year they would gravitate to the University. + +We can hardly understand now how a bully could get markings through his +bullying propensities; but a rudimentary survival of the idea may yet be +seen in big football-players, who are given good marks, and very gentle +mental massage in class. If the same scholars were small and skinny, +they would certainly be plucked. + +The faculty found freedom in shifting responsibility for discipline to +the Sixth Form. + +Read the diary of Arnold, and you will be amazed on seeing how he fought +against taking from the Sixth Form the right to bodily chastise any +scholar in the school that the king of the Sixth Form declared deserved +it. + +If a teacher thought a pupil needed punishment, he turned the luckless +one over to the Sixth Form. Can we now conceive of a system where the +duty of certain scholars was to whip other scholars? Not only to whip +them, but to beat them into insensibility if they fought back? + +Such was schoolteaching in the public schools of England in Eighteen +Hundred Thirty. + +Against this brutality there was now a growing sentiment--a piping voice +bidding the tide to stay! + +But now that Arnold was in charge of Rugby, he got the ill-will of his +directors by declaring that he did not intend to curtail the powers of +the Sixth Form--he proposed to civilize it. To try out the new master, +the Sixth Form, proud in their prowess, sent him word that if he +interfered with them in any way, they would first "bust up the school," +and then resign in a body. Moreover, they gave it out that if any pupil +complained to the master concerning the Sixth Form, the one so +complaining would be taken out by night and drowned in the classic Avon. + +There were legends among the younger boys of strange disappearances, and +these were attributed to the swift vengeance of "The Bloody Sixth." + +Above the Sixth Form there was no law. + +Every scholar took off his hat to a "Sixth." A Sixth uncovered to +nobody, and touched his cap only to a teacher. + +And custom had become so rooted that the Sixth Form was regarded as a +sort of police necessity--a caste which served the school just as the +Army served the Church. To reach the Sixth Form were paradise--it meant +liberty and power--liberty to do as you pleased, and power to punish all +who questioned your authority. + +To uproot the power of the Sixth Form was the intent of a few reformers +in pedagogics. + +There were two ways to deal with the boys of the Sixth--fight them or +educate them. + +Arnold called the Rugby Sixth together and assured them that he could +not do without their help. He needed them: he wanted to make Rugby a +model school, a school that would influence all England--would they help +him? + +The dogged faces before him showed signs of interest. He continued, +without waiting for their reply, to set before them his ideal of an +English Gentleman. He persuaded them, melted them by his glowing +personality, shook hands with each, and sent them away. + +The next day he again met them in the same intimate way, and one of the +boys made bold to assure him that if he wanted anybody licked--pupils or +teachers--they stood ready to do his bidding. + +He thanked the boy, but assured him that he was of the opinion that it +would not be necessary to do violence to any one; he was going to unfold +to them another way--a new way, which was very old, but which as yet +England had not tried. + + * * * * * + +The great teacher is not the one who imparts the most facts--he is the +one who inspires by supplying a nobler ideal. + +Men are superior or inferior just in the ratio that they possess certain +qualities. Truth, honor, frankness, health, system, industry, +kindliness, good-cheer and a spirit of helpfulness are so far beyond any +mental acquisition that comparisons are not only odious, but absurd. + +Arnold inspired qualities, and in this respect his work at Rugby forms a +white milestone on the path of progress in pedagogy. + +To an applicant for a position as teacher, Arnold wrote: + + What I want is a man who is a Christian and a gentleman, an active + man, and one who has commonsense, and understands boys. I do not so + much care about scholarship, as he will have immediately under him + the lowest forms in the school, but yet, on second thought, I do + care about it very much, because his pupils may be in the highest + forms; and besides, I think that even the elements are best taught + by a man who has a thorough knowledge of the matter. However, if + one must give way, I prefer activity of mind and an interest in his + work to high scholarship; for the one may be acquired far more + easily than the other. I should wish it also to be understood that + the new master may be called upon to take boarders in his house, it + being my intention for the future to require this of all masters as + I see occasion, that so in time the school-barracks may die a + natural death. With this to offer, I think I have a right to look + rather high for the man whom I fix upon, and it is my great object + to get here a society of intelligent, gentlemanly and active men, + who may permanently keep up the character of the school, and if I + were to break my neck tomorrow, carry it on. + +Ideas are in the air, and great inventions are worked out in different +parts of the world at the same time. Rousseau had written his "Emile," +but we are not aware that Arnold ever read it. + +And if he had, he probably would have been shocked, not inspired, by its +almost brutal frankness. The French might read it--the English could +not. + +Pestalozzi was working out his ideas in Switzerland, and Froebel, an +awkward farmer lad in Germany, was dreaming dreams that were to come +true. But Thomas Arnold caught up the threads of feeling in England and +expressed them in the fabric of his life. + +His plans were scientific, but his reasons, unlike those of Pestalozzi, +will not always stand the test of close analysis. Arnold was true to the +Church, but he found it convenient to forget much for which the Church +stood. He went back to a source nearer the fountainhead. All reforms in +organized religion lie in returning to the primitive type. The religion +of Jesus was very simple; that of a modern church dignitary is very +complex. One can be understood; the other has to be explained and +expounded, and usually several languages are required. + +Arnold would have his boys evolve into Christian gentlemen. And his +type of English gentleman he did not get out of books on theology--it +was his own composite idea. But having once evolved it, he cast around +to justify it by passages of Scripture. This was beautiful, too, but +from our standpoint it wasn't necessary. + +From his it was. + +A gentleman to him was a man who looked for the best in other people, +and not for their faults; who overlooked slights; who forgot the good he +had done; who was courteous, kind, cheerful, industrious and clean +inside and out; who was slow to wrath, fervent in spirit, serving the +Lord. And the "Lord" to Arnold was embodied in Church and State. + +Arnold used to say that schoolteaching should not be based upon +religion, but it should be religion. And to him religion and conduct +were one. + +That he reformed Rugby through the Sixth Form is a fact. He infused into +the big boys the thought that they must help the little ones; that for a +first offense a lad must never be punished; that he should have the +matter fully explained to him, and be shown that he should do right +because it is right, and not for fear of punishment. + +The Sixth Form was taught to unbend its dignity and enter into +fellowship with its so-called inferiors. To this end Arnold set the +example of playing cricket with the "scrubs." + +He never laughed at a poor player nor at a poor scholar. He took dull +pupils into his own house, and insisted that his helpers, the other +teachers, should do the same. He showed the Sixth Form how much better +it was to take the part of the weak, and stop bullying the lower forms, +than to set the example of it in the highest. Before Arnold had been at +Rugby a year, the Sixth Form had resolved itself into a Reception +Committee that greeted all newcomers, got them located, introduced them +to the other boys, showed them the sights, and looked after their wants +like big brothers or foster-fathers. + +Christianity to Arnold was human service. In his zeal to serve, to +benefit, to bless, to inspire, he never tired. + +Such a disposition as this is contagious. In every big business or +school, there is one man's mental attitude that animates the whole +institution. Everybody partakes of it. When the leader gets melancholia, +the shop has it--the whole place becomes tinted with ultra-marine. The +best helpers begin to get out, and the honeycombing process of +dissolution is on. + +A school must have a soul, just as surely as a shop, a bank, a hotel, a +store, a home, or a church has to have. When an institution grows so +great that it has no soul--simply a financial head and a board of +directors--dry-rot sets in and disintegration in a loose wrapper is at +the door. + +This explains why the small colleges are the best, when they are: there +is a personality about them, an animating spirit that is pervasive and +preservative. + +Thomas Arnold was not a man of vast learning, nor could one truthfully +say he had a surplus of intellect; but he had soul, plus. He never +sought to save himself. He gave himself to the boys of Rugby. His heart +went out to them, he believed in them--and he believed them even when +they lied, and he knew they lied. He knew that humanity was sound at +heart; he believed in the divinity of mankind, and tried hard to forget +the foolish theology that taught otherwise. + +Like Thomas Jefferson, who installed the honor system in the University +of Virginia, he trusted young men. He made his appeal to that germ of +goodness which is in every human soul. In some ways he anticipated Ben +Lindsey in his love for the boy, and might have conjured forth from his +teeming brain the Juvenile Court, and thus stopped the creation of +criminals, had his life not been consumed in a struggle with stupidity +and pedantry gone to seed that cried to him, "Oh, who ever heard of such +a thing as that!" + +The Kindergarten utilizes the propensity to play; and Arnold utilizes +the thirst for authority. Altruism is flavored with a desire for +approbation. + +The plan of self-government by means of utilizing the Sixth Form was +quite on the order of our own "George Junior Republic." "A school," he +said, "should be self-governing and cleanse itself from that which is +harmful." And again he says: "If a pupil can gratify his natural desire +for approbation by doing that which is right, proper and best, he will +work to this end instead of being a hero by playing the rowdy. It is for +the scholars to set the seal of their approval on character, and they +will do so if we as teachers speak the word. If I find a room in a +tumult, I blame myself, not the scholars. It is I who have failed, not +they. Were I what I should be, every one of my pupils would reflect my +worth. I key the situation, I set the pace, and if my soul is in +disorder, the school will be in confusion." + +Nothing is done without enthusiasm. It is heart that wins, not head, the +round world over. And yet head must systematize the promptings of the +heart. Arnold had a way of putting soul into a hand-clasp. His pupils +never forgot him. Wherever they went, no matter how long they lived, +they proclaimed the praises of Arnold of Rugby. How much this earnest, +enthusiastic, loving and sincere teacher has influenced civilization, no +man can say. But this we know, that since his day there has come about a +new science of teaching. The birch has gone with the dunce-cap. The +particular cat-o'-nine-tails that was burned in the house of Thomas +Arnold as a solemn ceremony, when the declaration was made, "Henceforth +I know my children will do right!" has found its example in every home +of Christendom. + +We no longer whip children. Schools are no longer places of dread, pain +and suffering, and we as teachers are repeating with Friedrich Froebel +the words of the Nazarene, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and +forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." + +Also, we say with Thomas Arnold: "The boy is father to the man. A race +of gentlemen can only be produced by fostering in the boy the qualities +that make for health, strength and a manly desire to bless, benefit and +serve the race." + + + + +[Illustration: FRIEDRICH FROEBEL] + +FRIEDRICH FROEBEL + + + The purpose of the Kindergarten is to provide the necessary and + natural help which poor mothers require who have to be about their + work all day, and must leave their children to themselves. The + occupations pursued in the Kindergarten are the following: free + play of a child by itself; free play of several children by + themselves; associated play under the guidance of a teacher; + gymnastic exercises; several sorts of handiwork suited to little + children; going for walks; learning music, both instrumental and + vocal; learning the repetition of poetry; story-telling; looking at + really good pictures; aiding in domestic occupations; gardening. + + --_Froebel_ + + +FRIEDRICH FROEBEL + +Friedrich Froebel was born in a Thuringian village, April Twenty-first, +Seventeen Hundred Eighty-two. His father was pastor of the Lutheran +Church. When scarcely a year old his mother died. Erelong a stepmother +came to fill her place--but didn't. This stepmother was the kind we read +about in the "Six Best Sellers." + +Her severity, lack of love, and needlessly religious zeal served the +future Kindergartner a dark background on which to paint a joyous +picture. Froebel was educated by antithesis. His home was the type +etched so unforgetably by Colonel Ed. Howe in his "Story of a Country +Town," which isn't bad enough to be one of the Six Best Sellers. + +At the age of ten, out of pure pity, young Friedrich was rescued from +the cuckoo's nest by an uncle who had a big family of his own and love +without limit. There was a goodly brood left, so little Friedrich, slim, +slender, yellow, pensive and sad, was really never missed. + +The uncle brought the boy up to work, but treated him like a human +being, answering his questions, even allowing him to have stick horses +and little log houses and a garden of his own. + +At fifteen his nature had begun to awaken, and the uncle, harkening to +the boy's wish, apprenticed him for two years to a forester. The young +man's first work was to make a list of the trees in a certain tract and +approximate their respective ages. The night before his work began he +lay awake thinking of the fun he was going to have at the job. In +after-years he told of this incident in showing that it was absurd to +try to divorce work from play. + +The two years as forester's apprentice, from fifteen to seventeen, were +really better for him than any university could have been. His +stepmother's instructions had mostly been in the line of prohibition. +From earliest babyhood he had been warned to "look out." When he went on +the street it was with a prophecy that he would get run over by a cart, +or stolen by the gypsies, or fall off the bridge and be drowned. The +idea of danger had been dinged into his ears so that fear had become a +part of the fabric of his nature. Even at fifteen, he took pains to get +out of the woods before sundown to avoid the bears. At the same time his +intellect told him there were no bears there. But the shudder habit was +upon him. + +Yet by degrees the work in the woods built up his body and he grew to be +at home in the forest, both day and night. His duties taught him to +observe, to describe, to draw, to investigate, to decide. Then it was +transplantation, and perhaps the best of college life consists in taking +the youth out of the home environment and supplying him new +surroundings. + +Forestry in America is a brand-new science. To clear the ground has been +our desire, and so to strip, burn and destroy, saving only such logs as +appealed to us for "lumber," was the desideratum. But now we are +seriously considering the matter of tree-planting and tree-preservation, +and perhaps it would be well to ask ourselves if two years at forestry, +right out of doors, in contact with Nature, wrestling with the world of +wood, rock, plant and living things, wouldn't be better for the boy than +double the time in stuffy dormitories and still more stuffy +recitation-rooms--listening to stuffy lectures about things that are +foreign to life. + +I would say that a boy is a savage, but I do not care to give offense to +fond mammas. To educate him in the line of his likes, as the race has +been educated, seems sensible and right. How would Yellowstone Park +answer for a National University, with Captain Jack Crawford, William +Muldoon, John Burroughs, John Dewey, Stanley Hall and a mixture of men +of these types, for a faculty? + +Froebel thought his two years in the forest saved him from consumption, +and perhaps from insanity, for it taught him to look out, not in, and to +lend a hand. At times he was a little too sentimental, as it was, and a +trifle more of morbidity and sensitiveness would have ruined his life, +absolutely. + +The woods and God's great out-of-doors gave him balance and ballast, +good digestion and sweet sleep o' nights. + +The two years past, he went to Jena, where he had an elder brother. This +brother was a star scholar, and Friedrich looked up to him as a pleiad +of pedagogy. He became a professor in a Jena preparatory school and then +practised medicine; but he never had the misfortune to affront public +opinion, and so oblivion lured and won him, and took him as her own. + +At Jena poor Froebel did not make head. His preparatory work hadn't +prepared him. He floundered in studies too deep for one of his age, then +followed some foolish advice and hired a tutor to help him along. Then +he fell down, was plucked, got into debt, and also into the "carcer," +where he boarded for nine weeks at the expense of the State. + +In the carcer he didn't catch up with his studies, quite naturally, and +the imprisonment almost broke his health. Had he been in the carcer for +dueling, he would have emerged a hero. But debt meant that he had +neither money nor friends. When he was given his release, as an economic +move, he slipped away between two days and made his way to the Forestry +Office, where he applied for a job as laborer. He got it. In a few days +he was promoted to chief of apprentices. + +Forestry meant a certain knowledge of surveying, and this Froebel soon +acquired. Then came map-making, and that was only fun. From map-making +to architecture is but a step, and Froebel quit the woods to work as +assistant to an architect at ten pounds a year and found, it was +confining work, and a trifle more exacting than he had expected--it +required a deal of mathematics, and mathematics was Froebel's short +suit. Froebel was disappointed and so was his employer--when something +happened. It usually does in books, and in life, always. + + * * * * * + +Genius has its prototype. Before Froebel comes Pestalozzi, the Swiss, +who studied theology and law, and then abandoned them both as futile to +human evolution, and turned his attention to teaching. Pestalozzi was +inspired by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and read his "Emile" religiously. To +teach by natural methods and mix work and study, and make both play, was +his theme. Pestalozzi believed in teaching out of doors, because +children are both barbaric and nomadic--they want to go somewhere. His +was the Aristotle method, as opposed to those of the closet and the +cloister. But he made the mistake of saying that teaching should be +taken out of the hands and homes of the clergy, and then the clergy said +a few things about him. + +Pestalozzi at first met with very meager encouragement. Only poor and +ignorant people entrusted their children to his care, and some of the +parents were actually paid in money for the services of the children. +The thought that the children were getting an education and being useful +at the same time was quite beyond their comprehension. + +Pestalozzi educated by stealth. At first he took several boys and girls +of eight, ten or twelve years of age, and had them work with him in his +garden. They cared for fowls, looked after the sheep, milked the cows. +The master worked with them, and as they worked they talked. Going to +and from their duties, Pestalozzi would call their attention to the +wild birds, and to the flowers, plants and weeds. They would draw +pictures of things, make collections of leaves and flowers, and keep a +record of their observations and discoveries. Through keeping these +records they learned to read and write and acquired the use of simple +mathematics. Things they did not understand they would read about in the +books found in the teacher's library. But books were secondary and quite +incidental in the scheme of study. When work seemed to become irksome +they would all stop and play games. At other times they would sit and +just talk about what their work happened to suggest. If the weather was +unpleasant, there was a shop where they made hoes and rakes and other +tools they needed. They also built bird-houses, and made simple pieces +of furniture, so all the pupils, girls and boys, became more or less +familiar with carpenter's and blacksmith's tools. They patched their +shoes, mended their clothing, and at times prepared their own food. + +Pestalozzi found that the number of pupils he could look after in this +way was not more than ten. But to his own satisfaction, at least, he +proved that children taught by his method surpassed those who were given +the regular set courses of instruction. His chief difficulties lay in +the fact that the home did not co-operate with the school, and that +there was always a tendency to "return to the blanket." + +Pestalozzi wrote accounts of his experiments and emphasized his belief +that we should educate through the child's natural activities; also that +all growth should be pleasurable. His shibboleth was, "From within, +out." He thought education was a development and not an acquirement. + +One of Pestalozzi's little pamphlets fell into the hands of Friedrich +Froebel, architect's assistant, at Frankfort. + +Froebel was twenty-two years old, and Fate had tossed him around from +one thing to another since babyhood. All of his experiences had been of +a kind that prepared his mind for the theories that Pestalozzi +expressed. + +Besides that, architecture had begun to pall upon him. "Those who can, +do; those who can't, teach." This was said in derision, but it holds a +grain of truth. + +Froebel had a great desire to teach. Now, in Frankfort there was a Model +School or a school for teachers, of which one Herr Gruner was master. +This school was actually carrying out some of the practical methods +suggested by Pestalozzi. Quite by accident Gruner and Froebel met. +Gruner wanted a teacher who could teach by the Pestalozzi methods. +Froebel straightway applied to Herr Gruner for the position. He was +accepted as a combination janitor and instructor and worked for his +board and ten marks, or two and a half dollars a week. + +The good-cheer and enthusiasm of Froebel won Gruner's heart. Together +they discussed Pestalozzi and his works, read all that he had written, +and opened up a correspondence with the great man. This led to an +invitation that Froebel should visit him at his farm-school, near +Yverdon, in Switzerland. + +Gruner supplied Froebel the necessary money to replace his very seedy +clothes for something better, and the young man started away. It was a +walk of more than two hundred miles, but youth and enthusiasm count such +a tramp as an enjoyable trifle. Froebel wore his seedy clothes and +carried his good ones, and so he appeared before the master spick and +span. + +Pestalozzi was sixty years old at this time, and his hopes for the "new +method" were still high. He had met opposition, ridicule and +indifference, and had spent most of his little fortune in the fight, but +he was still at it and resolved to die in the harness. + +Froebel was not disappointed in Pestalozzi, and certainly Pestalozzi was +delighted and a bit amused at the earnestness of the young man. +Pestalozzi was working in a very economical way, but all the place +lacked Froebel, in his exuberant imagination, made good. + +Froebel found much, for he had brought much with him. + + * * * * * + +Froebel returned to Frankfort from his visit to Pestalozzi, full of +enthusiasm, and that is the commodity without which no teacher succeeds. +Gruner allowed him to gravitate. And soon Froebel's room was the central +point of interest for the whole school. But trouble was ahead for +Froebel. + +He had no college degrees. His pedagogic pedigree was very short. He +hoped to live down his university record, but it followed him. Gruner's +school was under government inspection, and the gentlemen with double +chins, who came from time to time to look the place over, asked who this +enthusiastic young person was, and why had the worthy janitor and +ex-forester been so honored by promotion. + +In truth, during his life, Froebel never quite escaped the taunt that he +was not an educated man. That is to say, no college had ever supplied +him an alphabetic appendage. He had been a forester, a farmer, an +architect, a guardian for boys and a teacher of women, but no +institution had ever said officially he was fit to teach men. + +Gruner tried to explain that there are two kinds of teachers: people who +are teachers by nature, and those who have acquired the methods by long +study. The first, having little to learn, and a love for the child, with +a spontaneous quality of giving their all, succeed best. + +But poor Gruner's explanation did not explain. + +Then the matter was gently explained to Froebel, and he saw that in +order to hold a place as teacher he must acquire a past. "Time will +adjust it," he said, and started away on a second visit to Pestalozzi. +His plan was to remain with the master long enough so he could secure a +certificate of proficiency. + +Again Pestalozzi welcomed the young man, and he slipped easily into the +household and became both pupil and teacher. His willingness to work--to +do the task that lay nearest him--his good-nature, his gratitude, won +all hearts. + +At this time the plan of sending boys to college with a tutor who was +both a companion and a teacher, was in vogue with those who could afford +it. It will be remembered that William and Alexander von Humboldt +received their early education in this way--going with their tutor from +university to university, teacher and pupils entering as special +students, getting into the atmosphere of the place, soaking themselves +full of it, and then going on. + +And now behold, through Gruner or Pestalozzi or both, a woman of wealth +with three boys to educate applied to Froebel to come over into +Macedonia and help her. + +It was in Eighteen Hundred Seven that Froebel became tutor in the Von +Holzhausen family. He was twenty-five years old, and this was his first +interview with wealth and leisure. That he was hungry enough to +appreciate it need not be emphasized. + +He got goodly glimpses of Gottingen, Berlin, and was long enough at +Jena to rub the blot off the 'scutcheon. A stay at Weimar, in the Goethe +country, completed the four years' course. + +The boys had grown to men, and proved their worth in after-years; but +whether they had gotten as much from the migrations as their teacher is +very doubtful. He was ripe for opportunity--they had had a surfeit of +it. + +Then came war. The order to arms and the rush of students to obey their +country's call caught Froebel in the patriotic vortex, and he enlisted +with his pupils. + +His service was honorable, even if not brilliant, and it had this +advantage: the making of two friends, companions in arms, who caught the +Pestalozzian fever, and lived out their lives preaching and teaching +"the new method." + +These men were William Middendorf and Henry Langenthal. This trinity of +brothers evolved a bond as beautiful as it is rare in the realm of +friendship. Forty years after their first meeting, Middendorf gave an +oration over the dead body of Froebel that lives as a classic, breathing +the love and faith that endure. + +And then Middendorf turned to his work, and dared prison and disgrace by +upholding the Kindergarten System and the life and example of his dear, +dead friend. The Kindergarten Idea would probably have been buried in +the grave with Froebel--interred with his bones--were it not for +Middendorf and Langenthal. + + * * * * * + +The first Kindergarten was established in Eighteen Hundred Thirty-six, +at Blankenburg, a little village near Keilhau. Froebel was then +fifty-four years old, happily married to a worthy woman who certainly +did not hamper his work, even if she did not inspire it. He was +childless, that all children might call him father. + +The years had gone in struggles to found Normal Schools in Germany after +the Pestalozzian and Gruner methods. But disappointment, +misunderstanding and stupidity had followed Froebel. The set methods of +the clergy, accusations of revolution and heresy, tilts with pious +pedants as to the value of dead languages, all combined with his own +lack of business shrewdness, had wrecked his various ventures. + +Froebel's argument that women were better natural teachers than men on +account of the mother-instinct, brought forth a retort from a learned +monk to the effect that it was indelicate if not sinful for an unmarried +female, who was not a nun, to study the natures of children. + +Parents with children old enough to go to school would not entrust their +darlings with the teaching experimenter--this on the advice of their +pastors. + +Middendorf and Langenthal were still with him, partners in the disgrace +or failure, for none was willing to give up the fight for education by +the natural methods. + +A great thought and a great word came to them, all at once--out on the +mountain-side! + +Begin with the children before the school age, and call it the +Kindergarten! + +Hurrah! They shouted for joy, and ran down the hill to tell Frau +Froebel. + +The schools they had started before had been called, "The Institution +for Teaching According to the Pestalozzi Method and the Natural +Activities of the Child," "Institution for the Encouragement and +Development of the Spontaneous Activities of the Pupil," and "Friedrich +Froebel's School for the Growth of the Creative Instinct Which Makes for +a Useful Character." + +A school with such names, of course, failed. No one could remember it +long enough to send his child there--it meant nothing to the mind not +prepared for it. + +What's in a name? Everything. Books sell or become dead stock on the +name. Commodities the same. Railroads must have a name people are not +afraid to pronounce. + +The officers of the law came and asked to see Froebel's license for +manufacturing. Others asked as to the nature of his wares, and one +dignitary called and asked, "Is Herr Pestalozzi in?" + +The Kindergarten! The new name took. The children remembered it. +Overworked mothers liked the word and were glad to let the little +other-mothers take the children to the Kindergarten, certainly. + +Froebel had grown used to disappointments--he was an optimist by nature. +He saw the good side of everything, including failure. + +He made the best of necessity. And now it was very clear to him that +education must begin "a hundred years before the child is born." He +would reach the home and the mother through the children. "It will take +three generations to prove the truth of the Kindergarten Idea," he said. + +And so the songs, the gifts, the games--all had to be invented, +defended, tried and tried again. Pestalozzi had a plan for teaching the +youth; now a plan had to be devised for teaching the child. Love was the +keystone, and joy, unselfishness and unswerving faith in the Natural or +Divine impulses of humanity crowned the structure. + + * * * * * + +Froebel invented the schoolma'am. That is, he discovered the raw product +and adapted it. He even coined the word, and it struck the world as +being so very funny that we forthwith adopted it as a term of provincial +pleasantry and quasi-reproach. The original term used was "school +mother," but when it reached these friendly shores we translated it +"schoolmarm." Then we tittered, also sneezed. + +Froebel died in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-two. His first Kindergarten was +not a success until he was nearly sixty years old, but the idea had been +perfecting itself in his mind more or less unconsciously for over thirty +years. + +He had been thinking, writing, working, experimenting all these years on +the subject of education, and he had become well-nigh discouraged. He +had observed that six was the "school age." That is, no child could go +to school until he was six years old--then his education began. + +But Froebel had been teaching in a country school and boarding 'round, +and he had discovered that long before this the child had been learning +by observing and playing, and that these were formative influences, +quite as potent as actual school. + +In the big families where Froebel boarded, he noticed that the older +girls took charge of the younger ones. So, often a girl of ten, with +dresses to her knees, carried one baby in her arms and two toddled +behind her, and this child of ten was really the other-mother. The true +mother worked in the fields or toiled at her housework, and the little +other-mother took the children out to play and thus amused them while +the mother worked. + +The desire of Froebel was to educate the race, but what are a few hours +a day in a schoolroom with a totally unsympathetic home environment! + +To reach and interest the mother in the problem of education was +well-nigh impossible. Toil, deprivation, poverty, had killed all the +romance and enthusiasm in her heart. She was the victim of arrested +development; but the little other-mother was a child, impressionable, +immature, and she could be taught. The home must co-operate with the +school, otherwise all the school can teach will be forgotten in the +home. Froebel saw, too, that often the little other-mother was so +overworked in the care of her charges that she was taken from school. +Besides, the idea was abroad that education was mostly for boys, anyway. + +And here Froebel stepped in and proved himself a law-breaker, just as +Ben Lindsey was when he inaugurated the juvenile court and waived the +entire established legal procedure, even to the omission of swearing his +witnesses, and believed in the little truant even though he lied. +Froebel told the little other-mothers to come to school anyway and bring +the babies with them. + +And then he set to work showing these girls how to amuse, divert and +teach the babies. And he used to say the babies taught him. + +Some of these half-grown girls showed a rare adaptability as teachers. +They combined mother-love and the teaching instinct. + +Froebel utilized their services in teaching others in order that he +might teach them. + +He saw that the teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, +and that the true teacher is a learner. These girl teachers he called +school-mothers, and thus was evolved the word and the person. + +Froebel founded the first normal and model school for the education of +women as teachers, and this was less than a hundred years ago. + +The years went by and the little mothers had children of their own, and +these children were the ones that formed the first actual, genuine +kindergarten. + +Also, these were the mothers who formed the first mothers' clubs. + +And it was the success of these clubs that attracted the attention of +the authorities, who could not imagine any other purpose for a club than +to hatch a plot against the government. + +Anyway, a system which taught that women were just as wise, just as good +and just as capable as men--just as well fitted by nature to +teach--would upset the clergy. If women can break into the school, they +will also break into the church. Moreover, the encouragement of play was +atrocious. Mein Gott, or words to that effect, play in a schoolroom! +Why, even a fool would know that that is the one thing that stood in +the way of education, the one fly in the pedagogic ointment. If Mynheer +Froebel would please invent a way to do away with play in schoolrooms, +he would be given a pension. + +The idea that children were good by nature was rank heresy. Where does +the doctrine of regeneration come in, and how about being born again! +The natural man is at enmity toward God. We are conceived in sin and +born in iniquity. The Bible says it again and again. + +And here comes a man who thinks he knows more than all the priests and +scholars who have ever lived, and fills the heads of fool women with the +idea that they are born to teach instead of to work in the fields and +keep house and wait on men. + +Mein Gott in Himmel, the women know too much, already! If this thing +keeps on, men will have to get off the earth, and women and children +will run the world, and do it by means of play. Aha! What does Solomon +say? Spare the rod and spoil the child. Aber nicht, say these girls. + +This thing has got to stop before Germany becomes the joke of +mankind--the cat-o'-nine-tails for anybody who uses the word +kindergarten! + + * * * * * + +"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of +such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Had the man who uttered these words been +given a little encouragement, he probably would have inaugurated a +child-garden and provided a place and environment where little souls +could have bloomed and blossomed. He was by nature a teacher, and his +best pupils were women and children. Male men are apt to think they +already know and so are immune from ideas. + +Jerusalem, nineteen hundred years ago, was about where Berlin was in +Eighteen Hundred Fifty. In both instances the proud priest and the +aristocrat-soldier were supreme. And both were quite satisfied with +their own mental attainments and educational methods. They were sincere. +It was a very similar combination that crucified Jesus to that which +placed an interdict on Friedrich Froebel, making the Kindergarten a +crime, and causing the speedy death of one of the gentlest, noblest, +purest men who have ever blessed this earth. + +Froebel was just seventy when he passed out. "His eye was not dimmed nor +his natural force abated"--he was filled with enthusiasm and hope as +never before. His ideas were spreading--success, at last, was at the +door, he had interested the women and proved the fitness of women to +teach--his mothers' clubs were numerous--love was the watchword. And in +the midst of this flowering time, the official order came, without +warning, apology or explanation, and from which there was no appeal. The +same savagery, chilled with fear, that sent Richard Wagner into exile, +crushed the life and broke the heart of Friedrich Froebel. But these +names now are the pride and glory of the land that once scorned them. +Men who govern should be those with a reasonable doubt concerning their +own infallibility, and an earnest faith in men, women and children. To +teach is better than to rule. We are all children in the Kindergarten of +God. + + + + +[Illustration: HYPATIA] + +HYPATIA + + + Neo-Platonism is a progressive philosophy, and does not expect to + state final conditions to men whose minds are finite. Life is an + unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can + comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the + best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond. + + --_Hypatia_ + + +HYPATIA + +The father of Hypatia was Theon, a noted mathematician and astronomer of +Alexandria. He would have been regarded as a very great man had he not +been cast into the shadow by his daughter. Let male parents beware. + +At that time, astronomy and astrology were one. Mathematics was useful, +not for purposes of civil engineering, but principally in figuring out +where a certain soul, born under a given planet, would be at a certain +time in the future. + +No information comes to us about the mother of Hypatia--she was so busy +with housework that her existence is a matter of assumption or a priori +reasoning; thus, given a daughter, we assume the existence of a mother. + +Hypatia was certainly the daughter of her father. He was her tutor, +teacher, playmate. All he knew he taught to her, and before she was +twenty she had been informed by him of a fact which she had previously +guessed--that considerable of his so-called knowledge was conjecture. + +Theon taught his daughter that all systems of religion that pretend to +teach the whole truth were to a great degree false and fraudulent. He +explained to her that his own profession of astronomy and astrology was +only for other people. By instructing her in all religions she grew to +know them comparatively, and so none took possession of her to the +exclusion of new truth. To have a religion thrust upon you, and be +compelled to believe in it or suffer social ostracism, is to be cheated +of the right to make your own. In degree it is letting another live your +life. A child does not need a religion until he is old enough to evolve +it, and then he must not be robbed of the right of independent thinking +by having a fully-prepared plan of salvation handed out to him. The +brain needs exercise as much as the body, and vicarious thinking is as +erroneous as vicarious exercise. Strength comes from personal effort. To +think is natural, and if not intimidated or coerced the man will evolve +a philosophy of life that is useful and beneficent. + +Religious mania is a result of dwelling on a borrowed religion. If let +alone no man would become insane on religious topics, for the religion +he would evolve would be one of joy, laughter and love, not one of +misery or horror. The religion that contemplates misery and woe is one +devised by priestcraft for a purpose, and that purpose is to rule and +rob. From the blunt ways of the road we get a polite system of +intimidation which makes the man pay. It is robbery reduced to a system, +and finally piously believed in by the robbers, who are hypnotized into +the belief that they are doing God's service. + +"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted +by self-respecting persons as final," said Theon to Hypatia. "Reserve +your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to +think at all." + +Theon gave lectures, and had private classes in esoterics, wherein the +innermost secrets of divinity were imparted. Also, he had a plan for the +transmutation of metals and a recipe for perpetual youth. When he had +nothing else to do, he played games with his daughter. + +At twenty-one Hypatia had mastered the so-called art of Rhetoric, or the +art of expression by vocal speech. + +It will be remembered that the Romans considered rhetoric, or the art of +the rhetor, or orator, as first in importance. To impress people by your +personal presence they regarded as the gift of gifts. + +This idea seems to have been held by the polite world up to the Italian +Renaissance, when the art of printing was invented and the written word +came to be regarded as more important than the spoken. One lives, and +the other dies on the air, existing only in memory, growing attenuated +and diluted as it is transferred. The revival of sculpture and painting +also helped oratory to take its proper place as one of the polite arts, +and not a thing to be centered upon to the exclusion of all else. + +Theon set out to produce a perfect human being; and whether his charts, +theorems and formulas made up a complete law of eugenics, or whether it +was dumb luck, this we know: he nearly succeeded. Hypatia was five feet +nine, and weighed one hundred thirty-five pounds. This when she was +twenty. She could walk ten miles without fatigue; swim, row, ride +horseback and climb mountains. Through a series of gentle calisthenics +invented by her father, combined with breathing exercises, she had +developed a body of rarest grace. Her head had corners, as once +Professor O. S. Fowler told us that a woman's head must have, if she is +to think and act with purpose and precision. + +So having evolved this rare beauty of face, feature and bodily grace, +combined with superior strength and vitality, Hypatia took up her +father's work and gave lectures on astronomy, mathematics, astrology and +rhetoric, while he completed his scheme for the transmutation of metals. +Hypatia's voice was flute-like, and used always well within its compass, +so as never to rasp or tire the organs. Theon knew the proper care of +nose and throat, a knowledge which with us moderns is all too rare. +Hypatia told of and practised the vocal ellipse, the pause, the glide, +the slide and the gentle, deliberate tones that please and impress. That +the law of suggestion was known to her was very evident, and certain it +is that she practised hypnotism in her classes, and seemed to know as +much about the origin of the mysterious agent as we do now, even though +she never tagged or labeled it. + +One very vital thought she worked out was, that the young mind is +plastic, impressionable and accepts without question all that it is +told. The young receive their ideas from their elders, and ideas once +impressed upon this plastic plate of the mind can not be removed. + +Said Hypatia: "Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and +miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most +terrible thing. The child-mind accepts and believes them, and only +through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after-years relieved +of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as +for a living truth--often more so, since a superstition is so intangible +you can not get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so +is changeable." + +Gradually, over the mind of the beautiful and gifted Hypatia, there came +stealing a doubt concerning the value of her own acquirements, since +these were "acquirements," and not evolutions or convictions gathered +from experience, but things implanted upon her plastic mind by her +father. + +In this train of thought Hypatia had taken a step in advance of her +father, for he seems to have had a dogmatic belief in a few things +incapable of demonstration; but these things he taught to the plastic +mind, just the same as the things he knew. Theon was a dogmatic liberal. +Possibly the difference between an illiberal Unitarian and a liberal +Catholic is microscopic. + +Hypatia clearly saw that knowledge is the distilled essence of our +intuitions, corroborated by experience. But belief is the impress made +upon our minds when we are under the spell of or in subjection to +another. + +These things caused the poor girl many unhappy hours, which fact, in +itself, is proof of her greatness. Only superior people have a capacity +for doubting. + +Probably not one person in a million ever gets away far enough from his +mind to take a look at it, and see the wheels go round. Opinions become +ossified and the man goes through life hypnotizing others, never +realizing for an instant that in youth he was hypnotized and that he has +never been able to cast off the hypnosis. + +This is what our pious friends mean when they say, "Give me the child +until he is ten years old and you may have him afterward." That is, they +can take the child in his plastic age and make impressions on his mind +that are indelible. Reared in an orthodox Jewish family a child will +grow up a dogmatic Jew, and argue you on the Talmud six nights and days +together. + +Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, the same. I once knew an Arapahoe +Indian who was taken to Massachusetts when four years old. He grew up +not only with New England prejudices, but with a New England accent, and +saved his pennies to give to missionaries that they might "convert" the +Red Men. + +When the suspicion seized upon the soul of Hypatia that her mind was but +a wax impression taken from her father's, she began to make plans to get +away from him. Her efforts at explanations were futile, but when placed +upon the general ground that she wished to travel, see the world and +meet people of learning and worth, her father acquiesced and she started +away on her journeyings. He wanted to go, too, but this was the one +thing she did not desire, and he never knew nor could know why. + +She spent several months at Athens, where her youth, beauty and learning +won her entry into the houses of the most eminent. It was the same at +Rome and in various other cities of Italy. Money may give you access to +good society, but talent is always an open sesame. She traveled like a +princess and was received as one, yet she had no title nor claim to +nobility nor station. Beauty of itself is not a credential--rather it is +an object of suspicion, unless it goes with intellect. + +Hypatia gave lectures on mathematics; and there was a fallacy abroad +then as there is now that the feminine mind is not mathematical. That +the great men whom Hypatia met in each city were first amazed and then +abashed by her proficiency in mathematics is quite probable. Some few +male professors being in that peculiar baldheaded hypnotic state when +feminine charms dazzle and lure, listened in rapture as Hypatia +dissolved logarithms and melted calculi, and not understanding a word +she said, declared that she was the goddess Minerva, reincarnated. Her +coldness on near approach confirmed their suspicions. + + * * * * * + +Just how long a time Hypatia spent upon her pilgrimage, visiting all of +the great living philosophers, we do not know. Some accounts have it one +year, others ten. + +Probably the pilgrimages were extended over a good many years, and were +not continuous. Several philosophers proved their humanity by offering +to marry her, and a prince or two did likewise, we are credibly +informed. To these persistent suitors, however, Hypatia gently broke the +news that she was wedded to truth, which is certainly a pretty speech, +even if it is poor logic. The fact was, however, that Hypatia never met +a man whose mind matched her own, otherwise logic would have bolstered +love, instead of discarding it. + +Travel, public speaking and meeting people of note form a strong trinity +of good things. The active mind is the young mind, and it is more than +the dream of a poet which declares that Hypatia was always young and +always beautiful, and that even Father Time was so in love with her that +he refused to take toll from her, as he passed with his hourglass and +scythe. + +In degree she had followed the example of her great prototype, Plotinus, +and had made herself master of all religions. She knew too much of all +philosophies to believe implicitly in any. Alexandria was then the +intellectual center of the world. People who resided there called it the +hub of the universe. It was the meeting-place of the East and the West. + +And Hypatia, with her Thursday lectures, was the chief intellectual +factor of Alexandria. + +Her philosophy she called Neo-Platonism. It was Plato distilled through +the psychic alembic of Hypatia. Just why the human mind harks back and +likes to confirm itself by building on another, it would be interesting +to inquire. To explain Moses; to supply a key to the Scriptures; to +found a new School of Philosophy on the assumption that Plato was right, +but was not understood until the Then and There, is alluring. + +And now the pilgrims came from Athens, and Rome, and the Islands of the +Sea to sit at the feet of Hypatia. + + * * * * * + +Hypatia was born in the year Three Hundred Seventy, and died in Four +Hundred Thirty. She exerted an influence in Alexandria not unlike that +which Mrs. Eddy exerted in Boston. She was a person who divided society +into two parts: those who regarded her as an oracle of light, and those +who looked upon her as an emissary of darkness. + +Strong men paid her the compliment of using immoderate language +concerning her teaching. But whether they spoke ill or well of her +matters little now. The point is this: they screeched, sneezed, or +smiled on those who refused to acknowledge the power of Hypatia. Some +professors of learning tried to waive her; priests gently pooh-poohed +her; and some elevated an eyebrow and asked how the name was spelled. +Others, still, inquired, "Is she sincere?" + +She was the Ralph Waldo Emerson of her day. Her philosophy was +Transcendentalism. In fact, she might be spoken of as the original +charter member of the Concord School of Philosophy. Her theme was the +New Thought, for New Thought is the oldest form of thought of which we +know. Its distinguishing feature is its antiquity. Socrates was really +the first to express the New Thought, and he got his cue from +Pythagoras. + +The ambition of Hypatia was to revive the flowering-time of Greece, when +Socrates and Plato walked arm in arm through the streets of Athens, +followed by the greatest group of intellectuals the world has ever +seen. + +It was charged against Hypatia that Aspasia was her ideal, and that her +ambition was to follow in the footsteps of the woman who was beloved by +Pericles. If so, it was an ambition worthy of a very great soul. +Hypatia, however, did not have her Pericles, and never married. That she +should have had love experiences was quite natural, and that various +imaginary romances should have been credited to her was also to be +expected. + +Hypatia was nearly a thousand years removed from the time of Pericles +and Aspasia, but to bridge the gulf of time with imagination was easy. +Yet Hypatia thought that the New Platonism should surpass the old, for +the world had had the Age of Augustus to build upon. + +Hypatia's immediate prototype was Plotinus, who was born two hundred +four years after Christ, and lived to be seventy. Plotinus was the first +person to use the phrase "Neo-Platonism," and so the philosophy of +Hypatia might be called "The New Neo-Platonism." + +To know but one religion is not to know that one. + +In fact, superstition consists in this one thing--faith in one religion, +to the exclusion of all others. + +To know one philosophy is to know none. They are all comparative, and +each serves as a small arc of the circle. A man living in a certain +environment, with a certain outlook, describes the things he sees; and +out of these, plus what he imagines, is shaped his philosophy of life. +If he is repressed, suppressed, frightened, he will not see very much, +and what he does see will be out of focus. Spiritual strabismus and +mental myopia are the results of vicarious peeps at the universe. All +formal religions have taught that to look for yourself was bad. The +peephole through the roof of his garret cost Copernicus his liberty, but +it was worth the price. + +Plotinus made a study of all philosophies--all religions. He traveled +through Egypt, Greece, Assyria, India. He became an "adept", and +discovered how easily the priest drifts into priestcraft, and fraud +steps in with legerdemain and miracle to amend the truth. As if to love +humanity were not enough to recommend the man, they have him turn water +into wine and walk on the water. + +Out of the labyrinth of history and speculation Plotinus returned to +Plato as a basis or starting-point for all of the truth which man can +comprehend. Plotinus believed in all religions, but had absolute faith +in none. It will be remembered that Aristotle and Plato parted as to the +relative value of poetry and science--science being the systematized +facts of Nature. Plotinus comes in and says that both were right, and +each was like every good man who exaggerates the importance of his own +calling. In his ability to see the good in all things, Hypatia placed +Plotinus ahead of Plato, but even then she says: "Had there been no +Plato, there would have been no Plotinus; although Plotinus surpassed +Plato, yet it is plain that Plato, the inspirer of Plotinus and so many +more, is the one man whom philosophy can not spare. Hail, Plato!!" + + * * * * * + +The writings of Hypatia have all disappeared, save as her words come to +us, quoted by her contemporaries. If the Essays of Emerson should all be +swept away, the man would still live in the quotations from his pen, +given to us by every writer of worth who has put pencil to paper during +the last fifty years. So lives Sappho, and thus did Charles Kingsley +secure the composite of the great woman who lives and throbs through his +book. Legend pictures her as rarely beautiful, with grace, poise and +power, plus. + +She was sixty when she died. History kindly records it forty-five--and +all picture her as a beautiful and attractive woman to the last. The +psychic effects of a gracefully-gowned first reader, with sonorous +voice, using gesture with economy, and packing the pauses with feeling, +have never been fully formulated, analyzed and explained. Throngs came +to hear Hypatia lecture--came from long distances, and listened +hungrily, and probably all they took away was what they brought, except +a great feeling of exhilaration and enthusiasm. To send the hearer away +stepping light, and his heart beating fast--this is oratory--which isn't +so much to bestow facts, as it is to impart a feeling. This Hypatia +surely did. Her theme was Neo-Platonism. "Neo" means new, and all New +Thought harks back to Plato, who was the mouthpiece of Socrates. "Say +what you will, you'll find it all in Plato." Neo-Platonism is our New +Thought, and New Thought is Neo-Platonism. + +There are two kinds of thought: New Thought and Secondhand Thought. New +Thought is made up of thoughts you, yourself, think. The other kind is +supplied to you by jobbers. The distinguishing feature of New Thought is +its antiquity. Of necessity it is older than Secondhand Thought. All +genuine New Thought is true for the person who thinks it. It only turns +sour and becomes error when not used, and when the owner forces another +to accept it. It then becomes a secondhand revelation. All New Thought +is revelation, and secondhand revelations are errors half-soled with +stupidity and heeled with greed. + +Very often we are inspired to think by others, but in our hearts we have +the New Thought; and the person, the book, the incident, merely remind +us that it is already ours. New Thought is always simple; Secondhand +Thought is abstruse, complex, patched, peculiar, costly, and is passed +out to be accepted, not understood. That no one comprehends it is often +regarded as a recommendation. + +For instance, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image," is +Secondhand Thought. The first man who said it may have known what it +meant, but surely it is nothing to us. However, that does not keep us +from piously repeating it, and having our children memorize it. + +We model in clay or wax, and carve if we can, and give honors to those +who do, and this is well. This commandment is founded on the fallacy +that graven images are gods, whatever that is. The command adds nothing +to our happiness, nor does it shape our conduct, nor influence our +habits. Everybody knows and admits its futility, yet we are unable to +eliminate it from our theological system. It is strictly +secondhand--worse, it is junk. + +Conversely, the admonition, "Be gentle and keep your voice low," is New +Thought, since all but savages know its truth, comprehend its import, +and appreciate its excellence. + +Dealers in Secondhand Thought always declare that theirs is the only +genuine, and that all other is spurious and dangerous. + +Dealers in New Thought say, "Take this only as it appeals to you as your +own--accept it all, or in part, or reject it all--and in any event, do +not believe it merely because I say so." + +New Thought is founded on the laws of your own nature, and its +shibboleth is, "Know Thyself." + +Secondhand Thought is founded on authority, and its war-cry is, "Pay and +Obey." + +New Thought offers you no promise of paradise or eternal bliss if you +accept it; nor does it threaten you with everlasting hell, if you don't. +All it offers is unending work, constant effort, new difficulties; +beyond each success is a new trial. Its only satisfactions are that you +are allowing your life to unfold itself according to the laws of its +nature. And these laws are divine, therefore you yourself are divine, +just as you allow the divine to possess your being. New Thought allows +the currents of divinity to flow through you unobstructed. + +Secondhand Thought affords no plan of elimination; it tends to +congestion, inflammation, disease and disintegration. + +New Thought holds all things lightly, gently, easily--even thought. It +works for a healthy circulation, and tends to health, happiness and +well-being now and hereafter. It does not believe in violence, force, +coercion or resentment, because all these things react on the doer. It +has faith that all men, if not interfered with by other men, will +eventually evolve New Thought, and do for themselves what is best and +right, beautiful and true. + +Secondhand Thought has always had first in its mind the welfare of the +dealer. The rights of the consumer, beyond keeping him in subjection, +were not considered. Indeed, its chief recommendation has been that "it +is a good police system." + +New Thought considers only the user. To "Know Thyself" is all there is +of it. + +When a creator of New Thought goes into the business of retailing his +product, he often forgets to live it, and soon is transformed into a +dealer in Secondhand Thought. + +That is the way all purveyors in secondhand revelation begin. In their +anxiety to succeed, they call in the police. The blessing that is +compulsory is not wholly good, and any system of morals which has to be +forced on us is immoral. New Thought is free thought. Its penalty is +responsibility. You either have to live it, or else lose it. Its reward +is Freedom. + + * * * * * + +It was only a little more than a hundred years before the time of +Hypatia that the Roman Empire became Christian. When Constantine +embraced Christianity, all of his loyal subjects were from that moment +Christians--Christians by edict, but Pagans by character, for the +natures of men can not be changed by the passing of a resolution. From +that time every Pagan temple became a Christian church, and every Pagan +priest a Christian preacher. + +Alexandria was under the rule of a Roman Prefect, or Governor. It had +been the policy of Rome to exercise great tolerance in religious +matters. There was a State Religion, to be sure, but it was for the +nobility or those who helped make the State possible. To look after the +thinking of the plain people was quite superfluous--they were allowed +their vagaries. + +The Empire had been bold, brazen, cruel, coercive in its lust for power, +but people who paid were reasonably safe. And now the Church was coming +into competition with the State and endeavoring to reduce spoliation to +a system. + +To keep the people down and under by mental suppression--by the engine +of superstition--were cheaper and more effective than to employ force or +resort to the old-time methods of shows, spectacles, pensions and costly +diversions. When the Church took on the functions of the State, and +sought to substitute the gentle Christ for Cæsar, she had to recast the +teachings of Christ. Then for the first time coercion and love dwelt +side by side. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared +for the devil and his angels," and like passages were slipped into the +Scriptures as matters of wise expediency. This was continued for many +hundred years, and was considered quite proper and legitimate. It was +slavery under a more subtle form. + +The Bishop of Alexandria clashed with Orestes the Prefect. To hold the +people under by psychologic methods was better than the old plans of +alternate bribery and force--so argued the Bishop. + +Orestes had come under the spell of Hypatia, and the Republic of Plato +was saturating his mind. + +"To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another +world is just as base as to use force," said Hypatia in one of her +lectures. Orestes sat in the audience and as she spoke the words he +clapped his hands. The news was carried to the Bishop, who gently +declared that he would excommunicate him. + +Orestes sent word back that the Emperor should be informed of how this +Bishop was misusing his office by making threats of where he could land +people he did not like, in another world. Neither the Bishop nor the +Prefect could unseat each other--both derived their power from the +Emperor. For Orestes to grow interested in the teachings of Hypatia, +instead of siding with the Bishop, was looked upon by the loyalists as +little short of treason. + +Orestes tried to defend himself by declaring that the policy of the +Cæsars had always been one of great leniency toward all schools of +philosophy. Then he quoted Hypatia to the effect that a fixed, formal +and dogmatic religion would paralyze the minds of men and make the race, +in time, incapable of thought. + +Therefore, the Bishop should keep his place, and not try to usurp the +functions of the police. In fact, it was better to think wrongly than +not to think at all. We learn to think by thinking, and if the threats +of the Bishop were believed at all, it would mean the death of science +and philosophy. + +The Bishop made answer by declaring that Hypatia was endeavoring to +found a Church of her own, with Pagan Greece as a basis. He intimated, +too, that the relationship of Orestes with Hypatia was very much the +same as that which once existed between Cleopatra and Mark Antony. He +called her "that daughter of Ptolemy," and by hints and suggestions made +it appear that she would, if she could, set up an Egyptian Empire in +this same city of Alexandria where Cleopatra once so proudly reigned. + +The excitement increased. The followers of Hypatia were necessarily few +in numbers. They were thinkers--and to think is a task. To believe is +easy. The Bishop promised his followers a paradise of ease and rest. He +also threatened disbelievers with the pains of hell. A promise on this +side--a threat on that! Is it not a wonder that a man ever lived who +put his honest thought against such teaching when launched by men +clothed in almost absolute authority! + +Hypatia might have lived yesterday, and her death at the hands of a mob +was an accident that might have occurred in Boston, where a respectable +company once threw a rope around the neck of a good man and ran him +through streets supposed to be sacred to liberty and free speech. + +A mob is made up of cotton waste, saturated with oil, and a focused idea +causes spontaneous combustion. Let a fire occur in almost any New York +State village, and the town turns wrecker, and loot looms large in the +limited brain of the villager. Civilization is a veneer. + +When one sees emotionalism run riot at an evangelistic revival, and five +thousand people are trooping through an undesirable district at +midnight, how long, think you, would a strong voice of opposition be +tolerated? + +Hypatia was set upon by a religious mob as she was going in her carriage +from her lecture-hall to her home. She was dragged to a near-by church +with the intent of making her publicly recant, but the embers became a +blaze, and the blaze became a conflagration, and the leaders lost +control. The woman's clothes were torn from her back, her hair torn from +her head, her body beaten to a pulp, dismembered, and then to hide all +traces of the crime and distribute the guilt so no one person could be +blamed, a funeral-pyre quickly consumed the remains of what but an hour +before had been a human being. Daylight came, and the sun's rays could +not locate the guilty ones. + +Orestes made a report of the affair, resigned his office, asked the +Government at Rome to investigate, and fled from the city. Had Orestes +endeavored to use his soldiery against the Bishop, the men in the ranks +would have revolted. The investigation was postponed from time to time +for lack of witnesses, and finally it was given out by the Bishop that +Hypatia had gone to Athens, and there had been no mob and no tragedy. + +The Bishop nominated a successor to Orestes, and the new official was +confirmed. + +Dogmatism as a police system was supreme. + +It continued until the time of Dante, or the Italian Renaissance. The +reign of Religious Dogmatism was supreme for well-nigh a thousand +years--we call it the Dark Ages. + + + + +[Illustration: SAINT BENEDICT] + +SAINT BENEDICT + + + If any pilgrim monk come from distant parts, if with wish as a + guest to dwell in the monastery, and will be content with the + customs which he finds in the place, and do not perchance by his + lavishness disturb the monastery, but is simply content with what + he finds: he shall be received, for as long a time as he desires. + If, indeed, he find fault with anything, or expose it, reasonably, + and with the humility of charity, the Abbot shall discuss it + prudently, lest perchance God had sent for this very thing. But, if + he have been found gossipy and contumacious in the time of his + sojourn as guest, not only ought he not to be joined to the body of + the monastery, but also it shall be said to him, honestly, that he + must depart. If he does not go, let two stout monks, in the name of + God, explain the matter to him. + + --_St. Benedict_ + + +SAINT BENEDICT + +As the traveler journeys through Southern Italy, Sicily and certain +parts of what was Ancient Greece, he will see broken arches, parts of +viaducts, and now and again a single, beautiful column pointing to the +sky. All about is the desert or solitary pastures, and only this white +milestone, marking the path of the centuries and telling in its own +silent, solemn and impressive way of a day that is dead. + +In the Fifth Century a monk called Simeon the Syrian, and known to us as +Simeon Stylites, having taken the vow of chastity, poverty and +obedience, began to fear greatly lest he might not be true to his +pledge. And that he might live absolutely beyond reproach, always in +public view, free from temptation, and free from the tongue of scandal, +he decided to live in the world, and still not be of it. To this end he +climbed to the top of a marble column, sixty feet high, and there on the +capstone he lived a life beyond reproach. + +Simeon was then twenty-four years old. + +The environment was circumscribed, but there was outlook, sunshine, +ventilation--three good things. But beyond these the place had certain +disadvantages. The capstone was a little less than three feet square, +so Simeon could not lie down. He slept sitting, with his head bowed +between his knees, and indeed, in this posture he passed most of his +time. Any recklessness in movement, and he would have slipped from his +perilous position and been dashed to death upon the stones beneath. + +As the sun arose he stood up, just for a few moments, and held his arms +out in greeting, blessing and prayer. Three times during the day did he +thus stretch his cramped limbs, and pray with his face to the East. At +such times those who stood near shared in his prayers, and went away +blessed and refreshed. + +How did Simeon get to the top of the column? + +Well, his companions at the monastery, a mile away, said he was carried +there in the night by a miraculous power; that he went to sleep in his +stone cell and awoke on the pillar. Other monks said that Simeon had +gone to pay his respects to a fair lady, and in wrath God had caught him +and placed him on high. The probabilities are, however, Terese, as +viewed by an unbeliever, that he shot a line over the column with a bow +and arrow and then drew up a rope ladder and ascended with ease. + +However, in the morning the simple people of the scattered village saw +the man on the column. All day he stayed there. The next day he was +still there. + +The days passed, with the scorching heat of the midday sun, and the cool +winds of the night. + +Still Simeon kept his place. + +The rainy season came on. When the nights were cold and dark, Simeon sat +there with bowed head, and drew the folds of his single garment, a black +robe, over his face. + +Another season passed; the sun again grew warm, then hot, and the +sand-storms raged and blew, when the people below almost lost sight of +the man on the column. Some prophesied he would be blown off, but the +morning light revealed his form, naked from the waist up, standing with +hands outstretched to greet the rising sun. + +Once each day, as darkness gathered, a monk came with a basket +containing a bottle of goat's milk and a little loaf of black bread, and +Simeon dropped down a rope and drew up the basket. + +Simeon never spoke, for words are folly, and to the calls of saint or +sinner he made no reply. He lived in a perpetual attitude of adoration. + +Did he suffer? During those first weeks he must have suffered terribly +and horribly. There was no respite nor rest from the hard surface of the +rock, and aching muscles could find no change from the cramped and +perilous position. If he fell, it was damnation for his soul--all were +agreed as to this. + +But man's body and mind accommodate themselves to almost any condition. +One thing at least, Simeon was free from economic responsibilities, free +from social cares and intrusion. Bores with sad stories of unappreciated +lives and fond hopes unrealized, never broke in upon his peace. He was +not pressed for time. No frivolous dame of tarnished fame sought to +share with him his perilous perch. The people on a slow schedule, ten +minutes late, never irritated his temper. His correspondence never got +in a heap. + +Simeon kept no track of the days, having no engagements to meet, or +offices to perform, beyond the prayers at morn, midday and night. + +Memory died in him, the hurts became calluses, the world-pain died out +of his heart, to cling became a habit. Language was lost in disuse. The +food he ate was minimum in quantity; sensation ceased, and the dry, hot +winds reduced bodily tissue to a dessicated something called a +saint--loved, feared and reverenced for his fortitude. + +This pillar, which had once graced the portal of a pagan temple, again +became a place of pious pilgrimage, and people flocked to Simeon's rock, +so that they might be near when he stretched out his black, bony hands +to the East, and the spirit of Almighty God, for a space, hovered close +around. + +So much attention did the abnegation of Simeon attract that various +other pillars, marking the ruins of art and greatness gone, in that +vicinity, were crowned by pious monks. Their thought was to show how +Christianity had triumphed over heathenism. Imitators were numerous. +About that time the Bishops in assembly asked, "Is Simeon sincere?" To +test the matter of Simeon's pride, he was ordered to come down from his +retreat. + +As to his chastity, there was little doubt, and his poverty was beyond +question; but how about obedience to his superiors? + +The order was shouted up to him in a Bishop's voice--he must let down +his rope, draw up a ladder, and descend. + +Straightway Simeon made preparation to obey. And then the Bishops +relented and cried, "We have changed our minds, and now order you to +remain!" + +Simeon lifted his hands in adoration and thankfulness and renewed his +lease. + +And so he lived on and on and on--he lived on the top of that pillar, +never once descending, for thirty years. + +All of his former companions grew a-weary; one by one they died, and the +monastery-bells tolled their requiem as they were laid to rest. Did +Simeon hear the bells and say, "Soon it will be my turn"? + +Probably not. His senses had flown, for what good were they! The young +monk who now at eventide brought the basket with the bottle of goat's +milk and the loaf of dry bread was born since Simeon had taken his place +on the pillar. "He has always been there," the people said, and crossed +themselves hurriedly. + +But one evening when the young monk came with his basket, no line was +dropped from above. He waited and then called aloud, but all in vain. + +When sunrise came, there sat the monk, his face between his knees, the +folds of his black robe drawn over his head. But he did not rise and +lift his hands in prayer. + +All day he sat there, motionless. + +The people watched in whispered silence. Would he arise at sundown and +pray, and with outstretched hands bless the assembled pilgrims? + +But as they watched a vulture came sailing slowly through the blue +ether, and circled nearer and nearer; and off on the horizon was +another--and still another, circling nearer and nearer. + + * * * * * + +In humanity's march of progress there are a vanguard and a rearguard. +The rearguard dwindles away into a mob of camp-followers, who follow for +diversion and to escape starvation. Both the vanguard and the rearguard +are out of step with the main body, and therefore both are despised by +the many who make up the rank and file. + +And yet, out of pity, the main body supplies ambulances and +"slum-workers," who aim to do "good"--but this good is always for the +rearguard and the camp-followers, never for those who lead the line of +march, and take the risk of ambush and massacre. + +But this scorn of the vanguard has its recompense--often delayed, no +doubt--but those who compose it are the only ones whom history honors +and Clio crowns. If they get recognition in life, it is wrung tardily +from an ungrateful and ungracious world. And this is the most natural +thing in the world, and it would be a miracle if it were otherwise, for +the very virtue of the vanguard consists in that their acts outrun human +sympathy. + +Benedict was a scout of civilization. In his day he led the vanguard. He +found the prosperous part of the world given over to greed and gluttony. +The so-called religious element was in partnership with fraud, +superstition, ignorance, incompetence, and an asceticism like that of +Simeon Stylites, leading to nothing. + +Men know the good and grow through experience. To realize the +worthlessness of place and position and of riches, you must have been at +some time in possession of these. Benedict was born into a rich Roman +family, in the year Four Hundred Eighty. His parents wished to educate +him for the law, so he would occupy a position of honor in the State. + +But at sixteen years of age, at that critical time when nerves are +vibrating between manhood and youth, Benedict cut the umbilical domestic +cord, and leaving his robes of purple and silken finery, suddenly +disappeared, leaving behind a note which was doubtless meant to be +reassuring and which was quite the reverse, for it failed to tell where +his mail should be forwarded. He had gone to live with a hermit in the +fastnesses of the mountains. He had desired to do something peculiar, +strange, unusual, unique and individual, and now he had done it. + +Back of it all was the Cosmic Urge, with a fair slip of a girl, and +meetings by stealth in the moonlight; and then those orders from his +father to give up the girl, which he obeyed with a vengeance. + +Monasticism is a reversal or a misdirection of the Cosmic Urge. The will +brought to bear in fighting temptation might be a power for good, if +used in co-operation with Nature. But Nature to the priestly mind has +always been bad. The worldly mind was one that led to ruin. To be good +by doing good was an idea the monkish mind had not grasped. His way of +being good was to be nothing, do nothing--just resist. Successfully to +fight temptation, the Oriental Monk regarded as an achievement. + +One day, out on that perilous and slippery rock on the mountain-side, +Benedict ceased saluting the Holy Virgin long enough to conceive a +thought. It was this: To be acceptable to God, we must do something in +the way of positive good for man. To pray, to adore, to wander, to +suffer, is not enough. We must lighten the burdens of the toilers and +bring a little joy into their lives. Suffering has its place, but too +much suffering would destroy the race. + +Only one other man had Benedict ever heard of, who put forth this +argument, and that was Saint Jerome; and many good men in the Church +regarded Saint Jerome as little better than an infidel. Saint Jerome was +a student of the literature of Greece and Rome--"Pagan Books," they were +called, "rivals of the Bible." Saint Anthony had renounced and denounced +these books and all of the learning of Paganism. Saint Anthony, the +father of Christian Monasticism, dwelt on the terrible evils of +intellectual pride, and had declared that the joys of the mind were of a +more subtle and devilish character than those of the flesh. + +Anthony, assisted by inertia, had won the ear of the Church; and dirt, +rags and idleness had come to be regarded as sacred things. + +Benedict took issue with Anthony. + + * * * * * + +The Monastic Impulse is a protest against the Cosmic Urge, or +reproductive desire. + +Necessarily, the Cosmic Urge is older than the Monastic Impulse; and +beyond a doubt it will live to dance on the grave of its rival. + +The Cosmic Urge is the creative instinct. It includes all planning, +purpose, desire, hope, unrest, lust and ambition. In its general sense, +it is Unfulfilled Desire. It is the voice constantly crying in the ears +of success, "Arise and get thee hence, for this is not thy rest." It is +the dissatisfaction with all things done--it is our Noble Discontent. In +its first manifestation it is sex. In its last refinement it means the +love of man and woman, with the love of children, the home-making sense, +and an appreciation of art, music and science--which is love with seeing +eyes--as natural results. + +Deity creates through its creatures, of which man is the highest type. +But man, evolving a small spark of intellect, sits in judgment on his +Creator, and finds the work bad. Of all the animals, man is the only one +so far known that criticizes his environment, instead of accepting it. +And we do this because, in degree, we have abandoned intuition before we +have gotten control of intellect. + +The Monastic Instinct is the disposition ever to look outside of +ourselves for help. We expect the Strong Man to come and give us +deliverance from our woes. All nations have legends of saviors and +heroes who came and set the captives free, and who will come again in +greater glory and mightier power and even release the dead from their +graves. + +The Monastic Impulse is based on world-weariness, with disappointed +love, or sex surfeit, which is a phase of the same thing, as a basis. +Its simplest phase is a desire for solitude. + +"Mon" means one, and monasticism is simply living alone, apart from the +world. Gradually it came to mean living alone with others of a like mind +or disposition. + +The clan is an extension of the family, and so is originally a monastic +impulse. The Group Idea is a variant of monasticism, but if it includes +men and women, it always disintegrates with the second generation, if +not before, because the Cosmic Urge catches the members, and they mate, +marry and swing the circle. + +Ernst Haeckel has recently intimated his belief that monogamy, with its +exclusive life, is a diluted form of monasticism. And his opinion seems +to be that, in order to produce the noblest race possible, we must have +a free society, with a State that reverences and respects maternity and +pensions any mother who personally cares for her child. + +Monasticism and enforced monogamy often carry a disrespect, if not a +positive contempt, for motherhood, especially free motherhood. We breed +from the worst, under the worst conditions, and as punishment God has +made us a race of scrubs. If we had deliberately set about to produce +the worst, we could not do better. + +It will at once be seen that a penalized free motherhood is exactly like +the Monastic Impulse--a protest and a revolt from the Cosmic Urge. Hence +Ernst Haeckel, harking back to Schopenhauer, declares that we must place +a premium upon parenthood, and the State must subsidize all mothers, +visiting them with tenderness, gentleness, sanctity and respect, before +we shall be able to produce a race of demigods. + +The Church has aureoled and sainted the men and women who have +successfully fought the Cosmic Urge. Emerson says, "We are strong as we +ally ourselves with Nature, and weak as we fight against her or +disregard her." Thus does Emerson place himself squarely in opposition +to the Church, for the Church has ever looked upon Nature as a lure and +a menace to holy living. + +Now, is it not possible that the prevalency of the Monastic Impulse is +proof that it is in itself a movement in the direction of Nature? +Possibly its error lies in swinging out beyond the norm. A few great +Churchmen have thought so. And the greatest and best of them, so far as +I know, was Benedict. Through his efforts, monasticism was made a power +for good, and for a time, at least, it served society and helped +humanity on its way. + +That the flagellants, anchorites, or monks with iron collars, and Simeon +Stylites living his life perched on a pillar, benefited the human +race--no one would now argue. Simeon was simply trying to please God--to +secure salvation for his soul. His assumption was that the world was +base and bad. To be pure in heart you must live apart from it. His +persistence was the only commendable thing about him, and this was the +persistence of a diseased mind. It was beautiful just as the persistence +of cancer is beautiful. + +Benedict, while agreeing that the world was bad, yet said that our +business was to make it better, and that everything we did which was +done merely to save our own souls, was selfish and unworthy. He +advocated that, in order to save our own souls, we should make it our +business to save others. Also, to think too much about your own soul was +to have a soul not worth saving. If this life is a preparation for +another, as Simeon thought, he was not preparing himself for a world +where we would care to go. The only heaven in which any sane man or +woman, be he saint or sinner, would care to live, would be one whose +inhabitants would be at liberty to obey the Cosmic Urge just as freely +as the Monastic Impulse, and where one would be regarded as holy as the +other. So thought Saint Benedict. + + * * * * * + +There is a natural law, well recognized and defined by men who think, +called the Law of Diminishing Returns, sometimes referred to as the Law +of Pivotal Points. + +A man starts in to take systematic exercise, and he finds that his +strength increases. He takes more exercise and keeps on until he gets +"stale"--that is, he becomes sore and lame. He has passed the Pivotal +Point and is getting a Diminishing Return. + +In running a railroad-engine a certain amount of coal is required to +pull a train of given weight a mile, say at the rate of fifty miles an +hour. You double the amount of your coal, and simple folks might say you +double your speed, but railroad men know better. The double amount of +coal will give you only about sixty miles instead of fifty. Increase +your coal and from this on you get a Diminishing Return. If you insist +on eighty miles an hour, you get your speed at a terrific cost and a +terrible risk. + +Another case: Your body requires a certain amount of food--the body is +an engine; food is fuel; life is combustion. Better the quality and +quantity of your food, and up to a certain point you increase your +strength. Go on increasing your food and you get death. Loan money at +five per cent and your investment is reasonably secure and safe. Loan +money at ten per cent and you do not double the returns; on the +contrary, you have taken on so much risk. Loan money at twenty per cent +and you will probably lose it; for the man who borrows at twenty per +cent does not intend to pay if he can help it. + +The Law of Diminishing Returns was what Oliver Wendell Holmes had in +mind when he said, "Because I like a pinch of salt in my soup is no +reason I wish to be immersed in brine." + +Churches, preachers and religious denominations are good things in their +time and place, and up to a certain point. Whether for you the church +has passed the Pivotal Point is for you yourself to decide. But remember +this, because a thing is good up to a certain point, or has been good, +is no reason why it should be perpetuated. The Law of Diminishing +Returns is the natural refutation of the popular fallacy that because a +thing is good you can not get too much of it. + +It is this law that Abraham Lincoln had in mind when he said, "I object +to that logic which seeks to imply that because I wish to make the negro +free, I desire a black woman for a wife." + +Benedict had spent five years in resistance before it dawned upon him +that Monasticism carried to a certain point was excellent and fraught +with good results, but beyond that it rapidly degenerated. + +To carry the plan of simplicity and asceticism to its summit and not go +beyond was now his desire. + +To withdraw from society he felt was a necessity, for the petty and +selfish ambitions of Rome were revolting. But the religious life did +not for him preclude the joys of the intellect. In his unshaven and +unshorn condition, wearing a single garment of goatskin, he dared not go +back to his home. So he proceeded to make himself acceptable to decent +people. He made a white robe, bathed, shaved off his beard, had his hair +cut, and putting on his garments, went back to his family. The life in +the wilderness had improved his health. He had grown in size and +strength and he now, in his own person, proved that a religious recluse +was not necessarily unkempt and repulsive. + +His people greeted him as one raised from the dead. Crowds followed him +wherever he went. He began to preach to them and to explain his +position. + +Some of his old school associates came to him. + +As he explained his position, it began more and more to justify itself +in his mind. Things grow plain as we analyze them to others--by +explaining to another the matter becomes luminous to ourselves. + +To purify the monasteries and carry to them all that was good and +beautiful in the classics, was the desire of Benedict. His wish was to +reconcile the learning of the past with Christianity, which up to that +time had been simply ascetic. It had consisted largely of repression, +suppression and a killing-out of all spontaneous, happy, natural +impulses. + +Very naturally, he was harshly criticized, and when he went back to the +cave where he had dwelt and tried to teach some of his old companions +how to read and write, they flew first at him, and then from him. They +declared that he was the devil in the guise of a monk; that he wished to +live both as a monk and as a man of the world--that he wanted to eat his +cake and still keep it. By a sort of divine right he took control of +affairs, and insisted that his companions should go to work with him, +and plant a garden and raise vegetables and fruits, instead of depending +upon charity or going without. + +The man who insists that all folks shall work, be they holy or secular, +learned or illiterate, always has a hard road to travel. Benedict's +companions declared that he was trying to enslave them, and one of them +brewed a poison and substituted it for the simple herb tea that Benedict +drank. Being discovered, the man and his conspirators escaped, although +Benedict offered to forgive and forget if they would go to work. + +Benedict adhered to his new inspiration with a persistency that never +relaxed--the voice of God had called to him that he must clear the soil +of the brambles and plant gardens. + +The thorn-bush through which he had once rolled his naked body, he now +cut down and burned. He relaxed the vigils and limited the prayers and +adorations to a few short exercises just before eating, sleeping and +going to work. He divided the day into three parts--eight hours for +work, eight hours for study, eight hours for sleep. Then he took +one-half hour from each of these divisions for silent prayer and +adoration. He argued that good work was a prayer, and that one could +pray with his heart and lips, even as his hands swung the ax, the sickle +or the grub-hoe. All that Benedict required of others, he did himself, +and through the daily work he evolved a very strong and sturdy physique. +From the accounts that have come to us he was rather small in stature, +but in strength he surpassed any man in his vicinity. + +Miraculous accounts of his physical strength were related, and in the +minds of his simple followers he was regarded as more than a man, which +shows us that the ideals of what a man should be, or might be, were not +high. We are told that near Benedict's first monastery there was a very +deep lake, made in the time of Nero by damming up a mountain stream. +Along this lake the brambles and vines had grown in great confusion. +Benedict set to work to clear the ground from this lake to his +monastery, half a mile up the hillside. One day a workman dropped an ax +into the lake. Benedict smiled, his lips moved in prayer and the ax came +to the surface. The story does not say that Benedict dived to the bottom +and brought up the ax, which he probably did. The next day the owner of +the ax fell into the water, and the story goes that Benedict walked out +on the water and brought the man in on his shoulders. We who do not +believe that the age of miracles has passed, can well understand how +Benedict was an active, agile and strong swimmer, and that through the +natural powers which he evolved by living a sane and simple life, he was +able to perform many feats which peasants round about considered +miraculous. Benedict had what has been called the Builder's Itch. He +found great joy in planning, creating and constructing. He had an eye +for architecture and landscape-gardening. He utilized the materials of +old Roman temples to construct Christian churches, and from the same +quarry he took stone and built a monastery. A Roman ruin had a lure for +him. It meant building possibilities. He stocked the lake with fish, and +then made catches that rivaled the parable of the loaves and fishes. +Only the loaves of Benedict were made from the wheat he himself raised, +and the people he fed were the crowds who came to hear him preach the +gospel he himself practised--the gospel of work, moderation and the +commonsense exercise of head, hand and heart. + + * * * * * + +To Benedict came twelve disciples. But further applications becoming +numerous, to meet the pressure Benedict kept organizing them into groups +of twelve, appointing a superior over each group. In order to prove his +sense of equality, he had but eleven besides himself in the monastery. +He recognized that leadership was a necessity; but the clothes he wore +were no better than, and the food he ate no different from, what the +others had. Yet to enforce discipline, rules were made and instant +obedience was exacted. Benedict took his turn at waiting on the table +and doing the coarsest tasks. + +Were it not for the commonsense methods of life, and the element of +human service, the Christian monastery and probably Christianity itself +would not have survived. The dogma of religion was made acceptable by +blending it with a service for humanity. And even to this day the +popular plan of proving the miracles of the Old Testament to have been +actual occurrences is to point to the schools, hospitals and orphan +asylums that Christian people have provided. + +In the efforts of Benedict to combine the life of unselfish service with +intellectual appreciation of classic literature, he naturally was +misunderstood. Several times he came near having serious collisions with +the authorities of the Church at Rome. + +His preaching attracted the jealous attention of certain churchmen, but +as he was not a priest, the Pope refused to take notice of his supposed +heresies. + +An effort was made to compel him to become a priest, but Benedict +refused on the plea that he was not worthy. The fact was, however, that +he did not wish to be bound by the rules of the Church. + +In one sense, his was a religion inside a religion, and a slight +accident might have precipitated an opposition denomination, just as the +Protestant issue of Luther was an accident, and the Methodism of the +Wesleys, another. + +Several times the opposition, in the belief that Benedict was an enemy +of the Church, went so far as to try to kill him. And once a few pious +persons in Rome induced a company of wanton women to go out to +Benedict's monastery and disport themselves through his beautiful +grounds. This was done with two purposes in view; one was to work the +direct downfall of the Benedictines, with the aid of the trulls, and the +other was to create a scandal among the visitors, who would carry the +unsavory news back to Rome and supply the gossips raw stock. + +Benedict was so deeply grieved by the despicable trick that he retired +to his former home, the cave in the hillside, and there remained without +food for a month. + +But during this time of solitude his mind was busy with new plans. He +now founded Monte Cassino. The site is halfway between Rome and Naples, +and the white, classic lines of the buildings can be seen from the +railroad. There on the crags, from out of a mass of green, has been +played out for more than a thousand years the drama of religious life. +Death by fire and sword has been the fate of many of the occupants. But +the years went by, new men came, the ruins were repaired, and again the +cloisters were trodden by pious feet of holy men. Goths, Lombards, +Saracens, Normans, Spaniards, Teutons, and finally came Napoleon +Bonaparte, who confiscated the property, making the place his home for a +brief space. Later he relented and took it from the favorite upon whom +he had bestowed it and gave it back to the Church. It then remained a +Benedictine monastery until the edict of Eighteen Hundred Sixty-six, +which, with the help of Massini and Garibaldi, made the monastery in +Italy a thing of the past. The place is now a school--a school with a +co-ed proviso. Thus passes away the glory of the world, in order that a +greater glory shall appear. + +Six hundred years before Benedict's day, on the site of the cloister of +Monte Cassino stood a temple to Apollo, and just below was a grove +sacred to Venus. + +Two hundred years before Benedict's time the Goths had done their work +so well that even the walls of the temple to Apollo were razed, and the +sacred grove became the home of wild beasts. + +To this deserted place came Benedict and eleven men, filled with a holy +zeal to erect on this very spot an edifice worthy of the living God. +Here the practical builder and the religious dreamer combined. If you +are going to build a building, why not build upon the walls already laid +and with blocks ready hewn and fashioned! + +The Monte Cassino monastery of Benedict rivaled in artistic beauty the +temple that it replaced. + +Man is a building animal, and the same Creative Energy that impelled the +Greeks and later the Romans to plan, devise, toil and build, now played +through the good monk Benedict. His desire to create was a form of the +great Cosmic Urge, that lives eternally and is building in America a +finer, better and nobler religion than the world has ever seen--a +Religion of Humanity--a religion of which at times Benedict caught vivid +passing glimpses, as one sees at night the landscape brilliantly +illumined by the lightning's flash. + + * * * * * + +The motto of Benedict was "Ecce Labora." These words were carved on the +entrance to every Benedictine Monastery. + +The monastic idea originated in the Orient, where Nature placed no +special penalty on idleness. Indeed, labor may have been a curse in +Asia. Morality is crystallized expediency, and both, as we are told, are +matters of geography, as well as time. + +And truth it is, that north of the Mediterranean idleness is the curse, +not labor. + +The rule of Benedict was not unlike that of the Shakers, for near every +monastery was a nunnery. The association of men and women, although +quite limited, was better for both than their absolute separation, as +with the Trappists, who regard it as a sin even to look upon the face of +a woman. + +The thrift and industry of the Benedictines was worthy of Ann Lee and +our friends at Lebanon. A man who works eight hours, with fair +intelligence, and does not set out to make consumption and waste the +business of his life, grows rich. Thoreau was right--an hour a day will +support you. But Thoreau was wrong in supposing men work only to get +food, clothing and shelter. To work only an hour a day is to evolve into +a loafer. We work not to acquire, but to become. + +The group idea, cemented by able leadership and a religious concept, is +always successful. The Mormons, Quakers, Harmonyites, Economites, and +the Oneida Community, all grew very rich, and surpassed their neighbors +not only in point of money, but in health, happiness, intelligence and +general mental grasp. + +Brook Farm failed for lack of a leader with business instinct; but as it +was, it divided up among its members a rich legacy of spiritual and +mental assets. In family life, or what is called "Society," there is a +constant danger through rivalry, not in well-doing or in human service, +but in conspicuous waste and conspicuous leisure. The religious rite of +feet-washing is absolutely lost, both as a rite and as an idea. In +truth, "good society" is essentially predatory in its instincts. In +communal life, or the life of a group, service and not waste is the +watchword. This must be so, since every group, at its beginning, is held +together through the thought of service. To meet and unite on a basis of +jealous rivalry and sharp practise is unthinkable, for these are the +things that disintegrate the group. + +It is an economic law that a group founded upon and practising the idea +of each member giving all, wins all. Benedict's idea of "Ecce labora" +made every Benedictine monastery a center of wealth. Work stops +bickering, strife and undue waste. It makes for health and strength. The +reward of work is not immunity from toil, but more work--an increased +capacity for effort. + +De Tocqueville gave this recipe for success: Subdue yourself--Devote +yourself. + +That is to say, subdue the ego to a point where it gets its +gratification in concentrating on unselfish service. He who does this +always succeeds, for not only is he engaged upon a plan of life in which +there is little competition, but he is working in line with a divine +law, the law of mutuality, which provides that all the good you do to +others, you do for yourself. + +Benedictine monasticism leads straight to wealth and great power. The +Abbot of the group became a Baron. "I took the vow of poverty, and it +led to an income of twenty thousand pounds a year. I took the vow of +obedience and find myself ruler of fifty towns and villages." These are +the words which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of an Abbot, who +became a Baron through the simple law of which I have hinted. And in his +novel of "The Abbot," Sir Walter gives a tragic picture of how power and +wealth can be lost as well as won. Feudalism began with the rule of the +monastery. + +Benedict was one of the world's great Captains of Industry. And like all +great entrepreneurs, he won through utilizing the efforts of others. In +picking his Abbots, or the men to be "father" of each particular group, +he showed rare skill. These men learned from him and he learned from +them. One of his best men was Cassiodorus, the man who evolved the +scheme of the scriptorium. "To study eight hours a day was not enough," +said Cassiodorus. "We should copy the great works of literature so that +every monastery shall have a library as good as that which we have at +Monte Cassino." He himself was an expert penman, and he set himself the +task of teaching the monks how to write as well as how to read. "To +write beautifully is a great joy to our God," he said. + +Benedict liked the idea, and at once put it into execution. Cassiodorus +is the patron saint of every maker of books who loves his craft. + +The systematic work of the scriptorium originated in the brain of +Cassiodorus, and he was appointed by Benedict to go from one monastery +to another and inform the Abbot that a voice had come from God to +Benedict saying that these precious books must be copied, and presented +to those who would prize them. + +Cassiodorus had been a secretary of state under the Emperor Theodoric, +and he had also been a soldier. He was seventy years of age when he came +under the influence of Benedict, through a chance visit to Monte +Cassino. Benedict at first ordered him to take an ax and work with the +servants at grubbing out underbrush and preparing a field for planting. +Cassiodorus obeyed, and soon discovered that there was a joy in +obedience he had before never guessed. His name was Brebantus Varus, but +on his declaring he was going to remain and work with Benedict, he was +complimented by being given the name of Cassiodorus, suggested by the +word Cassinum or Cassino. Cassiodorus lived to be ninety-two, and was +one of the chief factors, after Benedict himself, in introducing the +love of art and beauty among the Benedictines. + +Near Monte Cassino was a nunnery presided over by Scholastica, the twin +sister of Benedict. + +Renan says that the kinship of Scholastica and Benedict was a spiritual +tie, not one of blood. If so, we respect it none the less. Saint Gregory +tells of the death of Benedict thus: + + Benedict was at the end of his career. His interview with Totila + took place in Five Hundred Forty-two, in the year which preceded + his death; and from his earliest days of the following year, God + prepared him for his last struggle, by requiring from him the + sacrifice of the most tender affection he had retained on earth. + The beautiful and touching incident of the last meeting of Benedict + and his twin sister, Scholastica, is a picture long to remember. At + the window of his cell, three days after her death, Benedict had a + vision of his dear sister's soul entering heaven in the form of a + snowy dove. He immediately sent for the body and placed it in a + sepulcher which he had already prepared for himself, that death + might not separate those whose souls had always been united in God. + + The death of his sister was the signal of departure for himself. He + survived her forty days. He announced his death to several of his + monks, then far from Monte Cassino. A violent fever having seized + him, he caused himself on the sixth day of his sickness to be + carried to the chapel of Saint John the Baptist; he had before + ordered the tomb in which his sister already slept to be opened. + + There, supported in the arms of his disciples, he received the holy + Viaticum, then placing himself at the side of the open grave, but + at the foot of the altar, and with his arms extended towards + heaven, he died, standing, muttering a last prayer. Such a + victorious death became that great soldier of God. He was buried by + the side of his beloved Scholastica, in a sepulcher made on the + spot where stood the altar of Apollo, which had been replaced by + another to our beloved Savior. + + +In the very year, and at the same time, that Justinian and Theodora were +preparing the Justinian Code, Benedict was busy devising "The Monastic +Rules." Benedict did not put his rules forth as final, but explained +that they were merely expedient for their time and place. In this he was +singularly modest. If one can divest himself of the thought that there +was anything "holy" or "sacred" about these communal groups called +"monasteries," and then read these rules, he will see that they were +founded on a good knowledge of economics and a very stern commonsense. + +Humanity was the same a thousand years ago that it is now. Benedict had +to fight inertia, selfishness and incipient paranoia, just as does the +man who tries to introduce practical socialism today. A few extracts +from this very remarkable Book of Rules will show the shrewd Connecticut +wisdom of Benedict. To hold the dowdy, indifferent, slipshod and +underdone in their proper places, so they could not disturb or destroy +the peace, policy and prosperity of the efficient, was the task of +Benedict. + +Benedict says: "Written and formal rules are necessary only because we +are all faulty men, with a tendency towards selfishness and disorder. +When men become wise, and also unselfish, there will be no need of rules +and laws." + +The Book of Rules by Benedict is a volume of more than twenty thousand +words. Its scope reveals an insight that will appeal to all who have had +to do with socialistic experiments, not to mention the management of +labor-unions. Benedict was one of the industrial leaders of the world. +His life was an epoch, and his influence still abides. + + + + +[Illustration: MARY BAKER EDDY] + +MARY BAKER EDDY + + + The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found + in the following postulates: that Life is God, good and not evil; + that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is + not and can not be materialized; that Life is not subject to death; + that the spiritual real man has no consciousness of material life + or death. + + --_Mary Baker Eddy_ + + +MARY BAKER EDDY + +Let the fact be here stated that Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of +Christian Science. This woman lived long and well. + +She was alert, earnest, highly intelligent, receptive. She was ever +discovering. We know this because she put out a new message every little +while, or modified an old one, having come in the meantime into a +position to get a nearer and clearer view of the fact. The last edition +of "Science and Health" is a different book from the first one. + +Christian Science is not a fixed, formed, fossilized, ossified +structure. Possibly it may become so. But the probabilities are it will +grow, expand, advance. Life and growth consist in eliminating dead +matter and evolving new tissue. The institution, commercial, artistic, +social, political, religious, that has ceased to grow has begun to +disintegrate. + +Christian Scientists do not flee the world, renouncing and denouncing +it. As a people they are well, happy, hopeful, enthusiastic and +successful. I am fairly well informed on the history of all great +religions. In degree I know the character of intellect possessed by the +folks who make or made up their membership. And my opinion is, that no +religion that has ever existed contained so large a percentage of +intelligent people, competent, safe and sane, as does Christian Science. +There is an adage to the effect that a prophet is not without honor save +in his own country. + +In the case of Mary Baker Eddy, the adage just quoted goes awry. Mrs. +Eddy as long as she lived, retained the good-will of Concord, Boston and +Brookline, where she chose to make her home. Very many of the leading +men and women of each of these cities are Christian Scientists. + +The Christian Science Church at Concord cost upwards of two hundred +thousand dollars, and was the gift of Mrs. Eddy. Over the entrance, cut +deep in granite, are the words, "Presented by Mary Baker Eddy, +Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science." As to the argument that +the truths of Christian Science have always been known and practised by +a few, Mrs. Eddy issued her direct challenge. In all of her literature +she set out the unqualified statement that she was "The Discoverer and +the Founder." She was never apologetic; she assumed no modesty she did +not feel; she spoke as one having authority, as did Moses of old, "Thus +saith the Lord!" + +She entered into no joint debates; she did not answer back. This intense +conviction which admits of no parley was one of the secrets of her +power. For many years the Billingsgate Calendar was directed at her upon +every possible occasion. + +But Mrs. Eddy won out, and legislation and courts were compelled to +whistle in their hounds. Your right to keep well in your own way is now +fully recognized. Doctors are not liable when they give innocent +sweetened water and call it medicine, nor do we place Christian +Scientists on trial if their patients die, any more than we do the M. +D.'s. + +In fact, Mrs. Eddy influenced both of the so-called sciences of medicine +and theology. Even those who are perfectly willing to deny her, and +noisily discard her tenets, are debtors to her. + +Homeopathy modified the dose of all the Allopaths; and Christian Science +has attenuated the Hahnemannian theory of attenuations, it having been +found that the blank tablet often cures quite as effectively as the one +that is medicated. Christian Science does not shout, rant, defy nor +preach. It is poised, silent, sure, and the flagellants, like the +dervishes, are noticeable by their absence. + +The Reverend Billy Sunday is not a Christian Scientist. The Christian +Scientist does not cut into the grape; specialize on the elevated +spheroid; devote his energies to bridge whist; cultivate the scandal +microbe; join the anvil chorus, nor shake the red rag of wordy warfare. +He is diligent in business, fervent in spirit, and accepts what comes +without protest, finding it good. + +Mary Baker Eddy lived a human life. Through her manifold experiences she +gathered gear--she was a very great and wise woman. She was so great +that she kept her own counsel, received no visitors, made no calls, had +no Thursday, wrote no letters, and even never went to the church that +she presented to her native town. Mrs. Eddy's step was ever light, her +form erect--a slender, handsome, queenly woman. When she passed on, in +December, Nineteen Hundred Ten, in her ninetieth year, she looked scarce +more than sixty. Her face showed experience, but not extreme age. The +day I saw her, a few years before her death, she was dressed all in +white satin and looked like a girl going to a ball. + +Her eyes were not dimmed nor her face wrinkled. + +Her hat was a milliner's dream; her gloves came to the elbow and were +becomingly wrinkled; her form was the form of Bernhardt. Her secretary +stood by the carriage-door, his head bared. He did not offer his hand to +the lady nor seek to assist her into the carriage. He knew his +business--a sober, silent, muscular, bronzed, farmer-like man, who +evidently saw everything and nothing. + +He closed the carriage-door and took his seat by the side of the driver, +who wore no livery. The men looked like brothers. The big, brown horses +started slowly away; they wore no blinders nor check-reins--they, too, +had banished fear. The coachman drove with a loose rein. The next day I +waited in Concord to see Mrs. Eddy again. At exactly two-fifteen the +big, brown, slow-going horses turned into Main Street. Drays pulled in +to the curb, automobiles stopped, people stood on the street corners, +and some--the pilgrims--uncovered. + +Mrs. Eddy sat back in the carriage, holding in her white-gloved hands a +big spray of apple-blossoms, the same half-smile of satisfaction on her +face--the smile of Pope Leo the Thirteenth. The woman was a veritable +queen, and some of her devotees, not without reason, called her the +Queen of the World. + +Some doubtless prayed to her--and may yet, for that matter. Mrs. Eddy +was married three times. First, to Colonel George W. Glover, an +excellent and worthy man, who was the father of her only child, a son. +On the death of Glover, the child was taken by Glover's mother and +secreted so effectually that his mother did not see him until he was +thirty-four years old, and the father of a family. + +Her second husband was Daniel Patterson, who was not only a rogue but +also a fool--a flashy one, who turned the head of a lone, lorn young +widow, who certainly was not infallible in judgment. In two years the +wife got a divorce from him, on the grounds of cruelty and desertion, at +Salem, Massachusetts. Her third marital venture was Doctor Asa G. Eddy, +a practising physician--a man of much intelligence and worth. From him +Mrs. Eddy learned that the Science of Medicine was not much of a science +after all. Mrs. Eddy used to say that her husband was her first convert; +certain it is that Dr. Eddy gave up his practise to assist his wife in +putting before the world the unreality of disease. That he did not fully +grasp the idea is shown by the fact that he died of pneumonia. This, +however, did not shake the faith of Mrs. Eddy in the doctrine that +sickness was an error of mortal mind. For a good many years Mrs. Eddy +drove the memory of her two good husbands tandem, hitched by a hyphen, +thus: Mary Baker Glover-Eddy. Many a woman has joined her own name to +that of her husband, but what woman ever before so honored the two men +she had loved by coupling their names! Getting married is a bad habit, +Mrs. Eddy would probably have said, but you have to get married to find +it out. + +In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-nine, Mrs. Eddy organized the First Church +of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and became its pastor. In Eighteen +Hundred Eighty-one, being then sixty years of age, she founded the +Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in Boston. For fifteen years she had +been speaking in public, affirming that health was our normal condition +and that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. From her forty-fifth +to her sixtieth year she was glad to speak for what was offered, +although I believe that even then she had discarded the good old +priestly plan of taking up a collection. The Metaphysical College was +started to prepare students for teaching Mrs. Eddy's doctrines. + +The business ability of the woman was shown in thus organizing and +allowing no one to teach who was not duly prepared. These students were +obliged to pay a good stiff tuition, which fact made them appreciative. +In turn they went out and taught; all students paid the tidy sum of one +hundred dollars for the lessons, which fee was later cut to fifty. +Salvation may be free, but Christian Science costs money. The +theological genus piker, with his long, wrinkled, black coat, his collar +buttoned behind, and his high hat, has been eliminated. + +Mrs. Eddy was manager of the best-methodized institution in the world, +save only the Roman Catholic Church and the Standard Oil Company. How +many million copies of "Science and Health" have been sold, no man can +say. What percentage of the money from the lessons went to Mrs. Eddy, +only an Armstrong Committee could ascertain, and really it was nobody's +business but hers. + +That Mrs. Eddy had some very skilful helpers goes without saying. But +here is the point--she selected them, and reigned supreme. That the +student who paid fifty dollars got his money's worth, I have no doubt. +Not that he understood the lessons, but he received a feeling of courage +and a oneness with the whole which caused health to flow through his +veins and his heart to beat with joy. The lesson might have been to him +a jumble of words, but he lived in hopes that he would soon grow to a +point where the lines were luminous. + +In the meantime, all he knew was that whereas he was once lame he could +now walk. Even the most bigoted and prejudiced now agree that the cures +of Christian Science are genuine. People who think they have trouble +have it, and it is the same with pain. Imagination is the only +sure-enough thing in the world. Mrs. Eddy's doctrines abolish pain and +therefore abolish poverty, for poverty, in America at least, is a +disease. Mrs. Eddy's chief characteristics were: + +First, Love of Beauty as manifest in bodily form, dress and +surroundings. + +Second, A zeal for system, order and concentrated effort on the +particular business she undertakes. + +Third, A dignity, courage, self-sufficiency and self-respect that comes +from a belief in her own divinity. + +Fourth, An economy of time, money, materials, energy and emotion that +wastes nothing, but which continually conserves and accumulates. + +Fifth, A liberality, when advisable, which is only possible to those who +also economize. + +Sixth, Yankee shrewdness, great commonsense, all flavored with a dash of +mysticism and indifference to physical scientific accuracy. + +In other words, Christian Science is a woman's science--she knows! And +it is good because it is good--this is a science sound enough for +anybody--I guess so! Christian Science is scientific, but not for the +reasons that its promoters maintain. Male Christian Scientists do not +growl and kick the cat. + +Women Christian Scientists do not nag. Christian Scientists do not have +either the grouch or the meddler's itch. Among them there are no +dolorosos, grumperinos or beggars. They respect all other denominations, +having a serene faith that all will yet see the light--that is to say, +adopt their doctrines. The most radical among old-school doctors could +not deny that Mrs. Eddy's own life was conducted on absolutely +scientific lines. She never answered the telephone, never fussed nor +fumed. + +She hired big, safe people and paid them a big wage. She gave her +coachman fifty dollars a week, and her cook in proportion, and thus +secured people who gave her peace. She went to bed with the birds and +awoke with the dawn. At seven o'clock she was at her desk, dictating +answers to the very few letters her secretary deemed it advisable she +should see. She had breakfast at nine o'clock--ate anything she liked, +taking her time and fletcherizing. After breakfast she worked upon her +manuscripts until it was time for the daily ride. + +At four o'clock she dined--two meals a day being the rule. If, however, +she cared to dissipate a little and eat three meals a day, she was not +afraid to do so. + +She knew her horses and cows and sheep by name, and gave requests as to +their care, holding that the laws of mind obtain as to dumb animals the +same as man. Dogs she did not care for, and if she ever had an aversion +it would have been cats. Her servants she called "My helpers." +Christian Scientists very naturally believe in the equality of the +sexes. When girl babies are born to them they bless God, just the same +as when boy babies are born. In truth they bless God for everything, for +to them all is beautiful and all is good. Paid preachers they do not +have; they do not believe in priests or certain men who are nearer to +God than others. All have access to Eternal Truth, and thus is the +ecclesiastic excluded. To eliminate the theological middleman is well, +and as for the Church itself, surely Mrs. Eddy eliminated it also; for +she never entered a church, or at least not more than once a year, and +then it was only in deference to the architect. A Church! Is it +necessary? For herself Mrs. Eddy said, No. + +But as for others, she said, Yes, a church is good for those who need +it. Mrs. Eddy was the most successful author in the world, or, indeed, +that the world has ever seen. No other writer ever made so much money as +she, none is more devoutly read. + +Shakespeare, with his fortune of a quarter of a million dollars, fades +into comparative failure; and Arthur Brisbane, with his salary of +seventy-five thousand a year, is an office-boy compared with this regal +woman, who gave fifty thousand dollars a year for good roads. + + * * * * * + +The valuable truths and distinguishing features of Christian Science are +not to be found in Mrs. Eddy's books, but in Mrs. Eddy's life. She was a +much bigger woman than she was a writer. Emerson says that every great +institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. Every great +business enterprise has a soul--one man's spirit animates, pervades and +tints the whole. You can go into any hotel or store, and behold! the +nature or character of the owner or manager is everywhere proclaimed. + +You do not have to see the man, and the bigger the institution the less +need is there for the man to show himself. His work proclaims him, just +as a farmer's livestock all moo, whinny and squeal his virtues--or lack +of them. As a boy of ten I learned to know all of our neighbors by their +horses. The horses of a drunkard, blanketless, hungry, shivering, +outside of the village tavern, do they not proclaim the poor, despised +owner within? + +You can walk through the passenger-coaches of a train made up at a +terminal and read the character unmistakably of the general +passenger-agent. The soul of John Wesley ran through Methodism and made +it what it was. The Lutheranism of Luther yet lives; Calvinism the same; +and the soul of John Knox still goes marching on, carrying the +Presbyterian banner. + +Every religion partakes of the nature of its founder, until this +religion is mixed with that of another and its character lost, as +happened to the religion of Christ when it was launched by Paul and was +finally fused with Paganism by the Roman Emperor, Constantine. + +Christian Science is as yet the lengthened shadow of Mary Baker Eddy. +Her own immediate, personal pupils are still teaching, and her life and +characteristics impressed upon them are given out to each and all. Every +phase of life is solved by answering the question, "What would Mrs. Eddy +do?" Mrs. Eddy's ideas about dress, housekeeping, business, food, +health, the management of servants, the care of children--all are +blended into a composite, and this composite is the Christian Scientist +as we see and know him. + +The fact that Mrs. Eddy was methodical, industrious, economical, +persevering, courageous, hopeful, helpful, neat in her attire and +smiling, makes all Christian Scientists exactly so. She did not play +cards and indulge in the manifold silliness of so-called good society, +and neither do they. Indeed, that one thing which has been referred to +as "the plaster-of-Paris smile," the one feature in Christian Science to +which many good people object, is the direct legacy of Mrs. Eddy to her +pupils. "Science and Health" says nothing about it; no edict has been +put forth recommending it; but all good Christian Scientists take it +on--the smile that refuses to vacate the premises. And to some it is +certainly very becoming. Mrs. Eddy's self-reliant, silent, smiling +personality has given the key to conduct for the hundreds of thousands +of people who love her and revere her memory. + +Mrs. Eddy was a rare good listener. She did not argue. Once upon a time, +indeed, she was guilty of waving the red flag of wordy warfare; but the +passing of the years brought her wisdom, and then her only answer to +impatience was the quiet smile. As for eating, her table always had +enough, but it stopped short of surfeit; the service was dainty, and all +these things are now seen in the homes of Christian Scientists. Always +in the home of a good Christian Scientist the bathroom is as complete as +the library, and both are models of good housekeeping, seemingly always +in order for the inspection committee. + +Mrs. Eddy did not say much about hot water, soap and clean towels; but +the idea, regardless of the non-existence of matter, is fixed in the +consciousness of every Christian Scientist that absolute bodily +cleanliness, fresh linen and fresh air are not only next to godliness, +but elements of it. All of which you could never work out of "Science +and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in a lifetime of study, any more +than you could mine and smelt the Westminster Catechism out of the +Bible. + +The vital truths of right living come to us as a precious heritage from +the character of this great woman. She, herself, perhaps may not have +known this; but before she wrote her book and formulated her religion, +she lived her life. Her book was an endeavor to explain her life, and +as her life grew better, stronger and more refined, she changed her +book. Her book reacted on her life, and the person who got the most good +out of "Science and Health" was Mary Baker Eddy herself. + +"Science and Health" is mystical and beautifully human. The author's oar +often fails to catch the water. For instance, she tries to show that +animal magnetism, spiritualism, mental science, theosophy, agnosticism, +pantheism and infidelity are all bad things and opposed to the science +of "true being." + +This statement presupposes that animal magnetism, infidelity, theosophy +and agnosticism are specific entities or things, whereas they are only +labels that are clapped quite indiscriminately on empty casks or full +ones; and the contents of the casks may be sea-water or wine, and are +really unknown to both mortal and divine mind, whatever these things +are. Theosophists like Annie Besant, Spiritualists like Alfred Russel +Wallace, Agnostics like Huxley and Ingersoll, are very noble and +beautiful people. They are good neighbors and useful citizens. + +"Science and Health" is an attempt to catch and hold in words the +secrets of an active, honest, healthful, seeking, restless, earnest +life, and as such is more or less of a failure. + +Our actions are right, but our reasons seldom are. + +Christian Science as a plan of life, embodying the great yet simple +virtues, is beautiful. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" +does not explain the Scriptures. The book, as an attempt to explain and +crystallize truth, is a failure. It ranks with that great mass of +literature, written and copied at such vast pains and expense, bearing +the high-sounding title, "Writings of the Saints." + + * * * * * + +All publishers are familiar with inspired manuscripts. Such work always +has one thing in common--unintelligibility. Good literature is lucid to +the average mind. In fact, that is its distinguishing feature. We +understand what the man means. No able writer uses the same word over +and over with varying sense. Alfred Henry Lewis and William Marion Reedy +use the mortal mind, and their work is understandable. You can sit in +judgment on their conclusions and weigh, sift and decide for yourself. +They make an appeal to your intellect. + +But you can not sit in judgment on "Science and Health," because its +language is not the language we use in our common, every-day intercourse +with one another. It speaks of Christ as a person, a principle, a +spirit, a motive; as "Truth"; as one who was born of one parent or no +parents; who lived, died, or never lived, never was born, and can not +die. + +Metaphysics is an attempt to explain a thing and thereby evade the +trouble of understanding it. You throw the burden of proof on the other +fellow--and make him believe he does not comprehend because he is too +stupid. This is not fair! + +Language is simply an agreement between people that certain vocal +sounds, or written symbols, shall stand for certain ideas, thoughts or +things. Inspired writers string intelligent words together in an +unintelligent manner, and thereby give the reader an opportunity to +read anything into them that his preconceived thoughts may dictate. +Metaphysical gibberish is a rudimentary survival of the practise of +reading to the people in a dead language. The doctors continue the plan +by writing prescriptions in Latin. + +I once worked in a studio where the boys scraped their palette-knives on +a convenient board. One day we took the board out and had it framed +under glass, with a double, deep-shadow box. We gave it the best place +in the studio and labeled it, "A Sunset at Sea--an Impression in +Monochrome." + +The picture attracted much attention and great admiration from certain +symbolists. It also created so much controversy that we were obliged to +take it down in the interests of amity. + +To assume that God inspired the Scriptures, and did the work so ill +that, after more than two thousand years, it was necessary to inspire +another person to make a "Key" to them, is hardly worthy of our serious +attention. If God, being all-wise, all-powerful and all-loving, turns +author, why does He produce work so muddy that it requires a "Key"? + +Individuals may use a code that requires a "Key," because they wish to +keep their matter secret from others. There may be for them a penalty on +truth, but why Deity should write in a secret language, and then wait +two thousand years before making the matter plain, and then to one +single woman in Boston, is incomprehensible. What the world wants now +is a Key to "Science and Health." In reading a book, the question that +interests us is not, "Is it inspired?" but, "Is it true?" + +Mrs. Eddy's ranks are recruited almost entirely from Orthodox +Christianity. On page six hundred eight of "Science and Health," pocket +edition of Nineteen Hundred Six, a lawyer gives testimony to the good he +has gotten from Christian Science, and explains that he has long been a +member of the Episcopal Church. He is delighted to know that he has not +had to relinquish any of his old faith, but has simply kept the old and +added to it the new. + +This explains, in great degree, the popularity of Christian Science. +People cling to the religious superstitions into which they were born. +Mrs. Eddy's recruits were not from theosophy, spiritualism, agnosticism, +unitarianism, universalism or infidelity. You can't give a freethinker a +book with a statement of what he must find in it. + +He has acquired the habit of thinking for himself. + +Mrs. Eddy had no faith in Darwin, Spencer or Haeckel. She quoted Moses, +Jesus and Paul to disprove the evolutionists, sat back and smiled +content, innocently unaware that citations from Scriptures are in no +sense proof to free minds. All of the Bible she wished to waive, she +did. The cruelty and bestiality of Jehovah were nothing to her. Her +"Key" does not unlock the secrets of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, nor +does it shed light on the doctrines of eternal punishment, the vicarious +atonement, or the efficacy of baptism as a saving ordinance. + +Explanations about mortal mind, divine mind and human mind, citing +specific errors of the human mind, with a calm codicil to the effect +that the human mind has no existence, are not what you might call +illuminating literature. The stuff is simply "inspired." Mrs. Eddy was +very wise in not allowing her "readers" or followers to sermonize or +explain her writings. These writings are simply to be read. And so the +hearers sit steeped in mist and wrapped in placidity, returning to their +work rested and refreshed, without being influenced in any way, save by +the soothing calm of forceful fog and mental vacuity. + +The rest and relief from all thought is good. The related experiences of +Christian Scientists are the things that convince and carry weight, not +"Science and Health." "Science and Health" was made to sell. It was not +given to you to be understood: it was to be bought and believed. If you +doubt any portion of it, at once you are told that this is the work of +your mortal mind, which is filled with error. Good Christian Scientists +do not try to understand "Science and Health"--they just accept and +believe it. "It is inspired," they say, "so it must be true--you will +know when you are worthy to know." + +And so we see our old friend Intellectual Tyranny come back in another +form, not with cowl and cape, but tricked out with feminine finery and +jewelry and gems that lure and dazzle. There is one thing quite as +valuable as health, and that is intellectual integrity. To say, "Oh, +'Science and Health' is certainly inspired--just see how old Mrs. +Johnson was cured of the rheumatism!" is not reasoning. + +And it has given the scoffers excuse for calling it woman's logic. Such +reasoning is on the plane of, "Why, Jesus must have been the only +begotten son of God, born of a virgin, for if you don't believe it, just +see the hospitals, orphan asylums and homes for the aged that +Christianity has built!" Mrs. Johnson was surely cured of the rheumatism +all right, but that does not prove that Mrs. Eddy is correct in her +claim that Eve was made from Adam's rib; that agamogenesis is a fact in +Nature; that to till the soil will not always be necessary; that human +life in these bodies will have no end; and that an absent person can +poison your health and happiness through malicious animal magnetism; or +that a good person can give you absent treatment and cure your +indigestion. + +I agree with Mrs. Eddy as to the necessity of eliminating a medical +fetish, but I disagree with her about religiously preserving a +theological one. I have read "Science and Health with Key to the +Scriptures" for twenty years, and I have also read the Scriptures for a +much longer period. Also, I have lived in the same house for many +months with very intelligent Christian Scientists. + +And after mature consideration I regard both the Scriptures and "Science +and Health" as largely made up of the errors of mortal mind. My +intuitions are just as valuable to me as Mrs. Eddy's were to her. + +My conscience is quite as sacred to me as hers was to her. And in being +an agnostic I object to being classed as blind, stubborn, wilful, +malicious and degenerate. + +We should honor our Creator by cleaving to the things that seem to us to +be true, and not abandon the rudder of our minds to any man or any +woman, be they living or dead. Let us not be dishonest with ourselves, +even to rid us of our physical diseases. As for health, I have all of it +that Christian Science ever gave or can give. I have no "testimony" of +healing to relate, for I have never been sick an hour. And I think I +know how I have kept well. I make no secret of it. It is all very +simple--nothing miraculous. + +My knowledge of how to keep well is not inspired knowledge, save as all +men are inspired who study and know the Laws of Nature. Health, after +all, is largely a matter of habit. + + * * * * * + +Back of the reading-desks, in the "Mother Church," at Boston, are +quotations from Paul and Mrs. Eddy, side by side. But the quotation from +Paul, which is behind the desk of the woman reader, is not this: "Let +women keep silence in the churches." + +Mrs. Eddy believed the Scriptures are all true, word for word. Yet when +she quoted Paul she picked the thing she wanted and avoided all that did +not apply to her case. Personally, I like the plan. I do it myself. But +I do not believe the Scriptures are inspired by an all-wise Deity. So +far as I know, all books were written by men, and very often by faulty, +human men at that. Mrs. Eddy's "Key" does not unlock anything; and she +did not try to unlock any passages except the passages that seemingly +had a bearing on her belief. That is, Mrs. Eddy believed things first, +and then skirmished for proof. This is a very old plan. Says +Shakespeare: "In religion what damned error but some somber brow will +bless it and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness thereof with +fair ornament." Let no one read "Science and Health" in the hope of +finding in it simple and sensible statements concerning life and its +duties. They are not there. + +I append a few quotations, and in mentioning the page I refer to the +pocket or "Oxford" edition of Nineteen Hundred Six. On page one hundred +eighty-three of "Science and Health" I find, "The Scriptures inform us +that sin, or error, first caused the condemnation of man to till the +ground, and indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity." + +Mrs. Eddy evidently believed that work is a punishment, and that the day +will come when God will remove the necessity of farming and making +garden. Can a sane person reply to such lack of logic? + +On page five hundred forty-seven is this: "If one of the statements in +this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from its +system and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of +healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct +interpretation of Scripture." + +This is evidently inspired by Paul's quibble, "If the dead rise not from +the grave, then is our religion vain." Lincoln once referred to this +kind of reasoning by saying, "I object to the assumption that my +ambition is to have my son marry a negress, simply because I am +struggling for emancipation." Mrs. Eddy may heal you, but that does not +prove that her interpretation of Scripture is true. Because this +happens, that does not necessarily follow. Neither, because a thing +precedes a thing or goes with a thing, is the thing the cause of the +thing. On page five hundred fifty-three is this: "Adam was created +before Eve. Herein it is seen that the maternal egg never brought forth +Adam. Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a fetal ovum." + +In reading things like this in "Science and Health," let us not be too +severe on Mrs. Eddy, but just bear in mind that such silly superstitions +and barbaric folklore are yet officially believed by all orthodox +clergymen and members of orthodox churches. You can accept a belief in +Adam's fall and the vicarious atonement and still make money and have +good health. + +Page one hundred two: "The mild forms of animal magnetism are +disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The +looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every +hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are its present +methods that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very +apathy on this subject which the criminal desires." + +This passage reveals the one actually dangerous thing in Christian +Science--the fallacy that one mind can weave a web that will work the +undoing of another. This is the basis of a belief in witchcraft, and +justifies the hangings at Salem. On page one hundred three I find this: +"As used in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the +specific term for error, or mortal mind." + +"It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and both evil and good; +that evil is as real as goodness, and more powerful. This belief has not +one quality of truth or good. It is either ignorant or malicious. The +malicious form of animal magnetism ultimates in moral idiocy. The +truths of immortal mind sustain man; and they annihilate the fables and +mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy pretensions, like silly moths, singe +their own wings and fall into dust. In reality there is no mortal mind, +and consequently no transference of mortal thought and will-power." Page +five hundred two: "Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the +history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This +deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves the spiritual actuality of +man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. When the crude forms of +human thought take on higher symbols and significations, the +scientifically Christian views of the universe will appear, illuminating +time with the glory of eternity." + +I append these two passages simply as samples of "inspired literature." + +Any one who tries to understand such printed matter is headed for +Bloomingdale. You must leave it alone absolutely or else accept it and +read it with your mental eyes closed, mumbling it with your lips, and +let your mind roam like a priest reading his breviary in the +smoking-apartment of a Pullman car. The question then arises, "Was Mrs. +Eddy sincere in putting forth such writings?" + +And the answer is, she was most certainly sincere, and she was certainly +sane. She was an honest woman. But she was not a clear or logical +thinker, except on matters of finance and business, and consequently she +did not give forth a clear expression when she essayed philosophy. In +order to write lucidly you must think lucidly. Mrs. Eddy had no sense of +literary values. She was absolutely devoid of humor, and humor is only +the ability to detect a little thing from a big one--to perceive a wrong +adjustment from a right one. + +Style in literature is taste. But the lack of style, taste and humor is +general in mankind. The world has produced only a few great thinkers, +and one of them was Darwin, a name which Mrs. Eddy mentioned in "Science +and Health" with reproach. Great writers are even more rare than great +thinkers, because to write one must have the ability not only to think +clearly, but the knack or technical skill to use the right word, the +luminous word, and so arrange, paragraph and punctuate them that your +meaning will be clear to average minds. To say that Mrs. Eddy was not a +thinker nor a writer, is not an indictment of the woman, although it may +be a reflection on the mental processes of the people who think she was. + +To say that there are two million people reading Mrs. Eddy, also proves +nothing, since numbers are no vindication. Over a hundred million people +have kissed the big toe of Saint Peter in Rome. + +And surely the Roman Catholic Church contains a vast number of highly +educated people. The things you do not know, you do not know. And Mrs. +Eddy, knowing nothing of literary style, knew nothing of literary art. +Her prose and her poetry are worse than ordinary. All inspirational +poetry I ever read is rot, and all inspired paintings I ever saw are +daubs. Mrs. Eddy should not be blamed for her limitations. + +Many people who are great in certain lines labor under the hallucination +that they are also great in others. Matthew Arnold was a great writer, +and he also thought he was a great orator. + +But when he spoke, his words simply fell over the footlights into the +orchestra and died there. He could not reach the front row. Most +comedians want to play Hamlet, and all of us have heard girls attempt to +sing who thought they could sing, and who were encouraged in the +hallucination by their immediate kinsfolk. + +Mrs. Eddy thought she could write, and unfortunately she was +corroborated in her error by the applause of people who, not being able +to read her book, kindly attributed the inability to their own +limitations and not to hers, being prompted in this by the suggestion +oft repeated by Mrs. Eddy, herself. The resemblance of Mrs. Eddy's +thought to that of Jesus was never noticed until Mrs. Eddy first +explained the matter. Mrs. Eddy was by no means insane. Swedenborg was a +civil engineer and a mathematician. He wrote forty books that are nearly +as opaque as "Science and Health." If you write stupidly enough, some +one will surely throw up his cap and cry "Great!" And others will follow +the example and take up the shout, because it is much easier, as Doctor +Johnson affirmed, to praise a book than to read and understand it. The +custom of reading to a congregation in a dead or foreign language, which +the listeners do not understand, has never caused any general protest +from the listeners. The scoffers are the only ones who have ever noticed +the incongruity, and they do not count, since they probably would not +attend, anyway. + +Next to reading from a book written in the dead language, is to read +from a book that is unintelligible. To listen to such makes no tax upon +the intellect, and with the right accessories is soporific, restful, +pleasing and to be commended. If it does not supply an idea, it at least +imparts a feeling. Mrs. Eddy's success in literature arose from the +extreme muddiness of her thinking and her opacity in expression. + +If she had written fairly well, her mediocrity would have been apparent +to every one; but writing absolutely without rhyme or reason, we bow +before her supreme assurance. The strongest element in men is +inertia--we agree rather than fight about it. We want health--and health +is what Mrs. Eddy gives to us--therefore, "Science and Health with Key +to the Scriptures" is the greatest book in the whole world. Sancta +simplicitas! Why not, indeed! + + * * * * * + +People turn to Mrs. Eddy's book for relief just exactly as they formerly +went to the doctor for the same reason. + +In addition to bodily health, Mrs. Eddy gives joy, hope, worldly +success; and even superior minds, seeing these practical results of +Christian Science, move in the line of least resistance and are quite +willing to accept the book, not troubled at all about its medieval +reasoning. In Ungania is a very great merchant who, not content with +having the biggest store in the Kingdom, aspires to the biggest +University. The fact that the higher criticism is to him only a trivial +matter, and really unworthy of the serious attention of a busy man, +simply reveals human limitation. + +The specialist is created at a terrific cost, and that a person will be +practical, shrewd, diplomatic and wise in managing the buying public and +an army of employees, and yet know and love Walt Whitman, is too much to +expect. This keen and successful merchant, an absolute tyrant in certain +ways, has his soft side and many pleasant qualities. Why any one should +ever question the literal truth of the Bible is beyond his +comprehension. + +He is convinced that "Leaves of Grass" is an obscene book, never having +read it; yet he knows nothing about the third, eleventh and thirteenth +chapters of Second Samuel, having read the Book all his life. He has a +pitying, patronizing smile for any one who suggests that David was a +very faulty man, and that possibly Solomon was not the wisest person +that ever lived. "What difference does it make, anyway?" he testily +asks. If you work for him you have to agree with him, or else be very +silent as to what you actually believe. We often find an avowed and +reiterated love for Jesus, the non-resistant, going hand in hand with a +passion for war, a miser's greed, a lust for power and a thirst for +revenge. + +There may be a prating about righteousness while the hand of the man is +feeling for his sword-hilt, and his eye is locating your jugular. The +Ten Commandments are all rescinded in war time. The New York "Evening +Post" noted the peculiar fact that nine out of ten of the delegates at +The Hague International Peace Conference were theological heretics. As a +rule, Orthodox Christians stand for war, and also for capital +punishment. How do we explain these inconsistencies? + +We do not try to: they are simply facts in the partial development of +the race. Why millionaires should patronize the memory of Jesus is +something no one can understand, save that things work by antithesis. +Mrs. Eddy was of the same shrewd, practical type as the merchant prince +just mentioned. She was the greatest woman-general of her day and +generation. She possessed all the qualities that go to make successful +leadership. + +She was self-reliant, proud, arrogant, implacable in temper, rapid in +decision, unbending, shrewd, diplomatic--and a good hater. + +At times she dismissed her critics with simply a look. No man could +dictate to her, and few dared make suggestions in her presence. To move +her, the matter had to be brought to her attention in a way that led her +to believe that she had discovered it herself. And of course all the +credit went to her. In all Christian Science churches are various +selections from her writings, and beneath every one is her name. "Thou +shalt have no other gods before me!" is the one controlling edict +breathed forth by her life and words. One of her orders was that +whenever one of her hymns was announced, always and forever it must be +stated that it was written by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. Always and forever, +the "student" giving testimony refers, in terms of lavish praise and +fulsome adulation, to "Our Blessed Teacher, Guide and Exemplar, Mary +Baker Eddy." God Almighty and Jesus occupy secondary positions in all +Christian Science meetings. + +Mrs. Eddy is mentioned five times to where they are once. And I would +not criticize this if Mrs. Eddy had but regarded Jesus as simply a great +man in history and "God" as an abstract term referring to the Supreme +Intelligence in Nature. But to her, God and Jesus were persons who +dictated books, and very frequently she was careful to explain that her +method of healing was exactly the same as that practised by Jesus. Side +by side with His words are hers. Passages from the Bible are read +alternately with passages from "Science and Health." If both were +regarded as mere literature, this would be pardonable, but when we are +told that both are "sacred" writ, and "damned be he who dares deny or +doubt," we are simply lost in admiration for the supreme egotism of the +lady. To get mad about it were vain--let us all smile. Surely the +imagination that can trace points of resemblance between Mrs. Mary Baker +Eddy and Jesus, the lowly peasant of Nazareth, is admirable. Jesus was a +communist in principle, having nothing, giving everything. He carried +neither scrip nor purse. He wrote nothing. His indifference to place, +pelf and power is His distinguishing characteristic. Mrs. Eddy's love of +power was the leading motive of her life; her ability to bargain was +beautiful; her resorts to law and the subtleties of legal aid were all +strictly modern; and the way she tied up the title to her writings by +lead-pipe-cinched copyrights reveals the true instincts of Connecticut. + +This jealousy of her rights and the safeguarding of her interests were +among the emphatic features of her life, and set her apart as the +antithesis of Jesus. + +There is one character in history, however, to whom Mrs. Eddy bore a +close resemblance--and that is Julius Cæsar, who was educated for the +priesthood, became a priest, and was Pope of Rome before he ventured +into fighting and politics as a business. Mrs. Eddy's faith in herself, +her ability to decide, her quick intuitions, the method and simplicity +of her life, her passion for power, her pleasure in authorship--all +these were the traits which exalted the name and fame of Cæsar. + +The inventor of the calendar ordered that it should be known as the +"Julian Calendar," and it is so called, even unto this day. Once Carlyle +sat smoking with Milburn, the blind preacher. They had been discussing +the historicity of Jesus. Then they sat smoking in silence. Finally, +Tammas the Techy knocked the ashes out of his long clay t. d. and +muttered, half to himself and half to Milburn, "Ah, a great mon, a great +mon--but he had his limitations!" The same remark can truthfully be +applied to Mrs. Eddy. And about the only point that Jesus and Mrs. Eddy +have in common is this matter mentioned by Carlyle. + +The superior shrewdness and the keen business instinct of Mrs. Eddy are +seen in the use of the words "Christian" and "Science." The sub-title, +"With Key to the Scriptures," is particularly alluring. And the use of +the Oxford binding was the crowning stroke of commercial insight. Surely +Mrs. Eddy must command our profound respect. She was undoubtedly a very +great business genius, to say the very least. + + * * * * * + +When John Henry Newman became a Catholic, he gave as a reason for his +decision that he had found no place in literature or art to rest his +head. His reward for not finding a place in literature or art for his +head was the red hat. + +Let the followers of Mrs. Eddy take comfort in that their great teacher +had plenty of high precedent for believing that Adam was created by +fiat, and Eve was made from his rib, all the fiat being used; that +Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and it obeyed, even when the +order should have been given to the earth; that Lazarus was raised from +the dead after his body had become putrid; that witchcraft is a fact in +Nature; and that children can be born with the aid of one parent a +little better than in the old-fashioned way--parthenogenesis, I think +they call it. + +These inconsistencies of absolute absurdity, existing side by side with +great competence and sanity, are to be found everywhere in history. + +Mrs. Eddy excited the envy of the medical world in her demonstration +that good health and happiness are the sure results of getting rid of +the doctor habit; but they got even with her when she said that virgin +motherhood would yet become the rule, and tilling of the soil would +cease to be a necessity. + +Saint Augustine thought, as did most of the early Churchmen, that to do +evil that good might follow was not only justifiable, but highly +meritorious. So they preached hagiology to scare people into the narrow +path of rectitude. + +Chapman, Alexander, Torrey, Billy Sunday and most other professional +evangelists believe in and practise the same doctrine. + +The literary conscience was a thing known in Greece, but only recently, +say within two hundred years, has it been again manifest, and as yet it +is rare. It consists in the scorn and absolute refusal to write a line +except that which stands for truth. + +The artistic conscience that refuses to paint for hire or model on order +is the same. Wagner, Millet, Rembrandt, William Morris and Ruskin are +examples of men who were incapable of anything but their highest and +best creative work, and refused to truckle to the mercenary horde. Such +men may be without conscience in a business way. And a person may be +absolutely moral in all his acts of life, except in writing and talking, +and here he may be slipshod and uncertain. + +Mrs. Eddy was beautifully lacking in the literary conscience, just as +much so as was Gladstone when he attempted to reply to Ingersoll in "The +North American Review," and resorted to sophistry and evasion in +lieu of logic. Absolute truth to Gladstone was a matter of +indifference--expediency was his shibboleth. Truth to Mrs. Eddy was also +a secondary matter; the only things that really mattered were Health and +Success. Health and Success are undoubtedly great things and well +worthy of possession, but I wish to secure them only through the +expression of truth. If you gag my tongue, chain my pen and cry, +"Believe and you will have Health," I would say, "Give me liberty or +give me death!" Christian Scientists ask you to buy Mrs. Eddy's book, +"Science and Health." + +When the volume is handed you, you are promised health and success if +you believe its every word; and if you don't, you are threatened with +"moral idiocy." + +It is the old promise of Paradise and the threat of Hell in a new guise. +As for me, I decline the book. + + * * * * * + +Stephen Girard was a great merchant who had a great love of truth; but +if he had been in a retail business, his zeal for truth might have been +slightly modified. + +As a rule, the world of humanity can be divided into two parts: the +practical men and the searchers for truth. Usually the latter have +nothing to lose but their head. Spinoza, Galileo, Bruno, Thomas Paine, +Walt Whitman, Henry Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, are the pure type. Then +come Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson, crowded out of their +pulpits, scorned by their Alma Mater, pitied by the public--yet holding +true to their course. + +And lo! they grew rich; whereas, if they had stuck close to the shore +and safety, they would have been drowned in the shallows of oblivion. + +On the other hand, we find in, say, the directorate of the Standard Oil +Company, many men who are zealous members of the orthodox churches, +giving large sums in support of the "gospel," and taking an active +interest in its promulgation. All of them say, with the late Mr. Morgan, +"My mother's religion is good enough for me." So here we get practical +shrewdness combined with minds that, so far as abstract truth is +concerned, are simply prairie-dog towns. + +These men belong to a type that will cling to error as long as it is +soft, easy and popular. Most certainly these men are not fools--they are +highly competent and useful in their way. But as for superstition, they +find it soothing; it saves the trouble of thinking, and all their +energies are needed in business. + +Religion, to them, is a social diversion, with a chance of salvation on +the side. Inertia does not grip them when it comes to commerce--but in +religion it does. Lincoln once said that there was just one thing, and +only one thing, that God Almighty could not understand: and that was the +workings of the mind of an intelligent American juror. + +Herbert Spencer says that Sir Isaac Newton was one of the six best +educated men the world has seen. He was the first man to resolve light +into its constituent elements. Voltaire says that when Newton discovered +the Law of Gravitation he excited the envy of the scientific world. + +"But," adds Voltaire, "when he wrote a book on the Bible prophecies, the +men of science got even with him." Sir Isaac Newton defended the literal +inspiration of the Scriptures and was a consistent member of the Church +of England. Doctor Johnson was unhappy all day if he didn't touch every +tenth picket of the fence with his cane as he walked downtown. + +Blackstone, the great legal commentator, believed in witchcraft, and +bolstered his belief by citing the Scriptural text, "Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live"--thus proving Moses a party to the superstition. +Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of England, did the same. + +Gladstone was a great statesman, and yet he believed in the Mosaic +account of Creation, just as did Mary Baker Eddy. + +John Adams was a rebel from political slavery, but lived and died a +worthy Churchman, subsisting on canned theology--and canned in England, +at that. + +Franklin and Jefferson were rebels from both political and theological +despotism, but looked leniently on leeches and apothecaries. Herbert +Spencer had a free mind as regards religion, politics, economics and +sociology; yet he was a bachelor, lived in the city, belonged to a club, +played billiards and smoked cigars. Physical health was out of his +reach, and with all his vast knowledge, he never knew why. All through +history we find violence and gentleness, ignorance and wisdom, folly and +shrewdness side by side in the same person. + +The one common thing in humanity is inconsistency. To account for it +were vain. We know only that it is. + + * * * * * + +The very boldness of Mrs. Eddy's claims created an impetus that carried +conviction. + +The woman certainly believed in herself, and she also believed in the +Power, of which she was a necessary part, that works for righteousness. +She repudiated the supernatural, not by denying "miracles," but by +holding that the so-called miracles of the Bible really occurred and +were perfectly natural--all according to Natural Law, which is the +Divine Law. + +And the explanation of this Divine Law was her particular business. Thus +did she win to her side those who were too timid in constitution to +forsake forms and ceremonies and stand alone on the broad ground of +Rationalism. + +Christian Science is not a religion of fight, stress and struggle. Isn't +it better to relax and rest and allow Divinity to flow through us, than +to sit on a sharp rail and call the passer-by names in falsetto? May +Irwin's motto, "Don't Argufy," isn't so bad as a working maxim, after +all. + +All Christian denominations are very much alike. Their differences are +microscopic, and recognized only by those who are immersed in them. +Martin Luther only softened the expression of the Roman Catholic +Church--he did not change its essence. + +Benjamin Franklin declared that he could not tell the difference between +a Catholic and an Episcopalian. But Christian Science is a complete +departure from all other denominations, and while professing to be +Christian, is really something else, or if it is Christian, then +orthodoxy is not. + +Christian Science strikes right at the root of orthodoxy, since it +divides the power of Jesus with Mary Baker Eddy and affirms that Jesus +was not "The Savior," but A Savior. + +This is the position of Thomas Paine, and all other good radicals. +Christian Science places Mrs. Eddy's work right alongside of the Bible. +No denomination has ever put out a volume stating that the book was +required in order to make the Bible intelligible. No denomination has +ever put forth a person as the equal of Jesus. This has only been done +by unbelievers, atheists and free-thinkers. + +Christianity is at last attacked in its own house and by its own +household. It is thoroughly understood and admitted everywhere that +there are two kinds of Christianity. One is the kind taught by the +Nazarene; and the other is the institutional variety, made up of +denominations which hold millions upon millions of dollars' worth of +property without taxation, and parade their ritual with rich and costly +millinery. + +The one was lived by a Man who had not where to lay His head; and the +other is an acquirement taken over from pagan Rome, and continued +largely in its pagan form even unto this day. Christian Science is +neither one nor the other, and the obvious pleasantry that it is +neither Christian nor scientific is a jest in earnest. Christian Science +is a modern adaptation of all that is best in the simplicity and +asceticism of Jesus, the commonsense philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, +the mysticism of Swedenborg, and the bold pronunciamento of Robert +Ingersoll. It is a religion of affirmation with a denial-of-matter +attachment. + +It is a religion of this world. Jesus was a Man of Sorrows but Mary +Baker Eddy was a Daughter of Joy. + +And as the universal good sense of mankind holds that the best +preparation for a life to come, if there is one, is to make the best of +this, Christian Science is meeting with a fast-growing popular +acceptance. + +The decline of the old orthodoxy is owing to its clinging to the fallacy +that the world's work is base, and Nature is a trickster luring us to +our doom. Mrs. Eddy reconciled the old idea with the new and made it +mentally palatable. And this is the reason why Christian Science is +going to sweep the earth and in twenty years will have but one +competitor, the Roman Catholic faith. + +Orthodoxy, blind, blundering, stubborn, senile, is tottering--the +undertaker is at the door. Indeed, the old idea of our orthodox friends +that they were preparing to die, was literally true. + +The undertaker's name and business address attached to the front of many +a city church is a sign too subtle to overlook. Not only was the +undertaker a partner of the priest, but he is now foreclosing his claim. +Christian Science is not final. After it has lived its day, another +religion will follow, and that is the Religion of Commonsense, the +esoteric religion which Mrs. Eddy herself lived and practised. + +As for her believers, she gave them the religion of a Book--two Books, +the Bible and "Science and Health." They want form and ritual and +temples. + +She gave them these things, just as doctors give sweetened water to +people who still demand medicine; and as if to supply the zealous +converts, just out of orthodoxy, their fill of ecclesiastic husks, she +built fine churches--churches rivaling the far-famed San Salute of +Venice. Let them have their wish! Paganism is in their blood--they are +even trying to worship her! + +Let them go on and eventually they will pray not in temples nor on this +or that mountain, but in spirit and in truth, just as did Mrs. Eddy, one +of the world's most successful women. + + * * * * * + +Christian Science is orthodox Christianity, minus medical fetish and the +fear that a belief in sin, sickness, death and eternal punishment +naturally lends, plus the joy of a natural, healthy, human life. The +so-called rational Christian sects preserve their Devil in the form of a +Doctor, and Hell in the shape of a Hospital. + +My hope and expectation is that Christian Science will become a Rational +Religion instead of a one-man institution, or a religion of authority, +such as it now is. Its superstitious features have doubtless been strong +factors in its rapid growth--serving as stays or stocks to aid in the +launching. + +But now, the sooner the ship floats free the better. Christian +Scientists, being men and women, can not continue to grow if fettered +with an Index Expurgatorius and mandatory edicts and encyclicals. That +which binds and manacles must go--the good will remain. + +Christian Science brings good news, and good news is always curative. +Mrs. Eddy animated her patients with a new thought--the thought of +harmony, the denial of disease, and the affirmation that God is good and +life is beautiful. The animation thus produced is in itself the most +powerful healing principle known to science. Life is born of love. Joy +is a prophylactic. Christian Science comes to the "student" as a great +flood of light. His circulation becomes normal, his muscles relax, the +nerves rest, digestion acts, elimination takes place--and the person is +well. + +Fear has congested the organs--love, hope and faith place them in an +attitude so Nature plays through them. The patient is healed. In it +there is neither mystery nor miracle. It is all very simple. + +Let us rid ourselves of a belief in the strange and occult! The +Christian Science organization is an expediency. It is an intellectual +crutch. The book is a necessity. It is a scaffolding. Yet he who +mistakes the scaffolding for the edifice is a specialist in scaffolding. + +Truth can never be caught and crystallized in a formula. Also this: +truth can never be monopolized by an "ite" or an "ist." Eventually the +label will be eliminated with the scaffolding, and the lumber of ritual +and rite will have to go. + +We will live truth instead of talking about it. Among Christian +Scientists there are no drunkards, paupers or gamblers. Also, there are +no sick people. To them sickness is a disgrace. + +Orthodox Christians get sick and gratify their sense of approbation by +receiving pastoral calls and visits from the doctor and neighbors. The +biblical injunction to visit the sick was never followed by Mrs. +Eddy--she always decided for herself just what injunctions should be +waived and what followed. + +Those which she did not like she interpreted spiritually or else glided +over. The biblical statement that man's days are few and full of +trouble, and also the assertion that man is prone to wickedness as the +sparks fly upwards, are both very conveniently glossed. + +Christian Scientists know the rules of health, just as most people do; +but what is more, they follow them, thus avoiding the disgrace of being +pointed out. They have made sickness not only tabu, but invalidism +ridiculous. + +When things become absurd and preposterous, we abandon them. +Unpopularity can do what logic is helpless to bring about. The reasoning +of Christian Scientists is bad, but their intuitions are right. + +While denying the existence of matter, no people on earth are as canny, +save possibly the Quakers. A bank-balance to a Christian Scientist is no +barren ideality. It is like falsehood to a Jesuit--a very present help +in time of trouble. Sin, to them, consists in making too much fuss about +life and talking about death. Do what you want and forget it. Quit +talking about the weather, night air, miasma. + +Knowingly or unknowingly Christian Scientists cultivate resiliency. They +are proof against drafts and microbes. Eat what you like, but not too +much of it. Be moderate. Christian Scientists get their joy out of their +work. This is essentially hygienic. They breathe deeply, eat moderately, +bathe plentifully, work industriously--and smile. This is all sternly +scientific. It can never be argued down. + +No school of medicine has ever offered a prophylactic equal to work and +good-cheer, and no system of religion has ever offered a working formula +for health, happiness and success equal to that launched by Mrs. Eddy. +The science of medicine is a science of palliation. + +Christian Scientists avoid the cause of sickness, and thus keep well. + +There is no vitality in drugs. Nature cures--obey her. In this matter of +bodily health just a few plain rules suffice. And these rules, fairly +followed, soon grow into a pleasurable habit. Fortunately, we do not +have to oversee our digestion, our circulation, the work of the millions +of pores that form the skin, or the action of the nerves. Folks who get +fussy about their digestion and assume personal charge of their nerves +have "nerves" and are apt to have no digestion. + +"I have a pain in my side," said the woman who had no money to the busy +doctor. "Forget it," was the curt advice. Get the Health Habit, and +forget it. + +This is the quintessence of Christian Science. Your mental attitude +controls your body. Happiness is your health. There is no devil but +fear. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. + + * * * * * + +SO HERE ENDETH "LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF GREAT TEACHERS," BEING +VOLUME TEN OF THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD; EDITED AND +ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; BORDERS AND INITIALS BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, AND +PRODUCED BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR SHOPS, WHICH ARE IN EAST AURORA, +ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, MCMXXII + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great +Teachers, by Elbert Hubbard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS *** + +***** This file should be named 18936-8.txt or 18936-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/3/18936/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers + +Author: Elbert Hubbard + +Release Date: July 29, 2006 [EBook #18936] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + + + <h1>Little<br /> + Journeys</h1> +<p><br /></p> + + <h2>To the Homes of Great Teachers</h2> +<p><br /></p> + + <h2>Elbert Hubbard</h2> + +<p><br /></p> + <h3>Memorial Edition</h3> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p class='center'>Printed and made into a Book by<br /> + The Roycrofters, who are in East<br /> + Huron, Erie County, New York<br /><br /> + + Wm. H. Wise & Co.<br /> + New York<br /><br /> + + + + Copyright, 1916,<br /> + By The Roycrofters</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="40%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MOSES">MOSES</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CONFUCIUS">CONFUCIUS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PYTHAGORAS">PYTHAGORAS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PLATO">PLATO</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#KING_ALFRED">KING ALFRED</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ERASMUS">ERASMUS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#BOOKER_T_WASHINGTON">BOOKER T. WASHINGTON</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THOMAS_ARNOLD">THOMAS ARNOLD</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FRIEDRICH_FROEBEL">FRIEDRICH FROEBEL</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HYPATIA">HYPATIA</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SAINT_BENEDICT">SAINT BENEDICT</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MARY_BAKER_EDDY">MARY BAKER EDDY</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + + + <h1>Little Journeys</h1> + <h2>To the Homes<br /> + of<br /> + Great Teachers</h2> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="MOSES" id="MOSES"></a>MOSES</h2> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img040.jpg" alt="MOSES" title="MOSES" /></div> + +<blockquote><p>And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou +say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God +said, moreover, unto Moses: Thus shalt thou say unto the children of +Israel, The Lord God of your Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of +Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name +forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><p>—<i>Exodus iii: 14, 15</i></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MOSES</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgm.jpg" alt="M" title="M" /></div><p>oses was the world's first great teacher. He is still one of the +world's great teachers. Seven million people yet look to his laws for +special daily guidance, and more than two hundred millions read his +books and regard them as Holy Writ. And these people as a class are of +the best and most enlightened who live now or who have ever lived.</p> + +<p>Moses did not teach of a life after this—he gives no hint of +immortality—all of his rewards and punishments refer to the present. If +there is a heaven for the good and a hell for the bad, he did not know +of them.</p> + +<p>The laws of Moses were designed for the Now and the Here. Many of them +ring true and correct even today, after all this interval of more than +three thousand years. Moses had a good knowledge of physiology, hygiene, +sanitation. He knew the advantages of cleanliness, order, harmony, +industry and good habits. He also knew psychology, or the science of the +mind: he knew the things that influence humanity, the limits of the +average intellect, the plans and methods of government that will work +and those which will not.</p> + +<p>He was practical. He did what was expedient. He considered the material +with which he had to deal, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> he did what he could and taught that +which his people would and could believe. The Book of Genesis was +plainly written for the child-mind.</p> + +<p>The problem that confronted Moses was one of practical politics, not a +question of philosophy or of absolute or final truth. The laws he put +forth were for the guidance of the people to whom he gave them, and his +precepts were such as they could assimilate.</p> + +<p>It were easy to take the writings of Moses as they have come down to us, +translated, re-translated, colored and tinted with the innocence, +ignorance and superstition of the nations who have kept them alive for +thirty-three centuries, and then compile a list of the mistakes of the +original writer. The writer of these records of dreams and hopes and +guesses, all cemented with stern commonsense, has our profound reverence +and regard. The "mistakes" lie in the minds of the people who, in the +face of the accumulated knowledge of the centuries, have persisted that +things once written were eternally sufficient.</p> + +<p>In point of time there is no teacher within many hundred years following +him who can be compared with him in originality and insight.</p> + +<p>Moses lived fourteen hundred years before Christ.</p> + +<p>The next man after him to devise a complete code of conduct was Solon, +who lived seven hundred years after. A little later came Zoroaster, then +Confucius, Buddha, Lao-tsze, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>—contemporaries, or closely following each other, their +philosophy woven and interwoven by all and each and each by all.</p> + +<p>Moses, however, stands out alone. That he did not know natural history +as did Aristotle, who lived a thousand years later, is not to his +discredit, and to emphasize the fact were irrelevant.</p> + +<p>Back of it all lies the undisputed fact that Moses led a barbaric people +out of captivity and so impressed his ideals and personality upon them +that they endure as a distinct and peculiar people, even unto this day. +He founded a nation. And chronologically he is the civilized world's +first author.</p> + +<p>Moses was a soldier, a diplomat, an executive, a writer, a teacher, a +leader, a prophet, a stonecutter. Beside all these he was a farmer—a +workingman, one who when forty years of age tended flocks and herds for +a livelihood. Every phase of the outdoor life of the range was familiar +to him. And the greatness of the man is revealed in the fact that his +plans and aspirations were so far beyond his achievements that at last +he thought he had failed. Exultant success seems to go with that which +is cheap and transient. All great teachers have, in their own minds, +been failures—they saw so much further than they were able to travel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p>ll ancient chronology falls easily into three general divisions: the +fabulous, the legendary, and the probable or natural.</p> + +<p>In the understanding of history, psychology is quite as necessary as +philology.</p> + +<p>To reject anything that has a flaw in it is quite as bad as to have that +excess of credulity which swallows everything presented.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to throw away the fabulous nor deny the legendary. +But it is certainly not wise to construe the fabulous as the actual and +maintain the legendary as literally true. Things may be true +allegorically and false literally, and to be able to distinguish the one +from the other, and prize each in its proper place, is the mark of +wisdom.</p> + +<p>If, however, we were asked to describe the man Moses to a jury of sane, +sensible, intelligent and unprejudiced men and women, and show why he is +worthy of the remembrance of mankind, we would have to eliminate the +fabulous, carefully weigh the traditional, and rest our argument upon +records that are fair, sensible and reasonably free from dispute.</p> + +<p>The conclusions of professional retainers, committed before they begin +their so-called investigations to a literal belief in the fabulous, +should be accepted with great caution. For them to come to conclusions +outside of that which they have been taught, is not only to forfeit +their social position, but to lose their actual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> means of livelihood. +Perhaps the truth in the final summing up can best be gotten from those +who have made no vows that they will not change their opinions, and have +nothing to lose if they fail occasionally to gibe with the popular.</p> + +<p>On a certain occasion after Colonel Ingersoll had delivered his famous +lecture entitled, "Some Mistakes of Moses," he was entertained by a +local club. At the meeting, which was of the usual informal kind known +as "A Dutch Feed," a young lawyer made bold to address the great orator +thus: "Colonel Ingersoll, you are a lover of freedom—with you the word +liberty looms large. All great men love liberty, and no man lives in +history, respected and revered, save as he has sought to make men free. +Moses was a lover of liberty. Now, wouldn't it be gracious and generous +in you to give Moses, who in some ways was in the same business as +yourself, due credit as a liberator and law-giver and not emphasize his +mistakes to the total exclusion of his virtues?"</p> + +<p>Colonel Ingersoll listened—he was impressed by the fairness of the +question. He listened, paused and replied: "Young man, you have asked a +reasonable question, and all you suggest about the greatness of Moses, +in spite of his mistakes, is well taken. The trouble in your logic lies +in the fact that you do not understand my status in this case. You seem +to forget that I am not the attorney for Moses. He has more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> than two +million men looking after his interests. I am retained on the other +side!"</p> + +<p>Like unto Colonel Ingersoll, I am not an attorney for Moses. I desire, +however, to give a fair, clear and judicial account of the man. I will +attempt to present a brief for the people, and neither prosecute nor +defend. I will simply try to picture the man as he once existed, nothing +extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice. As the original office of +the State's Attorney was rather to protect the person at the bar than to +indict him, so will I try to bring out the best in Moses, rather than +hold up his mistakes and raise a laugh by revealing his ignorance. +Modesty, which is often egotism turned wrong side out, might here say, +"Oh, Moses requires no defense at this late day!" But Moses, like all +great men, has suffered at the hands of his friends. To this man has +been attributed powers which no human being ever possessed.</p> + +<p>Moses lived thirty-three hundred years ago. In one sense thirty-three +centuries is a very long time. All is comparative—children regard a man +of fifty as "awful old." I have seen several persons who have lived a +hundred years, and they didn't consider a century long, "and thirty-five +isn't anything," said one of them to me.</p> + +<p>Geologically, thirty-three centuries is only an hour ago. It does not +nearly take us back to the time when men of the Stone Age hunted the +hairy mammoth in what is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> now Nebraska, nor does thirty-three centuries +give us any glimpse of the time when tropical animals, plants and +probably men lived and flourished at the North Pole.</p> + +<p>Egyptian civilization, at the time of Moses, was more than three +thousand years old. Egypt was then in the first stage of senility, +entering upon her decline, for her best people had settled in the +cities, and this completes the cycle and spells deterioration. She had +passed through the savage, barbaric, nomadic and agricultural stages and +was living on her unearned increment, a part of which was Israelitish +labor. Moses looked at the Pyramids, which were built more than a +thousand years before his birth, and asked in wonder about who built +them, very much as we do today. He listened for the Sphinx to answer, +but she was silent, then as now. The date of the exodus has been fixed +as having probably occurred during the reign of the Great Pharaoh, +Mineptah, or the nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty. The date is, say, fourteen +hundred years before Christ. An inscription has recently been found +which seems to show that Joseph settled in Egypt during the reign of +Mineptah, but the best scholars now have gone back to the conclusions I +have stated.</p> + +<p>At the time of the Pharaohs, Egypt was the highest civilized country on +earth. It had a vast system of canals, an organized army, a goodly +degree of art, and there were engineers and builders of much ability.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +Philosophy, poetry and ethics were recognized, prized and discussed.</p> + +<p>The storage of grain by the government to bank against famine had been +practised for several hundred years. There were also treasure-cities +built to guard against fire, thieves or destruction by the elements. It +will thus be seen that foresight, thrift, caution, wisdom, played their +parts. The Egyptians were not savages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p>bout five hundred years before the birth of Moses there lived in Arabia +a powerful Sheik or Chief, known as Abraham. This man had a familiar +spirit, or guide, or guardian-angel known as Yaveh or Jehovah. All of +the desert tribes had such tutelary gods; and all of these gods were +once men of power who lived on earth. The belief in special gods has +often been held by very great men: Socrates looked to his "demon" for +guidance; Themistocles consulted his oracle; a President of the United +States visited a clairvoyant, who consented to act as a medium and +interpret the supernatural. This idea, which is a variant of ancestor +worship, still survives, and very many good people do not take journeys +or make investments until they believe they are being dictated to by +Shakespeare, Emerson, Beecher or Phillips Brooks. These people also +believe that there are bad spirits to which we must not harken.</p> + +<p>Abraham was led by Jehovah; what Jehovah told him to do he did; when +Jehovah told him to desist or change his plans, he obeyed. Jehovah +promised him many things, and some of these promises were fulfilled.</p> + +<p>Whether these tutelary gods or controlling spirits had any actual +existence outside of the imagination of the people who believed in +them—whether they were merely pictures thrown upon the screen by a +subconscious spiritual stereopticon—is not the question now under +discussion. Something must be left for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> later time: the fact remains +that special providences are yet relied upon by sincere and intelligent +people.</p> + +<p>Abraham had a son named Isaac. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, or +Israel, "the Soldier of God," so called on account of his successful +wrestling with the angel. And Jacob was the father of twelve sons. All +of these people believed in Jehovah, the god of their tribe; and while +they did not disbelieve in the gods of the neighboring tribes, they yet +doubted their power and had grave misgivings as to their honesty. +Therefore, they had nothing to do with them, praying to their own god +only and looking to him for support. They were the chosen people of +Jehovah, just as the Babylonians were the chosen people of Baal; the +Canaanites the chosen people of Ishitar; the Moabites the chosen people +of Chemos; the Ammonites the chosen people of Rimmon.</p> + +<p>Now Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, and his brethren were +naturally jealous of him. So one day out on the range they sold him into +slavery to a passing caravan, and went home and told their father the +boy was dead, having been killed by a wild beast. To make the matter +plausible they took the coat of Joseph and smeared it with the blood of +a goat which they had killed. Nowadays, the coat would have been sent to +a chemist's laboratory and the blood-spots tested to see whether it was +the blood of beast or human. But Jacob believed the story and mourned +his son as dead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now Joseph was taken to Egypt and there arose to a position of influence +and power through his intelligence and diligence. How eventually his +brethren, starving, came to him for food, there being a famine in their +own land, is one of the most natural and beautiful stories in all +literature. It is a folklore legend, free from the fabulous, and has all +the corroborating marks of the actual.</p> + +<p>For us it is history undisputed, unrefuted, because it is so natural. It +could all easily happen in various parts of the world even now. It shows +the identical traits of human nature that are alive and pulsing today.</p> + +<p>Joseph having made himself known to his brethren induced some of them +and their neighbors to come down into Egypt, where the pasturage was +better and the water more sure, and settle there. The Bible tells us +that there were seventy of these settlers and gives us their names.</p> + +<p>These emigrants, called Israelites, or Children of Israel, account for +the presence of the enslaved people whom Moses led out of captivity +three hundred years later.</p> + +<p>One thing seems quite sure, and that is that they were a peculiar people +then, with the pride of the desert in their veins, for they stood +socially aloof and did not mix with the Egyptians. They still had their +own god and clung to their own ways and customs.</p> + +<p>That very naive account in the first chapter of Exodus of how they had +two midwives, "and the name of one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> was Shiphrah and the other Puah," is +as fine in its elusive exactitude as an Uncle Remus story. Children +always want to know the names of people. These two Hebrew midwives were +bribed by the King of Egypt—ruler over twenty million people—in +person, to kill all the Hebrew boy babies. Then the account states that +Jehovah was pleased with these Hebrew women who proved false to their +master, and Jehovah rewarded them by giving them houses.</p> + +<p>This order to kill the Hebrew children must have gone into execution, if +at all, about the time of the birth of Moses, because Aaron, the brother +of Moses, and three years older, certainly was not killed.</p> + +<p>Whether Moses was the son of Pharaoh's daughter, his father an +Israelite, or both of his parents were Israelites, is problematic. Royal +families are not apt to adopt an unknown waif into the royal household +and bring him up as their royal own, especially if this waif belongs to +what is regarded as an inferior race. The tie of motherhood is the only +one that could over-rule caste and override prejudice. If the daughter +of Pharaoh, or more properly "the Pharaoh," were the mother of Moses, +she had a better reason for hiding him in the bulrushes than did the +daughter of a Levite, for the order to kill these profitable workers is +extremely doubtful. The strength, skill and ability of the Israelites +formed a valuable acquisition to the Egyptians, and what they wanted was +more Israelites, not fewer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>Judging from the statement that there were only two midwives, there were +only a few hundred Israelites—perhaps between one and two thousand, at +most.</p> + +<p>So leaving the legend of the childhood of Moses with just enough mystery +mixed in it to give it a perpetual piquancy, we learn that he was +brought up an Egyptian, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and that it +was she who gave him his name.</p> + +<p>Philo and Josephus give various sidelights on the life and character of +Moses. The Midrash or Commentaries on the History of the Jews, composed, +added to or modified by many men, extending over a period of twenty +centuries, also add their weight, even though the value of these +Commentaries is conjectural.</p> + +<p>Egyptian accounts of Moses and the Israelites come to us through +Hellenic sources, and very naturally are not complimentary. These +picture Moses, or Osarsiph, as they call him, as an agitator, an +undesirable citizen, who sought to overturn the government, and failing +in this, fled to the desert with a few hundred outlaws. They managed to +hold out against the forces sent to capture them, were gradually added +to by other refugees, and through the organizing genius of Moses were +rounded into a strong tribe.</p> + +<p>That Moses was their supreme ruler, and that to better hold his people +in check he devised a religious ritual for them, and impressed his god, +Jehovah, upon them, almost to the exclusion of all other gods, and thus +formed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> them into a religious whole, is beyond question. No matter what +the cause of the uprising, or who was to blame for it, the fact is +undisputed that Moses led a revolt in Egypt, and the people he carried +with him in this exodus formed the nucleus of the Hebrew Nation. And +further, the fact is beyond dispute that the personality of Moses was +the prime cementing factor in the making of the nation. The power, +poise, patience and unwavering self-reliance of the man, through his +faith in the god Jehovah, are all beyond dispute. Things happen because +the man makes them happen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he position of the Israelites in Egypt was one of voluntary vassalage. +The government was a feudal monarchy. The Israelites had come into Egypt +of their own accord, but had never been admitted into the full rights of +citizenship. This exclusion by the Egyptians had no doubt tended to fix +the Children of Israel in their religious beliefs, and on the other +hand, their proud and exclusive nature had tended to keep them from a +full fellowship with the actual owners of the land.</p> + +<p>The Egyptians never attempted to traffic in them as they did in slaves +of war, being quite content to use them as clerks, laborers and +servants, paying them a certain wage, and also demanding an excess of +labor in lieu of taxation. In other words, they worked out their +"road-tax," which no doubt was excessive. Many years later, Athens and +also Rome had similar "slaves," some of whom were men of great intellect +and worth. If one reads the works of modern economic prophets, it will +be seen that wage-workers in America are often referred to as "slaves" +or "bondmen," terms which will probably give rise to confusion among +historians to come.</p> + +<p>Moses was brought up in the court of the king, and became versed in all +the lore of the Egyptians. We are led to suppose that he also looked +like an Egyptian, as we are told that people seeing him for the first +time, he being a stranger to them, went away and referred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> to him as +"that Egyptian." He was handsome, commanding, silent by habit and slow +of speech, strong as a counselor, a safe man. That he was a most +valuable man in the conduct of Egyptian official affairs, there is no +doubt. And although he was nominally an Egyptian, living with the +Egyptians, adopting their manners and customs, yet his heart was with +"his brethren," the Israelites, who he saw were sore oppressed through +governmental exploitation.</p> + +<p>Moses knew that a government which does not exist for the purpose of +adding to human happiness has no excuse for being. And once when he was +down among his own people he saw an Egyptian taskmaster or foreman +striking an Israelitish workman, and in wrath he arose and killed the +oppressor. The only persons who were witnesses to this affair were two +Hebrews. The second day after the fight, when Moses was attempting to +separate two Hebrews who had gotten into an altercation with each other, +they taunted him by saying, "Who gavest thee to be a ruler over +us?—wilt thou also kill us as thou didst the Egyptian?"</p> + +<p>This gives us a little light upon the quality and character of the +people with whom Moses had to deal. It also shows that the ways of the +reformer and peacemaker are not flower-strewn. The worst enemies of a +reformer are not the Egyptians—he has also to deal with the Israelites.</p> + +<p>I once heard Terence V. Powderly, who organized the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> Knights of +Labor—the most successful labor organization ever formed—say, "Any man +who devotes his life to helping laboring men will be destroyed by them." +And then he added, "But this should not deter us from the effort to +benefit."</p> + +<p>As the Hebrew account plainly states that the killing of all the male +Hebrew children was carried out with the connivance of Hebrew women who +pretended to be ministering to the Hebrew mothers, so was the flight of +Moses from Egypt caused by the Hebrews, who turned informants and +brought him into disgrace with Pharaoh, who sought his life.</p> + +<p>Very naturally, the Egyptians deny and have always denied that the order +to kill children was ever issued by a Pharaoh. They also point to the +fact that the Israelites were a source of profit—a valuable asset to +the Egyptians. And moreover, the proposition that the Egyptians killed +the children to avoid trouble is preposterous, since no possible act +that man can commit would so arouse sudden rebellion and fan into flame +the embers of hate as the murder of the young. If the Egyptians had +attempted to carry out any such savage cruelty, they would not only have +had to fight the Israelitish men, but the outraged mothers as well. The +Egyptians were far too wise to invite the fury of frenzied motherhood. +To have done this would have destroyed the efficiency of the entire +Hebrew population. An outraged and heartbroken people do not work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>When one person becomes angry with another, his mental processes work +overtime making up a list of the other's faults and failings.</p> + +<p>When a people arise in revolt they straightway prepare an indictment +against the government against which they revolted, giving a schedule of +outrages, insults, plunderings and oppressions. This is what is politely +called partisan history. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a literary indictment +of the South by featuring its supposed brutalities. And the attitude of +the South is mirrored in a pretty parable concerning a Southern girl who +came North on a visit, and seeing in print the words "damned Yankee," +innocently remarked that she always thought they were one word. A +description of the enemy, made by a person or a people, must be taken +cum grano Syracuse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgw.jpg" alt="W" title="W" /></div><p>hen Moses fled, after killing the Egyptian, he went northward and east +into the land of the Midianites, who were also descendants of Abraham. +At this time he was forty years of age, and still unmarried, his work in +the Egyptian Court having evidently fully absorbed his time.</p> + +<p>It is a pretty little romance, all too brief in its details, of how the +tired man stopped at a well, and the seven daughters of Jethro came to +draw water for their flocks. Certain shepherds came also and drove the +girls away, when Moses, true to his nature, took the part of the young +ladies, to the chagrin and embarrassment of the male rustics who had +left their manners at home. The story forms a melodramatic stage-setting +which the mummers have not been slow to use, representing the seven +daughters as a ballet, the shepherds as a male chorus, and Moses as +basso-profundo and hero. We are told that the girls went home and told +their father of the chivalrous stranger they had met, and he, with all +the deference of the desert, sent for him "that he might eat bread."</p> + +<p>Very naturally Moses married one of the girls.</p> + +<p>And Moses tended the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law, taking the +herds a long distance, living with them and sleeping out under the +stars.</p> + +<p>Now Jethro was the chief of his tribe. Moses calls him a "priest," but +he was a priest only incidentally, as all the Arab chiefs were.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>The clergy originated in Egypt. Before the Israelites were in Goshen, +the "sacra," or sacred utensils, belonged to the family; and the head of +the tribe performed the religious rites, propitiating the family deity, +or else delegated some one else to do so. This head of the tribe, or +chief, was called a "Cohen"; and the man who assisted him, or whom he +delegated, was called a "Levi." The plan of making a business of being a +"Levi" was borrowed from the Egyptians, who had men set apart, +exclusively, to deal in the mysterious. Moses calls himself a Levi, or +Levite.</p> + +<p>After the busy life he had led, Moses could not settle down to the +monotonous existence of a shepherd. It is probable that then he wrote +the Book of Job, the world's first drama and the oldest book of the +Bible. Moses was full of plans. Very naturally he prayed to the +Israelitish god, and the god harkened unto his prayer and talked to him.</p> + +<p>The silence, the loneliness, the majesty of the mountains, the great +stretches of shining sand, the long peaceful nights, all tend to +hallucinations. Sheepmen are in constant danger of mental aberration. +Society is needed quite as much as solitude.</p> + +<p>From talking with God, Moses desired to see Him. One day, from the +burning red of an acacia-tree, the Lord called to him, "Moses, Moses!"</p> + +<p>And Moses answered, "Here am I!"</p> + +<p>Moses was a man born to rule—he was a leader of men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>—and here at +middle life the habits of twenty-five years were suddenly snapped and +his occupation gone. He yearned for his people, and knowing their +unhappy lot, his desire was to lead them out of captivity. He knew the +wrongs the Egyptian government was visiting upon the Israelites. Rameses +the Second was a ruler with the builder's eczema: always and forever he +made gardens, dug canals, paved roadways, constructed model tenements, +planned palaces, erected colossi. He was a worker, and he made everybody +else work. It was in this management of infinite detail that Moses had +been engaged; and while he entered into it with zest, he knew that the +hustling habit can be overdone and its votaries may become its +victims—not only that, but this strenuous life may turn freemen into +serfs, and serfs into slaves.</p> + +<p>And now Rameses was dead, and the proud, vain, fretful and selfish +Mineptah ruled in his place. It was worse with the Israelites than ever!</p> + +<p>The more Moses thought of it the more he was convinced that it was his +duty to go back to Egypt and lead his people out of bondage. He himself, +having been driven out, made the matter a burning one with him: he had +lost his place in the Egyptian Court, but he would get it back and hold +it under better conditions than ever before!</p> + +<p>He heard the "Voice"! All strong people hear the Voice calling them. And +harkening to the Inner Voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> is simply doing what you want to do.</p> + +<p>"Moses, Moses!"</p> + +<p>And Moses answered, "Lord, here am I."</p> + +<p>The laws of Moses still influence the world, but not even the orthodox +Jews follow them literally. We bring our reason to bear upon the +precepts of Moses, and those which are not for us we gently pass over. +In fact, the civil laws of most countries prohibit many of the things +which Moses commanded. For instance, the eighteenth verse of the +twenty-second chapter of Exodus says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to +live." Certainly no Jewish lawyer nor Rabbi, in any part of the world, +advocates the killing of persons supposed to be witches. We explain that +in this instance the inspired writer lapsed and merely mirrored the +ignorance of his time. Or else we fall back upon the undoubted fact that +various writers and translators have tampered with the original +text—this must be so, since the book written by Moses makes record of +his death.</p> + +<p>But when we find passages in Moses requiring us to benefit our enemies, +we say with truth that this was the first literature to express for us +the brotherhood of man.</p> + +<p>"Thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth +the words of the righteous." Here we get Twentieth-Century Wisdom. And +very many passages as fine and true can be found, which prove for us +beyond cavil that Moses was right a part of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> time, and to say this +of any man, living or dead, is a very great compliment.</p> + +<p>In times of doubt the Jewish people turn to the Torah, or Book of the +Law. This book has been interpreted by the Rabbis, or the learned men, +and to meet the exigencies of living under many conditions, it has been +changed, enlarged and augmented. In these changes the people were not +consulted. Very naturally it was done secretly, for inspired men must be +well dead before the many accept their edict. To be alive is always more +or less of an offense, especially if you be a person and not a +personage.</p> + +<p>The murmurings against Moses during his lifetime often broke into a +rumble and a roar. The mob accused him of taking them out into the +wilderness to perish. To get away from the constant bickering and +criticisms of the little minds, Moses used to go up into the mountains +alone to find rest, and there he communicated with his god. It was +surely a great step in advance when all the Elohims were combined into +one Supreme Elohim that was everywhere present and ruled the world. +Instead of dozens of little gods, jealous, jangling, fearful, fretful, +fussy, boastful, changing walking-sticks to serpents, or doing other +things quite as useless, it was a great advance to have one Supreme +Being, dispassionate, a God of Love and Justice, "with whom can be no +variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." This gradual +ennobling of the conception of Divinity reveals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> the extent to which man +is ennobling his own nature.</p> + +<p>Up to within a very few years God had a rival in the Devil, but now the +Devil lives only as a pleasantry. Until the time of Moses, the God of +Sinai was only the God of the Hebrew people, and this accounts for His +violence, wrath, jealousy, and all of those qualities which went to make +up a barbaric chief, including the tendency of His sons and servants to +make love to the daughters of earth.</p> + +<p>It is probable that the idea of God—in opposition to a god, one of many +gods—was a thought that grew up very gradually in the mind of Moses. +The ideal grew, and Moses grew with the ideal.</p> + +<p>Then from God being a Spirit, to being Spirit, is a natural, easy and +beautiful evolution.</p> + +<p>The thought of angels, devils, heavenly messengers, like Gabriel and the +Holy Ghost, constantly surrounding the Throne, is a suggestion that +comes from the court of the absolute monarch. The Trinity is the +oligarchy refined, and the one son who gives himself as a sacrifice for +all the people who have offended the monarch is the retreating vision of +that night of ignorance when all nations sought to appease the wrath of +their god by the death of human beings.</p> + +<p>God to us is Spirit, realized everywhere in unfolding Nature. We are a +part of Nature—we, too, are Spirit. When Moses commands his people that +they must return the stray animal of their enemy to its rightful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> owner, +we behold a great man struggling to benefit humanity by making them +recognize the laws of Spirit. We are all one family—we can not afford +to wrong or harm even an enemy.</p> + +<p>Instead of thousands of warring, jarring families or tribes, we have now +a few strong federations of States, or countries, which, if they would +make war on one another, would today quickly face a larger foe. Already +the idea of one government for all the world is taking form—there must +be one Supreme Arbiter, and all this monstrous expense of money and +flesh and blood and throbbing hearts for purposes of war, must go, just +as we have sent to limbo the jangling, jarring, jealous gods. Also, the +better sentiment of the world will send the czars, emperors, kings, +grand dukes, and the greedy grafters of so-called democracy, into the +dust-heap of oblivion, with all the priestly phantoms that have obscured +the sun and blackened the sky. The gods have gone, but MAN IS HERE.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he plagues that befell the Egyptians were the natural ones to which +Egypt was liable: drought, flood, flies, lice, frogs, disease. The +Israelites very naturally declared that these things were sent as a +punishment by the Israelitish god. I remember a farmer, in my childhood +days, who was accounted by his neighbors as an infidel. He was struck by +lightning and instantly killed, while standing in his doorway. The +Sunday before, this man had worked in the fields, and just before he was +killed he had said, "dammit," or something quite as bad. Our preacher +explained at length that this man's death was a "judgment." Afterward, +when our church was struck by lightning, it was regarded as an accident.</p> + +<p>Ignorant and superstitious people always attribute special things to +special causes. When the grasshoppers overran Kansas in Eighteen Hundred +Eighty-five, I heard a good man from the South say it was a punishment +on the Kansans for encouraging Old John Brown. The next year the +boll-weevil ruined the cotton crop, and certain preachers in the North, +who thought they knew, declared it was the lingering wrath of God on +account of slavery.</p> + +<p>Three nations unite to form our present civilization. These are the +Greek, the Roman and the Judaic. The lives of Perseus, Romulus and Moses +all teem with the miraculous, but if we accept the supernatural in one +we must in all. Which of these three great nations has contributed most +to our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> well-being is a question largely decided by temperament; but +just now the star of Greece seems to be in the ascendant. We look to art +for solace. Greece stands for art; Rome for conquest; Judea for +religion.</p> + +<p>And yet Moses was a lover of beauty, and the hold he had upon his people +was quite as much through training them to work as through his moral +teaching. Indeed, his morality was expediency—which is reason enough +according to modern science. When he wants them to work, he says, "Thus +saith the Lord," just the same as when he wishes to impress upon them a +thought.</p> + +<p>No one can read the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth +chapters of Exodus without being impressed with the fact that the man +who wrote them had in him the spirit of the Master Workman—a King's +Craftsman. His carving the ten commandments on tablets of stone also +shows his skill with mallet and chisel, a talent he had acquired in +Egypt, where Rameses the Second had thousands of men engaged in +sculpture and in making inscriptions in stone.</p> + +<p>Several chapters in Exodus might have been penned by Albrecht Durer or +William Morris. The commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any +graven image," was unmistakably made merely to correct a local evil: the +tendency to worship the image instead of the thing it symbolized. People +who do not contribute to the creation of an object fall easy victims to +this error. With all the stern good sense that Moses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> revealed, it is +but fair to assume that he did not mean the command to be perpetual. It +was only through so much moving about that the Jews seemed to lose their +art spirit.</p> + +<p>And certainly the flame of art in the Jewish heart has never died out, +even though at times it has smoldered, for wherever there has been peace +and security for the Jews, they have not been slow to evolve the talent +which creates. History teems with the names of Jews who, in music, +painting, poetry and sculpture, have devoted their days to beauty. And +the germ of genius is seen in many of the Jewish children who attend the +manual-training and art schools of America.</p> + +<p>Art has its rise in the sense of sublimity. It seems at times to be a +fulfilment of the religious impulse. The religion which balks at work, +stopping at prayer and contemplation, is a form of arrested development.</p> + +<p>The number of people in the exodus was probably two or three thousand. +Renan says that one century only elapsed between the advent of Joseph +into Egypt and the revolt. Very certain it was not a great number that +went forth into the desert. A half-million women could not have borrowed +jewelry of their neighbors—the secret could not have been kept. And in +the negotiations between Moses and the King, it will be remembered that +Moses asked only for the privilege of going three days' journey into the +wilderness to make sacrifices. It was a kind of picnic or religious +campmeeting. A vast multitude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> could not have taken part in any such +exercise. We also hear of their singing their gratitude on account of +reaching Elim, where there were "twelve springs and seventy palm-trees." +Had there been several million people, as we have been told, the +insignificant shade of seventy trees would have meant nothing to them.</p> + +<p>The distance from Goshen in Egypt to Canaan in Palestine was about one +hundred seventy-five miles. But by the circuitous route they traveled it +was nearly a thousand miles. It took forty years to make the passage, +for the way had to be fought through the country of foes who very +naturally sought to block the way. Quick transportation was out of the +question. The rate of speed was about twenty-five miles a year.</p> + +<p>Here was a people without homes, or fixed habitation, beset on every +side with the natural dangers of the desert, and compelled to face the +fury of the inhabitants whose lands they overran, fearful, +superstitious, haunted by hunger, danger and doubt. By night a man sent +ahead with a lantern on a pole led the way; by day a cavalcade that +raised a cloud of dust. One was later sung by the poets as a pillar of +fire, and the other a cloud. Chance flocks of quail blown by a storm +into their midst were regarded as a miracle; the white exuding wax of +the manna-plant was told of as "bread"—or more literally food.</p> + +<p>Those who had taken part in the original exodus were nearly all +dead—their children and grandchildren<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> survived, desert born and savage +bred. Canaan was not the land flowing with milk and honey that had been +described. Milk and honey are the results of labor applied to land. +Moses knew this and tried to teach this great truth. He was true to his +divine trust. Through doubt, hardship, poverty, misunderstanding, he +held high the ideal—they were going to a better place.</p> + +<p>At last, worn by his constant struggle, aged one hundred twenty, "his +eye not dim nor his natural force abated"—for only those live long who +live well—Moses went up into the mountain to find solace in solitude as +was his custom. His people waited for him in vain—he did not return. +Alone there with his God he slept and forgot to awaken. His pilgrimage +was done. "And no man knoweth his grave even unto this day."</p> + +<p>History is very seldom recorded on the spot—certainly it was not then. +Centuries followed before fact, tradition, song, legend and folklore +were fused into the form we call Scripture. But out of the fog and mist +of that far-off past there looms in heroic outline the form and features +of a man—a man of will, untiring activity, great hope, deep love, a +faith which at times faltered, but which never died. Moses was the first +man in history who fought for human rights and sought to make men free, +even from their own limitations. "And there arose not a prophet since +Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2><a name="CONFUCIUS" id="CONFUCIUS"></a>CONFUCIUS</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0406.jpg" alt="CONFUCIUS" title="CONFUCIUS" /></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The highest study of all is that which teaches us to develop those +principles of purity and perfect virtue which Heaven bestowed upon +us at our birth, in order that we may acquire the power of +influencing for good those amongst whom we are placed, by our +precepts and example; a study without an end—for our labors cease +only when we have become perfect—an unattainable goal, but one +that we must not the less set before us from the very first. It is +true that we shall not be able to reach it, but in our struggle +toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to +our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same +direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties +with which we have been gifted to the best possible account.</p> + +<p>—<i>"The Annals" of Confucius</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONFUCIUS</h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he Chinese comprise one-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth. There +are four hundred millions of them.</p> + +<p>They can do many things which we can not do, and we can do a few things +which they have not yet been able to do; but they are learning from us, +and possibly we would do well to learn from them. In China there are now +trolley-cars, telephone-lines, typewriters, cash-registers and American +plumbing. China is a giant awaking from sleep. He who thinks that China +is a country crumbling into ruins has failed to leave a call at the +office and has overslept.</p> + +<p>The West can not longer afford to ignore China. And not being able to +waive her, perhaps the next best thing is to try to understand her.</p> + +<p>The one name that looms large above any other name in China is +Confucius. He of all men has influenced China most. One-third of the +human race love and cherish his memory, and repeat his words as sacred +writ.</p> + +<p>Confucius was born at a time when one of those tidal waves of reason +swept the world—when the nations were full of unrest, and the mountains +of thought were shaken with discontent.</p> + +<p>It was just previous to the blossoming of Greece.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>Pericles was seventeen years old when Confucius died. Themistocles was +preparing the way for Pericles; for then was being collected the +treasure of Delos, which made Phidias and the Parthenon possible. During +the life of Confucius lived Leonidas, Miltiades, Cyrus the Great, +Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes. And then quite naturally occurred the battles +of Marathon, Salamis and Thermopylæ. Then lived Buddha-Gautama, +Lao-tsze, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Pythagoras, Pindar, +Æschylus and Anacreon.</p> + +<p>The Chinese are linked to the past by ties of language and custom beyond +all other nations. They are a peculiar people, a chosen people, a people +set apart. Just when they withdrew from the rest of mankind and +abandoned their nomadic habits, making themselves secure against +invasion by building a wall one hundred feet high, and settled down to +lay the foundations of a vast empire, we do not know. Some historians +have fixed the date about ten thousand years before Christ—let it go at +that. There is a reasonably well-authenticated history of China that +runs back twenty-five hundred years before Christ, while our history +merges into mist seven hundred fifty years before the Christian era.</p> + +<p>The Israelites wandered; the Chinese remained at home. Walls have this +disadvantage: they keep people in as well as shut the barbarians out. +But now there are vast breaches in the wall, through which the +inhabitants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> ooze, causing men from thousands of miles away to cry in +alarm, "the Yellow Peril!" And also through these breaches, Israelites, +Englishmen and Yankees enter fearlessly, settle down in heathen China, +and do business.</p> + +<p>It surely is an epoch, and what the end will be few there are who dare +forecast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>his then is from the pen of Edward Carpenter, the Church of England +curate who was so great a friend and admirer of our own Walt Whitman +that he made a trip across the sea to join hands with him in preaching +the doctrine of democracy and the religion of humanity.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the interior of China, along low-lying plains and great +river-valleys, and by lake-sides, and far away up into hilly and +even mountainous regions,</p> + +<p>Behold! an immense population, rooted in the land, rooted in the +clan and the family,</p> + +<p>The most productive and stable on the whole Earth. A garden one +might say—a land of rich and recherche crops, of rice and tea and +silk and sugar and cotton and oranges;</p> + +<p>Do you see it?—stretching away endlessly over river-lines and +lakes, and the gentle undulations of the low-lands, and up the +escarpments of the higher hills;</p> + +<p>The innumerable patchwork of civilization—the poignant verdure of +the young rice; the somber green of orange-groves; the lines of +tea-shrubs, well hoed, and showing the bare earth beneath; the +pollard mulberries; the plots of cotton and maize and wheat and yam +and clover; the little brown and green tiled cottages with +spreading recurbed eaves, the clumps of feathery bamboo, or of +sugar-canes;</p> + +<p>The endless silver threads of irrigation canals and ditches, +skirting the hills for scores and hundreds of miles, tier above +tier, and serpentining down to the lower slopes and plains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>The accumulated result, these, of centuries upon centuries of +ingenious industry, and innumerable public and private +benefactions, continued from age to age;</p> + +<p>The grand canal of the Delta plain extending, a thronged waterway, +for seven hundred miles, with sails of junks and bankside villages +innumerable;</p> + +<p>The chain-pumps, worked by buffaloes or men, for throwing the water +up slopes and hillsides, from tier to tier, from channel to +channel;</p> + +<p>The endless rills and cascades flowing down again into pockets and +hollows of verdure, and on fields of steep and plain;</p> + +<p>The bits of rock and wildwood left here and there, with the angles +of Buddhist or Jain temples projecting from among the trees;</p> + +<p>The azalea and rhododendron bushes, and the wild deer and pheasants +unharmed;</p> + +<p>The sounds of music and the gong—the Sin-fa sung at eventide—and +the air of contentment and peace pervading;</p> + +<p>A garden you might call the land, for its wealth of crops and +flowers,</p> + +<p>A town almost for its population.</p> + +<p>A population denser, on a large scale, than anywhere else on +earth—</p> + +<p>Five or six acre holdings, elbowing each other, with lesser and +larger, continuously over immense tracts, and running to plentiful +market centers;</p> + +<p>A country of few roads, but of innumerable footpaths and waterways.</p> + +<p>Here, rooted in the land, and rooted in the family, each family +clinging to its portion of ancestral earth, each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> offshoot of the +family desiring nothing so much as to secure its own patrimonial +field,</p> + +<p>Each member of the family answerable primarily to the family +assembly for his misdeeds or defalcations,</p> + +<p>All bound together in the common worship of ancestors, and in +reverence for the past and its sanctioned beliefs and accumulated +prejudices and superstitions;</p> + +<p>With many ancient, wise, simple customs and ordinances, coming down +from remote centuries, and the time of Confucius,</p> + +<p>This vast population abides—the most stable and the most +productive in the world.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>And Government touches it but lightly—can touch it but lightly.</p> + +<p>With its few officials (only some twenty-five thousand for the +whole of its four hundred millions), and its scanty taxation (about +one dollar per head), and with the extensive administration of +justice and affairs by the clan and the family—little scope is +left for government.</p> + +<p>The great equalized mass population pursues its even and accustomed +way, nor pays attention to edicts and foreign treaties, unless +these commend themselves independently;</p> + +<p>Pays readier respect, in such matters, to the edicts and utterances +of its literary men, and the deliberations of the Academy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>And religious theorizing touches it but lightly—can touch it but +lightly.</p> + +<p>Established on the bedrock of actual life, and on the living unity +and community of present, past and future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> generations.</p> + +<p>Each man stands bound already, and by the most powerful ties, to +the social body—nor needs the dreams and promises of Heaven to +reassure him.</p> + +<p>And all are bound to the Earth.</p> + +<p>Rendering back to it as a sacred duty every atom that the Earth +supplies to them (not insensately sending it in sewers to the sea),</p> + +<p>By the way of abject commonsense they have sought the gates of +Paradise—and to found on human soil their City Celestial!</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The first general knowledge of Confucius came to the Western world in +the latter part of the Sixteenth Century from Jesuit missionaries. +Indeed, it was they who gave him the Latinized name of "Confucius," the +Chinese name being Kung-Fu-tsze.</p> + +<p>So impressed were these missionaries by the greatness of Confucius that +they urged upon the Vatican the expediency of placing his name upon the +calendar of Saints. They began by combating his teachings, but this they +soon ceased to do, and the modicum of success which they obtained was +through beginning each Christian service by the hymn which may properly +be called the National Anthem of China. Its opening stanza is as +follows:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confucius! Confucius!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Great was our Confucius!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before him there was no Confucius,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Since him there was no other.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confucius! Confucius!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Great was our Confucius!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The praise given by these early Jesuits to Confucius was at first +regarded at Rome as apology for the meager success of their +ministrations. But later scientific study of Chinese literature +corroborated all that the Jesuit Fathers proclaimed for Confucius, and +he stands today in a class with Socrates and the scant half-dozen whom +we call the saviors of the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yet Confucius claimed no "divine revelation," nor did he seek to found a +religion. He was simply a teacher, and what he taught was the science of +living—living in the present, with the plain and simple men and women +who make up the world, and bettering our condition by bettering theirs. +Of a future life he said he knew nothing, and concerning the +supernatural he was silent, even rebuking his disciples for trying to +pry into the secrets of Heaven. The word "God" he does not use, but his +recognition of a Supreme Intelligence is limited to the use of a word +which can best be translated "Heaven," since it tokens a place more than +it does a person. Constantly he speaks of "doing the will of Heaven." +And then he goes on to say that "Heaven is speaking through you," "Duty +lies in mirroring Heaven in our acts," and many other such New-Thought +aphorisms or epigrams.</p> + +<p>That the man was a consummate literary stylist is beyond doubt. He spoke +in parables and maxims, short, brief and musical. He wrote for his ear, +and always his desire, it seems, was to convey the greatest truth in the +fewest words. The Chinese, even the lowly and uneducated, know hundreds +of Confucian epigrams, and still repeat them in their daily conversation +or in writing, just as educated Englishmen use the Bible and Shakespeare +for symbol.</p> + +<p>Minister Wu, in a lecture delivered in various American cities, compared +Confucius with Emerson, showing how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> in many ways these two great +prophets paralleled each other. Emerson, of all Americans, seems the +only man worthy of being so compared.</p> + +<p>The writer who lives is the man who supplies the world with portable +wisdom—short, sharp, pithy maxims which it can remember, or, better +still, which it can not forget.</p> + +<p>Confucius said, "Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you +one corner, and it is for you to find the other three."</p> + +<p>The true artist in words or things is always more or less +impressionistic—he talks in parables, and it is for the hearer to +discover the meaning for himself.</p> + +<p>An epigram is truth in a capsule. The disadvantage of the epigram is the +temptation it affords to good people to explain it to the others who are +assumed to be too obtuse to comprehend it alone. And since explanations +seldom explain, the result is a mixture or compound that has to be +spewed utterly or taken on faith. Confucius is simple enough until he is +explained. Then we evolve sects, denominations and men who make it their +profession to render moral calculi opaque. China, being peopled by human +beings, has suffered from this tendency to make truth concrete, just as +all the rest of the world has suffered. Truth is fluid and should be +allowed to flow. Ankylosis of a fact is superstition. Confucius was a +free-trader.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgc.jpg" alt="C" title="C" /></div><p>hina has always been essentially feudal in her form of government. +China is made up of a large number of States, each presided over by a +prince or governor, and these States are held together by a rather loose +federal government, the Emperor being the supreme ruler. State rights +prevail. State may fight with State, or States may secede—it isn't of +much moment. They are glad enough, after a few years, to get back, like +boys who run away from home, or farmhands who quit work in a tantrum. +The Chinese are very patient—they know that time cures all things, a +truth the West has not yet learned. States that rebel, like individuals +who place themselves beyond the protection of all, assume grave +responsibilities.</p> + +<p>The local prince usually realizes the bearing of the Social +Contract—that he holds his office only during good behavior, and that +his welfare and the welfare of his people are one.</p> + +<p>Heih, the father of Confucius, was governor of one of these little +States, and had impoverished himself in an effort to help his people. +Heih was a man of seventy, wedded to a girl of seventeen, when their +gifted son was born. When the boy was three years old the father died, +and the lad's care and education depended entirely on the mother. This +mother seems to have been a woman of rare mental and spiritual worth. +She deliberately chose a life of poverty and honest toil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> for herself +and child, rather than allow herself to be cared for by rich kinsmen. +The boy was brought up in a village, and he was not allowed to think +himself any better than the other village children, save as he proved +himself so. He worked in the garden, tended the cattle and goats, mended +the pathways, brought wood and water, and waited on his elders. Every +evening his mother used to tell him of the feats of strength of his +father, of his heroic qualities in friendship, of deeds of valor, of +fidelity to trusts, of his absolute truthfulness, and his desire for +knowledge in order that he might better serve his people.</p> + +<p>The coarse, plain fare, the long walks across the fields, the climbing +of trees, the stooping to pull the weeds in the garden, the daily bath +in the brook, all combined to develop the boy's body to a splendid +degree. He went to bed at sundown, and at the first flush of dawn was up +that he might see the sunrise. There were devotional rites performed by +the mother and son, morning and evening, which consisted in the playing +upon a lute and singing or chanting the beauty and beneficence of +creation.</p> + +<p>Confucius, at fifteen, was regarded as a phenomenal musician, and the +neighbors used to gather to hear him perform. At nineteen he was larger, +stronger, comelier, more skilled, than any other youth of his age in all +the country round.</p> + +<p>The simple quality of his duties as a prince can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> guessed when we are +told that his work as keeper of the herds required him to ride long +distances on horseback to settle difficulties between rival herders. The +range belonged to the State, and the owners of goats, sheep and cattle +were in continual controversies. Montana and Colorado will understand +this matter. Confucius summoned the disputants and talked to them long +about the absurdity of quarreling and the necessity of getting together +in complete understanding. Then it was that he first put forth his +best-known maxim: "You should not do to others that which you would not +have others do to you."</p> + +<p>This negative statement of the Golden Rule is found expressed in various +ways in the writings of Confucius. A literal interpretation of the +Chinese language is quite impossible, as the Chinese have single signs +or symbols that express a complete idea. To state the same matter, we +often use a whole page.</p> + +<p>Confucius had a single word which expressed the Golden Rule in such a +poetic way that it is almost useless to try to convey it to people of +the West. This word, which has been written into English as "Shu," +means: My heart responds to yours, or my heart's desire is to meet your +heart's desire, or I wish to do to you even as I would be done by. This +sign, symbol or word Confucius used to carve in the bark of trees by the +roadside. The French were filled with a like impulse when they cut the +words Liberty, Fraternity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> Equality, over the entrances to all public +buildings.</p> + +<p>Confucius had his symbol of love and friendship painted on a board, +which he stuck into the ground before the tent where he lodged; and +finally it was worked upon a flag by some friends and presented to him, +and became his flag of peace.</p> + +<p>His success in keeping down strife among the herders, and making peace +among his people, soon gave him a fame beyond the borders of his own +State. As a judge he had the power to show both parties where they were +wrong, and arranged for them a common meeting-ground.</p> + +<p>His qualifications as an arbiter were not, however, limited to his +powers of persuasion—he could shoot an arrow farther and hurl a spear +with more accuracy than any man he ever met. Very naturally there are a +great number of folklore stories concerning his prowess, some of which +make him out a sort of combination Saint George and William Tell, with +the added kingly graces of Alfred the Great. Omitting the incredible, we +are willing to believe that this man had a giant's strength, but was +great enough not to use it like a giant.</p> + +<p>We are willing to believe that when attacked by robbers, he engaged them +in conversation and that, seated on the grass, he convinced them they +were in a bad business. Also, he did not later hang them, as did our old +friend Julius Cæsar under like conditions.</p> + +<p>When twenty-seven he ceased going abroad to hold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> court and settle +quarrels, but sending for the disputants, they came, and he gave them a +course of lectures in ethics. In a week, by a daily lesson of an hour's +length, they were usually convinced that to quarrel is very foolish, +since it reduces bodily vigor, scatters the mind, and disturbs the +secretions, so the man is the loser in many ways.</p> + +<p>This seems to us like a very queer way to hold court, but Confucius +maintained that men should learn to govern their tempers, do equity, and +thus be able to settle their own disputes, and this without violence. +"To fight decides who is the stronger, the younger and the more skilful +in the use of arms, but it does not decide who is right. That is to be +settled by the Heaven in your own heart."</p> + +<p>To let the Heaven into your heart, to cultivate a conscience so +sensitive that it can conceive the rights of the other man, is to know +wisdom.</p> + +<p>To decide specific cases for others he thought was to cause them to lose +the power of deciding for themselves. When asked what a just man should +do when he was dealing with one absolutely unjust, he said, "He who +wrongs himself sows in his own heart nettles."</p> + +<p>And when some of his disciples, after the Socratic method, asked him how +this helped the injured man, he replied, "To be robbed or wronged is +nothing unless you continue to remember it." When pushed still further, +he said, "A man should fight, only when he does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> so to protect himself +or his family from bodily harm."</p> + +<p>Here a questioner asked, "If we are to protect our persons, must we not +learn to fight?"</p> + +<p>And the answer comes, "The just man, he who partakes moderately of all +good things, is the only man to fear in a quarrel, for he is without +fear."</p> + +<p>Over and over is the injunction in varying phrase, "Abolish +fear—abolish fear!" When pressed to give in one word the secret of a +happy life, he gives a word which we translate, "Equanimity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The mother of Confucius died during his early manhood. For her he ever +retained the most devout memories.</p> + +<p>Before going on a journey he always visited her grave, and on returning, +before he spoke to any one, he did the same. On each anniversary of her +death he ate no food and was not to be seen by his pupils. This filial +piety, which is sometimes crudely and coarsely called "ancestor +worship," is something which for the Western world is rather difficult +to appreciate. But in it there is a subtle, spiritual significance, +suggesting that it is only through our parents that we are able to +realize consciousness or personal contact with Heaven. These parents +loved us into being, cared for us with infinite patience in infancy, +taught us in youth, watched with high hope our budding manhood; and as +reward and recognition for the service rendered us, the least we can do +is to remember them in all our prayers and devotions. The will of Heaven +used these parents for us, therefore parenthood is divine.</p> + +<p>That this ancestor worship is beautiful and beneficial is quite +apparent, and rightly understood no one could think of it as +"heathendom." Confucius used to chant the praises of his mother, who +brought him up in poverty, thus giving a close and intimate knowledge of +a thousand things from which princes, used to ease and luxury, are +barred.</p> + +<p>So close was he to nature and the plain people that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> he ordered that all +skilful charioteers in his employ should belong to the nobility. This +giving a title or degree to men of skill—men who can do things—we +regard as essentially a modern idea.</p> + +<p>China, I believe, is the first country in the world to use the threads +of a moth or worm for fabrics. The patience and care and inventive skill +required in first making silk were very great. But it gives us an index +to invention when we hear that Confucius regarded the making of linen, +using the fiber of a plant, as a greater feat than utilizing the strands +made by the silkworm. Confucius had a sort of tender sentiment toward +the moth, similar to the sentiments which our vegetarian friends have +toward killing animals for food. Confucius wore linen in preference to +silk, for sentimental reasons. The silkworm dies at his task of making +himself a cocoon, so to evolve in a winged joy, but falls a victim of +man's cupidity. Likewise, Confucius would not drink milk from a cow +until her calf was weaned, because to do so were taking an unfair +advantage of the maternal instincts of the cow. It will thus be seen +that Confucius had a very fair hold on the modern idea which we call +"Monism," or "The One." He, too, said, "All is one." In his attitude +toward all living things he was ever gentle and considerate.</p> + +<p>No other prophet so much resembles Confucius in doctrine as Socrates. +But Confucius does not suffer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> from the comparison. He had a beauty, +dignity and grace of person which the great Athenian did not possess. +Socrates was more or less of a buffoon, and to many in Athens he was a +huge joke—a town fool. Confucius combined the learning and graces of +Plato with the sturdy, practical commonsense of Socrates. No one ever +affronted or insulted him; many did not understand him, but he met +prince or pauper on terms of equality.</p> + +<p>In his travels Confucius used often to meet recluses or monks—men who +had fled the world in order to become saints. For these men Confucius +had more pity than respect. "The world's work is difficult, and to live +in a world of living, striving and dying men and women requires great +courage and great love. Now we can not all run away, and for some to +flee from humanity and to find solace in solitude is only another name +for weakness."</p> + +<p>This sounds singularly like our Ralph Waldo who says, "It is easy in the +world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live +after our own; but the Great Man is he who in the midst of the crowd +keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."</p> + +<p>Confucius is the first man in point of time to proclaim the divinity of +service, the brotherhood of man, and the truth that in useful work there +is no high nor low degree. In talking to a group of young men he says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When I was keeper of the herds I always saw to it that all of my cattle +were strong, healthy and growing, that there was water in abundance and +plenty of feed. When I had charge of the public granaries I never slept +until I knew that all was secure and cared for against the weather, and +my accounts as true and correct as if I were going on my long journey to +return no more. My advice is to slight nothing, forget nothing, never +leave things to chance, nor say, 'Nobody will know—this is good +enough.'"</p> + +<p>In all of his injunctions Confucius never has anything in mind beyond +the present life. Of a future existence he knows nothing, and he seems +to regard it as a waste of energy and a sign of weakness to live in two +worlds at a time. "Heaven provides us means of knowing all about what is +best here, and supplies us in abundance every material thing for present +happiness, and it is our business to realize, to know, to enjoy."</p> + +<p>He taught rhetoric, mathematics, economics, the science of government +and natural history. And always and forever running through the fabric +of his teaching was the silken thread of ethics—man's duty to man, +man's duty to Heaven. Music was to him a necessity, since "it brings the +mind in right accord with the will of Heaven." Before he began to speak +he played softly on a stringed instrument which perhaps would compare +best with our guitar, but it was much smaller, and this instrument he +always carried with him, suspended from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> his shoulder by a silken sash. +Yet with all of his passion for music, he cautioned his disciples +against using it as an end. It was merely valuable as an introduction to +be used in attuning the mind and heart to an understanding of great +truth.</p> + +<p>Confucius was seventy-two years old at his death. During his life his +popularity was not great. When he passed away his followers numbered +only about three thousand persons, and his "disciples," or the teachers +who taught his philosophy, were seventy in number.</p> + +<p>There is no reason to suppose that Confucius assumed that a vast number +of people would ever ponder his words or regard him as a prophet.</p> + +<p>At the time that Confucius lived, also lived Lao-tsze. As a youth +Confucius visited Lao-tsze, who was then an old man. Confucius often +quotes his great contemporary and calls himself a follower of Lao-tsze. +The difference, however, between the men is marked. Lao-tsze's teachings +are full of metaphysics and strange and mystical curiosities, while +Confucius is always simple, lucid and practical.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgc.jpg" alt="C" title="C" /></div><p>onfucius has been revered for twenty centuries, revered simply as a +man, not as a god or as a divinely appointed savior. He offered no +reward of heaven, nor did he threaten non-believers with hell. He +claimed no special influence nor relationship to the Unseen. In all his +teachings he was singularly open, frank and free from all mystery or +concealment. In reference to the supernatural he was an agnostic. He +often said, "I do not know." He was always an inquirer, always a +student, always open to conviction. History affords no instance of +another individual who has been so well and so long loved, who still +holds his place, and who, so far as his reasoning went, is unassailed +and unassailable. Even the two other great religions in China that rival +Confucianism—Buddhism and Taoism (the religion of Lao-tsze)—do not +renounce Confucius: they merely seek to amend and augment him.</p> + +<p>During his lifetime Confucius made many enemies by his habit of frankly +pointing out the foibles of society and the wrongs visited upon the +people by officials who pretended to serve them. Of hypocrisy, +selfishness, vanity, pretense, he was severe in his denunciation.</p> + +<p>Politicians at that time had the very modern habit of securing the +office and then leaving all the details of the work to menials, they +themselves pocketing the perquisites. As Minister of State, Confucius +made himself both feared and detested on account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> his habit of +summoning the head of the office before him and questioning him +concerning his duties. In fact, this insistence that those paid by the +State should work for the State caused a combination to be formed +against him, which finally brought about his deposition and exile, two +things which troubled him but little, since one gave him leisure and the +other opportunity for travel.</p> + +<p>The personal followers of Confucius did not belong to the best society; +but immediately after his death, many who during his life had scorned +the man made haste to profess his philosophy and decorate their houses +with his maxims. Humanity is about the same, whether white or yellow, +the round world over, and time modifies it but little. It will be +recalled how John P. Altgeld was feared and hated by both press and +pulpit, especially in the State and city he served. But rigor mortis had +scarcely seized upon that slight and tired body before the newspapers +that had disparaged the man worst were vying with one another in glowing +eulogies and warm testimonials to his honesty, sincerity, purity of +motive and deep insight. A personality which can neither be bribed, +bought, coerced, flattered nor cajoled is always regarded by the +many—especially by the party in power—as "dangerous." Vice, masked as +virtue, breathes easier when the honest man is safely under the sod.</p> + +<p>The plain and simple style of Confucius' teaching can be gathered by the +following sayings, selected at random<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> from the canonical books of +Confucianism, consisting of the teachings of the great master which were +gathered together and grouped by his disciples and followers after his +death:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The men of old spoke little. It would be well to imitate them, for +those who talk much are sure to say something it would be better to +have left unsaid.</p> + +<p>Let a man's labor be proportioned to his needs. For he who works +beyond his strength does but add to his cares and disappointments. +A man should be moderate even in his efforts.</p> + +<p>Be not over-anxious to obtain relaxation or repose. For he who is +so, will get neither.</p> + +<p>Beware of ever doing that which you are likely, sooner or later, to +repent of having done.</p> + +<p>Do not neglect to rectify an evil because it may seem small, for, +though small at first, it may continue to grow until it overwhelms +you.</p> + +<p>As riches adorn a house, so does an expanded mind adorn and +tranquillize the body. Hence it is that the superior man will seek +to establish his motives on correct principles.</p> + +<p>The cultivator of the soil may have his fill of good things, but +the cultivator of the mind will enjoy a continual feast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is because men are prone to be partial toward those they love, +unjust toward those they hate, servile toward those above them, +arrogant to those below them, and either harsh or over-indulgent to +those in poverty and distress, that it is so difficult to find any +one capable of exercising a sound judgment with respect to the +qualities of others.</p> + +<p>He who is incapable of regulating his own family can not be capable +of ruling a nation. The superior man will find within the limits of +his own home, a sufficient sphere for the exercise of all those +principles upon which good government depends. How, indeed, can it +be otherwise, when filial piety is that which should regulate the +conduct of a people toward their prince; fraternal affection, that +which should regulate the relations which should exist between +equals, and the conduct of inferiors toward those above them; and +paternal kindness, that which should regulate the bearing of those +in authority toward those over whom they are placed?</p> + +<p>Be slow in speech, but prompt in action.</p> + +<p>He whose principles are thoroughly established will not be easily +led from the right path.</p> + +<p>The cautious are generally to be found on the right side.</p> + +<p>By speaking when we ought to keep silence, we waste our words.</p> + +<p>If you would escape vexation, reprove yourself liberally and others +sparingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is no use attempting to help those who can not help +themselves.</p> + +<p>Make friends with the upright, intelligent and wise; avoid the +licentious, talkative and vain.</p> + +<p>Disputation often breeds hatred.</p> + +<p>Nourish good principles with the same care that a mother would +bestow on her newborn babe. You may not be able to bring them to +maturity, but you will nevertheless be not far from doing so.</p> + +<p>The decrees of Heaven are not immutable, for though a throne may be +gained by virtue, it may be lost by vice.</p> + +<p>There are five good principles of action to be adopted: To benefit +others without being lavish; to encourage labor without being +harsh; to add to your resources without being covetous; to be +dignified without being supercilious; and to inspire awe without +being austere. Also, we should not search for love or demand it, +but so live that it will flow to us.</p> + +<p>Personal character can only be established on fixed principles, for +if the mind be allowed to be agitated by violent emotions, to be +excited by fear, or unduly moved by the love of pleasure, it will +be impossible for it to be made perfect. A man must reason calmly, +for without reason he would look and not see, listen and not hear.</p> + +<p>When a man has been helped around one corner of a square, and can +not manage by himself to get around the other three, he is unworthy +of further assistance.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="PYTHAGORAS" id="PYTHAGORAS"></a>PYTHAGORAS</h2> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0408.jpg" alt="PYTHAGORAS" title="PYTHAGORAS" /></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Consult and deliberate before you act, that thou mayest not commit +foolish actions. For 't is the part of a miserable man to speak and +to act without reflection. But do that which will not afflict thee +afterwards, nor oblige thee to repentance.</p> + +<p>—<i>Pythagoras</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PYTHAGORAS</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgw.jpg" alt="W" title="W" /></div><p>ith no desire to deprive Mr. Bok of his bread, I wish to call attention +to Pythagoras, who lived a little more than five hundred years before +Christ.</p> + +<p>Even at that time the world was old. Memphis, which was built four +thousand years ago, had begun to crumble into ruins. Troy was buried +deep in the dust which an American citizen of German birth was to +remove. Nineveh and Babylon were dying the death that success always +brings, and the star of empire was preparing to westward wend its way.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras ushered in the Golden Age of Greece. All the great writers +whom he immediately preceded, quote him and refer to him. Some admire +him; others are loftily critical; most of them are a little jealous; and +a few use him as a horrible example, calling him a poseur, a pedant, a +learned sleight-of-hand man, a bag of books.</p> + +<p>Trial by newspaper was not invented in the time of Pythagoras; but +personal vilification has been popular since Balaam talked gossip with +his vis-a-vis.</p> + +<p>Anaxagoras, who gave up his wealth to the State that he might be free, +and who was the teacher of Pericles, was a pupil of Pythagoras, and used +often to mention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> him.</p> + +<p>In this way Pericles was impressed by the Pythagorean philosophy, and +very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gave Pythagoras as an +authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow +him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted +silence optional; whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live +for a year without once asking a question or making an explanation. In +aggravated cases he made the limit five years.</p> + +<p>In many ways Pythagoras reminds us of our friend Muldoon, both being +beneficent autocrats, and both proving their sincerity by taking their +own medicine. Pythagoras said, "I will never ask another to do what I +have not done, and am not willing to do myself."</p> + +<p>To this end he was once challenged by his three hundred pupils to remain +silent for a year. He accepted the defi, not once defending himself from +the criticisms and accusations that were rained upon him, not once +complaining, nor issuing an order. Tradition has it, however, that he +made averages good later on, when the year of expiation was ended.</p> + +<p>There are two reasonably complete lives of Pythagoras, one by Diogenes +Laertius, and another by Iamblichus. Personally, I prefer the latter, as +Iamblichus, as might be inferred from his name, makes Pythagoras a +descendant of Æneas, who was a son of Neptune. This is surely better +than the abrupt and somewhat sensational statement to the effect that +his father was Apollo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he birthplace of Pythagoras was Samos, an isle of Greece. He was born +of wealthy but honest parents, who were much in love with each other—a +requisite, says Pythagoras, for parentage on its highest plane. It is +probable that Pythagoras was absolutely correct in his hypothesis.</p> + +<p>That he was a very noble specimen of manhood—physically and +mentally—there is no doubt. He was tall, lithe, dignified, commanding +and silent by nature, realizing fully that a handsome man can never talk +as well as he looks.</p> + +<p>He was quite aware of his physical graces, and in following up the facts +of his early life, he makes the statement that his father was a +sea-captain and trader. He then incidentally adds that the best results +are obtained for posterity where a man is absent from his family eleven +months in the year. This is an axiom agreed upon by many modern +philosophers, few of whom, however, live up to their ideals. +Aristophanes, who was on friendly terms with some of the disciples of +Pythagoras, suggested in one of his plays that the Pythagorean domestic +time-limit should be increased at least a month for the good of all +concerned.</p> + +<p>Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle make frequent references to Pythagoras. In +order to impress men like these, the man must have taught a very exalted +philosophy. In truth, Pythagoras was a teacher of teachers. And like all +men who make a business of wisdom he sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> came tardy off, and +indulged in a welter of words that wrecked the original idea—if there +were one.</p> + +<p>There are these three: Knowledge, Learning, Wisdom. And the world has +until very recent times assumed that they were practically one and the +same thing.</p> + +<p>Knowledge consists of the things we know, not the things we believe or +the things we assume. Knowledge is a personal matter of intuition, +confirmed by experience. Learning consists largely of the things we +memorize and are told by persons or books. Tomlinson of Berkeley Square +was a learned man. When we think of a learned man, we picture him as one +seated in a library surrounded by tomes that top the shelves.</p> + +<p>Wisdom is the distilled essence of what we have learned from experience. +It is that which helps us to live, work, love and make life worth living +for all we meet. Men may be very learned, and still be far from wise.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras was one of those strange beings who are born with a desire to +know, and who finally comprehending the secret of the Sphinx, that there +is really nothing to say, insist on saying it. That is, vast learning is +augmented by a structure of words, and on this is built a theogony. +Practically he was a priest.</p> + +<p>Worked into all priestly philosophies are nuggets of wisdom that shine +like stars in the darkness and lead men on and on.</p> + +<p>All great religions have these periods of sanity, otherwise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> they would +have no followers at all. The followers, understanding little bits of +this and that, hope finally to understand it all. Inwardly the initiates +at the shrine of their own conscience know that they know nothing. When +they teach others they are obliged to pretend that they, themselves, +fully comprehend the import of what they are saying. The novitiate +attributes his lack of perception to his own stupidity, and many great +teachers encourage this view.</p> + +<p>"Be patient, and you shall some day know," they say, and smile frigidly.</p> + +<p>And when credulity threatens to balk and go no further, magic comes to +the rescue and the domain of Hermann and Kellar is poached upon.</p> + +<p>Mystery and miracle were born in Egypt. It was there that a system was +evolved, backed up by the ruler, of religious fraud so colossal that +modern deception looks like the bungling efforts of an amateur. The +government, the army, the taxing power of the State, were sworn to +protect gigantic safes in which was hoarded—nothing. That is to say, +nothing but the pretense upon which cupidity and self-hypnotized +credulity battened and fattened.</p> + +<p>All institutions which through mummery, strange acts, dress and ritual, +affect to know and impart the inmost secrets of creation and ultimate +destiny, had their rise in Egypt. In Egypt now are only graves, tombs, +necropolises and silence. The priests there need no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> soldiery to keep +their secrets safe. Ammon-Ra, who once ruled the universe, being finally +exorcised by Yaveh, is now as dead as the mummies who once were men and +upheld his undisputed sway.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The Egyptians guarded their mysteries with jealous dread.</p> + +<p>We know their secret now. It is this—there are no mysteries.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>hat is the only secret upon which any secret society holds a caveat. +Wisdom can not be corraled with gibberish and fettered in jargon. +Knowledge is one thing—palaver another. The Greek-letter societies of +our callow days still survive in bird's-eye, and next to these come the +Elks, who take theirs with seltzer and a smile, as a rare good joke, +save that brotherhood and good-fellowship are actually a saving salt +which excuses much that would otherwise be simply silly.</p> + +<p>All this mystery and mysticism was once official, and later, on being +discarded by the authorities, was continued by the students as a kind of +prank.</p> + +<p>Greek-letter societies are the rudimentary survivals of what was once an +integral part of every college. Making dead languages optional was the +last convulsive kick of the cadaver.</p> + +<p>And now a good many colleges are placing the seal of their disapproval +on secret societies among the students; and the day is near when the +secret society will not be tolerated, either directly or indirectly, as +a part of the education of youth. All this because the sophomoric mind +is prone to take its Greek-letter mysteries seriously, and regard the +college curriculum as a joke of the faculty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>If knowledge were to be gained by riding a goat, any petty crossroads, +with its lodge-room over the grocery, would contain a Herbert Spencer; +and the agrarian mossbacks would have wisdom by the scruff and detain +knowledge with a tail-hold.</p> + +<p>There can be no secrets in life and morals, because Nature has so +provided that every beautiful thought you know and every precious +sentiment you feel, shall shine out of your face so that all who are +great enough may see, know, understand, appreciate and appropriate. You +can keep things only by giving them away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Pythagoras was only four or five years old, his mother taught him +to take his morning bath in the cold stream, and dry his baby skin by +running in the wind. As he ran, she ran with him, and together they sang +a hymn to the rising sun, that for them represented the god Apollo.</p> + +<p>This mother taught him to be indifferent to cold, heat, hunger, to exult +in endurance, and to take a joy in the glow of the body.</p> + +<p>So the boy grew strong and handsome, and proud; and perhaps it was in +those early years, from the mother herself, that he gathered the idea, +afterward developed, that Apollo had appeared to his mother, and so +great was the beauty of the god that the woman was actually overcome, it +being the first god at which she had ever had a good look.</p> + +<p>The ambition of a great mother centers on her son. Pythagoras was filled +with the thought that he was different, peculiar, set apart to teach the +human race.</p> + +<p>Having compassed all there was to learn in his native place, and, as he +thought, being ill appreciated, he started for Egypt, the land of +learning. The fallacy that knowledge was a secret to be gained by word +of mouth and to be gotten from books existed then as now. The mother of +Pythagoras wanted her son to comprehend the innermost secrets of the +Egyptian mysteries. He would then know all. To this end she sold her +jewels, in order that her son might have the advantages of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Egyptian +education.</p> + +<p>Women were not allowed to know the divine secrets—only just a few +little ones. This woman wanted to know, and she said her son would +learn, and tell her.</p> + +<p>The family had become fairly rich by this time, and influential. Letters +were gotten from the great ones of Samos to the Secretary of State in +Egypt. And so Pythagoras, aged twenty, "the youth with the beautiful +hair," went on his journey to Egypt and knocked boldly at the doors of +the temples at Memphis, where knowledge was supposed to be in stock. +Religion then monopolized all schools and continued to do so for quite +some time after Pythagoras was dead.</p> + +<p>He was turned away with the explanation that no foreigner could enter +the sacred portals—that the initiates must be those born in the shadows +of the temples and nurtured in the faith from infancy by holy virgins.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras still insisted, and it was probably then that he found a +sponsor who made for him the claim that he was a son of Apollo. And the +holy men peeped out of their peep-holes in holy admiration for any one +who could concoct as big a lie as they themselves had ever invented.</p> + +<p>The boy surely looked the part. Perhaps, at last, here was one who was +what they pretended to be! Frauds believe in frauds, and rogues are more +easily captured by roguery than are honest men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>His admittance to the university became a matter of international +diplomacy. At last, being too hard-pressed, the wise ones who ran the +mystery monopoly gave in, and Pythagoras was informed that at midnight +of a certain night, he should present himself, naked, at the door of a +certain temple and he would be admitted.</p> + +<p>On the stroke of the hour, at the appointed time, Pythagoras, the youth +with the beautiful hair, was there, clothed only in his beautiful hair. +He knocked on the great, bronze doors, but the only answer was a faint, +hollow echo.</p> + +<p>Then he got a stone and pounded, but still no answer.</p> + +<p>The wind sprang up fresh and cold. The young man was chilled to the +bone, but still he pounded and then called aloud demanding admittance. +His answer now was the growling and barking of dogs, within. Still he +pounded! After an interval a hoarse voice called out through a little +slide, ordering him to be gone or the dogs would be turned loose upon +him.</p> + +<p>He demanded admittance.</p> + +<p>"Fool, do you not know that the law says these doors shall admit no one +except at sunrise?"</p> + +<p>"I only know that I was told to be here at midnight and I would be +admitted."</p> + +<p>"All that may be true, but you were not told when you would be +admitted—wait, it is the will of the gods." So Pythagoras waited, +numbed and nearly dead.</p> + +<p>The dogs which he had heard had, in some way,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> gotten out, and came +tearing around the corner of the great stone building. He fought them +with desperate strength. The effort seemed to warm his blood, and +whereas before he was about to retreat to his lodgings he now remained.</p> + +<p>The day broke in the east, and gangs of slaves went by to work. They +jeered at him and pelted him with pebbles.</p> + +<p>Suddenly across the desert sands he saw the faint pink rim of the rising +sun. On the instant the big bronze doors against which he was leaning +swung suddenly in. He fell with them, and coarse, rough hands seized his +hair and pulled him into the hall.</p> + +<p>The doors swung to and closed with a clang. Pythagoras was in dense +darkness, lying on the stone floor.</p> + +<p>A voice, seemingly coming from afar, demanded, "Do you still wish to go +on?"</p> + +<p>And his answer was, "I desire to go on."</p> + +<p>A black-robed figure, wearing a mask, then appeared with a flickering +light, and Pythagoras was led into a stone cell.</p> + +<p>His head was shaved, and he was given a coarse robe and then left alone. +Toward the end of the day he was given a piece of black bread and a bowl +of water. This he was told was to fortify him for the ordeal to come.</p> + +<p>What that ordeal was we can only guess, save that it consisted partially +in running over hot sands where he sank to his waist. At a point where +he seemed about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> to perish a voice called loudly, "Do you yet desire to +go on?"</p> + +<p>And his answer was, "I desire to go on."</p> + +<p>Returning to the inmost temple he was told to enter a certain door and +wait therein. He was then blindfolded and when he opened the door to +enter, he walked off into space and fell into a pool of ice-cold water.</p> + +<p>While floundering there the voice again called, "Do you yet desire to go +on?"</p> + +<p>And his answer was, "I desire to go on."</p> + +<p>At another time he was tied upon the back of a donkey and the donkey was +led along a rocky precipice, where lights danced and flickered a +thousand feet below.</p> + +<p>"Do you yet want to go on?" called the voice.</p> + +<p>And Pythagoras answered, "I desire to go on."</p> + +<p>The priests here pushed the donkey off the precipice, which proved to be +only about two feet high, the gulf below being an illusion arranged with +the aid of lights that shone through apertures in the wall.</p> + +<p>These pleasing little diversions Pythagoras afterward introduced into +the college which he founded, so to teach the merry freshmen that +nothing, at the last, was as bad as it seemed, and that most dangers are +simply illusions.</p> + +<p>The Egyptians grew to have such regard for Pythagoras that he was given +every opportunity to know the inmost secrets of the mysteries. He said +he encompassed them all, save those alone which were incomprehensible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was probably true.</p> + +<p>The years spent in Egypt were not wasted—he learned astronomy, +mathematics, and psychology, a thing then not named, but pretty well +understood—the management of men.</p> + +<p>It was twenty years before Pythagoras returned to Samos. His mother was +dead, so she passed away in ignorance of the secrets of the gods—which +perhaps was just as well.</p> + +<p>Samos now treated Pythagoras with great honor.</p> + +<p>Crowds flocked to his lectures, presents were given him, royalty paid +him profound obeisance.</p> + +<p>But Samos soon tired of Pythagoras. He was too austere, too severe; and +when he began to rebuke the officials for their sloth and indifference, +he was invited to go elsewhere and teach his science of life. And so he +journeyed into Southern Italy, and at Crotona built his Temple to the +Muses and founded the Pythagorean School. He was the wisest as well as +the most learned man of his time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgs.jpg" alt="S" title="S" /></div><p>ome unkind person has said that Pythagoras was the original charter +member of the Jesuits Society. The maxim that the end justifies the +means was the cornerstone of Egyptian theology. When Pythagoras left +Egypt he took with him this cornerstone as a souvenir. That the priests +could hold their power over the masses only through magic and miracle +was fully believed, and as a good police system the value of organized +religion was highly appreciated. In fact, no ruler could hold his place, +unsupported by the priest. Both were divine propositions. One searches +in vain for simple truth among the sages, solons, philosophers, poets +and prophets that existed down to the time of Socrates. Truth for +truth's sake was absolutely unimagined; freethought was unguessed.</p> + +<p>Expediency was always placed before truth.</p> + +<p>Truth was furnished with frills—the people otherwise would not be +impressed. Chants, robes, ritual, processions, banging of bells, burning +of incense, strange sounds, sights and smells: these were considered +necessary factors in teaching divine truth.</p> + +<p>To worship with a noise seems to us a little like making love with a +brass band.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras was a very great man, but for him to eliminate theological +chaff entirely was impossible. So we find that when he was about to +speak, red fire filled the building as soon as he arose. It was all a +little like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the alleged plan of the late Reverend T. DeWitt Talmage, +who used to have an Irishman let loose a white pigeon from the +organ-loft at an opportune time.</p> + +<p>When Pythagoras burned the red fire, of course the audience thought a +miracle was taking place, unable to understand a simple stage-trick +which all the boys in the gallery who delight in "Faust" now understand.</p> + +<p>However, the Pythagorean School had much virtue on its side, and made a +sincere and earnest effort to solve certain problems that yet are vexing +us.</p> + +<p>The Temple of the Muses, built by Pythagoras at Crotona, is described by +Iamblichus as a stone structure with walls twenty feet thick, the light +being admitted only from the top. It was evidently constructed after the +Egyptian pattern, and the intent was to teach there the esoteric +doctrine. But Pythagoras improved upon the Egyptian methods and opened +his temple on certain days to all and any who desired to come. Then at +times he gave lectures to women only, and then to men only, and also to +children, thus showing that modern revival methods are not wholly +modern.</p> + +<p>These lectures contain the very essence of Pythagorean philosophy, and +include so much practical commonsense that they are still quoted. These +are some of the sayings that impressed Socrates, Pericles, Aristotle and +Pliny. What the Egyptians actually taught we really do not know—it was +too gaseous to last. Only the good endures. Says Pythagoras:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Cut not into the grape. Exaltation coming from wine is not good. +You hope too much in this condition, so are afterwards depressed. +Wise men are neither cast down in defeat nor exalted by success. +Eat moderately, bathe plentifully, exercise much in the open air, +walk far, and climb the hills alone.</p> + +<p>Above all things, learn to keep silence—hear all and speak little. +If you are defamed, answer not back. Talk convinces no one. Your +life and character proclaim you more than any argument you can put +forth. Lies return to plague those who repeat them.</p> + +<p>The secret of power is to keep an even temper, and remember that no +one thing that can happen is of much moment. The course of justice, +industry, courage, moderation, silence, means that you shall +receive your due of every good thing. The gods may be slow, but +they never forget.</p> + +<p>It is not for us to punish men nor avenge ourselves for slights, +wrongs and insults—wait, and you will see that Nemesis unhorses +the man intent on calumny.</p> + +<p>A woman's ornaments should be modesty, simplicity, truth, +obedience. If a woman would hold a man captive she can only do it +by obeying him. Violent women are even more displeasing to the gods +than violent men—both are destroying themselves. Strife is always +defeat.</p> + +<p>Debauchery, riot, splendor, luxury, are attempts to get a pleasure +out of life that is not our due, and so Nemesis provides her +penalty for the idle and gluttonous.</p> + +<p>Fear and honor the gods. They guide our ways and watch over us in +our sleep. After the gods, a man's first thought should be of his +father and mother. Next to these his wife, then his children.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>So great was this power of Pythagoras over the people that many of the +women who came, hearing his discourse on the folly of pride and +splendor, threw off their cloaks, and left them with their rings, +anklets and necklaces on the altar.</p> + +<p>With these and other offerings Pythagoras built another temple, this +time to Apollo, and the Temple to the Muses was left open all the time +for the people.</p> + +<p>His power over the multitude alarmed the magistrates, so they sent for +him to examine him as to his influence and intents. He explained to them +that as the Muses were never at variance among themselves, always living +in subjection to Apollo, so should magistrates agree among themselves +and think only of being loyal to the king. All royal edicts and laws are +reflections of divine law, and therefore must be obeyed without +question. And as the Muses never interrupt the harmony of Heaven, but in +fact add to it, so should men ever keep harmony among themselves.</p> + +<p>All officers of the government should consider themselves as runners in +the Olympian games, and never seek to trip, jostle, harass or annoy a +rival, but run the race squarely and fairly, satisfied to be beaten if +the other is the stronger and better man. An unfair victory gains only +the anger of the gods.</p> + +<p>All disorders in the State come from ill education of the young. +Children not brought up to be patient, to endure, to work, to be +considerate of their elders and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> respectful to all, grow diseased minds +that find relief at last in anarchy and rebellion. So to take great care +of children in their infancy, and then leave them at puberty to follow +their own inclinations, is to sow disorder. Children well loved and kept +close to their parents grow up into men and women who are an ornament to +the State and a joy to the gods. Lawless, complaining, restless, idle +children grieve the gods and bring trouble upon their parents and +society.</p> + +<p>The magistrates were here so pleased, and satisfied in their own minds +that Pythagoras meant the State no harm, that they issued an order that +all citizens should attend upon his lectures at least once a week, and +take their wives and children with them.</p> + +<p>They also offered to pay Pythagoras—that is, put him on the payroll as +a public teacher—but he declined to accept money for his services. In +this, Iamblichus says, he was very wise, since by declining a fixed fee, +ten times as much was laid upon the altar of the Temple of the Muses, +and not knowing to whom to return it, Pythagoras was obliged to keep it +for himself and the poor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgc.jpg" alt="C" title="C" /></div><p>hurchmen of the Middle Ages worked the memory of Pythagoras great +injustice by quoting him literally in order to prove how much they were +beyond him. Symbols and epigrams require a sympathetic hearer, otherwise +they are as naught.</p> + +<p>For instance, Pythagoras remarks, "Sit thou not down upon a bushel +measure." What he probably meant was, get busy and fill the measure with +grain rather than use it for a seat.</p> + +<p>"Eat not the heart"—do not act so as to harrow the feelings of your +friends, and do not be morbid.</p> + +<p>"Never stir the fire with a sword"—do not inflame people who are +wrathful.</p> + +<p>"Wear not the image of God upon your jewelry"—do not make religion a +proud or boastful thing.</p> + +<p>"Help men to a burden, but never unburden them." This saying was used by +Saint Francis to prove that the pagan philosophers had no tenderness, +and that the humanities came at a later date. We can now easily +understand that to relieve men of responsibilities is no help; rather do +we grow strong by carrying burdens.</p> + +<p>"Leave not the mark of the pot upon the ashes"—wipe out the past, +forget it, look to the future.</p> + +<p>"Feed no animal that has crooked claws"—do not encourage rogues by +supplying them a living.</p> + +<p>"Eat no fish whose fins are black"—have nothing to do with men whose +deeds are dark.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Always have salt upon your table"—this seems the original of "cum +grano salis" of the Romans.</p> + +<p>"Leave the vinegar at a distance"—keep sweet.</p> + +<p>"Speak not in the face of the sun"—even Erasmus thought this referred +to magic. To us it is quite reasonable to suppose that it meant, "do not +talk too much in public places."</p> + +<p>"Pick not up what falls from the table"—Plutarch calls this +superstition, but we can just as easily suppose it was out of +consideration for cats, dogs or hungry men. The Bible has a command +against gleaning too closely, and leaving nothing for the traveler.</p> + +<p>"When making sacrifice, never pare your nails"—that is to say, do one +thing at a time: wind not the clock at an inopportune time.</p> + +<p>"Eat not in the chariot"—when you travel, travel.</p> + +<p>"Feed not yourself with your left hand"—get your living openly and +avoid all left-handed dealings.</p> + +<p>And so there are hundreds of these Pythagorean sayings that have vexed +our classic friends for over two thousand years. All Greek scholars who +really pride themselves on their scholarship have taken a hand at them, +and agitated the ether just as the members of the Kokomo Woman's Club +discuss obscure passages in Bliss Carman or Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Learned +people are apt to comprehend anything but the obvious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he School of Pythagoras grew until it became the chief attraction of +Crotona. The size of the town was doubled through the pilgrims who came +to study music, mathematics, medicine, ethics and the science of +government.</p> + +<p>The Pythagorean plan of treating the sick by music was long considered +as mere incantation, but there is a suspicion now that it was actual +science. Once there was a man who rode a hobby all his life; and long +after he was dead, folks discovered it was a real live horse and had +carried the man long miles.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras reduced the musical scale to a mathematical science. In +astronomy he anticipated Copernicus, and indeed, it was cited as the +chief offense of Copernicus that he had borrowed from a pagan. +Copernicus, it seems, set the merry churchmen digging into Greek +literature to find out just how bad Pythagoras was. This did the +churchmen good, but did not help the cause of Copernicus.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras for a time sought to popularize his work, but he soon found +to his dismay that he was attracting cheap and unworthy people, who came +not so much out of a love of learning as to satisfy a morbid curiosity +and gain a short cut to wisdom. They wanted secrets, and knowing that +Pythagoras had spent twenty years in Egypt, they came to him, hoping to +get them.</p> + +<p>Said Pythagoras, "He who digs, always finds." At another time, he put +the same idea reversely, thus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> "He who digs not, never finds."</p> + +<p>Pythagoras was well past forty when he married a daughter of one of the +chief citizens of Crotona. It seems that, inspired by his wife, who was +first one of his pupils and then a disciple, he conceived a new mode of +life, which he thought would soon overthrow the old manner of living.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras himself wrote nothing, but all his pupils kept tablets, and +Athens in the century following Pythagoras was full of these Pythagorean +notebooks, and these supply us the scattered data from which his life +was written.</p> + +<p>Pythagoras, like so many other great men, had his dream of Utopia: it +was a college or, literally, "a collection of people," where all were on +an equality. Everybody worked, everybody studied, everybody helped +everybody, and all refrained from disturbing or distressing any one. It +was the Oneida Community taken over by Brook Farm and fused into a +religious and scientific New Harmony by the Shakers.</p> + +<p>One smiles to see the minute rules that were made for the guidance of +the members. They look like a transcript from a sermon by John Alexander +Dowie, revised by the shade of Robert Owen.</p> + +<p>This Pythagorean Community was organized out of a necessity in order to +escape the blow-ins who sailed across from Greece intent on some new +thing, but principally to get knowledge and a living without work.</p> + +<p>And so Pythagoras and his wife formed a close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> corporation. For each +member there was an initiation, strict and severe, the intent of which +was absolutely to bar the transient triflers. Each member was to turn +over to the Common Treasury all the money and goods he had of every kind +and quality. They started naked, just as did Pythagoras when he stood at +the door of the temple in Egypt.</p> + +<p>Simplicity, truth, honesty and mutual service were to govern. It was an +outcrop of the monastic impulse, save that women were admitted, also. +Unlike the Egyptians, Pythagoras believed now in the equality of the +sexes, and his wife daily led the women's chorus, and she also gave +lectures. The children were especially cared for by women set apart as +nurses and teachers. By rearing perfect children, it was hoped and +expected to produce in turn a perfect race.</p> + +<p>The whole idea was a phase of totemism and tabu.</p> + +<p>That it flourished for about thirty years is very certain. Two sons and +a daughter of Pythagoras grew to maturity in the college, and this +daughter was tried by the Order on the criminal charge of selling the +secret doctrines of her father to outsiders.</p> + +<p>One of the sons it seems made trouble, also, in an attempt to usurp his +father's place and take charge of affairs, as "next friend." One +generation is about the limit of a Utopian Community. When those who +have organized the community weaken and one by one pass away, and the +young assume authority, the old ideas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> of austerity are forgotten and +dissipation and disintegration enter. So do we move in circles.</p> + +<p>The final blow to the Pythagorean College came through jealousy and +misunderstanding of the citizens outside. It was the old question of +Town versus Gown. The Pythagoreans numbered nearly three hundred people. +They held themselves aloof, and no doubt had an exasperating pride. No +strangers were ever allowed inside the walls—they were a law unto +themselves.</p> + +<p>Internal strife and tales told by dissenters excited the curiosity, and +then the prejudice, of the townspeople.</p> + +<p>Then the report got abroad that the Pythagoreans were collecting arms +and were about to overthrow the local government and enslave the +officials.</p> + +<p>On a certain night, led by a band of drunken soldiers, a mob made an +assault upon the college. The buildings were fired, and the members were +either destroyed in the flames or killed as they rushed forth to escape. +Tradition has it that Pythagoras was later seen by a shepherd on the +mountains, but the probabilities are that he perished with his people. +But you can not dispose of a great man by killing him. Here we are +reading, writing and talking yet of Pythagoras.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="PLATO" id="PLATO"></a>PLATO</h2> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0410.jpg" alt="PLATO" title="PLATO" /></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to the +question, "How does love suit with age, Sophocles—are you still +the man you were?"</p> + +<p>"Peace," he replied; "most gladly have I escaped that, and I feel +as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master."</p> + +<p>That saying of his has often come into my mind since, and seems to +me still as good as at the time when I heard him. For certainly old +age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax +their hold, then, as Sophocles says, you have escaped from the +control not of one master only, but of many. And of these regrets, +as well as of the complaint about relations, Socrates, the cause is +to be sought, not in men's ages, but in their characters and +tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel +the pressure of age, but he who is of an opposite disposition will +find youth and age equally a burden.</p> + +<p>—<i>The Republic</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PLATO</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p> thinking man is one of the most recent productions evolved from +Nature's laboratory. The first man of brains to express himself about +the world in an honest, simple and natural way, just as if nothing had +been said about it before, was Socrates.</p> + +<p>Twenty-four centuries have passed since Socrates was put to death on the +charge of speaking disrespectfully of the gods and polluting the minds +of the youths of Athens. During ten of these centuries that have passed +since then, the race lost the capacity to think, through the successful +combination of the priest and the soldier. These men blocked human +evolution. The penalty for making slaves is that you become one.</p> + +<p>To suppress humanity is to suppress yourself.</p> + +<p>The race is one. So the priests and the soldiers who in the Third +Century had a modicum of worth themselves, sank and were submerged in +the general slough of superstition and ignorance. It was a panic that +continued for a thousand years, all through the endeavor of faulty men +to make people good by force. At all times, up to within our own decade, +frank expression on religious, economic and social topics has been +fraught with great peril. Even yet any man who hopes for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> popularity as +a writer, orator, merchant or politician, would do well to conceal +studiously his inmost beliefs. On such simple themes as the taxation of +real estate, regardless of the business of the owner, and a payment +of a like wage for a like service without consideration of sex, the +statesman who has the temerity to speak out will be quickly relegated +to private life. Successful merchants depending on a local constituency +find it expedient to cater to popular superstitions by heading +subscription-lists for the support of things in which they do not +believe. No avowed independent thinker would be tolerated as chief ruler +of any of the so-called civilized countries.</p> + +<p>The fact, however, that the penalty for frank expression is limited now +to social and commercial ostracism is very hopeful—a few years ago it +meant the scaffold.</p> + +<p>We have been heirs to a leaden legacy of fear that has well-nigh +banished joy and made of life a long nightmare.</p> + +<p>In very truth, the race has been insane.</p> + +<p>Hallucinations, fallacies, fears, have gnawed at our hearts, and men +have fought men with deadly frenzy. The people who interfered, trying to +save us, we have killed. Truly did we say, "There is no health in us," +which repetition did not tend to mend the malady.</p> + +<p>We are now getting convalescent. We are hobbling out into the sunshine +on crutches. We have discharged most of our old advisers, heaved the +dulling and deadly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> bottles out of the windows, and are intent on +studying and understanding our own case. Our motto is twenty-four +centuries old—it is simply this: KNOW THYSELF.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgs.jpg" alt="S" title="S" /></div><p>ocrates was a street preacher, with a beautiful indifference as to +whether people liked him or not. To most Athenians he was the town fool. +Athens was a little city (only about one hundred fifty thousand), and +everybody knew Socrates. The popular plays caricatured him; the topical +songs misquoted him; the funny artists on the street-corners who modeled +things in clay, while you waited, made figures of him.</p> + +<p>Everybody knew Socrates—I guess so!</p> + +<p>Plato, the handsome youth of nineteen, wearing a purple robe, which +marked him as one of the nobility, paused to listen to this uncouth man +who gave everything and wanted nothing.</p> + +<p>Ye gods! But it is no wonder they caricatured him—he was a temptation +too great to resist.</p> + +<p>Plato smiled—he never laughed, being too well-bred for that. Then he +sighed, and moved a little nearer in.</p> + +<p>"Individuals are nothing. The State is all. To offend the State is to +die. The State is an organization and we are members of it. The State is +only as rich as its poorest citizen. We are all given a little sample of +divinity to study, model and marvel at. To understand the State you must +KNOW THYSELF."</p> + +<p>Plato lingered until the little crowd had dispersed, and when the old +man with the goggle-eyes and full-moon face went shuffling slowly down +the street, he approached and asked him a question.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>This man Socrates was no fool—the populace was wrong—he was a man so +natural and free from cant that he appeared to the triflers and +pretenders like a pretender, and they asked, "Is he sincere?"</p> + +<p>What Plato was by birth, breeding and inheritance, Socrates was by +nature—a noble man.</p> + +<p>Up to this time the ambition of Plato had been for place and power—to +make the right impression on the people in order to gain political +preferment. He had been educated in the school of the Sophists, and his +principal studies were poetry, rhetoric and deportment.</p> + +<p>And now straightway he destroyed the manuscript of his poems, for in +their writing he had suddenly discovered that he had not written what he +inwardly believed was true, but simply that which he thought was proper +and nice to say. In other words, his literature had been a form of +pretense.</p> + +<p>Daily thereafter, where went Socrates there went Plato. Side by side +they sat on the curb—Socrates talking, questioning the bystanders, +accosting the passers-by; Plato talking little, but listening much.</p> + +<p>Socrates was short, stout and miles around. Plato was tall, athletic and +broad-shouldered. In fact, the word, "plato," or "platon," means broad, +and it was given him as a nickname by his comrades. His correct name was +Aristocles, but "Plato" suited him better, since it symbols that he was +not only broad of shoulder, but likewise in mind. He was not only noble +by birth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> but noble in appearance.</p> + +<p>Emerson calls him the universal man. He absorbed all the science, all +the art, all the philosophy of his day. He was handsome, kindly, +graceful, gracious, generous, and lived and died a bachelor. He never +collided with either poverty or matrimony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgp.jpg" alt="P" title="P" /></div><p>lato was twenty-eight years old when Socrates died. For eight years +they had been together daily. After the death of Socrates, Plato lived +for forty-six years, just to keep alive the name and fame of the great +philosopher.</p> + +<p>Socrates comes to us through Plato. Various other contemporaries mention +Socrates and quote him, some to his disadvantage, but it was left for +Plato to give us the heart of his philosophy, and limn his character for +all time in unforgetable outline.</p> + +<p>Plato is called the "Pride of Greece." His contribution to the wealth of +the world consists in the fact that he taught the joys of the +intellect—the supreme satisfaction that comes through thinking. This is +the pure Platonic philosophy: to find our gratifications in exalted +thought and not in bodily indulgence. Plato's theory that five years +should be given in early manhood to abstract thought, abstaining from +all practical affairs, so as to acquire a love for learning, has been +grafted upon a theological stalk and comes down to our present time. It +has, however, now been discarded by the world's best thinkers as a +fallacy. The unit of man's life is the day, not the month or year, much +less a period of five years. Each day we must exercise the mind, just as +each day we must exercise the body. We can not store up health and draw +upon it at will over long-deferred periods. The account must be kept +active. To keep physical energy we must expend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> physical energy every +day. The opinion of Herbert Spencer that thought is a physical +function—a vibration set up in a certain area of brain-cells—is an +idea never preached by Plato. The brain, being an organ, must be used, +not merely in one part for five years to the exclusion of all other +parts, but all parts should be used daily. To this end the practical +things of life should daily engage our attention, no less than the +contemplation of beauty as manifest in music, poetry, art or dialectics. +The thought that every day we should look upon a beautiful picture, read +a beautiful poem, or listen for a little while to beautiful music, is +highly scientific, for this contemplation and appreciation of harmony is +a physical exercise as well as a spiritual one, and through it we grow, +develop, evolve.</p> + +<p>That we could not devote five years of our time to purely esthetic +exercises, to the exclusion of practical things, without very great +risk, is now well known. And when I refer to practical affairs, I mean +the effort which Nature demands we should put forth to get a living. +Every man should live like a poor man, regardless of the fact that he +may have money. Nature knows nothing of bank-balances. In order to have +an appetite for dinner, you must first earn your dinner. If you would +sleep at night, you must first pay for sweet sleep by physical labor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgp.jpg" alt="P" title="P" /></div><p>lato was born on the Island of Ægina, where his father owned an estate. +His mother was a direct descendant of Solon, and his father, not to be +outdone, traced to Codrus.</p> + +<p>The father of Socrates was a stonecutter and his mother a midwife, so +very naturally the son had a beautiful contempt for pedigree. Socrates +once said to Plato, "Anybody can trace to Codrus—by paying enough to +the man who makes the family-tree." This seems to show that genealogy +was a matter of business then as now, and that nothing is new under the +sun. Yet with all his contempt for heredity, we find Socrates often +expressing pride in the fact that he was a "native son," whereas Plato, +Aspasia, the mother of Themistocles, and various other fairly good +people, were Athenian importations.</p> + +<p>Socrates belonged to the leisure class and had plenty of time for +extended conversazione, so just how much seriousness we should mix in +his dialogues is still a problem. Each palate has to season to suit. +Also, we can never know how much is Socrates and how much essence of +Plato. Socrates wrote nothing, and Plato ascribes all of his wisdom to +his master. Whether this was simple prudence or magnanimity is still a +question.</p> + +<p>The death of Socrates must have been a severe blow to Plato. He at once +left Athens. It was his first intention never to return. He traveled +through the cities of Greece, Southern Italy and down to Egypt, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +everywhere was treated with royal courtesies.</p> + +<p>After many solicitations from Dionysius, Tyrant of Syracuse, he went to +visit that worthy, who had a case of philosophic and literary scabies. +Dionysius prided himself on being a Beneficent Autocrat, with a literary +and artistic attachment. He ruled his people, educated them, cared for +them, disciplined them.</p> + +<p>Some people call this slavery; others term it applied socialism. +Dionysius wanted Syracuse to be the philosophic center of the world, and +to this end Plato was importuned to make Syracuse his home and dispense +his specialty—truth.</p> + +<p>This he consented to do.</p> + +<p>It was all very much like the arrangement between Mæcenas and Horace, or +Voltaire and Frederick the Great. The patron is a man who patronizes—he +wants something, and the particular thing that Dionysius wanted was to +have Plato hold a colored light upon the performances of His Altruistic, +Beneficent, Royal Jackanapes. But Plato was a simple, honest and direct +man: he had caught the habit from Socrates.</p> + +<p>Charles Ferguson says that the simple life does not consist in living in +the woods and wearing overalls and sandals, but in getting the cant out +of one's cosmos and eliminating the hypocrisy from one's soul.</p> + +<p>Plato lived the simple life. When he spoke he stated what he thought. He +discussed exploitation, war, taxation, and the Divine Right of Kings. +Kings are very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> unfortunate—they are shut off and shielded from truth +on every side. They get their facts at second hand and are lied to all +day long. Consequently they become in time incapable of digesting truth. +A court, being an artificial fabric, requires constant bracing. Next to +capital, nothing is so timid as a king. Heine says that kings have to +draw their nightcaps on over their crowns when they go to bed, in order +to keep them from being stolen, and that they are subject to insomnia.</p> + +<p>Walt Whitman, with nothing to lose—not even a reputation or a hat—was +much more kingly walking bareheaded past the White House than Nicholas +of Russia or Alfonso of Spain can ever possibly be.</p> + +<p>Dionysius thought that he wanted a philosophic court, but all he wanted +was to make folks think he had a philosophic court. Plato supplied him +the genuine article, and very naturally Plato was soon invited to +vacate.</p> + +<p>After he had gone, Dionysius, fearful that Plato would give him a bad +reputation in Athens—somewhat after the manner and habit of the +"escaped nun"—sent a fast-rowing galley after him. Plato was arrested +and sold into slavery on his own isle of Ægina.</p> + +<p>This all sounds very tragic, but the real fact is it was a sort of +comedy of errors—as a king's doings are when viewed from a safe and +convenient distance. De Wolf Hopper's kings are the real thing. +Dionysius claimed that Plato owed him money, and so he got out a +body-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>attachment, and sold the philosopher to the highest bidder.</p> + +<p>This was a perfectly legal proceeding, being simply peonage, a thing +which exists in some parts of the United States today. I state the fact +without prejudice, merely to show how hard custom dies.</p> + +<p>Plato was too big a man conveniently either to secrete or kill. Certain +people in Athens plagiarized Doctor Johnson who, on hearing that +Goldsmith had debts of several thousand pounds, in admiration exclaimed, +"Was ever poet so trusted before!" Other good friends ascertained the +amount of the claim and paid it, just as Colonel H. H. Rogers graciously +cleared up the liabilities of Mark Twain, after the author of +"Huckleberry Finn" had landed his business craft on a sandbar.</p> + +<p>And so Plato went free, arriving back in Athens, aged forty, a wiser and +a better man than when he left.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgn.jpg" alt="N" title="N" /></div><p>othing absolves a reputation like silence and absence, or what the +village editors call "the grim reaper." To live is always more or less +of an offense, especially if you have thoughts and express them. Athens +exists, in degree, because she killed Socrates, just as Jerusalem is +unforgetable for a similar reason. The South did not realize that +Lincoln was her best friend until the assassin's bullet had found his +brain. Many good men in Chicago did not cease to revile their chiefest +citizen, until the ears of Altgeld were stopped and his hands stiffened +by death. The lips of the dead are eloquent.</p> + +<p>Plato's ten years of absence had given him prestige. He was honored +because he had been the near and dear friend of Socrates, a great and +good man who was killed through mistake.</p> + +<p>Most murders and killings of men, judicial and otherwise, are matters of +misunderstandings.</p> + +<p>Plato had been driven out of Syracuse for the very reasons that Socrates +had been killed at Athens. And now behold, when Dionysius saw how Athens +was honoring Plato, he discovered that it was all a mistake of his +bookkeeper, so he wrote to Plato to come back and all would be +forgiven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>hose who set out to live the Ideal Life have a hard trail to travel. +The road to Jericho is a rocky one—especially if we are a little in +doubt as to whether it really is the road to Jericho or not. Perhaps if +we ever find the man who lives the Ideal Life he will be quite unaware +of it, so occupied will he be in his work—so forgetful of self.</p> + +<p>Time had taught Plato diplomacy. He now saw that to teach people who did +not want to be taught was an error in judgment for which one might +forfeit his head.</p> + +<p>Socrates was the first Democrat: he stood for the demos—the people. +Plato would have done the same, but he saw that the business was extra +hazardous, to use the phrase of our insurance friends. He who works for +the people will be destroyed by the people. Hemlock is such a rare and +precious commodity that few can afford it; the cross is a privilege so +costly that few care to pay the price.</p> + +<p>The genius is a man who first states truths; and all truths are +unpleasant on their first presentation. That which is uncommon is +offensive. "Who ever heard anything like that before?" ask the literary +and philosophic hill tribes in fierce indignation. Says James Russell +Lowell, "I blab unpleasant truths, you see, that none may need to state +them after me."</p> + +<p>Plato was a teacher by nature: this was his business, his pastime, and +the only thing in life that gave him joy. But he dropped back to the +good old ways of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> making truth esoteric as did the priests of Egypt, +instead of exoteric as did Socrates. He founded his college in the grove +of his old friend Academus, a mile out of Athens on the road to Eleusis. +In honor of Academus the school was called "The Academy." It was +secluded, safe, beautiful for situation. In time Plato bought a tract of +land adjoining that of Academus, and this was set apart as the permanent +school. All the teaching was done out of doors, master and pupils seated +on the marble benches, by the fountain-side, or strolling through the +grounds, rich with shrubs and flowers and enlivened by the song of +birds. The climate of Athens was about like that of Southern California, +where the sun shines three hundred days in the year.</p> + +<p>Plato emphasized the value of the spoken word over the written, a thing +he could well afford to do, since he was a remarkably good writer. This +for the same reason that the only man who can afford to go ragged is the +man with a goodly bank-balance. The shibboleth of the modern schools of +oratory is, "We grow through expression." And Plato was the man who +first said it. Plato's teaching was all in the form of the "quiz," +because he believed that truth was not a thing to be acquired from +another—it is self-discovery.</p> + +<p>Indeed, we can imagine it was very delightful—this walking, strolling, +lying on the grass, or seated in semicircles, indulging in endless talk, +easy banter, with now and then a formal essay read to start the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +vibrations.</p> + +<p>Here it was that Aristotle came from his wild home in the mountains of +Macedonia, to remain for twenty years and to evolve into a rival of the +master.</p> + +<p>We can well imagine how Aristotle, the mountain-climber and horseman, at +times grew heartily tired of the faultily faultless garden with its high +wall and graveled walks and delicate shrubbery, and shouted aloud in +protest, "The whole world of mountain, valley and plain should be our +Academy, not this pent-up Utica that contracts our powers."</p> + +<p>Then followed an argument as to the relative value of talking about +things or doing them, or Poetry versus Science.</p> + +<p>Poetry, philosophy and religion are very old themes, and they were old +even in Plato's day; but natural science came in with Aristotle. And +science is only the classification of the common knowledge of the common +people. It was Aristotle who named things, not Adam. He contended that +the classification and naming of plants, rocks and animals was quite as +important as to classify ideas about human happiness and make guesses at +the state of the soul after death.</p> + +<p>Of course he got himself beautifully misunderstood, because he was +advocating something which had never been advocated before. In this lay +his virtue, that he outran human sympathy, even the sympathy of the +great Plato.</p> + +<p>Yet for a while the unfolding genius of this young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> barbarian was a +great joy to Plato, as the earnest, eager intellect of an ambitious +pupil always is to his teacher. Plato was great in speculation; +Aristotle was great in observation. Well has it been said that it was +Aristotle who discovered the world. And Aristotle in his old age said, +"My attempts to classify the objects of Nature all came through Plato's +teaching me first how to classify ideas." And forty years before this +Plato had said, "It was Socrates who taught me this game of the +correlation and classification of thoughts."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he writings of Plato consist of thirty-five dialogues, and one essay +which is not cast in the dramatic form—"The Apology." These dialogues +vary in length from twenty pages, of, say, four hundred words each, to +three hundred pages. In addition to these books are many quotations from +Plato and references to him by contemporary writers. Plato's work is as +impersonal as that of Shakespeare. All human ideas, shades of belief, +emotions and desires pass through the colander of his mind. He allows +everybody to have his say.</p> + +<p>What Plato himself thought can only be inferred, and this each reader +does for himself. We construct our man Plato in our own image. A +critic's highest conception of Plato's philosophy is the highest +conception of the critic's own. We, however, are reasonably safe in +assuming that Plato's own ideas were put into the mouth of Socrates, for +the one intent of Plato's life was to redeem Socrates from the charges +that had been made against him. The characters Shakespeare loved are the +ones that represent the master, not the hated and handmade rogues.</p> + +<p>Plato's position in life was that of a spectator rather than that of an +actor. He stood and saw the procession pass by, and as it passed, +commented on it. He charged his pupils no tuition and accepted no fees, +claiming that to sell one's influence or ideas was immoral.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that Byron held a similar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> position at the +beginning of his literary career, and declared i' faith, he "would not +prostitute his genius for hire." He gave his poems to the world. Later, +when his income was pinched, he began to make bargains with Barabbas and +became an artist in per centum, collecting close, refusing to rhyme +without collateral.</p> + +<p>Byron's humanity is not seriously disputed. Plato also was human. He had +a fixed income and so knew the worthlessness of riches. He issued no +tariff, but the goodly honorarium left mysteriously on a marble bench by +a rich pupil he accepted, and for it gave thanks to the gods. He said +many great things, but he never said this: "I would have every man poor +that he might know the value of money."</p> + +<p>"The Republic" is the best known and best read of any of Plato's +dialogues. It outlines an ideal form of government where everybody would +be healthy, happy and prosperous. It has served as inspiration to Sir +Thomas More, Erasmus, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Morris, Edward +Bellamy, Brigham Young, John Humphrey Noyes and Eugene Debs. The +sub-division of labor, by setting apart certain persons to do certain +things—for instance, to care for the children—has made its appeal to +Upton Sinclair, who jumped from his Utopian woodshed into a rubber-plant +and bounced off into oblivion.</p> + +<p>Plato's plan was intended to relieve marriage from the danger of +becoming a form of slavery. The rulers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> teachers and artists especially +were to be free, and the State was to assume all responsibilities. The +reason is plain: he wanted them to reproduce themselves. But whether +genius is an acquirement or a natural endowment he touches on but +lightly. Also, he seemingly did not realize "that no hovel is safe from +it."</p> + +<p>If all marriage-laws were done away with, Plato thought that the men and +women who were mated would still be true to each other, and that the +less the police interfered in love-relations, the better.</p> + +<p>In one respect at least, Plato was certainly right: he advocated the +equality of the sexes, and declared that no woman should be owned by a +man nor forced into a mode of life, either by economic exigency or +marriage, that was repulsive to her. Also, that her right to bear +children or not should be strictly her own affair, and to dictate to a +mother as to who should father her children tended to the production of +a slavish race.</p> + +<p>The eugenics of "The Republic" were tried for thirty years by the Oneida +Community with really good results, but one generation of communal +marriages was proved to be the limit, a thing Plato now knows from his +heights in Elysium, but which he in his bachelor dreams on earth did not +realize.</p> + +<p>In his division of labor each was to do the thing he was best fitted to +do, and which he liked to do. It was assumed that each person had a +gift, and that to use this gift all that was necessary was to give him +an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> opportunity. That very modern cry of "equality of opportunity" harks +back to Plato.</p> + +<p>The monastic impulse was a very old thing, even in the time of Plato. +The monastic impulse is simply cutting for sanctuary when the pressure +of society gets intense—a getting rid of the world by running away from +it. This usually occurs when the novitiate has exhausted his capacity +for sin, and so tries saintship in the hope of getting a new thrill.</p> + +<p>Plato had been much impressed by the experiments of Pythagoras, who had +actually done the thing of which Plato only talked. Plato now picked the +weak points in the Pythagorean philosophy and sought, in imagination, to +construct a fabric that would stand the test of time.</p> + +<p>However, all Utopias, like all monasteries and penitentiaries, are made +up of picked people. The Oneida Community was not composed of average +individuals, but of people who were selected with great care, and only +admitted after severe tests. And great as was Plato, he could not +outline an ideal plan of life except for an ideal people.</p> + +<p>To remain in the world of work and share the burdens of all—to ask for +nothing which other people can not have on like terms—not to consider +yourself peculiar, unique and therefore immune and exempt—is now the +ideal of the best minds. We have small faith in monasticism or +monotheism, but we do have great faith<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> in monism. We believe in the +Solidarity of the Race. We must all progress together. Whether +Pythagoras, John Humphrey Noyes and Brigham Young were ahead of the +world or behind it is really not to the point—the many would not +tolerate them. So their idealism was diluted with danger until it became +as somber, sober and slaty-gray as the average existence, and fades as +well as shrinks in the wash.</p> + +<p>A private good is no more possible for a community than it is for an +individual. We help ourselves only as we advance the race—we are happy +only as we minister to the whole. The race is one, and this is monism.</p> + +<p>And here Socrates and Plato seemingly separate, for Socrates in his life +wanted nothing, not even joy, and Plato's desire was for peace and +happiness. Yet the ideal of justice in Plato's philosophy is very +exalted.</p> + +<p>No writer in that flowering time of beauty and reason which we call "The +Age of Pericles" exerted so profound an influence as Plato. All the +philosophers that follow him were largely inspired by him. Those who +berated him most were, very naturally, the ones he had most benefited. +Teach a boy to write, and the probabilities are that his first essay, +when he has cut loose from his teacher's apron-strings and starts a +brownie bibliomag, will be in denunciation of the man who taught him to +push the pen and wield the Faber.</p> + +<p>Xenophon was more indebted, intellectually, to Plato than to any other +living man, yet he speaks scathingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> of his master. Plutarch, Cicero, +Iamblichus, Pliny, Horace and all the other Roman writers read Plato +religiously. The Christian Fathers kept his work alive, and passed it on +to Dante, Petrarch and the early writers of the Renaissance, so all of +their thought is well flavored with essence of Plato. Well does Addison +put into the mouth of Cato those well-known words:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It must be so—Plato, thou reasonest well!—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This longing after immortality?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Back on herself, and startles at destruction?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'T is the divinity that stirs within us;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'T is heaven itself, that points out an hereafter,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And intimates eternity to man.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>All of that English group of writers in Addison's day knew their Plato, +exactly as did Cato and the other great Romans of near two thousand +years before. From Plato you can prove that there is a life after this +for each individual soul, as Francis of Assisi proved, or you can take +your Plato, as did Hume, and show that man lives only in his influence, +his individual life returning to the mass and becoming a part of all the +great pulsing existence that ebbs and flows through plant and tree and +flower and flying bird. And today we turn to Plato and find the +corroboration of our thought that to live now and here, up to our +highest and best,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> is the acme of wisdom. We prepare to live by living. +If there is another world we better be getting ready for it. If heaven +is an Ideal Republic it is founded on unselfishness, truth, reciprocity, +equanimity and co-operation, and only those will be at home there who +have practised these virtues here. Man was made for mutual service. This +way lies Elysium.</p> + +<p>Plato was a teacher of teachers, and like every other great teacher who +has ever lived, his soul goes marching on, for to teach is to influence, +and influence never dies. Hail, Plato!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="KING_ALFRED" id="KING_ALFRED"></a>KING ALFRED</h2> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0412.jpg" alt="KING ALFRED" title="KING ALFRED" /></div> + + + + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A saint without superstition, a scholar without ostentation, a +warrior who fought only in defense of his country, a conqueror +whose laurels were never stained with cruelty, a prince never cast +down by adversity, nor lifted up to insolence in the hour of +triumph—there is no other name in English history to compare with +his.</p> + +<p>—<i>Freeman</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>KING ALFRED</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgj.jpg" alt="J" title="J" /></div><p>ulius Cæsar, the greatest man of initiative the world has ever seen, +had a nephew known as Cæsar Augustus.</p> + +<p>The grandeur that was Rome occurred in the reign of Augustus. It was +Augustus who said, "I found your city mud and I left it marble!" The +impetus given to the times by Julius Cæsar was conserved by Augustus. He +continued the work his uncle had planned, but before he had completed +it, he grew very weary, and the weariness he expressed was also the old +age of the nation. There was lime in the bones of the boss.</p> + +<p>When Cæsar Augustus said, "Rome is great enough—here we rest," he +merely meant that he had reached his limit, and had had enough of +road-building. At the boundaries of the Empire and the end of each Roman +road he set up a statue of the god Terminus. This god gave his blessing +to those going beyond, and a welcome to those returning, just as the +Stars and Stripes welcome the traveler coming to America from across the +sea. This god Terminus also supplied the world, especially the railroad +world, a word.</p> + +<p>Julius Cæsar reached his terminus and died, aged fifty-six, from +compulsory vaccination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> Augustus, aged seventy-seven, died peacefully +in bed.</p> + +<p>The reign of Augustus marks the crest of the power of Rome, and a crest +is a place where no man nor nation stays—when you reach it, you go over +and down on the other side.</p> + +<p>When Augustus set up his Termini, announcing to all mankind that this +was the limit, the enemies of Rome took courage and became active. The +Goths and Vandals, hanging on the skirts of Rome, had learned many +things, and one of the things was that, for getting rich quick, conquest +is better than production. The barbarians, some of whom evidently had a +sense of humor, had a way of picking up the Termini and carrying them +inward, and finally they smashed them entirely, somewhat as country +boys, out hunting, shoot railroad-signs full of holes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p>n the Middle Ages the soldier was supreme, and in the name of +protecting the people he robbed the people, a tradition much respected, +but not in the breach.</p> + +<p>To escape the scourge of war, certain families and tribes moved +northward. It was fight and turmoil in Southern Europe that settled +Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and produced the Norsemen. And in making for +themselves a home in the wilderness, battling with the climate and +unkind conditions, there was evolved a very strong and sturdy type of +man.</p> + +<p>On the north shore of the Baltic dwelt the Norsemen. Along the southern +shore were scattered several small tribes or families who were not +strong enough in numbers to fight the Goths, and so sought peace with +them, and were taxed—or pillaged—often to the point of starvation. +They were so poor and insignificant that the Romans really never heard +of them, and they never heard of the Romans, save in myth and legend. +They lived in caves and rude stone huts. They fished, hunted, raised +goats and farmed, and finally, about the year Three Hundred, they +secured horses, which they bought from the Goths, who stole them from +the Romans.</p> + +<p>Their Government was the Folkmoot, the germ of the New England Town +Meeting. All the laws were passed by all the people, and in the making +of these laws, the women had an equal voice with the men.</p> + +<p>When important steps were to be taken where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> interests of the whole +tribe were at stake, great deference was paid to the opinions of the +mothers. For the mother spoke not only for herself, but for her +children. The mother was the home-maker. The word "wife" means weaver; +and this deference to the one member of the family who invented, +created, preparing both the food and the clothing, is a marked Teutonic +instinct. Its survival is seen yet in the sturdy German of the middle +class, who takes his wife and children with him when he goes to the +concert or to the beer-garden. So has he always taken his family with +him on his migrations; whereas the Greeks and the Romans left their +women behind.</p> + +<p>South America was colonized by Spanish men. And the Indians and the +Negroes absorbed the haughty grandee, yet preserved the faults and +failings of both.</p> + +<p>The German who moves to America comes to stay—his family is a part of +himself. The Italian comes alone, and his intent is to make what he can +and return. This is a modified form of conquest.</p> + +<p>The Romans who came to Brittany in Cæsar's time were men. Those who +remained "took to themselves wives among the daughters of Philistia," as +strong men ever are wont to do when they seek to govern savage tribes. +And note this—instead of raising the savages or barbarians to their +level, they sink to theirs. The child takes the status of the mother. +The white man who marries an Indian woman becomes an Indian and their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +children are Indians. With the Negro race the same law holds.</p> + +<p>The Teutonic races have conquered the world because they took their +women with them on their migrations, mental and physical. And the moral +seems to be this, that the men who progress financially, morally and +spiritually are those who do not leave their women-folk behind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgw.jpg" alt="W" title="W" /></div><p>hen we think of the English, we usually have in mind the British Isles. +But the original England was situated along the southern shore of the +Baltic Sea. This was the true Eng-Land, the land of the Engles or +Angles. To one side lay Jute-Land, the home of the Jutes. On the other +was Saxony, where dwelt the Saxons.</p> + +<p>Jute-Land still lives in Jutland; the land of the Saxons is yet so +indicated on the map; but Eng-Land was transported bodily a thousand +miles, and her original territory became an abandoned farm where +barbarians battled.</p> + +<p>And now behold how England has diffused herself all over the world, with +the British Isles as a base of supplies, or a radiating center. Behind +this twenty miles of water that separates Calais and Dover she found +safety and security, and there her brain and brawn evolved and expanded. +So there are now Anglo-Americans, Anglo-Africans, Anglo-Indians, +Anglo-Australians, and Anglo-New-Zealanders. As the native Indians of +America and the Maoris of New Zealand have given way before the onward +push and persistence of the English, so likewise did the ancient Britons +give way and were absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons; and then the Saxons, +being a little too fine for the stern competitor, allowed the Engles to +take charge. And as Dutch, Germans, Slavs and Swedes are transformed +with the second generation into English-Americans when they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> come to +America, so did the people from Eng-Land fuse Saxons, Norsemen, Jutes, +Celts and Britons into one people and fix upon them the indelible stamp +of Eng-Land.</p> + +<p>Yet it is obvious that the characters of the people of England have been +strengthened, modified and refined by contact with the various races she +has met, mixed with and absorbed. To influence others is to grow. Had +England been satisfied to people and hold the British Isles, she would +ere this have been outrun and absorbed by Spain or France. To stand +still is to retreat. It is the same with men as it is with races. +England's Colonies have been her strength. They have given her poise, +reserve, ballast—and enough trouble to prevent either revolution, +stagnation or introspection.</p> + +<p>Nations have their periods of youth, manhood and old age. Whether +England is now passing into decline, living her life in her children, +the Colonies, might be indelicate to ask. Perhaps as Briton, Celt, Jute +and Saxon were fused to make that hardy, courageous, restless and sinewy +man known as the Englishman, so are the English, the Dutch, the Swede, +the German, the Slav, transplanted into America, being fused into a +composite man who shall surpass any type that the world has ever seen. +In the British Isles, just as in the great cities, mankind gets +pot-bound. In the newer lands, the roots strike deep into the soil, and +find the sustenance the human plant requires.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p>Walls keep folks in as well as shut other folks out. The British Isles, +rock-faced and sea-girted, shut out the enemies of England without +shutting the English in. A country surrounded by the sea produces +sailors, and England's position bred a type of man that made her +mistress of the seas. As her drum-taps, greeting the rising sun, girdle +the world, so do her lighthouses flash protection to the mariner +wherever the hungry sea lies in wait along rocky coasts, the round world +over. England has sounded the shallows, marked the rocks and reefs, and +mapped the coasts.</p> + +<p>The first settlement of Saxons in Britain occurred in the year Four +Hundred Forty-nine. They did not come as invaders, as did the Romans +five hundred years before; their numbers were too few, and their arms +too crude to mean menace to the swarthy, black-haired Britons. These +fair stranger-folk were welcomed as curiosities and were allowed to +settle and make themselves homes. Word was sent back to Saxony and +Jute-Land and more settlers came. In a few years came a shipload of +Engles, with their women and children, red-haired, freckled, tawny. They +tilled the soil with a faith and an intelligence such as the Britons +never brought to bear: very much as the German settlers follow the +pioneers and grow rich where the Mudsock fails. Naturally the +fair-haired girls found favor in the sight of the swarthy Britons. +Marriages occurred, and a new type of man-child appeared as the months +went by.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> More Engles came. A century passed, and the coast, from Kent +to the Firth of Forth, was dotted with the farms and homes of the people +from the Baltic. There were now occasional protests from the original +holders, and fights followed, when the Britons retreated before the +strangers, or else were very glad to make terms. Victory is a matter of +staying-power. The Engles had come to stay.</p> + +<p>But a new enemy had appeared—the Norsemen or Danes. These were +sea-nomads who acknowledged no man as master. Rough, bold, laughing at +disaster, with no patience to build or dig or plow, they landed but to +ravish, steal and lay waste, and then boarded their craft, sailing away, +joying in the ruin they had wrought.</p> + +<p>The next year they came back. The industry and the thrift of the Engles +made Britain a land of promise, a storehouse where the good things of +life could be secured much more easily than by creating or producing +them. And so now, before this common foe, the Britons, Jutes, Celts, +Saxons and Engles united to punish and expel the invaders.</p> + +<p>The calamity was a blessing—as most calamities are. From being a dozen +little kingdoms, Britain now became one. A "Cyng," or captain, was +chosen—an Engle, strong of arm, clear of brain, blue of eye, with long +yellow hair. He was a man who commanded respect by his person and by his +deeds. His name was Egbert.</p> + +<p>King Alfred, or Elfred, was born at Wantage, Berk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>shire, in the year +Eight Hundred Forty-nine. He was the grandson of Egbert, a great man, +and the son of Ethelwulf, a man of mediocre qualities. Alfred was shrewd +enough to inherit the courage and persistence of his grandfather. Our D. +A. R. friends are right and Mark Twain is wrong—it is really more +necessary to have a grandfather than a father.</p> + +<p>English civilization begins with Alfred. If you will refer to the +dictionary you will find that the word "civilization" simply means to be +civil. That is, if you are civilized you are gentle instead of +violent—gaining your ends by kindly and persuasive means, instead of +through coercion, intimidation and force.</p> + +<p>Alfred was the first English gentleman, and let no joker add "and the +last." Yet it is needless and quite irrelevant to say that civilized +people are not always civil; nor are gentlemen always gentle—so little +do words count. Many gentlemen are only gents.</p> + +<p>Alfred was civil and gentle. He had been sent to Rome in his boyhood, +and this transplantation had done him a world of good. Superior men are +always transplanted men: people who do not travel have no perspective. +To stay at home means getting pot-bound. You neither search down in the +soil for color and perfume nor reach out strong toward the sunshine.</p> + +<p>It was only a few years before the time of Alfred that a Christian monk +appeared at Edin-Borough, and told the astonished Engles and Saxons of +the gentle Jesus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> who had been sent to earth by the All-Father to tell +men they should love their enemies and be gentle and civil and not +violent, and should do unto others as they would be done by. The natural +religion of the Great Spirit which the ancient Teutonic people held had +much in it that was good, but now they were prepared for something +better—they had the hope of a heaven of rest and happiness after death.</p> + +<p>Christianity flourishes best among a downtrodden, poor, subdued and +persecuted people. Renan says it is a religion of sorrow. And primitive +Christianity—the religion of conduct—is a beautiful and pure doctrine +that no sane person ever flouted or scoffed.</p> + +<p>The parents of Alfred, filled with holy zeal, allowed one of the +missionary monks to take the boy to Rome. The idea was that he should +become a bishop in the Church.</p> + +<p>Ethelred, the elder brother of Alfred, had succeeded Ethelwulf, his +father, as King. The Danes had overrun and ravished the country. For +many years these marauding usurpers had fed their armies on the products +of the land. And now they had more than two-thirds of the country under +their control, and the fear that they would absolutely subjugate the +Anglo-Saxons was imminent. Ethelwulf gave up the struggle in despair and +died. Ethelred fell in battle. And as the Greeks of old in their terror +cast around for the strongest man they could find to repel the Persian +invaders, and picked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> on the boy Alexander, so did the Anglo-Saxons turn +to Alfred, the gentle and silent. He was only twenty-three years old. In +build he was slight and slender, but he had given token of his courage +for four years, fighting with his brother. He had qualities that were +closely akin to those of both Alexander and Cæsar. He had a cool, clear +and vivid intellect and he had invincible courage. But he surpassed both +of the men just named in that he had a tender, sympathetic heart.</p> + +<p>The Danes were overconfident, and had allowed their discipline to relax. +Alfred had at first evidently encouraged them in their idea that they +had won, for he struck feebly and then withdrew his army to the marshes, +where the Danish horsemen could not follow.</p> + +<p>The Danes went into winter quarters, fat and feasting. Alfred made a +definite plan for a campaign, drilled his men, prayed with them, and +filled their hearts with the one idea that they were going forth to +certain victory. And to victory they went. They fell upon the Danes with +an impetuosity as unexpected as it was invincible, and before they could +get into their armor, or secure their horses, they were in a rout. Every +timid Engle and Saxon now took heart—it was the Lord's victory—they +were fighting for home—the Danes gave way. This was not all +accomplished quite as easily as I am writing it, but difficulties, +deprivations and disaster only brought out new resources in Alfred. He +was as serenely hopeful as was Washington at Valley Forge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and his +soldiers were just as ragged. He, too, like Thomas Paine, cried, "These +are the times that try men's souls—be grateful for this crisis, for it +will give us opportunity to show that we are men." He had aroused his +people to a pitch where the Danes would have had to kill them all, or +else give way. As they could not kill them they gave way. Napoleon at +twenty-six was master of France and had Italy under his heel, and so was +Alfred at the same age supreme in Southern Britain—including Wessex and +Mercia. He rounded up the enemy, took away their weapons, and then held +a revival-meeting, asking everybody to come forward to the +mourners'-bench. There is no proof that he coerced them into +Christianity. They were glad to accept it. Alfred seemed to have the +persuasive power of the Reverend Doctor Torrey. Guthrum, the Danish +King, who had come over to take a personal hand in the looting, was +captured, baptized, and then Alfred stood sponsor for him and gave him +the name of Ethelstan. He was made a bishop.</p> + +<p>This acceptance of Christianity by the leaders of the Danes broke their +fierce spirit, and peace followed. Alfred told the soldiers to use their +horses to plow the fields. The two armies that had fought each other now +worked together at road-making and draining the marshes. Some of the +Danes fled in their ships, but very many remained and became citizens of +the country. The Danish names are still recognizable. Names beginning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +with the aspirate, say Herbert, Hulett, Hubbard, Hubbs, Harold, Hancock, +are Danish, and are the cause of that beautiful muddling of the "H" that +still perplexes the British tongue, the rule governing which is to put +it on where it is not needed and leave it off where it is. The Danes +called the Engles, "Hengles," and the Engles called a man by the name of +Henry, "Enry."</p> + +<p>In saving Wessex, Alfred saved England for the English people; for it +was from Wessex, as a center, that his successors began the task of +reconquering England from the Danes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgw.jpg" alt="W" title="W" /></div><p>ith the rule of Alfred begins the England that we know. As we call +Herodotus the father of history, so could we, with equal propriety, call +Asser, who wrote in the time of Alfred, the father of English history. +The oldest English book is the "Life of Alfred" by Asser the monk.</p> + +<p>That Asser was a dependent on his subject and very much in love with +him, doubtless gave a very strong bias to the book. That it is right in +the main, although occasionally wrong as to details, is proved by +various corroborating records.</p> + +<p>The king's word in Alfred's time was law, and Alfred proved his modesty +by publicly proclaiming that a king was not divine, but only a man, and +therefore a king's edicts should be endorsed by the people in Folkmoot. +Here we get the genesis of popular government, and about the only +instance that I can recall where a very strong man acting as chief ruler +renounced a part of his power to the people, of his own accord. Kings +usually have to be trimmed, and it is revolution that does the shearing. +It is the rule that men do not relinquish power of their own +accord—they have to be disannexed from it.</p> + +<p>Alfred, however, knew the popular heart—he was very close to the common +people. He had slept on the ground with his soldiers, fared at table +with the swineherd's family, tilled the soil with the farmer folk. His +heart went out to humanity. He did not overrate the average<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> mind, nor +did he underrate it. He had faith in mankind, and knew that at the last +power was with the people. He did not say, "Vox populi, vox Dei," but he +thought it. Therefore he set himself to educating the plain people. He +prophesied a day when all grown men would be able to read and write, and +when all would have an intelligent, personal interest in the government.</p> + +<p>There have been periods in English history when Britain lagged woefully +behind, for England has had kings who forgot the rights of mankind, and +instead of seeking to serve their people, have battened and fattened +upon them. They governed. George the Third thought that Alfred was a +barbarian, and spoke of him with patronizing pity.</p> + +<p>Alfred introduced the system of trial by jury, although the fact has +been pointed out that he did not originate it. It goes back to the hardy +Norseman who acknowledged no man as master, harking back to a time when +there was no law, and to a people whose collective desire was supreme. +In fact, it has its origin in "Lynch Law," or the rule of the +Vigilantes. From a village turning loose on an offender and pulling him +limb from limb, a degree of deliberation comes in and a committee of +twelve are selected to investigate the deed and report their verdict.</p> + +<p>The jury system began with pirates and robbers, but it is no less +excellent on that account, and we might add that freedom also began with +pirates and robbers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> for they were the people who cried, "We +acknowledge no man as master."</p> + +<p>The early Greeks had trials by jury—Socrates was tried by a jury of +five hundred citizens.</p> + +<p>But let the fact stand that Alfred was the man who first introduced the +jury system into England. He had absolute power. He was the sole judge +and ruler, but on various occasions he abdicated the throne and said: "I +do not feel able to try this man, for as I look into my heart I see that +I am prejudiced. Neither will I name men to try him, for in their +selection I might also be prejudiced. Therefore let one hundred men be +called, and from these let twelve be selected by lot, and they shall +listen to the charges and weigh the defense, and their verdict shall be +mine."</p> + +<p>We sometimes say that English Common Law is built on the Roman Law, but +I can not find that Alfred ever studied the Roman Law, or ever heard of +the Justinian Code, or thought it worth while to establish a system of +jurisprudence. His government was of the simplest sort. He respected the +habits, ways and customs of the common people, and these were the Common +Law. If the people had a footpath that was used by their children and +their parents and their grandparents, then this path belonged to the +people, and Alfred said that even the King could not take it from them.</p> + +<p>This deference to the innocent ways, habits and natural rights of the +people mark Alfred as supremely great,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> because a great man is one great +in his sympathies. Alfred had the imagination to put himself in the +place of the lowly and obscure.</p> + +<p>The English love of law, system and order dates from Alfred. The +patience, kindliness, good-cheer and desire for fair play were his, +plus. He had poise, equanimity, unfaltering faith and a courage that +never grew faint. He was as religious as Cromwell, as firm as +Washington, as stubborn as Gladstone. In him were combined the virtues +of the scholar and patriot, the efficiency of the man of affairs with +the wisdom of the philosopher. His character, both public and private, +is stainless, and his whole life was one of enlightened and magnanimous +service to his country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p>n the age of Augustus there was one study that was regarded as more +important than all others, and this was rhetoric, or the art of the +rhetor. The rhetor was a man whose business it was to persuade or +convince.</p> + +<p>The public forum has its use in the very natural town-meeting, or the +powwow of savages. But in Rome it had developed and been refined to a +point where the public had no voice, although the boasted forum still +existed. The forum was monopolized by the professional orators hired by +this political clique or that.</p> + +<p>It was about like the political "forum" in America today.</p> + +<p>The greatest man in Rome was the man who could put up the greatest talk. +So all Roman mammas and matrons had their boys study rhetoric. The +father of Seneca had a school of oratory where rich Roman youths were +taught to mouth in orotund and gesticulate in curves. He must have been +a pretty good teacher, for he had two extraordinary sons, one of whom is +mentioned in the Bible, and a most exemplary daughter.</p> + +<p>Oratory as an end we now regard as an unworthy art. The first requisite +is to feel deeply—to have a message—and then if you are a person of +fair intelligence and in good health, you'll impress your hearers. But +to hire out to impress people with another's theme is to be a +pettifogger, and the genus pettifogger has nearly had his day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>History moves in circles. The Chicago Common Council, weary of rhetoric, +has recently declined to listen to paid attorneys; but any citizen who +speaks for himself and his neighbors can come before the Council and +state his case.</p> + +<p>Chief Justice Fuller has given it as his opinion that there will come a +day in America when damage-cases will be taken care of by an automatic +tribunal, without the help of lawyers. And as a man fills out a request +for a money-order at the Post-Office, so will he file his claim for +damages, and it will have attention. The contingent fee will yet be a +misdemeanor. Also, it will be possible for plain citizens to be able to +go before a Court of Equity and be heard without regard to law and +precedent and attorney's quillets and quibbles, which so often hamper +justice. Justice should be cheap and easy, instead of costly and +complex.</p> + +<p>Evidently the Chief Justice had in mind the usages in the time of King +Alfred, when the barrister was an employee of the court, and his +business was to get the facts and then explain them to the King in the +fewest possible words.</p> + +<p>Alfred considered a paid advocate, or even a counselor, as without the +pale, and such men were never allowed at court. If the barrister +accepted a fee from a man suing for justice, he was disbarred.</p> + +<p>Finally, however, the practise of feeing in order to renew the zeal of a +barrister grew so that it had to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> tolerated, because things we can't +suppress we license, and a pocket was placed on each barrister's back +between his shoulders where he could not reach it without taking off his +gown, and into this pocket clients were allowed slyly to slip such +gratuities as they could afford.</p> + +<p>But the general practise of the client paying the barrister, instead of +the court, was not adopted for several hundred years later, and then it +was regarded as an expeditious move to keep down litigation and punish +the client for being fool enough not to settle his own troubles.</p> + +<p>In England the rudimentary pocket still survives, like the buttons on +the back of a coat, which were once used to support the sword-belt.</p> + +<p>In America we have done away with wigs and gowns for attorneys, but +attorneys are still regarded as attaches of the court, even though +one-half of them, according to Judge DeCourcy of Boston, are engaged +most of the time in attempts to bamboozle and befog the judge and jury +and defeat the ends of justice. Likewise, we still use the word "Court," +signifying the place where lives royalty, even for the dingy office of a +country J. P., where sawdust spittoons are the bric-a-brac and +patent-office reports loom large, and justice is dispensed with. We now +also commonly call the man "the Court."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p>lfred was filled with a desire to educate, and to this end organized a +school at the Ox Ford, where his friend Asser taught. This school was +the germ of the University of Oxford. Attached to this school was a +farm, where the boys were taught how to sow and plant and reap to the +best advantage. Here they also bred and raised horses and cattle, and +the care of livestock was a part of the curriculum. It was the first +College of Agriculture.</p> + +<p>It comes to us as somewhat of a surprise to see how we are now going +back to simplicity, and the agricultural college is being given the due +and thoughtful consideration which it deserves. Twenty years ago our +agricultural college was considered more or less of a joke, but now that +which adds greatly to the wealth of the nation, and the happiness and +well-being of the people, is looked upon as worthy of our support and +highest respect.</p> + +<p>Up to the time of Alfred, England had no navy. For the government to own +ships seemed quite preposterous, since the people had come to England to +stay, and were not marauders intent on exploitation and conquest, like +the Norsemen.</p> + +<p>But after Alfred had vanquished the Danes and they had settled down as +citizens, he took their ships, refitted them, built more and said: "No +more marauders shall land on these shores. If we are threatened we will +meet the enemy on the sea."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>In a few years along came a fleet of marauding Norse. The English ships +on the lookout gave the alarm, and England's navy put out to meet them. +The enemy were taken by surprise, and the fate that five hundred years +later was to overtake the Spanish Armada, was theirs.</p> + +<p>From that time to this, England has had a navy that has gradually grown +in power.</p> + +<p>Let no one imagine that peace and rest came to Alfred. His life was a +battle, for not only did he have to fight the Danes, but he had to +struggle with ignorance, stupidity and superstition at home. To lead men +out of captivity is a thankless task. They always ask when you take away +their superstition, "What are you going to give us in return?" They do +not realize that superstition is a disease, and that to give another +disease in return is not nice, necessary or polite.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + + +<p>Alfred died, at the age of fifty-two, worn out with his ceaseless labors +of teaching, building, planning, inventing and devising methods and +means for the betterment and benefit of his people.</p> + +<p>After his death, the Danes were successful, and Canute became King of +England. But he was proud to be called an Englishman, and declared he +was no longer a Dane.</p> + +<p>And so England captured him.</p> + +<p>Then came the Norman William, claiming the throne by right of +succession, and successfully battling for it; but the English people +reckoned the Conqueror as of their own blood—their kith and kin—and so +he was. He issued an edict forbidding any one to call him or his +followers "Norman," "Norse" or "Norsemen," and declared there was a +United England. And so he lived and died an Englishman; and after him no +ruler, these nine hundred years, has ever sat on the throne of the +Engles by right of conquest.</p> + +<p>Both Canute and William recognized and prized the worth of Alfred's +rule. The virtues of Alfred are the virtues that have made it possible +for the Teutonic tribes to girdle the globe. It was Alfred who taught +the nobility of industry, service, education, patience, loyalty, +persistence, and the faith and hope that abide. By pen, tongue, and best +of all by his life, Alfred taught the truths which we yet hold dear. And +by this sign shall ye conquer!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="ERASMUS" id="ERASMUS"></a>ERASMUS</h2> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0414.jpg" alt="ERASMUS" title="ERASMUS" /></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We see not a few mortals who, striving to emulate this divine +virtue with more zeal than success, fall into a feeble and +disjointed loquacity, obscuring the subject and burdening the +wretched ears of their hearers with a vacant mass of words and +sentences crowded together beyond all possibility of enjoyment. And +writers who have tried to lay down the principles of this art have +gained no other result than to display their own poverty while +expounding abundance.</p> + +<p>—<i>Erasmus on "Preaching"</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ERASMUS</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imge.jpg" alt="E" title="E" /></div><p>rasmus was born in Fourteen Hundred Sixty-six, and died in Fifteen +Hundred Thirty-six. No thinker of his time influenced the world more. He +stood at a pivotal point, and some say he himself was the intellectual +pivot of the Renaissance.</p> + +<p>The critics of the times were unanimous in denouncing him—which fact +recommends him to us.</p> + +<p>Several Churchmen, high in power, live in letters for no other reason +than because they coupled their names with that of Erasmus by reviling +him. Let the critics take courage—they may outwit oblivion yet, even +though they do nothing but carp. Only let them be wise, and carp, croak, +cough, cat-call and sneeze at some one who is hitching his wagon to a +star. This way immortality lies. Erasmus was a monk who flocked by +himself, and found diversion in ridiculing monkery. Also, he was the +wisest man of his day. Wisdom is the distilled essence of intuition, +corroborated by experience. Learning is something else. Usually, the +learned man is he who has delved deep and soared high. But few there be +who dive, that fish the murex up. Among those who soar, the ones who +come back and tell us of what they have seen, are few. Like Lazarus, +they say nothing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>Erasmus had a sense of humor. Humor is a life-preserver and saves you +from drowning when you jump off into a sea of sermons. A theologian who +can not laugh is apt to explode—he is very dangerous. Erasmus, Luther, +Beecher, Theodore Parker, Roger Williams, Joseph Parker—all could +laugh. Calvin, Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards never gurgled in glee, +nor chortled softly at their own witticisms—or those of others.</p> + +<p>Erasmus smiled. He has been called the Voltaire of his day. What +Rousseau was to Voltaire, Luther was to Erasmus. Well did Diderot say +that Erasmus laid the egg which Luther hatched. Erasmus wrote for the +educated, the refined, the learned—Luther made his appeal to the plain +and common mind.</p> + +<p>Luther split the power of the Pope. Erasmus thought it a calamity to do +so, because he believed that strife of sects tended to make men lose +sight of the one essential in religion—harmony—and cause them simply +to struggle for victory. Erasmus wanted to trim the wings of the papal +office and file its claws—Luther would have destroyed it. Erasmus +considered the Church a very useful and needful organization—for social +reasons. It tended to regulate life and conduct and made men +"decentable." It should be a school of ethics, and take a leading part +in every human betterment. Man being a gregarious animal, the +congregation is in the line of natural desire. The excuse for gathering +together is religion—let them gather. The Catholic Church is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> two +thousand years old—it is ten thousand years old and goes back to Egypt. +The birth of Jesus formed merely a psychosis in the Church's existence.</p> + +<p>Here he parted company with Luther, who was a dogmatist and wanted to +debate his ninety-five theses. Erasmus laughed at all religious +disputations and called them mazes that led to cloudland. Very +naturally, people said he was not sincere, since the mediocre mind never +knows that only the paradox is true. Hence Erasmus was hated by +Catholics and denounced by Protestants.</p> + +<p>The marvel is that the men with fetters and fagots did not follow him +with a purpose. Fifty years later he would have been snuffed out. But at +that time Rome was so astonished to think that any one should criticize +her that she lost breath. Besides, it was an age of laughter, of revolt, +of contests of wit, of love-bouts and love-scrapes, and the monks who +lapsed were too many to discipline. Everybody was busy with his own +affairs. Happy time!</p> + +<p>Erasmus was part and parcel of the Italian Renaissance. Over his head +blazes, in letters that burn, the unforgetable date, Fourteen Hundred +Ninety-two. He was a part of the great unrest, and he helped cause the +great unrest. Every great awakening, every renaissance, is an age of +doubt. An age of conservatism is an age of moss, of lichen, of rest, +rust and ruin. We grow only as we question. As long as we are sure that +the present order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> is perfect, we button our collars behind, a thing +which Columbus, Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Leonardo and +Gutenberg, who all lived at this one time, never did. The year of +Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, like the year Seventeen Hundred +Seventy-six, was essentially "infidelic," just as the present age is +constructively iconoclastic. We are tearing down our barns to build +greater. The railroadman who said, "I throw an engine on the scrap-heap +every morning before breakfast," expressed a great truth. We are +discarding bad things for good ones, and good things for better ones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgr.jpg" alt="R" title="R" /></div><p>otterdam has the honor of being the birthplace of Erasmus. A storm of +calumny was directed at him during his life concerning the irregularity +of his birth. "He had no business to be born at all," said a proud +prelate, as he gathered his robes close around his prebendal form. But +souls knock at the gates of life for admittance, and the fact that a man +exists is proof of his right to live. The word "illegitimate" is not in +the vocabulary of God. If you do not know that, you have not read His +instructive and amusing works.</p> + +<p>The critics variously declared the mother of Erasmus was a royal lady, a +physician's only daughter, a kitchen-wench, a Mother Superior—all +according to the prejudices preconceived. In one sense she was surely a +Mother Superior—let the lies neutralize one another.</p> + +<p>The fact is, we do not know who the mother of Erasmus was. All we know +is that she was the mother of Erasmus. Here history halts. Her son once +told Sir Thomas More that she was married to a luckless nobody a few +months after the birth of her first baby, and amid the cares of raising +a goodly brood of nobodies on a scant allowance of love and rye-bread, +she was glad to forget her early indiscretions. Not so the father. The +debated question of whether a man really has any parental love is +answered here.</p> + +<p>The father of Erasmus was Gerhard von Praet, and the child was called +Gerhard Gerhards—or the son of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Gerhard. The father was a man of +property and held office under the State. At the time of the birth of +the illustrious baby, Gerhard von Praet was not married, and it is +reasonable to suppose that the reason he did not wed the mother of his +child was because she belonged to a different social station. In any +event the baby was given the father's name, and every care and attention +was paid the tiny voyager. This father was as foolish as most fond +mothers, for he dreamed out a great career for the motherless one, and +made sundry prophecies.</p> + +<p>At six years of age the child was studying Latin, when he should have +been digging in a sand-pile. At eight he spoke Dutch and French, and +argued with his nurse in Greek as to the value of buttermilk.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the father had married and settled down in honorable +obscurity as a respectable squire. Another account has it that he became +a priest. Anyway, the little maverick was now making head alone in a +private school.</p> + +<p>When the lad was thirteen the father died, leaving a will in which he +provided well for the child. The amount of property which by this will +would have belonged to our hero when he became of age would have +approximated forty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Happily, the trustees of the fund were law-wolves. They managed to break +the will, and then they showed the court that the child was a waif, and +absolutely devoid of legal rights of any and every kind. He was then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +committed to an orphan asylum to be given "a right religious education." +It's a queer old world, Terese, and what would have become of Gerhard +Gerhards had he fallen heir to his father's titles and estate, no man +can say. He might have accumulated girth and become an honored +burgomaster. As it was he became powder-monkey to a monk, and scrubbed +stone floors and rushed the growler for cowled and pious prelates.</p> + +<p>Then he did copying for the Abbe, and proved himself a boy from Missouri +Valley.</p> + +<p>He was small, blue-eyed, fair-haired, slender, slight, with a long nose +and sharp features. "With this nose," said Albrecht Durer, many years +later, "he successfully hunted down everything but heresy."</p> + +<p>At eighteen he became a monk and proudly had his flaxen poll tonsured. +His superior was fond of him, and prophesied that he would become a +bishop or something.</p> + +<p>Children do not suffer much, nor long. God is good to them. They slide +into an environment and accept it. This child learned to dodge the big +bare feet of the monks—got his lessons, played a little, worked his wit +against their stupidity, and actually won their admiration—or as much +of it as men who are alternately ascetics and libertines can give.</p> + +<p>It was about this time that the lad was taunted with having no name. +"Then I'll make one for myself," was his proud answer.</p> + +<p>Having entered now upon his novitiate, he was allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> to take a new +name, and being dead to the world, the old one was forgotten.</p> + +<p>They called him Brother Desiderius, or the Desired One. He then amended +this Latin name with its Greek equivalent, Erasmus, which means +literally the Well-Beloved. As to his pedigree, or lack of it, he was +needlessly proud. It set him apart as different. He had half-brothers +and half-sisters, and these he looked upon as strangers. When they came +to see him, he said, "There is no relationship between souls save that +of the spirit."</p> + +<p>His sense of wit came in when he writes to a friend: "Two parents are +the rule; no parents the exception; a mother but no father is not +uncommon; but I had a father and never had a mother. I was nursed by a +man, and educated by monks, all of which shows that women are more or +less of a superfluity in creation. God Himself is a man. He had one son, +but no daughters. The cherubim are boys. All of the angels are +masculine, and so far as Holy Writ informs us, there are no women in +heaven."</p> + +<p>That it was a woman, however, to whom Erasmus wrote this, lets him out +on the severity of the argument. He was a joker. And while women did not +absorb much of his time, we find that on his travels he often turned +aside to visit with intellectual women—no other kind interested him, at +all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>o belong to a religious order is to be owned by it. You trade freedom +for protection. The soul of Erasmus revolted at life in a monastery. He +hated the typical monks—their food, their ways of life, their +sophistry, their stupidity. To turn glutton and welcome folly as a +relief from religion, he said, was the most natural thing in the world, +when men had once started in to lead an unnatural life. Good food, +daintily served, only goes with a co-ed mental regimen. Men eat with +their hands, out of a pot, unless women are present to enforce the +decencies. Women alone are a little more to be pitied than men alone, if +'t were possible.</p> + +<p>Through emulation does the race grow. Sex puts men and women on their +good behavior.</p> + +<p>Man's desire for power has caused him to enslave himself. Writes +Erasmus, "In a monastery, no one is on his good behavior, except when +there are visitors, but I am told that this is so in families."</p> + +<p>The greasy, coarse cooking brought on a nice case of dyspepsia for poor +Erasmus—a complaint from which he was never free as long as he lived. +His system was too fine for any monastic general trough, but he found a +compensation in having his say at odd times and sundry. At one time we +hear of his printing on a card this legend, "If I owned hell and a +monastery, I would sell the monastery and reside in hell." Thereby did +Erasmus supply General Tecumseh Sherman the germ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> of a famous orphic. +Sherman was a professor in a college at Baton Rouge before the War, and +evidently had moused in the Latin classics to a purpose.</p> + +<p>Connected with the monastery where Erasmus lived was a printing-outfit. +Our versatile young monk learned the case, worked the ink-balls, +manipulated the lever, and evidently dispelled, in degree, the monotony +of the place by his ready pen and eloquent tongue. When he wrote, he +wrote for his ear. All was tested by reading the matter aloud. At that +time great authors were not so wise or so clever as printers, and it +fell to the lot of Erasmus to improve upon the text of much of the copy +that was presented.</p> + +<p>Erasmus learned to write by writing; and among modern prose-writers he +is the very first who had a distinct literary style. His language is +easy, fluid, suggestive. His paragraphs throw a shadow, and are pregnant +with meaning beyond what the lexicon supplies. This is genius—to be +bigger than your words.</p> + +<p>If Erasmus had been possessed of a bit more patience and a jigger of +diplomacy, he would have been in line for a bishopric. That thing which +he praised so lavishly, Folly, was his cause of failure and also his +friend.</p> + +<p>At twenty-six he was the best teacher and the most clever scholar in the +place. Also, he was regarded as a thorn in the side of the monkery, +since he refused to take it seriously. He protested that no man ever +became a monk of his own accord—he was either thrust into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> religious +order by unkind kinsmen or kicked into it by Fate.</p> + +<p>And then comes the Bishop of Cambray, with an attack of literary +scabies, looking for a young religieux who could correct his manuscript. +The Bishop was going to Paris after important historical facts, and must +have a competent secretary. Only a proficient Latin and Greek scholar +would do. The head of the monastery recommended Erasmus, very much as +Artemus Ward volunteered all of his wife's relatives for purposes of +war.</p> + +<p>Andrew Carnegie once, when about to start for Europe, said to his +ironmaster, Bill Jones, "I am never so happy or care-free, Bill, as when +on board ship, headed for Europe, and the shores of Sandy Hook fade from +sight."</p> + +<p>And Bill solemnly replied, "Mr. Carnegie, I can truthfully say for +myself and fellow-workers, that we are never so happy and care-free as +when you are on board ship, headed for Europe."</p> + +<p>Very properly Mr. Carnegie at once raised Bill's salary five thousand a +year.</p> + +<p>The Carthusian Brothers parted with Erasmus in pretended tears, but the +fact was they were more relieved than bereaved.</p> + +<p>And then began the travels of Erasmus.</p> + +<p>The Bishop was of middle age, with a dash of the cavalier in his blood, +which made him prefer a saddle to the cushions of a carriage. And so +they started away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> on horseback, the Bishop ahead, followed at a +discreet distance by Erasmus, his secretary; and ten paces behind with +well-loaded panniers, rode a servant as rearguard.</p> + +<p>To be free and face the world and on a horse! Erasmus lifted up his +heart in a prayer of gratitude. He said that it was the first feeling of +thankfulness he had ever experienced, and it was the first thing which +had ever come to him worth gratitude.</p> + +<p>And so they started for Paris.</p> + +<p>Erasmus looked back and saw the monastery, where he had spent ten +arduous years, fade from view.</p> + +<p>It was the happiest moment he had ever known. The world lay beyond.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he Bishop of Cambray introduced Erasmus to a mode of life for which he +was eminently fitted. It consisted in traveling, receiving honors, +hospitality and all good things in a material way, and giving his +gracious society in return. Doors flew open on the approach of the good +Bishop. Everywhere he went a greeting was assured. He was a +Churchman—that was enough. Erasmus shared in the welcomes, for he was +handsome in face and figure, had a ready tongue, and could hold his own +with the best.</p> + +<p>Europe was then dotted with monasteries, nunneries and other church +institutions. Their remains are seen there yet—one is really never out +of sight of a steeple. But the exclusive power of the Church is gone, +and in many places there are only ruins where once were cloisters, +corridors, chapels, halls and gardens teeming with life and industry.</p> + +<p>The "missions" of California were founded on the general plan of the +monasteries of Europe. They afforded a lodging for the night—a +resting-place for travelers—and were a radiatory center of +education—at least all of the education that then existed.</p> + +<p>In California these "missions" were forty miles apart—one day's +journey. In France, Italy and Germany they were, say, ten miles apart. +Between them, trudged or rode on horseback or in carriages, a +picturesque array of pilgrims, young and old, male and female. To go +anywhere and be at home everywhere, this was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> happy lot of a church +dignitary.</p> + +<p>The parts in church institutions were interchangeable; and by a system +of migration, life was made agreeable, and reasonable honesty was +assured. I have noticed that certain Continental banking institutions, +with branches in various cities, keep their cashiers rotating. The idea +was gotten from Rome. Rome was very wise—her policies were the +crystallizations of the world-wisdom of centuries. The church-militant +battle-cry, "The world for Christ," simply means man's lust for +ownership, with Christ as an excuse. If ever there was a man-made +institution, it is the Church. To control mankind has been her desire, +and the miracle is that, with a promise of heaven, a threat of hell, and +a firm grip on temporal power—social and military—she was ever induced +partially to loosen her grip. To such men as Savonarola, Luther and +Erasmus, do we owe our freedom. These men cared more for truth than for +power, and their influence was to disintegrate the ankylosis of custom +and make men think. And a thought is mental dynamite. No wonder the +Church has always feared and hated a thinker!</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Cambray was not a thinker. Fenelon, who was later to +occupy his office, was to make the bishopric of Cambray immortal. +Conformists die, but heretics live on forever. They are men who have +redeemed the cross and rendered the gallows glorious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p>nd so the Bishop of Cambray and his little light-haired secretary fared +forth to fame and fortune—the Bishop to be remembered because he had a +secretary, and the secretary to be remembered because he grew into a +great teacher.</p> + +<p>At each stopping-place the Bishop said mass—the workers, students and +novitiates quitting their tasks to hear the words of encouragement from +the lips of the great man. Occasionally Erasmus was pushed forward to +say a few words, by the Bishop, who had to look after his own personal +devotions. The assembled friends liked the young man—he was so bright +and witty and free from cant. They even laughed out loud, and so, often +two smiles were made to grow where there were no smiles before.</p> + +<p>Leisurely they rode—stopping at times for several days at places where +the food and drink were at their best, and the society sulphide. At +nunneries and monasteries were always guest-chambers for the great, and +they were usually occupied.</p> + +<p>Thus it was that every church-house was a sort of university, depending +of course on the soul-size of the Superior or Abbe. These constant +journeyings and pilgrimages served in lieu of the daily paper, the +Western Union Telegraph, and the telephone. Things have slipped back, I +fear me, for now Mercury merely calls up his party on the long-distance, +instead of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> making a personal visit—the Angel Gabriel as well. We save +time, but we miss the personal contact.</p> + +<p>The monastic impulse was founded on a human need. Like most good things, +it has been sadly perverted; but the idea of a sanctuary for stricken +souls—a place of refuge, where simplicity, service and useful endeavor +rule—will never die from out the human heart. The hospice stands for +hospitality, but we have now only a hotel and a hospital.</p> + +<p>The latter stands for iodoform, carbolic acid and formaldehyde; the +former often means gold, glitter, gluttony and concrete selfishness, +with gout on one end, paresis at the other and Bright's Disease between.</p> + +<p>The hospice was a part of the monastery. It was a home for the homeless. +There met men of learning—men of wit—men of brains and brawn. You +entered and were at home. There was no charge—you merely left something +for the poor.</p> + +<p>Any man who has the courage, and sufficient faith in humanity to install +the hospice system in America will reap a rich reward. If he has the +same faith in his guests that Judge Lindsey has in his bad boys, he will +succeed; but if he hesitates, defers, doubts, and begins to plot and +plan, the Referee in Bankruptcy will beckon.</p> + +<p>The early universities grew out of the monastic impulse. Students came +and went, and the teachers were a part of a great itinerancy. Man is a +migratory animal. His evolution has come about through change of +environ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>ment. Transplantation changes weeds into roses, and the +forebears of all the products of our greenhouses and gardens once grew +in hedgerows or open fields, choked by unkind competition or trampled +beneath the feet of the heedless.</p> + +<p>The advantage of university life is in the transplantation. Get the boy +out of his home environment; sever the cord that holds him to his +"folks"; let him meet new faces, see new sights, hear new sermons, meet +new teachers, and his efforts at adjustment will work for growth. +Alexander Humboldt was right—one year at college is safer than four. +One year inspires you—four may get you pot-bound with pedant prejudice.</p> + +<p>The university of the future will be industrial—all may come and go. +All men will be university men, and thus the pride in an imaginary +proficiency will be diluted to a healthful attenuation. To work and to +be useful—not merely to memorize and recite—will be the only +initiation.</p> + +<p>The professors will be interchangeable, and the rotation of intellectual +crops will work for health, harmony and effectiveness.</p> + +<p>The group, or college, will be the unit, not the family. The college was +once a collection of men and women grouped for a mutual intellectual, +religious or economic good.</p> + +<p>To this group or college idea will we return.</p> + +<p>Man is a gregarious animal, and the Christ-thought of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> giving all, and +receiving all, some day in the near future will be found practical. The +desire for exclusive ownership must be sloughed.</p> + +<p>Universities devoted to useful work—art in its highest sense: head, +hand and heart—will yet dot the civilized world. The hospice will +return higher up the scale, and the present use of the word +"hospitality" will be drowned in its pink tea, choked with +cheese-wafers, rescued from the nervous clutch of the managing mama, and +the machinations of the chaperone. A society built on the sands of +silliness must give way to the universal university, and the strong, +healthful, helpful, honest companionship and comradeship of men and +women prevail.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he objective point of the Bishop was the University of Paris.</p> + +<p>Here in due time, after their lingering ride from Holland, the Bishop +and his secretary arrived. They settled down to literary work; and in +odd hours the beauty and wonder of Paris became familiar to Erasmus. The +immediate task completed, the Bishop proposed going home, and thought, +of course, his secretary was a fixture and would go with him. But +Erasmus had evolved ideas concerning his own worth. He had already +collected quite a little circle of pupils about him, and these he held +by his glowing personality. At this time the vow of poverty was looked +upon lightly. And anyway, poverty is a comparative term. There were +monks who always trudged afoot with staff and bag, but not so our +Erasmus. He was Bishop of the Exterior.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Cambray, on parting with Erasmus, thought so much of him +that he presented him with the horse he rode.</p> + +<p>Erasmus used to take short excursions about Paris, taking with him a +student and often two, as servants or attendants. Teaching then was +mostly on an independent basis, each pupil picking his tutors and paying +them direct.</p> + +<p>Among other pupils whom Erasmus had at Paris was a young Englishman by +the name of Lord Mountjoy. A great affection arose between these two, +and when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> Lord Mountjoy returned to England he was accompanied by +Erasmus.</p> + +<p>At London, Erasmus met on absolute equality many of the learned men of +England. We hear of his dining at the house of the Lord Mayor of London, +and there meeting Sir Thomas More and crossing swords with that worthy +in wordy debate.</p> + +<p>Erasmus seems to have carried the "New Humanism" into England. It has +been said that the world was discovered in Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, +but Man was not discovered until Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six. This is +hardly literal truth, since in Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, there was a +theologico-scientific party of young men in all of the European +Universities who were reviving the Greek culture, and with it arose the +idea of the dignity and worth of Man. To this movement Erasmus brought +the enthusiasm of his nature. Perhaps he did as much as any other to fan +the embers which grew into a flame called "The Reformation."</p> + +<p>He constantly ridiculed the austerities, pedantry, priggishness and +sciolism of the old-time Churchmen, and when a new question came up, he +asked, "What good is there in it?"</p> + +<p>Everything was tested by him in the light of commonsense. What end does +it serve and how is humanity to be served or benefited by it?</p> + +<p>Thus the good of humanity, not the glory of God, was the shibboleth of +this rising party.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<p>Erasmus gave lectures and taught at Cambridge, Oxford and London.</p> + +<p>Italy had been the objective point of his travels, but England had, for +a time, turned him aside. In the year Fifteen Hundred, Erasmus landed at +Calais, saddled his horse, and started southward, visiting, writing, +teaching, lecturing, as he went. The stimulus of meeting new people and +seeing new scenes, all tended toward intellectual growth.</p> + +<p>The genius monk made mendicancy a fine art, and Erasmus was heir to most +of the instincts of the order. His associations with the laity were +mostly with the nobility or those with money. He was not slow in asking +for what he wanted, whether it was a fur-lined cloak, a saddle, top +riding-boots, a horse, or a prayer-book. He made no apologies—but took +as his divine right all that he needed. And he justified himself in +taking what he needed by the thought that he gave all he had. He +supplied Sir Thomas More the germ of "Utopia," for Erasmus pictured +again and again an ideal society where all would have enough, and none +suffer from either want or surfeit—a society in which all would be at +home wherever they went.</p> + +<p>Had Erasmus seen fit to make England his home, his head, too, would have +paid the forfeit, as did the head that wrote "Utopia." What an absurd +use to make of a head—to separate it from the man's body!</p> + +<p>Italy received Erasmus with the same royal welcome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> that England had +supplied. Scholars who knew the Greek and Roman classics were none too +common. Most monks stopped with the writings of the saints, as South +Americans balk at long division.</p> + +<p>Erasmus could illumine an initial, bind a book, give advice to printers, +lecture to teachers, give lessons on rhetoric and oratory, or entertain +the ladies with recitations from the Iliad and the Odyssey.</p> + +<p>So he went riding back and forth, stopping at cities and towns, +nunneries and monasteries, until his name became a familiar one to every +scholar of England, Germany and Italy. Scholarly, always a learner, +always a teacher, gracious, direct, witty, men began to divide on an +Erasmus basis. There were two parties: those for Erasmus and those +against him.</p> + +<p>In Fifteen Hundred Seventeen, came Luther with his bombshells of +defiance. This fighting attitude was far from Erasmus—his weapons were +words. Between bouts with prelates, Luther sent a few thunderbolts at +Erasmus, accusing him of vacillation and cowardice. Erasmus replied with +dignity, and entered into a lengthy dispute with Melanchthon, Luther's +friend, on the New Humanism which was finding form in revolution.</p> + +<p>Erasmus prophesied that by an easy process of evolution, through +education, the monasteries would all become schools and workshops. He +would not destroy them, but convert them into something different. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +fell into disfavor with the Catholics, and was invited by Henry the +Eighth to come to England and join the new religious regime. But this +English Catholicism was not to the liking of Erasmus. What he desired +was to reform the Church, not to destroy it or divide it.</p> + +<p>His affairs were becoming critical: monasteries where he had once been +welcomed now feared to have him come near, lest they should be +contaminated and entangled. It was rumored that warrants of arrest were +out. He was invited to go to Rome and explain his position.</p> + +<p>Erasmus knew better than to acknowledge receipt of the letter. He headed +his horse for Switzerland, the land of liberty. At Basel he stopped at +the house of Froben, the great printer and publisher. He put his horse +in the barn, unsaddled him, and said, "Froben, I've come to stay."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p> was mousing around the other day in a book that is somewhat disjointed +and disconnected, and yet interesting—"The Standard Dictionary"—when I +came across the word "scamp." It is a handy word to fling, and I am not +sure but that it has been gently tossed once or twice in my direction. +Condemnation is usually a sort of subtle flattery, so I'm not sad. To +scamp means to cut short, to be superficial, slipshod, careless, +indifferent—to say, "Let 'er go, who cares—this is good enough!" If +anybody ever was a stickler for honest work, I am that bucolic party. I +often make things so fine that only one man out of ten thousand can buy +them, and I have to keep 'em myself.</p> + +<p>You know that, when you get an idea in your head, how everything you +read contains allusions to the same thing. Knowledge is mucilaginous. +Well, next day after I was looking up that pleasant word "scamp," I was +reading in the Amusing Works of Erasmus, when I ran across the word +again, but spelled in Dutch, thus, "schamp." Now Erasmus was a +successful author, and he was also the best authority on paper, inks, +bindings, and general bookmaking in Italy, Holland or Germany. Being a +lover of learning, and listening to the lure of words, he never wallowed +in wealth. But in his hunt for ideas he had a lot of fun. Kipling says, +"There is no hunt equal to a man hunt." But Kip is wrong—to chase a +thought is twice the sport. Erasmus chased ideas, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> very naturally +the preachers chased Erasmus—out of England, through France, down to +Italy and then he found refuge at Basel with Froben, the great Printer +and Publisher.</p> + +<p>Up in Frankfort was a writer-printer, who, not being able to answer the +arguments of Erasmus, called him bad names. But this gentle pen-pusher +in Frankfort, who passed his vocabulary at Froben's proofreader, Erasmus +in time calls a "schamp," because he used cheap paper, cheap ink and +close margins. Soon after, the word was carried to England and spelled +"scamp"—a man who cheats in quality, weight, size and count. But the +first use merely meant a printer who scamps his margins and so cheats on +paper. I am sorry to see that Erasmus imitated his enemies and at +times was ambidextrous in the use of the literary stinkpot. His +vocabulary was equal to that of Muldoon. Erasmus refers to one of +his critics as a "scenophylax-stikken," and another he calls a "schnide +enchologion-schistosomus." And perhaps they may have been—I really do +not know.</p> + +<p>But as an authority on books Erasmus can still be read. He it was who +fixed the classic page margin—twice as wide at the top as on the +inside; twice as wide at the outside as the top; twice as wide at the +bottom as at the side. And any printer who varies from this displays his +ignorance of proportion. Erasmus says, "To use poor paper marks the +decline of taste, both in printer and in patron." After the death of +Erasmus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> Froben's firm failed because they got to making things cheap. +"Compete in quality, not in price," was the working motto of Erasmus.</p> + +<p>All of the great bookmaking centers languished when they began to scamp. +That worthy wordissimus at Frankfort who called Erasmus names gave up +business and then the ghost, and Erasmus wrote his epitaph, and thus +supplied Benjamin Franklin an idea—"Here lies an old book, its cover +gone, its leaves torn, the worms at work on its vitals."</p> + +<p>The wisdom of doing good work still applies, just as it did in the days +of Erasmus.</p> + +<p>Erasmus proved a very valuable acquisition to Froben. He became general +editor and literary adviser of this great publishing-house, which was +then the most important in the world.</p> + +<p>Besides his work as editor, Erasmus also stood sponsor for numerous +volumes which we now know were written by literary nobodies, his name +being placed on the title-page for commercial reasons.</p> + +<p>At that time and for two hundred years later, the matter of attributing +a book to this man or that was considered a trivial affair. Piracies +were prevalent. All printers revised the work of classic authors if they +saw fit, and often they were specially rewarded for it by the Church. It +was about this time that some one slipped that paragraph into the works +of Josephus about Jesus. The "Annals" of Tacitus were similarly +doctored, if in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> fact they were not written entire, during the Sixteenth +Century. It will be remembered that the only two references in +contemporary literature to Jesus are those in Josephus and Tacitus, and +these the Church proudly points to yet.</p> + +<p>During the last few years of his life Erasmus accumulated considerable +property. By his will he devised that this money should go to educate +certain young men and women, grandchildren and nephews and nieces of his +old friend, Johann Froben. He left no money for masses, after the usual +custom of Churchmen, and during his last illness was not attended by a +priest. For several years before his death he made no confessions and +very seldom attended church service. He said, "I am much more proud of +being a printer than a priest."</p> + +<p>A statue of Erasmus in bronze adorns one of the public squares in +Rotterdam, and Basel and Freiburg have honored themselves, and him also, +in like manner.</p> + +<p>As a sample of the subtle and keen literary style of Erasmus, I append +the following from "In Praise of Folly:"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The happiest times of life are youth and old age, and this for no +reason but that they are the times most completely under the rule +of folly, and least controlled by wisdom. It is the child's freedom +from wisdom that makes it so charming to us; we hate a precocious +child. So women owe their charm, and hence their power, to their +"folley," that is, to their obedience to the impulse. But if, +perchance, a woman wants to be thought wise,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> she only succeeds in +being doubly a fool, as if one should train a cow for the +prize-ring, a thing wholly against Nature. A woman will be a woman, +no matter what mask she wear, and she ought to be proud of her +folly and make the most of it.</p> + +<p>Is not Cupid, that first father of all religion, is not he stark +blind, that he can not himself distinguish of colors, so he would +make us as mope-eyed in judging falsely of all love concerns, and +wheedle us into a thinking that we are always in the right? Thus +every Jack sticks to his own Jill; every tinker esteems his own +trull; and the hobnailed suitor prefers Joan the milkmaid before +any of milady's daughters. These things are true, and are +ordinarily laughed at, and yet, however ridiculous they seem, it is +hence only that all societies receive their cement and +consolidation.</p> + +<p>Fortune we still find favoring the blunt, and flushing the forward; +strokes smooth up fools, crowning all their undertakings with +success; but wisdom makes her followers bashful, sneaking and +timorous, and therefore you commonly see that they are reduced to +hard shifts; must grapple with poverty, cold and hunger; must lie +recluse, despised, and unregarded; while fools roll in money, are +advanced to dignities and offices, and in a word have the whole +world at command. If any one thinks it happy to be a favorite at +court, and to manage the disposal of places and preferments, alas, +this happiness is so far from being attainable by wisdom, that the +very suspicion of it would put a stop to advancement. Has any man a +mind to raise himself a good estate? Alas, what dealer in the world +would ever get a farthing, if he be so wise as to scruple at +perjury, blush at a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> lie, or stick at a fraud and overreaching?</p> + +<p>It is the public charter of all divines, to mold and bend the +sacred oracles till they comply with their own fancy, spreading +them (as Heaven by its Creator) like a curtain, closing together, +or drawing them back, as they please. Thus, indeed, Saint Paul +himself minces and mangles some citations he makes use of, and +seems to wrest them to a different sense from what they were first +intended for, as is confessed by the great linguist, Saint Hieron. +Thus when that apostle saw at Athens the inscription of the altar, +he draws from it an argument for the proof of the Christian +religion; but leaving out great parts of the sentence, which +perhaps if fully recited might have prejudiced his cause, he +mentions only the last two words, namely, "To the Unknown God"; and +this, too, not without alteration, for the whole inscription runs +thus: "To the Gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to all Foreign and +Unknown Gods."</p> + +<p>'T is an imitation of the same pattern, I will warrant you, that +our young divines, by leaving out four or five words in a place and +putting a false construction on the rest, can make any passage +serviceable to their own purpose; though from the coherence of what +went before, or follows after, the genuine meaning appears to be +either wide enough, or perhaps quite contradictory to what they +would thrust and impose upon it. In which knack the divines are +grown now so expert that the lawyers themselves begin to be jealous +of an encroachment on what was formerly their sole privilege and +practise. And indeed what can they despair of proving, since the +forementioned commentator did upon a text of Saint Luke put an +interpretation no more agreeable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> to the meaning or the place than +one contrary quality is to another.</p> + +<p>But because it seemed expedient that man, who was born for the +transaction of business, should have so much wisdom as should fit +and capacitate him for the discharge of his duty herein, and yet +lest such a measure as is requisite for this purpose might prove +too dangerous and fatal, I was advised with for an antidote, and +prescribed this infallible receipt of taking a wife, a creature so +harmless and silly, and yet so useful and convenient, as might +mollify and make pliable the stiffness and morose humor of man. Now +that which made Plato doubt under what genus to rank woman, whether +among brutes or rational creatures, was only meant to denote the +extreme stupidness and Folly of that sex, a sex so unalterably +simple that for any one of them to thrust forward and reach at the +name of wise, is but to make themselves the more remarkable fools, +such an endeavor being but a swimming against the stream, nay, the +turning the course of Nature, the bare attempting whereof is as +extravagant as the effecting of it is impossible: for as it is a +trite proverb, that an ape will be an ape, though clad in purple, +so a woman will be a woman, that is, a fool, whatever disguise she +takes up. And yet there is no reason women should take it amiss to +be thus charged, for if they do but rightly consider, they will +find to Folly they are beholden for those endowments wherein they +so far surpass and excel Man; as first for their unparalleled +beauty, by the charm whereof they tyrannize over the greatest of +tyrants; for what is it but too great a smatch of wisdom that makes +men so tawny and thick-skinned, so rough and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> prickly-bearded, like +an emblem of winter or old age, while women have such dainty, +smooth cheeks, such a low, gentle voice, and so pure a complexion, +as if Nature had drawn them for a standing pattern of all symmetry +and comeliness? Besides, what greater or juster aim and ambition +have they than to please their husbands? In order whereunto they +garnish themselves with paint, washes, curls, perfumes, and all +other mysteries of ornament; yet, after all, they become acceptable +to them only for their Folly. Wives are always allowed their humor, +yet it is only in exchange for titillation and pleasure, which +indeed are but other names for Folly; as none can deny, who +consider how a man must dandle, and kittle, and play a hundred +little tricks for his helpmate.</p> + +<p>But now some blood-chilled old men, that are more for wine than +wenching, will pretend that in their opinion the greatest happiness +consists in feasting and drinking. Grant it be so; yet certainly in +the most luxurious entertainments it is Folly must give the sauce +and relish to the daintiest delicacies; so that if there be no one +of the guests naturally fool enough to be played upon by the rest, +they must procure some comical buffoon, that by his jokes and +flouts and blunders shall make the whole company split themselves +with laughing; for to what purpose were it to be stuffed and +crammed with so many dainty bits, savory dishes, and toothsome +rarities, if after all this epicurism, the eyes, the ears, and the +whole mind of man, were not so well foisted and relieved with +laughing, jesting, and such like divertisements, which, like second +courses, serve for the promoting of digestion? And as to all those +shoeing-horns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> of drunkenness, the keeping every one his man, the +throwing high jinks, the filling of bumpers, the drinking two in a +hand, the beginning of mistresses' healths; and then the roaring +out of drunken catches, the calling in a fiddler, the leading out +every one his lady to dance, and such like riotous pastimes—these +were not taught or dictated by any of the wise men of Greece, but +of Gotham rather, being my invention, and by me prescribed as the +best preservative of health: each of which, the more ridiculous it +is, the more welcome it finds. And indeed, to jog sleepingly +through the world, in a dumpish, melancholy posture, can not +properly be said to live.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="BOOKER_T_WASHINGTON" id="BOOKER_T_WASHINGTON"></a>BOOKER T. WASHINGTON</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0416.jpg" alt="BOOKER T. WASHINGTON" title="BOOKER T. WASHINGTON" /></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>There is something in human nature which always makes people reward +merit, no matter under what color of skin merit is found. I have +found, too, that it is the visible, the tangible, that goes a long +way in softening prejudices. The actual sight of a good house that +a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion +about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build. The +individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in +the end, make his way regardless of his race.</p> + +<p>—<i>Booker T. Washington</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>BOOKER T. WASHINGTON</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>his is a story about a Negro. The story has the peculiarity of being +true. The man was born a slave in Virginia. His mother was a slave, and +was thrice sold in the market-place. This man is Booker T. Washington.</p> + +<p>The name Booker was a fanciful one given to the lad by playmates on +account of his love for a certain chance dog-eared spelling-book. Before +this he was only Mammy's Pet. The T. stood for nothing, but later a +happy thought made it Taliaferro.</p> + +<p>Most Negroes, fresh from slavery, stood sponsor to themselves, and chose +the name Washington; if not this, then Lincoln, Clay or Webster.</p> + +<p>This lad when but a child, being suddenly asked for his name, exclaimed, +"Washington," and stuck to it.</p> + +<p>The father of this boy was a white man; but children always take the +status of the mother, so Booker T. Washington is a Negro, and proud of +it, as he should be, for he is standard by performance, even if not by +pedigree.</p> + +<p>This Negro's father is represented by the sign <i>x</i>. By remaining in +obscurity the fond father threw away his one chance for immortality. We +do not even know his name, his social position, or his previous +condition of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> turpitude. We assume he was happily married and +respectable. Concerning him legend is silent and fable dumb. As for the +child, we are not certain whether he was born in Eighteen Hundred +Fifty-eight or Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, and we know not the day or +the month. There were no signs in the East.</p> + +<p>The mother lived in a log cabin of one room, say ten by twelve. This +room was also a kitchen, for the mother was cook to the farmhands of her +owner. There were no windows and no floor in the cabin save the +hard-trodden clay. There were a table, a bench and a big fireplace. +There were no beds, and the children at night simply huddled and cuddled +in a pile of straw and rags in the corner. Doubtless they had enough +food, for they ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table—who, +by the way, wasn't so very rich.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest recollections of Black Baby Booker was of being +awakened in the middle of the night by his mother to eat fried chicken. +Imagine the picture—it is past midnight. No light in the room save the +long, flickering streaks that dance on the rafters. Outside the wind +makes mournful, sighing melody. In the corner huddled the children, +creeping close together with intertwining arms to get the warmth of each +little half-naked body.</p> + +<p>The dusky mother moves swiftly, deftly, half-frightened at her task.</p> + +<p>She has come in from the night with a chicken! Where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> did she get it? +Hush! Where do you suppose oppressed colored people get chickens?</p> + +<p>She picks the bird—prepares it for the skillet—fries it over the +coals. And then when it is done just right, Maryland style, this mother +full of mother-love, an ingredient which God never omits, shakes each +little piccaninny into wakefulness, and gives him the forbidden +dainty—drumstick, wishbone, gizzard, white meat, or the part that went +through the fence last—anything but the neck.</p> + +<p>Feathers, bones, waste are thrown into the fireplace, and what the +village editor calls the "devouring element" hides all trace of the +crime. Then all lie down to sleep, until the faint flush of pink comes +into the East, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the mountain-tops.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + + +<p>This ex-slave remembers a strange and trying time, when all of the +colored folk on the plantation were notified to assemble at the "big +house." They arrived and stood around in groups, waiting and wondering, +talking in whispers. The master came out, and standing on the veranda +read from a paper in a tremulous voice. Then he told them that they were +all free, and shook hands with each. Everybody cried. However, they were +very happy in spite of the tears, for freedom to them meant heaven—a +heaven of rest. Yet they bore only love towards their former owners.</p> + +<p>Most of them began to wander—they thought they had to leave their old +quarters. In a few days the wisest came back and went to work just as +usual. Booker T.'s mother quit work for just half a day.</p> + +<p>But in a little while her husband arrived—a colored man to whom she had +been married years before, and who had been sold and sent away. Now he +came and took her and the little monochrome brood, and they all started +away for West Virginia, where they heard that colored men were hired to +work in coalmines and were paid wages in real money.</p> + +<p>It took months and months to make the journey. They carried all their +belongings in bundles. They had no horses—no cows—no wagon—they +walked. If the weather was pleasant they slept out of doors; if it +rained they sought a tobacco-shed, a barn, or the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> friendly side of a +straw-stack. For food they depended on a little cornmeal they carried, +with which the mother made pone-cakes in the ashes of a campfire. Kind +colored people on the way replenished the meal-bag, for colored people +are always generous to the hungry and needy if they have anything to be +generous with. Then Providence sent stray, ownerless chickens their way, +at times, just as the Children of Israel were fed on quails in the +wilderness. Once they caught a 'possum—and there was a genuine banquet, +where the children ate until they were as tight as drums.</p> + +<p>Finally they reached the promised land of West Virginia, and at the +little village of Maiden, near Charleston, they stopped, for here were +the coal mine and the salt-works where colored men were hired and paid +in real money.</p> + +<p>Booker's stepfather found a job, and he also found a job for little +Booker. They had nothing to live on until pay-day, so the kind man who +owned the mine allowed them to get things at the store on credit. This +was a brand-new experience—and no doubt they bought a few things they +did not need, for prices and values were absolutely out of their realm. +Besides, they did not know how much wages they were to get, neither +could they figure the prices of the things they bought. At any rate, +when pay-day came they were still in debt, so they saw no real +money—certainly little Booker at this time of his life never did.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgg.jpg" alt="G" title="G" /></div><p>eneral Lewis Ruffner owned the salt-works and the coalmine where little +Booker worked. He was stern, severe, strict. But he believed Negroes +were human beings, and there were those then who disputed the +proposition.</p> + +<p>Ruffner organized a night-school for his helpers, and let a couple of +his bookkeepers teach it. At this time there was not a colored person in +the neighborhood who could spell cat, much less write his name. A few +could count five. Booker must have been about ten years old when one day +he boasted a bit of his skill in mathematics. The foreman told him to +count the loads of coal as they came out of the mine. The boy started in +bravely, "One—two—three—four—dere goes one, dere goes anoder, +anoder, anoder, anoder, anoder!"</p> + +<p>The foreman laughed.</p> + +<p>The boy was abashed, then chagrined. "Send me to the night-school and in +a month I'll show you how to count!"</p> + +<p>The foreman wrote the lad an order which admitted him to the +night-school.</p> + +<p>But now there was another difficulty—the boy worked until nine o'clock +at night, the last hour's work being to sweep out the office. The +night-school began at nine o'clock and it was two miles away.</p> + +<p>The lad scratched his head and thought and thought. A great idea came to +him—he would turn the office clock ahead half an hour. He could then +leave at nine o'clock,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> and by running part of the way could get to +school at exactly nine o'clock.</p> + +<p>The scheme worked for two days, when one of the clerks in the office +said that a spook was monkeying with the clock. They tried the plan of +locking the case, and all was well.</p> + +<p>Booker must have been about twelve years old, goin' on thirteen, when +one day as he lay on his back in the coalmine, pushing out the broken +coal with his feet, he overheard two men telling of a very wonderful +school where colored people were taught to read, write and cipher—also, +how to speak in public. The scholars were allowed to work part of the +time to pay for their board.</p> + +<p>The lad crawled close in the darkness and listened to the conversation. +He caught the names "Hampton" and "Armstrong." Whether Armstrong was the +place and Hampton was the name of the man, he could not make out, but he +clung to the names.</p> + +<p>Here was a school for colored people—he would go there! That night he +told his mother about it. She laughed, patted his kinky head, and +indulged him in his dream.</p> + +<p>She was only a poor black woman; she could not spell ab, nor count to +ten, but she had a plan for her boy—he would some day be a preacher.</p> + +<p>This was the very height of her imagination—a preacher! Beyond this +there was nothing in human achievement. The night-school came after a +day of fourteen hours'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> work. Little Booker sat on a bench, his feet +dangling about a foot from the floor. As he sat there one night trying +hard to drink in knowledge, he went to sleep. He nodded, braced up, +nodded again, and then pitched over in a heap on the floor, to the great +amusement of the class, and his own eternal shame.</p> + +<p>The next day, however, as he was feeling very sorrowful over his sad +experience, he heard that Mrs. Ruffner wanted a boy for general work at +the big house.</p> + +<p>Here was a chance. Mrs. Ruffner was a Vermont Yankee, which meant that +she had a great nose for dirt, and would not stand for a "sassy nigger." +Her reputation had gone abroad, and of how she pinched the ears of her +"help," and got them up at exactly a certain hour, and made them use +soap and water at least once a day, and even compelled them to use a +toothbrush; all this was history, well defined.</p> + +<p>Booker said he could please her, even if she was a Yankee. He applied +for the job and got it, with wages fixed at a dollar a week, with a +promise of twenty-five cents extra every week, if he did his work +without talking back and breaking a tray of dishes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgg.jpg" alt="G" title="G" /></div><p>enius! No hovel is safe from it!" says Whistler.</p> + +<p>Genius consists in doing the right thing without being told more than +three times.</p> + +<p>Booker silently studied the awful Yankee woman to see what she really +wanted. He finally decided that she desired her servants to have clean +skins, fairly neat clothing, do things promptly, finish the job and keep +still when they had nothing to say.</p> + +<p>He set himself to please her—and he did.</p> + +<p>She loaned him books, gave him a lead-pencil, and showed him how to +write with a pen without smearing his hands and face with ink.</p> + +<p>He told her of his dream and asked about Armstrong and Hampton. She told +him that Armstrong was the man and Hampton the place.</p> + +<p>At last he got her consent to leave and go to Hampton.</p> + +<p>When he started she gave him a comb, a toothbrush, two handkerchiefs and +a pair of shoes. He had been working for her for a year, and she +thought, of course, he saved his wages. He never told her that his money +had gone to keep the family, because his stepfather had been on a strike +and therefore out of work.</p> + +<p>So the boy started away for Hampton. It was five hundred miles away. He +didn't know how far five hundred miles is—nobody does unless he has +walked it.</p> + +<p>He had three dollars, so he gaily paid for a seat in the stage. At the +end of the first day he was forty miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> from home and out of money. He +slept in a barn, and a colored woman handed him a ham-bone and a chunk +of bread out of the kitchen-window, and looked the other way.</p> + +<p>He trudged on east—always and forever east—towards the rising sun.</p> + +<p>He walked weeks—months—years, he thought. He kept no track of the +days. He carried his shoes as a matter of economy.</p> + +<p>Finally he sold the shoes for four dollars to a man who paid him ten +cents cash down, and promised to pay the rest when they should meet at +Hampton. Nearly forty years have passed and they have never met.</p> + +<p>On he walked—on and on—east, and always forever east.</p> + +<p>He reached the city of Richmond, the first big city he had ever seen. +The wide streets—the sidewalks—the street-lamps entranced him. It was +just like heaven. But he was hungry and penniless, and when he looked +wistfully at a pile of cold fried chicken on a street-stand and asked +the price of a drumstick, at the same time telling he had no money, he +discovered he was not in heaven at all. He was called a lazy nigger and +told to move on.</p> + +<p>Later he made the discovery that a "nigger" is a colored person who has +no money.</p> + +<p>He pulled the piece of rope that served him for a belt a little tighter, +and when no one was looking, crawled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> under a sidewalk and went to +sleep, disturbed only by the trampling overhead.</p> + +<p>When he awoke he saw he was near the dock, where a big ship pushed its +bowsprit out over the street. Men were unloading bags and boxes from the +boat. He ran down and asked the mate if he could help. "Yes!" was the +gruff answer.</p> + +<p>He got in line and went staggering under the heavy loads.</p> + +<p>He was little, but strong, and best of all, willing, yet he reeled at +the work.</p> + +<p>"Have you had any breakfast? Yes, you liver-colored boy—you, I say, +have you had your breakfast?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said the boy; "and no supper last night nor dinner +yesterday!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I reckoned as much. Now you take this quarter and go over to that +stand and buy you a drumstick, a cup of coffee and two fried cakes!"</p> + +<p>The lad didn't need urging. He took the money in his palm, went over to +the man who the night before had called him a lazy nigger, and showing +the silver, picked out his piece of chicken.</p> + +<p>The man hastened to wait on him, and said it was a fine day and hoped he +was well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + + +<p>Arriving at Hampton, this colored boy, who had tramped the long, weary +miles, stood abashed before the big brick building which he knew was +Hampton Institute.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgh.jpg" alt="H" title="H" /></div><p>e was so little—the place was so big—by what right could he ask to be +admitted?</p> + +<p>Finally he boldly entered, and in a voice meant to be firm, but which +was very shaky, said, "I am here!" and pointed to the bosom of his +hickory shirt.</p> + +<p>The Yankee woman motioned him to a chair. Negroes coming there were +plentiful. Usually they wanted to live the Ideal Life. They had a call +to preach—and the girls wanted to be music-teachers.</p> + +<p>The test was simple and severe: would they and could they do one useful +piece of work well?</p> + +<p>Booker sat and waited, not knowing that his patience was being put to +the test.</p> + +<p>Then Miss Priscilla, in a hard, Neill Burgess voice, "guessed" that the +adjoining recitation-room needed sweeping and dusting. She handed Booker +a broom and dust-cloth, motioned to the room, and went away.</p> + +<p>Oho! Little did she know her lad. The colored boy smiled to +himself—sweeping and dusting were his specialties—he had learned the +trade from a Yankee woman from Vermont! He smiled.</p> + +<p>Then he swept that room—moved every chair, the table, the desk. He +dusted each piece of furniture four times. He polished each rung and +followed around the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> baseboard on hands and knees.</p> + +<p>Miss Priscilla came back—pushed the table around and saw at once that +the dirt had not been concealed beneath it. She took out her +handkerchief and wiped the table top, then the desk.</p> + +<p>She turned, looked at the boy, and her smile met his half-suppressed +triumphant grin.</p> + +<p>"You'll do," she said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgg.jpg" alt="G" title="G" /></div><p>eneral Samuel C. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, and the +grandfather of Tuskegee, was a white man who fought the South valiantly +and well.</p> + +<p>He seems about the only man in the North who, at the close of the war, +clearly realized that the war had just begun—that the real enemies were +not subdued, and that these enemies were ignorance, superstition and +incompetence.</p> + +<p>The pitiable condition of four million human beings, flung from slavery +into freedom, thrown upon their own resources, with no thought of +responsibility, and with no preparation for the change, meant for them +only another kind of slavery.</p> + +<p>General Armstrong's heart went out to them—he desired to show them how +to be useful, helpful, self-reliant, healthy. For the whites of the +South he had only high regard and friendship. He, of all men, knew how +they had suffered from the war—and he realized also that they had +fought for what they believed was right. In his heart there was no hate. +He resolved to give himself—his life—his fortune—his intellect—his +love—his all, for the upbuilding of the South. He saw with the vision +of a prophet that indolence and pride were the actual enemies of white +and black alike. The blacks must be taught to work—to know the dignity +of human labor—to serve society—to help themselves by helping others. +He realized that there are no menial tasks—that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> all which serves is +sacred.</p> + +<p>And this is the man who sowed the seeds of truth in the heart of the +nameless black boy—Booker Washington. Armstrong's shibboleth, too, was, +"With malice toward none, but with charity for all, let us finish the +work God has given us to do."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p> do not know very much about this subject of education, yet I believe I +know as much about what others know about it as most people. I have +visited the principal colleges of America and Europe, and the methods of +Preparatory and High Schools are to me familiar. I know the +night-schools of the cities, the "Ungraded Rooms," the Schools for +Defectives, the educational schemes in prisons, the Manual-Training +Schools, the New Education (first suggested by Socrates) as carried out +by G. Stanley Hall, John Dewey, and dozens of other good men and women +in America. I am familiar with the School for the Deaf at Malone, New +York, and the School for the Blind at Batavia, where even the sorely +stricken are taught to be self-sufficient, self-supporting and happy. I +have tumbled down the circular fire-escape at Lapeer with the inmates of +the Home of Epileptics, and heard the shouts of laughter from lips that +never laughed before. I have seen the Jewish Manual Training School of +Chicago transform Russian refugees into useful citizens—capable, +earnest and excellent. I know a little about Swarthmore, Wellesley, +Vassar, Radcliffe, and have put my head into West Point and Annapolis, +and had nobody cry, "Genius!"</p> + +<p>Of Harvard, Yale and Princeton I know something, having done time in +each. I have also given jobs to graduates of Oxford, Cambridge and +Heidelberg, to my sorrow and their chagrin. This does not prove that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +graduates of the great universities are, as a rule, out of work, or that +they are incompetent. It simply means that it is possible for a man to +graduate at these institutions and secure his diploma and yet be a man +who has nothing the world really wants, either in way of ideas or +services.</p> + +<p>The reason that my "cum laude" friends did not like me, and the cause of +my having to part with them—getting them a little free transportation +from your Uncle George—was not because they lacked intelligence, but +because they wanted to secure a position, while I simply offered them a +job.</p> + +<p>They were like Cave-of-the-Winds of Oshkosh, who is an ice-cutter in +August, and in winter is an out-of-door horticulturist—a hired man is +something else.</p> + +<p>As a general proposition, I believe this will not now be disputed: the +object of education is that a man may benefit himself by serving +society.</p> + +<p>To benefit others, you must be reasonably happy: there must be animation +through useful activity, good-cheer, kindness and health—health of mind +and health of body. And to benefit society you must also have patience, +persistency, and a firm determination to do the right thing, and to mind +your own business so that others, too, may mind theirs. Then all should +be tinctured with a dash of discontent with past achievements, so you +will constantly put forth an effort to do more and better work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>When what you have done in the past looks large to you, you haven't done +much today.</p> + +<p>So there you get the formula of Education: health and happiness through +useful activity—animation, kindness, good-cheer, patience, persistency, +willingness to give and take, seasoned with enough discontent to prevent +smugness, which is the scum that grows over every stagnant pond.</p> + +<p>Of course no college can fill this prescription—no institution can +supply the ingredients—all that the college can do is to supply the +conditions so that these things can spring into being. Plants need the +sunlight—mushrooms are different.</p> + +<p>The question is, then, what teaching concern in America supplies the +best quality of actinic ray?</p> + +<p>And I answer, Tuskegee is the place, and Booker Washington is the man.</p> + +<p>"What!" you exclaim. "The Ideal School a school for Negroes, instituted +by a Negro, where only Negroes teach, and only Negroes are allowed to +enter as students?"</p> + +<p>And the answer is, "Exactly so."</p> + +<p>At Tuskegee there are nearly two thousand students, and over one hundred +fifty teachers. There are two classes of students—"day-school" and +"night-school" students. The night-school students work all day at any +kind of task they are called upon to do. They receive their board, +clothing and a home—they pay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> no tuition, but are paid for their labor, +the amount being placed to their credit, so when fifty dollars is +accumulated they can enter as "day students."</p> + +<p>The "day students" make up the bulk of the scholars. Each pays fifty +dollars a year. These all work every other day at manual labor or some +useful trade.</p> + +<p>Tuskegee has fully twice as many applicants as it can accommodate; but +there is one kind of applicant who never receives any favor. This is the +man who says he has the money to pay his way, and wishes to take the +academic course only. The answer always is: "Please go elsewhere—there +are plenty of schools that want your money. The fact that you have money +will not exempt you here from useful labor."</p> + +<p>This is exactly what every college in the world should say.</p> + +<p>The Tuskegee farm consists of about three thousand acres. There are four +hundred head of cattle, about five hundred hogs, two hundred horses, +great flocks of chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys, and many swarms of +bees. It is the intention to raise all the food that is consumed on the +place, and to manufacture all supplies. There are wagon-shops, a +sawmill, a harness-shop, a shoe-shop, a tailor-shop, a printing-plant, a +model laundry, a canning establishment. Finer fruit and vegetables I +have never seen, and the thousands of peach, plum and apple trees, and +the vast acreage of berries that have been planted, will surely some day +be a goodly source of revenue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + +<p>The place is religious, but not dogmatically so—the religion being +merely the natural safety-valve for emotion. At Tuskegee there is no +lacrimose appeal to confess your sins—they do better—they forget them.</p> + +<p>I never heard more inspiring congregational singing, and the use of the +piano, organ, orchestra and brass band are important factors in the +curriculum. In the chapel I spoke to an audience so attentive, so alert, +so receptive, so filled with animation, that the whole place looked like +a vast advertisement for Sozodont.</p> + +<p>No prohibitive signs are seen at Tuskegee. All is affirmative, yet it is +understood that some things are tabu—tobacco, for instance, and strong +drink, of course.</p> + +<p>We have all heard of Harvard Beer and Yale Mixture, but be it said in +sober justice, Harvard runs no brewery, and Yale has no official brand +of tobacco. Yet Harvard men consume much beer, and many men at Yale +smoke. And if you want to see the cigarette-fiend on his native heath, +you'll find him like the locust on the campus at Cambridge and New +Haven. But if you want to see the acme of all cigarette-bazaars, just +ride out of Boylston Street, Boston, any day at noon, and watch the boys +coming out of the Institute of Technology.</p> + +<p>I once asked a Tech Professor if cigarette-smoking was compulsory in his +institution. "Yes," he replied; "but the rule is not strictly enforced, +as I know three students who do not smoke."</p> + +<p>Tuskegee stands for order, system, cleanliness, industry,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> courtesy and +usefulness. There are no sink-holes around the place, no "back yards." +Everything is beautiful, wholesome and sanitary. All trades are +represented. The day is crammed so full of work from sunrise to sunset +that there is no time for complaining, misery or faultfinding—three +things that are usually born of idleness. At Tuskegee there are +no servants. All of the work is done by the students and +teachers—everybody works—everybody is a student, and all are teachers.</p> + +<p>We are all teachers, whether we will it or not—we teach by example, and +all students who do good work are good teachers.</p> + +<p>When the Negro is able to do skilled work, he ceases to be a problem—he +is a man. The fact that Alexandre Dumas was a Negro does not count +against him in the world's assize.</p> + +<p>The old-time academic college, that cultivated the cerebrum and gave a +man his exercise in an indoor gymnasium, or not at all, has ruined its +tens of thousands. To have top—head and no lungs—is not wholly +desirable. The student was made exempt from every useful thing, just as +the freshly freed slave hoped and expected to be, and after four years +it was often impossible for him to take up the practical lessons of +life. He had gotten used to the idea of one set of men doing all the +work and another set of men having the culture. To a large degree he +came to regard culture as the aim of life. And when a man begins to +pride himself upon his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> culture, he hasn't any to speak of. Culture must +be merely incidental, and to clutch it is like capturing a butterfly: +you do not secure the butterfly at all—you get only a grub.</p> + +<p>Let us say right here that there is only one way in which a Negro, or a +white man, can ever make himself respected. Statute law will not do it; +rights voted him by the State are of small avail; making demands will +not secure the desired sesame. If we ever gain the paradise of freedom +it will be because we have earned it—because we deserve it. A +make-believe education may suffice for a white man—especially if he has +a rich father, but a Negro who has to carve out his own destiny must be +taught order, system, and quiet, persistent, useful effort.</p> + +<p>A college that has its students devote one-half their time to actual, +useful work is so in line with commonsense that we are amazed that the +idea had to be put into execution by the ex-slave as a life-saver for +his disenfranchised race. Our great discoveries are always accidents: we +work for one thing and get another. I expect that the day will come, and +erelong, when the great universities of the world will have to put the +Tuskegee Idea into execution in order to save themselves from being +distanced by the Colored Race.</p> + +<p>If life were one thing and education another, it might be all right to +separate them. Culture of the head over a desk, and indoor gymnastics +for the body, are not the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> ideal, and that many succeed in spite of the +handicap is no proof of the excellence of the plan. Ships that go around +the world accumulate many barnacles, but barnacles as a help to the +navigator are an iridescent dream.</p> + +<p>A little regular manual labor, rightly mixed with the mental, eliminates +draw-poker, highballs, brawls, broils, Harvard Beer, Yale Mixture, +Princeton Pinochle, Chippee dances, hazing, roistering, rowdyism and the +bulldog propensity. The Heidelberg article of cocked hat and insolent +ways is not produced at Tuskegee. At Tuskegee there is no place for +those who lie in wait for insults and regard scrapping as a fine art. As +for college athletics at the Orthodox Universities, only one man out of +ten ever does anything at it anyway—the college man who needs the +gymnasium most is practically debarred from everything in it and serves +as a laughing-stock whenever he strips. Coffee, cocaine, bromide, +tobacco and strong drink often serve in lieu of exercise and ozone, and +Princeton winks her woozy eye in innocency.</p> + +<p>Freedom can not be bestowed—it must be achieved. Education can not be +given—it must be earned. Lincoln did not free the slaves—he only freed +himself. The Negroes did not know they were slaves, and so they had no +idea of what freedom meant. Until a man wants to be free, each kind of +freedom is only another form of slavery. Booker Washington is showing +the colored man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> how to secure a genuine freedom through useful +activity. To get freedom you must shoulder responsibility.</p> + +<p>If college education were made compulsory by the State, and one-half of +the curriculum consisted of actual, useful manual labor, most of our +social ills would be solved, and we would be well out on the highway +towards the Ideal City.</p> + +<p>Without animation, man is naught—nothing is accomplished, nothing done. +People who inspire other people have animation plus.</p> + +<p>And animation plus is ecstasy. In ecstasy the spirit rushes out, runs +over and saturates all. Oratory is an ecstasy that inundates the hearer +and makes him ride upon the crest of another's ideas.</p> + +<p>Art is born of ecstasy—art is ecstasy in the concrete. Beautiful music +is ecstasy expressed in sound, regulated into rhythm, cadence and form. +"Statuary is frozen music," said Heine.</p> + +<p>A man who is not moved into ecstasy by ecstasy is hopeless. A people +that has not the surging, uplifting, onward power that ecstasy gives, is +decadent—dead.</p> + +<p>The Negro is easily moved to ecstasy. Very little musical training makes +him a power in song. At Tuskegee the congregational singing is a feature +that, once heard, is never to be forgotten. Fifteen hundred people +lifting up their hearts in an outburst of emotion—song! Fifteen hundred +people of one mind, doing anything in unison—do you know what it means? +Ecstasy is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> essentially a matter of sex. In art and religion sex can not +be left out of the equation. The simple fact that in forty years the +Negro race in America has increased from four million to ten million +tells of their ecstasy as a people. "Only happy beings reproduce +themselves," says Darwin. Depress your animal and it ceases to breed; so +there are a whole round of animals that do not reproduce in captivity. +But in slavery or freedom the Negro sings, and reproduces—he is not +doomed nor depressed—his soul arises superior to circumstance.</p> + +<p>Without animation, education is impossible. And the problem of the +educator is to direct this singing, flowing, moving spirit of the hive +into useful channels.</p> + +<p>Education is simply the encouragement of right habits—the fixing of +good habits until they become a part of one's nature, and are exercised +automatically.</p> + +<p>The man who is industrious by habit is the only man who wins. The man +who is not industrious except when driven to it, or when it occurs to +him, accomplishes little.</p> + +<p>Man gets his happiness by doing: and work to a slave is always +distasteful. The power of mimicry and imitation is omitted—the owner +does not work—the strong man does not work. Ergo—to grow strong means +to cease work. To be strong means to be free—to be free means no work!</p> + +<p>It has been a frightfully bad education that the Negro has had—work +distasteful, and work disgraceful! And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> the slave-owner suffered most of +all, for he came to regard work as debasing.</p> + +<p>And now a Negro is teaching the Negro that work is beautiful—that work +is a privilege—that only through willing service can he ever win his +freedom. Architecture is fixed ecstasy, inspired always by a strong man +who gives a feeling of security. Athens was an ecstasy in marble.</p> + +<p>Tuskegee is an ecstasy in brick and mortar.</p> + +<p>Don't talk about the education of the Negro! The experiment has really +never been tried, except spasmodically, of educating either the whites +or the blacks in the South—or elsewhere.</p> + +<p>A Negro is laying hold upon the natural ecstasy of the Negro, and +directing it into channels of usefulness and excellence. Can you +foretell where this will end—this formation of habits of industry, +sobriety and continued, persistent effort towards the right?</p> + +<p>Booker Washington, child of a despised race, has done and is doing what +the combined pedagogic and priestly wisdom of ages has failed to do. He +is the Moses who by his example is leading the children of his former +oppressors out into the light of social, mental, moral and economic +freedom.</p> + +<p>I am familiar in detail with every criticism brought against Tuskegee. +On examination these criticisms all reduce themselves down to three:</p> + +<p>1. A vast sum of money has been collected by Booker<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> Washington for his +own aggrandizement and benefit.</p> + +<p>2. Tuskegee is a show-place where all the really good work is done by +picked men from the North.</p> + +<p>3. Booker Washington is a tyrant, a dictator and an egotist.</p> + +<p>If I were counsel for Tuskegee—as I am not—I would follow the example +of the worthy accusers, and submit the matter without argument. Booker +Washington can afford to plead guilty to every charge; and he has never +belittled himself by answering his accusers.</p> + +<p>But let the facts be known, that this man has collected upward of six +million dollars, mostly from the people of the North, and has built up +the nearest perfect educational institution in the world.</p> + +<p>It is probably true that many of his teachers and best workers are +picked people—but they are Negroes, and were selected by a Negro. The +great general reveals his greatness in the selection of his generals: it +was the marshals whom Napoleon appointed who won for him his victories; +but his spirit animated theirs, and he chose them for this one +reason—he could dominate them. He infused into their souls a goodly +dash of his own enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>Booker Washington is a greater general than Napoleon. For the Tuskegee +idea no Waterloo awaits. And as near as I can judge, Booker Washington's +most noisy critics are merely camp-followers.</p> + +<p>That the man is a tyrant and a dictator there is no doubt. He is a +beneficent tyrant, but a tyrant still, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> he always, invariably, has +his own way in weighty matters—in trivialities others can have theirs. +And as for dictatorship, the man who advances on chaos and transforms it +into cosmos is perforce a dictator and an egotist.</p> + +<p>Booker Washington believes he is in the right, and he makes no effort to +conceal the fact that he is on earth. In him there is no disposition to +run and peep about, and find himself a dishonorable grave. All live men +are egotists, and they are egotists just in proportion as they have +life. Dead men are not egotists. Booker Washington has life in +abundance, and through him I truly believe runs the spirit of Divinity, +if ever a living man had it. A man like this is the instrument of Deity.</p> + +<p>Tuskegee Institute has applications ahead all the time, from all over +America, for competent colored men and women who can take charge of +important work and do it. Dressmakers, housekeepers, cooks, farmers, +stockmen, builders, gardeners, are in demand. The world has never yet +had enough people to bear its burdens.</p> + +<p>Recently we have heard much of the unemployed, but a very little search +will show that the people out of work are those of bad habits, which +make them unreliable and untrustworthy. The South, especially, needs the +willing worker and the practical man. And best of all the South knows +it, and stands ready to pay for the service.</p> + +<p>A few years ago there was a fine storm of protest from Northern Negroes +to the effect that Booker Washington<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> was endeavoring to limit the Negro +to menial service—that is, thrust him back into servility. The first +ambition of the Negro was to get an education so that he might become a +Baptist preacher. To him, education meant freedom from toil, and of +course we do not have to look far to see where he got the idea. Then +when Tuskegee came forward and wanted to make blacksmiths, carpenters +and brick-masons out of black men, there was a cry, "If this means +education, we will none of it—treason, treason!" It was assumed that +the Negro who set other Negroes to work was not their friend. This phase +of the matter requires neither denial nor apology. We smile and pass on.</p> + +<p>In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-seven, the Negro was practically +disenfranchised throughout the South, by being excluded from the +primaries. He had no recognized ticket in the field. For both the blacks +and the whites this has been well. To most of the blacks freedom meant +simply exemption from work. So there quickly grew up a roistering, +turbulent, idle and dangerous class of black men who were used by the +most ambitious of their kind for political ends. To preserve the peace +of the community, the whites were forced to adopt heroic measures, with +the result that we now have the disenfranchised Negro.</p> + +<p>Early in the Eighties, Booker Washington realized that, politically, +there was no hope for his race. He saw, however, that commerce +recognized no color line. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> would buy, sell and trade with the black +man on absolute equality. Life-insurance companies would insure him, +banks would receive his deposits, and if honest and competent, would +loan him money. If he could shoe a horse, we waived his complexion; and +in every sort and kind of craftsmanship he stood on absolute equality +with the whites. The only question ever asked was, "Can you do the +work?"</p> + +<p>And Booker Washington set out to help the Negro win success for himself +by serving society through becoming skilled in doing useful things. And +so it became Head, Hand and Heart. The manual was played off against the +intellectual.</p> + +<p>But over and beyond the great achievement of Booker Washington in +founding and carrying to a successful issue the most complete +educational scheme of this age, or any other, stands the man himself. He +is one without hate, heat or prejudice. No one can write on the lintels +of his doorpost the word, "Whim." He is half-white, but calls himself a +Negro. He sides with the disgraced and outcast black woman who gave him +birth, rather than with the respectable white man who was his sire.</p> + +<p>He rides in the Jim Crow cars, and on long trips, if it is deemed +expedient to use a sleeping-car, he hires the stateroom, so that he may +not trespass or presume upon those who would be troubled by the presence +of a colored man. Often in traveling he goes for food and shelter to the +humble home of one of his own people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> At hotels he receives and +accepts, without protest or resentment, the occasional contumely of the +inferior whites—whites too ignorant to appreciate that one of God's +noblemen stands before them. For the whites of the South he has only +words of kindness and respect; the worst he says about them is that they +do not understand. His modesty, his patience, his forbearance, are +sublime. He is a true Fabian—he does what he can, like the royal +Roycroft opportunist that he is. Every petty annoyance is passed over; +the gibes and jeers and the ingratitude of his own race are forgotten. +"They do not understand," he calmly says. He does his work. He is +respected by the best people of North and South. He has the confidence +of the men of affairs—he is a safe man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_ARNOLD" id="THOMAS_ARNOLD"></a>THOMAS ARNOLD</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0418.jpg" alt="THOMAS ARNOLD" title="THOMAS ARNOLD" /></div> + + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Let me mind my own personal work; keep myself pure and zealous and +believing; laboring to do God's will in this fruitful vineyard of +young lives committed to my charge, as my allotted field, until my +work be done.</p> + +<p>—<i>Thomas Arnold</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THOMAS ARNOLD</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>homas Arnold was born in Seventeen Hundred Ninety-five, and died in +Eighteen Hundred Forty-two. His life was short, as men count time, but +he lived long enough to make for himself a name and a fame that are both +lasting and luminous. Though he was neither a great writer nor a great +preacher, yet there were times when he thought he was both. He was only +a schoolteacher. However, he was an artist in schoolteaching, and art is +not a thing—it is a way. It is the beautiful way—the effective way.</p> + +<p>Schoolteachers have no means of proving their prowess by conspicuous +waste, and no time to convince the world of their excellence through +conspicuous leisure; consequently, for histrionic purposes, a +schoolteacher's cosmos is a plain, slaty gray. Schoolteachers do not +wallow in wealth nor feed fat at the public trough. No one ever accuses +them of belonging to the class known as the predatory rich, nor of being +millionaire malefactors. They have to do their work every day at certain +hours and dedicate its results to time.</p> + +<p>For many years Thomas Arnold has been known as the father of his son. +Several great men have been thus overshadowed. The father of Disraeli, +for instance, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> favored by fame and fortune, until his gifted son +moved into the limelight, and after that Pater shone mostly in a +reflected glory. Jacopo Bellini was the greatest painter in Venice until +his two sons, Gian and Gentile, surpassed him, and history writes him +down as the father of the Bellinis. Lyman Beecher was regarded as +America's greatest preacher until Henry Ward moved the mark up a few +notches. The elder Pitt was looked upon as a genuine statesman until his +son graduated into the Cabinet, and then "the terrible cornet of horse" +became known as the father of Pitt. Now that both are dust, and we are +getting the proper perspective, we see that "the great commoner" was +indeed a great man, and so they move down the corridors of time +together, arm in arm, this father and son. That excellent person who +carried the gripsacks of greatness so long that he thought the luggage +was his own, Major James B. Pond, launched at least one good thing. It +was this: "Matthew Arnold gave fifty lectures in America, and nobody +ever heard one of them; those in his audience who could no longer endure +the silence slipped quietly out."</p> + +<p>Matthew Arnold was a critic and writer who, having secured a tuppence +worth of success through being the son of his father, and thus securing +the speaker's eye, finally got an oratorical bee in his bonnet and went +a-barnstorming. He cultivated reserve and indifference, both of which he +was told were necessary factors of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> success in a public speaker.</p> + +<p>And this is true. But they will not make an orator, any more than long +hair, a peculiar necktie, and a queer hat will float a poet on the tide +of time safely into the Hall of Fame.</p> + +<p>Matthew Arnold cultivated repose, but instead of convincing the audience +that he had power, he only made them think he was sleepy. Major Pond, +having lived much with orators, and thinking the trick easy, tried +oratory on his own account, and succeeded as well as did Matthew Arnold. +No one ever heard Major Pond: his voice fell over the footlights, dead, +into the orchestra; only those with opera-glasses knew he was talking.</p> + +<p>But to be unintelligible is not a special recommendation. Men may be +moderate for two reasons—through excess of feeling and because they are +actually dull.</p> + +<p>Matthew Arnold has slipped back into his true position—that of a man of +letters. The genius is a man of affairs. Humanity is the theme, not +books. Books are usually written about the thoughts of men who wrote +books. Books die and disintegrate, but humanity is an endless +procession, and the souls that go marching on are those who fought for +freedom, not those who speculate on abstrusities.</p> + +<p>The credential of Thomas Arnold to immortality is not that he was the +father of Matthew and eight other little Arnolds, but it lies in the +fact that he fought for a wider horizon in life through education. He +lifted his voice for liberty. He believed in the divinity of the child, +not in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> its depravity. Arnold of Rugby was a teacher of teachers, as +every great teacher is. The pedagogic world is now going back to his +philosophy, just as in statesmanship we are reverting to Thomas +Jefferson. These men who spoke classic truth, not transient—truth that +fits in spite of fashion, time and place—are the true prophets of +mankind. Such was Thomas Arnold!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p>f Thomas Arnold had been just a little bigger, the world probably would +never have heard of him, for an interdict would have been placed upon +his work. The miracle is that, as it was, the Church and the State did +not snuff him out.</p> + +<p>He stood for sweet reasonableness, but unintentionally created much +opposition. His life was a warfare. Yet he managed to make himself +acceptable to a few; so for fourteen years this head master of a +preparatory school for boys lived his life and did his work. He sent out +his radiating gleams, and grew straight in the strength of his spirit, +and lived out his life in the light.</p> + +<p>His sudden death sanctified and sealed his work before he was subdued +and ironed out by the conventions.</p> + +<p>Happy Arnold! If he had lived, he might have met the fate of Arnold of +Brescia, who was also a great teacher. Arnold of Brescia was a pupil of +Abelard, and was condemned by the Church as a disturber of the peace for +speaking in eulogy of his master. Later, he attacked the profligacy of +the idle prelates, as did Luther, Savonarola and all the other great +church-reformers. When ordered into exile and silence, he still +protested his right to speak. He was strangled on order of the Pope, his +body burned, and the ashes thrown into the Tiber. The Baptists, I +believe, claim Arnold of Brescia as the forerunner of their sect, and +certain it is that he was of the true Roger Williams type.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thomas Arnold, too, was filled with a passion for righteousness. His +zeal for the upright, manly life constituted his strength. Of course he +would not have been executed, as was Arnold of Brescia—the times had +changed—he would simply have been shelved, pooh-poohed, deprived of his +living and socially Crapseyized. Death saved him—aged forty-seven—and +his soul goes marching on!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he parents of Thomas Arnold belonged to the great Middle Class—that +class which Disraeli said never did any thinking on its own account, but +to the best of its ability deferred to and imitated the idle rich in +matters of religion, education and politics.</p> + +<p>Doctor Johnson maintained that if members of the Middle Class worked +hard and economized, it was in the hope that they might leave money and +name for their children and make them exempt from all useful effort.</p> + +<p>"To indict a class," said Burke, "is neither reasonable nor right." But +certain it is that a vast number of fairly intelligent people in England +and elsewhere regard the life of the "aristocracy" as very desirable and +beautiful.</p> + +<p>To this end they want their boys to become clergymen, lawyers, doctors +or army officers.</p> + +<p>"Only two avenues of honor are open to aspiring youth in England," said +Gladstone—"the Army and the Church."</p> + +<p>The father of Thomas Arnold was Collector of Customs at Cowes, Isle of +Wight. Holding this petty office under the Government, with a half-dozen +men at his command, we can easily guess his caliber, habits, belief and +mode of life. He was respectable; and to be respectable, a Collector of +Customs must be punctilious in Church matters, in order to be acceptable +to Church people, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. The parents of +Thomas Arnold very naturally centered their ambitions for him on the +Church, as he was not very strong.</p> + +<p>When the child was only six years old, the father died from "spasm of +the heart." At this time the boy had begun to take Latin, and his +education was being looked after by a worthy governess, who daily +drilled his mental processes and took him walking, leading him by the +hand. On Sundays he wore a wide, white collar, shiny boots and a stiff +hat. The governess cautioned him not to soil his collar, nor to get mud +on his boots.</p> + +<p>In later years he told how he looked covetously at the boys who wore +neither hats nor boots, and who did not have a governess.</p> + +<p>His mother had a fair income, and so this prim, precise, exact and +crystallized mode of education was continued. Out of her great love for +her child, the mother sent him away from home when he was eight years +old. Of course there were tears on both sides; but now a male man must +educate him, and women were to be dropped out of the equation—this that +the evil in the child should be curbed, his spirit chastened, and his +mind disciplined.</p> + +<p>The fact that a child rather liked to be fondled by his mother, or that +his mother cared to fondle him, was proof of total depravity on the part +of both.</p> + +<p>The Reverend Doctor Griffiths, who took charge of the boy for two years, +was certainly not cruel, but at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> same time he was not exactly human. +In Nature we never hear of a she-lion sending her cubs away to be looked +after by a denatured lion. It is really doubtful whether you could ever +raise a lion to lionhood by this method. Some goat would come along and +butt the life out of him, even after he had evolved whiskers and a mane.</p> + +<p>After two years with Doctor Griffiths, young Arnold was sent to +Manchester, where he remained in a boys' boarding-house from his tenth +to his fourteenth year. To the teachers here—all men—he often paid +tribute, but uttered a few heretical doubts as to whether discipline as +a substitute for mother-love was not an error of pious but overzealous +educators.</p> + +<p>At sixteen years of age he was transferred to Corpus Christi College at +Oxford. In Eighteen Hundred Fifteen, being then twenty years of age, he +was elected a Fellow of Oriel College, and there he resided until he was +twenty-four.</p> + +<p>He was a prizeman in Latin, Greek and English, and was considered a star +scholar—both by himself and by others. Ten years afterwards he took a +backward glance, and said: "At twenty-two I was proud, precise, stiff, +formal, uncomfortable, unhappy, and unintentionally made everybody else +unhappy with whom I came in contact. The only people I really mixed with +were those whose lives were dedicated to the ablative."</p> + +<p>When twenty-four he was made a deacon and used<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> to read prayers at +neighboring chapels, for which service he was paid five shillings. Being +now thrown on his own resources, he did the thing a prizeman always +does: he showed others how. As a tutor he was a success: more scholars +came to him than he could really take care of. But he did not like the +work, since all the pupil desired, and all the parents desired, was that +he should help the backward one get his marks, and glide through the eye +of a needle into pedagogic paradise.</p> + +<p>At twenty-six he was preaching, teaching and writing learned essays +about things he did not understand.</p> + +<p>From this brief sketch it will be seen that the early education of +Thomas Arnold was of the kind and type that any fond parent of the +well-to-do Middle Class would most desire. He had been shielded from all +temptations of the world; he could do no useful thing with his hands; +his knowledge of economics—ways and means—was that of a child; of the +living present he knew little, but of the dead past he assumed and +believed he knew much.</p> + +<p>It was purely priestly, institutional education. It was the kind of +education that every well-to-do Briton would like to have his sons +receive. It was, in short, England's Ideal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgr.jpg" alt="R" title="R" /></div><p>ugby Grammar School was endowed in Sixteen Hundred Fifty-three by one +Laurence Sherif, a worthy grocer. The original gift was comparatively +small, but the investment being in London real estate, has increased in +value until it yields now an income of about thirty-five thousand +dollars a year.</p> + +<p>In the time of Arnold there were about three hundred pupils. It is not a +large school now; there are high schools in a hundred cities of America +that surpass it in many ways.</p> + +<p>Rugby's claim to special notice lies in its traditions—the great men +who were once Rugby boys, and the great men who were Rugby teachers. +Also, in the fact that Thomas Hughes wrote a famous story called, "Tom +Brown at Rugby."</p> + +<p>Rugby Grammar School was one hundred twenty-five years old when Sir +Joshua Reynolds commissioned Lord Cornwallis to go to America and fetch +George Washington to England, that Sir Joshua might paint his portrait.</p> + +<p>For a hundred years prior to the time of Arnold, there had not been a +perceptible change in the methods of teaching. The boys were herded +together. They fought, quarreled, divided into cliques; the big boys +bullied the little ones. Fagging was the law; so the upper forms +enslaved the lower ones. There was no home life, and the studies were +made irksome and severe, purposely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> as it was thought that pleasant +things were sinful.</p> + +<p>If any better plan could have been devised to make study absolutely +repulsive, so the student would shun it as soon as he was out of school, +we can not guess it.</p> + +<p>The system was probably born of inertia on the part of the teachers. The +pastor who pushes through his prescribed services, with mind on other +things, and thus absolves his conscience for letting his congregation go +drifting straight to Gehenna, was duplicated in the teacher. He did his +duty—and nothing more.</p> + +<p>Selfishness, heartlessness and brutality manipulated the birch. Head was +all; heart and hand nothing. This was schoolteaching. As a punishment +for failure to memorize lessons, there were various plans to disgrace +and discourage the luckless ones. Standing in the corner with face to +the wall, and the dunce-cap, had given place to a system of fines, +whereby "ten lines of Vergil for failure to attend prayers," and ten +more for failure to get the first, often placed the boy in hopeless +bankruptcy. If he was a fag, or slave of a higher-form boy, cleaning the +other's boots, scrubbing stairs, running on foolish and needless +errands, getting cuffs and kicks by way of encouragement, he saw his +fines piling up and no way ever to clear them off and gain freedom by +promotion.</p> + +<p>Viewed from our standpoint, the thing has a ludicrous bouffe air that +makes us smile. But to the boy caught in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the toils it was tragic. To +work and evolve in an environment of such brutality was impossible to +certain temperaments. Success lay in becoming calloused and indifferent. +If the boy of gentle habits and slight physical force did not sink into +mental nothingness, he was in danger of being bowled over by disease and +death.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the physical condition of the pupils was very bad: smallpox, +fevers, consumption, and breaking out with sores and boils, were common.</p> + +<p>Thomas Arnold was thirty-three years old when he was called as head +master to Rugby. He was married, and babies were coming along with +astonishing regularity. He had taken priestly orders and was passing +rich on one hundred pounds a year. Poverty and responsibility had given +him ballast, and love for his own little brood had softened his heart +and vitalized his soul.</p> + +<p>As a writer and speaker he had made his presence felt at various college +commencements and clergymen's meetings. He had challenged the brutal, +indifferent, lazy and so-called disciplinary methods of teaching.</p> + +<p>And so far as we know, he is the first man in England to declare that +the teacher should be the foster-parent of the child, and that all +successful teaching must be born of love.</p> + +<p>The well-upholstered conservatives twiddled their thumbs, coughed, and +asked: "How about the doctrine of total depravity? Do you mean to say +that the child<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> should not be disciplined? What does Solomon say about +the use of the rod? Does the Bible say that the child is good by +nature?"</p> + +<p>But Thomas Arnold could not explain all he knew. Moreover, he did not +wish to fight the Church—he believed in the Church—to him it was a +divine institution. But there were methods and practises in the Church +that he would have liked to forget.</p> + +<p>"My sympathies go out to inferiority," he said. The weakling often +needed encouragement, not discipline. The bad boy must be won, not +suppressed.</p> + +<p>In one of these conferences of clergymen, Arnold said:</p> + +<p>"I once chided a pupil, a little, pale, stupid boy—undersized and +seemingly half-sick—for not being able to recite his very simple +lesson. He looked up at me and said with a touch of spirit: 'Sir, why do +you get angry with me? Do you not know I am doing the best I can?'"</p> + +<p>One of the clergymen present asked Arnold how he punished the boy for +his impudence.</p> + +<p>And Arnold replied: "I did not punish him—he had properly punished me. +I begged his pardon."</p> + +<p>The idea of a teacher begging the pardon of a pupil was a brand-new +thing.</p> + +<p>Several clergymen present laughed—one scowled—two sneezed. But a +Bishop, shortly after this, urged the name of Thomas Arnold as master of +Rugby, and added to his recommendation this line: "If elected to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +office he will change the methods of schoolteaching in every public +school in England."</p> + +<p>The ayes had it, and Arnold was called to Rugby. The salary was so-so, +the pupils between two and three hundred in number—many were home on +sick-leave—the Sixth Form was in charge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The genius of Arnold was made manifest, almost as soon as he went to +Rugby, by the way in which he managed the boys who bullied the whole +school, and what is worse, did it legally.</p> + +<p>Fagging was official.</p> + +<p>The Sixth Form was composed of thirty boys who stood at the top, and +these boys ran the school. They were boys who, by reason of their size, +strength, aggressiveness and mental ability, got the markings that gave +them this autocratic power. They were now immune from authority—they +were free. In a year they would gravitate to the University.</p> + +<p>We can hardly understand now how a bully could get markings through his +bullying propensities; but a rudimentary survival of the idea may yet be +seen in big football-players, who are given good marks, and very gentle +mental massage in class. If the same scholars were small and skinny, +they would certainly be plucked.</p> + +<p>The faculty found freedom in shifting responsibility for discipline to +the Sixth Form.</p> + +<p>Read the diary of Arnold, and you will be amazed on seeing how he fought +against taking from the Sixth Form the right to bodily chastise any +scholar in the school that the king of the Sixth Form declared deserved +it.</p> + +<p>If a teacher thought a pupil needed punishment, he turned the luckless +one over to the Sixth Form. Can we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> now conceive of a system where the +duty of certain scholars was to whip other scholars? Not only to whip +them, but to beat them into insensibility if they fought back?</p> + +<p>Such was schoolteaching in the public schools of England in Eighteen +Hundred Thirty.</p> + +<p>Against this brutality there was now a growing sentiment—a piping voice +bidding the tide to stay!</p> + +<p>But now that Arnold was in charge of Rugby, he got the ill-will of his +directors by declaring that he did not intend to curtail the powers of +the Sixth Form—he proposed to civilize it. To try out the new master, +the Sixth Form, proud in their prowess, sent him word that if he +interfered with them in any way, they would first "bust up the school," +and then resign in a body. Moreover, they gave it out that if any pupil +complained to the master concerning the Sixth Form, the one so +complaining would be taken out by night and drowned in the classic Avon.</p> + +<p>There were legends among the younger boys of strange disappearances, and +these were attributed to the swift vengeance of "The Bloody Sixth."</p> + +<p>Above the Sixth Form there was no law.</p> + +<p>Every scholar took off his hat to a "Sixth." A Sixth uncovered to +nobody, and touched his cap only to a teacher.</p> + +<p>And custom had become so rooted that the Sixth Form was regarded as a +sort of police necessity—a caste which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> served the school just as the +Army served the Church. To reach the Sixth Form were paradise—it meant +liberty and power—liberty to do as you pleased, and power to punish all +who questioned your authority.</p> + +<p>To uproot the power of the Sixth Form was the intent of a few reformers +in pedagogics.</p> + +<p>There were two ways to deal with the boys of the Sixth—fight them or +educate them.</p> + +<p>Arnold called the Rugby Sixth together and assured them that he could +not do without their help. He needed them: he wanted to make Rugby a +model school, a school that would influence all England—would they help +him?</p> + +<p>The dogged faces before him showed signs of interest. He continued, +without waiting for their reply, to set before them his ideal of an +English Gentleman. He persuaded them, melted them by his glowing +personality, shook hands with each, and sent them away.</p> + +<p>The next day he again met them in the same intimate way, and one of the +boys made bold to assure him that if he wanted anybody licked—pupils or +teachers—they stood ready to do his bidding.</p> + +<p>He thanked the boy, but assured him that he was of the opinion that it +would not be necessary to do violence to any one; he was going to unfold +to them another way—a new way, which was very old, but which as yet +England had not tried.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he great teacher is not the one who imparts the most facts—he is the +one who inspires by supplying a nobler ideal.</p> + +<p>Men are superior or inferior just in the ratio that they possess certain +qualities. Truth, honor, frankness, health, system, industry, +kindliness, good-cheer and a spirit of helpfulness are so far beyond any +mental acquisition that comparisons are not only odious, but absurd.</p> + +<p>Arnold inspired qualities, and in this respect his work at Rugby forms a +white milestone on the path of progress in pedagogy.</p> + +<p>To an applicant for a position as teacher, Arnold wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>What I want is a man who is a Christian and a gentleman, an active +man, and one who has commonsense, and understands boys. I do not so +much care about scholarship, as he will have immediately under him +the lowest forms in the school, but yet, on second thought, I do +care about it very much, because his pupils may be in the highest +forms; and besides, I think that even the elements are best taught +by a man who has a thorough knowledge of the matter. However, if +one must give way, I prefer activity of mind and an interest in his +work to high scholarship; for the one may be acquired far more +easily than the other. I should wish it also to be understood that +the new master may be called upon to take boarders in his house, it +being my intention for the future to require this of all masters as +I see occasion, that so in time the school-barracks may die a +natural death. With this to offer, I think I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> have a right to look +rather high for the man whom I fix upon, and it is my great object +to get here a society of intelligent, gentlemanly and active men, +who may permanently keep up the character of the school, and if I +were to break my neck tomorrow, carry it on.</p></div> + +<p>Ideas are in the air, and great inventions are worked out in different +parts of the world at the same time. Rousseau had written his "Emile," +but we are not aware that Arnold ever read it.</p> + +<p>And if he had, he probably would have been shocked, not inspired, by its +almost brutal frankness. The French might read it—the English could +not.</p> + +<p>Pestalozzi was working out his ideas in Switzerland, and Froebel, an +awkward farmer lad in Germany, was dreaming dreams that were to come +true. But Thomas Arnold caught up the threads of feeling in England and +expressed them in the fabric of his life.</p> + +<p>His plans were scientific, but his reasons, unlike those of Pestalozzi, +will not always stand the test of close analysis. Arnold was true to the +Church, but he found it convenient to forget much for which the Church +stood. He went back to a source nearer the fountainhead. All reforms in +organized religion lie in returning to the primitive type. The religion +of Jesus was very simple; that of a modern church dignitary is very +complex. One can be understood; the other has to be explained and +expounded, and usually several languages are required.</p> + +<p>Arnold would have his boys evolve into Christian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> gentlemen. And his +type of English gentleman he did not get out of books on theology—it +was his own composite idea. But having once evolved it, he cast around +to justify it by passages of Scripture. This was beautiful, too, but +from our standpoint it wasn't necessary.</p> + +<p>From his it was.</p> + +<p>A gentleman to him was a man who looked for the best in other people, +and not for their faults; who overlooked slights; who forgot the good he +had done; who was courteous, kind, cheerful, industrious and clean +inside and out; who was slow to wrath, fervent in spirit, serving the +Lord. And the "Lord" to Arnold was embodied in Church and State.</p> + +<p>Arnold used to say that schoolteaching should not be based upon +religion, but it should be religion. And to him religion and conduct +were one.</p> + +<p>That he reformed Rugby through the Sixth Form is a fact. He infused into +the big boys the thought that they must help the little ones; that for a +first offense a lad must never be punished; that he should have the +matter fully explained to him, and be shown that he should do right +because it is right, and not for fear of punishment.</p> + +<p>The Sixth Form was taught to unbend its dignity and enter into +fellowship with its so-called inferiors. To this end Arnold set the +example of playing cricket with the "scrubs."</p> + +<p>He never laughed at a poor player nor at a poor scholar. He took dull +pupils into his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> house, and insisted that his helpers, the other +teachers, should do the same. He showed the Sixth Form how much better +it was to take the part of the weak, and stop bullying the lower forms, +than to set the example of it in the highest. Before Arnold had been at +Rugby a year, the Sixth Form had resolved itself into a Reception +Committee that greeted all newcomers, got them located, introduced them +to the other boys, showed them the sights, and looked after their wants +like big brothers or foster-fathers.</p> + +<p>Christianity to Arnold was human service. In his zeal to serve, to +benefit, to bless, to inspire, he never tired.</p> + +<p>Such a disposition as this is contagious. In every big business or +school, there is one man's mental attitude that animates the whole +institution. Everybody partakes of it. When the leader gets melancholia, +the shop has it—the whole place becomes tinted with ultra-marine. The +best helpers begin to get out, and the honeycombing process of +dissolution is on.</p> + +<p>A school must have a soul, just as surely as a shop, a bank, a hotel, a +store, a home, or a church has to have. When an institution grows so +great that it has no soul—simply a financial head and a board of +directors—dry-rot sets in and disintegration in a loose wrapper is at +the door.</p> + +<p>This explains why the small colleges are the best, when they are: there +is a personality about them, an animating spirit that is pervasive and +preservative.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thomas Arnold was not a man of vast learning, nor could one truthfully +say he had a surplus of intellect; but he had soul, plus. He never +sought to save himself. He gave himself to the boys of Rugby. His heart +went out to them, he believed in them—and he believed them even when +they lied, and he knew they lied. He knew that humanity was sound at +heart; he believed in the divinity of mankind, and tried hard to forget +the foolish theology that taught otherwise.</p> + +<p>Like Thomas Jefferson, who installed the honor system in the University +of Virginia, he trusted young men. He made his appeal to that germ of +goodness which is in every human soul. In some ways he anticipated Ben +Lindsey in his love for the boy, and might have conjured forth from his +teeming brain the Juvenile Court, and thus stopped the creation of +criminals, had his life not been consumed in a struggle with stupidity +and pedantry gone to seed that cried to him, "Oh, who ever heard of such +a thing as that!"</p> + +<p>The Kindergarten utilizes the propensity to play; and Arnold utilizes +the thirst for authority. Altruism is flavored with a desire for +approbation.</p> + +<p>The plan of self-government by means of utilizing the Sixth Form was +quite on the order of our own "George Junior Republic." "A school," he +said, "should be self-governing and cleanse itself from that which is +harmful." And again he says: "If a pupil can gratify his natural desire +for approbation by doing that which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> is right, proper and best, he will +work to this end instead of being a hero by playing the rowdy. It is for +the scholars to set the seal of their approval on character, and they +will do so if we as teachers speak the word. If I find a room in a +tumult, I blame myself, not the scholars. It is I who have failed, not +they. Were I what I should be, every one of my pupils would reflect my +worth. I key the situation, I set the pace, and if my soul is in +disorder, the school will be in confusion."</p> + +<p>Nothing is done without enthusiasm. It is heart that wins, not head, the +round world over. And yet head must systematize the promptings of the +heart. Arnold had a way of putting soul into a hand-clasp. His pupils +never forgot him. Wherever they went, no matter how long they lived, +they proclaimed the praises of Arnold of Rugby. How much this earnest, +enthusiastic, loving and sincere teacher has influenced civilization, no +man can say. But this we know, that since his day there has come about a +new science of teaching. The birch has gone with the dunce-cap. The +particular cat-o'-nine-tails that was burned in the house of Thomas +Arnold as a solemn ceremony, when the declaration was made, "Henceforth +I know my children will do right!" has found its example in every home +of Christendom.</p> + +<p>We no longer whip children. Schools are no longer places of dread, pain +and suffering, and we as teachers are repeating with Friedrich Froebel +the words of the Nazarene, "Suffer little children to come unto me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> and +forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."</p> + +<p>Also, we say with Thomas Arnold: "The boy is father to the man. A race +of gentlemen can only be produced by fostering in the boy the qualities +that make for health, strength and a manly desire to bless, benefit and +serve the race."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="FRIEDRICH_FROEBEL" id="FRIEDRICH_FROEBEL"></a>FRIEDRICH FROEBEL</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0420.jpg" alt="FRIEDRICH FROEBEL" title="FRIEDRICH FROEBEL" /></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The purpose of the Kindergarten is to provide the necessary and +natural help which poor mothers require who have to be about their +work all day, and must leave their children to themselves. The +occupations pursued in the Kindergarten are the following: free +play of a child by itself; free play of several children by +themselves; associated play under the guidance of a teacher; +gymnastic exercises; several sorts of handiwork suited to little +children; going for walks; learning music, both instrumental and +vocal; learning the repetition of poetry; story-telling; looking at +really good pictures; aiding in domestic occupations; gardening.</p> + +<p>—<i>Froebel</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FRIEDRICH FROEBEL</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgf.jpg" alt="F" title="F" /></div><p>riedrich Froebel was born in a Thuringian village, April Twenty-first, +Seventeen Hundred Eighty-two. His father was pastor of the Lutheran +Church. When scarcely a year old his mother died. Erelong a stepmother +came to fill her place—but didn't. This stepmother was the kind we read +about in the "Six Best Sellers."</p> + +<p>Her severity, lack of love, and needlessly religious zeal served the +future Kindergartner a dark background on which to paint a joyous +picture. Froebel was educated by antithesis. His home was the type +etched so unforgetably by Colonel Ed. Howe in his "Story of a Country +Town," which isn't bad enough to be one of the Six Best Sellers.</p> + +<p>At the age of ten, out of pure pity, young Friedrich was rescued from +the cuckoo's nest by an uncle who had a big family of his own and love +without limit. There was a goodly brood left, so little Friedrich, slim, +slender, yellow, pensive and sad, was really never missed.</p> + +<p>The uncle brought the boy up to work, but treated him like a human +being, answering his questions, even allowing him to have stick horses +and little log houses and a garden of his own.</p> + +<p>At fifteen his nature had begun to awaken, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> uncle, harkening to +the boy's wish, apprenticed him for two years to a forester. The young +man's first work was to make a list of the trees in a certain tract and +approximate their respective ages. The night before his work began he +lay awake thinking of the fun he was going to have at the job. In +after-years he told of this incident in showing that it was absurd to +try to divorce work from play.</p> + +<p>The two years as forester's apprentice, from fifteen to seventeen, were +really better for him than any university could have been. His +stepmother's instructions had mostly been in the line of prohibition. +From earliest babyhood he had been warned to "look out." When he went on +the street it was with a prophecy that he would get run over by a cart, +or stolen by the gypsies, or fall off the bridge and be drowned. The +idea of danger had been dinged into his ears so that fear had become a +part of the fabric of his nature. Even at fifteen, he took pains to get +out of the woods before sundown to avoid the bears. At the same time his +intellect told him there were no bears there. But the shudder habit was +upon him.</p> + +<p>Yet by degrees the work in the woods built up his body and he grew to be +at home in the forest, both day and night. His duties taught him to +observe, to describe, to draw, to investigate, to decide. Then it was +transplantation, and perhaps the best of college life consists in taking +the youth out of the home environment and supplying him new +surroundings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<p>Forestry in America is a brand-new science. To clear the ground has been +our desire, and so to strip, burn and destroy, saving only such logs as +appealed to us for "lumber," was the desideratum. But now we are +seriously considering the matter of tree-planting and tree-preservation, +and perhaps it would be well to ask ourselves if two years at forestry, +right out of doors, in contact with Nature, wrestling with the world of +wood, rock, plant and living things, wouldn't be better for the boy than +double the time in stuffy dormitories and still more stuffy +recitation-rooms—listening to stuffy lectures about things that are +foreign to life.</p> + +<p>I would say that a boy is a savage, but I do not care to give offense to +fond mammas. To educate him in the line of his likes, as the race has +been educated, seems sensible and right. How would Yellowstone Park +answer for a National University, with Captain Jack Crawford, William +Muldoon, John Burroughs, John Dewey, Stanley Hall and a mixture of men +of these types, for a faculty?</p> + +<p>Froebel thought his two years in the forest saved him from consumption, +and perhaps from insanity, for it taught him to look out, not in, and to +lend a hand. At times he was a little too sentimental, as it was, and a +trifle more of morbidity and sensitiveness would have ruined his life, +absolutely.</p> + +<p>The woods and God's great out-of-doors gave him balance and ballast, +good digestion and sweet sleep o' nights.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<p>The two years past, he went to Jena, where he had an elder brother. This +brother was a star scholar, and Friedrich looked up to him as a pleiad +of pedagogy. He became a professor in a Jena preparatory school and then +practised medicine; but he never had the misfortune to affront public +opinion, and so oblivion lured and won him, and took him as her own.</p> + +<p>At Jena poor Froebel did not make head. His preparatory work hadn't +prepared him. He floundered in studies too deep for one of his age, then +followed some foolish advice and hired a tutor to help him along. Then +he fell down, was plucked, got into debt, and also into the "carcer," +where he boarded for nine weeks at the expense of the State.</p> + +<p>In the carcer he didn't catch up with his studies, quite naturally, and +the imprisonment almost broke his health. Had he been in the carcer for +dueling, he would have emerged a hero. But debt meant that he had +neither money nor friends. When he was given his release, as an economic +move, he slipped away between two days and made his way to the Forestry +Office, where he applied for a job as laborer. He got it. In a few days +he was promoted to chief of apprentices.</p> + +<p>Forestry meant a certain knowledge of surveying, and this Froebel soon +acquired. Then came map-making, and that was only fun. From map-making +to architecture is but a step, and Froebel quit the woods to work as +assistant to an architect at ten pounds a year and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> found, it was +confining work, and a trifle more exacting than he had expected—it +required a deal of mathematics, and mathematics was Froebel's short +suit. Froebel was disappointed and so was his employer—when something +happened. It usually does in books, and in life, always.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgg.jpg" alt="G" title="G" /></div><p>enius has its prototype. Before Froebel comes Pestalozzi, the Swiss, +who studied theology and law, and then abandoned them both as futile to +human evolution, and turned his attention to teaching. Pestalozzi was +inspired by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and read his "Emile" religiously. To +teach by natural methods and mix work and study, and make both play, was +his theme. Pestalozzi believed in teaching out of doors, because +children are both barbaric and nomadic—they want to go somewhere. His +was the Aristotle method, as opposed to those of the closet and the +cloister. But he made the mistake of saying that teaching should be +taken out of the hands and homes of the clergy, and then the clergy said +a few things about him.</p> + +<p>Pestalozzi at first met with very meager encouragement. Only poor and +ignorant people entrusted their children to his care, and some of the +parents were actually paid in money for the services of the children. +The thought that the children were getting an education and being useful +at the same time was quite beyond their comprehension.</p> + +<p>Pestalozzi educated by stealth. At first he took several boys and girls +of eight, ten or twelve years of age, and had them work with him in his +garden. They cared for fowls, looked after the sheep, milked the cows. +The master worked with them, and as they worked they talked. Going to +and from their duties, Pestalozzi would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> call their attention to the +wild birds, and to the flowers, plants and weeds. They would draw +pictures of things, make collections of leaves and flowers, and keep a +record of their observations and discoveries. Through keeping these +records they learned to read and write and acquired the use of simple +mathematics. Things they did not understand they would read about in the +books found in the teacher's library. But books were secondary and quite +incidental in the scheme of study. When work seemed to become irksome +they would all stop and play games. At other times they would sit and +just talk about what their work happened to suggest. If the weather was +unpleasant, there was a shop where they made hoes and rakes and other +tools they needed. They also built bird-houses, and made simple pieces +of furniture, so all the pupils, girls and boys, became more or less +familiar with carpenter's and blacksmith's tools. They patched their +shoes, mended their clothing, and at times prepared their own food.</p> + +<p>Pestalozzi found that the number of pupils he could look after in this +way was not more than ten. But to his own satisfaction, at least, he +proved that children taught by his method surpassed those who were given +the regular set courses of instruction. His chief difficulties lay in +the fact that the home did not co-operate with the school, and that +there was always a tendency to "return to the blanket."</p> + +<p>Pestalozzi wrote accounts of his experiments and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> emphasized his belief +that we should educate through the child's natural activities; also that +all growth should be pleasurable. His shibboleth was, "From within, +out." He thought education was a development and not an acquirement.</p> + +<p>One of Pestalozzi's little pamphlets fell into the hands of Friedrich +Froebel, architect's assistant, at Frankfort.</p> + +<p>Froebel was twenty-two years old, and Fate had tossed him around from +one thing to another since babyhood. All of his experiences had been of +a kind that prepared his mind for the theories that Pestalozzi +expressed.</p> + +<p>Besides that, architecture had begun to pall upon him. "Those who can, +do; those who can't, teach." This was said in derision, but it holds a +grain of truth.</p> + +<p>Froebel had a great desire to teach. Now, in Frankfort there was a Model +School or a school for teachers, of which one Herr Gruner was master. +This school was actually carrying out some of the practical methods +suggested by Pestalozzi. Quite by accident Gruner and Froebel met. +Gruner wanted a teacher who could teach by the Pestalozzi methods. +Froebel straightway applied to Herr Gruner for the position. He was +accepted as a combination janitor and instructor and worked for his +board and ten marks, or two and a half dollars a week.</p> + +<p>The good-cheer and enthusiasm of Froebel won Gruner's heart. Together +they discussed Pestalozzi and his works, read all that he had written, +and opened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> up a correspondence with the great man. This led to an +invitation that Froebel should visit him at his farm-school, near +Yverdon, in Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Gruner supplied Froebel the necessary money to replace his very seedy +clothes for something better, and the young man started away. It was a +walk of more than two hundred miles, but youth and enthusiasm count such +a tramp as an enjoyable trifle. Froebel wore his seedy clothes and +carried his good ones, and so he appeared before the master spick and +span.</p> + +<p>Pestalozzi was sixty years old at this time, and his hopes for the "new +method" were still high. He had met opposition, ridicule and +indifference, and had spent most of his little fortune in the fight, but +he was still at it and resolved to die in the harness.</p> + +<p>Froebel was not disappointed in Pestalozzi, and certainly Pestalozzi was +delighted and a bit amused at the earnestness of the young man. +Pestalozzi was working in a very economical way, but all the place +lacked Froebel, in his exuberant imagination, made good.</p> + +<p>Froebel found much, for he had brought much with him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgf.jpg" alt="F" title="F" /></div><p>roebel returned to Frankfort from his visit to Pestalozzi, full of +enthusiasm, and that is the commodity without which no teacher succeeds. +Gruner allowed him to gravitate. And soon Froebel's room was the central +point of interest for the whole school. But trouble was ahead for +Froebel.</p> + +<p>He had no college degrees. His pedagogic pedigree was very short. He +hoped to live down his university record, but it followed him. Gruner's +school was under government inspection, and the gentlemen with double +chins, who came from time to time to look the place over, asked who this +enthusiastic young person was, and why had the worthy janitor and +ex-forester been so honored by promotion.</p> + +<p>In truth, during his life, Froebel never quite escaped the taunt that he +was not an educated man. That is to say, no college had ever supplied +him an alphabetic appendage. He had been a forester, a farmer, an +architect, a guardian for boys and a teacher of women, but no +institution had ever said officially he was fit to teach men.</p> + +<p>Gruner tried to explain that there are two kinds of teachers: people who +are teachers by nature, and those who have acquired the methods by long +study. The first, having little to learn, and a love for the child, with +a spontaneous quality of giving their all, succeed best.</p> + +<p>But poor Gruner's explanation did not explain.</p> + +<p>Then the matter was gently explained to Froebel, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> he saw that in +order to hold a place as teacher he must acquire a past. "Time will +adjust it," he said, and started away on a second visit to Pestalozzi. +His plan was to remain with the master long enough so he could secure a +certificate of proficiency.</p> + +<p>Again Pestalozzi welcomed the young man, and he slipped easily into the +household and became both pupil and teacher. His willingness to work—to +do the task that lay nearest him—his good-nature, his gratitude, won +all hearts.</p> + +<p>At this time the plan of sending boys to college with a tutor who was +both a companion and a teacher, was in vogue with those who could afford +it. It will be remembered that William and Alexander von Humboldt +received their early education in this way—going with their tutor from +university to university, teacher and pupils entering as special +students, getting into the atmosphere of the place, soaking themselves +full of it, and then going on.</p> + +<p>And now behold, through Gruner or Pestalozzi or both, a woman of wealth +with three boys to educate applied to Froebel to come over into +Macedonia and help her.</p> + +<p>It was in Eighteen Hundred Seven that Froebel became tutor in the Von +Holzhausen family. He was twenty-five years old, and this was his first +interview with wealth and leisure. That he was hungry enough to +appreciate it need not be emphasized.</p> + +<p>He got goodly glimpses of Gottingen, Berlin, and was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> long enough at +Jena to rub the blot off the 'scutcheon. A stay at Weimar, in the Goethe +country, completed the four years' course.</p> + +<p>The boys had grown to men, and proved their worth in after-years; but +whether they had gotten as much from the migrations as their teacher is +very doubtful. He was ripe for opportunity—they had had a surfeit of +it.</p> + +<p>Then came war. The order to arms and the rush of students to obey their +country's call caught Froebel in the patriotic vortex, and he enlisted +with his pupils.</p> + +<p>His service was honorable, even if not brilliant, and it had this +advantage: the making of two friends, companions in arms, who caught the +Pestalozzian fever, and lived out their lives preaching and teaching +"the new method."</p> + +<p>These men were William Middendorf and Henry Langenthal. This trinity of +brothers evolved a bond as beautiful as it is rare in the realm of +friendship. Forty years after their first meeting, Middendorf gave an +oration over the dead body of Froebel that lives as a classic, breathing +the love and faith that endure.</p> + +<p>And then Middendorf turned to his work, and dared prison and disgrace by +upholding the Kindergarten System and the life and example of his dear, +dead friend. The Kindergarten Idea would probably have been buried in +the grave with Froebel—interred with his bones—were it not for +Middendorf and Langenthal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he first Kindergarten was established in Eighteen Hundred Thirty-six, +at Blankenburg, a little village near Keilhau. Froebel was then +fifty-four years old, happily married to a worthy woman who certainly +did not hamper his work, even if she did not inspire it. He was +childless, that all children might call him father.</p> + +<p>The years had gone in struggles to found Normal Schools in Germany after +the Pestalozzian and Gruner methods. But disappointment, +misunderstanding and stupidity had followed Froebel. The set methods of +the clergy, accusations of revolution and heresy, tilts with pious +pedants as to the value of dead languages, all combined with his own +lack of business shrewdness, had wrecked his various ventures.</p> + +<p>Froebel's argument that women were better natural teachers than men on +account of the mother-instinct, brought forth a retort from a learned +monk to the effect that it was indelicate if not sinful for an unmarried +female, who was not a nun, to study the natures of children.</p> + +<p>Parents with children old enough to go to school would not entrust their +darlings with the teaching experimenter—this on the advice of their +pastors.</p> + +<p>Middendorf and Langenthal were still with him, partners in the disgrace +or failure, for none was willing to give up the fight for education by +the natural methods.</p> + +<p>A great thought and a great word came to them, all at once—out on the +mountain-side!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> + +<p>Begin with the children before the school age, and call it the +Kindergarten!</p> + +<p>Hurrah! They shouted for joy, and ran down the hill to tell Frau +Froebel.</p> + +<p>The schools they had started before had been called, "The Institution +for Teaching According to the Pestalozzi Method and the Natural +Activities of the Child," "Institution for the Encouragement and +Development of the Spontaneous Activities of the Pupil," and "Friedrich +Froebel's School for the Growth of the Creative Instinct Which Makes for +a Useful Character."</p> + +<p>A school with such names, of course, failed. No one could remember it +long enough to send his child there—it meant nothing to the mind not +prepared for it.</p> + +<p>What's in a name? Everything. Books sell or become dead stock on the +name. Commodities the same. Railroads must have a name people are not +afraid to pronounce.</p> + +<p>The officers of the law came and asked to see Froebel's license for +manufacturing. Others asked as to the nature of his wares, and one +dignitary called and asked, "Is Herr Pestalozzi in?"</p> + +<p>The Kindergarten! The new name took. The children remembered it. +Overworked mothers liked the word and were glad to let the little +other-mothers take the children to the Kindergarten, certainly.</p> + +<p>Froebel had grown used to disappointments—he was an optimist by nature. +He saw the good side of everything, including failure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>He made the best of necessity. And now it was very clear to him that +education must begin "a hundred years before the child is born." He +would reach the home and the mother through the children. "It will take +three generations to prove the truth of the Kindergarten Idea," he said.</p> + +<p>And so the songs, the gifts, the games—all had to be invented, +defended, tried and tried again. Pestalozzi had a plan for teaching the +youth; now a plan had to be devised for teaching the child. Love was the +keystone, and joy, unselfishness and unswerving faith in the Natural or +Divine impulses of humanity crowned the structure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgf.jpg" alt="F" title="F" /></div><p>roebel invented the schoolma'am. That is, he discovered the raw product +and adapted it. He even coined the word, and it struck the world as +being so very funny that we forthwith adopted it as a term of provincial +pleasantry and quasi-reproach. The original term used was "school +mother," but when it reached these friendly shores we translated it +"schoolmarm." Then we tittered, also sneezed.</p> + +<p>Froebel died in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-two. His first Kindergarten was +not a success until he was nearly sixty years old, but the idea had been +perfecting itself in his mind more or less unconsciously for over thirty +years.</p> + +<p>He had been thinking, writing, working, experimenting all these years on +the subject of education, and he had become well-nigh discouraged. He +had observed that six was the "school age." That is, no child could go +to school until he was six years old—then his education began.</p> + +<p>But Froebel had been teaching in a country school and boarding 'round, +and he had discovered that long before this the child had been learning +by observing and playing, and that these were formative influences, +quite as potent as actual school.</p> + +<p>In the big families where Froebel boarded, he noticed that the older +girls took charge of the younger ones. So, often a girl of ten, with +dresses to her knees, carried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> one baby in her arms and two toddled +behind her, and this child of ten was really the other-mother. The true +mother worked in the fields or toiled at her housework, and the little +other-mother took the children out to play and thus amused them while +the mother worked.</p> + +<p>The desire of Froebel was to educate the race, but what are a few hours +a day in a schoolroom with a totally unsympathetic home environment!</p> + +<p>To reach and interest the mother in the problem of education was +well-nigh impossible. Toil, deprivation, poverty, had killed all the +romance and enthusiasm in her heart. She was the victim of arrested +development; but the little other-mother was a child, impressionable, +immature, and she could be taught. The home must co-operate with the +school, otherwise all the school can teach will be forgotten in the +home. Froebel saw, too, that often the little other-mother was so +overworked in the care of her charges that she was taken from school. +Besides, the idea was abroad that education was mostly for boys, anyway.</p> + +<p>And here Froebel stepped in and proved himself a law-breaker, just as +Ben Lindsey was when he inaugurated the juvenile court and waived the +entire established legal procedure, even to the omission of swearing his +witnesses, and believed in the little truant even though he lied. +Froebel told the little other-mothers to come to school anyway and bring +the babies with them.</p> + +<p>And then he set to work showing these girls how to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> amuse, divert and +teach the babies. And he used to say the babies taught him.</p> + +<p>Some of these half-grown girls showed a rare adaptability as teachers. +They combined mother-love and the teaching instinct.</p> + +<p>Froebel utilized their services in teaching others in order that he +might teach them.</p> + +<p>He saw that the teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, +and that the true teacher is a learner. These girl teachers he called +school-mothers, and thus was evolved the word and the person.</p> + +<p>Froebel founded the first normal and model school for the education of +women as teachers, and this was less than a hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>The years went by and the little mothers had children of their own, and +these children were the ones that formed the first actual, genuine +kindergarten.</p> + +<p>Also, these were the mothers who formed the first mothers' clubs.</p> + +<p>And it was the success of these clubs that attracted the attention of +the authorities, who could not imagine any other purpose for a club than +to hatch a plot against the government.</p> + +<p>Anyway, a system which taught that women were just as wise, just as good +and just as capable as men—just as well fitted by nature to +teach—would upset the clergy. If women can break into the school, they +will also break into the church. Moreover, the encouragement of play was +atrocious. Mein Gott, or words to that effect, play in a schoolroom! +Why, even a fool<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> would know that that is the one thing that stood in +the way of education, the one fly in the pedagogic ointment. If Mynheer +Froebel would please invent a way to do away with play in schoolrooms, +he would be given a pension.</p> + +<p>The idea that children were good by nature was rank heresy. Where does +the doctrine of regeneration come in, and how about being born again! +The natural man is at enmity toward God. We are conceived in sin and +born in iniquity. The Bible says it again and again.</p> + +<p>And here comes a man who thinks he knows more than all the priests and +scholars who have ever lived, and fills the heads of fool women with the +idea that they are born to teach instead of to work in the fields and +keep house and wait on men.</p> + +<p>Mein Gott in Himmel, the women know too much, already! If this thing +keeps on, men will have to get off the earth, and women and children +will run the world, and do it by means of play. Aha! What does Solomon +say? Spare the rod and spoil the child. Aber nicht, say these girls.</p> + +<p>This thing has got to stop before Germany becomes the joke of +mankind—the cat-o'-nine-tails for anybody who uses the word +kindergarten!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgs.jpg" alt="S" title="S" /></div><p>uffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of +such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Had the man who uttered these words been +given a little encouragement, he probably would have inaugurated a +child-garden and provided a place and environment where little souls +could have bloomed and blossomed. He was by nature a teacher, and his +best pupils were women and children. Male men are apt to think they +already know and so are immune from ideas.</p> + +<p>Jerusalem, nineteen hundred years ago, was about where Berlin was in +Eighteen Hundred Fifty. In both instances the proud priest and the +aristocrat-soldier were supreme. And both were quite satisfied with +their own mental attainments and educational methods. They were sincere. +It was a very similar combination that crucified Jesus to that which +placed an interdict on Friedrich Froebel, making the Kindergarten a +crime, and causing the speedy death of one of the gentlest, noblest, +purest men who have ever blessed this earth.</p> + +<p>Froebel was just seventy when he passed out. "His eye was not dimmed nor +his natural force abated"—he was filled with enthusiasm and hope as +never before. His ideas were spreading—success, at last, was at the +door, he had interested the women and proved the fitness of women to +teach—his mothers' clubs were numerous—love was the watchword. And in +the midst of this flowering time, the official order came, without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +warning, apology or explanation, and from which there was no appeal. The +same savagery, chilled with fear, that sent Richard Wagner into exile, +crushed the life and broke the heart of Friedrich Froebel. But these +names now are the pride and glory of the land that once scorned them. +Men who govern should be those with a reasonable doubt concerning their +own infallibility, and an earnest faith in men, women and children. To +teach is better than to rule. We are all children in the Kindergarten of +God.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="HYPATIA" id="HYPATIA"></a>HYPATIA</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0422.jpg" alt="HYPATIA" title="HYPATIA" /></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Neo-Platonism is a progressive philosophy, and does not expect to +state final conditions to men whose minds are finite. Life is an +unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can +comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the +best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.</p> + +<p>—<i>Hypatia</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HYPATIA</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he father of Hypatia was Theon, a noted mathematician and astronomer of +Alexandria. He would have been regarded as a very great man had he not +been cast into the shadow by his daughter. Let male parents beware.</p> + +<p>At that time, astronomy and astrology were one. Mathematics was useful, +not for purposes of civil engineering, but principally in figuring out +where a certain soul, born under a given planet, would be at a certain +time in the future.</p> + +<p>No information comes to us about the mother of Hypatia—she was so busy +with housework that her existence is a matter of assumption or a priori +reasoning; thus, given a daughter, we assume the existence of a mother.</p> + +<p>Hypatia was certainly the daughter of her father. He was her tutor, +teacher, playmate. All he knew he taught to her, and before she was +twenty she had been informed by him of a fact which she had previously +guessed—that considerable of his so-called knowledge was conjecture.</p> + +<p>Theon taught his daughter that all systems of religion that pretend to +teach the whole truth were to a great degree false and fraudulent. He +explained to her that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> his own profession of astronomy and astrology was +only for other people. By instructing her in all religions she grew to +know them comparatively, and so none took possession of her to the +exclusion of new truth. To have a religion thrust upon you, and be +compelled to believe in it or suffer social ostracism, is to be cheated +of the right to make your own. In degree it is letting another live your +life. A child does not need a religion until he is old enough to evolve +it, and then he must not be robbed of the right of independent thinking +by having a fully-prepared plan of salvation handed out to him. The +brain needs exercise as much as the body, and vicarious thinking is as +erroneous as vicarious exercise. Strength comes from personal effort. To +think is natural, and if not intimidated or coerced the man will evolve +a philosophy of life that is useful and beneficent.</p> + +<p>Religious mania is a result of dwelling on a borrowed religion. If let +alone no man would become insane on religious topics, for the religion +he would evolve would be one of joy, laughter and love, not one of +misery or horror. The religion that contemplates misery and woe is one +devised by priestcraft for a purpose, and that purpose is to rule and +rob. From the blunt ways of the road we get a polite system of +intimidation which makes the man pay. It is robbery reduced to a system, +and finally piously believed in by the robbers, who are hypnotized into +the belief that they are doing God's service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> + +<p>"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted +by self-respecting persons as final," said Theon to Hypatia. "Reserve +your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to +think at all."</p> + +<p>Theon gave lectures, and had private classes in esoterics, wherein the +innermost secrets of divinity were imparted. Also, he had a plan for the +transmutation of metals and a recipe for perpetual youth. When he had +nothing else to do, he played games with his daughter.</p> + +<p>At twenty-one Hypatia had mastered the so-called art of Rhetoric, or the +art of expression by vocal speech.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that the Romans considered rhetoric, or the art of +the rhetor, or orator, as first in importance. To impress people by your +personal presence they regarded as the gift of gifts.</p> + +<p>This idea seems to have been held by the polite world up to the Italian +Renaissance, when the art of printing was invented and the written word +came to be regarded as more important than the spoken. One lives, and +the other dies on the air, existing only in memory, growing attenuated +and diluted as it is transferred. The revival of sculpture and painting +also helped oratory to take its proper place as one of the polite arts, +and not a thing to be centered upon to the exclusion of all else.</p> + +<p>Theon set out to produce a perfect human being; and whether his charts, +theorems and formulas made up a complete law of eugenics, or whether it +was dumb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> luck, this we know: he nearly succeeded. Hypatia was five feet +nine, and weighed one hundred thirty-five pounds. This when she was +twenty. She could walk ten miles without fatigue; swim, row, ride +horseback and climb mountains. Through a series of gentle calisthenics +invented by her father, combined with breathing exercises, she had +developed a body of rarest grace. Her head had corners, as once +Professor O. S. Fowler told us that a woman's head must have, if she is +to think and act with purpose and precision.</p> + +<p>So having evolved this rare beauty of face, feature and bodily grace, +combined with superior strength and vitality, Hypatia took up her +father's work and gave lectures on astronomy, mathematics, astrology and +rhetoric, while he completed his scheme for the transmutation of metals. +Hypatia's voice was flute-like, and used always well within its compass, +so as never to rasp or tire the organs. Theon knew the proper care of +nose and throat, a knowledge which with us moderns is all too rare. +Hypatia told of and practised the vocal ellipse, the pause, the glide, +the slide and the gentle, deliberate tones that please and impress. That +the law of suggestion was known to her was very evident, and certain it +is that she practised hypnotism in her classes, and seemed to know as +much about the origin of the mysterious agent as we do now, even though +she never tagged or labeled it.</p> + +<p>One very vital thought she worked out was, that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> young mind is +plastic, impressionable and accepts without question all that it is +told. The young receive their ideas from their elders, and ideas once +impressed upon this plastic plate of the mind can not be removed.</p> + +<p>Said Hypatia: "Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and +miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most +terrible thing. The child-mind accepts and believes them, and only +through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after-years relieved +of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as +for a living truth—often more so, since a superstition is so intangible +you can not get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so +is changeable."</p> + +<p>Gradually, over the mind of the beautiful and gifted Hypatia, there came +stealing a doubt concerning the value of her own acquirements, since +these were "acquirements," and not evolutions or convictions gathered +from experience, but things implanted upon her plastic mind by her +father.</p> + +<p>In this train of thought Hypatia had taken a step in advance of her +father, for he seems to have had a dogmatic belief in a few things +incapable of demonstration; but these things he taught to the plastic +mind, just the same as the things he knew. Theon was a dogmatic liberal. +Possibly the difference between an illiberal Unitarian and a liberal +Catholic is microscopic.</p> + +<p>Hypatia clearly saw that knowledge is the distilled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> essence of our +intuitions, corroborated by experience. But belief is the impress made +upon our minds when we are under the spell of or in subjection to +another.</p> + +<p>These things caused the poor girl many unhappy hours, which fact, in +itself, is proof of her greatness. Only superior people have a capacity +for doubting.</p> + +<p>Probably not one person in a million ever gets away far enough from his +mind to take a look at it, and see the wheels go round. Opinions become +ossified and the man goes through life hypnotizing others, never +realizing for an instant that in youth he was hypnotized and that he has +never been able to cast off the hypnosis.</p> + +<p>This is what our pious friends mean when they say, "Give me the child +until he is ten years old and you may have him afterward." That is, they +can take the child in his plastic age and make impressions on his mind +that are indelible. Reared in an orthodox Jewish family a child will +grow up a dogmatic Jew, and argue you on the Talmud six nights and days +together.</p> + +<p>Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, the same. I once knew an Arapahoe +Indian who was taken to Massachusetts when four years old. He grew up +not only with New England prejudices, but with a New England accent, and +saved his pennies to give to missionaries that they might "convert" the +Red Men.</p> + +<p>When the suspicion seized upon the soul of Hypatia that her mind was but +a wax impression taken from her father's, she began to make plans to get +away from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> him. Her efforts at explanations were futile, but when placed +upon the general ground that she wished to travel, see the world and +meet people of learning and worth, her father acquiesced and she started +away on her journeyings. He wanted to go, too, but this was the one +thing she did not desire, and he never knew nor could know why.</p> + +<p>She spent several months at Athens, where her youth, beauty and learning +won her entry into the houses of the most eminent. It was the same at +Rome and in various other cities of Italy. Money may give you access to +good society, but talent is always an open sesame. She traveled like a +princess and was received as one, yet she had no title nor claim to +nobility nor station. Beauty of itself is not a credential—rather it is +an object of suspicion, unless it goes with intellect.</p> + +<p>Hypatia gave lectures on mathematics; and there was a fallacy abroad +then as there is now that the feminine mind is not mathematical. That +the great men whom Hypatia met in each city were first amazed and then +abashed by her proficiency in mathematics is quite probable. Some few +male professors being in that peculiar baldheaded hypnotic state when +feminine charms dazzle and lure, listened in rapture as Hypatia +dissolved logarithms and melted calculi, and not understanding a word +she said, declared that she was the goddess Minerva, reincarnated. Her +coldness on near approach confirmed their suspicions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgj.jpg" alt="J" title="J" /></div><p>ust how long a time Hypatia spent upon her pilgrimage, visiting all of +the great living philosophers, we do not know. Some accounts have it one +year, others ten.</p> + +<p>Probably the pilgrimages were extended over a good many years, and were +not continuous. Several philosophers proved their humanity by offering +to marry her, and a prince or two did likewise, we are credibly +informed. To these persistent suitors, however, Hypatia gently broke the +news that she was wedded to truth, which is certainly a pretty speech, +even if it is poor logic. The fact was, however, that Hypatia never met +a man whose mind matched her own, otherwise logic would have bolstered +love, instead of discarding it.</p> + +<p>Travel, public speaking and meeting people of note form a strong trinity +of good things. The active mind is the young mind, and it is more than +the dream of a poet which declares that Hypatia was always young and +always beautiful, and that even Father Time was so in love with her that +he refused to take toll from her, as he passed with his hourglass and +scythe.</p> + +<p>In degree she had followed the example of her great prototype, Plotinus, +and had made herself master of all religions. She knew too much of all +philosophies to believe implicitly in any. Alexandria was then the +intellectual center of the world. People who resided there called it the +hub of the universe. It was the meeting-place of the East and the West.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + +<p>And Hypatia, with her Thursday lectures, was the chief intellectual +factor of Alexandria.</p> + +<p>Her philosophy she called Neo-Platonism. It was Plato distilled through +the psychic alembic of Hypatia. Just why the human mind harks back and +likes to confirm itself by building on another, it would be interesting +to inquire. To explain Moses; to supply a key to the Scriptures; to +found a new School of Philosophy on the assumption that Plato was right, +but was not understood until the Then and There, is alluring.</p> + +<p>And now the pilgrims came from Athens, and Rome, and the Islands of the +Sea to sit at the feet of Hypatia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgh.jpg" alt="H" title="H" /></div><p>ypatia was born in the year Three Hundred Seventy, and died in Four +Hundred Thirty. She exerted an influence in Alexandria not unlike that +which Mrs. Eddy exerted in Boston. She was a person who divided society +into two parts: those who regarded her as an oracle of light, and those +who looked upon her as an emissary of darkness.</p> + +<p>Strong men paid her the compliment of using immoderate language +concerning her teaching. But whether they spoke ill or well of her +matters little now. The point is this: they screeched, sneezed, or +smiled on those who refused to acknowledge the power of Hypatia. Some +professors of learning tried to waive her; priests gently pooh-poohed +her; and some elevated an eyebrow and asked how the name was spelled. +Others, still, inquired, "Is she sincere?"</p> + +<p>She was the Ralph Waldo Emerson of her day. Her philosophy was +Transcendentalism. In fact, she might be spoken of as the original +charter member of the Concord School of Philosophy. Her theme was the +New Thought, for New Thought is the oldest form of thought of which we +know. Its distinguishing feature is its antiquity. Socrates was really +the first to express the New Thought, and he got his cue from +Pythagoras.</p> + +<p>The ambition of Hypatia was to revive the flowering-time of Greece, when +Socrates and Plato walked arm in arm through the streets of Athens, +followed by the greatest group of intellectuals the world has ever +seen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was charged against Hypatia that Aspasia was her ideal, and that her +ambition was to follow in the footsteps of the woman who was beloved by +Pericles. If so, it was an ambition worthy of a very great soul. +Hypatia, however, did not have her Pericles, and never married. That she +should have had love experiences was quite natural, and that various +imaginary romances should have been credited to her was also to be +expected.</p> + +<p>Hypatia was nearly a thousand years removed from the time of Pericles +and Aspasia, but to bridge the gulf of time with imagination was easy. +Yet Hypatia thought that the New Platonism should surpass the old, for +the world had had the Age of Augustus to build upon.</p> + +<p>Hypatia's immediate prototype was Plotinus, who was born two hundred +four years after Christ, and lived to be seventy. Plotinus was the first +person to use the phrase "Neo-Platonism," and so the philosophy of +Hypatia might be called "The New Neo-Platonism."</p> + +<p>To know but one religion is not to know that one.</p> + +<p>In fact, superstition consists in this one thing—faith in one religion, +to the exclusion of all others.</p> + +<p>To know one philosophy is to know none. They are all comparative, and +each serves as a small arc of the circle. A man living in a certain +environment, with a certain outlook, describes the things he sees; and +out of these, plus what he imagines, is shaped his philosophy of life. +If he is repressed, suppressed, frightened, he will not see very much, +and what he does see will be out of focus.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> Spiritual strabismus and +mental myopia are the results of vicarious peeps at the universe. All +formal religions have taught that to look for yourself was bad. The +peephole through the roof of his garret cost Copernicus his liberty, but +it was worth the price.</p> + +<p>Plotinus made a study of all philosophies—all religions. He traveled +through Egypt, Greece, Assyria, India. He became an "adept", and +discovered how easily the priest drifts into priestcraft, and fraud +steps in with legerdemain and miracle to amend the truth. As if to love +humanity were not enough to recommend the man, they have him turn water +into wine and walk on the water.</p> + +<p>Out of the labyrinth of history and speculation Plotinus returned to +Plato as a basis or starting-point for all of the truth which man can +comprehend. Plotinus believed in all religions, but had absolute faith +in none. It will be remembered that Aristotle and Plato parted as to the +relative value of poetry and science—science being the systematized +facts of Nature. Plotinus comes in and says that both were right, and +each was like every good man who exaggerates the importance of his own +calling. In his ability to see the good in all things, Hypatia placed +Plotinus ahead of Plato, but even then she says: "Had there been no +Plato, there would have been no Plotinus; although Plotinus surpassed +Plato, yet it is plain that Plato, the inspirer of Plotinus and so many +more, is the one man whom philosophy can not spare. Hail, Plato!!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he writings of Hypatia have all disappeared, save as her words come to +us, quoted by her contemporaries. If the Essays of Emerson should all be +swept away, the man would still live in the quotations from his pen, +given to us by every writer of worth who has put pencil to paper during +the last fifty years. So lives Sappho, and thus did Charles Kingsley +secure the composite of the great woman who lives and throbs through his +book. Legend pictures her as rarely beautiful, with grace, poise and +power, plus.</p> + +<p>She was sixty when she died. History kindly records it forty-five—and +all picture her as a beautiful and attractive woman to the last. The +psychic effects of a gracefully-gowned first reader, with sonorous +voice, using gesture with economy, and packing the pauses with feeling, +have never been fully formulated, analyzed and explained. Throngs came +to hear Hypatia lecture—came from long distances, and listened +hungrily, and probably all they took away was what they brought, except +a great feeling of exhilaration and enthusiasm. To send the hearer away +stepping light, and his heart beating fast—this is oratory—which isn't +so much to bestow facts, as it is to impart a feeling. This Hypatia +surely did. Her theme was Neo-Platonism. "Neo" means new, and all New +Thought harks back to Plato, who was the mouthpiece of Socrates. "Say +what you will, you'll find it all in Plato." Neo-Platonism is our New +Thought, and New Thought is Neo-Platonism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are two kinds of thought: New Thought and Secondhand Thought. New +Thought is made up of thoughts you, yourself, think. The other kind is +supplied to you by jobbers. The distinguishing feature of New Thought is +its antiquity. Of necessity it is older than Secondhand Thought. All +genuine New Thought is true for the person who thinks it. It only turns +sour and becomes error when not used, and when the owner forces another +to accept it. It then becomes a secondhand revelation. All New Thought +is revelation, and secondhand revelations are errors half-soled with +stupidity and heeled with greed.</p> + +<p>Very often we are inspired to think by others, but in our hearts we have +the New Thought; and the person, the book, the incident, merely remind +us that it is already ours. New Thought is always simple; Secondhand +Thought is abstruse, complex, patched, peculiar, costly, and is passed +out to be accepted, not understood. That no one comprehends it is often +regarded as a recommendation.</p> + +<p>For instance, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image," is +Secondhand Thought. The first man who said it may have known what it +meant, but surely it is nothing to us. However, that does not keep us +from piously repeating it, and having our children memorize it.</p> + +<p>We model in clay or wax, and carve if we can, and give honors to those +who do, and this is well. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> commandment is founded on the fallacy +that graven images are gods, whatever that is. The command adds nothing +to our happiness, nor does it shape our conduct, nor influence our +habits. Everybody knows and admits its futility, yet we are unable to +eliminate it from our theological system. It is strictly +secondhand—worse, it is junk.</p> + +<p>Conversely, the admonition, "Be gentle and keep your voice low," is New +Thought, since all but savages know its truth, comprehend its import, +and appreciate its excellence.</p> + +<p>Dealers in Secondhand Thought always declare that theirs is the only +genuine, and that all other is spurious and dangerous.</p> + +<p>Dealers in New Thought say, "Take this only as it appeals to you as your +own—accept it all, or in part, or reject it all—and in any event, do +not believe it merely because I say so."</p> + +<p>New Thought is founded on the laws of your own nature, and its +shibboleth is, "Know Thyself."</p> + +<p>Secondhand Thought is founded on authority, and its war-cry is, "Pay and +Obey."</p> + +<p>New Thought offers you no promise of paradise or eternal bliss if you +accept it; nor does it threaten you with everlasting hell, if you don't. +All it offers is unending work, constant effort, new difficulties; +beyond each success is a new trial. Its only satisfactions are that you +are allowing your life to unfold itself according to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> the laws of its +nature. And these laws are divine, therefore you yourself are divine, +just as you allow the divine to possess your being. New Thought allows +the currents of divinity to flow through you unobstructed.</p> + +<p>Secondhand Thought affords no plan of elimination; it tends to +congestion, inflammation, disease and disintegration.</p> + +<p>New Thought holds all things lightly, gently, easily—even thought. It +works for a healthy circulation, and tends to health, happiness and +well-being now and hereafter. It does not believe in violence, force, +coercion or resentment, because all these things react on the doer. It +has faith that all men, if not interfered with by other men, will +eventually evolve New Thought, and do for themselves what is best and +right, beautiful and true.</p> + +<p>Secondhand Thought has always had first in its mind the welfare of the +dealer. The rights of the consumer, beyond keeping him in subjection, +were not considered. Indeed, its chief recommendation has been that "it +is a good police system."</p> + +<p>New Thought considers only the user. To "Know Thyself" is all there is +of it.</p> + +<p>When a creator of New Thought goes into the business of retailing his +product, he often forgets to live it, and soon is transformed into a +dealer in Secondhand Thought.</p> + +<p>That is the way all purveyors in secondhand revelation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> begin. In their +anxiety to succeed, they call in the police. The blessing that is +compulsory is not wholly good, and any system of morals which has to be +forced on us is immoral. New Thought is free thought. Its penalty is +responsibility. You either have to live it, or else lose it. Its reward +is Freedom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p>t was only a little more than a hundred years before the time of +Hypatia that the Roman Empire became Christian. When Constantine +embraced Christianity, all of his loyal subjects were from that moment +Christians—Christians by edict, but Pagans by character, for the +natures of men can not be changed by the passing of a resolution. From +that time every Pagan temple became a Christian church, and every Pagan +priest a Christian preacher.</p> + +<p>Alexandria was under the rule of a Roman Prefect, or Governor. It had +been the policy of Rome to exercise great tolerance in religious +matters. There was a State Religion, to be sure, but it was for the +nobility or those who helped make the State possible. To look after the +thinking of the plain people was quite superfluous—they were allowed +their vagaries.</p> + +<p>The Empire had been bold, brazen, cruel, coercive in its lust for power, +but people who paid were reasonably safe. And now the Church was coming +into competition with the State and endeavoring to reduce spoliation to +a system.</p> + +<p>To keep the people down and under by mental suppression—by the engine +of superstition—were cheaper and more effective than to employ force or +resort to the old-time methods of shows, spectacles, pensions and costly +diversions. When the Church took on the functions of the State, and +sought to substitute the gentle Christ for Cæsar, she had to recast the +teachings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> of Christ. Then for the first time coercion and love dwelt +side by side. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared +for the devil and his angels," and like passages were slipped into the +Scriptures as matters of wise expediency. This was continued for many +hundred years, and was considered quite proper and legitimate. It was +slavery under a more subtle form.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Alexandria clashed with Orestes the Prefect. To hold the +people under by psychologic methods was better than the old plans of +alternate bribery and force—so argued the Bishop.</p> + +<p>Orestes had come under the spell of Hypatia, and the Republic of Plato +was saturating his mind.</p> + +<p>"To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another +world is just as base as to use force," said Hypatia in one of her +lectures. Orestes sat in the audience and as she spoke the words he +clapped his hands. The news was carried to the Bishop, who gently +declared that he would excommunicate him.</p> + +<p>Orestes sent word back that the Emperor should be informed of how this +Bishop was misusing his office by making threats of where he could land +people he did not like, in another world. Neither the Bishop nor the +Prefect could unseat each other—both derived their power from the +Emperor. For Orestes to grow interested in the teachings of Hypatia, +instead of siding with the Bishop, was looked upon by the loyalists as +little short of treason.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> + +<p>Orestes tried to defend himself by declaring that the policy of the +Cæsars had always been one of great leniency toward all schools of +philosophy. Then he quoted Hypatia to the effect that a fixed, formal +and dogmatic religion would paralyze the minds of men and make the race, +in time, incapable of thought.</p> + +<p>Therefore, the Bishop should keep his place, and not try to usurp the +functions of the police. In fact, it was better to think wrongly than +not to think at all. We learn to think by thinking, and if the threats +of the Bishop were believed at all, it would mean the death of science +and philosophy.</p> + +<p>The Bishop made answer by declaring that Hypatia was endeavoring to +found a Church of her own, with Pagan Greece as a basis. He intimated, +too, that the relationship of Orestes with Hypatia was very much the +same as that which once existed between Cleopatra and Mark Antony. He +called her "that daughter of Ptolemy," and by hints and suggestions made +it appear that she would, if she could, set up an Egyptian Empire in +this same city of Alexandria where Cleopatra once so proudly reigned.</p> + +<p>The excitement increased. The followers of Hypatia were necessarily few +in numbers. They were thinkers—and to think is a task. To believe is +easy. The Bishop promised his followers a paradise of ease and rest. He +also threatened disbelievers with the pains of hell. A promise on this +side—a threat on that! Is it not a wonder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> that a man ever lived who +put his honest thought against such teaching when launched by men +clothed in almost absolute authority!</p> + +<p>Hypatia might have lived yesterday, and her death at the hands of a mob +was an accident that might have occurred in Boston, where a respectable +company once threw a rope around the neck of a good man and ran him +through streets supposed to be sacred to liberty and free speech.</p> + +<p>A mob is made up of cotton waste, saturated with oil, and a focused idea +causes spontaneous combustion. Let a fire occur in almost any New York +State village, and the town turns wrecker, and loot looms large in the +limited brain of the villager. Civilization is a veneer.</p> + +<p>When one sees emotionalism run riot at an evangelistic revival, and five +thousand people are trooping through an undesirable district at +midnight, how long, think you, would a strong voice of opposition be +tolerated?</p> + +<p>Hypatia was set upon by a religious mob as she was going in her carriage +from her lecture-hall to her home. She was dragged to a near-by church +with the intent of making her publicly recant, but the embers became a +blaze, and the blaze became a conflagration, and the leaders lost +control. The woman's clothes were torn from her back, her hair torn from +her head, her body beaten to a pulp, dismembered, and then to hide all +traces of the crime and distribute the guilt so no one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> person could be +blamed, a funeral-pyre quickly consumed the remains of what but an hour +before had been a human being. Daylight came, and the sun's rays could +not locate the guilty ones.</p> + +<p>Orestes made a report of the affair, resigned his office, asked the +Government at Rome to investigate, and fled from the city. Had Orestes +endeavored to use his soldiery against the Bishop, the men in the ranks +would have revolted. The investigation was postponed from time to time +for lack of witnesses, and finally it was given out by the Bishop that +Hypatia had gone to Athens, and there had been no mob and no tragedy.</p> + +<p>The Bishop nominated a successor to Orestes, and the new official was +confirmed.</p> + +<p>Dogmatism as a police system was supreme.</p> + +<p>It continued until the time of Dante, or the Italian Renaissance. The +reign of Religious Dogmatism was supreme for well-nigh a thousand +years—we call it the Dark Ages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="SAINT_BENEDICT" id="SAINT_BENEDICT"></a>SAINT BENEDICT</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0424.jpg" alt="SAINT BENEDICT" title="SAINT BENEDICT" /></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>If any pilgrim monk come from distant parts, if with wish as a +guest to dwell in the monastery, and will be content with the +customs which he finds in the place, and do not perchance by his +lavishness disturb the monastery, but is simply content with what +he finds: he shall be received, for as long a time as he desires. +If, indeed, he find fault with anything, or expose it, reasonably, +and with the humility of charity, the Abbot shall discuss it +prudently, lest perchance God had sent for this very thing. But, if +he have been found gossipy and contumacious in the time of his +sojourn as guest, not only ought he not to be joined to the body of +the monastery, but also it shall be said to him, honestly, that he +must depart. If he does not go, let two stout monks, in the name of +God, explain the matter to him.</p></div> + +<p>—<i>St. Benedict</i></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SAINT BENEDICT</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p>s the traveler journeys through Southern Italy, Sicily and certain +parts of what was Ancient Greece, he will see broken arches, parts of +viaducts, and now and again a single, beautiful column pointing to the +sky. All about is the desert or solitary pastures, and only this white +milestone, marking the path of the centuries and telling in its own +silent, solemn and impressive way of a day that is dead.</p> + +<p>In the Fifth Century a monk called Simeon the Syrian, and known to us as +Simeon Stylites, having taken the vow of chastity, poverty and +obedience, began to fear greatly lest he might not be true to his +pledge. And that he might live absolutely beyond reproach, always in +public view, free from temptation, and free from the tongue of scandal, +he decided to live in the world, and still not be of it. To this end he +climbed to the top of a marble column, sixty feet high, and there on the +capstone he lived a life beyond reproach.</p> + +<p>Simeon was then twenty-four years old.</p> + +<p>The environment was circumscribed, but there was outlook, sunshine, +ventilation—three good things. But beyond these the place had certain +disadvantages. The capstone was a little less than three feet square, +so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> Simeon could not lie down. He slept sitting, with his head bowed +between his knees, and indeed, in this posture he passed most of his +time. Any recklessness in movement, and he would have slipped from his +perilous position and been dashed to death upon the stones beneath.</p> + +<p>As the sun arose he stood up, just for a few moments, and held his arms +out in greeting, blessing and prayer. Three times during the day did he +thus stretch his cramped limbs, and pray with his face to the East. At +such times those who stood near shared in his prayers, and went away +blessed and refreshed.</p> + +<p>How did Simeon get to the top of the column?</p> + +<p>Well, his companions at the monastery, a mile away, said he was carried +there in the night by a miraculous power; that he went to sleep in his +stone cell and awoke on the pillar. Other monks said that Simeon had +gone to pay his respects to a fair lady, and in wrath God had caught him +and placed him on high. The probabilities are, however, Terese, as +viewed by an unbeliever, that he shot a line over the column with a bow +and arrow and then drew up a rope ladder and ascended with ease.</p> + +<p>However, in the morning the simple people of the scattered village saw +the man on the column. All day he stayed there. The next day he was +still there.</p> + +<p>The days passed, with the scorching heat of the midday sun, and the cool +winds of the night.</p> + +<p>Still Simeon kept his place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> + +<p>The rainy season came on. When the nights were cold and dark, Simeon sat +there with bowed head, and drew the folds of his single garment, a black +robe, over his face.</p> + +<p>Another season passed; the sun again grew warm, then hot, and the +sand-storms raged and blew, when the people below almost lost sight of +the man on the column. Some prophesied he would be blown off, but the +morning light revealed his form, naked from the waist up, standing with +hands outstretched to greet the rising sun.</p> + +<p>Once each day, as darkness gathered, a monk came with a basket +containing a bottle of goat's milk and a little loaf of black bread, and +Simeon dropped down a rope and drew up the basket.</p> + +<p>Simeon never spoke, for words are folly, and to the calls of saint or +sinner he made no reply. He lived in a perpetual attitude of adoration.</p> + +<p>Did he suffer? During those first weeks he must have suffered terribly +and horribly. There was no respite nor rest from the hard surface of the +rock, and aching muscles could find no change from the cramped and +perilous position. If he fell, it was damnation for his soul—all were +agreed as to this.</p> + +<p>But man's body and mind accommodate themselves to almost any condition. +One thing at least, Simeon was free from economic responsibilities, free +from social cares and intrusion. Bores with sad stories of unappreciated +lives and fond hopes unrealized, never broke in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> upon his peace. He was +not pressed for time. No frivolous dame of tarnished fame sought to +share with him his perilous perch. The people on a slow schedule, ten +minutes late, never irritated his temper. His correspondence never got +in a heap.</p> + +<p>Simeon kept no track of the days, having no engagements to meet, or +offices to perform, beyond the prayers at morn, midday and night.</p> + +<p>Memory died in him, the hurts became calluses, the world-pain died out +of his heart, to cling became a habit. Language was lost in disuse. The +food he ate was minimum in quantity; sensation ceased, and the dry, hot +winds reduced bodily tissue to a dessicated something called a +saint—loved, feared and reverenced for his fortitude.</p> + +<p>This pillar, which had once graced the portal of a pagan temple, again +became a place of pious pilgrimage, and people flocked to Simeon's rock, +so that they might be near when he stretched out his black, bony hands +to the East, and the spirit of Almighty God, for a space, hovered close +around.</p> + +<p>So much attention did the abnegation of Simeon attract that various +other pillars, marking the ruins of art and greatness gone, in that +vicinity, were crowned by pious monks. Their thought was to show how +Christianity had triumphed over heathenism. Imitators were numerous. +About that time the Bishops in assembly asked, "Is Simeon sincere?" To +test the matter of Simeon's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> pride, he was ordered to come down from his +retreat.</p> + +<p>As to his chastity, there was little doubt, and his poverty was beyond +question; but how about obedience to his superiors?</p> + +<p>The order was shouted up to him in a Bishop's voice—he must let down +his rope, draw up a ladder, and descend.</p> + +<p>Straightway Simeon made preparation to obey. And then the Bishops +relented and cried, "We have changed our minds, and now order you to +remain!"</p> + +<p>Simeon lifted his hands in adoration and thankfulness and renewed his +lease.</p> + +<p>And so he lived on and on and on—he lived on the top of that pillar, +never once descending, for thirty years.</p> + +<p>All of his former companions grew a-weary; one by one they died, and the +monastery-bells tolled their requiem as they were laid to rest. Did +Simeon hear the bells and say, "Soon it will be my turn"?</p> + +<p>Probably not. His senses had flown, for what good were they! The young +monk who now at eventide brought the basket with the bottle of goat's +milk and the loaf of dry bread was born since Simeon had taken his place +on the pillar. "He has always been there," the people said, and crossed +themselves hurriedly.</p> + +<p>But one evening when the young monk came with his basket, no line was +dropped from above. He waited and then called aloud, but all in vain.</p> + +<p>When sunrise came, there sat the monk, his face between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> his knees, the +folds of his black robe drawn over his head. But he did not rise and +lift his hands in prayer.</p> + +<p>All day he sat there, motionless.</p> + +<p>The people watched in whispered silence. Would he arise at sundown and +pray, and with outstretched hands bless the assembled pilgrims?</p> + +<p>But as they watched a vulture came sailing slowly through the blue +ether, and circled nearer and nearer; and off on the horizon was +another—and still another, circling nearer and nearer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgi.jpg" alt="I" title="I" /></div><p>n humanity's march of progress there are a vanguard and a rearguard. +The rearguard dwindles away into a mob of camp-followers, who follow for +diversion and to escape starvation. Both the vanguard and the rearguard +are out of step with the main body, and therefore both are despised by +the many who make up the rank and file.</p> + +<p>And yet, out of pity, the main body supplies ambulances and +"slum-workers," who aim to do "good"—but this good is always for the +rearguard and the camp-followers, never for those who lead the line of +march, and take the risk of ambush and massacre.</p> + +<p>But this scorn of the vanguard has its recompense—often delayed, no +doubt—but those who compose it are the only ones whom history honors +and Clio crowns. If they get recognition in life, it is wrung tardily +from an ungrateful and ungracious world. And this is the most natural +thing in the world, and it would be a miracle if it were otherwise, for +the very virtue of the vanguard consists in that their acts outrun human +sympathy.</p> + +<p>Benedict was a scout of civilization. In his day he led the vanguard. He +found the prosperous part of the world given over to greed and gluttony. +The so-called religious element was in partnership with fraud, +superstition, ignorance, incompetence, and an asceticism like that of +Simeon Stylites, leading to nothing.</p> + +<p>Men know the good and grow through experience. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> realize the +worthlessness of place and position and of riches, you must have been at +some time in possession of these. Benedict was born into a rich Roman +family, in the year Four Hundred Eighty. His parents wished to educate +him for the law, so he would occupy a position of honor in the State.</p> + +<p>But at sixteen years of age, at that critical time when nerves are +vibrating between manhood and youth, Benedict cut the umbilical domestic +cord, and leaving his robes of purple and silken finery, suddenly +disappeared, leaving behind a note which was doubtless meant to be +reassuring and which was quite the reverse, for it failed to tell where +his mail should be forwarded. He had gone to live with a hermit in the +fastnesses of the mountains. He had desired to do something peculiar, +strange, unusual, unique and individual, and now he had done it.</p> + +<p>Back of it all was the Cosmic Urge, with a fair slip of a girl, and +meetings by stealth in the moonlight; and then those orders from his +father to give up the girl, which he obeyed with a vengeance.</p> + +<p>Monasticism is a reversal or a misdirection of the Cosmic Urge. The will +brought to bear in fighting temptation might be a power for good, if +used in co-operation with Nature. But Nature to the priestly mind has +always been bad. The worldly mind was one that led to ruin. To be good +by doing good was an idea the monkish mind had not grasped. His way of +being good was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> be nothing, do nothing—just resist. Successfully to +fight temptation, the Oriental Monk regarded as an achievement.</p> + +<p>One day, out on that perilous and slippery rock on the mountain-side, +Benedict ceased saluting the Holy Virgin long enough to conceive a +thought. It was this: To be acceptable to God, we must do something in +the way of positive good for man. To pray, to adore, to wander, to +suffer, is not enough. We must lighten the burdens of the toilers and +bring a little joy into their lives. Suffering has its place, but too +much suffering would destroy the race.</p> + +<p>Only one other man had Benedict ever heard of, who put forth this +argument, and that was Saint Jerome; and many good men in the Church +regarded Saint Jerome as little better than an infidel. Saint Jerome was +a student of the literature of Greece and Rome—"Pagan Books," they were +called, "rivals of the Bible." Saint Anthony had renounced and denounced +these books and all of the learning of Paganism. Saint Anthony, the +father of Christian Monasticism, dwelt on the terrible evils of +intellectual pride, and had declared that the joys of the mind were of a +more subtle and devilish character than those of the flesh.</p> + +<p>Anthony, assisted by inertia, had won the ear of the Church; and dirt, +rags and idleness had come to be regarded as sacred things.</p> + +<p>Benedict took issue with Anthony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he Monastic Impulse is a protest against the Cosmic Urge, or +reproductive desire.</p> + +<p>Necessarily, the Cosmic Urge is older than the Monastic Impulse; and +beyond a doubt it will live to dance on the grave of its rival.</p> + +<p>The Cosmic Urge is the creative instinct. It includes all planning, +purpose, desire, hope, unrest, lust and ambition. In its general sense, +it is Unfulfilled Desire. It is the voice constantly crying in the ears +of success, "Arise and get thee hence, for this is not thy rest." It is +the dissatisfaction with all things done—it is our Noble Discontent. In +its first manifestation it is sex. In its last refinement it means the +love of man and woman, with the love of children, the home-making sense, +and an appreciation of art, music and science—which is love with seeing +eyes—as natural results.</p> + +<p>Deity creates through its creatures, of which man is the highest type. +But man, evolving a small spark of intellect, sits in judgment on his +Creator, and finds the work bad. Of all the animals, man is the only one +so far known that criticizes his environment, instead of accepting it. +And we do this because, in degree, we have abandoned intuition before we +have gotten control of intellect.</p> + +<p>The Monastic Instinct is the disposition ever to look outside of +ourselves for help. We expect the Strong Man to come and give us +deliverance from our woes. All nations have legends of saviors and +heroes who came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> and set the captives free, and who will come again in +greater glory and mightier power and even release the dead from their +graves.</p> + +<p>The Monastic Impulse is based on world-weariness, with disappointed +love, or sex surfeit, which is a phase of the same thing, as a basis. +Its simplest phase is a desire for solitude.</p> + +<p>"Mon" means one, and monasticism is simply living alone, apart from the +world. Gradually it came to mean living alone with others of a like mind +or disposition.</p> + +<p>The clan is an extension of the family, and so is originally a monastic +impulse. The Group Idea is a variant of monasticism, but if it includes +men and women, it always disintegrates with the second generation, if +not before, because the Cosmic Urge catches the members, and they mate, +marry and swing the circle.</p> + +<p>Ernst Haeckel has recently intimated his belief that monogamy, with its +exclusive life, is a diluted form of monasticism. And his opinion seems +to be that, in order to produce the noblest race possible, we must have +a free society, with a State that reverences and respects maternity and +pensions any mother who personally cares for her child.</p> + +<p>Monasticism and enforced monogamy often carry a disrespect, if not a +positive contempt, for motherhood, especially free motherhood. We breed +from the worst, under the worst conditions, and as punishment God has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +made us a race of scrubs. If we had deliberately set about to produce +the worst, we could not do better.</p> + +<p>It will at once be seen that a penalized free motherhood is exactly like +the Monastic Impulse—a protest and a revolt from the Cosmic Urge. Hence +Ernst Haeckel, harking back to Schopenhauer, declares that we must place +a premium upon parenthood, and the State must subsidize all mothers, +visiting them with tenderness, gentleness, sanctity and respect, before +we shall be able to produce a race of demigods.</p> + +<p>The Church has aureoled and sainted the men and women who have +successfully fought the Cosmic Urge. Emerson says, "We are strong as we +ally ourselves with Nature, and weak as we fight against her or +disregard her." Thus does Emerson place himself squarely in opposition +to the Church, for the Church has ever looked upon Nature as a lure and +a menace to holy living.</p> + +<p>Now, is it not possible that the prevalency of the Monastic Impulse is +proof that it is in itself a movement in the direction of Nature? +Possibly its error lies in swinging out beyond the norm. A few great +Churchmen have thought so. And the greatest and best of them, so far as +I know, was Benedict. Through his efforts, monasticism was made a power +for good, and for a time, at least, it served society and helped +humanity on its way.</p> + +<p>That the flagellants, anchorites, or monks with iron collars, and Simeon +Stylites living his life perched on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> pillar, benefited the human +race—no one would now argue. Simeon was simply trying to please God—to +secure salvation for his soul. His assumption was that the world was +base and bad. To be pure in heart you must live apart from it. His +persistence was the only commendable thing about him, and this was the +persistence of a diseased mind. It was beautiful just as the persistence +of cancer is beautiful.</p> + +<p>Benedict, while agreeing that the world was bad, yet said that our +business was to make it better, and that everything we did which was +done merely to save our own souls, was selfish and unworthy. He +advocated that, in order to save our own souls, we should make it our +business to save others. Also, to think too much about your own soul was +to have a soul not worth saving. If this life is a preparation for +another, as Simeon thought, he was not preparing himself for a world +where we would care to go. The only heaven in which any sane man or +woman, be he saint or sinner, would care to live, would be one whose +inhabitants would be at liberty to obey the Cosmic Urge just as freely +as the Monastic Impulse, and where one would be regarded as holy as the +other. So thought Saint Benedict.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>here is a natural law, well recognized and defined by men who think, +called the Law of Diminishing Returns, sometimes referred to as the Law +of Pivotal Points.</p> + +<p>A man starts in to take systematic exercise, and he finds that his +strength increases. He takes more exercise and keeps on until he gets +"stale"—that is, he becomes sore and lame. He has passed the Pivotal +Point and is getting a Diminishing Return.</p> + +<p>In running a railroad-engine a certain amount of coal is required to +pull a train of given weight a mile, say at the rate of fifty miles an +hour. You double the amount of your coal, and simple folks might say you +double your speed, but railroad men know better. The double amount of +coal will give you only about sixty miles instead of fifty. Increase +your coal and from this on you get a Diminishing Return. If you insist +on eighty miles an hour, you get your speed at a terrific cost and a +terrible risk.</p> + +<p>Another case: Your body requires a certain amount of food—the body is +an engine; food is fuel; life is combustion. Better the quality and +quantity of your food, and up to a certain point you increase your +strength. Go on increasing your food and you get death. Loan money at +five per cent and your investment is reasonably secure and safe. Loan +money at ten per cent and you do not double the returns; on the +contrary, you have taken on so much risk. Loan money at twenty per cent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +and you will probably lose it; for the man who borrows at twenty per +cent does not intend to pay if he can help it.</p> + +<p>The Law of Diminishing Returns was what Oliver Wendell Holmes had in +mind when he said, "Because I like a pinch of salt in my soup is no +reason I wish to be immersed in brine."</p> + +<p>Churches, preachers and religious denominations are good things in their +time and place, and up to a certain point. Whether for you the church +has passed the Pivotal Point is for you yourself to decide. But remember +this, because a thing is good up to a certain point, or has been good, +is no reason why it should be perpetuated. The Law of Diminishing +Returns is the natural refutation of the popular fallacy that because a +thing is good you can not get too much of it.</p> + +<p>It is this law that Abraham Lincoln had in mind when he said, "I object +to that logic which seeks to imply that because I wish to make the negro +free, I desire a black woman for a wife."</p> + +<p>Benedict had spent five years in resistance before it dawned upon him +that Monasticism carried to a certain point was excellent and fraught +with good results, but beyond that it rapidly degenerated.</p> + +<p>To carry the plan of simplicity and asceticism to its summit and not go +beyond was now his desire.</p> + +<p>To withdraw from society he felt was a necessity, for the petty and +selfish ambitions of Rome were revolting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> But the religious life did +not for him preclude the joys of the intellect. In his unshaven and +unshorn condition, wearing a single garment of goatskin, he dared not go +back to his home. So he proceeded to make himself acceptable to decent +people. He made a white robe, bathed, shaved off his beard, had his hair +cut, and putting on his garments, went back to his family. The life in +the wilderness had improved his health. He had grown in size and +strength and he now, in his own person, proved that a religious recluse +was not necessarily unkempt and repulsive.</p> + +<p>His people greeted him as one raised from the dead. Crowds followed him +wherever he went. He began to preach to them and to explain his +position.</p> + +<p>Some of his old school associates came to him.</p> + +<p>As he explained his position, it began more and more to justify itself +in his mind. Things grow plain as we analyze them to others—by +explaining to another the matter becomes luminous to ourselves.</p> + +<p>To purify the monasteries and carry to them all that was good and +beautiful in the classics, was the desire of Benedict. His wish was to +reconcile the learning of the past with Christianity, which up to that +time had been simply ascetic. It had consisted largely of repression, +suppression and a killing-out of all spontaneous, happy, natural +impulses.</p> + +<p>Very naturally, he was harshly criticized, and when he went back to the +cave where he had dwelt and tried to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> teach some of his old companions +how to read and write, they flew first at him, and then from him. They +declared that he was the devil in the guise of a monk; that he wished to +live both as a monk and as a man of the world—that he wanted to eat his +cake and still keep it. By a sort of divine right he took control of +affairs, and insisted that his companions should go to work with him, +and plant a garden and raise vegetables and fruits, instead of depending +upon charity or going without.</p> + +<p>The man who insists that all folks shall work, be they holy or secular, +learned or illiterate, always has a hard road to travel. Benedict's +companions declared that he was trying to enslave them, and one of them +brewed a poison and substituted it for the simple herb tea that Benedict +drank. Being discovered, the man and his conspirators escaped, although +Benedict offered to forgive and forget if they would go to work.</p> + +<p>Benedict adhered to his new inspiration with a persistency that never +relaxed—the voice of God had called to him that he must clear the soil +of the brambles and plant gardens.</p> + +<p>The thorn-bush through which he had once rolled his naked body, he now +cut down and burned. He relaxed the vigils and limited the prayers and +adorations to a few short exercises just before eating, sleeping and +going to work. He divided the day into three parts—eight hours for +work, eight hours for study, eight hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> for sleep. Then he took +one-half hour from each of these divisions for silent prayer and +adoration. He argued that good work was a prayer, and that one could +pray with his heart and lips, even as his hands swung the ax, the sickle +or the grub-hoe. All that Benedict required of others, he did himself, +and through the daily work he evolved a very strong and sturdy physique. +From the accounts that have come to us he was rather small in stature, +but in strength he surpassed any man in his vicinity.</p> + +<p>Miraculous accounts of his physical strength were related, and in the +minds of his simple followers he was regarded as more than a man, which +shows us that the ideals of what a man should be, or might be, were not +high. We are told that near Benedict's first monastery there was a very +deep lake, made in the time of Nero by damming up a mountain stream. +Along this lake the brambles and vines had grown in great confusion. +Benedict set to work to clear the ground from this lake to his +monastery, half a mile up the hillside. One day a workman dropped an ax +into the lake. Benedict smiled, his lips moved in prayer and the ax came +to the surface. The story does not say that Benedict dived to the bottom +and brought up the ax, which he probably did. The next day the owner of +the ax fell into the water, and the story goes that Benedict walked out +on the water and brought the man in on his shoulders. We who do not +believe that the age of miracles has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> passed, can well understand how +Benedict was an active, agile and strong swimmer, and that through the +natural powers which he evolved by living a sane and simple life, he was +able to perform many feats which peasants round about considered +miraculous. Benedict had what has been called the Builder's Itch. He +found great joy in planning, creating and constructing. He had an eye +for architecture and landscape-gardening. He utilized the materials of +old Roman temples to construct Christian churches, and from the same +quarry he took stone and built a monastery. A Roman ruin had a lure for +him. It meant building possibilities. He stocked the lake with fish, and +then made catches that rivaled the parable of the loaves and fishes. +Only the loaves of Benedict were made from the wheat he himself raised, +and the people he fed were the crowds who came to hear him preach the +gospel he himself practised—the gospel of work, moderation and the +commonsense exercise of head, hand and heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>o Benedict came twelve disciples. But further applications becoming +numerous, to meet the pressure Benedict kept organizing them into groups +of twelve, appointing a superior over each group. In order to prove his +sense of equality, he had but eleven besides himself in the monastery. +He recognized that leadership was a necessity; but the clothes he wore +were no better than, and the food he ate no different from, what the +others had. Yet to enforce discipline, rules were made and instant +obedience was exacted. Benedict took his turn at waiting on the table +and doing the coarsest tasks.</p> + +<p>Were it not for the commonsense methods of life, and the element of +human service, the Christian monastery and probably Christianity itself +would not have survived. The dogma of religion was made acceptable by +blending it with a service for humanity. And even to this day the +popular plan of proving the miracles of the Old Testament to have been +actual occurrences is to point to the schools, hospitals and orphan +asylums that Christian people have provided.</p> + +<p>In the efforts of Benedict to combine the life of unselfish service with +intellectual appreciation of classic literature, he naturally was +misunderstood. Several times he came near having serious collisions with +the authorities of the Church at Rome.</p> + +<p>His preaching attracted the jealous attention of certain churchmen, but +as he was not a priest, the Pope refused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> to take notice of his supposed +heresies.</p> + +<p>An effort was made to compel him to become a priest, but Benedict +refused on the plea that he was not worthy. The fact was, however, that +he did not wish to be bound by the rules of the Church.</p> + +<p>In one sense, his was a religion inside a religion, and a slight +accident might have precipitated an opposition denomination, just as the +Protestant issue of Luther was an accident, and the Methodism of the +Wesleys, another.</p> + +<p>Several times the opposition, in the belief that Benedict was an enemy +of the Church, went so far as to try to kill him. And once a few pious +persons in Rome induced a company of wanton women to go out to +Benedict's monastery and disport themselves through his beautiful +grounds. This was done with two purposes in view; one was to work the +direct downfall of the Benedictines, with the aid of the trulls, and the +other was to create a scandal among the visitors, who would carry the +unsavory news back to Rome and supply the gossips raw stock.</p> + +<p>Benedict was so deeply grieved by the despicable trick that he retired +to his former home, the cave in the hillside, and there remained without +food for a month.</p> + +<p>But during this time of solitude his mind was busy with new plans. He +now founded Monte Cassino. The site is halfway between Rome and Naples, +and the white, classic lines of the buildings can be seen from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +railroad. There on the crags, from out of a mass of green, has been +played out for more than a thousand years the drama of religious life. +Death by fire and sword has been the fate of many of the occupants. But +the years went by, new men came, the ruins were repaired, and again the +cloisters were trodden by pious feet of holy men. Goths, Lombards, +Saracens, Normans, Spaniards, Teutons, and finally came Napoleon +Bonaparte, who confiscated the property, making the place his home for a +brief space. Later he relented and took it from the favorite upon whom +he had bestowed it and gave it back to the Church. It then remained a +Benedictine monastery until the edict of Eighteen Hundred Sixty-six, +which, with the help of Massini and Garibaldi, made the monastery in +Italy a thing of the past. The place is now a school—a school with a +co-ed proviso. Thus passes away the glory of the world, in order that a +greater glory shall appear.</p> + +<p>Six hundred years before Benedict's day, on the site of the cloister of +Monte Cassino stood a temple to Apollo, and just below was a grove +sacred to Venus.</p> + +<p>Two hundred years before Benedict's time the Goths had done their work +so well that even the walls of the temple to Apollo were razed, and the +sacred grove became the home of wild beasts.</p> + +<p>To this deserted place came Benedict and eleven men, filled with a holy +zeal to erect on this very spot an edifice worthy of the living God. +Here the practical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> builder and the religious dreamer combined. If you +are going to build a building, why not build upon the walls already laid +and with blocks ready hewn and fashioned!</p> + +<p>The Monte Cassino monastery of Benedict rivaled in artistic beauty the +temple that it replaced.</p> + +<p>Man is a building animal, and the same Creative Energy that impelled the +Greeks and later the Romans to plan, devise, toil and build, now played +through the good monk Benedict. His desire to create was a form of the +great Cosmic Urge, that lives eternally and is building in America a +finer, better and nobler religion than the world has ever seen—a +Religion of Humanity—a religion of which at times Benedict caught vivid +passing glimpses, as one sees at night the landscape brilliantly +illumined by the lightning's flash.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he motto of Benedict was "Ecce Labora." These words were carved on the +entrance to every Benedictine Monastery.</p> + +<p>The monastic idea originated in the Orient, where Nature placed no +special penalty on idleness. Indeed, labor may have been a curse in +Asia. Morality is crystallized expediency, and both, as we are told, are +matters of geography, as well as time.</p> + +<p>And truth it is, that north of the Mediterranean idleness is the curse, +not labor.</p> + +<p>The rule of Benedict was not unlike that of the Shakers, for near every +monastery was a nunnery. The association of men and women, although +quite limited, was better for both than their absolute separation, as +with the Trappists, who regard it as a sin even to look upon the face of +a woman.</p> + +<p>The thrift and industry of the Benedictines was worthy of Ann Lee and +our friends at Lebanon. A man who works eight hours, with fair +intelligence, and does not set out to make consumption and waste the +business of his life, grows rich. Thoreau was right—an hour a day will +support you. But Thoreau was wrong in supposing men work only to get +food, clothing and shelter. To work only an hour a day is to evolve into +a loafer. We work not to acquire, but to become.</p> + +<p>The group idea, cemented by able leadership and a religious concept, is +always successful. The Mormons, Quakers, Harmonyites, Economites, and +the Oneida<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> Community, all grew very rich, and surpassed their neighbors +not only in point of money, but in health, happiness, intelligence and +general mental grasp.</p> + +<p>Brook Farm failed for lack of a leader with business instinct; but as it +was, it divided up among its members a rich legacy of spiritual and +mental assets. In family life, or what is called "Society," there is a +constant danger through rivalry, not in well-doing or in human service, +but in conspicuous waste and conspicuous leisure. The religious rite of +feet-washing is absolutely lost, both as a rite and as an idea. In +truth, "good society" is essentially predatory in its instincts. In +communal life, or the life of a group, service and not waste is the +watchword. This must be so, since every group, at its beginning, is held +together through the thought of service. To meet and unite on a basis of +jealous rivalry and sharp practise is unthinkable, for these are the +things that disintegrate the group.</p> + +<p>It is an economic law that a group founded upon and practising the idea +of each member giving all, wins all. Benedict's idea of "Ecce labora" +made every Benedictine monastery a center of wealth. Work stops +bickering, strife and undue waste. It makes for health and strength. The +reward of work is not immunity from toil, but more work—an increased +capacity for effort.</p> + +<p>De Tocqueville gave this recipe for success: Subdue yourself—Devote +yourself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> + +<p>That is to say, subdue the ego to a point where it gets its +gratification in concentrating on unselfish service. He who does this +always succeeds, for not only is he engaged upon a plan of life in which +there is little competition, but he is working in line with a divine +law, the law of mutuality, which provides that all the good you do to +others, you do for yourself.</p> + +<p>Benedictine monasticism leads straight to wealth and great power. The +Abbot of the group became a Baron. "I took the vow of poverty, and it +led to an income of twenty thousand pounds a year. I took the vow of +obedience and find myself ruler of fifty towns and villages." These are +the words which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of an Abbot, who +became a Baron through the simple law of which I have hinted. And in his +novel of "The Abbot," Sir Walter gives a tragic picture of how power and +wealth can be lost as well as won. Feudalism began with the rule of the +monastery.</p> + +<p>Benedict was one of the world's great Captains of Industry. And like all +great entrepreneurs, he won through utilizing the efforts of others. In +picking his Abbots, or the men to be "father" of each particular group, +he showed rare skill. These men learned from him and he learned from +them. One of his best men was Cassiodorus, the man who evolved the +scheme of the scriptorium. "To study eight hours a day was not enough," +said Cassiodorus. "We should copy the great works of literature so that +every monastery shall have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> a library as good as that which we have at +Monte Cassino." He himself was an expert penman, and he set himself the +task of teaching the monks how to write as well as how to read. "To +write beautifully is a great joy to our God," he said.</p> + +<p>Benedict liked the idea, and at once put it into execution. Cassiodorus +is the patron saint of every maker of books who loves his craft.</p> + +<p>The systematic work of the scriptorium originated in the brain of +Cassiodorus, and he was appointed by Benedict to go from one monastery +to another and inform the Abbot that a voice had come from God to +Benedict saying that these precious books must be copied, and presented +to those who would prize them.</p> + +<p>Cassiodorus had been a secretary of state under the Emperor Theodoric, +and he had also been a soldier. He was seventy years of age when he came +under the influence of Benedict, through a chance visit to Monte +Cassino. Benedict at first ordered him to take an ax and work with the +servants at grubbing out underbrush and preparing a field for planting. +Cassiodorus obeyed, and soon discovered that there was a joy in +obedience he had before never guessed. His name was Brebantus Varus, but +on his declaring he was going to remain and work with Benedict, he was +complimented by being given the name of Cassiodorus, suggested by the +word Cassinum or Cassino. Cassiodorus lived to be ninety-two, and was +one of the chief factors, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> Benedict himself, in introducing the +love of art and beauty among the Benedictines.</p> + +<p>Near Monte Cassino was a nunnery presided over by Scholastica, the twin +sister of Benedict.</p> + +<p>Renan says that the kinship of Scholastica and Benedict was a spiritual +tie, not one of blood. If so, we respect it none the less. Saint Gregory +tells of the death of Benedict thus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Benedict was at the end of his career. His interview with Totila +took place in Five Hundred Forty-two, in the year which preceded +his death; and from his earliest days of the following year, God +prepared him for his last struggle, by requiring from him the +sacrifice of the most tender affection he had retained on earth. +The beautiful and touching incident of the last meeting of Benedict +and his twin sister, Scholastica, is a picture long to remember. At +the window of his cell, three days after her death, Benedict had a +vision of his dear sister's soul entering heaven in the form of a +snowy dove. He immediately sent for the body and placed it in a +sepulcher which he had already prepared for himself, that death +might not separate those whose souls had always been united in God.</p> + +<p>The death of his sister was the signal of departure for himself. He +survived her forty days. He announced his death to several of his +monks, then far from Monte Cassino. A violent fever having seized +him, he caused himself on the sixth day of his sickness to be +carried to the chapel of Saint John the Baptist; he had before +ordered the tomb in which his sister already slept to be opened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p> + +<p>There, supported in the arms of his disciples, he received the holy +Viaticum, then placing himself at the side of the open grave, but +at the foot of the altar, and with his arms extended towards +heaven, he died, standing, muttering a last prayer. Such a +victorious death became that great soldier of God. He was buried by +the side of his beloved Scholastica, in a sepulcher made on the +spot where stood the altar of Apollo, which had been replaced by +another to our beloved Savior.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p> + + +<p>In the very year, and at the same time, that Justinian and Theodora were +preparing the Justinian Code, Benedict was busy devising "The Monastic +Rules." Benedict did not put his rules forth as final, but explained +that they were merely expedient for their time and place. In this he was +singularly modest. If one can divest himself of the thought that there +was anything "holy" or "sacred" about these communal groups called +"monasteries," and then read these rules, he will see that they were +founded on a good knowledge of economics and a very stern commonsense.</p> + +<p>Humanity was the same a thousand years ago that it is now. Benedict had +to fight inertia, selfishness and incipient paranoia, just as does the +man who tries to introduce practical socialism today. A few extracts +from this very remarkable Book of Rules will show the shrewd Connecticut +wisdom of Benedict. To hold the dowdy, indifferent, slipshod and +underdone in their proper places, so they could not disturb or destroy +the peace, policy and prosperity of the efficient, was the task of +Benedict.</p> + +<p>Benedict says: "Written and formal rules are necessary only because we +are all faulty men, with a tendency towards selfishness and disorder. +When men become wise, and also unselfish, there will be no need of rules +and laws."</p> + +<p>The Book of Rules by Benedict is a volume of more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> than twenty thousand +words. Its scope reveals an insight that will appeal to all who have had +to do with socialistic experiments, not to mention the management of +labor-unions. Benedict was one of the industrial leaders of the world. +His life was an epoch, and his influence still abides.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2><a name="MARY_BAKER_EDDY" id="MARY_BAKER_EDDY"></a>MARY BAKER EDDY</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img0426.jpg" alt="MARY BAKER EDDY" title="MARY BAKER EDDY" /></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found +in the following postulates: that Life is God, good and not evil; +that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is +not and can not be materialized; that Life is not subject to death; +that the spiritual real man has no consciousness of material life +or death.</p> + +<p>—<i>Mary Baker Eddy</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MARY BAKER EDDY</h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgl.jpg" alt="L" title="L" /></div> +<p>et the fact be here stated that Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of +Christian Science. This woman lived long and well.</p> + +<p>She was alert, earnest, highly intelligent, receptive. She was ever +discovering. We know this because she put out a new message every little +while, or modified an old one, having come in the meantime into a +position to get a nearer and clearer view of the fact. The last edition +of "Science and Health" is a different book from the first one.</p> + +<p>Christian Science is not a fixed, formed, fossilized, ossified +structure. Possibly it may become so. But the probabilities are it will +grow, expand, advance. Life and growth consist in eliminating dead +matter and evolving new tissue. The institution, commercial, artistic, +social, political, religious, that has ceased to grow has begun to +disintegrate.</p> + +<p>Christian Scientists do not flee the world, renouncing and denouncing +it. As a people they are well, happy, hopeful, enthusiastic and +successful. I am fairly well informed on the history of all great +religions. In degree I know the character of intellect possessed by the +folks who make or made up their membership. And my opinion is, that no +religion that has ever existed contained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> so large a percentage of +intelligent people, competent, safe and sane, as does Christian Science. +There is an adage to the effect that a prophet is not without honor save +in his own country.</p> + +<p>In the case of Mary Baker Eddy, the adage just quoted goes awry. Mrs. +Eddy as long as she lived, retained the good-will of Concord, Boston and +Brookline, where she chose to make her home. Very many of the leading +men and women of each of these cities are Christian Scientists.</p> + +<p>The Christian Science Church at Concord cost upwards of two hundred +thousand dollars, and was the gift of Mrs. Eddy. Over the entrance, cut +deep in granite, are the words, "Presented by Mary Baker Eddy, +Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science." As to the argument that +the truths of Christian Science have always been known and practised by +a few, Mrs. Eddy issued her direct challenge. In all of her literature +she set out the unqualified statement that she was "The Discoverer and +the Founder." She was never apologetic; she assumed no modesty she did +not feel; she spoke as one having authority, as did Moses of old, "Thus +saith the Lord!"</p> + +<p>She entered into no joint debates; she did not answer back. This intense +conviction which admits of no parley was one of the secrets of her +power. For many years the Billingsgate Calendar was directed at her upon +every possible occasion.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Eddy won out, and legislation and courts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> were compelled to +whistle in their hounds. Your right to keep well in your own way is now +fully recognized. Doctors are not liable when they give innocent +sweetened water and call it medicine, nor do we place Christian +Scientists on trial if their patients die, any more than we do the M. +D.'s.</p> + +<p>In fact, Mrs. Eddy influenced both of the so-called sciences of medicine +and theology. Even those who are perfectly willing to deny her, and +noisily discard her tenets, are debtors to her.</p> + +<p>Homeopathy modified the dose of all the Allopaths; and Christian Science +has attenuated the Hahnemannian theory of attenuations, it having been +found that the blank tablet often cures quite as effectively as the one +that is medicated. Christian Science does not shout, rant, defy nor +preach. It is poised, silent, sure, and the flagellants, like the +dervishes, are noticeable by their absence.</p> + +<p>The Reverend Billy Sunday is not a Christian Scientist. The Christian +Scientist does not cut into the grape; specialize on the elevated +spheroid; devote his energies to bridge whist; cultivate the scandal +microbe; join the anvil chorus, nor shake the red rag of wordy warfare. +He is diligent in business, fervent in spirit, and accepts what comes +without protest, finding it good.</p> + +<p>Mary Baker Eddy lived a human life. Through her manifold experiences she +gathered gear—she was a very great and wise woman. She was so great +that she kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> her own counsel, received no visitors, made no calls, had +no Thursday, wrote no letters, and even never went to the church that +she presented to her native town. Mrs. Eddy's step was ever light, her +form erect—a slender, handsome, queenly woman. When she passed on, in +December, Nineteen Hundred Ten, in her ninetieth year, she looked scarce +more than sixty. Her face showed experience, but not extreme age. The +day I saw her, a few years before her death, she was dressed all in +white satin and looked like a girl going to a ball.</p> + +<p>Her eyes were not dimmed nor her face wrinkled.</p> + +<p>Her hat was a milliner's dream; her gloves came to the elbow and were +becomingly wrinkled; her form was the form of Bernhardt. Her secretary +stood by the carriage-door, his head bared. He did not offer his hand to +the lady nor seek to assist her into the carriage. He knew his +business—a sober, silent, muscular, bronzed, farmer-like man, who +evidently saw everything and nothing.</p> + +<p>He closed the carriage-door and took his seat by the side of the driver, +who wore no livery. The men looked like brothers. The big, brown horses +started slowly away; they wore no blinders nor check-reins—they, too, +had banished fear. The coachman drove with a loose rein. The next day I +waited in Concord to see Mrs. Eddy again. At exactly two-fifteen the +big, brown, slow-going horses turned into Main Street. Drays pulled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> in +to the curb, automobiles stopped, people stood on the street corners, +and some—the pilgrims—uncovered.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy sat back in the carriage, holding in her white-gloved hands a +big spray of apple-blossoms, the same half-smile of satisfaction on her +face—the smile of Pope Leo the Thirteenth. The woman was a veritable +queen, and some of her devotees, not without reason, called her the +Queen of the World.</p> + +<p>Some doubtless prayed to her—and may yet, for that matter. Mrs. Eddy +was married three times. First, to Colonel George W. Glover, an +excellent and worthy man, who was the father of her only child, a son. +On the death of Glover, the child was taken by Glover's mother and +secreted so effectually that his mother did not see him until he was +thirty-four years old, and the father of a family.</p> + +<p>Her second husband was Daniel Patterson, who was not only a rogue but +also a fool—a flashy one, who turned the head of a lone, lorn young +widow, who certainly was not infallible in judgment. In two years the +wife got a divorce from him, on the grounds of cruelty and desertion, at +Salem, Massachusetts. Her third marital venture was Doctor Asa G. Eddy, +a practising physician—a man of much intelligence and worth. From him +Mrs. Eddy learned that the Science of Medicine was not much of a science +after all. Mrs. Eddy used to say that her husband was her first convert; +certain it is that Dr. Eddy gave up his practise to assist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> his wife in +putting before the world the unreality of disease. That he did not fully +grasp the idea is shown by the fact that he died of pneumonia. This, +however, did not shake the faith of Mrs. Eddy in the doctrine that +sickness was an error of mortal mind. For a good many years Mrs. Eddy +drove the memory of her two good husbands tandem, hitched by a hyphen, +thus: Mary Baker Glover-Eddy. Many a woman has joined her own name to +that of her husband, but what woman ever before so honored the two men +she had loved by coupling their names! Getting married is a bad habit, +Mrs. Eddy would probably have said, but you have to get married to find +it out.</p> + +<p>In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-nine, Mrs. Eddy organized the First Church +of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and became its pastor. In Eighteen +Hundred Eighty-one, being then sixty years of age, she founded the +Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in Boston. For fifteen years she had +been speaking in public, affirming that health was our normal condition +and that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. From her forty-fifth +to her sixtieth year she was glad to speak for what was offered, +although I believe that even then she had discarded the good old +priestly plan of taking up a collection. The Metaphysical College was +started to prepare students for teaching Mrs. Eddy's doctrines.</p> + +<p>The business ability of the woman was shown in thus organizing and +allowing no one to teach who was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> duly prepared. These students were +obliged to pay a good stiff tuition, which fact made them appreciative. +In turn they went out and taught; all students paid the tidy sum of one +hundred dollars for the lessons, which fee was later cut to fifty. +Salvation may be free, but Christian Science costs money. The +theological genus piker, with his long, wrinkled, black coat, his collar +buttoned behind, and his high hat, has been eliminated.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy was manager of the best-methodized institution in the world, +save only the Roman Catholic Church and the Standard Oil Company. How +many million copies of "Science and Health" have been sold, no man can +say. What percentage of the money from the lessons went to Mrs. Eddy, +only an Armstrong Committee could ascertain, and really it was nobody's +business but hers.</p> + +<p>That Mrs. Eddy had some very skilful helpers goes without saying. But +here is the point—she selected them, and reigned supreme. That the +student who paid fifty dollars got his money's worth, I have no doubt. +Not that he understood the lessons, but he received a feeling of courage +and a oneness with the whole which caused health to flow through his +veins and his heart to beat with joy. The lesson might have been to him +a jumble of words, but he lived in hopes that he would soon grow to a +point where the lines were luminous.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, all he knew was that whereas he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> once lame he could +now walk. Even the most bigoted and prejudiced now agree that the cures +of Christian Science are genuine. People who think they have trouble +have it, and it is the same with pain. Imagination is the only +sure-enough thing in the world. Mrs. Eddy's doctrines abolish pain and +therefore abolish poverty, for poverty, in America at least, is a +disease. Mrs. Eddy's chief characteristics were:</p> + +<p>First, Love of Beauty as manifest in bodily form, dress and +surroundings.</p> + +<p>Second, A zeal for system, order and concentrated effort on the +particular business she undertakes.</p> + +<p>Third, A dignity, courage, self-sufficiency and self-respect that comes +from a belief in her own divinity.</p> + +<p>Fourth, An economy of time, money, materials, energy and emotion that +wastes nothing, but which continually conserves and accumulates.</p> + +<p>Fifth, A liberality, when advisable, which is only possible to those who +also economize.</p> + +<p>Sixth, Yankee shrewdness, great commonsense, all flavored with a dash of +mysticism and indifference to physical scientific accuracy.</p> + +<p>In other words, Christian Science is a woman's science—she knows! And +it is good because it is good—this is a science sound enough for +anybody—I guess so! Christian Science is scientific, but not for the +reasons that its promoters maintain. Male Christian Scientists do not +growl and kick the cat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p> + +<p>Women Christian Scientists do not nag. Christian Scientists do not have +either the grouch or the meddler's itch. Among them there are no +dolorosos, grumperinos or beggars. They respect all other denominations, +having a serene faith that all will yet see the light—that is to say, +adopt their doctrines. The most radical among old-school doctors could +not deny that Mrs. Eddy's own life was conducted on absolutely +scientific lines. She never answered the telephone, never fussed nor +fumed.</p> + +<p>She hired big, safe people and paid them a big wage. She gave her +coachman fifty dollars a week, and her cook in proportion, and thus +secured people who gave her peace. She went to bed with the birds and +awoke with the dawn. At seven o'clock she was at her desk, dictating +answers to the very few letters her secretary deemed it advisable she +should see. She had breakfast at nine o'clock—ate anything she liked, +taking her time and fletcherizing. After breakfast she worked upon her +manuscripts until it was time for the daily ride.</p> + +<p>At four o'clock she dined—two meals a day being the rule. If, however, +she cared to dissipate a little and eat three meals a day, she was not +afraid to do so.</p> + +<p>She knew her horses and cows and sheep by name, and gave requests as to +their care, holding that the laws of mind obtain as to dumb animals the +same as man. Dogs she did not care for, and if she ever had an aversion +it would have been cats. Her servants she called "My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> helpers." +Christian Scientists very naturally believe in the equality of the +sexes. When girl babies are born to them they bless God, just the same +as when boy babies are born. In truth they bless God for everything, for +to them all is beautiful and all is good. Paid preachers they do not +have; they do not believe in priests or certain men who are nearer to +God than others. All have access to Eternal Truth, and thus is the +ecclesiastic excluded. To eliminate the theological middleman is well, +and as for the Church itself, surely Mrs. Eddy eliminated it also; for +she never entered a church, or at least not more than once a year, and +then it was only in deference to the architect. A Church! Is it +necessary? For herself Mrs. Eddy said, No.</p> + +<p>But as for others, she said, Yes, a church is good for those who need +it. Mrs. Eddy was the most successful author in the world, or, indeed, +that the world has ever seen. No other writer ever made so much money as +she, none is more devoutly read.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare, with his fortune of a quarter of a million dollars, fades +into comparative failure; and Arthur Brisbane, with his salary of +seventy-five thousand a year, is an office-boy compared with this regal +woman, who gave fifty thousand dollars a year for good roads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he valuable truths and distinguishing features of Christian Science are +not to be found in Mrs. Eddy's books, but in Mrs. Eddy's life. She was a +much bigger woman than she was a writer. Emerson says that every great +institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. Every great +business enterprise has a soul—one man's spirit animates, pervades and +tints the whole. You can go into any hotel or store, and behold! the +nature or character of the owner or manager is everywhere proclaimed.</p> + +<p>You do not have to see the man, and the bigger the institution the less +need is there for the man to show himself. His work proclaims him, just +as a farmer's livestock all moo, whinny and squeal his virtues—or lack +of them. As a boy of ten I learned to know all of our neighbors by their +horses. The horses of a drunkard, blanketless, hungry, shivering, +outside of the village tavern, do they not proclaim the poor, despised +owner within?</p> + +<p>You can walk through the passenger-coaches of a train made up at a +terminal and read the character unmistakably of the general +passenger-agent. The soul of John Wesley ran through Methodism and made +it what it was. The Lutheranism of Luther yet lives; Calvinism the same; +and the soul of John Knox still goes marching on, carrying the +Presbyterian banner.</p> + +<p>Every religion partakes of the nature of its founder, until this +religion is mixed with that of another and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> its character lost, as +happened to the religion of Christ when it was launched by Paul and was +finally fused with Paganism by the Roman Emperor, Constantine.</p> + +<p>Christian Science is as yet the lengthened shadow of Mary Baker Eddy. +Her own immediate, personal pupils are still teaching, and her life and +characteristics impressed upon them are given out to each and all. Every +phase of life is solved by answering the question, "What would Mrs. Eddy +do?" Mrs. Eddy's ideas about dress, housekeeping, business, food, +health, the management of servants, the care of children—all are +blended into a composite, and this composite is the Christian Scientist +as we see and know him.</p> + +<p>The fact that Mrs. Eddy was methodical, industrious, economical, +persevering, courageous, hopeful, helpful, neat in her attire and +smiling, makes all Christian Scientists exactly so. She did not play +cards and indulge in the manifold silliness of so-called good society, +and neither do they. Indeed, that one thing which has been referred to +as "the plaster-of-Paris smile," the one feature in Christian Science to +which many good people object, is the direct legacy of Mrs. Eddy to her +pupils. "Science and Health" says nothing about it; no edict has been +put forth recommending it; but all good Christian Scientists take it +on—the smile that refuses to vacate the premises. And to some it is +certainly very becoming. Mrs. Eddy's self-reliant, silent, smiling +personality has given the key to conduct for the hundreds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> of thousands +of people who love her and revere her memory.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy was a rare good listener. She did not argue. Once upon a time, +indeed, she was guilty of waving the red flag of wordy warfare; but the +passing of the years brought her wisdom, and then her only answer to +impatience was the quiet smile. As for eating, her table always had +enough, but it stopped short of surfeit; the service was dainty, and all +these things are now seen in the homes of Christian Scientists. Always +in the home of a good Christian Scientist the bathroom is as complete as +the library, and both are models of good housekeeping, seemingly always +in order for the inspection committee.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy did not say much about hot water, soap and clean towels; but +the idea, regardless of the non-existence of matter, is fixed in the +consciousness of every Christian Scientist that absolute bodily +cleanliness, fresh linen and fresh air are not only next to godliness, +but elements of it. All of which you could never work out of "Science +and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in a lifetime of study, any more +than you could mine and smelt the Westminster Catechism out of the +Bible.</p> + +<p>The vital truths of right living come to us as a precious heritage from +the character of this great woman. She, herself, perhaps may not have +known this; but before she wrote her book and formulated her religion, +she lived her life. Her book was an endeavor to explain her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> life, and +as her life grew better, stronger and more refined, she changed her +book. Her book reacted on her life, and the person who got the most good +out of "Science and Health" was Mary Baker Eddy herself.</p> + +<p>"Science and Health" is mystical and beautifully human. The author's oar +often fails to catch the water. For instance, she tries to show that +animal magnetism, spiritualism, mental science, theosophy, agnosticism, +pantheism and infidelity are all bad things and opposed to the science +of "true being."</p> + +<p>This statement presupposes that animal magnetism, infidelity, theosophy +and agnosticism are specific entities or things, whereas they are only +labels that are clapped quite indiscriminately on empty casks or full +ones; and the contents of the casks may be sea-water or wine, and are +really unknown to both mortal and divine mind, whatever these things +are. Theosophists like Annie Besant, Spiritualists like Alfred Russel +Wallace, Agnostics like Huxley and Ingersoll, are very noble and +beautiful people. They are good neighbors and useful citizens.</p> + +<p>"Science and Health" is an attempt to catch and hold in words the +secrets of an active, honest, healthful, seeking, restless, earnest +life, and as such is more or less of a failure.</p> + +<p>Our actions are right, but our reasons seldom are.</p> + +<p>Christian Science as a plan of life, embodying the great yet simple +virtues, is beautiful. "Science and Health<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> with Key to the Scriptures" +does not explain the Scriptures. The book, as an attempt to explain and +crystallize truth, is a failure. It ranks with that great mass of +literature, written and copied at such vast pains and expense, bearing +the high-sounding title, "Writings of the Saints."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imga.jpg" alt="A" title="A" /></div><p>ll publishers are familiar with inspired manuscripts. Such work always +has one thing in common—unintelligibility. Good literature is lucid to +the average mind. In fact, that is its distinguishing feature. We +understand what the man means. No able writer uses the same word over +and over with varying sense. Alfred Henry Lewis and William Marion Reedy +use the mortal mind, and their work is understandable. You can sit in +judgment on their conclusions and weigh, sift and decide for yourself. +They make an appeal to your intellect.</p> + +<p>But you can not sit in judgment on "Science and Health," because its +language is not the language we use in our common, every-day intercourse +with one another. It speaks of Christ as a person, a principle, a +spirit, a motive; as "Truth"; as one who was born of one parent or no +parents; who lived, died, or never lived, never was born, and can not +die.</p> + +<p>Metaphysics is an attempt to explain a thing and thereby evade the +trouble of understanding it. You throw the burden of proof on the other +fellow—and make him believe he does not comprehend because he is too +stupid. This is not fair!</p> + +<p>Language is simply an agreement between people that certain vocal +sounds, or written symbols, shall stand for certain ideas, thoughts or +things. Inspired writers string intelligent words together in an +unintelligent manner, and thereby give the reader an opportunity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> to +read anything into them that his preconceived thoughts may dictate. +Metaphysical gibberish is a rudimentary survival of the practise of +reading to the people in a dead language. The doctors continue the plan +by writing prescriptions in Latin.</p> + +<p>I once worked in a studio where the boys scraped their palette-knives on +a convenient board. One day we took the board out and had it framed +under glass, with a double, deep-shadow box. We gave it the best place +in the studio and labeled it, "A Sunset at Sea—an Impression in +Monochrome."</p> + +<p>The picture attracted much attention and great admiration from certain +symbolists. It also created so much controversy that we were obliged to +take it down in the interests of amity.</p> + +<p>To assume that God inspired the Scriptures, and did the work so ill +that, after more than two thousand years, it was necessary to inspire +another person to make a "Key" to them, is hardly worthy of our serious +attention. If God, being all-wise, all-powerful and all-loving, turns +author, why does He produce work so muddy that it requires a "Key"?</p> + +<p>Individuals may use a code that requires a "Key," because they wish to +keep their matter secret from others. There may be for them a penalty on +truth, but why Deity should write in a secret language, and then wait +two thousand years before making the matter plain, and then to one +single woman in Boston, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> incomprehensible. What the world wants now +is a Key to "Science and Health." In reading a book, the question that +interests us is not, "Is it inspired?" but, "Is it true?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy's ranks are recruited almost entirely from Orthodox +Christianity. On page six hundred eight of "Science and Health," pocket +edition of Nineteen Hundred Six, a lawyer gives testimony to the good he +has gotten from Christian Science, and explains that he has long been a +member of the Episcopal Church. He is delighted to know that he has not +had to relinquish any of his old faith, but has simply kept the old and +added to it the new.</p> + +<p>This explains, in great degree, the popularity of Christian Science. +People cling to the religious superstitions into which they were born. +Mrs. Eddy's recruits were not from theosophy, spiritualism, agnosticism, +unitarianism, universalism or infidelity. You can't give a freethinker a +book with a statement of what he must find in it.</p> + +<p>He has acquired the habit of thinking for himself.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy had no faith in Darwin, Spencer or Haeckel. She quoted Moses, +Jesus and Paul to disprove the evolutionists, sat back and smiled +content, innocently unaware that citations from Scriptures are in no +sense proof to free minds. All of the Bible she wished to waive, she +did. The cruelty and bestiality of Jehovah were nothing to her. Her +"Key" does not unlock the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> secrets of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, nor +does it shed light on the doctrines of eternal punishment, the vicarious +atonement, or the efficacy of baptism as a saving ordinance.</p> + +<p>Explanations about mortal mind, divine mind and human mind, citing +specific errors of the human mind, with a calm codicil to the effect +that the human mind has no existence, are not what you might call +illuminating literature. The stuff is simply "inspired." Mrs. Eddy was +very wise in not allowing her "readers" or followers to sermonize or +explain her writings. These writings are simply to be read. And so the +hearers sit steeped in mist and wrapped in placidity, returning to their +work rested and refreshed, without being influenced in any way, save by +the soothing calm of forceful fog and mental vacuity.</p> + +<p>The rest and relief from all thought is good. The related experiences of +Christian Scientists are the things that convince and carry weight, not +"Science and Health." "Science and Health" was made to sell. It was not +given to you to be understood: it was to be bought and believed. If you +doubt any portion of it, at once you are told that this is the work of +your mortal mind, which is filled with error. Good Christian Scientists +do not try to understand "Science and Health"—they just accept and +believe it. "It is inspired," they say, "so it must be true—you will +know when you are worthy to know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p> + +<p>And so we see our old friend Intellectual Tyranny come back in another +form, not with cowl and cape, but tricked out with feminine finery and +jewelry and gems that lure and dazzle. There is one thing quite as +valuable as health, and that is intellectual integrity. To say, "Oh, +'Science and Health' is certainly inspired—just see how old Mrs. +Johnson was cured of the rheumatism!" is not reasoning.</p> + +<p>And it has given the scoffers excuse for calling it woman's logic. Such +reasoning is on the plane of, "Why, Jesus must have been the only +begotten son of God, born of a virgin, for if you don't believe it, just +see the hospitals, orphan asylums and homes for the aged that +Christianity has built!" Mrs. Johnson was surely cured of the rheumatism +all right, but that does not prove that Mrs. Eddy is correct in her +claim that Eve was made from Adam's rib; that agamogenesis is a fact in +Nature; that to till the soil will not always be necessary; that human +life in these bodies will have no end; and that an absent person can +poison your health and happiness through malicious animal magnetism; or +that a good person can give you absent treatment and cure your +indigestion.</p> + +<p>I agree with Mrs. Eddy as to the necessity of eliminating a medical +fetish, but I disagree with her about religiously preserving a +theological one. I have read "Science and Health with Key to the +Scriptures" for twenty years, and I have also read the Scriptures for a +much longer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> period. Also, I have lived in the same house for many +months with very intelligent Christian Scientists.</p> + +<p>And after mature consideration I regard both the Scriptures and "Science +and Health" as largely made up of the errors of mortal mind. My +intuitions are just as valuable to me as Mrs. Eddy's were to her.</p> + +<p>My conscience is quite as sacred to me as hers was to her. And in being +an agnostic I object to being classed as blind, stubborn, wilful, +malicious and degenerate.</p> + +<p>We should honor our Creator by cleaving to the things that seem to us to +be true, and not abandon the rudder of our minds to any man or any +woman, be they living or dead. Let us not be dishonest with ourselves, +even to rid us of our physical diseases. As for health, I have all of it +that Christian Science ever gave or can give. I have no "testimony" of +healing to relate, for I have never been sick an hour. And I think I +know how I have kept well. I make no secret of it. It is all very +simple—nothing miraculous.</p> + +<p>My knowledge of how to keep well is not inspired knowledge, save as all +men are inspired who study and know the Laws of Nature. Health, after +all, is largely a matter of habit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgb.jpg" alt="B" title="B" /></div><p>ack of the reading-desks, in the "Mother Church," at Boston, are +quotations from Paul and Mrs. Eddy, side by side. But the quotation from +Paul, which is behind the desk of the woman reader, is not this: "Let +women keep silence in the churches."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy believed the Scriptures are all true, word for word. Yet when +she quoted Paul she picked the thing she wanted and avoided all that did +not apply to her case. Personally, I like the plan. I do it myself. But +I do not believe the Scriptures are inspired by an all-wise Deity. So +far as I know, all books were written by men, and very often by faulty, +human men at that. Mrs. Eddy's "Key" does not unlock anything; and she +did not try to unlock any passages except the passages that seemingly +had a bearing on her belief. That is, Mrs. Eddy believed things first, +and then skirmished for proof. This is a very old plan. Says +Shakespeare: "In religion what damned error but some somber brow will +bless it and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness thereof with +fair ornament." Let no one read "Science and Health" in the hope of +finding in it simple and sensible statements concerning life and its +duties. They are not there.</p> + +<p>I append a few quotations, and in mentioning the page I refer to the +pocket or "Oxford" edition of Nineteen Hundred Six. On page one hundred +eighty-three of "Science and Health" I find, "The Scriptures inform<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> us +that sin, or error, first caused the condemnation of man to till the +ground, and indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy evidently believed that work is a punishment, and that the day +will come when God will remove the necessity of farming and making +garden. Can a sane person reply to such lack of logic?</p> + +<p>On page five hundred forty-seven is this: "If one of the statements in +this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from its +system and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of +healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct +interpretation of Scripture."</p> + +<p>This is evidently inspired by Paul's quibble, "If the dead rise not from +the grave, then is our religion vain." Lincoln once referred to this +kind of reasoning by saying, "I object to the assumption that my +ambition is to have my son marry a negress, simply because I am +struggling for emancipation." Mrs. Eddy may heal you, but that does not +prove that her interpretation of Scripture is true. Because this +happens, that does not necessarily follow. Neither, because a thing +precedes a thing or goes with a thing, is the thing the cause of the +thing. On page five hundred fifty-three is this: "Adam was created +before Eve. Herein it is seen that the maternal egg never brought forth +Adam. Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a fetal ovum."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p> + +<p>In reading things like this in "Science and Health," let us not be too +severe on Mrs. Eddy, but just bear in mind that such silly superstitions +and barbaric folklore are yet officially believed by all orthodox +clergymen and members of orthodox churches. You can accept a belief in +Adam's fall and the vicarious atonement and still make money and have +good health.</p> + +<p>Page one hundred two: "The mild forms of animal magnetism are +disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The +looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every +hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are its present +methods that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very +apathy on this subject which the criminal desires."</p> + +<p>This passage reveals the one actually dangerous thing in Christian +Science—the fallacy that one mind can weave a web that will work the +undoing of another. This is the basis of a belief in witchcraft, and +justifies the hangings at Salem. On page one hundred three I find this: +"As used in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the +specific term for error, or mortal mind."</p> + +<p>"It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and both evil and good; +that evil is as real as goodness, and more powerful. This belief has not +one quality of truth or good. It is either ignorant or malicious. The +malicious form of animal magnetism ultimates in moral idiocy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> The +truths of immortal mind sustain man; and they annihilate the fables and +mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy pretensions, like silly moths, singe +their own wings and fall into dust. In reality there is no mortal mind, +and consequently no transference of mortal thought and will-power." Page +five hundred two: "Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the +history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This +deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves the spiritual actuality of +man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. When the crude forms of +human thought take on higher symbols and significations, the +scientifically Christian views of the universe will appear, illuminating +time with the glory of eternity."</p> + +<p>I append these two passages simply as samples of "inspired literature."</p> + +<p>Any one who tries to understand such printed matter is headed for +Bloomingdale. You must leave it alone absolutely or else accept it and +read it with your mental eyes closed, mumbling it with your lips, and +let your mind roam like a priest reading his breviary in the +smoking-apartment of a Pullman car. The question then arises, "Was Mrs. +Eddy sincere in putting forth such writings?"</p> + +<p>And the answer is, she was most certainly sincere, and she was certainly +sane. She was an honest woman. But she was not a clear or logical +thinker, except on matters of finance and business, and consequently she +did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> give forth a clear expression when she essayed philosophy. In +order to write lucidly you must think lucidly. Mrs. Eddy had no sense of +literary values. She was absolutely devoid of humor, and humor is only +the ability to detect a little thing from a big one—to perceive a wrong +adjustment from a right one.</p> + +<p>Style in literature is taste. But the lack of style, taste and humor is +general in mankind. The world has produced only a few great thinkers, +and one of them was Darwin, a name which Mrs. Eddy mentioned in "Science +and Health" with reproach. Great writers are even more rare than great +thinkers, because to write one must have the ability not only to think +clearly, but the knack or technical skill to use the right word, the +luminous word, and so arrange, paragraph and punctuate them that your +meaning will be clear to average minds. To say that Mrs. Eddy was not a +thinker nor a writer, is not an indictment of the woman, although it may +be a reflection on the mental processes of the people who think she was.</p> + +<p>To say that there are two million people reading Mrs. Eddy, also proves +nothing, since numbers are no vindication. Over a hundred million people +have kissed the big toe of Saint Peter in Rome.</p> + +<p>And surely the Roman Catholic Church contains a vast number of highly +educated people. The things you do not know, you do not know. And Mrs. +Eddy, knowing nothing of literary style, knew nothing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> literary art. +Her prose and her poetry are worse than ordinary. All inspirational +poetry I ever read is rot, and all inspired paintings I ever saw are +daubs. Mrs. Eddy should not be blamed for her limitations.</p> + +<p>Many people who are great in certain lines labor under the hallucination +that they are also great in others. Matthew Arnold was a great writer, +and he also thought he was a great orator.</p> + +<p>But when he spoke, his words simply fell over the footlights into the +orchestra and died there. He could not reach the front row. Most +comedians want to play Hamlet, and all of us have heard girls attempt to +sing who thought they could sing, and who were encouraged in the +hallucination by their immediate kinsfolk.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy thought she could write, and unfortunately she was +corroborated in her error by the applause of people who, not being able +to read her book, kindly attributed the inability to their own +limitations and not to hers, being prompted in this by the suggestion +oft repeated by Mrs. Eddy, herself. The resemblance of Mrs. Eddy's +thought to that of Jesus was never noticed until Mrs. Eddy first +explained the matter. Mrs. Eddy was by no means insane. Swedenborg was a +civil engineer and a mathematician. He wrote forty books that are nearly +as opaque as "Science and Health." If you write stupidly enough, some +one will surely throw up his cap and cry "Great!" And others will follow +the example and take up the shout, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> it is much easier, as Doctor +Johnson affirmed, to praise a book than to read and understand it. The +custom of reading to a congregation in a dead or foreign language, which +the listeners do not understand, has never caused any general protest +from the listeners. The scoffers are the only ones who have ever noticed +the incongruity, and they do not count, since they probably would not +attend, anyway.</p> + +<p>Next to reading from a book written in the dead language, is to read +from a book that is unintelligible. To listen to such makes no tax upon +the intellect, and with the right accessories is soporific, restful, +pleasing and to be commended. If it does not supply an idea, it at least +imparts a feeling. Mrs. Eddy's success in literature arose from the +extreme muddiness of her thinking and her opacity in expression.</p> + +<p>If she had written fairly well, her mediocrity would have been apparent +to every one; but writing absolutely without rhyme or reason, we bow +before her supreme assurance. The strongest element in men is +inertia—we agree rather than fight about it. We want health—and health +is what Mrs. Eddy gives to us—therefore, "Science and Health with Key +to the Scriptures" is the greatest book in the whole world. Sancta +simplicitas! Why not, indeed!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgp.jpg" alt="P" title="P" /></div><p>eople turn to Mrs. Eddy's book for relief just exactly as they formerly +went to the doctor for the same reason.</p> + +<p>In addition to bodily health, Mrs. Eddy gives joy, hope, worldly +success; and even superior minds, seeing these practical results of +Christian Science, move in the line of least resistance and are quite +willing to accept the book, not troubled at all about its medieval +reasoning. In Ungania is a very great merchant who, not content with +having the biggest store in the Kingdom, aspires to the biggest +University. The fact that the higher criticism is to him only a trivial +matter, and really unworthy of the serious attention of a busy man, +simply reveals human limitation.</p> + +<p>The specialist is created at a terrific cost, and that a person will be +practical, shrewd, diplomatic and wise in managing the buying public and +an army of employees, and yet know and love Walt Whitman, is too much to +expect. This keen and successful merchant, an absolute tyrant in certain +ways, has his soft side and many pleasant qualities. Why any one should +ever question the literal truth of the Bible is beyond his +comprehension.</p> + +<p>He is convinced that "Leaves of Grass" is an obscene book, never having +read it; yet he knows nothing about the third, eleventh and thirteenth +chapters of Second Samuel, having read the Book all his life. He has a +pitying, patronizing smile for any one who suggests that David was a +very faulty man, and that possibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> Solomon was not the wisest person +that ever lived. "What difference does it make, anyway?" he testily +asks. If you work for him you have to agree with him, or else be very +silent as to what you actually believe. We often find an avowed and +reiterated love for Jesus, the non-resistant, going hand in hand with a +passion for war, a miser's greed, a lust for power and a thirst for +revenge.</p> + +<p>There may be a prating about righteousness while the hand of the man is +feeling for his sword-hilt, and his eye is locating your jugular. The +Ten Commandments are all rescinded in war time. The New York "Evening +Post" noted the peculiar fact that nine out of ten of the delegates at +The Hague International Peace Conference were theological heretics. As a +rule, Orthodox Christians stand for war, and also for capital +punishment. How do we explain these inconsistencies?</p> + +<p>We do not try to: they are simply facts in the partial development of +the race. Why millionaires should patronize the memory of Jesus is +something no one can understand, save that things work by antithesis. +Mrs. Eddy was of the same shrewd, practical type as the merchant prince +just mentioned. She was the greatest woman-general of her day and +generation. She possessed all the qualities that go to make successful +leadership.</p> + +<p>She was self-reliant, proud, arrogant, implacable in temper, rapid in +decision, unbending, shrewd, diplomatic—and a good hater.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span></p> + +<p>At times she dismissed her critics with simply a look. No man could +dictate to her, and few dared make suggestions in her presence. To move +her, the matter had to be brought to her attention in a way that led her +to believe that she had discovered it herself. And of course all the +credit went to her. In all Christian Science churches are various +selections from her writings, and beneath every one is her name. "Thou +shalt have no other gods before me!" is the one controlling edict +breathed forth by her life and words. One of her orders was that +whenever one of her hymns was announced, always and forever it must be +stated that it was written by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. Always and forever, +the "student" giving testimony refers, in terms of lavish praise and +fulsome adulation, to "Our Blessed Teacher, Guide and Exemplar, Mary +Baker Eddy." God Almighty and Jesus occupy secondary positions in all +Christian Science meetings.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy is mentioned five times to where they are once. And I would +not criticize this if Mrs. Eddy had but regarded Jesus as simply a great +man in history and "God" as an abstract term referring to the Supreme +Intelligence in Nature. But to her, God and Jesus were persons who +dictated books, and very frequently she was careful to explain that her +method of healing was exactly the same as that practised by Jesus. Side +by side with His words are hers. Passages from the Bible are read +alternately with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> passages from "Science and Health." If both were +regarded as mere literature, this would be pardonable, but when we are +told that both are "sacred" writ, and "damned be he who dares deny or +doubt," we are simply lost in admiration for the supreme egotism of the +lady. To get mad about it were vain—let us all smile. Surely the +imagination that can trace points of resemblance between Mrs. Mary Baker +Eddy and Jesus, the lowly peasant of Nazareth, is admirable. Jesus was a +communist in principle, having nothing, giving everything. He carried +neither scrip nor purse. He wrote nothing. His indifference to place, +pelf and power is His distinguishing characteristic. Mrs. Eddy's love of +power was the leading motive of her life; her ability to bargain was +beautiful; her resorts to law and the subtleties of legal aid were all +strictly modern; and the way she tied up the title to her writings by +lead-pipe-cinched copyrights reveals the true instincts of Connecticut.</p> + +<p>This jealousy of her rights and the safeguarding of her interests were +among the emphatic features of her life, and set her apart as the +antithesis of Jesus.</p> + +<p>There is one character in history, however, to whom Mrs. Eddy bore a +close resemblance—and that is Julius Cæsar, who was educated for the +priesthood, became a priest, and was Pope of Rome before he ventured +into fighting and politics as a business. Mrs. Eddy's faith in herself, +her ability to decide, her quick intuitions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> the method and simplicity +of her life, her passion for power, her pleasure in authorship—all +these were the traits which exalted the name and fame of Cæsar.</p> + +<p>The inventor of the calendar ordered that it should be known as the +"Julian Calendar," and it is so called, even unto this day. Once Carlyle +sat smoking with Milburn, the blind preacher. They had been discussing +the historicity of Jesus. Then they sat smoking in silence. Finally, +Tammas the Techy knocked the ashes out of his long clay t. d. and +muttered, half to himself and half to Milburn, "Ah, a great mon, a great +mon—but he had his limitations!" The same remark can truthfully be +applied to Mrs. Eddy. And about the only point that Jesus and Mrs. Eddy +have in common is this matter mentioned by Carlyle.</p> + +<p>The superior shrewdness and the keen business instinct of Mrs. Eddy are +seen in the use of the words "Christian" and "Science." The sub-title, +"With Key to the Scriptures," is particularly alluring. And the use of +the Oxford binding was the crowning stroke of commercial insight. Surely +Mrs. Eddy must command our profound respect. She was undoubtedly a very +great business genius, to say the very least.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgw.jpg" alt="W" title="W" /></div><p>hen John Henry Newman became a Catholic, he gave as a reason for his +decision that he had found no place in literature or art to rest his +head. His reward for not finding a place in literature or art for his +head was the red hat.</p> + +<p>Let the followers of Mrs. Eddy take comfort in that their great teacher +had plenty of high precedent for believing that Adam was created by +fiat, and Eve was made from his rib, all the fiat being used; that +Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and it obeyed, even when the +order should have been given to the earth; that Lazarus was raised from +the dead after his body had become putrid; that witchcraft is a fact in +Nature; and that children can be born with the aid of one parent a +little better than in the old-fashioned way—parthenogenesis, I think +they call it.</p> + +<p>These inconsistencies of absolute absurdity, existing side by side with +great competence and sanity, are to be found everywhere in history.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy excited the envy of the medical world in her demonstration +that good health and happiness are the sure results of getting rid of +the doctor habit; but they got even with her when she said that virgin +motherhood would yet become the rule, and tilling of the soil would +cease to be a necessity.</p> + +<p>Saint Augustine thought, as did most of the early Churchmen, that to do +evil that good might follow was not only justifiable, but highly +meritorious. So they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> preached hagiology to scare people into the narrow +path of rectitude.</p> + +<p>Chapman, Alexander, Torrey, Billy Sunday and most other professional +evangelists believe in and practise the same doctrine.</p> + +<p>The literary conscience was a thing known in Greece, but only recently, +say within two hundred years, has it been again manifest, and as yet it +is rare. It consists in the scorn and absolute refusal to write a line +except that which stands for truth.</p> + +<p>The artistic conscience that refuses to paint for hire or model on order +is the same. Wagner, Millet, Rembrandt, William Morris and Ruskin are +examples of men who were incapable of anything but their highest and +best creative work, and refused to truckle to the mercenary horde. Such +men may be without conscience in a business way. And a person may be +absolutely moral in all his acts of life, except in writing and talking, +and here he may be slipshod and uncertain.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eddy was beautifully lacking in the literary conscience, just as +much so as was Gladstone when he attempted to reply to Ingersoll in "The +North American Review," and resorted to sophistry and evasion in +lieu of logic. Absolute truth to Gladstone was a matter of +indifference—expediency was his shibboleth. Truth to Mrs. Eddy was also +a secondary matter; the only things that really mattered were Health and +Success. Health and Success are undoubtedly great things and well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> +worthy of possession, but I wish to secure them only through the +expression of truth. If you gag my tongue, chain my pen and cry, +"Believe and you will have Health," I would say, "Give me liberty or +give me death!" Christian Scientists ask you to buy Mrs. Eddy's book, +"Science and Health."</p> + +<p>When the volume is handed you, you are promised health and success if +you believe its every word; and if you don't, you are threatened with +"moral idiocy."</p> + +<p>It is the old promise of Paradise and the threat of Hell in a new guise. +As for me, I decline the book.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgs.jpg" alt="S" title="S" /></div><p>tephen Girard was a great merchant who had a great love of truth; but +if he had been in a retail business, his zeal for truth might have been +slightly modified.</p> + +<p>As a rule, the world of humanity can be divided into two parts: the +practical men and the searchers for truth. Usually the latter have +nothing to lose but their head. Spinoza, Galileo, Bruno, Thomas Paine, +Walt Whitman, Henry Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, are the pure type. Then +come Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson, crowded out of their +pulpits, scorned by their Alma Mater, pitied by the public—yet holding +true to their course.</p> + +<p>And lo! they grew rich; whereas, if they had stuck close to the shore +and safety, they would have been drowned in the shallows of oblivion.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, we find in, say, the directorate of the Standard Oil +Company, many men who are zealous members of the orthodox churches, +giving large sums in support of the "gospel," and taking an active +interest in its promulgation. All of them say, with the late Mr. Morgan, +"My mother's religion is good enough for me." So here we get practical +shrewdness combined with minds that, so far as abstract truth is +concerned, are simply prairie-dog towns.</p> + +<p>These men belong to a type that will cling to error as long as it is +soft, easy and popular. Most certainly these men are not fools—they are +highly competent and useful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> in their way. But as for superstition, they +find it soothing; it saves the trouble of thinking, and all their +energies are needed in business.</p> + +<p>Religion, to them, is a social diversion, with a chance of salvation on +the side. Inertia does not grip them when it comes to commerce—but in +religion it does. Lincoln once said that there was just one thing, and +only one thing, that God Almighty could not understand: and that was the +workings of the mind of an intelligent American juror.</p> + +<p>Herbert Spencer says that Sir Isaac Newton was one of the six best +educated men the world has seen. He was the first man to resolve light +into its constituent elements. Voltaire says that when Newton discovered +the Law of Gravitation he excited the envy of the scientific world.</p> + +<p>"But," adds Voltaire, "when he wrote a book on the Bible prophecies, the +men of science got even with him." Sir Isaac Newton defended the literal +inspiration of the Scriptures and was a consistent member of the Church +of England. Doctor Johnson was unhappy all day if he didn't touch every +tenth picket of the fence with his cane as he walked downtown.</p> + +<p>Blackstone, the great legal commentator, believed in witchcraft, and +bolstered his belief by citing the Scriptural text, "Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live"—thus proving Moses a party to the superstition. +Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of England, did the same.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gladstone was a great statesman, and yet he believed in the Mosaic +account of Creation, just as did Mary Baker Eddy.</p> + +<p>John Adams was a rebel from political slavery, but lived and died a +worthy Churchman, subsisting on canned theology—and canned in England, +at that.</p> + +<p>Franklin and Jefferson were rebels from both political and theological +despotism, but looked leniently on leeches and apothecaries. Herbert +Spencer had a free mind as regards religion, politics, economics and +sociology; yet he was a bachelor, lived in the city, belonged to a club, +played billiards and smoked cigars. Physical health was out of his +reach, and with all his vast knowledge, he never knew why. All through +history we find violence and gentleness, ignorance and wisdom, folly and +shrewdness side by side in the same person.</p> + +<p>The one common thing in humanity is inconsistency. To account for it +were vain. We know only that it is.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgt.jpg" alt="T" title="T" /></div><p>he very boldness of Mrs. Eddy's claims created an impetus that carried +conviction.</p> + +<p>The woman certainly believed in herself, and she also believed in the +Power, of which she was a necessary part, that works for righteousness. +She repudiated the supernatural, not by denying "miracles," but by +holding that the so-called miracles of the Bible really occurred and +were perfectly natural—all according to Natural Law, which is the +Divine Law.</p> + +<p>And the explanation of this Divine Law was her particular business. Thus +did she win to her side those who were too timid in constitution to +forsake forms and ceremonies and stand alone on the broad ground of +Rationalism.</p> + +<p>Christian Science is not a religion of fight, stress and struggle. Isn't +it better to relax and rest and allow Divinity to flow through us, than +to sit on a sharp rail and call the passer-by names in falsetto? May +Irwin's motto, "Don't Argufy," isn't so bad as a working maxim, after +all.</p> + +<p>All Christian denominations are very much alike. Their differences are +microscopic, and recognized only by those who are immersed in them. +Martin Luther only softened the expression of the Roman Catholic +Church—he did not change its essence.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin declared that he could not tell the difference between +a Catholic and an Episcopalian. But Christian Science is a complete +departure from all other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> denominations, and while professing to be +Christian, is really something else, or if it is Christian, then +orthodoxy is not.</p> + +<p>Christian Science strikes right at the root of orthodoxy, since it +divides the power of Jesus with Mary Baker Eddy and affirms that Jesus +was not "The Savior," but A Savior.</p> + +<p>This is the position of Thomas Paine, and all other good radicals. +Christian Science places Mrs. Eddy's work right alongside of the Bible. +No denomination has ever put out a volume stating that the book was +required in order to make the Bible intelligible. No denomination has +ever put forth a person as the equal of Jesus. This has only been done +by unbelievers, atheists and free-thinkers.</p> + +<p>Christianity is at last attacked in its own house and by its own +household. It is thoroughly understood and admitted everywhere that +there are two kinds of Christianity. One is the kind taught by the +Nazarene; and the other is the institutional variety, made up of +denominations which hold millions upon millions of dollars' worth of +property without taxation, and parade their ritual with rich and costly +millinery.</p> + +<p>The one was lived by a Man who had not where to lay His head; and the +other is an acquirement taken over from pagan Rome, and continued +largely in its pagan form even unto this day. Christian Science is +neither one nor the other, and the obvious pleasantry that it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +neither Christian nor scientific is a jest in earnest. Christian Science +is a modern adaptation of all that is best in the simplicity and +asceticism of Jesus, the commonsense philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, +the mysticism of Swedenborg, and the bold pronunciamento of Robert +Ingersoll. It is a religion of affirmation with a denial-of-matter +attachment.</p> + +<p>It is a religion of this world. Jesus was a Man of Sorrows but Mary +Baker Eddy was a Daughter of Joy.</p> + +<p>And as the universal good sense of mankind holds that the best +preparation for a life to come, if there is one, is to make the best of +this, Christian Science is meeting with a fast-growing popular +acceptance.</p> + +<p>The decline of the old orthodoxy is owing to its clinging to the fallacy +that the world's work is base, and Nature is a trickster luring us to +our doom. Mrs. Eddy reconciled the old idea with the new and made it +mentally palatable. And this is the reason why Christian Science is +going to sweep the earth and in twenty years will have but one +competitor, the Roman Catholic faith.</p> + +<p>Orthodoxy, blind, blundering, stubborn, senile, is tottering—the +undertaker is at the door. Indeed, the old idea of our orthodox friends +that they were preparing to die, was literally true.</p> + +<p>The undertaker's name and business address attached to the front of many +a city church is a sign too subtle to overlook. Not only was the +undertaker a partner of the priest, but he is now foreclosing his claim. +Christian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> Science is not final. After it has lived its day, another +religion will follow, and that is the Religion of Commonsense, the +esoteric religion which Mrs. Eddy herself lived and practised.</p> + +<p>As for her believers, she gave them the religion of a Book—two Books, +the Bible and "Science and Health." They want form and ritual and +temples.</p> + +<p>She gave them these things, just as doctors give sweetened water to +people who still demand medicine; and as if to supply the zealous +converts, just out of orthodoxy, their fill of ecclesiastic husks, she +built fine churches—churches rivaling the far-famed San Salute of +Venice. Let them have their wish! Paganism is in their blood—they are +even trying to worship her!</p> + +<p>Let them go on and eventually they will pray not in temples nor on this +or that mountain, but in spirit and in truth, just as did Mrs. Eddy, one +of the world's most successful women.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p> + + +<p>Christian Science is orthodox Christianity, minus medical fetish and the +fear that a belief in sin, sickness, death and eternal punishment +naturally lends, plus the joy of a natural, healthy, human life. The +so-called rational Christian sects preserve their Devil in the form of a +Doctor, and Hell in the shape of a Hospital.</p> + +<p>My hope and expectation is that Christian Science will become a Rational +Religion instead of a one-man institution, or a religion of authority, +such as it now is. Its superstitious features have doubtless been strong +factors in its rapid growth—serving as stays or stocks to aid in the +launching.</p> + +<p>But now, the sooner the ship floats free the better. Christian +Scientists, being men and women, can not continue to grow if fettered +with an Index Expurgatorius and mandatory edicts and encyclicals. That +which binds and manacles must go—the good will remain.</p> + +<p>Christian Science brings good news, and good news is always curative. +Mrs. Eddy animated her patients with a new thought—the thought of +harmony, the denial of disease, and the affirmation that God is good and +life is beautiful. The animation thus produced is in itself the most +powerful healing principle known to science. Life is born of love. Joy +is a prophylactic. Christian Science comes to the "student" as a great +flood of light. His circulation becomes normal, his muscles relax, the +nerves rest, digestion acts, elimination takes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> place—and the person is +well.</p> + +<p>Fear has congested the organs—love, hope and faith place them in an +attitude so Nature plays through them. The patient is healed. In it +there is neither mystery nor miracle. It is all very simple.</p> + +<p>Let us rid ourselves of a belief in the strange and occult! The +Christian Science organization is an expediency. It is an intellectual +crutch. The book is a necessity. It is a scaffolding. Yet he who +mistakes the scaffolding for the edifice is a specialist in scaffolding.</p> + +<p>Truth can never be caught and crystallized in a formula. Also this: +truth can never be monopolized by an "ite" or an "ist." Eventually the +label will be eliminated with the scaffolding, and the lumber of ritual +and rite will have to go.</p> + +<p>We will live truth instead of talking about it. Among Christian +Scientists there are no drunkards, paupers or gamblers. Also, there are +no sick people. To them sickness is a disgrace.</p> + +<p>Orthodox Christians get sick and gratify their sense of approbation by +receiving pastoral calls and visits from the doctor and neighbors. The +biblical injunction to visit the sick was never followed by Mrs. +Eddy—she always decided for herself just what injunctions should be +waived and what followed.</p> + +<p>Those which she did not like she interpreted spiritually or else glided +over. The biblical statement that man's days are few and full of +trouble, and also the assertion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> that man is prone to wickedness as the +sparks fly upwards, are both very conveniently glossed.</p> + +<p>Christian Scientists know the rules of health, just as most people do; +but what is more, they follow them, thus avoiding the disgrace of being +pointed out. They have made sickness not only tabu, but invalidism +ridiculous.</p> + +<p>When things become absurd and preposterous, we abandon them. +Unpopularity can do what logic is helpless to bring about. The reasoning +of Christian Scientists is bad, but their intuitions are right.</p> + +<p>While denying the existence of matter, no people on earth are as canny, +save possibly the Quakers. A bank-balance to a Christian Scientist is no +barren ideality. It is like falsehood to a Jesuit—a very present help +in time of trouble. Sin, to them, consists in making too much fuss about +life and talking about death. Do what you want and forget it. Quit +talking about the weather, night air, miasma.</p> + +<p>Knowingly or unknowingly Christian Scientists cultivate resiliency. They +are proof against drafts and microbes. Eat what you like, but not too +much of it. Be moderate. Christian Scientists get their joy out of their +work. This is essentially hygienic. They breathe deeply, eat moderately, +bathe plentifully, work industriously—and smile. This is all sternly +scientific. It can never be argued down.</p> + +<p>No school of medicine has ever offered a prophylactic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> equal to work and +good-cheer, and no system of religion has ever offered a working formula +for health, happiness and success equal to that launched by Mrs. Eddy. +The science of medicine is a science of palliation.</p> + +<p>Christian Scientists avoid the cause of sickness, and thus keep well.</p> + +<p>There is no vitality in drugs. Nature cures—obey her. In this matter of +bodily health just a few plain rules suffice. And these rules, fairly +followed, soon grow into a pleasurable habit. Fortunately, we do not +have to oversee our digestion, our circulation, the work of the millions +of pores that form the skin, or the action of the nerves. Folks who get +fussy about their digestion and assume personal charge of their nerves +have "nerves" and are apt to have no digestion.</p> + +<p>"I have a pain in my side," said the woman who had no money to the busy +doctor. "Forget it," was the curt advice. Get the Health Habit, and +forget it.</p> + +<p>This is the quintessence of Christian Science. Your mental attitude +controls your body. Happiness is your health. There is no devil but +fear. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p>SO HERE ENDETH "LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF GREAT TEACHERS," BEING +VOLUME TEN OF THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD; EDITED AND +ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; BORDERS AND INITIALS BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, AND +PRODUCED BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR SHOPS, WHICH ARE IN EAST AURORA, +ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, MCMXXII</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great +Teachers, by Elbert Hubbard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS *** + +***** This file should be named 18936-h.htm or 18936-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/3/18936/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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0000000..12cad46 --- /dev/null +++ b/18936-h/images/imgr.jpg diff --git a/18936-h/images/imgs.jpg b/18936-h/images/imgs.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e893f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/18936-h/images/imgs.jpg diff --git a/18936-h/images/imgt.jpg b/18936-h/images/imgt.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6224451 --- /dev/null +++ b/18936-h/images/imgt.jpg diff --git a/18936-h/images/imgw.jpg b/18936-h/images/imgw.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0284427 --- /dev/null +++ b/18936-h/images/imgw.jpg diff --git a/18936.txt b/18936.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edc520a --- /dev/null +++ b/18936.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8878 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great +Teachers, by Elbert Hubbard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers + +Author: Elbert Hubbard + +Release Date: July 29, 2006 [EBook #18936] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Little + Journeys + To the Homes of Great Teachers + + + Elbert Hubbard + + + Memorial Edition + + + + + Printed and made into a Book by + The Roycrofters, who are in East + Huron, Erie County, New York + + Wm. H. Wise & Co. + New York + + Copyright, 1916, + By The Roycrofters + + + + + CONTENTS + + + MOSES 9 + + CONFUCIUS 41 + + PYTHAGORAS 69 + + PLATO 97 + + KING ALFRED 123 + + ERASMUS 149 + + BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 183 + + THOMAS ARNOLD 217 + + FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 245 + + HYPATIA 269 + + SAINT BENEDICT 293 + + MARY BAKER EDDY 327 + + + + +[Illustration: MOSES] + +MOSES + + + And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt + thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. + And God said, moreover, unto Moses: Thus shalt thou say unto the + children of Israel, The Lord God of your Fathers, the God of + Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto + you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all + generations. + + --_Exodus iii: 14, 15_ + + +MOSES + +Moses was the world's first great teacher. He is still one of the +world's great teachers. Seven million people yet look to his laws for +special daily guidance, and more than two hundred millions read his +books and regard them as Holy Writ. And these people as a class are of +the best and most enlightened who live now or who have ever lived. + +Moses did not teach of a life after this--he gives no hint of +immortality--all of his rewards and punishments refer to the present. If +there is a heaven for the good and a hell for the bad, he did not know +of them. + +The laws of Moses were designed for the Now and the Here. Many of them +ring true and correct even today, after all this interval of more than +three thousand years. Moses had a good knowledge of physiology, hygiene, +sanitation. He knew the advantages of cleanliness, order, harmony, +industry and good habits. He also knew psychology, or the science of the +mind: he knew the things that influence humanity, the limits of the +average intellect, the plans and methods of government that will work +and those which will not. + +He was practical. He did what was expedient. He considered the material +with which he had to deal, and he did what he could and taught that +which his people would and could believe. The Book of Genesis was +plainly written for the child-mind. + +The problem that confronted Moses was one of practical politics, not a +question of philosophy or of absolute or final truth. The laws he put +forth were for the guidance of the people to whom he gave them, and his +precepts were such as they could assimilate. + +It were easy to take the writings of Moses as they have come down to us, +translated, re-translated, colored and tinted with the innocence, +ignorance and superstition of the nations who have kept them alive for +thirty-three centuries, and then compile a list of the mistakes of the +original writer. The writer of these records of dreams and hopes and +guesses, all cemented with stern commonsense, has our profound reverence +and regard. The "mistakes" lie in the minds of the people who, in the +face of the accumulated knowledge of the centuries, have persisted that +things once written were eternally sufficient. + +In point of time there is no teacher within many hundred years following +him who can be compared with him in originality and insight. + +Moses lived fourteen hundred years before Christ. + +The next man after him to devise a complete code of conduct was Solon, +who lived seven hundred years after. A little later came Zoroaster, then +Confucius, Buddha, Lao-tsze, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle--contemporaries, or closely following each other, their +philosophy woven and interwoven by all and each and each by all. + +Moses, however, stands out alone. That he did not know natural history +as did Aristotle, who lived a thousand years later, is not to his +discredit, and to emphasize the fact were irrelevant. + +Back of it all lies the undisputed fact that Moses led a barbaric people +out of captivity and so impressed his ideals and personality upon them +that they endure as a distinct and peculiar people, even unto this day. +He founded a nation. And chronologically he is the civilized world's +first author. + +Moses was a soldier, a diplomat, an executive, a writer, a teacher, a +leader, a prophet, a stonecutter. Beside all these he was a farmer--a +workingman, one who when forty years of age tended flocks and herds for +a livelihood. Every phase of the outdoor life of the range was familiar +to him. And the greatness of the man is revealed in the fact that his +plans and aspirations were so far beyond his achievements that at last +he thought he had failed. Exultant success seems to go with that which +is cheap and transient. All great teachers have, in their own minds, +been failures--they saw so much further than they were able to travel. + + * * * * * + +All ancient chronology falls easily into three general divisions: the +fabulous, the legendary, and the probable or natural. + +In the understanding of history, psychology is quite as necessary as +philology. + +To reject anything that has a flaw in it is quite as bad as to have that +excess of credulity which swallows everything presented. + +It is not necessary to throw away the fabulous nor deny the legendary. +But it is certainly not wise to construe the fabulous as the actual and +maintain the legendary as literally true. Things may be true +allegorically and false literally, and to be able to distinguish the one +from the other, and prize each in its proper place, is the mark of +wisdom. + +If, however, we were asked to describe the man Moses to a jury of sane, +sensible, intelligent and unprejudiced men and women, and show why he is +worthy of the remembrance of mankind, we would have to eliminate the +fabulous, carefully weigh the traditional, and rest our argument upon +records that are fair, sensible and reasonably free from dispute. + +The conclusions of professional retainers, committed before they begin +their so-called investigations to a literal belief in the fabulous, +should be accepted with great caution. For them to come to conclusions +outside of that which they have been taught, is not only to forfeit +their social position, but to lose their actual means of livelihood. +Perhaps the truth in the final summing up can best be gotten from those +who have made no vows that they will not change their opinions, and have +nothing to lose if they fail occasionally to gibe with the popular. + +On a certain occasion after Colonel Ingersoll had delivered his famous +lecture entitled, "Some Mistakes of Moses," he was entertained by a +local club. At the meeting, which was of the usual informal kind known +as "A Dutch Feed," a young lawyer made bold to address the great orator +thus: "Colonel Ingersoll, you are a lover of freedom--with you the word +liberty looms large. All great men love liberty, and no man lives in +history, respected and revered, save as he has sought to make men free. +Moses was a lover of liberty. Now, wouldn't it be gracious and generous +in you to give Moses, who in some ways was in the same business as +yourself, due credit as a liberator and law-giver and not emphasize his +mistakes to the total exclusion of his virtues?" + +Colonel Ingersoll listened--he was impressed by the fairness of the +question. He listened, paused and replied: "Young man, you have asked a +reasonable question, and all you suggest about the greatness of Moses, +in spite of his mistakes, is well taken. The trouble in your logic lies +in the fact that you do not understand my status in this case. You seem +to forget that I am not the attorney for Moses. He has more than two +million men looking after his interests. I am retained on the other +side!" + +Like unto Colonel Ingersoll, I am not an attorney for Moses. I desire, +however, to give a fair, clear and judicial account of the man. I will +attempt to present a brief for the people, and neither prosecute nor +defend. I will simply try to picture the man as he once existed, nothing +extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice. As the original office of +the State's Attorney was rather to protect the person at the bar than to +indict him, so will I try to bring out the best in Moses, rather than +hold up his mistakes and raise a laugh by revealing his ignorance. +Modesty, which is often egotism turned wrong side out, might here say, +"Oh, Moses requires no defense at this late day!" But Moses, like all +great men, has suffered at the hands of his friends. To this man has +been attributed powers which no human being ever possessed. + +Moses lived thirty-three hundred years ago. In one sense thirty-three +centuries is a very long time. All is comparative--children regard a man +of fifty as "awful old." I have seen several persons who have lived a +hundred years, and they didn't consider a century long, "and thirty-five +isn't anything," said one of them to me. + +Geologically, thirty-three centuries is only an hour ago. It does not +nearly take us back to the time when men of the Stone Age hunted the +hairy mammoth in what is now Nebraska, nor does thirty-three centuries +give us any glimpse of the time when tropical animals, plants and +probably men lived and flourished at the North Pole. + +Egyptian civilization, at the time of Moses, was more than three +thousand years old. Egypt was then in the first stage of senility, +entering upon her decline, for her best people had settled in the +cities, and this completes the cycle and spells deterioration. She had +passed through the savage, barbaric, nomadic and agricultural stages and +was living on her unearned increment, a part of which was Israelitish +labor. Moses looked at the Pyramids, which were built more than a +thousand years before his birth, and asked in wonder about who built +them, very much as we do today. He listened for the Sphinx to answer, +but she was silent, then as now. The date of the exodus has been fixed +as having probably occurred during the reign of the Great Pharaoh, +Mineptah, or the nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty. The date is, say, fourteen +hundred years before Christ. An inscription has recently been found +which seems to show that Joseph settled in Egypt during the reign of +Mineptah, but the best scholars now have gone back to the conclusions I +have stated. + +At the time of the Pharaohs, Egypt was the highest civilized country on +earth. It had a vast system of canals, an organized army, a goodly +degree of art, and there were engineers and builders of much ability. +Philosophy, poetry and ethics were recognized, prized and discussed. + +The storage of grain by the government to bank against famine had been +practised for several hundred years. There were also treasure-cities +built to guard against fire, thieves or destruction by the elements. It +will thus be seen that foresight, thrift, caution, wisdom, played their +parts. The Egyptians were not savages. + + * * * * * + +About five hundred years before the birth of Moses there lived in Arabia +a powerful Sheik or Chief, known as Abraham. This man had a familiar +spirit, or guide, or guardian-angel known as Yaveh or Jehovah. All of +the desert tribes had such tutelary gods; and all of these gods were +once men of power who lived on earth. The belief in special gods has +often been held by very great men: Socrates looked to his "demon" for +guidance; Themistocles consulted his oracle; a President of the United +States visited a clairvoyant, who consented to act as a medium and +interpret the supernatural. This idea, which is a variant of ancestor +worship, still survives, and very many good people do not take journeys +or make investments until they believe they are being dictated to by +Shakespeare, Emerson, Beecher or Phillips Brooks. These people also +believe that there are bad spirits to which we must not harken. + +Abraham was led by Jehovah; what Jehovah told him to do he did; when +Jehovah told him to desist or change his plans, he obeyed. Jehovah +promised him many things, and some of these promises were fulfilled. + +Whether these tutelary gods or controlling spirits had any actual +existence outside of the imagination of the people who believed in +them--whether they were merely pictures thrown upon the screen by a +subconscious spiritual stereopticon--is not the question now under +discussion. Something must be left for a later time: the fact remains +that special providences are yet relied upon by sincere and intelligent +people. + +Abraham had a son named Isaac. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, or +Israel, "the Soldier of God," so called on account of his successful +wrestling with the angel. And Jacob was the father of twelve sons. All +of these people believed in Jehovah, the god of their tribe; and while +they did not disbelieve in the gods of the neighboring tribes, they yet +doubted their power and had grave misgivings as to their honesty. +Therefore, they had nothing to do with them, praying to their own god +only and looking to him for support. They were the chosen people of +Jehovah, just as the Babylonians were the chosen people of Baal; the +Canaanites the chosen people of Ishitar; the Moabites the chosen people +of Chemos; the Ammonites the chosen people of Rimmon. + +Now Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, and his brethren were +naturally jealous of him. So one day out on the range they sold him into +slavery to a passing caravan, and went home and told their father the +boy was dead, having been killed by a wild beast. To make the matter +plausible they took the coat of Joseph and smeared it with the blood of +a goat which they had killed. Nowadays, the coat would have been sent to +a chemist's laboratory and the blood-spots tested to see whether it was +the blood of beast or human. But Jacob believed the story and mourned +his son as dead. + +Now Joseph was taken to Egypt and there arose to a position of influence +and power through his intelligence and diligence. How eventually his +brethren, starving, came to him for food, there being a famine in their +own land, is one of the most natural and beautiful stories in all +literature. It is a folklore legend, free from the fabulous, and has all +the corroborating marks of the actual. + +For us it is history undisputed, unrefuted, because it is so natural. It +could all easily happen in various parts of the world even now. It shows +the identical traits of human nature that are alive and pulsing today. + +Joseph having made himself known to his brethren induced some of them +and their neighbors to come down into Egypt, where the pasturage was +better and the water more sure, and settle there. The Bible tells us +that there were seventy of these settlers and gives us their names. + +These emigrants, called Israelites, or Children of Israel, account for +the presence of the enslaved people whom Moses led out of captivity +three hundred years later. + +One thing seems quite sure, and that is that they were a peculiar people +then, with the pride of the desert in their veins, for they stood +socially aloof and did not mix with the Egyptians. They still had their +own god and clung to their own ways and customs. + +That very naive account in the first chapter of Exodus of how they had +two midwives, "and the name of one was Shiphrah and the other Puah," is +as fine in its elusive exactitude as an Uncle Remus story. Children +always want to know the names of people. These two Hebrew midwives were +bribed by the King of Egypt--ruler over twenty million people--in +person, to kill all the Hebrew boy babies. Then the account states that +Jehovah was pleased with these Hebrew women who proved false to their +master, and Jehovah rewarded them by giving them houses. + +This order to kill the Hebrew children must have gone into execution, if +at all, about the time of the birth of Moses, because Aaron, the brother +of Moses, and three years older, certainly was not killed. + +Whether Moses was the son of Pharaoh's daughter, his father an +Israelite, or both of his parents were Israelites, is problematic. Royal +families are not apt to adopt an unknown waif into the royal household +and bring him up as their royal own, especially if this waif belongs to +what is regarded as an inferior race. The tie of motherhood is the only +one that could over-rule caste and override prejudice. If the daughter +of Pharaoh, or more properly "the Pharaoh," were the mother of Moses, +she had a better reason for hiding him in the bulrushes than did the +daughter of a Levite, for the order to kill these profitable workers is +extremely doubtful. The strength, skill and ability of the Israelites +formed a valuable acquisition to the Egyptians, and what they wanted was +more Israelites, not fewer. + +Judging from the statement that there were only two midwives, there were +only a few hundred Israelites--perhaps between one and two thousand, at +most. + +So leaving the legend of the childhood of Moses with just enough mystery +mixed in it to give it a perpetual piquancy, we learn that he was +brought up an Egyptian, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and that it +was she who gave him his name. + +Philo and Josephus give various sidelights on the life and character of +Moses. The Midrash or Commentaries on the History of the Jews, composed, +added to or modified by many men, extending over a period of twenty +centuries, also add their weight, even though the value of these +Commentaries is conjectural. + +Egyptian accounts of Moses and the Israelites come to us through +Hellenic sources, and very naturally are not complimentary. These +picture Moses, or Osarsiph, as they call him, as an agitator, an +undesirable citizen, who sought to overturn the government, and failing +in this, fled to the desert with a few hundred outlaws. They managed to +hold out against the forces sent to capture them, were gradually added +to by other refugees, and through the organizing genius of Moses were +rounded into a strong tribe. + +That Moses was their supreme ruler, and that to better hold his people +in check he devised a religious ritual for them, and impressed his god, +Jehovah, upon them, almost to the exclusion of all other gods, and thus +formed them into a religious whole, is beyond question. No matter what +the cause of the uprising, or who was to blame for it, the fact is +undisputed that Moses led a revolt in Egypt, and the people he carried +with him in this exodus formed the nucleus of the Hebrew Nation. And +further, the fact is beyond dispute that the personality of Moses was +the prime cementing factor in the making of the nation. The power, +poise, patience and unwavering self-reliance of the man, through his +faith in the god Jehovah, are all beyond dispute. Things happen because +the man makes them happen. + + * * * * * + +The position of the Israelites in Egypt was one of voluntary vassalage. +The government was a feudal monarchy. The Israelites had come into Egypt +of their own accord, but had never been admitted into the full rights of +citizenship. This exclusion by the Egyptians had no doubt tended to fix +the Children of Israel in their religious beliefs, and on the other +hand, their proud and exclusive nature had tended to keep them from a +full fellowship with the actual owners of the land. + +The Egyptians never attempted to traffic in them as they did in slaves +of war, being quite content to use them as clerks, laborers and +servants, paying them a certain wage, and also demanding an excess of +labor in lieu of taxation. In other words, they worked out their +"road-tax," which no doubt was excessive. Many years later, Athens and +also Rome had similar "slaves," some of whom were men of great intellect +and worth. If one reads the works of modern economic prophets, it will +be seen that wage-workers in America are often referred to as "slaves" +or "bondmen," terms which will probably give rise to confusion among +historians to come. + +Moses was brought up in the court of the king, and became versed in all +the lore of the Egyptians. We are led to suppose that he also looked +like an Egyptian, as we are told that people seeing him for the first +time, he being a stranger to them, went away and referred to him as +"that Egyptian." He was handsome, commanding, silent by habit and slow +of speech, strong as a counselor, a safe man. That he was a most +valuable man in the conduct of Egyptian official affairs, there is no +doubt. And although he was nominally an Egyptian, living with the +Egyptians, adopting their manners and customs, yet his heart was with +"his brethren," the Israelites, who he saw were sore oppressed through +governmental exploitation. + +Moses knew that a government which does not exist for the purpose of +adding to human happiness has no excuse for being. And once when he was +down among his own people he saw an Egyptian taskmaster or foreman +striking an Israelitish workman, and in wrath he arose and killed the +oppressor. The only persons who were witnesses to this affair were two +Hebrews. The second day after the fight, when Moses was attempting to +separate two Hebrews who had gotten into an altercation with each other, +they taunted him by saying, "Who gavest thee to be a ruler over +us?--wilt thou also kill us as thou didst the Egyptian?" + +This gives us a little light upon the quality and character of the +people with whom Moses had to deal. It also shows that the ways of the +reformer and peacemaker are not flower-strewn. The worst enemies of a +reformer are not the Egyptians--he has also to deal with the Israelites. + +I once heard Terence V. Powderly, who organized the Knights of +Labor--the most successful labor organization ever formed--say, "Any man +who devotes his life to helping laboring men will be destroyed by them." +And then he added, "But this should not deter us from the effort to +benefit." + +As the Hebrew account plainly states that the killing of all the male +Hebrew children was carried out with the connivance of Hebrew women who +pretended to be ministering to the Hebrew mothers, so was the flight of +Moses from Egypt caused by the Hebrews, who turned informants and +brought him into disgrace with Pharaoh, who sought his life. + +Very naturally, the Egyptians deny and have always denied that the order +to kill children was ever issued by a Pharaoh. They also point to the +fact that the Israelites were a source of profit--a valuable asset to +the Egyptians. And moreover, the proposition that the Egyptians killed +the children to avoid trouble is preposterous, since no possible act +that man can commit would so arouse sudden rebellion and fan into flame +the embers of hate as the murder of the young. If the Egyptians had +attempted to carry out any such savage cruelty, they would not only have +had to fight the Israelitish men, but the outraged mothers as well. The +Egyptians were far too wise to invite the fury of frenzied motherhood. +To have done this would have destroyed the efficiency of the entire +Hebrew population. An outraged and heartbroken people do not work. + +When one person becomes angry with another, his mental processes work +overtime making up a list of the other's faults and failings. + +When a people arise in revolt they straightway prepare an indictment +against the government against which they revolted, giving a schedule of +outrages, insults, plunderings and oppressions. This is what is politely +called partisan history. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a literary indictment +of the South by featuring its supposed brutalities. And the attitude of +the South is mirrored in a pretty parable concerning a Southern girl who +came North on a visit, and seeing in print the words "damned Yankee," +innocently remarked that she always thought they were one word. A +description of the enemy, made by a person or a people, must be taken +cum grano Syracuse. + + * * * * * + +When Moses fled, after killing the Egyptian, he went northward and east +into the land of the Midianites, who were also descendants of Abraham. +At this time he was forty years of age, and still unmarried, his work in +the Egyptian Court having evidently fully absorbed his time. + +It is a pretty little romance, all too brief in its details, of how the +tired man stopped at a well, and the seven daughters of Jethro came to +draw water for their flocks. Certain shepherds came also and drove the +girls away, when Moses, true to his nature, took the part of the young +ladies, to the chagrin and embarrassment of the male rustics who had +left their manners at home. The story forms a melodramatic stage-setting +which the mummers have not been slow to use, representing the seven +daughters as a ballet, the shepherds as a male chorus, and Moses as +basso-profundo and hero. We are told that the girls went home and told +their father of the chivalrous stranger they had met, and he, with all +the deference of the desert, sent for him "that he might eat bread." + +Very naturally Moses married one of the girls. + +And Moses tended the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law, taking the +herds a long distance, living with them and sleeping out under the +stars. + +Now Jethro was the chief of his tribe. Moses calls him a "priest," but +he was a priest only incidentally, as all the Arab chiefs were. + +The clergy originated in Egypt. Before the Israelites were in Goshen, +the "sacra," or sacred utensils, belonged to the family; and the head of +the tribe performed the religious rites, propitiating the family deity, +or else delegated some one else to do so. This head of the tribe, or +chief, was called a "Cohen"; and the man who assisted him, or whom he +delegated, was called a "Levi." The plan of making a business of being a +"Levi" was borrowed from the Egyptians, who had men set apart, +exclusively, to deal in the mysterious. Moses calls himself a Levi, or +Levite. + +After the busy life he had led, Moses could not settle down to the +monotonous existence of a shepherd. It is probable that then he wrote +the Book of Job, the world's first drama and the oldest book of the +Bible. Moses was full of plans. Very naturally he prayed to the +Israelitish god, and the god harkened unto his prayer and talked to him. + +The silence, the loneliness, the majesty of the mountains, the great +stretches of shining sand, the long peaceful nights, all tend to +hallucinations. Sheepmen are in constant danger of mental aberration. +Society is needed quite as much as solitude. + +From talking with God, Moses desired to see Him. One day, from the +burning red of an acacia-tree, the Lord called to him, "Moses, Moses!" + +And Moses answered, "Here am I!" + +Moses was a man born to rule--he was a leader of men--and here at +middle life the habits of twenty-five years were suddenly snapped and +his occupation gone. He yearned for his people, and knowing their +unhappy lot, his desire was to lead them out of captivity. He knew the +wrongs the Egyptian government was visiting upon the Israelites. Rameses +the Second was a ruler with the builder's eczema: always and forever he +made gardens, dug canals, paved roadways, constructed model tenements, +planned palaces, erected colossi. He was a worker, and he made everybody +else work. It was in this management of infinite detail that Moses had +been engaged; and while he entered into it with zest, he knew that the +hustling habit can be overdone and its votaries may become its +victims--not only that, but this strenuous life may turn freemen into +serfs, and serfs into slaves. + +And now Rameses was dead, and the proud, vain, fretful and selfish +Mineptah ruled in his place. It was worse with the Israelites than ever! + +The more Moses thought of it the more he was convinced that it was his +duty to go back to Egypt and lead his people out of bondage. He himself, +having been driven out, made the matter a burning one with him: he had +lost his place in the Egyptian Court, but he would get it back and hold +it under better conditions than ever before! + +He heard the "Voice"! All strong people hear the Voice calling them. And +harkening to the Inner Voice is simply doing what you want to do. + +"Moses, Moses!" + +And Moses answered, "Lord, here am I." + +The laws of Moses still influence the world, but not even the orthodox +Jews follow them literally. We bring our reason to bear upon the +precepts of Moses, and those which are not for us we gently pass over. +In fact, the civil laws of most countries prohibit many of the things +which Moses commanded. For instance, the eighteenth verse of the +twenty-second chapter of Exodus says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to +live." Certainly no Jewish lawyer nor Rabbi, in any part of the world, +advocates the killing of persons supposed to be witches. We explain that +in this instance the inspired writer lapsed and merely mirrored the +ignorance of his time. Or else we fall back upon the undoubted fact that +various writers and translators have tampered with the original +text--this must be so, since the book written by Moses makes record of +his death. + +But when we find passages in Moses requiring us to benefit our enemies, +we say with truth that this was the first literature to express for us +the brotherhood of man. + +"Thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth +the words of the righteous." Here we get Twentieth-Century Wisdom. And +very many passages as fine and true can be found, which prove for us +beyond cavil that Moses was right a part of the time, and to say this +of any man, living or dead, is a very great compliment. + +In times of doubt the Jewish people turn to the Torah, or Book of the +Law. This book has been interpreted by the Rabbis, or the learned men, +and to meet the exigencies of living under many conditions, it has been +changed, enlarged and augmented. In these changes the people were not +consulted. Very naturally it was done secretly, for inspired men must be +well dead before the many accept their edict. To be alive is always more +or less of an offense, especially if you be a person and not a +personage. + +The murmurings against Moses during his lifetime often broke into a +rumble and a roar. The mob accused him of taking them out into the +wilderness to perish. To get away from the constant bickering and +criticisms of the little minds, Moses used to go up into the mountains +alone to find rest, and there he communicated with his god. It was +surely a great step in advance when all the Elohims were combined into +one Supreme Elohim that was everywhere present and ruled the world. +Instead of dozens of little gods, jealous, jangling, fearful, fretful, +fussy, boastful, changing walking-sticks to serpents, or doing other +things quite as useless, it was a great advance to have one Supreme +Being, dispassionate, a God of Love and Justice, "with whom can be no +variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." This gradual +ennobling of the conception of Divinity reveals the extent to which man +is ennobling his own nature. + +Up to within a very few years God had a rival in the Devil, but now the +Devil lives only as a pleasantry. Until the time of Moses, the God of +Sinai was only the God of the Hebrew people, and this accounts for His +violence, wrath, jealousy, and all of those qualities which went to make +up a barbaric chief, including the tendency of His sons and servants to +make love to the daughters of earth. + +It is probable that the idea of God--in opposition to a god, one of many +gods--was a thought that grew up very gradually in the mind of Moses. +The ideal grew, and Moses grew with the ideal. + +Then from God being a Spirit, to being Spirit, is a natural, easy and +beautiful evolution. + +The thought of angels, devils, heavenly messengers, like Gabriel and the +Holy Ghost, constantly surrounding the Throne, is a suggestion that +comes from the court of the absolute monarch. The Trinity is the +oligarchy refined, and the one son who gives himself as a sacrifice for +all the people who have offended the monarch is the retreating vision of +that night of ignorance when all nations sought to appease the wrath of +their god by the death of human beings. + +God to us is Spirit, realized everywhere in unfolding Nature. We are a +part of Nature--we, too, are Spirit. When Moses commands his people that +they must return the stray animal of their enemy to its rightful owner, +we behold a great man struggling to benefit humanity by making them +recognize the laws of Spirit. We are all one family--we can not afford +to wrong or harm even an enemy. + +Instead of thousands of warring, jarring families or tribes, we have now +a few strong federations of States, or countries, which, if they would +make war on one another, would today quickly face a larger foe. Already +the idea of one government for all the world is taking form--there must +be one Supreme Arbiter, and all this monstrous expense of money and +flesh and blood and throbbing hearts for purposes of war, must go, just +as we have sent to limbo the jangling, jarring, jealous gods. Also, the +better sentiment of the world will send the czars, emperors, kings, +grand dukes, and the greedy grafters of so-called democracy, into the +dust-heap of oblivion, with all the priestly phantoms that have obscured +the sun and blackened the sky. The gods have gone, but MAN IS HERE. + + * * * * * + +The plagues that befell the Egyptians were the natural ones to which +Egypt was liable: drought, flood, flies, lice, frogs, disease. The +Israelites very naturally declared that these things were sent as a +punishment by the Israelitish god. I remember a farmer, in my childhood +days, who was accounted by his neighbors as an infidel. He was struck by +lightning and instantly killed, while standing in his doorway. The +Sunday before, this man had worked in the fields, and just before he was +killed he had said, "dammit," or something quite as bad. Our preacher +explained at length that this man's death was a "judgment." Afterward, +when our church was struck by lightning, it was regarded as an accident. + +Ignorant and superstitious people always attribute special things to +special causes. When the grasshoppers overran Kansas in Eighteen Hundred +Eighty-five, I heard a good man from the South say it was a punishment +on the Kansans for encouraging Old John Brown. The next year the +boll-weevil ruined the cotton crop, and certain preachers in the North, +who thought they knew, declared it was the lingering wrath of God on +account of slavery. + +Three nations unite to form our present civilization. These are the +Greek, the Roman and the Judaic. The lives of Perseus, Romulus and Moses +all teem with the miraculous, but if we accept the supernatural in one +we must in all. Which of these three great nations has contributed most +to our well-being is a question largely decided by temperament; but +just now the star of Greece seems to be in the ascendant. We look to art +for solace. Greece stands for art; Rome for conquest; Judea for +religion. + +And yet Moses was a lover of beauty, and the hold he had upon his people +was quite as much through training them to work as through his moral +teaching. Indeed, his morality was expediency--which is reason enough +according to modern science. When he wants them to work, he says, "Thus +saith the Lord," just the same as when he wishes to impress upon them a +thought. + +No one can read the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth +chapters of Exodus without being impressed with the fact that the man +who wrote them had in him the spirit of the Master Workman--a King's +Craftsman. His carving the ten commandments on tablets of stone also +shows his skill with mallet and chisel, a talent he had acquired in +Egypt, where Rameses the Second had thousands of men engaged in +sculpture and in making inscriptions in stone. + +Several chapters in Exodus might have been penned by Albrecht Durer or +William Morris. The commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any +graven image," was unmistakably made merely to correct a local evil: the +tendency to worship the image instead of the thing it symbolized. People +who do not contribute to the creation of an object fall easy victims to +this error. With all the stern good sense that Moses revealed, it is +but fair to assume that he did not mean the command to be perpetual. It +was only through so much moving about that the Jews seemed to lose their +art spirit. + +And certainly the flame of art in the Jewish heart has never died out, +even though at times it has smoldered, for wherever there has been peace +and security for the Jews, they have not been slow to evolve the talent +which creates. History teems with the names of Jews who, in music, +painting, poetry and sculpture, have devoted their days to beauty. And +the germ of genius is seen in many of the Jewish children who attend the +manual-training and art schools of America. + +Art has its rise in the sense of sublimity. It seems at times to be a +fulfilment of the religious impulse. The religion which balks at work, +stopping at prayer and contemplation, is a form of arrested development. + +The number of people in the exodus was probably two or three thousand. +Renan says that one century only elapsed between the advent of Joseph +into Egypt and the revolt. Very certain it was not a great number that +went forth into the desert. A half-million women could not have borrowed +jewelry of their neighbors--the secret could not have been kept. And in +the negotiations between Moses and the King, it will be remembered that +Moses asked only for the privilege of going three days' journey into the +wilderness to make sacrifices. It was a kind of picnic or religious +campmeeting. A vast multitude could not have taken part in any such +exercise. We also hear of their singing their gratitude on account of +reaching Elim, where there were "twelve springs and seventy palm-trees." +Had there been several million people, as we have been told, the +insignificant shade of seventy trees would have meant nothing to them. + +The distance from Goshen in Egypt to Canaan in Palestine was about one +hundred seventy-five miles. But by the circuitous route they traveled it +was nearly a thousand miles. It took forty years to make the passage, +for the way had to be fought through the country of foes who very +naturally sought to block the way. Quick transportation was out of the +question. The rate of speed was about twenty-five miles a year. + +Here was a people without homes, or fixed habitation, beset on every +side with the natural dangers of the desert, and compelled to face the +fury of the inhabitants whose lands they overran, fearful, +superstitious, haunted by hunger, danger and doubt. By night a man sent +ahead with a lantern on a pole led the way; by day a cavalcade that +raised a cloud of dust. One was later sung by the poets as a pillar of +fire, and the other a cloud. Chance flocks of quail blown by a storm +into their midst were regarded as a miracle; the white exuding wax of +the manna-plant was told of as "bread"--or more literally food. + +Those who had taken part in the original exodus were nearly all +dead--their children and grandchildren survived, desert born and savage +bred. Canaan was not the land flowing with milk and honey that had been +described. Milk and honey are the results of labor applied to land. +Moses knew this and tried to teach this great truth. He was true to his +divine trust. Through doubt, hardship, poverty, misunderstanding, he +held high the ideal--they were going to a better place. + +At last, worn by his constant struggle, aged one hundred twenty, "his +eye not dim nor his natural force abated"--for only those live long who +live well--Moses went up into the mountain to find solace in solitude as +was his custom. His people waited for him in vain--he did not return. +Alone there with his God he slept and forgot to awaken. His pilgrimage +was done. "And no man knoweth his grave even unto this day." + +History is very seldom recorded on the spot--certainly it was not then. +Centuries followed before fact, tradition, song, legend and folklore +were fused into the form we call Scripture. But out of the fog and mist +of that far-off past there looms in heroic outline the form and features +of a man--a man of will, untiring activity, great hope, deep love, a +faith which at times faltered, but which never died. Moses was the first +man in history who fought for human rights and sought to make men free, +even from their own limitations. "And there arose not a prophet since +Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." + + + + +[Illustration: CONFUCIUS] + +CONFUCIUS + + + The highest study of all is that which teaches us to develop those + principles of purity and perfect virtue which Heaven bestowed upon + us at our birth, in order that we may acquire the power of + influencing for good those amongst whom we are placed, by our + precepts and example; a study without an end--for our labors cease + only when we have become perfect--an unattainable goal, but one + that we must not the less set before us from the very first. It is + true that we shall not be able to reach it, but in our struggle + toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to + our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same + direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties + with which we have been gifted to the best possible account. + + --_"The Annals" of Confucius_ + + +CONFUCIUS + +The Chinese comprise one-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth. There +are four hundred millions of them. + +They can do many things which we can not do, and we can do a few things +which they have not yet been able to do; but they are learning from us, +and possibly we would do well to learn from them. In China there are now +trolley-cars, telephone-lines, typewriters, cash-registers and American +plumbing. China is a giant awaking from sleep. He who thinks that China +is a country crumbling into ruins has failed to leave a call at the +office and has overslept. + +The West can not longer afford to ignore China. And not being able to +waive her, perhaps the next best thing is to try to understand her. + +The one name that looms large above any other name in China is +Confucius. He of all men has influenced China most. One-third of the +human race love and cherish his memory, and repeat his words as sacred +writ. + +Confucius was born at a time when one of those tidal waves of reason +swept the world--when the nations were full of unrest, and the mountains +of thought were shaken with discontent. + +It was just previous to the blossoming of Greece. + +Pericles was seventeen years old when Confucius died. Themistocles was +preparing the way for Pericles; for then was being collected the +treasure of Delos, which made Phidias and the Parthenon possible. During +the life of Confucius lived Leonidas, Miltiades, Cyrus the Great, +Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes. And then quite naturally occurred the battles +of Marathon, Salamis and Thermopylae. Then lived Buddha-Gautama, +Lao-tsze, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Pythagoras, Pindar, +AEschylus and Anacreon. + +The Chinese are linked to the past by ties of language and custom beyond +all other nations. They are a peculiar people, a chosen people, a people +set apart. Just when they withdrew from the rest of mankind and +abandoned their nomadic habits, making themselves secure against +invasion by building a wall one hundred feet high, and settled down to +lay the foundations of a vast empire, we do not know. Some historians +have fixed the date about ten thousand years before Christ--let it go at +that. There is a reasonably well-authenticated history of China that +runs back twenty-five hundred years before Christ, while our history +merges into mist seven hundred fifty years before the Christian era. + +The Israelites wandered; the Chinese remained at home. Walls have this +disadvantage: they keep people in as well as shut the barbarians out. +But now there are vast breaches in the wall, through which the +inhabitants ooze, causing men from thousands of miles away to cry in +alarm, "the Yellow Peril!" And also through these breaches, Israelites, +Englishmen and Yankees enter fearlessly, settle down in heathen China, +and do business. + +It surely is an epoch, and what the end will be few there are who dare +forecast. + + * * * * * + +This then is from the pen of Edward Carpenter, the Church of England +curate who was so great a friend and admirer of our own Walt Whitman +that he made a trip across the sea to join hands with him in preaching +the doctrine of democracy and the religion of humanity. + + In the interior of China, along low-lying plains and great + river-valleys, and by lake-sides, and far away up into hilly and + even mountainous regions, + + Behold! an immense population, rooted in the land, rooted in the + clan and the family, + + The most productive and stable on the whole Earth. A garden one + might say--a land of rich and recherche crops, of rice and tea and + silk and sugar and cotton and oranges; + + Do you see it?--stretching away endlessly over river-lines and + lakes, and the gentle undulations of the low-lands, and up the + escarpments of the higher hills; + + The innumerable patchwork of civilization--the poignant verdure of + the young rice; the somber green of orange-groves; the lines of + tea-shrubs, well hoed, and showing the bare earth beneath; the + pollard mulberries; the plots of cotton and maize and wheat and yam + and clover; the little brown and green tiled cottages with + spreading recurbed eaves, the clumps of feathery bamboo, or of + sugar-canes; + + The endless silver threads of irrigation canals and ditches, + skirting the hills for scores and hundreds of miles, tier above + tier, and serpentining down to the lower slopes and plains-- + + The accumulated result, these, of centuries upon centuries of + ingenious industry, and innumerable public and private + benefactions, continued from age to age; + + The grand canal of the Delta plain extending, a thronged waterway, + for seven hundred miles, with sails of junks and bankside villages + innumerable; + + The chain-pumps, worked by buffaloes or men, for throwing the water + up slopes and hillsides, from tier to tier, from channel to + channel; + + The endless rills and cascades flowing down again into pockets and + hollows of verdure, and on fields of steep and plain; + + The bits of rock and wildwood left here and there, with the angles + of Buddhist or Jain temples projecting from among the trees; + + The azalea and rhododendron bushes, and the wild deer and pheasants + unharmed; + + The sounds of music and the gong--the Sin-fa sung at eventide--and + the air of contentment and peace pervading; + + A garden you might call the land, for its wealth of crops and + flowers, + + A town almost for its population. + + A population denser, on a large scale, than anywhere else on + earth-- + + Five or six acre holdings, elbowing each other, with lesser and + larger, continuously over immense tracts, and running to plentiful + market centers; + + A country of few roads, but of innumerable footpaths and waterways. + + Here, rooted in the land, and rooted in the family, each family + clinging to its portion of ancestral earth, each offshoot of the + family desiring nothing so much as to secure its own patrimonial + field, + + Each member of the family answerable primarily to the family + assembly for his misdeeds or defalcations, + + All bound together in the common worship of ancestors, and in + reverence for the past and its sanctioned beliefs and accumulated + prejudices and superstitions; + + With many ancient, wise, simple customs and ordinances, coming down + from remote centuries, and the time of Confucius, + + This vast population abides--the most stable and the most + productive in the world. + + * * * * * + + And Government touches it but lightly--can touch it but lightly. + + With its few officials (only some twenty-five thousand for the + whole of its four hundred millions), and its scanty taxation (about + one dollar per head), and with the extensive administration of + justice and affairs by the clan and the family--little scope is + left for government. + + The great equalized mass population pursues its even and accustomed + way, nor pays attention to edicts and foreign treaties, unless + these commend themselves independently; + + Pays readier respect, in such matters, to the edicts and utterances + of its literary men, and the deliberations of the Academy. + + * * * * * + + And religious theorizing touches it but lightly--can touch it but + lightly. + + Established on the bedrock of actual life, and on the living unity + and community of present, past and future generations. + + Each man stands bound already, and by the most powerful ties, to + the social body--nor needs the dreams and promises of Heaven to + reassure him. + + And all are bound to the Earth. + + Rendering back to it as a sacred duty every atom that the Earth + supplies to them (not insensately sending it in sewers to the sea), + + By the way of abject commonsense they have sought the gates of + Paradise--and to found on human soil their City Celestial! + + +The first general knowledge of Confucius came to the Western world in +the latter part of the Sixteenth Century from Jesuit missionaries. +Indeed, it was they who gave him the Latinized name of "Confucius," the +Chinese name being Kung-Fu-tsze. + +So impressed were these missionaries by the greatness of Confucius that +they urged upon the Vatican the expediency of placing his name upon the +calendar of Saints. They began by combating his teachings, but this they +soon ceased to do, and the modicum of success which they obtained was +through beginning each Christian service by the hymn which may properly +be called the National Anthem of China. Its opening stanza is as +follows: + + Confucius! Confucius! + Great was our Confucius! + Before him there was no Confucius, + Since him there was no other. + Confucius! Confucius! + Great was our Confucius! + +The praise given by these early Jesuits to Confucius was at first +regarded at Rome as apology for the meager success of their +ministrations. But later scientific study of Chinese literature +corroborated all that the Jesuit Fathers proclaimed for Confucius, and +he stands today in a class with Socrates and the scant half-dozen whom +we call the saviors of the world. + +Yet Confucius claimed no "divine revelation," nor did he seek to found a +religion. He was simply a teacher, and what he taught was the science of +living--living in the present, with the plain and simple men and women +who make up the world, and bettering our condition by bettering theirs. +Of a future life he said he knew nothing, and concerning the +supernatural he was silent, even rebuking his disciples for trying to +pry into the secrets of Heaven. The word "God" he does not use, but his +recognition of a Supreme Intelligence is limited to the use of a word +which can best be translated "Heaven," since it tokens a place more than +it does a person. Constantly he speaks of "doing the will of Heaven." +And then he goes on to say that "Heaven is speaking through you," "Duty +lies in mirroring Heaven in our acts," and many other such New-Thought +aphorisms or epigrams. + +That the man was a consummate literary stylist is beyond doubt. He spoke +in parables and maxims, short, brief and musical. He wrote for his ear, +and always his desire, it seems, was to convey the greatest truth in the +fewest words. The Chinese, even the lowly and uneducated, know hundreds +of Confucian epigrams, and still repeat them in their daily conversation +or in writing, just as educated Englishmen use the Bible and Shakespeare +for symbol. + +Minister Wu, in a lecture delivered in various American cities, compared +Confucius with Emerson, showing how in many ways these two great +prophets paralleled each other. Emerson, of all Americans, seems the +only man worthy of being so compared. + +The writer who lives is the man who supplies the world with portable +wisdom--short, sharp, pithy maxims which it can remember, or, better +still, which it can not forget. + +Confucius said, "Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you +one corner, and it is for you to find the other three." + +The true artist in words or things is always more or less +impressionistic--he talks in parables, and it is for the hearer to +discover the meaning for himself. + +An epigram is truth in a capsule. The disadvantage of the epigram is the +temptation it affords to good people to explain it to the others who are +assumed to be too obtuse to comprehend it alone. And since explanations +seldom explain, the result is a mixture or compound that has to be +spewed utterly or taken on faith. Confucius is simple enough until he is +explained. Then we evolve sects, denominations and men who make it their +profession to render moral calculi opaque. China, being peopled by human +beings, has suffered from this tendency to make truth concrete, just as +all the rest of the world has suffered. Truth is fluid and should be +allowed to flow. Ankylosis of a fact is superstition. Confucius was a +free-trader. + + * * * * * + +China has always been essentially feudal in her form of government. +China is made up of a large number of States, each presided over by a +prince or governor, and these States are held together by a rather loose +federal government, the Emperor being the supreme ruler. State rights +prevail. State may fight with State, or States may secede--it isn't of +much moment. They are glad enough, after a few years, to get back, like +boys who run away from home, or farmhands who quit work in a tantrum. +The Chinese are very patient--they know that time cures all things, a +truth the West has not yet learned. States that rebel, like individuals +who place themselves beyond the protection of all, assume grave +responsibilities. + +The local prince usually realizes the bearing of the Social +Contract--that he holds his office only during good behavior, and that +his welfare and the welfare of his people are one. + +Heih, the father of Confucius, was governor of one of these little +States, and had impoverished himself in an effort to help his people. +Heih was a man of seventy, wedded to a girl of seventeen, when their +gifted son was born. When the boy was three years old the father died, +and the lad's care and education depended entirely on the mother. This +mother seems to have been a woman of rare mental and spiritual worth. +She deliberately chose a life of poverty and honest toil for herself +and child, rather than allow herself to be cared for by rich kinsmen. +The boy was brought up in a village, and he was not allowed to think +himself any better than the other village children, save as he proved +himself so. He worked in the garden, tended the cattle and goats, mended +the pathways, brought wood and water, and waited on his elders. Every +evening his mother used to tell him of the feats of strength of his +father, of his heroic qualities in friendship, of deeds of valor, of +fidelity to trusts, of his absolute truthfulness, and his desire for +knowledge in order that he might better serve his people. + +The coarse, plain fare, the long walks across the fields, the climbing +of trees, the stooping to pull the weeds in the garden, the daily bath +in the brook, all combined to develop the boy's body to a splendid +degree. He went to bed at sundown, and at the first flush of dawn was up +that he might see the sunrise. There were devotional rites performed by +the mother and son, morning and evening, which consisted in the playing +upon a lute and singing or chanting the beauty and beneficence of +creation. + +Confucius, at fifteen, was regarded as a phenomenal musician, and the +neighbors used to gather to hear him perform. At nineteen he was larger, +stronger, comelier, more skilled, than any other youth of his age in all +the country round. + +The simple quality of his duties as a prince can be guessed when we are +told that his work as keeper of the herds required him to ride long +distances on horseback to settle difficulties between rival herders. The +range belonged to the State, and the owners of goats, sheep and cattle +were in continual controversies. Montana and Colorado will understand +this matter. Confucius summoned the disputants and talked to them long +about the absurdity of quarreling and the necessity of getting together +in complete understanding. Then it was that he first put forth his +best-known maxim: "You should not do to others that which you would not +have others do to you." + +This negative statement of the Golden Rule is found expressed in various +ways in the writings of Confucius. A literal interpretation of the +Chinese language is quite impossible, as the Chinese have single signs +or symbols that express a complete idea. To state the same matter, we +often use a whole page. + +Confucius had a single word which expressed the Golden Rule in such a +poetic way that it is almost useless to try to convey it to people of +the West. This word, which has been written into English as "Shu," +means: My heart responds to yours, or my heart's desire is to meet your +heart's desire, or I wish to do to you even as I would be done by. This +sign, symbol or word Confucius used to carve in the bark of trees by the +roadside. The French were filled with a like impulse when they cut the +words Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, over the entrances to all public +buildings. + +Confucius had his symbol of love and friendship painted on a board, +which he stuck into the ground before the tent where he lodged; and +finally it was worked upon a flag by some friends and presented to him, +and became his flag of peace. + +His success in keeping down strife among the herders, and making peace +among his people, soon gave him a fame beyond the borders of his own +State. As a judge he had the power to show both parties where they were +wrong, and arranged for them a common meeting-ground. + +His qualifications as an arbiter were not, however, limited to his +powers of persuasion--he could shoot an arrow farther and hurl a spear +with more accuracy than any man he ever met. Very naturally there are a +great number of folklore stories concerning his prowess, some of which +make him out a sort of combination Saint George and William Tell, with +the added kingly graces of Alfred the Great. Omitting the incredible, we +are willing to believe that this man had a giant's strength, but was +great enough not to use it like a giant. + +We are willing to believe that when attacked by robbers, he engaged them +in conversation and that, seated on the grass, he convinced them they +were in a bad business. Also, he did not later hang them, as did our old +friend Julius Caesar under like conditions. + +When twenty-seven he ceased going abroad to hold court and settle +quarrels, but sending for the disputants, they came, and he gave them a +course of lectures in ethics. In a week, by a daily lesson of an hour's +length, they were usually convinced that to quarrel is very foolish, +since it reduces bodily vigor, scatters the mind, and disturbs the +secretions, so the man is the loser in many ways. + +This seems to us like a very queer way to hold court, but Confucius +maintained that men should learn to govern their tempers, do equity, and +thus be able to settle their own disputes, and this without violence. +"To fight decides who is the stronger, the younger and the more skilful +in the use of arms, but it does not decide who is right. That is to be +settled by the Heaven in your own heart." + +To let the Heaven into your heart, to cultivate a conscience so +sensitive that it can conceive the rights of the other man, is to know +wisdom. + +To decide specific cases for others he thought was to cause them to lose +the power of deciding for themselves. When asked what a just man should +do when he was dealing with one absolutely unjust, he said, "He who +wrongs himself sows in his own heart nettles." + +And when some of his disciples, after the Socratic method, asked him how +this helped the injured man, he replied, "To be robbed or wronged is +nothing unless you continue to remember it." When pushed still further, +he said, "A man should fight, only when he does so to protect himself +or his family from bodily harm." + +Here a questioner asked, "If we are to protect our persons, must we not +learn to fight?" + +And the answer comes, "The just man, he who partakes moderately of all +good things, is the only man to fear in a quarrel, for he is without +fear." + +Over and over is the injunction in varying phrase, "Abolish +fear--abolish fear!" When pressed to give in one word the secret of a +happy life, he gives a word which we translate, "Equanimity." + + +The mother of Confucius died during his early manhood. For her he ever +retained the most devout memories. + +Before going on a journey he always visited her grave, and on returning, +before he spoke to any one, he did the same. On each anniversary of her +death he ate no food and was not to be seen by his pupils. This filial +piety, which is sometimes crudely and coarsely called "ancestor +worship," is something which for the Western world is rather difficult +to appreciate. But in it there is a subtle, spiritual significance, +suggesting that it is only through our parents that we are able to +realize consciousness or personal contact with Heaven. These parents +loved us into being, cared for us with infinite patience in infancy, +taught us in youth, watched with high hope our budding manhood; and as +reward and recognition for the service rendered us, the least we can do +is to remember them in all our prayers and devotions. The will of Heaven +used these parents for us, therefore parenthood is divine. + +That this ancestor worship is beautiful and beneficial is quite +apparent, and rightly understood no one could think of it as +"heathendom." Confucius used to chant the praises of his mother, who +brought him up in poverty, thus giving a close and intimate knowledge of +a thousand things from which princes, used to ease and luxury, are +barred. + +So close was he to nature and the plain people that he ordered that all +skilful charioteers in his employ should belong to the nobility. This +giving a title or degree to men of skill--men who can do things--we +regard as essentially a modern idea. + +China, I believe, is the first country in the world to use the threads +of a moth or worm for fabrics. The patience and care and inventive skill +required in first making silk were very great. But it gives us an index +to invention when we hear that Confucius regarded the making of linen, +using the fiber of a plant, as a greater feat than utilizing the strands +made by the silkworm. Confucius had a sort of tender sentiment toward +the moth, similar to the sentiments which our vegetarian friends have +toward killing animals for food. Confucius wore linen in preference to +silk, for sentimental reasons. The silkworm dies at his task of making +himself a cocoon, so to evolve in a winged joy, but falls a victim of +man's cupidity. Likewise, Confucius would not drink milk from a cow +until her calf was weaned, because to do so were taking an unfair +advantage of the maternal instincts of the cow. It will thus be seen +that Confucius had a very fair hold on the modern idea which we call +"Monism," or "The One." He, too, said, "All is one." In his attitude +toward all living things he was ever gentle and considerate. + +No other prophet so much resembles Confucius in doctrine as Socrates. +But Confucius does not suffer from the comparison. He had a beauty, +dignity and grace of person which the great Athenian did not possess. +Socrates was more or less of a buffoon, and to many in Athens he was a +huge joke--a town fool. Confucius combined the learning and graces of +Plato with the sturdy, practical commonsense of Socrates. No one ever +affronted or insulted him; many did not understand him, but he met +prince or pauper on terms of equality. + +In his travels Confucius used often to meet recluses or monks--men who +had fled the world in order to become saints. For these men Confucius +had more pity than respect. "The world's work is difficult, and to live +in a world of living, striving and dying men and women requires great +courage and great love. Now we can not all run away, and for some to +flee from humanity and to find solace in solitude is only another name +for weakness." + +This sounds singularly like our Ralph Waldo who says, "It is easy in the +world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live +after our own; but the Great Man is he who in the midst of the crowd +keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." + +Confucius is the first man in point of time to proclaim the divinity of +service, the brotherhood of man, and the truth that in useful work there +is no high nor low degree. In talking to a group of young men he says: + +"When I was keeper of the herds I always saw to it that all of my cattle +were strong, healthy and growing, that there was water in abundance and +plenty of feed. When I had charge of the public granaries I never slept +until I knew that all was secure and cared for against the weather, and +my accounts as true and correct as if I were going on my long journey to +return no more. My advice is to slight nothing, forget nothing, never +leave things to chance, nor say, 'Nobody will know--this is good +enough.'" + +In all of his injunctions Confucius never has anything in mind beyond +the present life. Of a future existence he knows nothing, and he seems +to regard it as a waste of energy and a sign of weakness to live in two +worlds at a time. "Heaven provides us means of knowing all about what is +best here, and supplies us in abundance every material thing for present +happiness, and it is our business to realize, to know, to enjoy." + +He taught rhetoric, mathematics, economics, the science of government +and natural history. And always and forever running through the fabric +of his teaching was the silken thread of ethics--man's duty to man, +man's duty to Heaven. Music was to him a necessity, since "it brings the +mind in right accord with the will of Heaven." Before he began to speak +he played softly on a stringed instrument which perhaps would compare +best with our guitar, but it was much smaller, and this instrument he +always carried with him, suspended from his shoulder by a silken sash. +Yet with all of his passion for music, he cautioned his disciples +against using it as an end. It was merely valuable as an introduction to +be used in attuning the mind and heart to an understanding of great +truth. + +Confucius was seventy-two years old at his death. During his life his +popularity was not great. When he passed away his followers numbered +only about three thousand persons, and his "disciples," or the teachers +who taught his philosophy, were seventy in number. + +There is no reason to suppose that Confucius assumed that a vast number +of people would ever ponder his words or regard him as a prophet. + +At the time that Confucius lived, also lived Lao-tsze. As a youth +Confucius visited Lao-tsze, who was then an old man. Confucius often +quotes his great contemporary and calls himself a follower of Lao-tsze. +The difference, however, between the men is marked. Lao-tsze's teachings +are full of metaphysics and strange and mystical curiosities, while +Confucius is always simple, lucid and practical. + + * * * * * + +Confucius has been revered for twenty centuries, revered simply as a +man, not as a god or as a divinely appointed savior. He offered no +reward of heaven, nor did he threaten non-believers with hell. He +claimed no special influence nor relationship to the Unseen. In all his +teachings he was singularly open, frank and free from all mystery or +concealment. In reference to the supernatural he was an agnostic. He +often said, "I do not know." He was always an inquirer, always a +student, always open to conviction. History affords no instance of +another individual who has been so well and so long loved, who still +holds his place, and who, so far as his reasoning went, is unassailed +and unassailable. Even the two other great religions in China that rival +Confucianism--Buddhism and Taoism (the religion of Lao-tsze)--do not +renounce Confucius: they merely seek to amend and augment him. + +During his lifetime Confucius made many enemies by his habit of frankly +pointing out the foibles of society and the wrongs visited upon the +people by officials who pretended to serve them. Of hypocrisy, +selfishness, vanity, pretense, he was severe in his denunciation. + +Politicians at that time had the very modern habit of securing the +office and then leaving all the details of the work to menials, they +themselves pocketing the perquisites. As Minister of State, Confucius +made himself both feared and detested on account of his habit of +summoning the head of the office before him and questioning him +concerning his duties. In fact, this insistence that those paid by the +State should work for the State caused a combination to be formed +against him, which finally brought about his deposition and exile, two +things which troubled him but little, since one gave him leisure and the +other opportunity for travel. + +The personal followers of Confucius did not belong to the best society; +but immediately after his death, many who during his life had scorned +the man made haste to profess his philosophy and decorate their houses +with his maxims. Humanity is about the same, whether white or yellow, +the round world over, and time modifies it but little. It will be +recalled how John P. Altgeld was feared and hated by both press and +pulpit, especially in the State and city he served. But rigor mortis had +scarcely seized upon that slight and tired body before the newspapers +that had disparaged the man worst were vying with one another in glowing +eulogies and warm testimonials to his honesty, sincerity, purity of +motive and deep insight. A personality which can neither be bribed, +bought, coerced, flattered nor cajoled is always regarded by the +many--especially by the party in power--as "dangerous." Vice, masked as +virtue, breathes easier when the honest man is safely under the sod. + +The plain and simple style of Confucius' teaching can be gathered by the +following sayings, selected at random from the canonical books of +Confucianism, consisting of the teachings of the great master which were +gathered together and grouped by his disciples and followers after his +death: + + The men of old spoke little. It would be well to imitate them, for + those who talk much are sure to say something it would be better to + have left unsaid. + + Let a man's labor be proportioned to his needs. For he who works + beyond his strength does but add to his cares and disappointments. + A man should be moderate even in his efforts. + + Be not over-anxious to obtain relaxation or repose. For he who is + so, will get neither. + + Beware of ever doing that which you are likely, sooner or later, to + repent of having done. + + Do not neglect to rectify an evil because it may seem small, for, + though small at first, it may continue to grow until it overwhelms + you. + + As riches adorn a house, so does an expanded mind adorn and + tranquillize the body. Hence it is that the superior man will seek + to establish his motives on correct principles. + + The cultivator of the soil may have his fill of good things, but + the cultivator of the mind will enjoy a continual feast. + + It is because men are prone to be partial toward those they love, + unjust toward those they hate, servile toward those above them, + arrogant to those below them, and either harsh or over-indulgent to + those in poverty and distress, that it is so difficult to find any + one capable of exercising a sound judgment with respect to the + qualities of others. + + He who is incapable of regulating his own family can not be capable + of ruling a nation. The superior man will find within the limits of + his own home, a sufficient sphere for the exercise of all those + principles upon which good government depends. How, indeed, can it + be otherwise, when filial piety is that which should regulate the + conduct of a people toward their prince; fraternal affection, that + which should regulate the relations which should exist between + equals, and the conduct of inferiors toward those above them; and + paternal kindness, that which should regulate the bearing of those + in authority toward those over whom they are placed? + + Be slow in speech, but prompt in action. + + He whose principles are thoroughly established will not be easily + led from the right path. + + The cautious are generally to be found on the right side. + + By speaking when we ought to keep silence, we waste our words. + + If you would escape vexation, reprove yourself liberally and others + sparingly. + + There is no use attempting to help those who can not help + themselves. + + Make friends with the upright, intelligent and wise; avoid the + licentious, talkative and vain. + + Disputation often breeds hatred. + + Nourish good principles with the same care that a mother would + bestow on her newborn babe. You may not be able to bring them to + maturity, but you will nevertheless be not far from doing so. + + The decrees of Heaven are not immutable, for though a throne may be + gained by virtue, it may be lost by vice. + + There are five good principles of action to be adopted: To benefit + others without being lavish; to encourage labor without being + harsh; to add to your resources without being covetous; to be + dignified without being supercilious; and to inspire awe without + being austere. Also, we should not search for love or demand it, + but so live that it will flow to us. + + Personal character can only be established on fixed principles, for + if the mind be allowed to be agitated by violent emotions, to be + excited by fear, or unduly moved by the love of pleasure, it will + be impossible for it to be made perfect. A man must reason calmly, + for without reason he would look and not see, listen and not hear. + + When a man has been helped around one corner of a square, and can + not manage by himself to get around the other three, he is unworthy + of further assistance. + + + + +[Illustration: PYTHAGORAS] + +PYTHAGORAS + + + Consult and deliberate before you act, that thou mayest not commit + foolish actions. For 't is the part of a miserable man to speak and + to act without reflection. But do that which will not afflict thee + afterwards, nor oblige thee to repentance. + + --_Pythagoras_ + + +PYTHAGORAS + +With no desire to deprive Mr. Bok of his bread, I wish to call attention +to Pythagoras, who lived a little more than five hundred years before +Christ. + +Even at that time the world was old. Memphis, which was built four +thousand years ago, had begun to crumble into ruins. Troy was buried +deep in the dust which an American citizen of German birth was to +remove. Nineveh and Babylon were dying the death that success always +brings, and the star of empire was preparing to westward wend its way. + +Pythagoras ushered in the Golden Age of Greece. All the great writers +whom he immediately preceded, quote him and refer to him. Some admire +him; others are loftily critical; most of them are a little jealous; and +a few use him as a horrible example, calling him a poseur, a pedant, a +learned sleight-of-hand man, a bag of books. + +Trial by newspaper was not invented in the time of Pythagoras; but +personal vilification has been popular since Balaam talked gossip with +his vis-a-vis. + +Anaxagoras, who gave up his wealth to the State that he might be free, +and who was the teacher of Pericles, was a pupil of Pythagoras, and used +often to mention him. + +In this way Pericles was impressed by the Pythagorean philosophy, and +very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gave Pythagoras as an +authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow +him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted +silence optional; whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live +for a year without once asking a question or making an explanation. In +aggravated cases he made the limit five years. + +In many ways Pythagoras reminds us of our friend Muldoon, both being +beneficent autocrats, and both proving their sincerity by taking their +own medicine. Pythagoras said, "I will never ask another to do what I +have not done, and am not willing to do myself." + +To this end he was once challenged by his three hundred pupils to remain +silent for a year. He accepted the defi, not once defending himself from +the criticisms and accusations that were rained upon him, not once +complaining, nor issuing an order. Tradition has it, however, that he +made averages good later on, when the year of expiation was ended. + +There are two reasonably complete lives of Pythagoras, one by Diogenes +Laertius, and another by Iamblichus. Personally, I prefer the latter, as +Iamblichus, as might be inferred from his name, makes Pythagoras a +descendant of AEneas, who was a son of Neptune. This is surely better +than the abrupt and somewhat sensational statement to the effect that +his father was Apollo. + + * * * * * + +The birthplace of Pythagoras was Samos, an isle of Greece. He was born +of wealthy but honest parents, who were much in love with each other--a +requisite, says Pythagoras, for parentage on its highest plane. It is +probable that Pythagoras was absolutely correct in his hypothesis. + +That he was a very noble specimen of manhood--physically and +mentally--there is no doubt. He was tall, lithe, dignified, commanding +and silent by nature, realizing fully that a handsome man can never talk +as well as he looks. + +He was quite aware of his physical graces, and in following up the facts +of his early life, he makes the statement that his father was a +sea-captain and trader. He then incidentally adds that the best results +are obtained for posterity where a man is absent from his family eleven +months in the year. This is an axiom agreed upon by many modern +philosophers, few of whom, however, live up to their ideals. +Aristophanes, who was on friendly terms with some of the disciples of +Pythagoras, suggested in one of his plays that the Pythagorean domestic +time-limit should be increased at least a month for the good of all +concerned. + +Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle make frequent references to Pythagoras. In +order to impress men like these, the man must have taught a very exalted +philosophy. In truth, Pythagoras was a teacher of teachers. And like all +men who make a business of wisdom he sometimes came tardy off, and +indulged in a welter of words that wrecked the original idea--if there +were one. + +There are these three: Knowledge, Learning, Wisdom. And the world has +until very recent times assumed that they were practically one and the +same thing. + +Knowledge consists of the things we know, not the things we believe or +the things we assume. Knowledge is a personal matter of intuition, +confirmed by experience. Learning consists largely of the things we +memorize and are told by persons or books. Tomlinson of Berkeley Square +was a learned man. When we think of a learned man, we picture him as one +seated in a library surrounded by tomes that top the shelves. + +Wisdom is the distilled essence of what we have learned from experience. +It is that which helps us to live, work, love and make life worth living +for all we meet. Men may be very learned, and still be far from wise. + +Pythagoras was one of those strange beings who are born with a desire to +know, and who finally comprehending the secret of the Sphinx, that there +is really nothing to say, insist on saying it. That is, vast learning is +augmented by a structure of words, and on this is built a theogony. +Practically he was a priest. + +Worked into all priestly philosophies are nuggets of wisdom that shine +like stars in the darkness and lead men on and on. + +All great religions have these periods of sanity, otherwise they would +have no followers at all. The followers, understanding little bits of +this and that, hope finally to understand it all. Inwardly the initiates +at the shrine of their own conscience know that they know nothing. When +they teach others they are obliged to pretend that they, themselves, +fully comprehend the import of what they are saying. The novitiate +attributes his lack of perception to his own stupidity, and many great +teachers encourage this view. + +"Be patient, and you shall some day know," they say, and smile frigidly. + +And when credulity threatens to balk and go no further, magic comes to +the rescue and the domain of Hermann and Kellar is poached upon. + +Mystery and miracle were born in Egypt. It was there that a system was +evolved, backed up by the ruler, of religious fraud so colossal that +modern deception looks like the bungling efforts of an amateur. The +government, the army, the taxing power of the State, were sworn to +protect gigantic safes in which was hoarded--nothing. That is to say, +nothing but the pretense upon which cupidity and self-hypnotized +credulity battened and fattened. + +All institutions which through mummery, strange acts, dress and ritual, +affect to know and impart the inmost secrets of creation and ultimate +destiny, had their rise in Egypt. In Egypt now are only graves, tombs, +necropolises and silence. The priests there need no soldiery to keep +their secrets safe. Ammon-Ra, who once ruled the universe, being finally +exorcised by Yaveh, is now as dead as the mummies who once were men and +upheld his undisputed sway. + + * * * * * + +The Egyptians guarded their mysteries with jealous dread. + +We know their secret now. It is this--there are no mysteries. + +That is the only secret upon which any secret society holds a caveat. +Wisdom can not be corraled with gibberish and fettered in jargon. +Knowledge is one thing--palaver another. The Greek-letter societies of +our callow days still survive in bird's-eye, and next to these come the +Elks, who take theirs with seltzer and a smile, as a rare good joke, +save that brotherhood and good-fellowship are actually a saving salt +which excuses much that would otherwise be simply silly. + +All this mystery and mysticism was once official, and later, on being +discarded by the authorities, was continued by the students as a kind of +prank. + +Greek-letter societies are the rudimentary survivals of what was once an +integral part of every college. Making dead languages optional was the +last convulsive kick of the cadaver. + +And now a good many colleges are placing the seal of their disapproval +on secret societies among the students; and the day is near when the +secret society will not be tolerated, either directly or indirectly, as +a part of the education of youth. All this because the sophomoric mind +is prone to take its Greek-letter mysteries seriously, and regard the +college curriculum as a joke of the faculty. + +If knowledge were to be gained by riding a goat, any petty crossroads, +with its lodge-room over the grocery, would contain a Herbert Spencer; +and the agrarian mossbacks would have wisdom by the scruff and detain +knowledge with a tail-hold. + +There can be no secrets in life and morals, because Nature has so +provided that every beautiful thought you know and every precious +sentiment you feel, shall shine out of your face so that all who are +great enough may see, know, understand, appreciate and appropriate. You +can keep things only by giving them away. + +When Pythagoras was only four or five years old, his mother taught him +to take his morning bath in the cold stream, and dry his baby skin by +running in the wind. As he ran, she ran with him, and together they sang +a hymn to the rising sun, that for them represented the god Apollo. + +This mother taught him to be indifferent to cold, heat, hunger, to exult +in endurance, and to take a joy in the glow of the body. + +So the boy grew strong and handsome, and proud; and perhaps it was in +those early years, from the mother herself, that he gathered the idea, +afterward developed, that Apollo had appeared to his mother, and so +great was the beauty of the god that the woman was actually overcome, it +being the first god at which she had ever had a good look. + +The ambition of a great mother centers on her son. Pythagoras was filled +with the thought that he was different, peculiar, set apart to teach the +human race. + +Having compassed all there was to learn in his native place, and, as he +thought, being ill appreciated, he started for Egypt, the land of +learning. The fallacy that knowledge was a secret to be gained by word +of mouth and to be gotten from books existed then as now. The mother of +Pythagoras wanted her son to comprehend the innermost secrets of the +Egyptian mysteries. He would then know all. To this end she sold her +jewels, in order that her son might have the advantages of an Egyptian +education. + +Women were not allowed to know the divine secrets--only just a few +little ones. This woman wanted to know, and she said her son would +learn, and tell her. + +The family had become fairly rich by this time, and influential. Letters +were gotten from the great ones of Samos to the Secretary of State in +Egypt. And so Pythagoras, aged twenty, "the youth with the beautiful +hair," went on his journey to Egypt and knocked boldly at the doors of +the temples at Memphis, where knowledge was supposed to be in stock. +Religion then monopolized all schools and continued to do so for quite +some time after Pythagoras was dead. + +He was turned away with the explanation that no foreigner could enter +the sacred portals--that the initiates must be those born in the shadows +of the temples and nurtured in the faith from infancy by holy virgins. + +Pythagoras still insisted, and it was probably then that he found a +sponsor who made for him the claim that he was a son of Apollo. And the +holy men peeped out of their peep-holes in holy admiration for any one +who could concoct as big a lie as they themselves had ever invented. + +The boy surely looked the part. Perhaps, at last, here was one who was +what they pretended to be! Frauds believe in frauds, and rogues are more +easily captured by roguery than are honest men. + +His admittance to the university became a matter of international +diplomacy. At last, being too hard-pressed, the wise ones who ran the +mystery monopoly gave in, and Pythagoras was informed that at midnight +of a certain night, he should present himself, naked, at the door of a +certain temple and he would be admitted. + +On the stroke of the hour, at the appointed time, Pythagoras, the youth +with the beautiful hair, was there, clothed only in his beautiful hair. +He knocked on the great, bronze doors, but the only answer was a faint, +hollow echo. + +Then he got a stone and pounded, but still no answer. + +The wind sprang up fresh and cold. The young man was chilled to the +bone, but still he pounded and then called aloud demanding admittance. +His answer now was the growling and barking of dogs, within. Still he +pounded! After an interval a hoarse voice called out through a little +slide, ordering him to be gone or the dogs would be turned loose upon +him. + +He demanded admittance. + +"Fool, do you not know that the law says these doors shall admit no one +except at sunrise?" + +"I only know that I was told to be here at midnight and I would be +admitted." + +"All that may be true, but you were not told when you would be +admitted--wait, it is the will of the gods." So Pythagoras waited, +numbed and nearly dead. + +The dogs which he had heard had, in some way, gotten out, and came +tearing around the corner of the great stone building. He fought them +with desperate strength. The effort seemed to warm his blood, and +whereas before he was about to retreat to his lodgings he now remained. + +The day broke in the east, and gangs of slaves went by to work. They +jeered at him and pelted him with pebbles. + +Suddenly across the desert sands he saw the faint pink rim of the rising +sun. On the instant the big bronze doors against which he was leaning +swung suddenly in. He fell with them, and coarse, rough hands seized his +hair and pulled him into the hall. + +The doors swung to and closed with a clang. Pythagoras was in dense +darkness, lying on the stone floor. + +A voice, seemingly coming from afar, demanded, "Do you still wish to go +on?" + +And his answer was, "I desire to go on." + +A black-robed figure, wearing a mask, then appeared with a flickering +light, and Pythagoras was led into a stone cell. + +His head was shaved, and he was given a coarse robe and then left alone. +Toward the end of the day he was given a piece of black bread and a bowl +of water. This he was told was to fortify him for the ordeal to come. + +What that ordeal was we can only guess, save that it consisted partially +in running over hot sands where he sank to his waist. At a point where +he seemed about to perish a voice called loudly, "Do you yet desire to +go on?" + +And his answer was, "I desire to go on." + +Returning to the inmost temple he was told to enter a certain door and +wait therein. He was then blindfolded and when he opened the door to +enter, he walked off into space and fell into a pool of ice-cold water. + +While floundering there the voice again called, "Do you yet desire to go +on?" + +And his answer was, "I desire to go on." + +At another time he was tied upon the back of a donkey and the donkey was +led along a rocky precipice, where lights danced and flickered a +thousand feet below. + +"Do you yet want to go on?" called the voice. + +And Pythagoras answered, "I desire to go on." + +The priests here pushed the donkey off the precipice, which proved to be +only about two feet high, the gulf below being an illusion arranged with +the aid of lights that shone through apertures in the wall. + +These pleasing little diversions Pythagoras afterward introduced into +the college which he founded, so to teach the merry freshmen that +nothing, at the last, was as bad as it seemed, and that most dangers are +simply illusions. + +The Egyptians grew to have such regard for Pythagoras that he was given +every opportunity to know the inmost secrets of the mysteries. He said +he encompassed them all, save those alone which were incomprehensible. + +This was probably true. + +The years spent in Egypt were not wasted--he learned astronomy, +mathematics, and psychology, a thing then not named, but pretty well +understood--the management of men. + +It was twenty years before Pythagoras returned to Samos. His mother was +dead, so she passed away in ignorance of the secrets of the gods--which +perhaps was just as well. + +Samos now treated Pythagoras with great honor. + +Crowds flocked to his lectures, presents were given him, royalty paid +him profound obeisance. + +But Samos soon tired of Pythagoras. He was too austere, too severe; and +when he began to rebuke the officials for their sloth and indifference, +he was invited to go elsewhere and teach his science of life. And so he +journeyed into Southern Italy, and at Crotona built his Temple to the +Muses and founded the Pythagorean School. He was the wisest as well as +the most learned man of his time. + + * * * * * + +Some unkind person has said that Pythagoras was the original charter +member of the Jesuits Society. The maxim that the end justifies the +means was the cornerstone of Egyptian theology. When Pythagoras left +Egypt he took with him this cornerstone as a souvenir. That the priests +could hold their power over the masses only through magic and miracle +was fully believed, and as a good police system the value of organized +religion was highly appreciated. In fact, no ruler could hold his place, +unsupported by the priest. Both were divine propositions. One searches +in vain for simple truth among the sages, solons, philosophers, poets +and prophets that existed down to the time of Socrates. Truth for +truth's sake was absolutely unimagined; freethought was unguessed. + +Expediency was always placed before truth. + +Truth was furnished with frills--the people otherwise would not be +impressed. Chants, robes, ritual, processions, banging of bells, burning +of incense, strange sounds, sights and smells: these were considered +necessary factors in teaching divine truth. + +To worship with a noise seems to us a little like making love with a +brass band. + +Pythagoras was a very great man, but for him to eliminate theological +chaff entirely was impossible. So we find that when he was about to +speak, red fire filled the building as soon as he arose. It was all a +little like the alleged plan of the late Reverend T. DeWitt Talmage, +who used to have an Irishman let loose a white pigeon from the +organ-loft at an opportune time. + +When Pythagoras burned the red fire, of course the audience thought a +miracle was taking place, unable to understand a simple stage-trick +which all the boys in the gallery who delight in "Faust" now understand. + +However, the Pythagorean School had much virtue on its side, and made a +sincere and earnest effort to solve certain problems that yet are vexing +us. + +The Temple of the Muses, built by Pythagoras at Crotona, is described by +Iamblichus as a stone structure with walls twenty feet thick, the light +being admitted only from the top. It was evidently constructed after the +Egyptian pattern, and the intent was to teach there the esoteric +doctrine. But Pythagoras improved upon the Egyptian methods and opened +his temple on certain days to all and any who desired to come. Then at +times he gave lectures to women only, and then to men only, and also to +children, thus showing that modern revival methods are not wholly +modern. + +These lectures contain the very essence of Pythagorean philosophy, and +include so much practical commonsense that they are still quoted. These +are some of the sayings that impressed Socrates, Pericles, Aristotle and +Pliny. What the Egyptians actually taught we really do not know--it was +too gaseous to last. Only the good endures. Says Pythagoras: + + Cut not into the grape. Exaltation coming from wine is not good. + You hope too much in this condition, so are afterwards depressed. + Wise men are neither cast down in defeat nor exalted by success. + Eat moderately, bathe plentifully, exercise much in the open air, + walk far, and climb the hills alone. + + Above all things, learn to keep silence--hear all and speak little. + If you are defamed, answer not back. Talk convinces no one. Your + life and character proclaim you more than any argument you can put + forth. Lies return to plague those who repeat them. + + The secret of power is to keep an even temper, and remember that no + one thing that can happen is of much moment. The course of justice, + industry, courage, moderation, silence, means that you shall + receive your due of every good thing. The gods may be slow, but + they never forget. + + It is not for us to punish men nor avenge ourselves for slights, + wrongs and insults--wait, and you will see that Nemesis unhorses + the man intent on calumny. + + A woman's ornaments should be modesty, simplicity, truth, + obedience. If a woman would hold a man captive she can only do it + by obeying him. Violent women are even more displeasing to the gods + than violent men--both are destroying themselves. Strife is always + defeat. + + Debauchery, riot, splendor, luxury, are attempts to get a pleasure + out of life that is not our due, and so Nemesis provides her + penalty for the idle and gluttonous. + + Fear and honor the gods. They guide our ways and watch over us in + our sleep. After the gods, a man's first thought should be of his + father and mother. Next to these his wife, then his children. + +So great was this power of Pythagoras over the people that many of the +women who came, hearing his discourse on the folly of pride and +splendor, threw off their cloaks, and left them with their rings, +anklets and necklaces on the altar. + +With these and other offerings Pythagoras built another temple, this +time to Apollo, and the Temple to the Muses was left open all the time +for the people. + +His power over the multitude alarmed the magistrates, so they sent for +him to examine him as to his influence and intents. He explained to them +that as the Muses were never at variance among themselves, always living +in subjection to Apollo, so should magistrates agree among themselves +and think only of being loyal to the king. All royal edicts and laws are +reflections of divine law, and therefore must be obeyed without +question. And as the Muses never interrupt the harmony of Heaven, but in +fact add to it, so should men ever keep harmony among themselves. + +All officers of the government should consider themselves as runners in +the Olympian games, and never seek to trip, jostle, harass or annoy a +rival, but run the race squarely and fairly, satisfied to be beaten if +the other is the stronger and better man. An unfair victory gains only +the anger of the gods. + +All disorders in the State come from ill education of the young. +Children not brought up to be patient, to endure, to work, to be +considerate of their elders and respectful to all, grow diseased minds +that find relief at last in anarchy and rebellion. So to take great care +of children in their infancy, and then leave them at puberty to follow +their own inclinations, is to sow disorder. Children well loved and kept +close to their parents grow up into men and women who are an ornament to +the State and a joy to the gods. Lawless, complaining, restless, idle +children grieve the gods and bring trouble upon their parents and +society. + +The magistrates were here so pleased, and satisfied in their own minds +that Pythagoras meant the State no harm, that they issued an order that +all citizens should attend upon his lectures at least once a week, and +take their wives and children with them. + +They also offered to pay Pythagoras--that is, put him on the payroll as +a public teacher--but he declined to accept money for his services. In +this, Iamblichus says, he was very wise, since by declining a fixed fee, +ten times as much was laid upon the altar of the Temple of the Muses, +and not knowing to whom to return it, Pythagoras was obliged to keep it +for himself and the poor. + + * * * * * + +Churchmen of the Middle Ages worked the memory of Pythagoras great +injustice by quoting him literally in order to prove how much they were +beyond him. Symbols and epigrams require a sympathetic hearer, otherwise +they are as naught. + +For instance, Pythagoras remarks, "Sit thou not down upon a bushel +measure." What he probably meant was, get busy and fill the measure with +grain rather than use it for a seat. + +"Eat not the heart"--do not act so as to harrow the feelings of your +friends, and do not be morbid. + +"Never stir the fire with a sword"--do not inflame people who are +wrathful. + +"Wear not the image of God upon your jewelry"--do not make religion a +proud or boastful thing. + +"Help men to a burden, but never unburden them." This saying was used by +Saint Francis to prove that the pagan philosophers had no tenderness, +and that the humanities came at a later date. We can now easily +understand that to relieve men of responsibilities is no help; rather do +we grow strong by carrying burdens. + +"Leave not the mark of the pot upon the ashes"--wipe out the past, +forget it, look to the future. + +"Feed no animal that has crooked claws"--do not encourage rogues by +supplying them a living. + +"Eat no fish whose fins are black"--have nothing to do with men whose +deeds are dark. + +"Always have salt upon your table"--this seems the original of "cum +grano salis" of the Romans. + +"Leave the vinegar at a distance"--keep sweet. + +"Speak not in the face of the sun"--even Erasmus thought this referred +to magic. To us it is quite reasonable to suppose that it meant, "do not +talk too much in public places." + +"Pick not up what falls from the table"--Plutarch calls this +superstition, but we can just as easily suppose it was out of +consideration for cats, dogs or hungry men. The Bible has a command +against gleaning too closely, and leaving nothing for the traveler. + +"When making sacrifice, never pare your nails"--that is to say, do one +thing at a time: wind not the clock at an inopportune time. + +"Eat not in the chariot"--when you travel, travel. + +"Feed not yourself with your left hand"--get your living openly and +avoid all left-handed dealings. + +And so there are hundreds of these Pythagorean sayings that have vexed +our classic friends for over two thousand years. All Greek scholars who +really pride themselves on their scholarship have taken a hand at them, +and agitated the ether just as the members of the Kokomo Woman's Club +discuss obscure passages in Bliss Carman or Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Learned +people are apt to comprehend anything but the obvious. + + * * * * * + +The School of Pythagoras grew until it became the chief attraction of +Crotona. The size of the town was doubled through the pilgrims who came +to study music, mathematics, medicine, ethics and the science of +government. + +The Pythagorean plan of treating the sick by music was long considered +as mere incantation, but there is a suspicion now that it was actual +science. Once there was a man who rode a hobby all his life; and long +after he was dead, folks discovered it was a real live horse and had +carried the man long miles. + +Pythagoras reduced the musical scale to a mathematical science. In +astronomy he anticipated Copernicus, and indeed, it was cited as the +chief offense of Copernicus that he had borrowed from a pagan. +Copernicus, it seems, set the merry churchmen digging into Greek +literature to find out just how bad Pythagoras was. This did the +churchmen good, but did not help the cause of Copernicus. + +Pythagoras for a time sought to popularize his work, but he soon found +to his dismay that he was attracting cheap and unworthy people, who came +not so much out of a love of learning as to satisfy a morbid curiosity +and gain a short cut to wisdom. They wanted secrets, and knowing that +Pythagoras had spent twenty years in Egypt, they came to him, hoping to +get them. + +Said Pythagoras, "He who digs, always finds." At another time, he put +the same idea reversely, thus, "He who digs not, never finds." + +Pythagoras was well past forty when he married a daughter of one of the +chief citizens of Crotona. It seems that, inspired by his wife, who was +first one of his pupils and then a disciple, he conceived a new mode of +life, which he thought would soon overthrow the old manner of living. + +Pythagoras himself wrote nothing, but all his pupils kept tablets, and +Athens in the century following Pythagoras was full of these Pythagorean +notebooks, and these supply us the scattered data from which his life +was written. + +Pythagoras, like so many other great men, had his dream of Utopia: it +was a college or, literally, "a collection of people," where all were on +an equality. Everybody worked, everybody studied, everybody helped +everybody, and all refrained from disturbing or distressing any one. It +was the Oneida Community taken over by Brook Farm and fused into a +religious and scientific New Harmony by the Shakers. + +One smiles to see the minute rules that were made for the guidance of +the members. They look like a transcript from a sermon by John Alexander +Dowie, revised by the shade of Robert Owen. + +This Pythagorean Community was organized out of a necessity in order to +escape the blow-ins who sailed across from Greece intent on some new +thing, but principally to get knowledge and a living without work. + +And so Pythagoras and his wife formed a close corporation. For each +member there was an initiation, strict and severe, the intent of which +was absolutely to bar the transient triflers. Each member was to turn +over to the Common Treasury all the money and goods he had of every kind +and quality. They started naked, just as did Pythagoras when he stood at +the door of the temple in Egypt. + +Simplicity, truth, honesty and mutual service were to govern. It was an +outcrop of the monastic impulse, save that women were admitted, also. +Unlike the Egyptians, Pythagoras believed now in the equality of the +sexes, and his wife daily led the women's chorus, and she also gave +lectures. The children were especially cared for by women set apart as +nurses and teachers. By rearing perfect children, it was hoped and +expected to produce in turn a perfect race. + +The whole idea was a phase of totemism and tabu. + +That it flourished for about thirty years is very certain. Two sons and +a daughter of Pythagoras grew to maturity in the college, and this +daughter was tried by the Order on the criminal charge of selling the +secret doctrines of her father to outsiders. + +One of the sons it seems made trouble, also, in an attempt to usurp his +father's place and take charge of affairs, as "next friend." One +generation is about the limit of a Utopian Community. When those who +have organized the community weaken and one by one pass away, and the +young assume authority, the old ideas of austerity are forgotten and +dissipation and disintegration enter. So do we move in circles. + +The final blow to the Pythagorean College came through jealousy and +misunderstanding of the citizens outside. It was the old question of +Town versus Gown. The Pythagoreans numbered nearly three hundred people. +They held themselves aloof, and no doubt had an exasperating pride. No +strangers were ever allowed inside the walls--they were a law unto +themselves. + +Internal strife and tales told by dissenters excited the curiosity, and +then the prejudice, of the townspeople. + +Then the report got abroad that the Pythagoreans were collecting arms +and were about to overthrow the local government and enslave the +officials. + +On a certain night, led by a band of drunken soldiers, a mob made an +assault upon the college. The buildings were fired, and the members were +either destroyed in the flames or killed as they rushed forth to escape. +Tradition has it that Pythagoras was later seen by a shepherd on the +mountains, but the probabilities are that he perished with his people. +But you can not dispose of a great man by killing him. Here we are +reading, writing and talking yet of Pythagoras. + + + + +[Illustration: PLATO] + +PLATO + + + How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to the + question, "How does love suit with age, Sophocles--are you still + the man you were?" + + "Peace," he replied; "most gladly have I escaped that, and I feel + as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master." + + That saying of his has often come into my mind since, and seems to + me still as good as at the time when I heard him. For certainly old + age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax + their hold, then, as Sophocles says, you have escaped from the + control not of one master only, but of many. And of these regrets, + as well as of the complaint about relations, Socrates, the cause is + to be sought, not in men's ages, but in their characters and + tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel + the pressure of age, but he who is of an opposite disposition will + find youth and age equally a burden. + + --_The Republic_ + + +PLATO + +A thinking man is one of the most recent productions evolved from +Nature's laboratory. The first man of brains to express himself about +the world in an honest, simple and natural way, just as if nothing had +been said about it before, was Socrates. + +Twenty-four centuries have passed since Socrates was put to death on the +charge of speaking disrespectfully of the gods and polluting the minds +of the youths of Athens. During ten of these centuries that have passed +since then, the race lost the capacity to think, through the successful +combination of the priest and the soldier. These men blocked human +evolution. The penalty for making slaves is that you become one. + +To suppress humanity is to suppress yourself. + +The race is one. So the priests and the soldiers who in the Third +Century had a modicum of worth themselves, sank and were submerged in +the general slough of superstition and ignorance. It was a panic that +continued for a thousand years, all through the endeavor of faulty men +to make people good by force. At all times, up to within our own decade, +frank expression on religious, economic and social topics has been +fraught with great peril. Even yet any man who hopes for popularity as +a writer, orator, merchant or politician, would do well to conceal +studiously his inmost beliefs. On such simple themes as the taxation of +real estate, regardless of the business of the owner, and a payment +of a like wage for a like service without consideration of sex, the +statesman who has the temerity to speak out will be quickly relegated +to private life. Successful merchants depending on a local constituency +find it expedient to cater to popular superstitions by heading +subscription-lists for the support of things in which they do not +believe. No avowed independent thinker would be tolerated as chief ruler +of any of the so-called civilized countries. + +The fact, however, that the penalty for frank expression is limited now +to social and commercial ostracism is very hopeful--a few years ago it +meant the scaffold. + +We have been heirs to a leaden legacy of fear that has well-nigh +banished joy and made of life a long nightmare. + +In very truth, the race has been insane. + +Hallucinations, fallacies, fears, have gnawed at our hearts, and men +have fought men with deadly frenzy. The people who interfered, trying to +save us, we have killed. Truly did we say, "There is no health in us," +which repetition did not tend to mend the malady. + +We are now getting convalescent. We are hobbling out into the sunshine +on crutches. We have discharged most of our old advisers, heaved the +dulling and deadly bottles out of the windows, and are intent on +studying and understanding our own case. Our motto is twenty-four +centuries old--it is simply this: KNOW THYSELF. + + * * * * * + +Socrates was a street preacher, with a beautiful indifference as to +whether people liked him or not. To most Athenians he was the town fool. +Athens was a little city (only about one hundred fifty thousand), and +everybody knew Socrates. The popular plays caricatured him; the topical +songs misquoted him; the funny artists on the street-corners who modeled +things in clay, while you waited, made figures of him. + +Everybody knew Socrates--I guess so! + +Plato, the handsome youth of nineteen, wearing a purple robe, which +marked him as one of the nobility, paused to listen to this uncouth man +who gave everything and wanted nothing. + +Ye gods! But it is no wonder they caricatured him--he was a temptation +too great to resist. + +Plato smiled--he never laughed, being too well-bred for that. Then he +sighed, and moved a little nearer in. + +"Individuals are nothing. The State is all. To offend the State is to +die. The State is an organization and we are members of it. The State is +only as rich as its poorest citizen. We are all given a little sample of +divinity to study, model and marvel at. To understand the State you must +KNOW THYSELF." + +Plato lingered until the little crowd had dispersed, and when the old +man with the goggle-eyes and full-moon face went shuffling slowly down +the street, he approached and asked him a question. + +This man Socrates was no fool--the populace was wrong--he was a man so +natural and free from cant that he appeared to the triflers and +pretenders like a pretender, and they asked, "Is he sincere?" + +What Plato was by birth, breeding and inheritance, Socrates was by +nature--a noble man. + +Up to this time the ambition of Plato had been for place and power--to +make the right impression on the people in order to gain political +preferment. He had been educated in the school of the Sophists, and his +principal studies were poetry, rhetoric and deportment. + +And now straightway he destroyed the manuscript of his poems, for in +their writing he had suddenly discovered that he had not written what he +inwardly believed was true, but simply that which he thought was proper +and nice to say. In other words, his literature had been a form of +pretense. + +Daily thereafter, where went Socrates there went Plato. Side by side +they sat on the curb--Socrates talking, questioning the bystanders, +accosting the passers-by; Plato talking little, but listening much. + +Socrates was short, stout and miles around. Plato was tall, athletic and +broad-shouldered. In fact, the word, "plato," or "platon," means broad, +and it was given him as a nickname by his comrades. His correct name was +Aristocles, but "Plato" suited him better, since it symbols that he was +not only broad of shoulder, but likewise in mind. He was not only noble +by birth, but noble in appearance. + +Emerson calls him the universal man. He absorbed all the science, all +the art, all the philosophy of his day. He was handsome, kindly, +graceful, gracious, generous, and lived and died a bachelor. He never +collided with either poverty or matrimony. + + * * * * * + +Plato was twenty-eight years old when Socrates died. For eight years +they had been together daily. After the death of Socrates, Plato lived +for forty-six years, just to keep alive the name and fame of the great +philosopher. + +Socrates comes to us through Plato. Various other contemporaries mention +Socrates and quote him, some to his disadvantage, but it was left for +Plato to give us the heart of his philosophy, and limn his character for +all time in unforgetable outline. + +Plato is called the "Pride of Greece." His contribution to the wealth of +the world consists in the fact that he taught the joys of the +intellect--the supreme satisfaction that comes through thinking. This is +the pure Platonic philosophy: to find our gratifications in exalted +thought and not in bodily indulgence. Plato's theory that five years +should be given in early manhood to abstract thought, abstaining from +all practical affairs, so as to acquire a love for learning, has been +grafted upon a theological stalk and comes down to our present time. It +has, however, now been discarded by the world's best thinkers as a +fallacy. The unit of man's life is the day, not the month or year, much +less a period of five years. Each day we must exercise the mind, just as +each day we must exercise the body. We can not store up health and draw +upon it at will over long-deferred periods. The account must be kept +active. To keep physical energy we must expend physical energy every +day. The opinion of Herbert Spencer that thought is a physical +function--a vibration set up in a certain area of brain-cells--is an +idea never preached by Plato. The brain, being an organ, must be used, +not merely in one part for five years to the exclusion of all other +parts, but all parts should be used daily. To this end the practical +things of life should daily engage our attention, no less than the +contemplation of beauty as manifest in music, poetry, art or dialectics. +The thought that every day we should look upon a beautiful picture, read +a beautiful poem, or listen for a little while to beautiful music, is +highly scientific, for this contemplation and appreciation of harmony is +a physical exercise as well as a spiritual one, and through it we grow, +develop, evolve. + +That we could not devote five years of our time to purely esthetic +exercises, to the exclusion of practical things, without very great +risk, is now well known. And when I refer to practical affairs, I mean +the effort which Nature demands we should put forth to get a living. +Every man should live like a poor man, regardless of the fact that he +may have money. Nature knows nothing of bank-balances. In order to have +an appetite for dinner, you must first earn your dinner. If you would +sleep at night, you must first pay for sweet sleep by physical labor. + + * * * * * + +Plato was born on the Island of AEgina, where his father owned an estate. +His mother was a direct descendant of Solon, and his father, not to be +outdone, traced to Codrus. + +The father of Socrates was a stonecutter and his mother a midwife, so +very naturally the son had a beautiful contempt for pedigree. Socrates +once said to Plato, "Anybody can trace to Codrus--by paying enough to +the man who makes the family-tree." This seems to show that genealogy +was a matter of business then as now, and that nothing is new under the +sun. Yet with all his contempt for heredity, we find Socrates often +expressing pride in the fact that he was a "native son," whereas Plato, +Aspasia, the mother of Themistocles, and various other fairly good +people, were Athenian importations. + +Socrates belonged to the leisure class and had plenty of time for +extended conversazione, so just how much seriousness we should mix in +his dialogues is still a problem. Each palate has to season to suit. +Also, we can never know how much is Socrates and how much essence of +Plato. Socrates wrote nothing, and Plato ascribes all of his wisdom to +his master. Whether this was simple prudence or magnanimity is still a +question. + +The death of Socrates must have been a severe blow to Plato. He at once +left Athens. It was his first intention never to return. He traveled +through the cities of Greece, Southern Italy and down to Egypt, and +everywhere was treated with royal courtesies. + +After many solicitations from Dionysius, Tyrant of Syracuse, he went to +visit that worthy, who had a case of philosophic and literary scabies. +Dionysius prided himself on being a Beneficent Autocrat, with a literary +and artistic attachment. He ruled his people, educated them, cared for +them, disciplined them. + +Some people call this slavery; others term it applied socialism. +Dionysius wanted Syracuse to be the philosophic center of the world, and +to this end Plato was importuned to make Syracuse his home and dispense +his specialty--truth. + +This he consented to do. + +It was all very much like the arrangement between Maecenas and Horace, or +Voltaire and Frederick the Great. The patron is a man who patronizes--he +wants something, and the particular thing that Dionysius wanted was to +have Plato hold a colored light upon the performances of His Altruistic, +Beneficent, Royal Jackanapes. But Plato was a simple, honest and direct +man: he had caught the habit from Socrates. + +Charles Ferguson says that the simple life does not consist in living in +the woods and wearing overalls and sandals, but in getting the cant out +of one's cosmos and eliminating the hypocrisy from one's soul. + +Plato lived the simple life. When he spoke he stated what he thought. He +discussed exploitation, war, taxation, and the Divine Right of Kings. +Kings are very unfortunate--they are shut off and shielded from truth +on every side. They get their facts at second hand and are lied to all +day long. Consequently they become in time incapable of digesting truth. +A court, being an artificial fabric, requires constant bracing. Next to +capital, nothing is so timid as a king. Heine says that kings have to +draw their nightcaps on over their crowns when they go to bed, in order +to keep them from being stolen, and that they are subject to insomnia. + +Walt Whitman, with nothing to lose--not even a reputation or a hat--was +much more kingly walking bareheaded past the White House than Nicholas +of Russia or Alfonso of Spain can ever possibly be. + +Dionysius thought that he wanted a philosophic court, but all he wanted +was to make folks think he had a philosophic court. Plato supplied him +the genuine article, and very naturally Plato was soon invited to +vacate. + +After he had gone, Dionysius, fearful that Plato would give him a bad +reputation in Athens--somewhat after the manner and habit of the +"escaped nun"--sent a fast-rowing galley after him. Plato was arrested +and sold into slavery on his own isle of AEgina. + +This all sounds very tragic, but the real fact is it was a sort of +comedy of errors--as a king's doings are when viewed from a safe and +convenient distance. De Wolf Hopper's kings are the real thing. +Dionysius claimed that Plato owed him money, and so he got out a +body-attachment, and sold the philosopher to the highest bidder. + +This was a perfectly legal proceeding, being simply peonage, a thing +which exists in some parts of the United States today. I state the fact +without prejudice, merely to show how hard custom dies. + +Plato was too big a man conveniently either to secrete or kill. Certain +people in Athens plagiarized Doctor Johnson who, on hearing that +Goldsmith had debts of several thousand pounds, in admiration exclaimed, +"Was ever poet so trusted before!" Other good friends ascertained the +amount of the claim and paid it, just as Colonel H. H. Rogers graciously +cleared up the liabilities of Mark Twain, after the author of +"Huckleberry Finn" had landed his business craft on a sandbar. + +And so Plato went free, arriving back in Athens, aged forty, a wiser and +a better man than when he left. + + * * * * * + +Nothing absolves a reputation like silence and absence, or what the +village editors call "the grim reaper." To live is always more or less +of an offense, especially if you have thoughts and express them. Athens +exists, in degree, because she killed Socrates, just as Jerusalem is +unforgetable for a similar reason. The South did not realize that +Lincoln was her best friend until the assassin's bullet had found his +brain. Many good men in Chicago did not cease to revile their chiefest +citizen, until the ears of Altgeld were stopped and his hands stiffened +by death. The lips of the dead are eloquent. + +Plato's ten years of absence had given him prestige. He was honored +because he had been the near and dear friend of Socrates, a great and +good man who was killed through mistake. + +Most murders and killings of men, judicial and otherwise, are matters of +misunderstandings. + +Plato had been driven out of Syracuse for the very reasons that Socrates +had been killed at Athens. And now behold, when Dionysius saw how Athens +was honoring Plato, he discovered that it was all a mistake of his +bookkeeper, so he wrote to Plato to come back and all would be +forgiven. + + * * * * * + +Those who set out to live the Ideal Life have a hard trail to travel. +The road to Jericho is a rocky one--especially if we are a little in +doubt as to whether it really is the road to Jericho or not. Perhaps if +we ever find the man who lives the Ideal Life he will be quite unaware +of it, so occupied will he be in his work--so forgetful of self. + +Time had taught Plato diplomacy. He now saw that to teach people who did +not want to be taught was an error in judgment for which one might +forfeit his head. + +Socrates was the first Democrat: he stood for the demos--the people. +Plato would have done the same, but he saw that the business was extra +hazardous, to use the phrase of our insurance friends. He who works for +the people will be destroyed by the people. Hemlock is such a rare and +precious commodity that few can afford it; the cross is a privilege so +costly that few care to pay the price. + +The genius is a man who first states truths; and all truths are +unpleasant on their first presentation. That which is uncommon is +offensive. "Who ever heard anything like that before?" ask the literary +and philosophic hill tribes in fierce indignation. Says James Russell +Lowell, "I blab unpleasant truths, you see, that none may need to state +them after me." + +Plato was a teacher by nature: this was his business, his pastime, and +the only thing in life that gave him joy. But he dropped back to the +good old ways of making truth esoteric as did the priests of Egypt, +instead of exoteric as did Socrates. He founded his college in the grove +of his old friend Academus, a mile out of Athens on the road to Eleusis. +In honor of Academus the school was called "The Academy." It was +secluded, safe, beautiful for situation. In time Plato bought a tract of +land adjoining that of Academus, and this was set apart as the permanent +school. All the teaching was done out of doors, master and pupils seated +on the marble benches, by the fountain-side, or strolling through the +grounds, rich with shrubs and flowers and enlivened by the song of +birds. The climate of Athens was about like that of Southern California, +where the sun shines three hundred days in the year. + +Plato emphasized the value of the spoken word over the written, a thing +he could well afford to do, since he was a remarkably good writer. This +for the same reason that the only man who can afford to go ragged is the +man with a goodly bank-balance. The shibboleth of the modern schools of +oratory is, "We grow through expression." And Plato was the man who +first said it. Plato's teaching was all in the form of the "quiz," +because he believed that truth was not a thing to be acquired from +another--it is self-discovery. + +Indeed, we can imagine it was very delightful--this walking, strolling, +lying on the grass, or seated in semicircles, indulging in endless talk, +easy banter, with now and then a formal essay read to start the +vibrations. + +Here it was that Aristotle came from his wild home in the mountains of +Macedonia, to remain for twenty years and to evolve into a rival of the +master. + +We can well imagine how Aristotle, the mountain-climber and horseman, at +times grew heartily tired of the faultily faultless garden with its high +wall and graveled walks and delicate shrubbery, and shouted aloud in +protest, "The whole world of mountain, valley and plain should be our +Academy, not this pent-up Utica that contracts our powers." + +Then followed an argument as to the relative value of talking about +things or doing them, or Poetry versus Science. + +Poetry, philosophy and religion are very old themes, and they were old +even in Plato's day; but natural science came in with Aristotle. And +science is only the classification of the common knowledge of the common +people. It was Aristotle who named things, not Adam. He contended that +the classification and naming of plants, rocks and animals was quite as +important as to classify ideas about human happiness and make guesses at +the state of the soul after death. + +Of course he got himself beautifully misunderstood, because he was +advocating something which had never been advocated before. In this lay +his virtue, that he outran human sympathy, even the sympathy of the +great Plato. + +Yet for a while the unfolding genius of this young barbarian was a +great joy to Plato, as the earnest, eager intellect of an ambitious +pupil always is to his teacher. Plato was great in speculation; +Aristotle was great in observation. Well has it been said that it was +Aristotle who discovered the world. And Aristotle in his old age said, +"My attempts to classify the objects of Nature all came through Plato's +teaching me first how to classify ideas." And forty years before this +Plato had said, "It was Socrates who taught me this game of the +correlation and classification of thoughts." + + * * * * * + +The writings of Plato consist of thirty-five dialogues, and one essay +which is not cast in the dramatic form--"The Apology." These dialogues +vary in length from twenty pages, of, say, four hundred words each, to +three hundred pages. In addition to these books are many quotations from +Plato and references to him by contemporary writers. Plato's work is as +impersonal as that of Shakespeare. All human ideas, shades of belief, +emotions and desires pass through the colander of his mind. He allows +everybody to have his say. + +What Plato himself thought can only be inferred, and this each reader +does for himself. We construct our man Plato in our own image. A +critic's highest conception of Plato's philosophy is the highest +conception of the critic's own. We, however, are reasonably safe in +assuming that Plato's own ideas were put into the mouth of Socrates, for +the one intent of Plato's life was to redeem Socrates from the charges +that had been made against him. The characters Shakespeare loved are the +ones that represent the master, not the hated and handmade rogues. + +Plato's position in life was that of a spectator rather than that of an +actor. He stood and saw the procession pass by, and as it passed, +commented on it. He charged his pupils no tuition and accepted no fees, +claiming that to sell one's influence or ideas was immoral. + +It will be remembered that Byron held a similar position at the +beginning of his literary career, and declared i' faith, he "would not +prostitute his genius for hire." He gave his poems to the world. Later, +when his income was pinched, he began to make bargains with Barabbas and +became an artist in per centum, collecting close, refusing to rhyme +without collateral. + +Byron's humanity is not seriously disputed. Plato also was human. He had +a fixed income and so knew the worthlessness of riches. He issued no +tariff, but the goodly honorarium left mysteriously on a marble bench by +a rich pupil he accepted, and for it gave thanks to the gods. He said +many great things, but he never said this: "I would have every man poor +that he might know the value of money." + +"The Republic" is the best known and best read of any of Plato's +dialogues. It outlines an ideal form of government where everybody would +be healthy, happy and prosperous. It has served as inspiration to Sir +Thomas More, Erasmus, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Morris, Edward +Bellamy, Brigham Young, John Humphrey Noyes and Eugene Debs. The +sub-division of labor, by setting apart certain persons to do certain +things--for instance, to care for the children--has made its appeal to +Upton Sinclair, who jumped from his Utopian woodshed into a rubber-plant +and bounced off into oblivion. + +Plato's plan was intended to relieve marriage from the danger of +becoming a form of slavery. The rulers, teachers and artists especially +were to be free, and the State was to assume all responsibilities. The +reason is plain: he wanted them to reproduce themselves. But whether +genius is an acquirement or a natural endowment he touches on but +lightly. Also, he seemingly did not realize "that no hovel is safe from +it." + +If all marriage-laws were done away with, Plato thought that the men and +women who were mated would still be true to each other, and that the +less the police interfered in love-relations, the better. + +In one respect at least, Plato was certainly right: he advocated the +equality of the sexes, and declared that no woman should be owned by a +man nor forced into a mode of life, either by economic exigency or +marriage, that was repulsive to her. Also, that her right to bear +children or not should be strictly her own affair, and to dictate to a +mother as to who should father her children tended to the production of +a slavish race. + +The eugenics of "The Republic" were tried for thirty years by the Oneida +Community with really good results, but one generation of communal +marriages was proved to be the limit, a thing Plato now knows from his +heights in Elysium, but which he in his bachelor dreams on earth did not +realize. + +In his division of labor each was to do the thing he was best fitted to +do, and which he liked to do. It was assumed that each person had a +gift, and that to use this gift all that was necessary was to give him +an opportunity. That very modern cry of "equality of opportunity" harks +back to Plato. + +The monastic impulse was a very old thing, even in the time of Plato. +The monastic impulse is simply cutting for sanctuary when the pressure +of society gets intense--a getting rid of the world by running away from +it. This usually occurs when the novitiate has exhausted his capacity +for sin, and so tries saintship in the hope of getting a new thrill. + +Plato had been much impressed by the experiments of Pythagoras, who had +actually done the thing of which Plato only talked. Plato now picked the +weak points in the Pythagorean philosophy and sought, in imagination, to +construct a fabric that would stand the test of time. + +However, all Utopias, like all monasteries and penitentiaries, are made +up of picked people. The Oneida Community was not composed of average +individuals, but of people who were selected with great care, and only +admitted after severe tests. And great as was Plato, he could not +outline an ideal plan of life except for an ideal people. + +To remain in the world of work and share the burdens of all--to ask for +nothing which other people can not have on like terms--not to consider +yourself peculiar, unique and therefore immune and exempt--is now the +ideal of the best minds. We have small faith in monasticism or +monotheism, but we do have great faith in monism. We believe in the +Solidarity of the Race. We must all progress together. Whether +Pythagoras, John Humphrey Noyes and Brigham Young were ahead of the +world or behind it is really not to the point--the many would not +tolerate them. So their idealism was diluted with danger until it became +as somber, sober and slaty-gray as the average existence, and fades as +well as shrinks in the wash. + +A private good is no more possible for a community than it is for an +individual. We help ourselves only as we advance the race--we are happy +only as we minister to the whole. The race is one, and this is monism. + +And here Socrates and Plato seemingly separate, for Socrates in his life +wanted nothing, not even joy, and Plato's desire was for peace and +happiness. Yet the ideal of justice in Plato's philosophy is very +exalted. + +No writer in that flowering time of beauty and reason which we call "The +Age of Pericles" exerted so profound an influence as Plato. All the +philosophers that follow him were largely inspired by him. Those who +berated him most were, very naturally, the ones he had most benefited. +Teach a boy to write, and the probabilities are that his first essay, +when he has cut loose from his teacher's apron-strings and starts a +brownie bibliomag, will be in denunciation of the man who taught him to +push the pen and wield the Faber. + +Xenophon was more indebted, intellectually, to Plato than to any other +living man, yet he speaks scathingly of his master. Plutarch, Cicero, +Iamblichus, Pliny, Horace and all the other Roman writers read Plato +religiously. The Christian Fathers kept his work alive, and passed it on +to Dante, Petrarch and the early writers of the Renaissance, so all of +their thought is well flavored with essence of Plato. Well does Addison +put into the mouth of Cato those well-known words: + + It must be so--Plato, thou reasonest well!-- + Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, + This longing after immortality? + Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, + Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul + Back on herself, and startles at destruction? + 'T is the divinity that stirs within us; + 'T is heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, + And intimates eternity to man. + +All of that English group of writers in Addison's day knew their Plato, +exactly as did Cato and the other great Romans of near two thousand +years before. From Plato you can prove that there is a life after this +for each individual soul, as Francis of Assisi proved, or you can take +your Plato, as did Hume, and show that man lives only in his influence, +his individual life returning to the mass and becoming a part of all the +great pulsing existence that ebbs and flows through plant and tree and +flower and flying bird. And today we turn to Plato and find the +corroboration of our thought that to live now and here, up to our +highest and best, is the acme of wisdom. We prepare to live by living. +If there is another world we better be getting ready for it. If heaven +is an Ideal Republic it is founded on unselfishness, truth, reciprocity, +equanimity and co-operation, and only those will be at home there who +have practised these virtues here. Man was made for mutual service. This +way lies Elysium. + +Plato was a teacher of teachers, and like every other great teacher who +has ever lived, his soul goes marching on, for to teach is to influence, +and influence never dies. Hail, Plato! + + + + +[Illustration: KING ALFRED] + +KING ALFRED + + + A saint without superstition, a scholar without ostentation, a + warrior who fought only in defense of his country, a conqueror + whose laurels were never stained with cruelty, a prince never cast + down by adversity, nor lifted up to insolence in the hour of + triumph--there is no other name in English history to compare with + his. + + --_Freeman_ + + +KING ALFRED + +Julius Caesar, the greatest man of initiative the world has ever seen, +had a nephew known as Caesar Augustus. + +The grandeur that was Rome occurred in the reign of Augustus. It was +Augustus who said, "I found your city mud and I left it marble!" The +impetus given to the times by Julius Caesar was conserved by Augustus. He +continued the work his uncle had planned, but before he had completed +it, he grew very weary, and the weariness he expressed was also the old +age of the nation. There was lime in the bones of the boss. + +When Caesar Augustus said, "Rome is great enough--here we rest," he +merely meant that he had reached his limit, and had had enough of +road-building. At the boundaries of the Empire and the end of each Roman +road he set up a statue of the god Terminus. This god gave his blessing +to those going beyond, and a welcome to those returning, just as the +Stars and Stripes welcome the traveler coming to America from across the +sea. This god Terminus also supplied the world, especially the railroad +world, a word. + +Julius Caesar reached his terminus and died, aged fifty-six, from +compulsory vaccination. Augustus, aged seventy-seven, died peacefully +in bed. + +The reign of Augustus marks the crest of the power of Rome, and a crest +is a place where no man nor nation stays--when you reach it, you go over +and down on the other side. + +When Augustus set up his Termini, announcing to all mankind that this +was the limit, the enemies of Rome took courage and became active. The +Goths and Vandals, hanging on the skirts of Rome, had learned many +things, and one of the things was that, for getting rich quick, conquest +is better than production. The barbarians, some of whom evidently had a +sense of humor, had a way of picking up the Termini and carrying them +inward, and finally they smashed them entirely, somewhat as country +boys, out hunting, shoot railroad-signs full of holes. + + * * * * * + +In the Middle Ages the soldier was supreme, and in the name of +protecting the people he robbed the people, a tradition much respected, +but not in the breach. + +To escape the scourge of war, certain families and tribes moved +northward. It was fight and turmoil in Southern Europe that settled +Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and produced the Norsemen. And in making for +themselves a home in the wilderness, battling with the climate and +unkind conditions, there was evolved a very strong and sturdy type of +man. + +On the north shore of the Baltic dwelt the Norsemen. Along the southern +shore were scattered several small tribes or families who were not +strong enough in numbers to fight the Goths, and so sought peace with +them, and were taxed--or pillaged--often to the point of starvation. +They were so poor and insignificant that the Romans really never heard +of them, and they never heard of the Romans, save in myth and legend. +They lived in caves and rude stone huts. They fished, hunted, raised +goats and farmed, and finally, about the year Three Hundred, they +secured horses, which they bought from the Goths, who stole them from +the Romans. + +Their Government was the Folkmoot, the germ of the New England Town +Meeting. All the laws were passed by all the people, and in the making +of these laws, the women had an equal voice with the men. + +When important steps were to be taken where the interests of the whole +tribe were at stake, great deference was paid to the opinions of the +mothers. For the mother spoke not only for herself, but for her +children. The mother was the home-maker. The word "wife" means weaver; +and this deference to the one member of the family who invented, +created, preparing both the food and the clothing, is a marked Teutonic +instinct. Its survival is seen yet in the sturdy German of the middle +class, who takes his wife and children with him when he goes to the +concert or to the beer-garden. So has he always taken his family with +him on his migrations; whereas the Greeks and the Romans left their +women behind. + +South America was colonized by Spanish men. And the Indians and the +Negroes absorbed the haughty grandee, yet preserved the faults and +failings of both. + +The German who moves to America comes to stay--his family is a part of +himself. The Italian comes alone, and his intent is to make what he can +and return. This is a modified form of conquest. + +The Romans who came to Brittany in Caesar's time were men. Those who +remained "took to themselves wives among the daughters of Philistia," as +strong men ever are wont to do when they seek to govern savage tribes. +And note this--instead of raising the savages or barbarians to their +level, they sink to theirs. The child takes the status of the mother. +The white man who marries an Indian woman becomes an Indian and their +children are Indians. With the Negro race the same law holds. + +The Teutonic races have conquered the world because they took their +women with them on their migrations, mental and physical. And the moral +seems to be this, that the men who progress financially, morally and +spiritually are those who do not leave their women-folk behind. + + * * * * * + +When we think of the English, we usually have in mind the British Isles. +But the original England was situated along the southern shore of the +Baltic Sea. This was the true Eng-Land, the land of the Engles or +Angles. To one side lay Jute-Land, the home of the Jutes. On the other +was Saxony, where dwelt the Saxons. + +Jute-Land still lives in Jutland; the land of the Saxons is yet so +indicated on the map; but Eng-Land was transported bodily a thousand +miles, and her original territory became an abandoned farm where +barbarians battled. + +And now behold how England has diffused herself all over the world, with +the British Isles as a base of supplies, or a radiating center. Behind +this twenty miles of water that separates Calais and Dover she found +safety and security, and there her brain and brawn evolved and expanded. +So there are now Anglo-Americans, Anglo-Africans, Anglo-Indians, +Anglo-Australians, and Anglo-New-Zealanders. As the native Indians of +America and the Maoris of New Zealand have given way before the onward +push and persistence of the English, so likewise did the ancient Britons +give way and were absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons; and then the Saxons, +being a little too fine for the stern competitor, allowed the Engles to +take charge. And as Dutch, Germans, Slavs and Swedes are transformed +with the second generation into English-Americans when they come to +America, so did the people from Eng-Land fuse Saxons, Norsemen, Jutes, +Celts and Britons into one people and fix upon them the indelible stamp +of Eng-Land. + +Yet it is obvious that the characters of the people of England have been +strengthened, modified and refined by contact with the various races she +has met, mixed with and absorbed. To influence others is to grow. Had +England been satisfied to people and hold the British Isles, she would +ere this have been outrun and absorbed by Spain or France. To stand +still is to retreat. It is the same with men as it is with races. +England's Colonies have been her strength. They have given her poise, +reserve, ballast--and enough trouble to prevent either revolution, +stagnation or introspection. + +Nations have their periods of youth, manhood and old age. Whether +England is now passing into decline, living her life in her children, +the Colonies, might be indelicate to ask. Perhaps as Briton, Celt, Jute +and Saxon were fused to make that hardy, courageous, restless and sinewy +man known as the Englishman, so are the English, the Dutch, the Swede, +the German, the Slav, transplanted into America, being fused into a +composite man who shall surpass any type that the world has ever seen. +In the British Isles, just as in the great cities, mankind gets +pot-bound. In the newer lands, the roots strike deep into the soil, and +find the sustenance the human plant requires. + +Walls keep folks in as well as shut other folks out. The British Isles, +rock-faced and sea-girted, shut out the enemies of England without +shutting the English in. A country surrounded by the sea produces +sailors, and England's position bred a type of man that made her +mistress of the seas. As her drum-taps, greeting the rising sun, girdle +the world, so do her lighthouses flash protection to the mariner +wherever the hungry sea lies in wait along rocky coasts, the round world +over. England has sounded the shallows, marked the rocks and reefs, and +mapped the coasts. + +The first settlement of Saxons in Britain occurred in the year Four +Hundred Forty-nine. They did not come as invaders, as did the Romans +five hundred years before; their numbers were too few, and their arms +too crude to mean menace to the swarthy, black-haired Britons. These +fair stranger-folk were welcomed as curiosities and were allowed to +settle and make themselves homes. Word was sent back to Saxony and +Jute-Land and more settlers came. In a few years came a shipload of +Engles, with their women and children, red-haired, freckled, tawny. They +tilled the soil with a faith and an intelligence such as the Britons +never brought to bear: very much as the German settlers follow the +pioneers and grow rich where the Mudsock fails. Naturally the +fair-haired girls found favor in the sight of the swarthy Britons. +Marriages occurred, and a new type of man-child appeared as the months +went by. More Engles came. A century passed, and the coast, from Kent +to the Firth of Forth, was dotted with the farms and homes of the people +from the Baltic. There were now occasional protests from the original +holders, and fights followed, when the Britons retreated before the +strangers, or else were very glad to make terms. Victory is a matter of +staying-power. The Engles had come to stay. + +But a new enemy had appeared--the Norsemen or Danes. These were +sea-nomads who acknowledged no man as master. Rough, bold, laughing at +disaster, with no patience to build or dig or plow, they landed but to +ravish, steal and lay waste, and then boarded their craft, sailing away, +joying in the ruin they had wrought. + +The next year they came back. The industry and the thrift of the Engles +made Britain a land of promise, a storehouse where the good things of +life could be secured much more easily than by creating or producing +them. And so now, before this common foe, the Britons, Jutes, Celts, +Saxons and Engles united to punish and expel the invaders. + +The calamity was a blessing--as most calamities are. From being a dozen +little kingdoms, Britain now became one. A "Cyng," or captain, was +chosen--an Engle, strong of arm, clear of brain, blue of eye, with long +yellow hair. He was a man who commanded respect by his person and by his +deeds. His name was Egbert. + +King Alfred, or Elfred, was born at Wantage, Berkshire, in the year +Eight Hundred Forty-nine. He was the grandson of Egbert, a great man, +and the son of Ethelwulf, a man of mediocre qualities. Alfred was shrewd +enough to inherit the courage and persistence of his grandfather. Our D. +A. R. friends are right and Mark Twain is wrong--it is really more +necessary to have a grandfather than a father. + +English civilization begins with Alfred. If you will refer to the +dictionary you will find that the word "civilization" simply means to be +civil. That is, if you are civilized you are gentle instead of +violent--gaining your ends by kindly and persuasive means, instead of +through coercion, intimidation and force. + +Alfred was the first English gentleman, and let no joker add "and the +last." Yet it is needless and quite irrelevant to say that civilized +people are not always civil; nor are gentlemen always gentle--so little +do words count. Many gentlemen are only gents. + +Alfred was civil and gentle. He had been sent to Rome in his boyhood, +and this transplantation had done him a world of good. Superior men are +always transplanted men: people who do not travel have no perspective. +To stay at home means getting pot-bound. You neither search down in the +soil for color and perfume nor reach out strong toward the sunshine. + +It was only a few years before the time of Alfred that a Christian monk +appeared at Edin-Borough, and told the astonished Engles and Saxons of +the gentle Jesus, who had been sent to earth by the All-Father to tell +men they should love their enemies and be gentle and civil and not +violent, and should do unto others as they would be done by. The natural +religion of the Great Spirit which the ancient Teutonic people held had +much in it that was good, but now they were prepared for something +better--they had the hope of a heaven of rest and happiness after death. + +Christianity flourishes best among a downtrodden, poor, subdued and +persecuted people. Renan says it is a religion of sorrow. And primitive +Christianity--the religion of conduct--is a beautiful and pure doctrine +that no sane person ever flouted or scoffed. + +The parents of Alfred, filled with holy zeal, allowed one of the +missionary monks to take the boy to Rome. The idea was that he should +become a bishop in the Church. + +Ethelred, the elder brother of Alfred, had succeeded Ethelwulf, his +father, as King. The Danes had overrun and ravished the country. For +many years these marauding usurpers had fed their armies on the products +of the land. And now they had more than two-thirds of the country under +their control, and the fear that they would absolutely subjugate the +Anglo-Saxons was imminent. Ethelwulf gave up the struggle in despair and +died. Ethelred fell in battle. And as the Greeks of old in their terror +cast around for the strongest man they could find to repel the Persian +invaders, and picked on the boy Alexander, so did the Anglo-Saxons turn +to Alfred, the gentle and silent. He was only twenty-three years old. In +build he was slight and slender, but he had given token of his courage +for four years, fighting with his brother. He had qualities that were +closely akin to those of both Alexander and Caesar. He had a cool, clear +and vivid intellect and he had invincible courage. But he surpassed both +of the men just named in that he had a tender, sympathetic heart. + +The Danes were overconfident, and had allowed their discipline to relax. +Alfred had at first evidently encouraged them in their idea that they +had won, for he struck feebly and then withdrew his army to the marshes, +where the Danish horsemen could not follow. + +The Danes went into winter quarters, fat and feasting. Alfred made a +definite plan for a campaign, drilled his men, prayed with them, and +filled their hearts with the one idea that they were going forth to +certain victory. And to victory they went. They fell upon the Danes with +an impetuosity as unexpected as it was invincible, and before they could +get into their armor, or secure their horses, they were in a rout. Every +timid Engle and Saxon now took heart--it was the Lord's victory--they +were fighting for home--the Danes gave way. This was not all +accomplished quite as easily as I am writing it, but difficulties, +deprivations and disaster only brought out new resources in Alfred. He +was as serenely hopeful as was Washington at Valley Forge, and his +soldiers were just as ragged. He, too, like Thomas Paine, cried, "These +are the times that try men's souls--be grateful for this crisis, for it +will give us opportunity to show that we are men." He had aroused his +people to a pitch where the Danes would have had to kill them all, or +else give way. As they could not kill them they gave way. Napoleon at +twenty-six was master of France and had Italy under his heel, and so was +Alfred at the same age supreme in Southern Britain--including Wessex and +Mercia. He rounded up the enemy, took away their weapons, and then held +a revival-meeting, asking everybody to come forward to the +mourners'-bench. There is no proof that he coerced them into +Christianity. They were glad to accept it. Alfred seemed to have the +persuasive power of the Reverend Doctor Torrey. Guthrum, the Danish +King, who had come over to take a personal hand in the looting, was +captured, baptized, and then Alfred stood sponsor for him and gave him +the name of Ethelstan. He was made a bishop. + +This acceptance of Christianity by the leaders of the Danes broke their +fierce spirit, and peace followed. Alfred told the soldiers to use their +horses to plow the fields. The two armies that had fought each other now +worked together at road-making and draining the marshes. Some of the +Danes fled in their ships, but very many remained and became citizens of +the country. The Danish names are still recognizable. Names beginning +with the aspirate, say Herbert, Hulett, Hubbard, Hubbs, Harold, Hancock, +are Danish, and are the cause of that beautiful muddling of the "H" that +still perplexes the British tongue, the rule governing which is to put +it on where it is not needed and leave it off where it is. The Danes +called the Engles, "Hengles," and the Engles called a man by the name of +Henry, "Enry." + +In saving Wessex, Alfred saved England for the English people; for it +was from Wessex, as a center, that his successors began the task of +reconquering England from the Danes. + + * * * * * + +With the rule of Alfred begins the England that we know. As we call +Herodotus the father of history, so could we, with equal propriety, call +Asser, who wrote in the time of Alfred, the father of English history. +The oldest English book is the "Life of Alfred" by Asser the monk. + +That Asser was a dependent on his subject and very much in love with +him, doubtless gave a very strong bias to the book. That it is right in +the main, although occasionally wrong as to details, is proved by +various corroborating records. + +The king's word in Alfred's time was law, and Alfred proved his modesty +by publicly proclaiming that a king was not divine, but only a man, and +therefore a king's edicts should be endorsed by the people in Folkmoot. +Here we get the genesis of popular government, and about the only +instance that I can recall where a very strong man acting as chief ruler +renounced a part of his power to the people, of his own accord. Kings +usually have to be trimmed, and it is revolution that does the shearing. +It is the rule that men do not relinquish power of their own +accord--they have to be disannexed from it. + +Alfred, however, knew the popular heart--he was very close to the common +people. He had slept on the ground with his soldiers, fared at table +with the swineherd's family, tilled the soil with the farmer folk. His +heart went out to humanity. He did not overrate the average mind, nor +did he underrate it. He had faith in mankind, and knew that at the last +power was with the people. He did not say, "Vox populi, vox Dei," but he +thought it. Therefore he set himself to educating the plain people. He +prophesied a day when all grown men would be able to read and write, and +when all would have an intelligent, personal interest in the government. + +There have been periods in English history when Britain lagged woefully +behind, for England has had kings who forgot the rights of mankind, and +instead of seeking to serve their people, have battened and fattened +upon them. They governed. George the Third thought that Alfred was a +barbarian, and spoke of him with patronizing pity. + +Alfred introduced the system of trial by jury, although the fact has +been pointed out that he did not originate it. It goes back to the hardy +Norseman who acknowledged no man as master, harking back to a time when +there was no law, and to a people whose collective desire was supreme. +In fact, it has its origin in "Lynch Law," or the rule of the +Vigilantes. From a village turning loose on an offender and pulling him +limb from limb, a degree of deliberation comes in and a committee of +twelve are selected to investigate the deed and report their verdict. + +The jury system began with pirates and robbers, but it is no less +excellent on that account, and we might add that freedom also began with +pirates and robbers, for they were the people who cried, "We +acknowledge no man as master." + +The early Greeks had trials by jury--Socrates was tried by a jury of +five hundred citizens. + +But let the fact stand that Alfred was the man who first introduced the +jury system into England. He had absolute power. He was the sole judge +and ruler, but on various occasions he abdicated the throne and said: "I +do not feel able to try this man, for as I look into my heart I see that +I am prejudiced. Neither will I name men to try him, for in their +selection I might also be prejudiced. Therefore let one hundred men be +called, and from these let twelve be selected by lot, and they shall +listen to the charges and weigh the defense, and their verdict shall be +mine." + +We sometimes say that English Common Law is built on the Roman Law, but +I can not find that Alfred ever studied the Roman Law, or ever heard of +the Justinian Code, or thought it worth while to establish a system of +jurisprudence. His government was of the simplest sort. He respected the +habits, ways and customs of the common people, and these were the Common +Law. If the people had a footpath that was used by their children and +their parents and their grandparents, then this path belonged to the +people, and Alfred said that even the King could not take it from them. + +This deference to the innocent ways, habits and natural rights of the +people mark Alfred as supremely great, because a great man is one great +in his sympathies. Alfred had the imagination to put himself in the +place of the lowly and obscure. + +The English love of law, system and order dates from Alfred. The +patience, kindliness, good-cheer and desire for fair play were his, +plus. He had poise, equanimity, unfaltering faith and a courage that +never grew faint. He was as religious as Cromwell, as firm as +Washington, as stubborn as Gladstone. In him were combined the virtues +of the scholar and patriot, the efficiency of the man of affairs with +the wisdom of the philosopher. His character, both public and private, +is stainless, and his whole life was one of enlightened and magnanimous +service to his country. + + * * * * * + +In the age of Augustus there was one study that was regarded as more +important than all others, and this was rhetoric, or the art of the +rhetor. The rhetor was a man whose business it was to persuade or +convince. + +The public forum has its use in the very natural town-meeting, or the +powwow of savages. But in Rome it had developed and been refined to a +point where the public had no voice, although the boasted forum still +existed. The forum was monopolized by the professional orators hired by +this political clique or that. + +It was about like the political "forum" in America today. + +The greatest man in Rome was the man who could put up the greatest talk. +So all Roman mammas and matrons had their boys study rhetoric. The +father of Seneca had a school of oratory where rich Roman youths were +taught to mouth in orotund and gesticulate in curves. He must have been +a pretty good teacher, for he had two extraordinary sons, one of whom is +mentioned in the Bible, and a most exemplary daughter. + +Oratory as an end we now regard as an unworthy art. The first requisite +is to feel deeply--to have a message--and then if you are a person of +fair intelligence and in good health, you'll impress your hearers. But +to hire out to impress people with another's theme is to be a +pettifogger, and the genus pettifogger has nearly had his day. + +History moves in circles. The Chicago Common Council, weary of rhetoric, +has recently declined to listen to paid attorneys; but any citizen who +speaks for himself and his neighbors can come before the Council and +state his case. + +Chief Justice Fuller has given it as his opinion that there will come a +day in America when damage-cases will be taken care of by an automatic +tribunal, without the help of lawyers. And as a man fills out a request +for a money-order at the Post-Office, so will he file his claim for +damages, and it will have attention. The contingent fee will yet be a +misdemeanor. Also, it will be possible for plain citizens to be able to +go before a Court of Equity and be heard without regard to law and +precedent and attorney's quillets and quibbles, which so often hamper +justice. Justice should be cheap and easy, instead of costly and +complex. + +Evidently the Chief Justice had in mind the usages in the time of King +Alfred, when the barrister was an employee of the court, and his +business was to get the facts and then explain them to the King in the +fewest possible words. + +Alfred considered a paid advocate, or even a counselor, as without the +pale, and such men were never allowed at court. If the barrister +accepted a fee from a man suing for justice, he was disbarred. + +Finally, however, the practise of feeing in order to renew the zeal of a +barrister grew so that it had to be tolerated, because things we can't +suppress we license, and a pocket was placed on each barrister's back +between his shoulders where he could not reach it without taking off his +gown, and into this pocket clients were allowed slyly to slip such +gratuities as they could afford. + +But the general practise of the client paying the barrister, instead of +the court, was not adopted for several hundred years later, and then it +was regarded as an expeditious move to keep down litigation and punish +the client for being fool enough not to settle his own troubles. + +In England the rudimentary pocket still survives, like the buttons on +the back of a coat, which were once used to support the sword-belt. + +In America we have done away with wigs and gowns for attorneys, but +attorneys are still regarded as attaches of the court, even though +one-half of them, according to Judge DeCourcy of Boston, are engaged +most of the time in attempts to bamboozle and befog the judge and jury +and defeat the ends of justice. Likewise, we still use the word "Court," +signifying the place where lives royalty, even for the dingy office of a +country J. P., where sawdust spittoons are the bric-a-brac and +patent-office reports loom large, and justice is dispensed with. We now +also commonly call the man "the Court." + + * * * * * + +Alfred was filled with a desire to educate, and to this end organized a +school at the Ox Ford, where his friend Asser taught. This school was +the germ of the University of Oxford. Attached to this school was a +farm, where the boys were taught how to sow and plant and reap to the +best advantage. Here they also bred and raised horses and cattle, and +the care of livestock was a part of the curriculum. It was the first +College of Agriculture. + +It comes to us as somewhat of a surprise to see how we are now going +back to simplicity, and the agricultural college is being given the due +and thoughtful consideration which it deserves. Twenty years ago our +agricultural college was considered more or less of a joke, but now that +which adds greatly to the wealth of the nation, and the happiness and +well-being of the people, is looked upon as worthy of our support and +highest respect. + +Up to the time of Alfred, England had no navy. For the government to own +ships seemed quite preposterous, since the people had come to England to +stay, and were not marauders intent on exploitation and conquest, like +the Norsemen. + +But after Alfred had vanquished the Danes and they had settled down as +citizens, he took their ships, refitted them, built more and said: "No +more marauders shall land on these shores. If we are threatened we will +meet the enemy on the sea." + +In a few years along came a fleet of marauding Norse. The English ships +on the lookout gave the alarm, and England's navy put out to meet them. +The enemy were taken by surprise, and the fate that five hundred years +later was to overtake the Spanish Armada, was theirs. + +From that time to this, England has had a navy that has gradually grown +in power. + +Let no one imagine that peace and rest came to Alfred. His life was a +battle, for not only did he have to fight the Danes, but he had to +struggle with ignorance, stupidity and superstition at home. To lead men +out of captivity is a thankless task. They always ask when you take away +their superstition, "What are you going to give us in return?" They do +not realize that superstition is a disease, and that to give another +disease in return is not nice, necessary or polite. + + +Alfred died, at the age of fifty-two, worn out with his ceaseless labors +of teaching, building, planning, inventing and devising methods and +means for the betterment and benefit of his people. + +After his death, the Danes were successful, and Canute became King of +England. But he was proud to be called an Englishman, and declared he +was no longer a Dane. + +And so England captured him. + +Then came the Norman William, claiming the throne by right of +succession, and successfully battling for it; but the English people +reckoned the Conqueror as of their own blood--their kith and kin--and so +he was. He issued an edict forbidding any one to call him or his +followers "Norman," "Norse" or "Norsemen," and declared there was a +United England. And so he lived and died an Englishman; and after him no +ruler, these nine hundred years, has ever sat on the throne of the +Engles by right of conquest. + +Both Canute and William recognized and prized the worth of Alfred's +rule. The virtues of Alfred are the virtues that have made it possible +for the Teutonic tribes to girdle the globe. It was Alfred who taught +the nobility of industry, service, education, patience, loyalty, +persistence, and the faith and hope that abide. By pen, tongue, and best +of all by his life, Alfred taught the truths which we yet hold dear. And +by this sign shall ye conquer! + + + + +[Illustration: ERASMUS] + +ERASMUS + + + We see not a few mortals who, striving to emulate this divine + virtue with more zeal than success, fall into a feeble and + disjointed loquacity, obscuring the subject and burdening the + wretched ears of their hearers with a vacant mass of words and + sentences crowded together beyond all possibility of enjoyment. And + writers who have tried to lay down the principles of this art have + gained no other result than to display their own poverty while + expounding abundance. + + --_Erasmus on "Preaching"_ + + +ERASMUS + +Erasmus was born in Fourteen Hundred Sixty-six, and died in Fifteen +Hundred Thirty-six. No thinker of his time influenced the world more. He +stood at a pivotal point, and some say he himself was the intellectual +pivot of the Renaissance. + +The critics of the times were unanimous in denouncing him--which fact +recommends him to us. + +Several Churchmen, high in power, live in letters for no other reason +than because they coupled their names with that of Erasmus by reviling +him. Let the critics take courage--they may outwit oblivion yet, even +though they do nothing but carp. Only let them be wise, and carp, croak, +cough, cat-call and sneeze at some one who is hitching his wagon to a +star. This way immortality lies. Erasmus was a monk who flocked by +himself, and found diversion in ridiculing monkery. Also, he was the +wisest man of his day. Wisdom is the distilled essence of intuition, +corroborated by experience. Learning is something else. Usually, the +learned man is he who has delved deep and soared high. But few there be +who dive, that fish the murex up. Among those who soar, the ones who +come back and tell us of what they have seen, are few. Like Lazarus, +they say nothing. + +Erasmus had a sense of humor. Humor is a life-preserver and saves you +from drowning when you jump off into a sea of sermons. A theologian who +can not laugh is apt to explode--he is very dangerous. Erasmus, Luther, +Beecher, Theodore Parker, Roger Williams, Joseph Parker--all could +laugh. Calvin, Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards never gurgled in glee, +nor chortled softly at their own witticisms--or those of others. + +Erasmus smiled. He has been called the Voltaire of his day. What +Rousseau was to Voltaire, Luther was to Erasmus. Well did Diderot say +that Erasmus laid the egg which Luther hatched. Erasmus wrote for the +educated, the refined, the learned--Luther made his appeal to the plain +and common mind. + +Luther split the power of the Pope. Erasmus thought it a calamity to do +so, because he believed that strife of sects tended to make men lose +sight of the one essential in religion--harmony--and cause them simply +to struggle for victory. Erasmus wanted to trim the wings of the papal +office and file its claws--Luther would have destroyed it. Erasmus +considered the Church a very useful and needful organization--for social +reasons. It tended to regulate life and conduct and made men +"decentable." It should be a school of ethics, and take a leading part +in every human betterment. Man being a gregarious animal, the +congregation is in the line of natural desire. The excuse for gathering +together is religion--let them gather. The Catholic Church is not two +thousand years old--it is ten thousand years old and goes back to Egypt. +The birth of Jesus formed merely a psychosis in the Church's existence. + +Here he parted company with Luther, who was a dogmatist and wanted to +debate his ninety-five theses. Erasmus laughed at all religious +disputations and called them mazes that led to cloudland. Very +naturally, people said he was not sincere, since the mediocre mind never +knows that only the paradox is true. Hence Erasmus was hated by +Catholics and denounced by Protestants. + +The marvel is that the men with fetters and fagots did not follow him +with a purpose. Fifty years later he would have been snuffed out. But at +that time Rome was so astonished to think that any one should criticize +her that she lost breath. Besides, it was an age of laughter, of revolt, +of contests of wit, of love-bouts and love-scrapes, and the monks who +lapsed were too many to discipline. Everybody was busy with his own +affairs. Happy time! + +Erasmus was part and parcel of the Italian Renaissance. Over his head +blazes, in letters that burn, the unforgetable date, Fourteen Hundred +Ninety-two. He was a part of the great unrest, and he helped cause the +great unrest. Every great awakening, every renaissance, is an age of +doubt. An age of conservatism is an age of moss, of lichen, of rest, +rust and ruin. We grow only as we question. As long as we are sure that +the present order is perfect, we button our collars behind, a thing +which Columbus, Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Leonardo and +Gutenberg, who all lived at this one time, never did. The year of +Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, like the year Seventeen Hundred +Seventy-six, was essentially "infidelic," just as the present age is +constructively iconoclastic. We are tearing down our barns to build +greater. The railroadman who said, "I throw an engine on the scrap-heap +every morning before breakfast," expressed a great truth. We are +discarding bad things for good ones, and good things for better ones. + + * * * * * + +Rotterdam has the honor of being the birthplace of Erasmus. A storm of +calumny was directed at him during his life concerning the irregularity +of his birth. "He had no business to be born at all," said a proud +prelate, as he gathered his robes close around his prebendal form. But +souls knock at the gates of life for admittance, and the fact that a man +exists is proof of his right to live. The word "illegitimate" is not in +the vocabulary of God. If you do not know that, you have not read His +instructive and amusing works. + +The critics variously declared the mother of Erasmus was a royal lady, a +physician's only daughter, a kitchen-wench, a Mother Superior--all +according to the prejudices preconceived. In one sense she was surely a +Mother Superior--let the lies neutralize one another. + +The fact is, we do not know who the mother of Erasmus was. All we know +is that she was the mother of Erasmus. Here history halts. Her son once +told Sir Thomas More that she was married to a luckless nobody a few +months after the birth of her first baby, and amid the cares of raising +a goodly brood of nobodies on a scant allowance of love and rye-bread, +she was glad to forget her early indiscretions. Not so the father. The +debated question of whether a man really has any parental love is +answered here. + +The father of Erasmus was Gerhard von Praet, and the child was called +Gerhard Gerhards--or the son of Gerhard. The father was a man of +property and held office under the State. At the time of the birth of +the illustrious baby, Gerhard von Praet was not married, and it is +reasonable to suppose that the reason he did not wed the mother of his +child was because she belonged to a different social station. In any +event the baby was given the father's name, and every care and attention +was paid the tiny voyager. This father was as foolish as most fond +mothers, for he dreamed out a great career for the motherless one, and +made sundry prophecies. + +At six years of age the child was studying Latin, when he should have +been digging in a sand-pile. At eight he spoke Dutch and French, and +argued with his nurse in Greek as to the value of buttermilk. + +In the meantime the father had married and settled down in honorable +obscurity as a respectable squire. Another account has it that he became +a priest. Anyway, the little maverick was now making head alone in a +private school. + +When the lad was thirteen the father died, leaving a will in which he +provided well for the child. The amount of property which by this will +would have belonged to our hero when he became of age would have +approximated forty thousand dollars. + +Happily, the trustees of the fund were law-wolves. They managed to break +the will, and then they showed the court that the child was a waif, and +absolutely devoid of legal rights of any and every kind. He was then +committed to an orphan asylum to be given "a right religious education." +It's a queer old world, Terese, and what would have become of Gerhard +Gerhards had he fallen heir to his father's titles and estate, no man +can say. He might have accumulated girth and become an honored +burgomaster. As it was he became powder-monkey to a monk, and scrubbed +stone floors and rushed the growler for cowled and pious prelates. + +Then he did copying for the Abbe, and proved himself a boy from Missouri +Valley. + +He was small, blue-eyed, fair-haired, slender, slight, with a long nose +and sharp features. "With this nose," said Albrecht Durer, many years +later, "he successfully hunted down everything but heresy." + +At eighteen he became a monk and proudly had his flaxen poll tonsured. +His superior was fond of him, and prophesied that he would become a +bishop or something. + +Children do not suffer much, nor long. God is good to them. They slide +into an environment and accept it. This child learned to dodge the big +bare feet of the monks--got his lessons, played a little, worked his wit +against their stupidity, and actually won their admiration--or as much +of it as men who are alternately ascetics and libertines can give. + +It was about this time that the lad was taunted with having no name. +"Then I'll make one for myself," was his proud answer. + +Having entered now upon his novitiate, he was allowed to take a new +name, and being dead to the world, the old one was forgotten. + +They called him Brother Desiderius, or the Desired One. He then amended +this Latin name with its Greek equivalent, Erasmus, which means +literally the Well-Beloved. As to his pedigree, or lack of it, he was +needlessly proud. It set him apart as different. He had half-brothers +and half-sisters, and these he looked upon as strangers. When they came +to see him, he said, "There is no relationship between souls save that +of the spirit." + +His sense of wit came in when he writes to a friend: "Two parents are +the rule; no parents the exception; a mother but no father is not +uncommon; but I had a father and never had a mother. I was nursed by a +man, and educated by monks, all of which shows that women are more or +less of a superfluity in creation. God Himself is a man. He had one son, +but no daughters. The cherubim are boys. All of the angels are +masculine, and so far as Holy Writ informs us, there are no women in +heaven." + +That it was a woman, however, to whom Erasmus wrote this, lets him out +on the severity of the argument. He was a joker. And while women did not +absorb much of his time, we find that on his travels he often turned +aside to visit with intellectual women--no other kind interested him, at +all. + + * * * * * + +To belong to a religious order is to be owned by it. You trade freedom +for protection. The soul of Erasmus revolted at life in a monastery. He +hated the typical monks--their food, their ways of life, their +sophistry, their stupidity. To turn glutton and welcome folly as a +relief from religion, he said, was the most natural thing in the world, +when men had once started in to lead an unnatural life. Good food, +daintily served, only goes with a co-ed mental regimen. Men eat with +their hands, out of a pot, unless women are present to enforce the +decencies. Women alone are a little more to be pitied than men alone, if +'t were possible. + +Through emulation does the race grow. Sex puts men and women on their +good behavior. + +Man's desire for power has caused him to enslave himself. Writes +Erasmus, "In a monastery, no one is on his good behavior, except when +there are visitors, but I am told that this is so in families." + +The greasy, coarse cooking brought on a nice case of dyspepsia for poor +Erasmus--a complaint from which he was never free as long as he lived. +His system was too fine for any monastic general trough, but he found a +compensation in having his say at odd times and sundry. At one time we +hear of his printing on a card this legend, "If I owned hell and a +monastery, I would sell the monastery and reside in hell." Thereby did +Erasmus supply General Tecumseh Sherman the germ of a famous orphic. +Sherman was a professor in a college at Baton Rouge before the War, and +evidently had moused in the Latin classics to a purpose. + +Connected with the monastery where Erasmus lived was a printing-outfit. +Our versatile young monk learned the case, worked the ink-balls, +manipulated the lever, and evidently dispelled, in degree, the monotony +of the place by his ready pen and eloquent tongue. When he wrote, he +wrote for his ear. All was tested by reading the matter aloud. At that +time great authors were not so wise or so clever as printers, and it +fell to the lot of Erasmus to improve upon the text of much of the copy +that was presented. + +Erasmus learned to write by writing; and among modern prose-writers he +is the very first who had a distinct literary style. His language is +easy, fluid, suggestive. His paragraphs throw a shadow, and are pregnant +with meaning beyond what the lexicon supplies. This is genius--to be +bigger than your words. + +If Erasmus had been possessed of a bit more patience and a jigger of +diplomacy, he would have been in line for a bishopric. That thing which +he praised so lavishly, Folly, was his cause of failure and also his +friend. + +At twenty-six he was the best teacher and the most clever scholar in the +place. Also, he was regarded as a thorn in the side of the monkery, +since he refused to take it seriously. He protested that no man ever +became a monk of his own accord--he was either thrust into a religious +order by unkind kinsmen or kicked into it by Fate. + +And then comes the Bishop of Cambray, with an attack of literary +scabies, looking for a young religieux who could correct his manuscript. +The Bishop was going to Paris after important historical facts, and must +have a competent secretary. Only a proficient Latin and Greek scholar +would do. The head of the monastery recommended Erasmus, very much as +Artemus Ward volunteered all of his wife's relatives for purposes of +war. + +Andrew Carnegie once, when about to start for Europe, said to his +ironmaster, Bill Jones, "I am never so happy or care-free, Bill, as when +on board ship, headed for Europe, and the shores of Sandy Hook fade from +sight." + +And Bill solemnly replied, "Mr. Carnegie, I can truthfully say for +myself and fellow-workers, that we are never so happy and care-free as +when you are on board ship, headed for Europe." + +Very properly Mr. Carnegie at once raised Bill's salary five thousand a +year. + +The Carthusian Brothers parted with Erasmus in pretended tears, but the +fact was they were more relieved than bereaved. + +And then began the travels of Erasmus. + +The Bishop was of middle age, with a dash of the cavalier in his blood, +which made him prefer a saddle to the cushions of a carriage. And so +they started away on horseback, the Bishop ahead, followed at a +discreet distance by Erasmus, his secretary; and ten paces behind with +well-loaded panniers, rode a servant as rearguard. + +To be free and face the world and on a horse! Erasmus lifted up his +heart in a prayer of gratitude. He said that it was the first feeling of +thankfulness he had ever experienced, and it was the first thing which +had ever come to him worth gratitude. + +And so they started for Paris. + +Erasmus looked back and saw the monastery, where he had spent ten +arduous years, fade from view. + +It was the happiest moment he had ever known. The world lay beyond. + + * * * * * + +The Bishop of Cambray introduced Erasmus to a mode of life for which he +was eminently fitted. It consisted in traveling, receiving honors, +hospitality and all good things in a material way, and giving his +gracious society in return. Doors flew open on the approach of the good +Bishop. Everywhere he went a greeting was assured. He was a +Churchman--that was enough. Erasmus shared in the welcomes, for he was +handsome in face and figure, had a ready tongue, and could hold his own +with the best. + +Europe was then dotted with monasteries, nunneries and other church +institutions. Their remains are seen there yet--one is really never out +of sight of a steeple. But the exclusive power of the Church is gone, +and in many places there are only ruins where once were cloisters, +corridors, chapels, halls and gardens teeming with life and industry. + +The "missions" of California were founded on the general plan of the +monasteries of Europe. They afforded a lodging for the night--a +resting-place for travelers--and were a radiatory center of +education--at least all of the education that then existed. + +In California these "missions" were forty miles apart--one day's +journey. In France, Italy and Germany they were, say, ten miles apart. +Between them, trudged or rode on horseback or in carriages, a +picturesque array of pilgrims, young and old, male and female. To go +anywhere and be at home everywhere, this was the happy lot of a church +dignitary. + +The parts in church institutions were interchangeable; and by a system +of migration, life was made agreeable, and reasonable honesty was +assured. I have noticed that certain Continental banking institutions, +with branches in various cities, keep their cashiers rotating. The idea +was gotten from Rome. Rome was very wise--her policies were the +crystallizations of the world-wisdom of centuries. The church-militant +battle-cry, "The world for Christ," simply means man's lust for +ownership, with Christ as an excuse. If ever there was a man-made +institution, it is the Church. To control mankind has been her desire, +and the miracle is that, with a promise of heaven, a threat of hell, and +a firm grip on temporal power--social and military--she was ever induced +partially to loosen her grip. To such men as Savonarola, Luther and +Erasmus, do we owe our freedom. These men cared more for truth than for +power, and their influence was to disintegrate the ankylosis of custom +and make men think. And a thought is mental dynamite. No wonder the +Church has always feared and hated a thinker! + +The Bishop of Cambray was not a thinker. Fenelon, who was later to +occupy his office, was to make the bishopric of Cambray immortal. +Conformists die, but heretics live on forever. They are men who have +redeemed the cross and rendered the gallows glorious. + + * * * * * + +And so the Bishop of Cambray and his little light-haired secretary fared +forth to fame and fortune--the Bishop to be remembered because he had a +secretary, and the secretary to be remembered because he grew into a +great teacher. + +At each stopping-place the Bishop said mass--the workers, students and +novitiates quitting their tasks to hear the words of encouragement from +the lips of the great man. Occasionally Erasmus was pushed forward to +say a few words, by the Bishop, who had to look after his own personal +devotions. The assembled friends liked the young man--he was so bright +and witty and free from cant. They even laughed out loud, and so, often +two smiles were made to grow where there were no smiles before. + +Leisurely they rode--stopping at times for several days at places where +the food and drink were at their best, and the society sulphide. At +nunneries and monasteries were always guest-chambers for the great, and +they were usually occupied. + +Thus it was that every church-house was a sort of university, depending +of course on the soul-size of the Superior or Abbe. These constant +journeyings and pilgrimages served in lieu of the daily paper, the +Western Union Telegraph, and the telephone. Things have slipped back, I +fear me, for now Mercury merely calls up his party on the long-distance, +instead of making a personal visit--the Angel Gabriel as well. We save +time, but we miss the personal contact. + +The monastic impulse was founded on a human need. Like most good things, +it has been sadly perverted; but the idea of a sanctuary for stricken +souls--a place of refuge, where simplicity, service and useful endeavor +rule--will never die from out the human heart. The hospice stands for +hospitality, but we have now only a hotel and a hospital. + +The latter stands for iodoform, carbolic acid and formaldehyde; the +former often means gold, glitter, gluttony and concrete selfishness, +with gout on one end, paresis at the other and Bright's Disease between. + +The hospice was a part of the monastery. It was a home for the homeless. +There met men of learning--men of wit--men of brains and brawn. You +entered and were at home. There was no charge--you merely left something +for the poor. + +Any man who has the courage, and sufficient faith in humanity to install +the hospice system in America will reap a rich reward. If he has the +same faith in his guests that Judge Lindsey has in his bad boys, he will +succeed; but if he hesitates, defers, doubts, and begins to plot and +plan, the Referee in Bankruptcy will beckon. + +The early universities grew out of the monastic impulse. Students came +and went, and the teachers were a part of a great itinerancy. Man is a +migratory animal. His evolution has come about through change of +environment. Transplantation changes weeds into roses, and the +forebears of all the products of our greenhouses and gardens once grew +in hedgerows or open fields, choked by unkind competition or trampled +beneath the feet of the heedless. + +The advantage of university life is in the transplantation. Get the boy +out of his home environment; sever the cord that holds him to his +"folks"; let him meet new faces, see new sights, hear new sermons, meet +new teachers, and his efforts at adjustment will work for growth. +Alexander Humboldt was right--one year at college is safer than four. +One year inspires you--four may get you pot-bound with pedant prejudice. + +The university of the future will be industrial--all may come and go. +All men will be university men, and thus the pride in an imaginary +proficiency will be diluted to a healthful attenuation. To work and to +be useful--not merely to memorize and recite--will be the only +initiation. + +The professors will be interchangeable, and the rotation of intellectual +crops will work for health, harmony and effectiveness. + +The group, or college, will be the unit, not the family. The college was +once a collection of men and women grouped for a mutual intellectual, +religious or economic good. + +To this group or college idea will we return. + +Man is a gregarious animal, and the Christ-thought of giving all, and +receiving all, some day in the near future will be found practical. The +desire for exclusive ownership must be sloughed. + +Universities devoted to useful work--art in its highest sense: head, +hand and heart--will yet dot the civilized world. The hospice will +return higher up the scale, and the present use of the word +"hospitality" will be drowned in its pink tea, choked with +cheese-wafers, rescued from the nervous clutch of the managing mama, and +the machinations of the chaperone. A society built on the sands of +silliness must give way to the universal university, and the strong, +healthful, helpful, honest companionship and comradeship of men and +women prevail. + + * * * * * + +The objective point of the Bishop was the University of Paris. + +Here in due time, after their lingering ride from Holland, the Bishop +and his secretary arrived. They settled down to literary work; and in +odd hours the beauty and wonder of Paris became familiar to Erasmus. The +immediate task completed, the Bishop proposed going home, and thought, +of course, his secretary was a fixture and would go with him. But +Erasmus had evolved ideas concerning his own worth. He had already +collected quite a little circle of pupils about him, and these he held +by his glowing personality. At this time the vow of poverty was looked +upon lightly. And anyway, poverty is a comparative term. There were +monks who always trudged afoot with staff and bag, but not so our +Erasmus. He was Bishop of the Exterior. + +The Bishop of Cambray, on parting with Erasmus, thought so much of him +that he presented him with the horse he rode. + +Erasmus used to take short excursions about Paris, taking with him a +student and often two, as servants or attendants. Teaching then was +mostly on an independent basis, each pupil picking his tutors and paying +them direct. + +Among other pupils whom Erasmus had at Paris was a young Englishman by +the name of Lord Mountjoy. A great affection arose between these two, +and when Lord Mountjoy returned to England he was accompanied by +Erasmus. + +At London, Erasmus met on absolute equality many of the learned men of +England. We hear of his dining at the house of the Lord Mayor of London, +and there meeting Sir Thomas More and crossing swords with that worthy +in wordy debate. + +Erasmus seems to have carried the "New Humanism" into England. It has +been said that the world was discovered in Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, +but Man was not discovered until Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six. This is +hardly literal truth, since in Fourteen Hundred Ninety-two, there was a +theologico-scientific party of young men in all of the European +Universities who were reviving the Greek culture, and with it arose the +idea of the dignity and worth of Man. To this movement Erasmus brought +the enthusiasm of his nature. Perhaps he did as much as any other to fan +the embers which grew into a flame called "The Reformation." + +He constantly ridiculed the austerities, pedantry, priggishness and +sciolism of the old-time Churchmen, and when a new question came up, he +asked, "What good is there in it?" + +Everything was tested by him in the light of commonsense. What end does +it serve and how is humanity to be served or benefited by it? + +Thus the good of humanity, not the glory of God, was the shibboleth of +this rising party. + +Erasmus gave lectures and taught at Cambridge, Oxford and London. + +Italy had been the objective point of his travels, but England had, for +a time, turned him aside. In the year Fifteen Hundred, Erasmus landed at +Calais, saddled his horse, and started southward, visiting, writing, +teaching, lecturing, as he went. The stimulus of meeting new people and +seeing new scenes, all tended toward intellectual growth. + +The genius monk made mendicancy a fine art, and Erasmus was heir to most +of the instincts of the order. His associations with the laity were +mostly with the nobility or those with money. He was not slow in asking +for what he wanted, whether it was a fur-lined cloak, a saddle, top +riding-boots, a horse, or a prayer-book. He made no apologies--but took +as his divine right all that he needed. And he justified himself in +taking what he needed by the thought that he gave all he had. He +supplied Sir Thomas More the germ of "Utopia," for Erasmus pictured +again and again an ideal society where all would have enough, and none +suffer from either want or surfeit--a society in which all would be at +home wherever they went. + +Had Erasmus seen fit to make England his home, his head, too, would have +paid the forfeit, as did the head that wrote "Utopia." What an absurd +use to make of a head--to separate it from the man's body! + +Italy received Erasmus with the same royal welcome that England had +supplied. Scholars who knew the Greek and Roman classics were none too +common. Most monks stopped with the writings of the saints, as South +Americans balk at long division. + +Erasmus could illumine an initial, bind a book, give advice to printers, +lecture to teachers, give lessons on rhetoric and oratory, or entertain +the ladies with recitations from the Iliad and the Odyssey. + +So he went riding back and forth, stopping at cities and towns, +nunneries and monasteries, until his name became a familiar one to every +scholar of England, Germany and Italy. Scholarly, always a learner, +always a teacher, gracious, direct, witty, men began to divide on an +Erasmus basis. There were two parties: those for Erasmus and those +against him. + +In Fifteen Hundred Seventeen, came Luther with his bombshells of +defiance. This fighting attitude was far from Erasmus--his weapons were +words. Between bouts with prelates, Luther sent a few thunderbolts at +Erasmus, accusing him of vacillation and cowardice. Erasmus replied with +dignity, and entered into a lengthy dispute with Melanchthon, Luther's +friend, on the New Humanism which was finding form in revolution. + +Erasmus prophesied that by an easy process of evolution, through +education, the monasteries would all become schools and workshops. He +would not destroy them, but convert them into something different. He +fell into disfavor with the Catholics, and was invited by Henry the +Eighth to come to England and join the new religious regime. But this +English Catholicism was not to the liking of Erasmus. What he desired +was to reform the Church, not to destroy it or divide it. + +His affairs were becoming critical: monasteries where he had once been +welcomed now feared to have him come near, lest they should be +contaminated and entangled. It was rumored that warrants of arrest were +out. He was invited to go to Rome and explain his position. + +Erasmus knew better than to acknowledge receipt of the letter. He headed +his horse for Switzerland, the land of liberty. At Basel he stopped at +the house of Froben, the great printer and publisher. He put his horse +in the barn, unsaddled him, and said, "Froben, I've come to stay." + + * * * * * + +I was mousing around the other day in a book that is somewhat disjointed +and disconnected, and yet interesting--"The Standard Dictionary"--when I +came across the word "scamp." It is a handy word to fling, and I am not +sure but that it has been gently tossed once or twice in my direction. +Condemnation is usually a sort of subtle flattery, so I'm not sad. To +scamp means to cut short, to be superficial, slipshod, careless, +indifferent--to say, "Let 'er go, who cares--this is good enough!" If +anybody ever was a stickler for honest work, I am that bucolic party. I +often make things so fine that only one man out of ten thousand can buy +them, and I have to keep 'em myself. + +You know that, when you get an idea in your head, how everything you +read contains allusions to the same thing. Knowledge is mucilaginous. +Well, next day after I was looking up that pleasant word "scamp," I was +reading in the Amusing Works of Erasmus, when I ran across the word +again, but spelled in Dutch, thus, "schamp." Now Erasmus was a +successful author, and he was also the best authority on paper, inks, +bindings, and general bookmaking in Italy, Holland or Germany. Being a +lover of learning, and listening to the lure of words, he never wallowed +in wealth. But in his hunt for ideas he had a lot of fun. Kipling says, +"There is no hunt equal to a man hunt." But Kip is wrong--to chase a +thought is twice the sport. Erasmus chased ideas, and very naturally +the preachers chased Erasmus--out of England, through France, down to +Italy and then he found refuge at Basel with Froben, the great Printer +and Publisher. + +Up in Frankfort was a writer-printer, who, not being able to answer the +arguments of Erasmus, called him bad names. But this gentle pen-pusher +in Frankfort, who passed his vocabulary at Froben's proofreader, Erasmus +in time calls a "schamp," because he used cheap paper, cheap ink and +close margins. Soon after, the word was carried to England and spelled +"scamp"--a man who cheats in quality, weight, size and count. But the +first use merely meant a printer who scamps his margins and so cheats on +paper. I am sorry to see that Erasmus imitated his enemies and at +times was ambidextrous in the use of the literary stinkpot. His +vocabulary was equal to that of Muldoon. Erasmus refers to one of +his critics as a "scenophylax-stikken," and another he calls a "schnide +enchologion-schistosomus." And perhaps they may have been--I really do +not know. + +But as an authority on books Erasmus can still be read. He it was who +fixed the classic page margin--twice as wide at the top as on the +inside; twice as wide at the outside as the top; twice as wide at the +bottom as at the side. And any printer who varies from this displays his +ignorance of proportion. Erasmus says, "To use poor paper marks the +decline of taste, both in printer and in patron." After the death of +Erasmus, Froben's firm failed because they got to making things cheap. +"Compete in quality, not in price," was the working motto of Erasmus. + +All of the great bookmaking centers languished when they began to scamp. +That worthy wordissimus at Frankfort who called Erasmus names gave up +business and then the ghost, and Erasmus wrote his epitaph, and thus +supplied Benjamin Franklin an idea--"Here lies an old book, its cover +gone, its leaves torn, the worms at work on its vitals." + +The wisdom of doing good work still applies, just as it did in the days +of Erasmus. + +Erasmus proved a very valuable acquisition to Froben. He became general +editor and literary adviser of this great publishing-house, which was +then the most important in the world. + +Besides his work as editor, Erasmus also stood sponsor for numerous +volumes which we now know were written by literary nobodies, his name +being placed on the title-page for commercial reasons. + +At that time and for two hundred years later, the matter of attributing +a book to this man or that was considered a trivial affair. Piracies +were prevalent. All printers revised the work of classic authors if they +saw fit, and often they were specially rewarded for it by the Church. It +was about this time that some one slipped that paragraph into the works +of Josephus about Jesus. The "Annals" of Tacitus were similarly +doctored, if in fact they were not written entire, during the Sixteenth +Century. It will be remembered that the only two references in +contemporary literature to Jesus are those in Josephus and Tacitus, and +these the Church proudly points to yet. + +During the last few years of his life Erasmus accumulated considerable +property. By his will he devised that this money should go to educate +certain young men and women, grandchildren and nephews and nieces of his +old friend, Johann Froben. He left no money for masses, after the usual +custom of Churchmen, and during his last illness was not attended by a +priest. For several years before his death he made no confessions and +very seldom attended church service. He said, "I am much more proud of +being a printer than a priest." + +A statue of Erasmus in bronze adorns one of the public squares in +Rotterdam, and Basel and Freiburg have honored themselves, and him also, +in like manner. + +As a sample of the subtle and keen literary style of Erasmus, I append +the following from "In Praise of Folly:" + + The happiest times of life are youth and old age, and this for no + reason but that they are the times most completely under the rule + of folly, and least controlled by wisdom. It is the child's freedom + from wisdom that makes it so charming to us; we hate a precocious + child. So women owe their charm, and hence their power, to their + "folley," that is, to their obedience to the impulse. But if, + perchance, a woman wants to be thought wise, she only succeeds in + being doubly a fool, as if one should train a cow for the + prize-ring, a thing wholly against Nature. A woman will be a woman, + no matter what mask she wear, and she ought to be proud of her + folly and make the most of it. + + Is not Cupid, that first father of all religion, is not he stark + blind, that he can not himself distinguish of colors, so he would + make us as mope-eyed in judging falsely of all love concerns, and + wheedle us into a thinking that we are always in the right? Thus + every Jack sticks to his own Jill; every tinker esteems his own + trull; and the hobnailed suitor prefers Joan the milkmaid before + any of milady's daughters. These things are true, and are + ordinarily laughed at, and yet, however ridiculous they seem, it is + hence only that all societies receive their cement and + consolidation. + + Fortune we still find favoring the blunt, and flushing the forward; + strokes smooth up fools, crowning all their undertakings with + success; but wisdom makes her followers bashful, sneaking and + timorous, and therefore you commonly see that they are reduced to + hard shifts; must grapple with poverty, cold and hunger; must lie + recluse, despised, and unregarded; while fools roll in money, are + advanced to dignities and offices, and in a word have the whole + world at command. If any one thinks it happy to be a favorite at + court, and to manage the disposal of places and preferments, alas, + this happiness is so far from being attainable by wisdom, that the + very suspicion of it would put a stop to advancement. Has any man a + mind to raise himself a good estate? Alas, what dealer in the world + would ever get a farthing, if he be so wise as to scruple at + perjury, blush at a lie, or stick at a fraud and overreaching? + + It is the public charter of all divines, to mold and bend the + sacred oracles till they comply with their own fancy, spreading + them (as Heaven by its Creator) like a curtain, closing together, + or drawing them back, as they please. Thus, indeed, Saint Paul + himself minces and mangles some citations he makes use of, and + seems to wrest them to a different sense from what they were first + intended for, as is confessed by the great linguist, Saint Hieron. + Thus when that apostle saw at Athens the inscription of the altar, + he draws from it an argument for the proof of the Christian + religion; but leaving out great parts of the sentence, which + perhaps if fully recited might have prejudiced his cause, he + mentions only the last two words, namely, "To the Unknown God"; and + this, too, not without alteration, for the whole inscription runs + thus: "To the Gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to all Foreign and + Unknown Gods." + + 'T is an imitation of the same pattern, I will warrant you, that + our young divines, by leaving out four or five words in a place and + putting a false construction on the rest, can make any passage + serviceable to their own purpose; though from the coherence of what + went before, or follows after, the genuine meaning appears to be + either wide enough, or perhaps quite contradictory to what they + would thrust and impose upon it. In which knack the divines are + grown now so expert that the lawyers themselves begin to be jealous + of an encroachment on what was formerly their sole privilege and + practise. And indeed what can they despair of proving, since the + forementioned commentator did upon a text of Saint Luke put an + interpretation no more agreeable to the meaning or the place than + one contrary quality is to another. + + But because it seemed expedient that man, who was born for the + transaction of business, should have so much wisdom as should fit + and capacitate him for the discharge of his duty herein, and yet + lest such a measure as is requisite for this purpose might prove + too dangerous and fatal, I was advised with for an antidote, and + prescribed this infallible receipt of taking a wife, a creature so + harmless and silly, and yet so useful and convenient, as might + mollify and make pliable the stiffness and morose humor of man. Now + that which made Plato doubt under what genus to rank woman, whether + among brutes or rational creatures, was only meant to denote the + extreme stupidness and Folly of that sex, a sex so unalterably + simple that for any one of them to thrust forward and reach at the + name of wise, is but to make themselves the more remarkable fools, + such an endeavor being but a swimming against the stream, nay, the + turning the course of Nature, the bare attempting whereof is as + extravagant as the effecting of it is impossible: for as it is a + trite proverb, that an ape will be an ape, though clad in purple, + so a woman will be a woman, that is, a fool, whatever disguise she + takes up. And yet there is no reason women should take it amiss to + be thus charged, for if they do but rightly consider, they will + find to Folly they are beholden for those endowments wherein they + so far surpass and excel Man; as first for their unparalleled + beauty, by the charm whereof they tyrannize over the greatest of + tyrants; for what is it but too great a smatch of wisdom that makes + men so tawny and thick-skinned, so rough and prickly-bearded, like + an emblem of winter or old age, while women have such dainty, + smooth cheeks, such a low, gentle voice, and so pure a complexion, + as if Nature had drawn them for a standing pattern of all symmetry + and comeliness? Besides, what greater or juster aim and ambition + have they than to please their husbands? In order whereunto they + garnish themselves with paint, washes, curls, perfumes, and all + other mysteries of ornament; yet, after all, they become acceptable + to them only for their Folly. Wives are always allowed their humor, + yet it is only in exchange for titillation and pleasure, which + indeed are but other names for Folly; as none can deny, who + consider how a man must dandle, and kittle, and play a hundred + little tricks for his helpmate. + + But now some blood-chilled old men, that are more for wine than + wenching, will pretend that in their opinion the greatest happiness + consists in feasting and drinking. Grant it be so; yet certainly in + the most luxurious entertainments it is Folly must give the sauce + and relish to the daintiest delicacies; so that if there be no one + of the guests naturally fool enough to be played upon by the rest, + they must procure some comical buffoon, that by his jokes and + flouts and blunders shall make the whole company split themselves + with laughing; for to what purpose were it to be stuffed and + crammed with so many dainty bits, savory dishes, and toothsome + rarities, if after all this epicurism, the eyes, the ears, and the + whole mind of man, were not so well foisted and relieved with + laughing, jesting, and such like divertisements, which, like second + courses, serve for the promoting of digestion? And as to all those + shoeing-horns of drunkenness, the keeping every one his man, the + throwing high jinks, the filling of bumpers, the drinking two in a + hand, the beginning of mistresses' healths; and then the roaring + out of drunken catches, the calling in a fiddler, the leading out + every one his lady to dance, and such like riotous pastimes--these + were not taught or dictated by any of the wise men of Greece, but + of Gotham rather, being my invention, and by me prescribed as the + best preservative of health: each of which, the more ridiculous it + is, the more welcome it finds. And indeed, to jog sleepingly + through the world, in a dumpish, melancholy posture, can not + properly be said to live. + + + + +[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON] + +BOOKER T. WASHINGTON + + + There is something in human nature which always makes people reward + merit, no matter under what color of skin merit is found. I have + found, too, that it is the visible, the tangible, that goes a long + way in softening prejudices. The actual sight of a good house that + a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion + about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build. The + individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in + the end, make his way regardless of his race. + + --_Booker T. Washington_ + + +BOOKER T. WASHINGTON + +This is a story about a Negro. The story has the peculiarity of being +true. The man was born a slave in Virginia. His mother was a slave, and +was thrice sold in the market-place. This man is Booker T. Washington. + +The name Booker was a fanciful one given to the lad by playmates on +account of his love for a certain chance dog-eared spelling-book. Before +this he was only Mammy's Pet. The T. stood for nothing, but later a +happy thought made it Taliaferro. + +Most Negroes, fresh from slavery, stood sponsor to themselves, and chose +the name Washington; if not this, then Lincoln, Clay or Webster. + +This lad when but a child, being suddenly asked for his name, exclaimed, +"Washington," and stuck to it. + +The father of this boy was a white man; but children always take the +status of the mother, so Booker T. Washington is a Negro, and proud of +it, as he should be, for he is standard by performance, even if not by +pedigree. + +This Negro's father is represented by the sign _x_. By remaining in +obscurity the fond father threw away his one chance for immortality. We +do not even know his name, his social position, or his previous +condition of turpitude. We assume he was happily married and +respectable. Concerning him legend is silent and fable dumb. As for the +child, we are not certain whether he was born in Eighteen Hundred +Fifty-eight or Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, and we know not the day or +the month. There were no signs in the East. + +The mother lived in a log cabin of one room, say ten by twelve. This +room was also a kitchen, for the mother was cook to the farmhands of her +owner. There were no windows and no floor in the cabin save the +hard-trodden clay. There were a table, a bench and a big fireplace. +There were no beds, and the children at night simply huddled and cuddled +in a pile of straw and rags in the corner. Doubtless they had enough +food, for they ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table--who, +by the way, wasn't so very rich. + +One of the earliest recollections of Black Baby Booker was of being +awakened in the middle of the night by his mother to eat fried chicken. +Imagine the picture--it is past midnight. No light in the room save the +long, flickering streaks that dance on the rafters. Outside the wind +makes mournful, sighing melody. In the corner huddled the children, +creeping close together with intertwining arms to get the warmth of each +little half-naked body. + +The dusky mother moves swiftly, deftly, half-frightened at her task. + +She has come in from the night with a chicken! Where did she get it? +Hush! Where do you suppose oppressed colored people get chickens? + +She picks the bird--prepares it for the skillet--fries it over the +coals. And then when it is done just right, Maryland style, this mother +full of mother-love, an ingredient which God never omits, shakes each +little piccaninny into wakefulness, and gives him the forbidden +dainty--drumstick, wishbone, gizzard, white meat, or the part that went +through the fence last--anything but the neck. + +Feathers, bones, waste are thrown into the fireplace, and what the +village editor calls the "devouring element" hides all trace of the +crime. Then all lie down to sleep, until the faint flush of pink comes +into the East, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the mountain-tops. + + * * * * * + +This ex-slave remembers a strange and trying time, when all of the +colored folk on the plantation were notified to assemble at the "big +house." They arrived and stood around in groups, waiting and wondering, +talking in whispers. The master came out, and standing on the veranda +read from a paper in a tremulous voice. Then he told them that they were +all free, and shook hands with each. Everybody cried. However, they were +very happy in spite of the tears, for freedom to them meant heaven--a +heaven of rest. Yet they bore only love towards their former owners. + +Most of them began to wander--they thought they had to leave their old +quarters. In a few days the wisest came back and went to work just as +usual. Booker T.'s mother quit work for just half a day. + +But in a little while her husband arrived--a colored man to whom she had +been married years before, and who had been sold and sent away. Now he +came and took her and the little monochrome brood, and they all started +away for West Virginia, where they heard that colored men were hired to +work in coalmines and were paid wages in real money. + +It took months and months to make the journey. They carried all their +belongings in bundles. They had no horses--no cows--no wagon--they +walked. If the weather was pleasant they slept out of doors; if it +rained they sought a tobacco-shed, a barn, or the friendly side of a +straw-stack. For food they depended on a little cornmeal they carried, +with which the mother made pone-cakes in the ashes of a campfire. Kind +colored people on the way replenished the meal-bag, for colored people +are always generous to the hungry and needy if they have anything to be +generous with. Then Providence sent stray, ownerless chickens their way, +at times, just as the Children of Israel were fed on quails in the +wilderness. Once they caught a 'possum--and there was a genuine banquet, +where the children ate until they were as tight as drums. + +Finally they reached the promised land of West Virginia, and at the +little village of Maiden, near Charleston, they stopped, for here were +the coal mine and the salt-works where colored men were hired and paid +in real money. + +Booker's stepfather found a job, and he also found a job for little +Booker. They had nothing to live on until pay-day, so the kind man who +owned the mine allowed them to get things at the store on credit. This +was a brand-new experience--and no doubt they bought a few things they +did not need, for prices and values were absolutely out of their realm. +Besides, they did not know how much wages they were to get, neither +could they figure the prices of the things they bought. At any rate, +when pay-day came they were still in debt, so they saw no real +money--certainly little Booker at this time of his life never did. + + * * * * * + +General Lewis Ruffner owned the salt-works and the coalmine where little +Booker worked. He was stern, severe, strict. But he believed Negroes +were human beings, and there were those then who disputed the +proposition. + +Ruffner organized a night-school for his helpers, and let a couple of +his bookkeepers teach it. At this time there was not a colored person in +the neighborhood who could spell cat, much less write his name. A few +could count five. Booker must have been about ten years old when one day +he boasted a bit of his skill in mathematics. The foreman told him to +count the loads of coal as they came out of the mine. The boy started in +bravely, "One--two--three--four--dere goes one, dere goes anoder, +anoder, anoder, anoder, anoder!" + +The foreman laughed. + +The boy was abashed, then chagrined. "Send me to the night-school and in +a month I'll show you how to count!" + +The foreman wrote the lad an order which admitted him to the +night-school. + +But now there was another difficulty--the boy worked until nine o'clock +at night, the last hour's work being to sweep out the office. The +night-school began at nine o'clock and it was two miles away. + +The lad scratched his head and thought and thought. A great idea came to +him--he would turn the office clock ahead half an hour. He could then +leave at nine o'clock, and by running part of the way could get to +school at exactly nine o'clock. + +The scheme worked for two days, when one of the clerks in the office +said that a spook was monkeying with the clock. They tried the plan of +locking the case, and all was well. + +Booker must have been about twelve years old, goin' on thirteen, when +one day as he lay on his back in the coalmine, pushing out the broken +coal with his feet, he overheard two men telling of a very wonderful +school where colored people were taught to read, write and cipher--also, +how to speak in public. The scholars were allowed to work part of the +time to pay for their board. + +The lad crawled close in the darkness and listened to the conversation. +He caught the names "Hampton" and "Armstrong." Whether Armstrong was the +place and Hampton was the name of the man, he could not make out, but he +clung to the names. + +Here was a school for colored people--he would go there! That night he +told his mother about it. She laughed, patted his kinky head, and +indulged him in his dream. + +She was only a poor black woman; she could not spell ab, nor count to +ten, but she had a plan for her boy--he would some day be a preacher. + +This was the very height of her imagination--a preacher! Beyond this +there was nothing in human achievement. The night-school came after a +day of fourteen hours' work. Little Booker sat on a bench, his feet +dangling about a foot from the floor. As he sat there one night trying +hard to drink in knowledge, he went to sleep. He nodded, braced up, +nodded again, and then pitched over in a heap on the floor, to the great +amusement of the class, and his own eternal shame. + +The next day, however, as he was feeling very sorrowful over his sad +experience, he heard that Mrs. Ruffner wanted a boy for general work at +the big house. + +Here was a chance. Mrs. Ruffner was a Vermont Yankee, which meant that +she had a great nose for dirt, and would not stand for a "sassy nigger." +Her reputation had gone abroad, and of how she pinched the ears of her +"help," and got them up at exactly a certain hour, and made them use +soap and water at least once a day, and even compelled them to use a +toothbrush; all this was history, well defined. + +Booker said he could please her, even if she was a Yankee. He applied +for the job and got it, with wages fixed at a dollar a week, with a +promise of twenty-five cents extra every week, if he did his work +without talking back and breaking a tray of dishes. + + * * * * * + +"Genius! No hovel is safe from it!" says Whistler. + +Genius consists in doing the right thing without being told more than +three times. + +Booker silently studied the awful Yankee woman to see what she really +wanted. He finally decided that she desired her servants to have clean +skins, fairly neat clothing, do things promptly, finish the job and keep +still when they had nothing to say. + +He set himself to please her--and he did. + +She loaned him books, gave him a lead-pencil, and showed him how to +write with a pen without smearing his hands and face with ink. + +He told her of his dream and asked about Armstrong and Hampton. She told +him that Armstrong was the man and Hampton the place. + +At last he got her consent to leave and go to Hampton. + +When he started she gave him a comb, a toothbrush, two handkerchiefs and +a pair of shoes. He had been working for her for a year, and she +thought, of course, he saved his wages. He never told her that his money +had gone to keep the family, because his stepfather had been on a strike +and therefore out of work. + +So the boy started away for Hampton. It was five hundred miles away. He +didn't know how far five hundred miles is--nobody does unless he has +walked it. + +He had three dollars, so he gaily paid for a seat in the stage. At the +end of the first day he was forty miles from home and out of money. He +slept in a barn, and a colored woman handed him a ham-bone and a chunk +of bread out of the kitchen-window, and looked the other way. + +He trudged on east--always and forever east--towards the rising sun. + +He walked weeks--months--years, he thought. He kept no track of the +days. He carried his shoes as a matter of economy. + +Finally he sold the shoes for four dollars to a man who paid him ten +cents cash down, and promised to pay the rest when they should meet at +Hampton. Nearly forty years have passed and they have never met. + +On he walked--on and on--east, and always forever east. + +He reached the city of Richmond, the first big city he had ever seen. +The wide streets--the sidewalks--the street-lamps entranced him. It was +just like heaven. But he was hungry and penniless, and when he looked +wistfully at a pile of cold fried chicken on a street-stand and asked +the price of a drumstick, at the same time telling he had no money, he +discovered he was not in heaven at all. He was called a lazy nigger and +told to move on. + +Later he made the discovery that a "nigger" is a colored person who has +no money. + +He pulled the piece of rope that served him for a belt a little tighter, +and when no one was looking, crawled under a sidewalk and went to +sleep, disturbed only by the trampling overhead. + +When he awoke he saw he was near the dock, where a big ship pushed its +bowsprit out over the street. Men were unloading bags and boxes from the +boat. He ran down and asked the mate if he could help. "Yes!" was the +gruff answer. + +He got in line and went staggering under the heavy loads. + +He was little, but strong, and best of all, willing, yet he reeled at +the work. + +"Have you had any breakfast? Yes, you liver-colored boy--you, I say, +have you had your breakfast?" + +"No, sir," said the boy; "and no supper last night nor dinner +yesterday!" + +"Well, I reckoned as much. Now you take this quarter and go over to that +stand and buy you a drumstick, a cup of coffee and two fried cakes!" + +The lad didn't need urging. He took the money in his palm, went over to +the man who the night before had called him a lazy nigger, and showing +the silver, picked out his piece of chicken. + +The man hastened to wait on him, and said it was a fine day and hoped he +was well. + + * * * * * + +Arriving at Hampton, this colored boy, who had tramped the long, weary +miles, stood abashed before the big brick building which he knew was +Hampton Institute. + +He was so little--the place was so big--by what right could he ask to be +admitted? + +Finally he boldly entered, and in a voice meant to be firm, but which +was very shaky, said, "I am here!" and pointed to the bosom of his +hickory shirt. + +The Yankee woman motioned him to a chair. Negroes coming there were +plentiful. Usually they wanted to live the Ideal Life. They had a call +to preach--and the girls wanted to be music-teachers. + +The test was simple and severe: would they and could they do one useful +piece of work well? + +Booker sat and waited, not knowing that his patience was being put to +the test. + +Then Miss Priscilla, in a hard, Neill Burgess voice, "guessed" that the +adjoining recitation-room needed sweeping and dusting. She handed Booker +a broom and dust-cloth, motioned to the room, and went away. + +Oho! Little did she know her lad. The colored boy smiled to +himself--sweeping and dusting were his specialties--he had learned the +trade from a Yankee woman from Vermont! He smiled. + +Then he swept that room--moved every chair, the table, the desk. He +dusted each piece of furniture four times. He polished each rung and +followed around the baseboard on hands and knees. + +Miss Priscilla came back--pushed the table around and saw at once that +the dirt had not been concealed beneath it. She took out her +handkerchief and wiped the table top, then the desk. + +She turned, looked at the boy, and her smile met his half-suppressed +triumphant grin. + +"You'll do," she said. + + * * * * * + +General Samuel C. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, and the +grandfather of Tuskegee, was a white man who fought the South valiantly +and well. + +He seems about the only man in the North who, at the close of the war, +clearly realized that the war had just begun--that the real enemies were +not subdued, and that these enemies were ignorance, superstition and +incompetence. + +The pitiable condition of four million human beings, flung from slavery +into freedom, thrown upon their own resources, with no thought of +responsibility, and with no preparation for the change, meant for them +only another kind of slavery. + +General Armstrong's heart went out to them--he desired to show them how +to be useful, helpful, self-reliant, healthy. For the whites of the +South he had only high regard and friendship. He, of all men, knew how +they had suffered from the war--and he realized also that they had +fought for what they believed was right. In his heart there was no hate. +He resolved to give himself--his life--his fortune--his intellect--his +love--his all, for the upbuilding of the South. He saw with the vision +of a prophet that indolence and pride were the actual enemies of white +and black alike. The blacks must be taught to work--to know the dignity +of human labor--to serve society--to help themselves by helping others. +He realized that there are no menial tasks--that all which serves is +sacred. + +And this is the man who sowed the seeds of truth in the heart of the +nameless black boy--Booker Washington. Armstrong's shibboleth, too, was, +"With malice toward none, but with charity for all, let us finish the +work God has given us to do." + + * * * * * + +I do not know very much about this subject of education, yet I believe I +know as much about what others know about it as most people. I have +visited the principal colleges of America and Europe, and the methods of +Preparatory and High Schools are to me familiar. I know the +night-schools of the cities, the "Ungraded Rooms," the Schools for +Defectives, the educational schemes in prisons, the Manual-Training +Schools, the New Education (first suggested by Socrates) as carried out +by G. Stanley Hall, John Dewey, and dozens of other good men and women +in America. I am familiar with the School for the Deaf at Malone, New +York, and the School for the Blind at Batavia, where even the sorely +stricken are taught to be self-sufficient, self-supporting and happy. I +have tumbled down the circular fire-escape at Lapeer with the inmates of +the Home of Epileptics, and heard the shouts of laughter from lips that +never laughed before. I have seen the Jewish Manual Training School of +Chicago transform Russian refugees into useful citizens--capable, +earnest and excellent. I know a little about Swarthmore, Wellesley, +Vassar, Radcliffe, and have put my head into West Point and Annapolis, +and had nobody cry, "Genius!" + +Of Harvard, Yale and Princeton I know something, having done time in +each. I have also given jobs to graduates of Oxford, Cambridge and +Heidelberg, to my sorrow and their chagrin. This does not prove that +graduates of the great universities are, as a rule, out of work, or that +they are incompetent. It simply means that it is possible for a man to +graduate at these institutions and secure his diploma and yet be a man +who has nothing the world really wants, either in way of ideas or +services. + +The reason that my "cum laude" friends did not like me, and the cause of +my having to part with them--getting them a little free transportation +from your Uncle George--was not because they lacked intelligence, but +because they wanted to secure a position, while I simply offered them a +job. + +They were like Cave-of-the-Winds of Oshkosh, who is an ice-cutter in +August, and in winter is an out-of-door horticulturist--a hired man is +something else. + +As a general proposition, I believe this will not now be disputed: the +object of education is that a man may benefit himself by serving +society. + +To benefit others, you must be reasonably happy: there must be animation +through useful activity, good-cheer, kindness and health--health of mind +and health of body. And to benefit society you must also have patience, +persistency, and a firm determination to do the right thing, and to mind +your own business so that others, too, may mind theirs. Then all should +be tinctured with a dash of discontent with past achievements, so you +will constantly put forth an effort to do more and better work. + +When what you have done in the past looks large to you, you haven't done +much today. + +So there you get the formula of Education: health and happiness through +useful activity--animation, kindness, good-cheer, patience, persistency, +willingness to give and take, seasoned with enough discontent to prevent +smugness, which is the scum that grows over every stagnant pond. + +Of course no college can fill this prescription--no institution can +supply the ingredients--all that the college can do is to supply the +conditions so that these things can spring into being. Plants need the +sunlight--mushrooms are different. + +The question is, then, what teaching concern in America supplies the +best quality of actinic ray? + +And I answer, Tuskegee is the place, and Booker Washington is the man. + +"What!" you exclaim. "The Ideal School a school for Negroes, instituted +by a Negro, where only Negroes teach, and only Negroes are allowed to +enter as students?" + +And the answer is, "Exactly so." + +At Tuskegee there are nearly two thousand students, and over one hundred +fifty teachers. There are two classes of students--"day-school" and +"night-school" students. The night-school students work all day at any +kind of task they are called upon to do. They receive their board, +clothing and a home--they pay no tuition, but are paid for their labor, +the amount being placed to their credit, so when fifty dollars is +accumulated they can enter as "day students." + +The "day students" make up the bulk of the scholars. Each pays fifty +dollars a year. These all work every other day at manual labor or some +useful trade. + +Tuskegee has fully twice as many applicants as it can accommodate; but +there is one kind of applicant who never receives any favor. This is the +man who says he has the money to pay his way, and wishes to take the +academic course only. The answer always is: "Please go elsewhere--there +are plenty of schools that want your money. The fact that you have money +will not exempt you here from useful labor." + +This is exactly what every college in the world should say. + +The Tuskegee farm consists of about three thousand acres. There are four +hundred head of cattle, about five hundred hogs, two hundred horses, +great flocks of chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys, and many swarms of +bees. It is the intention to raise all the food that is consumed on the +place, and to manufacture all supplies. There are wagon-shops, a +sawmill, a harness-shop, a shoe-shop, a tailor-shop, a printing-plant, a +model laundry, a canning establishment. Finer fruit and vegetables I +have never seen, and the thousands of peach, plum and apple trees, and +the vast acreage of berries that have been planted, will surely some day +be a goodly source of revenue. + +The place is religious, but not dogmatically so--the religion being +merely the natural safety-valve for emotion. At Tuskegee there is no +lacrimose appeal to confess your sins--they do better--they forget them. + +I never heard more inspiring congregational singing, and the use of the +piano, organ, orchestra and brass band are important factors in the +curriculum. In the chapel I spoke to an audience so attentive, so alert, +so receptive, so filled with animation, that the whole place looked like +a vast advertisement for Sozodont. + +No prohibitive signs are seen at Tuskegee. All is affirmative, yet it is +understood that some things are tabu--tobacco, for instance, and strong +drink, of course. + +We have all heard of Harvard Beer and Yale Mixture, but be it said in +sober justice, Harvard runs no brewery, and Yale has no official brand +of tobacco. Yet Harvard men consume much beer, and many men at Yale +smoke. And if you want to see the cigarette-fiend on his native heath, +you'll find him like the locust on the campus at Cambridge and New +Haven. But if you want to see the acme of all cigarette-bazaars, just +ride out of Boylston Street, Boston, any day at noon, and watch the boys +coming out of the Institute of Technology. + +I once asked a Tech Professor if cigarette-smoking was compulsory in his +institution. "Yes," he replied; "but the rule is not strictly enforced, +as I know three students who do not smoke." + +Tuskegee stands for order, system, cleanliness, industry, courtesy and +usefulness. There are no sink-holes around the place, no "back yards." +Everything is beautiful, wholesome and sanitary. All trades are +represented. The day is crammed so full of work from sunrise to sunset +that there is no time for complaining, misery or faultfinding--three +things that are usually born of idleness. At Tuskegee there are +no servants. All of the work is done by the students and +teachers--everybody works--everybody is a student, and all are teachers. + +We are all teachers, whether we will it or not--we teach by example, and +all students who do good work are good teachers. + +When the Negro is able to do skilled work, he ceases to be a problem--he +is a man. The fact that Alexandre Dumas was a Negro does not count +against him in the world's assize. + +The old-time academic college, that cultivated the cerebrum and gave a +man his exercise in an indoor gymnasium, or not at all, has ruined its +tens of thousands. To have top--head and no lungs--is not wholly +desirable. The student was made exempt from every useful thing, just as +the freshly freed slave hoped and expected to be, and after four years +it was often impossible for him to take up the practical lessons of +life. He had gotten used to the idea of one set of men doing all the +work and another set of men having the culture. To a large degree he +came to regard culture as the aim of life. And when a man begins to +pride himself upon his culture, he hasn't any to speak of. Culture must +be merely incidental, and to clutch it is like capturing a butterfly: +you do not secure the butterfly at all--you get only a grub. + +Let us say right here that there is only one way in which a Negro, or a +white man, can ever make himself respected. Statute law will not do it; +rights voted him by the State are of small avail; making demands will +not secure the desired sesame. If we ever gain the paradise of freedom +it will be because we have earned it--because we deserve it. A +make-believe education may suffice for a white man--especially if he has +a rich father, but a Negro who has to carve out his own destiny must be +taught order, system, and quiet, persistent, useful effort. + +A college that has its students devote one-half their time to actual, +useful work is so in line with commonsense that we are amazed that the +idea had to be put into execution by the ex-slave as a life-saver for +his disenfranchised race. Our great discoveries are always accidents: we +work for one thing and get another. I expect that the day will come, and +erelong, when the great universities of the world will have to put the +Tuskegee Idea into execution in order to save themselves from being +distanced by the Colored Race. + +If life were one thing and education another, it might be all right to +separate them. Culture of the head over a desk, and indoor gymnastics +for the body, are not the ideal, and that many succeed in spite of the +handicap is no proof of the excellence of the plan. Ships that go around +the world accumulate many barnacles, but barnacles as a help to the +navigator are an iridescent dream. + +A little regular manual labor, rightly mixed with the mental, eliminates +draw-poker, highballs, brawls, broils, Harvard Beer, Yale Mixture, +Princeton Pinochle, Chippee dances, hazing, roistering, rowdyism and the +bulldog propensity. The Heidelberg article of cocked hat and insolent +ways is not produced at Tuskegee. At Tuskegee there is no place for +those who lie in wait for insults and regard scrapping as a fine art. As +for college athletics at the Orthodox Universities, only one man out of +ten ever does anything at it anyway--the college man who needs the +gymnasium most is practically debarred from everything in it and serves +as a laughing-stock whenever he strips. Coffee, cocaine, bromide, +tobacco and strong drink often serve in lieu of exercise and ozone, and +Princeton winks her woozy eye in innocency. + +Freedom can not be bestowed--it must be achieved. Education can not be +given--it must be earned. Lincoln did not free the slaves--he only freed +himself. The Negroes did not know they were slaves, and so they had no +idea of what freedom meant. Until a man wants to be free, each kind of +freedom is only another form of slavery. Booker Washington is showing +the colored man how to secure a genuine freedom through useful +activity. To get freedom you must shoulder responsibility. + +If college education were made compulsory by the State, and one-half of +the curriculum consisted of actual, useful manual labor, most of our +social ills would be solved, and we would be well out on the highway +towards the Ideal City. + +Without animation, man is naught--nothing is accomplished, nothing done. +People who inspire other people have animation plus. + +And animation plus is ecstasy. In ecstasy the spirit rushes out, runs +over and saturates all. Oratory is an ecstasy that inundates the hearer +and makes him ride upon the crest of another's ideas. + +Art is born of ecstasy--art is ecstasy in the concrete. Beautiful music +is ecstasy expressed in sound, regulated into rhythm, cadence and form. +"Statuary is frozen music," said Heine. + +A man who is not moved into ecstasy by ecstasy is hopeless. A people +that has not the surging, uplifting, onward power that ecstasy gives, is +decadent--dead. + +The Negro is easily moved to ecstasy. Very little musical training makes +him a power in song. At Tuskegee the congregational singing is a feature +that, once heard, is never to be forgotten. Fifteen hundred people +lifting up their hearts in an outburst of emotion--song! Fifteen hundred +people of one mind, doing anything in unison--do you know what it means? +Ecstasy is essentially a matter of sex. In art and religion sex can not +be left out of the equation. The simple fact that in forty years the +Negro race in America has increased from four million to ten million +tells of their ecstasy as a people. "Only happy beings reproduce +themselves," says Darwin. Depress your animal and it ceases to breed; so +there are a whole round of animals that do not reproduce in captivity. +But in slavery or freedom the Negro sings, and reproduces--he is not +doomed nor depressed--his soul arises superior to circumstance. + +Without animation, education is impossible. And the problem of the +educator is to direct this singing, flowing, moving spirit of the hive +into useful channels. + +Education is simply the encouragement of right habits--the fixing of +good habits until they become a part of one's nature, and are exercised +automatically. + +The man who is industrious by habit is the only man who wins. The man +who is not industrious except when driven to it, or when it occurs to +him, accomplishes little. + +Man gets his happiness by doing: and work to a slave is always +distasteful. The power of mimicry and imitation is omitted--the owner +does not work--the strong man does not work. Ergo--to grow strong means +to cease work. To be strong means to be free--to be free means no work! + +It has been a frightfully bad education that the Negro has had--work +distasteful, and work disgraceful! And the slave-owner suffered most of +all, for he came to regard work as debasing. + +And now a Negro is teaching the Negro that work is beautiful--that work +is a privilege--that only through willing service can he ever win his +freedom. Architecture is fixed ecstasy, inspired always by a strong man +who gives a feeling of security. Athens was an ecstasy in marble. + +Tuskegee is an ecstasy in brick and mortar. + +Don't talk about the education of the Negro! The experiment has really +never been tried, except spasmodically, of educating either the whites +or the blacks in the South--or elsewhere. + +A Negro is laying hold upon the natural ecstasy of the Negro, and +directing it into channels of usefulness and excellence. Can you +foretell where this will end--this formation of habits of industry, +sobriety and continued, persistent effort towards the right? + +Booker Washington, child of a despised race, has done and is doing what +the combined pedagogic and priestly wisdom of ages has failed to do. He +is the Moses who by his example is leading the children of his former +oppressors out into the light of social, mental, moral and economic +freedom. + +I am familiar in detail with every criticism brought against Tuskegee. +On examination these criticisms all reduce themselves down to three: + +1. A vast sum of money has been collected by Booker Washington for his +own aggrandizement and benefit. + +2. Tuskegee is a show-place where all the really good work is done by +picked men from the North. + +3. Booker Washington is a tyrant, a dictator and an egotist. + +If I were counsel for Tuskegee--as I am not--I would follow the example +of the worthy accusers, and submit the matter without argument. Booker +Washington can afford to plead guilty to every charge; and he has never +belittled himself by answering his accusers. + +But let the facts be known, that this man has collected upward of six +million dollars, mostly from the people of the North, and has built up +the nearest perfect educational institution in the world. + +It is probably true that many of his teachers and best workers are +picked people--but they are Negroes, and were selected by a Negro. The +great general reveals his greatness in the selection of his generals: it +was the marshals whom Napoleon appointed who won for him his victories; +but his spirit animated theirs, and he chose them for this one +reason--he could dominate them. He infused into their souls a goodly +dash of his own enthusiasm. + +Booker Washington is a greater general than Napoleon. For the Tuskegee +idea no Waterloo awaits. And as near as I can judge, Booker Washington's +most noisy critics are merely camp-followers. + +That the man is a tyrant and a dictator there is no doubt. He is a +beneficent tyrant, but a tyrant still, for he always, invariably, has +his own way in weighty matters--in trivialities others can have theirs. +And as for dictatorship, the man who advances on chaos and transforms it +into cosmos is perforce a dictator and an egotist. + +Booker Washington believes he is in the right, and he makes no effort to +conceal the fact that he is on earth. In him there is no disposition to +run and peep about, and find himself a dishonorable grave. All live men +are egotists, and they are egotists just in proportion as they have +life. Dead men are not egotists. Booker Washington has life in +abundance, and through him I truly believe runs the spirit of Divinity, +if ever a living man had it. A man like this is the instrument of Deity. + +Tuskegee Institute has applications ahead all the time, from all over +America, for competent colored men and women who can take charge of +important work and do it. Dressmakers, housekeepers, cooks, farmers, +stockmen, builders, gardeners, are in demand. The world has never yet +had enough people to bear its burdens. + +Recently we have heard much of the unemployed, but a very little search +will show that the people out of work are those of bad habits, which +make them unreliable and untrustworthy. The South, especially, needs the +willing worker and the practical man. And best of all the South knows +it, and stands ready to pay for the service. + +A few years ago there was a fine storm of protest from Northern Negroes +to the effect that Booker Washington was endeavoring to limit the Negro +to menial service--that is, thrust him back into servility. The first +ambition of the Negro was to get an education so that he might become a +Baptist preacher. To him, education meant freedom from toil, and of +course we do not have to look far to see where he got the idea. Then +when Tuskegee came forward and wanted to make blacksmiths, carpenters +and brick-masons out of black men, there was a cry, "If this means +education, we will none of it--treason, treason!" It was assumed that +the Negro who set other Negroes to work was not their friend. This phase +of the matter requires neither denial nor apology. We smile and pass on. + +In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-seven, the Negro was practically +disenfranchised throughout the South, by being excluded from the +primaries. He had no recognized ticket in the field. For both the blacks +and the whites this has been well. To most of the blacks freedom meant +simply exemption from work. So there quickly grew up a roistering, +turbulent, idle and dangerous class of black men who were used by the +most ambitious of their kind for political ends. To preserve the peace +of the community, the whites were forced to adopt heroic measures, with +the result that we now have the disenfranchised Negro. + +Early in the Eighties, Booker Washington realized that, politically, +there was no hope for his race. He saw, however, that commerce +recognized no color line. We would buy, sell and trade with the black +man on absolute equality. Life-insurance companies would insure him, +banks would receive his deposits, and if honest and competent, would +loan him money. If he could shoe a horse, we waived his complexion; and +in every sort and kind of craftsmanship he stood on absolute equality +with the whites. The only question ever asked was, "Can you do the +work?" + +And Booker Washington set out to help the Negro win success for himself +by serving society through becoming skilled in doing useful things. And +so it became Head, Hand and Heart. The manual was played off against the +intellectual. + +But over and beyond the great achievement of Booker Washington in +founding and carrying to a successful issue the most complete +educational scheme of this age, or any other, stands the man himself. He +is one without hate, heat or prejudice. No one can write on the lintels +of his doorpost the word, "Whim." He is half-white, but calls himself a +Negro. He sides with the disgraced and outcast black woman who gave him +birth, rather than with the respectable white man who was his sire. + +He rides in the Jim Crow cars, and on long trips, if it is deemed +expedient to use a sleeping-car, he hires the stateroom, so that he may +not trespass or presume upon those who would be troubled by the presence +of a colored man. Often in traveling he goes for food and shelter to the +humble home of one of his own people. At hotels he receives and +accepts, without protest or resentment, the occasional contumely of the +inferior whites--whites too ignorant to appreciate that one of God's +noblemen stands before them. For the whites of the South he has only +words of kindness and respect; the worst he says about them is that they +do not understand. His modesty, his patience, his forbearance, are +sublime. He is a true Fabian--he does what he can, like the royal +Roycroft opportunist that he is. Every petty annoyance is passed over; +the gibes and jeers and the ingratitude of his own race are forgotten. +"They do not understand," he calmly says. He does his work. He is +respected by the best people of North and South. He has the confidence +of the men of affairs--he is a safe man. + + + + +[Illustration: THOMAS ARNOLD] + +THOMAS ARNOLD + + + Let me mind my own personal work; keep myself pure and zealous and + believing; laboring to do God's will in this fruitful vineyard of + young lives committed to my charge, as my allotted field, until my + work be done. + + --_Thomas Arnold_ + + +THOMAS ARNOLD + +Thomas Arnold was born in Seventeen Hundred Ninety-five, and died in +Eighteen Hundred Forty-two. His life was short, as men count time, but +he lived long enough to make for himself a name and a fame that are both +lasting and luminous. Though he was neither a great writer nor a great +preacher, yet there were times when he thought he was both. He was only +a schoolteacher. However, he was an artist in schoolteaching, and art is +not a thing--it is a way. It is the beautiful way--the effective way. + +Schoolteachers have no means of proving their prowess by conspicuous +waste, and no time to convince the world of their excellence through +conspicuous leisure; consequently, for histrionic purposes, a +schoolteacher's cosmos is a plain, slaty gray. Schoolteachers do not +wallow in wealth nor feed fat at the public trough. No one ever accuses +them of belonging to the class known as the predatory rich, nor of being +millionaire malefactors. They have to do their work every day at certain +hours and dedicate its results to time. + +For many years Thomas Arnold has been known as the father of his son. +Several great men have been thus overshadowed. The father of Disraeli, +for instance, was favored by fame and fortune, until his gifted son +moved into the limelight, and after that Pater shone mostly in a +reflected glory. Jacopo Bellini was the greatest painter in Venice until +his two sons, Gian and Gentile, surpassed him, and history writes him +down as the father of the Bellinis. Lyman Beecher was regarded as +America's greatest preacher until Henry Ward moved the mark up a few +notches. The elder Pitt was looked upon as a genuine statesman until his +son graduated into the Cabinet, and then "the terrible cornet of horse" +became known as the father of Pitt. Now that both are dust, and we are +getting the proper perspective, we see that "the great commoner" was +indeed a great man, and so they move down the corridors of time +together, arm in arm, this father and son. That excellent person who +carried the gripsacks of greatness so long that he thought the luggage +was his own, Major James B. Pond, launched at least one good thing. It +was this: "Matthew Arnold gave fifty lectures in America, and nobody +ever heard one of them; those in his audience who could no longer endure +the silence slipped quietly out." + +Matthew Arnold was a critic and writer who, having secured a tuppence +worth of success through being the son of his father, and thus securing +the speaker's eye, finally got an oratorical bee in his bonnet and went +a-barnstorming. He cultivated reserve and indifference, both of which he +was told were necessary factors of success in a public speaker. + +And this is true. But they will not make an orator, any more than long +hair, a peculiar necktie, and a queer hat will float a poet on the tide +of time safely into the Hall of Fame. + +Matthew Arnold cultivated repose, but instead of convincing the audience +that he had power, he only made them think he was sleepy. Major Pond, +having lived much with orators, and thinking the trick easy, tried +oratory on his own account, and succeeded as well as did Matthew Arnold. +No one ever heard Major Pond: his voice fell over the footlights, dead, +into the orchestra; only those with opera-glasses knew he was talking. + +But to be unintelligible is not a special recommendation. Men may be +moderate for two reasons--through excess of feeling and because they are +actually dull. + +Matthew Arnold has slipped back into his true position--that of a man of +letters. The genius is a man of affairs. Humanity is the theme, not +books. Books are usually written about the thoughts of men who wrote +books. Books die and disintegrate, but humanity is an endless +procession, and the souls that go marching on are those who fought for +freedom, not those who speculate on abstrusities. + +The credential of Thomas Arnold to immortality is not that he was the +father of Matthew and eight other little Arnolds, but it lies in the +fact that he fought for a wider horizon in life through education. He +lifted his voice for liberty. He believed in the divinity of the child, +not in its depravity. Arnold of Rugby was a teacher of teachers, as +every great teacher is. The pedagogic world is now going back to his +philosophy, just as in statesmanship we are reverting to Thomas +Jefferson. These men who spoke classic truth, not transient--truth that +fits in spite of fashion, time and place--are the true prophets of +mankind. Such was Thomas Arnold! + + * * * * * + +If Thomas Arnold had been just a little bigger, the world probably would +never have heard of him, for an interdict would have been placed upon +his work. The miracle is that, as it was, the Church and the State did +not snuff him out. + +He stood for sweet reasonableness, but unintentionally created much +opposition. His life was a warfare. Yet he managed to make himself +acceptable to a few; so for fourteen years this head master of a +preparatory school for boys lived his life and did his work. He sent out +his radiating gleams, and grew straight in the strength of his spirit, +and lived out his life in the light. + +His sudden death sanctified and sealed his work before he was subdued +and ironed out by the conventions. + +Happy Arnold! If he had lived, he might have met the fate of Arnold of +Brescia, who was also a great teacher. Arnold of Brescia was a pupil of +Abelard, and was condemned by the Church as a disturber of the peace for +speaking in eulogy of his master. Later, he attacked the profligacy of +the idle prelates, as did Luther, Savonarola and all the other great +church-reformers. When ordered into exile and silence, he still +protested his right to speak. He was strangled on order of the Pope, his +body burned, and the ashes thrown into the Tiber. The Baptists, I +believe, claim Arnold of Brescia as the forerunner of their sect, and +certain it is that he was of the true Roger Williams type. + +Thomas Arnold, too, was filled with a passion for righteousness. His +zeal for the upright, manly life constituted his strength. Of course he +would not have been executed, as was Arnold of Brescia--the times had +changed--he would simply have been shelved, pooh-poohed, deprived of his +living and socially Crapseyized. Death saved him--aged forty-seven--and +his soul goes marching on! + + * * * * * + +The parents of Thomas Arnold belonged to the great Middle Class--that +class which Disraeli said never did any thinking on its own account, but +to the best of its ability deferred to and imitated the idle rich in +matters of religion, education and politics. + +Doctor Johnson maintained that if members of the Middle Class worked +hard and economized, it was in the hope that they might leave money and +name for their children and make them exempt from all useful effort. + +"To indict a class," said Burke, "is neither reasonable nor right." But +certain it is that a vast number of fairly intelligent people in England +and elsewhere regard the life of the "aristocracy" as very desirable and +beautiful. + +To this end they want their boys to become clergymen, lawyers, doctors +or army officers. + +"Only two avenues of honor are open to aspiring youth in England," said +Gladstone--"the Army and the Church." + +The father of Thomas Arnold was Collector of Customs at Cowes, Isle of +Wight. Holding this petty office under the Government, with a half-dozen +men at his command, we can easily guess his caliber, habits, belief and +mode of life. He was respectable; and to be respectable, a Collector of +Customs must be punctilious in Church matters, in order to be acceptable +to Church people, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. The parents of +Thomas Arnold very naturally centered their ambitions for him on the +Church, as he was not very strong. + +When the child was only six years old, the father died from "spasm of +the heart." At this time the boy had begun to take Latin, and his +education was being looked after by a worthy governess, who daily +drilled his mental processes and took him walking, leading him by the +hand. On Sundays he wore a wide, white collar, shiny boots and a stiff +hat. The governess cautioned him not to soil his collar, nor to get mud +on his boots. + +In later years he told how he looked covetously at the boys who wore +neither hats nor boots, and who did not have a governess. + +His mother had a fair income, and so this prim, precise, exact and +crystallized mode of education was continued. Out of her great love for +her child, the mother sent him away from home when he was eight years +old. Of course there were tears on both sides; but now a male man must +educate him, and women were to be dropped out of the equation--this that +the evil in the child should be curbed, his spirit chastened, and his +mind disciplined. + +The fact that a child rather liked to be fondled by his mother, or that +his mother cared to fondle him, was proof of total depravity on the part +of both. + +The Reverend Doctor Griffiths, who took charge of the boy for two years, +was certainly not cruel, but at the same time he was not exactly human. +In Nature we never hear of a she-lion sending her cubs away to be looked +after by a denatured lion. It is really doubtful whether you could ever +raise a lion to lionhood by this method. Some goat would come along and +butt the life out of him, even after he had evolved whiskers and a mane. + +After two years with Doctor Griffiths, young Arnold was sent to +Manchester, where he remained in a boys' boarding-house from his tenth +to his fourteenth year. To the teachers here--all men--he often paid +tribute, but uttered a few heretical doubts as to whether discipline as +a substitute for mother-love was not an error of pious but overzealous +educators. + +At sixteen years of age he was transferred to Corpus Christi College at +Oxford. In Eighteen Hundred Fifteen, being then twenty years of age, he +was elected a Fellow of Oriel College, and there he resided until he was +twenty-four. + +He was a prizeman in Latin, Greek and English, and was considered a star +scholar--both by himself and by others. Ten years afterwards he took a +backward glance, and said: "At twenty-two I was proud, precise, stiff, +formal, uncomfortable, unhappy, and unintentionally made everybody else +unhappy with whom I came in contact. The only people I really mixed with +were those whose lives were dedicated to the ablative." + +When twenty-four he was made a deacon and used to read prayers at +neighboring chapels, for which service he was paid five shillings. Being +now thrown on his own resources, he did the thing a prizeman always +does: he showed others how. As a tutor he was a success: more scholars +came to him than he could really take care of. But he did not like the +work, since all the pupil desired, and all the parents desired, was that +he should help the backward one get his marks, and glide through the eye +of a needle into pedagogic paradise. + +At twenty-six he was preaching, teaching and writing learned essays +about things he did not understand. + +From this brief sketch it will be seen that the early education of +Thomas Arnold was of the kind and type that any fond parent of the +well-to-do Middle Class would most desire. He had been shielded from all +temptations of the world; he could do no useful thing with his hands; +his knowledge of economics--ways and means--was that of a child; of the +living present he knew little, but of the dead past he assumed and +believed he knew much. + +It was purely priestly, institutional education. It was the kind of +education that every well-to-do Briton would like to have his sons +receive. It was, in short, England's Ideal. + + * * * * * + +Rugby Grammar School was endowed in Sixteen Hundred Fifty-three by one +Laurence Sherif, a worthy grocer. The original gift was comparatively +small, but the investment being in London real estate, has increased in +value until it yields now an income of about thirty-five thousand +dollars a year. + +In the time of Arnold there were about three hundred pupils. It is not a +large school now; there are high schools in a hundred cities of America +that surpass it in many ways. + +Rugby's claim to special notice lies in its traditions--the great men +who were once Rugby boys, and the great men who were Rugby teachers. +Also, in the fact that Thomas Hughes wrote a famous story called, "Tom +Brown at Rugby." + +Rugby Grammar School was one hundred twenty-five years old when Sir +Joshua Reynolds commissioned Lord Cornwallis to go to America and fetch +George Washington to England, that Sir Joshua might paint his portrait. + +For a hundred years prior to the time of Arnold, there had not been a +perceptible change in the methods of teaching. The boys were herded +together. They fought, quarreled, divided into cliques; the big boys +bullied the little ones. Fagging was the law; so the upper forms +enslaved the lower ones. There was no home life, and the studies were +made irksome and severe, purposely, as it was thought that pleasant +things were sinful. + +If any better plan could have been devised to make study absolutely +repulsive, so the student would shun it as soon as he was out of school, +we can not guess it. + +The system was probably born of inertia on the part of the teachers. The +pastor who pushes through his prescribed services, with mind on other +things, and thus absolves his conscience for letting his congregation go +drifting straight to Gehenna, was duplicated in the teacher. He did his +duty--and nothing more. + +Selfishness, heartlessness and brutality manipulated the birch. Head was +all; heart and hand nothing. This was schoolteaching. As a punishment +for failure to memorize lessons, there were various plans to disgrace +and discourage the luckless ones. Standing in the corner with face to +the wall, and the dunce-cap, had given place to a system of fines, +whereby "ten lines of Vergil for failure to attend prayers," and ten +more for failure to get the first, often placed the boy in hopeless +bankruptcy. If he was a fag, or slave of a higher-form boy, cleaning the +other's boots, scrubbing stairs, running on foolish and needless +errands, getting cuffs and kicks by way of encouragement, he saw his +fines piling up and no way ever to clear them off and gain freedom by +promotion. + +Viewed from our standpoint, the thing has a ludicrous bouffe air that +makes us smile. But to the boy caught in the toils it was tragic. To +work and evolve in an environment of such brutality was impossible to +certain temperaments. Success lay in becoming calloused and indifferent. +If the boy of gentle habits and slight physical force did not sink into +mental nothingness, he was in danger of being bowled over by disease and +death. + +Indeed, the physical condition of the pupils was very bad: smallpox, +fevers, consumption, and breaking out with sores and boils, were common. + +Thomas Arnold was thirty-three years old when he was called as head +master to Rugby. He was married, and babies were coming along with +astonishing regularity. He had taken priestly orders and was passing +rich on one hundred pounds a year. Poverty and responsibility had given +him ballast, and love for his own little brood had softened his heart +and vitalized his soul. + +As a writer and speaker he had made his presence felt at various college +commencements and clergymen's meetings. He had challenged the brutal, +indifferent, lazy and so-called disciplinary methods of teaching. + +And so far as we know, he is the first man in England to declare that +the teacher should be the foster-parent of the child, and that all +successful teaching must be born of love. + +The well-upholstered conservatives twiddled their thumbs, coughed, and +asked: "How about the doctrine of total depravity? Do you mean to say +that the child should not be disciplined? What does Solomon say about +the use of the rod? Does the Bible say that the child is good by +nature?" + +But Thomas Arnold could not explain all he knew. Moreover, he did not +wish to fight the Church--he believed in the Church--to him it was a +divine institution. But there were methods and practises in the Church +that he would have liked to forget. + +"My sympathies go out to inferiority," he said. The weakling often +needed encouragement, not discipline. The bad boy must be won, not +suppressed. + +In one of these conferences of clergymen, Arnold said: + +"I once chided a pupil, a little, pale, stupid boy--undersized and +seemingly half-sick--for not being able to recite his very simple +lesson. He looked up at me and said with a touch of spirit: 'Sir, why do +you get angry with me? Do you not know I am doing the best I can?'" + +One of the clergymen present asked Arnold how he punished the boy for +his impudence. + +And Arnold replied: "I did not punish him--he had properly punished me. +I begged his pardon." + +The idea of a teacher begging the pardon of a pupil was a brand-new +thing. + +Several clergymen present laughed--one scowled--two sneezed. But a +Bishop, shortly after this, urged the name of Thomas Arnold as master of +Rugby, and added to his recommendation this line: "If elected to the +office he will change the methods of schoolteaching in every public +school in England." + +The ayes had it, and Arnold was called to Rugby. The salary was so-so, +the pupils between two and three hundred in number--many were home on +sick-leave--the Sixth Form was in charge. + + +The genius of Arnold was made manifest, almost as soon as he went to +Rugby, by the way in which he managed the boys who bullied the whole +school, and what is worse, did it legally. + +Fagging was official. + +The Sixth Form was composed of thirty boys who stood at the top, and +these boys ran the school. They were boys who, by reason of their size, +strength, aggressiveness and mental ability, got the markings that gave +them this autocratic power. They were now immune from authority--they +were free. In a year they would gravitate to the University. + +We can hardly understand now how a bully could get markings through his +bullying propensities; but a rudimentary survival of the idea may yet be +seen in big football-players, who are given good marks, and very gentle +mental massage in class. If the same scholars were small and skinny, +they would certainly be plucked. + +The faculty found freedom in shifting responsibility for discipline to +the Sixth Form. + +Read the diary of Arnold, and you will be amazed on seeing how he fought +against taking from the Sixth Form the right to bodily chastise any +scholar in the school that the king of the Sixth Form declared deserved +it. + +If a teacher thought a pupil needed punishment, he turned the luckless +one over to the Sixth Form. Can we now conceive of a system where the +duty of certain scholars was to whip other scholars? Not only to whip +them, but to beat them into insensibility if they fought back? + +Such was schoolteaching in the public schools of England in Eighteen +Hundred Thirty. + +Against this brutality there was now a growing sentiment--a piping voice +bidding the tide to stay! + +But now that Arnold was in charge of Rugby, he got the ill-will of his +directors by declaring that he did not intend to curtail the powers of +the Sixth Form--he proposed to civilize it. To try out the new master, +the Sixth Form, proud in their prowess, sent him word that if he +interfered with them in any way, they would first "bust up the school," +and then resign in a body. Moreover, they gave it out that if any pupil +complained to the master concerning the Sixth Form, the one so +complaining would be taken out by night and drowned in the classic Avon. + +There were legends among the younger boys of strange disappearances, and +these were attributed to the swift vengeance of "The Bloody Sixth." + +Above the Sixth Form there was no law. + +Every scholar took off his hat to a "Sixth." A Sixth uncovered to +nobody, and touched his cap only to a teacher. + +And custom had become so rooted that the Sixth Form was regarded as a +sort of police necessity--a caste which served the school just as the +Army served the Church. To reach the Sixth Form were paradise--it meant +liberty and power--liberty to do as you pleased, and power to punish all +who questioned your authority. + +To uproot the power of the Sixth Form was the intent of a few reformers +in pedagogics. + +There were two ways to deal with the boys of the Sixth--fight them or +educate them. + +Arnold called the Rugby Sixth together and assured them that he could +not do without their help. He needed them: he wanted to make Rugby a +model school, a school that would influence all England--would they help +him? + +The dogged faces before him showed signs of interest. He continued, +without waiting for their reply, to set before them his ideal of an +English Gentleman. He persuaded them, melted them by his glowing +personality, shook hands with each, and sent them away. + +The next day he again met them in the same intimate way, and one of the +boys made bold to assure him that if he wanted anybody licked--pupils or +teachers--they stood ready to do his bidding. + +He thanked the boy, but assured him that he was of the opinion that it +would not be necessary to do violence to any one; he was going to unfold +to them another way--a new way, which was very old, but which as yet +England had not tried. + + * * * * * + +The great teacher is not the one who imparts the most facts--he is the +one who inspires by supplying a nobler ideal. + +Men are superior or inferior just in the ratio that they possess certain +qualities. Truth, honor, frankness, health, system, industry, +kindliness, good-cheer and a spirit of helpfulness are so far beyond any +mental acquisition that comparisons are not only odious, but absurd. + +Arnold inspired qualities, and in this respect his work at Rugby forms a +white milestone on the path of progress in pedagogy. + +To an applicant for a position as teacher, Arnold wrote: + + What I want is a man who is a Christian and a gentleman, an active + man, and one who has commonsense, and understands boys. I do not so + much care about scholarship, as he will have immediately under him + the lowest forms in the school, but yet, on second thought, I do + care about it very much, because his pupils may be in the highest + forms; and besides, I think that even the elements are best taught + by a man who has a thorough knowledge of the matter. However, if + one must give way, I prefer activity of mind and an interest in his + work to high scholarship; for the one may be acquired far more + easily than the other. I should wish it also to be understood that + the new master may be called upon to take boarders in his house, it + being my intention for the future to require this of all masters as + I see occasion, that so in time the school-barracks may die a + natural death. With this to offer, I think I have a right to look + rather high for the man whom I fix upon, and it is my great object + to get here a society of intelligent, gentlemanly and active men, + who may permanently keep up the character of the school, and if I + were to break my neck tomorrow, carry it on. + +Ideas are in the air, and great inventions are worked out in different +parts of the world at the same time. Rousseau had written his "Emile," +but we are not aware that Arnold ever read it. + +And if he had, he probably would have been shocked, not inspired, by its +almost brutal frankness. The French might read it--the English could +not. + +Pestalozzi was working out his ideas in Switzerland, and Froebel, an +awkward farmer lad in Germany, was dreaming dreams that were to come +true. But Thomas Arnold caught up the threads of feeling in England and +expressed them in the fabric of his life. + +His plans were scientific, but his reasons, unlike those of Pestalozzi, +will not always stand the test of close analysis. Arnold was true to the +Church, but he found it convenient to forget much for which the Church +stood. He went back to a source nearer the fountainhead. All reforms in +organized religion lie in returning to the primitive type. The religion +of Jesus was very simple; that of a modern church dignitary is very +complex. One can be understood; the other has to be explained and +expounded, and usually several languages are required. + +Arnold would have his boys evolve into Christian gentlemen. And his +type of English gentleman he did not get out of books on theology--it +was his own composite idea. But having once evolved it, he cast around +to justify it by passages of Scripture. This was beautiful, too, but +from our standpoint it wasn't necessary. + +From his it was. + +A gentleman to him was a man who looked for the best in other people, +and not for their faults; who overlooked slights; who forgot the good he +had done; who was courteous, kind, cheerful, industrious and clean +inside and out; who was slow to wrath, fervent in spirit, serving the +Lord. And the "Lord" to Arnold was embodied in Church and State. + +Arnold used to say that schoolteaching should not be based upon +religion, but it should be religion. And to him religion and conduct +were one. + +That he reformed Rugby through the Sixth Form is a fact. He infused into +the big boys the thought that they must help the little ones; that for a +first offense a lad must never be punished; that he should have the +matter fully explained to him, and be shown that he should do right +because it is right, and not for fear of punishment. + +The Sixth Form was taught to unbend its dignity and enter into +fellowship with its so-called inferiors. To this end Arnold set the +example of playing cricket with the "scrubs." + +He never laughed at a poor player nor at a poor scholar. He took dull +pupils into his own house, and insisted that his helpers, the other +teachers, should do the same. He showed the Sixth Form how much better +it was to take the part of the weak, and stop bullying the lower forms, +than to set the example of it in the highest. Before Arnold had been at +Rugby a year, the Sixth Form had resolved itself into a Reception +Committee that greeted all newcomers, got them located, introduced them +to the other boys, showed them the sights, and looked after their wants +like big brothers or foster-fathers. + +Christianity to Arnold was human service. In his zeal to serve, to +benefit, to bless, to inspire, he never tired. + +Such a disposition as this is contagious. In every big business or +school, there is one man's mental attitude that animates the whole +institution. Everybody partakes of it. When the leader gets melancholia, +the shop has it--the whole place becomes tinted with ultra-marine. The +best helpers begin to get out, and the honeycombing process of +dissolution is on. + +A school must have a soul, just as surely as a shop, a bank, a hotel, a +store, a home, or a church has to have. When an institution grows so +great that it has no soul--simply a financial head and a board of +directors--dry-rot sets in and disintegration in a loose wrapper is at +the door. + +This explains why the small colleges are the best, when they are: there +is a personality about them, an animating spirit that is pervasive and +preservative. + +Thomas Arnold was not a man of vast learning, nor could one truthfully +say he had a surplus of intellect; but he had soul, plus. He never +sought to save himself. He gave himself to the boys of Rugby. His heart +went out to them, he believed in them--and he believed them even when +they lied, and he knew they lied. He knew that humanity was sound at +heart; he believed in the divinity of mankind, and tried hard to forget +the foolish theology that taught otherwise. + +Like Thomas Jefferson, who installed the honor system in the University +of Virginia, he trusted young men. He made his appeal to that germ of +goodness which is in every human soul. In some ways he anticipated Ben +Lindsey in his love for the boy, and might have conjured forth from his +teeming brain the Juvenile Court, and thus stopped the creation of +criminals, had his life not been consumed in a struggle with stupidity +and pedantry gone to seed that cried to him, "Oh, who ever heard of such +a thing as that!" + +The Kindergarten utilizes the propensity to play; and Arnold utilizes +the thirst for authority. Altruism is flavored with a desire for +approbation. + +The plan of self-government by means of utilizing the Sixth Form was +quite on the order of our own "George Junior Republic." "A school," he +said, "should be self-governing and cleanse itself from that which is +harmful." And again he says: "If a pupil can gratify his natural desire +for approbation by doing that which is right, proper and best, he will +work to this end instead of being a hero by playing the rowdy. It is for +the scholars to set the seal of their approval on character, and they +will do so if we as teachers speak the word. If I find a room in a +tumult, I blame myself, not the scholars. It is I who have failed, not +they. Were I what I should be, every one of my pupils would reflect my +worth. I key the situation, I set the pace, and if my soul is in +disorder, the school will be in confusion." + +Nothing is done without enthusiasm. It is heart that wins, not head, the +round world over. And yet head must systematize the promptings of the +heart. Arnold had a way of putting soul into a hand-clasp. His pupils +never forgot him. Wherever they went, no matter how long they lived, +they proclaimed the praises of Arnold of Rugby. How much this earnest, +enthusiastic, loving and sincere teacher has influenced civilization, no +man can say. But this we know, that since his day there has come about a +new science of teaching. The birch has gone with the dunce-cap. The +particular cat-o'-nine-tails that was burned in the house of Thomas +Arnold as a solemn ceremony, when the declaration was made, "Henceforth +I know my children will do right!" has found its example in every home +of Christendom. + +We no longer whip children. Schools are no longer places of dread, pain +and suffering, and we as teachers are repeating with Friedrich Froebel +the words of the Nazarene, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and +forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." + +Also, we say with Thomas Arnold: "The boy is father to the man. A race +of gentlemen can only be produced by fostering in the boy the qualities +that make for health, strength and a manly desire to bless, benefit and +serve the race." + + + + +[Illustration: FRIEDRICH FROEBEL] + +FRIEDRICH FROEBEL + + + The purpose of the Kindergarten is to provide the necessary and + natural help which poor mothers require who have to be about their + work all day, and must leave their children to themselves. The + occupations pursued in the Kindergarten are the following: free + play of a child by itself; free play of several children by + themselves; associated play under the guidance of a teacher; + gymnastic exercises; several sorts of handiwork suited to little + children; going for walks; learning music, both instrumental and + vocal; learning the repetition of poetry; story-telling; looking at + really good pictures; aiding in domestic occupations; gardening. + + --_Froebel_ + + +FRIEDRICH FROEBEL + +Friedrich Froebel was born in a Thuringian village, April Twenty-first, +Seventeen Hundred Eighty-two. His father was pastor of the Lutheran +Church. When scarcely a year old his mother died. Erelong a stepmother +came to fill her place--but didn't. This stepmother was the kind we read +about in the "Six Best Sellers." + +Her severity, lack of love, and needlessly religious zeal served the +future Kindergartner a dark background on which to paint a joyous +picture. Froebel was educated by antithesis. His home was the type +etched so unforgetably by Colonel Ed. Howe in his "Story of a Country +Town," which isn't bad enough to be one of the Six Best Sellers. + +At the age of ten, out of pure pity, young Friedrich was rescued from +the cuckoo's nest by an uncle who had a big family of his own and love +without limit. There was a goodly brood left, so little Friedrich, slim, +slender, yellow, pensive and sad, was really never missed. + +The uncle brought the boy up to work, but treated him like a human +being, answering his questions, even allowing him to have stick horses +and little log houses and a garden of his own. + +At fifteen his nature had begun to awaken, and the uncle, harkening to +the boy's wish, apprenticed him for two years to a forester. The young +man's first work was to make a list of the trees in a certain tract and +approximate their respective ages. The night before his work began he +lay awake thinking of the fun he was going to have at the job. In +after-years he told of this incident in showing that it was absurd to +try to divorce work from play. + +The two years as forester's apprentice, from fifteen to seventeen, were +really better for him than any university could have been. His +stepmother's instructions had mostly been in the line of prohibition. +From earliest babyhood he had been warned to "look out." When he went on +the street it was with a prophecy that he would get run over by a cart, +or stolen by the gypsies, or fall off the bridge and be drowned. The +idea of danger had been dinged into his ears so that fear had become a +part of the fabric of his nature. Even at fifteen, he took pains to get +out of the woods before sundown to avoid the bears. At the same time his +intellect told him there were no bears there. But the shudder habit was +upon him. + +Yet by degrees the work in the woods built up his body and he grew to be +at home in the forest, both day and night. His duties taught him to +observe, to describe, to draw, to investigate, to decide. Then it was +transplantation, and perhaps the best of college life consists in taking +the youth out of the home environment and supplying him new +surroundings. + +Forestry in America is a brand-new science. To clear the ground has been +our desire, and so to strip, burn and destroy, saving only such logs as +appealed to us for "lumber," was the desideratum. But now we are +seriously considering the matter of tree-planting and tree-preservation, +and perhaps it would be well to ask ourselves if two years at forestry, +right out of doors, in contact with Nature, wrestling with the world of +wood, rock, plant and living things, wouldn't be better for the boy than +double the time in stuffy dormitories and still more stuffy +recitation-rooms--listening to stuffy lectures about things that are +foreign to life. + +I would say that a boy is a savage, but I do not care to give offense to +fond mammas. To educate him in the line of his likes, as the race has +been educated, seems sensible and right. How would Yellowstone Park +answer for a National University, with Captain Jack Crawford, William +Muldoon, John Burroughs, John Dewey, Stanley Hall and a mixture of men +of these types, for a faculty? + +Froebel thought his two years in the forest saved him from consumption, +and perhaps from insanity, for it taught him to look out, not in, and to +lend a hand. At times he was a little too sentimental, as it was, and a +trifle more of morbidity and sensitiveness would have ruined his life, +absolutely. + +The woods and God's great out-of-doors gave him balance and ballast, +good digestion and sweet sleep o' nights. + +The two years past, he went to Jena, where he had an elder brother. This +brother was a star scholar, and Friedrich looked up to him as a pleiad +of pedagogy. He became a professor in a Jena preparatory school and then +practised medicine; but he never had the misfortune to affront public +opinion, and so oblivion lured and won him, and took him as her own. + +At Jena poor Froebel did not make head. His preparatory work hadn't +prepared him. He floundered in studies too deep for one of his age, then +followed some foolish advice and hired a tutor to help him along. Then +he fell down, was plucked, got into debt, and also into the "carcer," +where he boarded for nine weeks at the expense of the State. + +In the carcer he didn't catch up with his studies, quite naturally, and +the imprisonment almost broke his health. Had he been in the carcer for +dueling, he would have emerged a hero. But debt meant that he had +neither money nor friends. When he was given his release, as an economic +move, he slipped away between two days and made his way to the Forestry +Office, where he applied for a job as laborer. He got it. In a few days +he was promoted to chief of apprentices. + +Forestry meant a certain knowledge of surveying, and this Froebel soon +acquired. Then came map-making, and that was only fun. From map-making +to architecture is but a step, and Froebel quit the woods to work as +assistant to an architect at ten pounds a year and found, it was +confining work, and a trifle more exacting than he had expected--it +required a deal of mathematics, and mathematics was Froebel's short +suit. Froebel was disappointed and so was his employer--when something +happened. It usually does in books, and in life, always. + + * * * * * + +Genius has its prototype. Before Froebel comes Pestalozzi, the Swiss, +who studied theology and law, and then abandoned them both as futile to +human evolution, and turned his attention to teaching. Pestalozzi was +inspired by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and read his "Emile" religiously. To +teach by natural methods and mix work and study, and make both play, was +his theme. Pestalozzi believed in teaching out of doors, because +children are both barbaric and nomadic--they want to go somewhere. His +was the Aristotle method, as opposed to those of the closet and the +cloister. But he made the mistake of saying that teaching should be +taken out of the hands and homes of the clergy, and then the clergy said +a few things about him. + +Pestalozzi at first met with very meager encouragement. Only poor and +ignorant people entrusted their children to his care, and some of the +parents were actually paid in money for the services of the children. +The thought that the children were getting an education and being useful +at the same time was quite beyond their comprehension. + +Pestalozzi educated by stealth. At first he took several boys and girls +of eight, ten or twelve years of age, and had them work with him in his +garden. They cared for fowls, looked after the sheep, milked the cows. +The master worked with them, and as they worked they talked. Going to +and from their duties, Pestalozzi would call their attention to the +wild birds, and to the flowers, plants and weeds. They would draw +pictures of things, make collections of leaves and flowers, and keep a +record of their observations and discoveries. Through keeping these +records they learned to read and write and acquired the use of simple +mathematics. Things they did not understand they would read about in the +books found in the teacher's library. But books were secondary and quite +incidental in the scheme of study. When work seemed to become irksome +they would all stop and play games. At other times they would sit and +just talk about what their work happened to suggest. If the weather was +unpleasant, there was a shop where they made hoes and rakes and other +tools they needed. They also built bird-houses, and made simple pieces +of furniture, so all the pupils, girls and boys, became more or less +familiar with carpenter's and blacksmith's tools. They patched their +shoes, mended their clothing, and at times prepared their own food. + +Pestalozzi found that the number of pupils he could look after in this +way was not more than ten. But to his own satisfaction, at least, he +proved that children taught by his method surpassed those who were given +the regular set courses of instruction. His chief difficulties lay in +the fact that the home did not co-operate with the school, and that +there was always a tendency to "return to the blanket." + +Pestalozzi wrote accounts of his experiments and emphasized his belief +that we should educate through the child's natural activities; also that +all growth should be pleasurable. His shibboleth was, "From within, +out." He thought education was a development and not an acquirement. + +One of Pestalozzi's little pamphlets fell into the hands of Friedrich +Froebel, architect's assistant, at Frankfort. + +Froebel was twenty-two years old, and Fate had tossed him around from +one thing to another since babyhood. All of his experiences had been of +a kind that prepared his mind for the theories that Pestalozzi +expressed. + +Besides that, architecture had begun to pall upon him. "Those who can, +do; those who can't, teach." This was said in derision, but it holds a +grain of truth. + +Froebel had a great desire to teach. Now, in Frankfort there was a Model +School or a school for teachers, of which one Herr Gruner was master. +This school was actually carrying out some of the practical methods +suggested by Pestalozzi. Quite by accident Gruner and Froebel met. +Gruner wanted a teacher who could teach by the Pestalozzi methods. +Froebel straightway applied to Herr Gruner for the position. He was +accepted as a combination janitor and instructor and worked for his +board and ten marks, or two and a half dollars a week. + +The good-cheer and enthusiasm of Froebel won Gruner's heart. Together +they discussed Pestalozzi and his works, read all that he had written, +and opened up a correspondence with the great man. This led to an +invitation that Froebel should visit him at his farm-school, near +Yverdon, in Switzerland. + +Gruner supplied Froebel the necessary money to replace his very seedy +clothes for something better, and the young man started away. It was a +walk of more than two hundred miles, but youth and enthusiasm count such +a tramp as an enjoyable trifle. Froebel wore his seedy clothes and +carried his good ones, and so he appeared before the master spick and +span. + +Pestalozzi was sixty years old at this time, and his hopes for the "new +method" were still high. He had met opposition, ridicule and +indifference, and had spent most of his little fortune in the fight, but +he was still at it and resolved to die in the harness. + +Froebel was not disappointed in Pestalozzi, and certainly Pestalozzi was +delighted and a bit amused at the earnestness of the young man. +Pestalozzi was working in a very economical way, but all the place +lacked Froebel, in his exuberant imagination, made good. + +Froebel found much, for he had brought much with him. + + * * * * * + +Froebel returned to Frankfort from his visit to Pestalozzi, full of +enthusiasm, and that is the commodity without which no teacher succeeds. +Gruner allowed him to gravitate. And soon Froebel's room was the central +point of interest for the whole school. But trouble was ahead for +Froebel. + +He had no college degrees. His pedagogic pedigree was very short. He +hoped to live down his university record, but it followed him. Gruner's +school was under government inspection, and the gentlemen with double +chins, who came from time to time to look the place over, asked who this +enthusiastic young person was, and why had the worthy janitor and +ex-forester been so honored by promotion. + +In truth, during his life, Froebel never quite escaped the taunt that he +was not an educated man. That is to say, no college had ever supplied +him an alphabetic appendage. He had been a forester, a farmer, an +architect, a guardian for boys and a teacher of women, but no +institution had ever said officially he was fit to teach men. + +Gruner tried to explain that there are two kinds of teachers: people who +are teachers by nature, and those who have acquired the methods by long +study. The first, having little to learn, and a love for the child, with +a spontaneous quality of giving their all, succeed best. + +But poor Gruner's explanation did not explain. + +Then the matter was gently explained to Froebel, and he saw that in +order to hold a place as teacher he must acquire a past. "Time will +adjust it," he said, and started away on a second visit to Pestalozzi. +His plan was to remain with the master long enough so he could secure a +certificate of proficiency. + +Again Pestalozzi welcomed the young man, and he slipped easily into the +household and became both pupil and teacher. His willingness to work--to +do the task that lay nearest him--his good-nature, his gratitude, won +all hearts. + +At this time the plan of sending boys to college with a tutor who was +both a companion and a teacher, was in vogue with those who could afford +it. It will be remembered that William and Alexander von Humboldt +received their early education in this way--going with their tutor from +university to university, teacher and pupils entering as special +students, getting into the atmosphere of the place, soaking themselves +full of it, and then going on. + +And now behold, through Gruner or Pestalozzi or both, a woman of wealth +with three boys to educate applied to Froebel to come over into +Macedonia and help her. + +It was in Eighteen Hundred Seven that Froebel became tutor in the Von +Holzhausen family. He was twenty-five years old, and this was his first +interview with wealth and leisure. That he was hungry enough to +appreciate it need not be emphasized. + +He got goodly glimpses of Gottingen, Berlin, and was long enough at +Jena to rub the blot off the 'scutcheon. A stay at Weimar, in the Goethe +country, completed the four years' course. + +The boys had grown to men, and proved their worth in after-years; but +whether they had gotten as much from the migrations as their teacher is +very doubtful. He was ripe for opportunity--they had had a surfeit of +it. + +Then came war. The order to arms and the rush of students to obey their +country's call caught Froebel in the patriotic vortex, and he enlisted +with his pupils. + +His service was honorable, even if not brilliant, and it had this +advantage: the making of two friends, companions in arms, who caught the +Pestalozzian fever, and lived out their lives preaching and teaching +"the new method." + +These men were William Middendorf and Henry Langenthal. This trinity of +brothers evolved a bond as beautiful as it is rare in the realm of +friendship. Forty years after their first meeting, Middendorf gave an +oration over the dead body of Froebel that lives as a classic, breathing +the love and faith that endure. + +And then Middendorf turned to his work, and dared prison and disgrace by +upholding the Kindergarten System and the life and example of his dear, +dead friend. The Kindergarten Idea would probably have been buried in +the grave with Froebel--interred with his bones--were it not for +Middendorf and Langenthal. + + * * * * * + +The first Kindergarten was established in Eighteen Hundred Thirty-six, +at Blankenburg, a little village near Keilhau. Froebel was then +fifty-four years old, happily married to a worthy woman who certainly +did not hamper his work, even if she did not inspire it. He was +childless, that all children might call him father. + +The years had gone in struggles to found Normal Schools in Germany after +the Pestalozzian and Gruner methods. But disappointment, +misunderstanding and stupidity had followed Froebel. The set methods of +the clergy, accusations of revolution and heresy, tilts with pious +pedants as to the value of dead languages, all combined with his own +lack of business shrewdness, had wrecked his various ventures. + +Froebel's argument that women were better natural teachers than men on +account of the mother-instinct, brought forth a retort from a learned +monk to the effect that it was indelicate if not sinful for an unmarried +female, who was not a nun, to study the natures of children. + +Parents with children old enough to go to school would not entrust their +darlings with the teaching experimenter--this on the advice of their +pastors. + +Middendorf and Langenthal were still with him, partners in the disgrace +or failure, for none was willing to give up the fight for education by +the natural methods. + +A great thought and a great word came to them, all at once--out on the +mountain-side! + +Begin with the children before the school age, and call it the +Kindergarten! + +Hurrah! They shouted for joy, and ran down the hill to tell Frau +Froebel. + +The schools they had started before had been called, "The Institution +for Teaching According to the Pestalozzi Method and the Natural +Activities of the Child," "Institution for the Encouragement and +Development of the Spontaneous Activities of the Pupil," and "Friedrich +Froebel's School for the Growth of the Creative Instinct Which Makes for +a Useful Character." + +A school with such names, of course, failed. No one could remember it +long enough to send his child there--it meant nothing to the mind not +prepared for it. + +What's in a name? Everything. Books sell or become dead stock on the +name. Commodities the same. Railroads must have a name people are not +afraid to pronounce. + +The officers of the law came and asked to see Froebel's license for +manufacturing. Others asked as to the nature of his wares, and one +dignitary called and asked, "Is Herr Pestalozzi in?" + +The Kindergarten! The new name took. The children remembered it. +Overworked mothers liked the word and were glad to let the little +other-mothers take the children to the Kindergarten, certainly. + +Froebel had grown used to disappointments--he was an optimist by nature. +He saw the good side of everything, including failure. + +He made the best of necessity. And now it was very clear to him that +education must begin "a hundred years before the child is born." He +would reach the home and the mother through the children. "It will take +three generations to prove the truth of the Kindergarten Idea," he said. + +And so the songs, the gifts, the games--all had to be invented, +defended, tried and tried again. Pestalozzi had a plan for teaching the +youth; now a plan had to be devised for teaching the child. Love was the +keystone, and joy, unselfishness and unswerving faith in the Natural or +Divine impulses of humanity crowned the structure. + + * * * * * + +Froebel invented the schoolma'am. That is, he discovered the raw product +and adapted it. He even coined the word, and it struck the world as +being so very funny that we forthwith adopted it as a term of provincial +pleasantry and quasi-reproach. The original term used was "school +mother," but when it reached these friendly shores we translated it +"schoolmarm." Then we tittered, also sneezed. + +Froebel died in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-two. His first Kindergarten was +not a success until he was nearly sixty years old, but the idea had been +perfecting itself in his mind more or less unconsciously for over thirty +years. + +He had been thinking, writing, working, experimenting all these years on +the subject of education, and he had become well-nigh discouraged. He +had observed that six was the "school age." That is, no child could go +to school until he was six years old--then his education began. + +But Froebel had been teaching in a country school and boarding 'round, +and he had discovered that long before this the child had been learning +by observing and playing, and that these were formative influences, +quite as potent as actual school. + +In the big families where Froebel boarded, he noticed that the older +girls took charge of the younger ones. So, often a girl of ten, with +dresses to her knees, carried one baby in her arms and two toddled +behind her, and this child of ten was really the other-mother. The true +mother worked in the fields or toiled at her housework, and the little +other-mother took the children out to play and thus amused them while +the mother worked. + +The desire of Froebel was to educate the race, but what are a few hours +a day in a schoolroom with a totally unsympathetic home environment! + +To reach and interest the mother in the problem of education was +well-nigh impossible. Toil, deprivation, poverty, had killed all the +romance and enthusiasm in her heart. She was the victim of arrested +development; but the little other-mother was a child, impressionable, +immature, and she could be taught. The home must co-operate with the +school, otherwise all the school can teach will be forgotten in the +home. Froebel saw, too, that often the little other-mother was so +overworked in the care of her charges that she was taken from school. +Besides, the idea was abroad that education was mostly for boys, anyway. + +And here Froebel stepped in and proved himself a law-breaker, just as +Ben Lindsey was when he inaugurated the juvenile court and waived the +entire established legal procedure, even to the omission of swearing his +witnesses, and believed in the little truant even though he lied. +Froebel told the little other-mothers to come to school anyway and bring +the babies with them. + +And then he set to work showing these girls how to amuse, divert and +teach the babies. And he used to say the babies taught him. + +Some of these half-grown girls showed a rare adaptability as teachers. +They combined mother-love and the teaching instinct. + +Froebel utilized their services in teaching others in order that he +might teach them. + +He saw that the teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, +and that the true teacher is a learner. These girl teachers he called +school-mothers, and thus was evolved the word and the person. + +Froebel founded the first normal and model school for the education of +women as teachers, and this was less than a hundred years ago. + +The years went by and the little mothers had children of their own, and +these children were the ones that formed the first actual, genuine +kindergarten. + +Also, these were the mothers who formed the first mothers' clubs. + +And it was the success of these clubs that attracted the attention of +the authorities, who could not imagine any other purpose for a club than +to hatch a plot against the government. + +Anyway, a system which taught that women were just as wise, just as good +and just as capable as men--just as well fitted by nature to +teach--would upset the clergy. If women can break into the school, they +will also break into the church. Moreover, the encouragement of play was +atrocious. Mein Gott, or words to that effect, play in a schoolroom! +Why, even a fool would know that that is the one thing that stood in +the way of education, the one fly in the pedagogic ointment. If Mynheer +Froebel would please invent a way to do away with play in schoolrooms, +he would be given a pension. + +The idea that children were good by nature was rank heresy. Where does +the doctrine of regeneration come in, and how about being born again! +The natural man is at enmity toward God. We are conceived in sin and +born in iniquity. The Bible says it again and again. + +And here comes a man who thinks he knows more than all the priests and +scholars who have ever lived, and fills the heads of fool women with the +idea that they are born to teach instead of to work in the fields and +keep house and wait on men. + +Mein Gott in Himmel, the women know too much, already! If this thing +keeps on, men will have to get off the earth, and women and children +will run the world, and do it by means of play. Aha! What does Solomon +say? Spare the rod and spoil the child. Aber nicht, say these girls. + +This thing has got to stop before Germany becomes the joke of +mankind--the cat-o'-nine-tails for anybody who uses the word +kindergarten! + + * * * * * + +"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of +such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Had the man who uttered these words been +given a little encouragement, he probably would have inaugurated a +child-garden and provided a place and environment where little souls +could have bloomed and blossomed. He was by nature a teacher, and his +best pupils were women and children. Male men are apt to think they +already know and so are immune from ideas. + +Jerusalem, nineteen hundred years ago, was about where Berlin was in +Eighteen Hundred Fifty. In both instances the proud priest and the +aristocrat-soldier were supreme. And both were quite satisfied with +their own mental attainments and educational methods. They were sincere. +It was a very similar combination that crucified Jesus to that which +placed an interdict on Friedrich Froebel, making the Kindergarten a +crime, and causing the speedy death of one of the gentlest, noblest, +purest men who have ever blessed this earth. + +Froebel was just seventy when he passed out. "His eye was not dimmed nor +his natural force abated"--he was filled with enthusiasm and hope as +never before. His ideas were spreading--success, at last, was at the +door, he had interested the women and proved the fitness of women to +teach--his mothers' clubs were numerous--love was the watchword. And in +the midst of this flowering time, the official order came, without +warning, apology or explanation, and from which there was no appeal. The +same savagery, chilled with fear, that sent Richard Wagner into exile, +crushed the life and broke the heart of Friedrich Froebel. But these +names now are the pride and glory of the land that once scorned them. +Men who govern should be those with a reasonable doubt concerning their +own infallibility, and an earnest faith in men, women and children. To +teach is better than to rule. We are all children in the Kindergarten of +God. + + + + +[Illustration: HYPATIA] + +HYPATIA + + + Neo-Platonism is a progressive philosophy, and does not expect to + state final conditions to men whose minds are finite. Life is an + unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can + comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the + best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond. + + --_Hypatia_ + + +HYPATIA + +The father of Hypatia was Theon, a noted mathematician and astronomer of +Alexandria. He would have been regarded as a very great man had he not +been cast into the shadow by his daughter. Let male parents beware. + +At that time, astronomy and astrology were one. Mathematics was useful, +not for purposes of civil engineering, but principally in figuring out +where a certain soul, born under a given planet, would be at a certain +time in the future. + +No information comes to us about the mother of Hypatia--she was so busy +with housework that her existence is a matter of assumption or a priori +reasoning; thus, given a daughter, we assume the existence of a mother. + +Hypatia was certainly the daughter of her father. He was her tutor, +teacher, playmate. All he knew he taught to her, and before she was +twenty she had been informed by him of a fact which she had previously +guessed--that considerable of his so-called knowledge was conjecture. + +Theon taught his daughter that all systems of religion that pretend to +teach the whole truth were to a great degree false and fraudulent. He +explained to her that his own profession of astronomy and astrology was +only for other people. By instructing her in all religions she grew to +know them comparatively, and so none took possession of her to the +exclusion of new truth. To have a religion thrust upon you, and be +compelled to believe in it or suffer social ostracism, is to be cheated +of the right to make your own. In degree it is letting another live your +life. A child does not need a religion until he is old enough to evolve +it, and then he must not be robbed of the right of independent thinking +by having a fully-prepared plan of salvation handed out to him. The +brain needs exercise as much as the body, and vicarious thinking is as +erroneous as vicarious exercise. Strength comes from personal effort. To +think is natural, and if not intimidated or coerced the man will evolve +a philosophy of life that is useful and beneficent. + +Religious mania is a result of dwelling on a borrowed religion. If let +alone no man would become insane on religious topics, for the religion +he would evolve would be one of joy, laughter and love, not one of +misery or horror. The religion that contemplates misery and woe is one +devised by priestcraft for a purpose, and that purpose is to rule and +rob. From the blunt ways of the road we get a polite system of +intimidation which makes the man pay. It is robbery reduced to a system, +and finally piously believed in by the robbers, who are hypnotized into +the belief that they are doing God's service. + +"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted +by self-respecting persons as final," said Theon to Hypatia. "Reserve +your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to +think at all." + +Theon gave lectures, and had private classes in esoterics, wherein the +innermost secrets of divinity were imparted. Also, he had a plan for the +transmutation of metals and a recipe for perpetual youth. When he had +nothing else to do, he played games with his daughter. + +At twenty-one Hypatia had mastered the so-called art of Rhetoric, or the +art of expression by vocal speech. + +It will be remembered that the Romans considered rhetoric, or the art of +the rhetor, or orator, as first in importance. To impress people by your +personal presence they regarded as the gift of gifts. + +This idea seems to have been held by the polite world up to the Italian +Renaissance, when the art of printing was invented and the written word +came to be regarded as more important than the spoken. One lives, and +the other dies on the air, existing only in memory, growing attenuated +and diluted as it is transferred. The revival of sculpture and painting +also helped oratory to take its proper place as one of the polite arts, +and not a thing to be centered upon to the exclusion of all else. + +Theon set out to produce a perfect human being; and whether his charts, +theorems and formulas made up a complete law of eugenics, or whether it +was dumb luck, this we know: he nearly succeeded. Hypatia was five feet +nine, and weighed one hundred thirty-five pounds. This when she was +twenty. She could walk ten miles without fatigue; swim, row, ride +horseback and climb mountains. Through a series of gentle calisthenics +invented by her father, combined with breathing exercises, she had +developed a body of rarest grace. Her head had corners, as once +Professor O. S. Fowler told us that a woman's head must have, if she is +to think and act with purpose and precision. + +So having evolved this rare beauty of face, feature and bodily grace, +combined with superior strength and vitality, Hypatia took up her +father's work and gave lectures on astronomy, mathematics, astrology and +rhetoric, while he completed his scheme for the transmutation of metals. +Hypatia's voice was flute-like, and used always well within its compass, +so as never to rasp or tire the organs. Theon knew the proper care of +nose and throat, a knowledge which with us moderns is all too rare. +Hypatia told of and practised the vocal ellipse, the pause, the glide, +the slide and the gentle, deliberate tones that please and impress. That +the law of suggestion was known to her was very evident, and certain it +is that she practised hypnotism in her classes, and seemed to know as +much about the origin of the mysterious agent as we do now, even though +she never tagged or labeled it. + +One very vital thought she worked out was, that the young mind is +plastic, impressionable and accepts without question all that it is +told. The young receive their ideas from their elders, and ideas once +impressed upon this plastic plate of the mind can not be removed. + +Said Hypatia: "Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and +miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most +terrible thing. The child-mind accepts and believes them, and only +through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after-years relieved +of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as +for a living truth--often more so, since a superstition is so intangible +you can not get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so +is changeable." + +Gradually, over the mind of the beautiful and gifted Hypatia, there came +stealing a doubt concerning the value of her own acquirements, since +these were "acquirements," and not evolutions or convictions gathered +from experience, but things implanted upon her plastic mind by her +father. + +In this train of thought Hypatia had taken a step in advance of her +father, for he seems to have had a dogmatic belief in a few things +incapable of demonstration; but these things he taught to the plastic +mind, just the same as the things he knew. Theon was a dogmatic liberal. +Possibly the difference between an illiberal Unitarian and a liberal +Catholic is microscopic. + +Hypatia clearly saw that knowledge is the distilled essence of our +intuitions, corroborated by experience. But belief is the impress made +upon our minds when we are under the spell of or in subjection to +another. + +These things caused the poor girl many unhappy hours, which fact, in +itself, is proof of her greatness. Only superior people have a capacity +for doubting. + +Probably not one person in a million ever gets away far enough from his +mind to take a look at it, and see the wheels go round. Opinions become +ossified and the man goes through life hypnotizing others, never +realizing for an instant that in youth he was hypnotized and that he has +never been able to cast off the hypnosis. + +This is what our pious friends mean when they say, "Give me the child +until he is ten years old and you may have him afterward." That is, they +can take the child in his plastic age and make impressions on his mind +that are indelible. Reared in an orthodox Jewish family a child will +grow up a dogmatic Jew, and argue you on the Talmud six nights and days +together. + +Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, the same. I once knew an Arapahoe +Indian who was taken to Massachusetts when four years old. He grew up +not only with New England prejudices, but with a New England accent, and +saved his pennies to give to missionaries that they might "convert" the +Red Men. + +When the suspicion seized upon the soul of Hypatia that her mind was but +a wax impression taken from her father's, she began to make plans to get +away from him. Her efforts at explanations were futile, but when placed +upon the general ground that she wished to travel, see the world and +meet people of learning and worth, her father acquiesced and she started +away on her journeyings. He wanted to go, too, but this was the one +thing she did not desire, and he never knew nor could know why. + +She spent several months at Athens, where her youth, beauty and learning +won her entry into the houses of the most eminent. It was the same at +Rome and in various other cities of Italy. Money may give you access to +good society, but talent is always an open sesame. She traveled like a +princess and was received as one, yet she had no title nor claim to +nobility nor station. Beauty of itself is not a credential--rather it is +an object of suspicion, unless it goes with intellect. + +Hypatia gave lectures on mathematics; and there was a fallacy abroad +then as there is now that the feminine mind is not mathematical. That +the great men whom Hypatia met in each city were first amazed and then +abashed by her proficiency in mathematics is quite probable. Some few +male professors being in that peculiar baldheaded hypnotic state when +feminine charms dazzle and lure, listened in rapture as Hypatia +dissolved logarithms and melted calculi, and not understanding a word +she said, declared that she was the goddess Minerva, reincarnated. Her +coldness on near approach confirmed their suspicions. + + * * * * * + +Just how long a time Hypatia spent upon her pilgrimage, visiting all of +the great living philosophers, we do not know. Some accounts have it one +year, others ten. + +Probably the pilgrimages were extended over a good many years, and were +not continuous. Several philosophers proved their humanity by offering +to marry her, and a prince or two did likewise, we are credibly +informed. To these persistent suitors, however, Hypatia gently broke the +news that she was wedded to truth, which is certainly a pretty speech, +even if it is poor logic. The fact was, however, that Hypatia never met +a man whose mind matched her own, otherwise logic would have bolstered +love, instead of discarding it. + +Travel, public speaking and meeting people of note form a strong trinity +of good things. The active mind is the young mind, and it is more than +the dream of a poet which declares that Hypatia was always young and +always beautiful, and that even Father Time was so in love with her that +he refused to take toll from her, as he passed with his hourglass and +scythe. + +In degree she had followed the example of her great prototype, Plotinus, +and had made herself master of all religions. She knew too much of all +philosophies to believe implicitly in any. Alexandria was then the +intellectual center of the world. People who resided there called it the +hub of the universe. It was the meeting-place of the East and the West. + +And Hypatia, with her Thursday lectures, was the chief intellectual +factor of Alexandria. + +Her philosophy she called Neo-Platonism. It was Plato distilled through +the psychic alembic of Hypatia. Just why the human mind harks back and +likes to confirm itself by building on another, it would be interesting +to inquire. To explain Moses; to supply a key to the Scriptures; to +found a new School of Philosophy on the assumption that Plato was right, +but was not understood until the Then and There, is alluring. + +And now the pilgrims came from Athens, and Rome, and the Islands of the +Sea to sit at the feet of Hypatia. + + * * * * * + +Hypatia was born in the year Three Hundred Seventy, and died in Four +Hundred Thirty. She exerted an influence in Alexandria not unlike that +which Mrs. Eddy exerted in Boston. She was a person who divided society +into two parts: those who regarded her as an oracle of light, and those +who looked upon her as an emissary of darkness. + +Strong men paid her the compliment of using immoderate language +concerning her teaching. But whether they spoke ill or well of her +matters little now. The point is this: they screeched, sneezed, or +smiled on those who refused to acknowledge the power of Hypatia. Some +professors of learning tried to waive her; priests gently pooh-poohed +her; and some elevated an eyebrow and asked how the name was spelled. +Others, still, inquired, "Is she sincere?" + +She was the Ralph Waldo Emerson of her day. Her philosophy was +Transcendentalism. In fact, she might be spoken of as the original +charter member of the Concord School of Philosophy. Her theme was the +New Thought, for New Thought is the oldest form of thought of which we +know. Its distinguishing feature is its antiquity. Socrates was really +the first to express the New Thought, and he got his cue from +Pythagoras. + +The ambition of Hypatia was to revive the flowering-time of Greece, when +Socrates and Plato walked arm in arm through the streets of Athens, +followed by the greatest group of intellectuals the world has ever +seen. + +It was charged against Hypatia that Aspasia was her ideal, and that her +ambition was to follow in the footsteps of the woman who was beloved by +Pericles. If so, it was an ambition worthy of a very great soul. +Hypatia, however, did not have her Pericles, and never married. That she +should have had love experiences was quite natural, and that various +imaginary romances should have been credited to her was also to be +expected. + +Hypatia was nearly a thousand years removed from the time of Pericles +and Aspasia, but to bridge the gulf of time with imagination was easy. +Yet Hypatia thought that the New Platonism should surpass the old, for +the world had had the Age of Augustus to build upon. + +Hypatia's immediate prototype was Plotinus, who was born two hundred +four years after Christ, and lived to be seventy. Plotinus was the first +person to use the phrase "Neo-Platonism," and so the philosophy of +Hypatia might be called "The New Neo-Platonism." + +To know but one religion is not to know that one. + +In fact, superstition consists in this one thing--faith in one religion, +to the exclusion of all others. + +To know one philosophy is to know none. They are all comparative, and +each serves as a small arc of the circle. A man living in a certain +environment, with a certain outlook, describes the things he sees; and +out of these, plus what he imagines, is shaped his philosophy of life. +If he is repressed, suppressed, frightened, he will not see very much, +and what he does see will be out of focus. Spiritual strabismus and +mental myopia are the results of vicarious peeps at the universe. All +formal religions have taught that to look for yourself was bad. The +peephole through the roof of his garret cost Copernicus his liberty, but +it was worth the price. + +Plotinus made a study of all philosophies--all religions. He traveled +through Egypt, Greece, Assyria, India. He became an "adept", and +discovered how easily the priest drifts into priestcraft, and fraud +steps in with legerdemain and miracle to amend the truth. As if to love +humanity were not enough to recommend the man, they have him turn water +into wine and walk on the water. + +Out of the labyrinth of history and speculation Plotinus returned to +Plato as a basis or starting-point for all of the truth which man can +comprehend. Plotinus believed in all religions, but had absolute faith +in none. It will be remembered that Aristotle and Plato parted as to the +relative value of poetry and science--science being the systematized +facts of Nature. Plotinus comes in and says that both were right, and +each was like every good man who exaggerates the importance of his own +calling. In his ability to see the good in all things, Hypatia placed +Plotinus ahead of Plato, but even then she says: "Had there been no +Plato, there would have been no Plotinus; although Plotinus surpassed +Plato, yet it is plain that Plato, the inspirer of Plotinus and so many +more, is the one man whom philosophy can not spare. Hail, Plato!!" + + * * * * * + +The writings of Hypatia have all disappeared, save as her words come to +us, quoted by her contemporaries. If the Essays of Emerson should all be +swept away, the man would still live in the quotations from his pen, +given to us by every writer of worth who has put pencil to paper during +the last fifty years. So lives Sappho, and thus did Charles Kingsley +secure the composite of the great woman who lives and throbs through his +book. Legend pictures her as rarely beautiful, with grace, poise and +power, plus. + +She was sixty when she died. History kindly records it forty-five--and +all picture her as a beautiful and attractive woman to the last. The +psychic effects of a gracefully-gowned first reader, with sonorous +voice, using gesture with economy, and packing the pauses with feeling, +have never been fully formulated, analyzed and explained. Throngs came +to hear Hypatia lecture--came from long distances, and listened +hungrily, and probably all they took away was what they brought, except +a great feeling of exhilaration and enthusiasm. To send the hearer away +stepping light, and his heart beating fast--this is oratory--which isn't +so much to bestow facts, as it is to impart a feeling. This Hypatia +surely did. Her theme was Neo-Platonism. "Neo" means new, and all New +Thought harks back to Plato, who was the mouthpiece of Socrates. "Say +what you will, you'll find it all in Plato." Neo-Platonism is our New +Thought, and New Thought is Neo-Platonism. + +There are two kinds of thought: New Thought and Secondhand Thought. New +Thought is made up of thoughts you, yourself, think. The other kind is +supplied to you by jobbers. The distinguishing feature of New Thought is +its antiquity. Of necessity it is older than Secondhand Thought. All +genuine New Thought is true for the person who thinks it. It only turns +sour and becomes error when not used, and when the owner forces another +to accept it. It then becomes a secondhand revelation. All New Thought +is revelation, and secondhand revelations are errors half-soled with +stupidity and heeled with greed. + +Very often we are inspired to think by others, but in our hearts we have +the New Thought; and the person, the book, the incident, merely remind +us that it is already ours. New Thought is always simple; Secondhand +Thought is abstruse, complex, patched, peculiar, costly, and is passed +out to be accepted, not understood. That no one comprehends it is often +regarded as a recommendation. + +For instance, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image," is +Secondhand Thought. The first man who said it may have known what it +meant, but surely it is nothing to us. However, that does not keep us +from piously repeating it, and having our children memorize it. + +We model in clay or wax, and carve if we can, and give honors to those +who do, and this is well. This commandment is founded on the fallacy +that graven images are gods, whatever that is. The command adds nothing +to our happiness, nor does it shape our conduct, nor influence our +habits. Everybody knows and admits its futility, yet we are unable to +eliminate it from our theological system. It is strictly +secondhand--worse, it is junk. + +Conversely, the admonition, "Be gentle and keep your voice low," is New +Thought, since all but savages know its truth, comprehend its import, +and appreciate its excellence. + +Dealers in Secondhand Thought always declare that theirs is the only +genuine, and that all other is spurious and dangerous. + +Dealers in New Thought say, "Take this only as it appeals to you as your +own--accept it all, or in part, or reject it all--and in any event, do +not believe it merely because I say so." + +New Thought is founded on the laws of your own nature, and its +shibboleth is, "Know Thyself." + +Secondhand Thought is founded on authority, and its war-cry is, "Pay and +Obey." + +New Thought offers you no promise of paradise or eternal bliss if you +accept it; nor does it threaten you with everlasting hell, if you don't. +All it offers is unending work, constant effort, new difficulties; +beyond each success is a new trial. Its only satisfactions are that you +are allowing your life to unfold itself according to the laws of its +nature. And these laws are divine, therefore you yourself are divine, +just as you allow the divine to possess your being. New Thought allows +the currents of divinity to flow through you unobstructed. + +Secondhand Thought affords no plan of elimination; it tends to +congestion, inflammation, disease and disintegration. + +New Thought holds all things lightly, gently, easily--even thought. It +works for a healthy circulation, and tends to health, happiness and +well-being now and hereafter. It does not believe in violence, force, +coercion or resentment, because all these things react on the doer. It +has faith that all men, if not interfered with by other men, will +eventually evolve New Thought, and do for themselves what is best and +right, beautiful and true. + +Secondhand Thought has always had first in its mind the welfare of the +dealer. The rights of the consumer, beyond keeping him in subjection, +were not considered. Indeed, its chief recommendation has been that "it +is a good police system." + +New Thought considers only the user. To "Know Thyself" is all there is +of it. + +When a creator of New Thought goes into the business of retailing his +product, he often forgets to live it, and soon is transformed into a +dealer in Secondhand Thought. + +That is the way all purveyors in secondhand revelation begin. In their +anxiety to succeed, they call in the police. The blessing that is +compulsory is not wholly good, and any system of morals which has to be +forced on us is immoral. New Thought is free thought. Its penalty is +responsibility. You either have to live it, or else lose it. Its reward +is Freedom. + + * * * * * + +It was only a little more than a hundred years before the time of +Hypatia that the Roman Empire became Christian. When Constantine +embraced Christianity, all of his loyal subjects were from that moment +Christians--Christians by edict, but Pagans by character, for the +natures of men can not be changed by the passing of a resolution. From +that time every Pagan temple became a Christian church, and every Pagan +priest a Christian preacher. + +Alexandria was under the rule of a Roman Prefect, or Governor. It had +been the policy of Rome to exercise great tolerance in religious +matters. There was a State Religion, to be sure, but it was for the +nobility or those who helped make the State possible. To look after the +thinking of the plain people was quite superfluous--they were allowed +their vagaries. + +The Empire had been bold, brazen, cruel, coercive in its lust for power, +but people who paid were reasonably safe. And now the Church was coming +into competition with the State and endeavoring to reduce spoliation to +a system. + +To keep the people down and under by mental suppression--by the engine +of superstition--were cheaper and more effective than to employ force or +resort to the old-time methods of shows, spectacles, pensions and costly +diversions. When the Church took on the functions of the State, and +sought to substitute the gentle Christ for Caesar, she had to recast the +teachings of Christ. Then for the first time coercion and love dwelt +side by side. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared +for the devil and his angels," and like passages were slipped into the +Scriptures as matters of wise expediency. This was continued for many +hundred years, and was considered quite proper and legitimate. It was +slavery under a more subtle form. + +The Bishop of Alexandria clashed with Orestes the Prefect. To hold the +people under by psychologic methods was better than the old plans of +alternate bribery and force--so argued the Bishop. + +Orestes had come under the spell of Hypatia, and the Republic of Plato +was saturating his mind. + +"To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another +world is just as base as to use force," said Hypatia in one of her +lectures. Orestes sat in the audience and as she spoke the words he +clapped his hands. The news was carried to the Bishop, who gently +declared that he would excommunicate him. + +Orestes sent word back that the Emperor should be informed of how this +Bishop was misusing his office by making threats of where he could land +people he did not like, in another world. Neither the Bishop nor the +Prefect could unseat each other--both derived their power from the +Emperor. For Orestes to grow interested in the teachings of Hypatia, +instead of siding with the Bishop, was looked upon by the loyalists as +little short of treason. + +Orestes tried to defend himself by declaring that the policy of the +Caesars had always been one of great leniency toward all schools of +philosophy. Then he quoted Hypatia to the effect that a fixed, formal +and dogmatic religion would paralyze the minds of men and make the race, +in time, incapable of thought. + +Therefore, the Bishop should keep his place, and not try to usurp the +functions of the police. In fact, it was better to think wrongly than +not to think at all. We learn to think by thinking, and if the threats +of the Bishop were believed at all, it would mean the death of science +and philosophy. + +The Bishop made answer by declaring that Hypatia was endeavoring to +found a Church of her own, with Pagan Greece as a basis. He intimated, +too, that the relationship of Orestes with Hypatia was very much the +same as that which once existed between Cleopatra and Mark Antony. He +called her "that daughter of Ptolemy," and by hints and suggestions made +it appear that she would, if she could, set up an Egyptian Empire in +this same city of Alexandria where Cleopatra once so proudly reigned. + +The excitement increased. The followers of Hypatia were necessarily few +in numbers. They were thinkers--and to think is a task. To believe is +easy. The Bishop promised his followers a paradise of ease and rest. He +also threatened disbelievers with the pains of hell. A promise on this +side--a threat on that! Is it not a wonder that a man ever lived who +put his honest thought against such teaching when launched by men +clothed in almost absolute authority! + +Hypatia might have lived yesterday, and her death at the hands of a mob +was an accident that might have occurred in Boston, where a respectable +company once threw a rope around the neck of a good man and ran him +through streets supposed to be sacred to liberty and free speech. + +A mob is made up of cotton waste, saturated with oil, and a focused idea +causes spontaneous combustion. Let a fire occur in almost any New York +State village, and the town turns wrecker, and loot looms large in the +limited brain of the villager. Civilization is a veneer. + +When one sees emotionalism run riot at an evangelistic revival, and five +thousand people are trooping through an undesirable district at +midnight, how long, think you, would a strong voice of opposition be +tolerated? + +Hypatia was set upon by a religious mob as she was going in her carriage +from her lecture-hall to her home. She was dragged to a near-by church +with the intent of making her publicly recant, but the embers became a +blaze, and the blaze became a conflagration, and the leaders lost +control. The woman's clothes were torn from her back, her hair torn from +her head, her body beaten to a pulp, dismembered, and then to hide all +traces of the crime and distribute the guilt so no one person could be +blamed, a funeral-pyre quickly consumed the remains of what but an hour +before had been a human being. Daylight came, and the sun's rays could +not locate the guilty ones. + +Orestes made a report of the affair, resigned his office, asked the +Government at Rome to investigate, and fled from the city. Had Orestes +endeavored to use his soldiery against the Bishop, the men in the ranks +would have revolted. The investigation was postponed from time to time +for lack of witnesses, and finally it was given out by the Bishop that +Hypatia had gone to Athens, and there had been no mob and no tragedy. + +The Bishop nominated a successor to Orestes, and the new official was +confirmed. + +Dogmatism as a police system was supreme. + +It continued until the time of Dante, or the Italian Renaissance. The +reign of Religious Dogmatism was supreme for well-nigh a thousand +years--we call it the Dark Ages. + + + + +[Illustration: SAINT BENEDICT] + +SAINT BENEDICT + + + If any pilgrim monk come from distant parts, if with wish as a + guest to dwell in the monastery, and will be content with the + customs which he finds in the place, and do not perchance by his + lavishness disturb the monastery, but is simply content with what + he finds: he shall be received, for as long a time as he desires. + If, indeed, he find fault with anything, or expose it, reasonably, + and with the humility of charity, the Abbot shall discuss it + prudently, lest perchance God had sent for this very thing. But, if + he have been found gossipy and contumacious in the time of his + sojourn as guest, not only ought he not to be joined to the body of + the monastery, but also it shall be said to him, honestly, that he + must depart. If he does not go, let two stout monks, in the name of + God, explain the matter to him. + + --_St. Benedict_ + + +SAINT BENEDICT + +As the traveler journeys through Southern Italy, Sicily and certain +parts of what was Ancient Greece, he will see broken arches, parts of +viaducts, and now and again a single, beautiful column pointing to the +sky. All about is the desert or solitary pastures, and only this white +milestone, marking the path of the centuries and telling in its own +silent, solemn and impressive way of a day that is dead. + +In the Fifth Century a monk called Simeon the Syrian, and known to us as +Simeon Stylites, having taken the vow of chastity, poverty and +obedience, began to fear greatly lest he might not be true to his +pledge. And that he might live absolutely beyond reproach, always in +public view, free from temptation, and free from the tongue of scandal, +he decided to live in the world, and still not be of it. To this end he +climbed to the top of a marble column, sixty feet high, and there on the +capstone he lived a life beyond reproach. + +Simeon was then twenty-four years old. + +The environment was circumscribed, but there was outlook, sunshine, +ventilation--three good things. But beyond these the place had certain +disadvantages. The capstone was a little less than three feet square, +so Simeon could not lie down. He slept sitting, with his head bowed +between his knees, and indeed, in this posture he passed most of his +time. Any recklessness in movement, and he would have slipped from his +perilous position and been dashed to death upon the stones beneath. + +As the sun arose he stood up, just for a few moments, and held his arms +out in greeting, blessing and prayer. Three times during the day did he +thus stretch his cramped limbs, and pray with his face to the East. At +such times those who stood near shared in his prayers, and went away +blessed and refreshed. + +How did Simeon get to the top of the column? + +Well, his companions at the monastery, a mile away, said he was carried +there in the night by a miraculous power; that he went to sleep in his +stone cell and awoke on the pillar. Other monks said that Simeon had +gone to pay his respects to a fair lady, and in wrath God had caught him +and placed him on high. The probabilities are, however, Terese, as +viewed by an unbeliever, that he shot a line over the column with a bow +and arrow and then drew up a rope ladder and ascended with ease. + +However, in the morning the simple people of the scattered village saw +the man on the column. All day he stayed there. The next day he was +still there. + +The days passed, with the scorching heat of the midday sun, and the cool +winds of the night. + +Still Simeon kept his place. + +The rainy season came on. When the nights were cold and dark, Simeon sat +there with bowed head, and drew the folds of his single garment, a black +robe, over his face. + +Another season passed; the sun again grew warm, then hot, and the +sand-storms raged and blew, when the people below almost lost sight of +the man on the column. Some prophesied he would be blown off, but the +morning light revealed his form, naked from the waist up, standing with +hands outstretched to greet the rising sun. + +Once each day, as darkness gathered, a monk came with a basket +containing a bottle of goat's milk and a little loaf of black bread, and +Simeon dropped down a rope and drew up the basket. + +Simeon never spoke, for words are folly, and to the calls of saint or +sinner he made no reply. He lived in a perpetual attitude of adoration. + +Did he suffer? During those first weeks he must have suffered terribly +and horribly. There was no respite nor rest from the hard surface of the +rock, and aching muscles could find no change from the cramped and +perilous position. If he fell, it was damnation for his soul--all were +agreed as to this. + +But man's body and mind accommodate themselves to almost any condition. +One thing at least, Simeon was free from economic responsibilities, free +from social cares and intrusion. Bores with sad stories of unappreciated +lives and fond hopes unrealized, never broke in upon his peace. He was +not pressed for time. No frivolous dame of tarnished fame sought to +share with him his perilous perch. The people on a slow schedule, ten +minutes late, never irritated his temper. His correspondence never got +in a heap. + +Simeon kept no track of the days, having no engagements to meet, or +offices to perform, beyond the prayers at morn, midday and night. + +Memory died in him, the hurts became calluses, the world-pain died out +of his heart, to cling became a habit. Language was lost in disuse. The +food he ate was minimum in quantity; sensation ceased, and the dry, hot +winds reduced bodily tissue to a dessicated something called a +saint--loved, feared and reverenced for his fortitude. + +This pillar, which had once graced the portal of a pagan temple, again +became a place of pious pilgrimage, and people flocked to Simeon's rock, +so that they might be near when he stretched out his black, bony hands +to the East, and the spirit of Almighty God, for a space, hovered close +around. + +So much attention did the abnegation of Simeon attract that various +other pillars, marking the ruins of art and greatness gone, in that +vicinity, were crowned by pious monks. Their thought was to show how +Christianity had triumphed over heathenism. Imitators were numerous. +About that time the Bishops in assembly asked, "Is Simeon sincere?" To +test the matter of Simeon's pride, he was ordered to come down from his +retreat. + +As to his chastity, there was little doubt, and his poverty was beyond +question; but how about obedience to his superiors? + +The order was shouted up to him in a Bishop's voice--he must let down +his rope, draw up a ladder, and descend. + +Straightway Simeon made preparation to obey. And then the Bishops +relented and cried, "We have changed our minds, and now order you to +remain!" + +Simeon lifted his hands in adoration and thankfulness and renewed his +lease. + +And so he lived on and on and on--he lived on the top of that pillar, +never once descending, for thirty years. + +All of his former companions grew a-weary; one by one they died, and the +monastery-bells tolled their requiem as they were laid to rest. Did +Simeon hear the bells and say, "Soon it will be my turn"? + +Probably not. His senses had flown, for what good were they! The young +monk who now at eventide brought the basket with the bottle of goat's +milk and the loaf of dry bread was born since Simeon had taken his place +on the pillar. "He has always been there," the people said, and crossed +themselves hurriedly. + +But one evening when the young monk came with his basket, no line was +dropped from above. He waited and then called aloud, but all in vain. + +When sunrise came, there sat the monk, his face between his knees, the +folds of his black robe drawn over his head. But he did not rise and +lift his hands in prayer. + +All day he sat there, motionless. + +The people watched in whispered silence. Would he arise at sundown and +pray, and with outstretched hands bless the assembled pilgrims? + +But as they watched a vulture came sailing slowly through the blue +ether, and circled nearer and nearer; and off on the horizon was +another--and still another, circling nearer and nearer. + + * * * * * + +In humanity's march of progress there are a vanguard and a rearguard. +The rearguard dwindles away into a mob of camp-followers, who follow for +diversion and to escape starvation. Both the vanguard and the rearguard +are out of step with the main body, and therefore both are despised by +the many who make up the rank and file. + +And yet, out of pity, the main body supplies ambulances and +"slum-workers," who aim to do "good"--but this good is always for the +rearguard and the camp-followers, never for those who lead the line of +march, and take the risk of ambush and massacre. + +But this scorn of the vanguard has its recompense--often delayed, no +doubt--but those who compose it are the only ones whom history honors +and Clio crowns. If they get recognition in life, it is wrung tardily +from an ungrateful and ungracious world. And this is the most natural +thing in the world, and it would be a miracle if it were otherwise, for +the very virtue of the vanguard consists in that their acts outrun human +sympathy. + +Benedict was a scout of civilization. In his day he led the vanguard. He +found the prosperous part of the world given over to greed and gluttony. +The so-called religious element was in partnership with fraud, +superstition, ignorance, incompetence, and an asceticism like that of +Simeon Stylites, leading to nothing. + +Men know the good and grow through experience. To realize the +worthlessness of place and position and of riches, you must have been at +some time in possession of these. Benedict was born into a rich Roman +family, in the year Four Hundred Eighty. His parents wished to educate +him for the law, so he would occupy a position of honor in the State. + +But at sixteen years of age, at that critical time when nerves are +vibrating between manhood and youth, Benedict cut the umbilical domestic +cord, and leaving his robes of purple and silken finery, suddenly +disappeared, leaving behind a note which was doubtless meant to be +reassuring and which was quite the reverse, for it failed to tell where +his mail should be forwarded. He had gone to live with a hermit in the +fastnesses of the mountains. He had desired to do something peculiar, +strange, unusual, unique and individual, and now he had done it. + +Back of it all was the Cosmic Urge, with a fair slip of a girl, and +meetings by stealth in the moonlight; and then those orders from his +father to give up the girl, which he obeyed with a vengeance. + +Monasticism is a reversal or a misdirection of the Cosmic Urge. The will +brought to bear in fighting temptation might be a power for good, if +used in co-operation with Nature. But Nature to the priestly mind has +always been bad. The worldly mind was one that led to ruin. To be good +by doing good was an idea the monkish mind had not grasped. His way of +being good was to be nothing, do nothing--just resist. Successfully to +fight temptation, the Oriental Monk regarded as an achievement. + +One day, out on that perilous and slippery rock on the mountain-side, +Benedict ceased saluting the Holy Virgin long enough to conceive a +thought. It was this: To be acceptable to God, we must do something in +the way of positive good for man. To pray, to adore, to wander, to +suffer, is not enough. We must lighten the burdens of the toilers and +bring a little joy into their lives. Suffering has its place, but too +much suffering would destroy the race. + +Only one other man had Benedict ever heard of, who put forth this +argument, and that was Saint Jerome; and many good men in the Church +regarded Saint Jerome as little better than an infidel. Saint Jerome was +a student of the literature of Greece and Rome--"Pagan Books," they were +called, "rivals of the Bible." Saint Anthony had renounced and denounced +these books and all of the learning of Paganism. Saint Anthony, the +father of Christian Monasticism, dwelt on the terrible evils of +intellectual pride, and had declared that the joys of the mind were of a +more subtle and devilish character than those of the flesh. + +Anthony, assisted by inertia, had won the ear of the Church; and dirt, +rags and idleness had come to be regarded as sacred things. + +Benedict took issue with Anthony. + + * * * * * + +The Monastic Impulse is a protest against the Cosmic Urge, or +reproductive desire. + +Necessarily, the Cosmic Urge is older than the Monastic Impulse; and +beyond a doubt it will live to dance on the grave of its rival. + +The Cosmic Urge is the creative instinct. It includes all planning, +purpose, desire, hope, unrest, lust and ambition. In its general sense, +it is Unfulfilled Desire. It is the voice constantly crying in the ears +of success, "Arise and get thee hence, for this is not thy rest." It is +the dissatisfaction with all things done--it is our Noble Discontent. In +its first manifestation it is sex. In its last refinement it means the +love of man and woman, with the love of children, the home-making sense, +and an appreciation of art, music and science--which is love with seeing +eyes--as natural results. + +Deity creates through its creatures, of which man is the highest type. +But man, evolving a small spark of intellect, sits in judgment on his +Creator, and finds the work bad. Of all the animals, man is the only one +so far known that criticizes his environment, instead of accepting it. +And we do this because, in degree, we have abandoned intuition before we +have gotten control of intellect. + +The Monastic Instinct is the disposition ever to look outside of +ourselves for help. We expect the Strong Man to come and give us +deliverance from our woes. All nations have legends of saviors and +heroes who came and set the captives free, and who will come again in +greater glory and mightier power and even release the dead from their +graves. + +The Monastic Impulse is based on world-weariness, with disappointed +love, or sex surfeit, which is a phase of the same thing, as a basis. +Its simplest phase is a desire for solitude. + +"Mon" means one, and monasticism is simply living alone, apart from the +world. Gradually it came to mean living alone with others of a like mind +or disposition. + +The clan is an extension of the family, and so is originally a monastic +impulse. The Group Idea is a variant of monasticism, but if it includes +men and women, it always disintegrates with the second generation, if +not before, because the Cosmic Urge catches the members, and they mate, +marry and swing the circle. + +Ernst Haeckel has recently intimated his belief that monogamy, with its +exclusive life, is a diluted form of monasticism. And his opinion seems +to be that, in order to produce the noblest race possible, we must have +a free society, with a State that reverences and respects maternity and +pensions any mother who personally cares for her child. + +Monasticism and enforced monogamy often carry a disrespect, if not a +positive contempt, for motherhood, especially free motherhood. We breed +from the worst, under the worst conditions, and as punishment God has +made us a race of scrubs. If we had deliberately set about to produce +the worst, we could not do better. + +It will at once be seen that a penalized free motherhood is exactly like +the Monastic Impulse--a protest and a revolt from the Cosmic Urge. Hence +Ernst Haeckel, harking back to Schopenhauer, declares that we must place +a premium upon parenthood, and the State must subsidize all mothers, +visiting them with tenderness, gentleness, sanctity and respect, before +we shall be able to produce a race of demigods. + +The Church has aureoled and sainted the men and women who have +successfully fought the Cosmic Urge. Emerson says, "We are strong as we +ally ourselves with Nature, and weak as we fight against her or +disregard her." Thus does Emerson place himself squarely in opposition +to the Church, for the Church has ever looked upon Nature as a lure and +a menace to holy living. + +Now, is it not possible that the prevalency of the Monastic Impulse is +proof that it is in itself a movement in the direction of Nature? +Possibly its error lies in swinging out beyond the norm. A few great +Churchmen have thought so. And the greatest and best of them, so far as +I know, was Benedict. Through his efforts, monasticism was made a power +for good, and for a time, at least, it served society and helped +humanity on its way. + +That the flagellants, anchorites, or monks with iron collars, and Simeon +Stylites living his life perched on a pillar, benefited the human +race--no one would now argue. Simeon was simply trying to please God--to +secure salvation for his soul. His assumption was that the world was +base and bad. To be pure in heart you must live apart from it. His +persistence was the only commendable thing about him, and this was the +persistence of a diseased mind. It was beautiful just as the persistence +of cancer is beautiful. + +Benedict, while agreeing that the world was bad, yet said that our +business was to make it better, and that everything we did which was +done merely to save our own souls, was selfish and unworthy. He +advocated that, in order to save our own souls, we should make it our +business to save others. Also, to think too much about your own soul was +to have a soul not worth saving. If this life is a preparation for +another, as Simeon thought, he was not preparing himself for a world +where we would care to go. The only heaven in which any sane man or +woman, be he saint or sinner, would care to live, would be one whose +inhabitants would be at liberty to obey the Cosmic Urge just as freely +as the Monastic Impulse, and where one would be regarded as holy as the +other. So thought Saint Benedict. + + * * * * * + +There is a natural law, well recognized and defined by men who think, +called the Law of Diminishing Returns, sometimes referred to as the Law +of Pivotal Points. + +A man starts in to take systematic exercise, and he finds that his +strength increases. He takes more exercise and keeps on until he gets +"stale"--that is, he becomes sore and lame. He has passed the Pivotal +Point and is getting a Diminishing Return. + +In running a railroad-engine a certain amount of coal is required to +pull a train of given weight a mile, say at the rate of fifty miles an +hour. You double the amount of your coal, and simple folks might say you +double your speed, but railroad men know better. The double amount of +coal will give you only about sixty miles instead of fifty. Increase +your coal and from this on you get a Diminishing Return. If you insist +on eighty miles an hour, you get your speed at a terrific cost and a +terrible risk. + +Another case: Your body requires a certain amount of food--the body is +an engine; food is fuel; life is combustion. Better the quality and +quantity of your food, and up to a certain point you increase your +strength. Go on increasing your food and you get death. Loan money at +five per cent and your investment is reasonably secure and safe. Loan +money at ten per cent and you do not double the returns; on the +contrary, you have taken on so much risk. Loan money at twenty per cent +and you will probably lose it; for the man who borrows at twenty per +cent does not intend to pay if he can help it. + +The Law of Diminishing Returns was what Oliver Wendell Holmes had in +mind when he said, "Because I like a pinch of salt in my soup is no +reason I wish to be immersed in brine." + +Churches, preachers and religious denominations are good things in their +time and place, and up to a certain point. Whether for you the church +has passed the Pivotal Point is for you yourself to decide. But remember +this, because a thing is good up to a certain point, or has been good, +is no reason why it should be perpetuated. The Law of Diminishing +Returns is the natural refutation of the popular fallacy that because a +thing is good you can not get too much of it. + +It is this law that Abraham Lincoln had in mind when he said, "I object +to that logic which seeks to imply that because I wish to make the negro +free, I desire a black woman for a wife." + +Benedict had spent five years in resistance before it dawned upon him +that Monasticism carried to a certain point was excellent and fraught +with good results, but beyond that it rapidly degenerated. + +To carry the plan of simplicity and asceticism to its summit and not go +beyond was now his desire. + +To withdraw from society he felt was a necessity, for the petty and +selfish ambitions of Rome were revolting. But the religious life did +not for him preclude the joys of the intellect. In his unshaven and +unshorn condition, wearing a single garment of goatskin, he dared not go +back to his home. So he proceeded to make himself acceptable to decent +people. He made a white robe, bathed, shaved off his beard, had his hair +cut, and putting on his garments, went back to his family. The life in +the wilderness had improved his health. He had grown in size and +strength and he now, in his own person, proved that a religious recluse +was not necessarily unkempt and repulsive. + +His people greeted him as one raised from the dead. Crowds followed him +wherever he went. He began to preach to them and to explain his +position. + +Some of his old school associates came to him. + +As he explained his position, it began more and more to justify itself +in his mind. Things grow plain as we analyze them to others--by +explaining to another the matter becomes luminous to ourselves. + +To purify the monasteries and carry to them all that was good and +beautiful in the classics, was the desire of Benedict. His wish was to +reconcile the learning of the past with Christianity, which up to that +time had been simply ascetic. It had consisted largely of repression, +suppression and a killing-out of all spontaneous, happy, natural +impulses. + +Very naturally, he was harshly criticized, and when he went back to the +cave where he had dwelt and tried to teach some of his old companions +how to read and write, they flew first at him, and then from him. They +declared that he was the devil in the guise of a monk; that he wished to +live both as a monk and as a man of the world--that he wanted to eat his +cake and still keep it. By a sort of divine right he took control of +affairs, and insisted that his companions should go to work with him, +and plant a garden and raise vegetables and fruits, instead of depending +upon charity or going without. + +The man who insists that all folks shall work, be they holy or secular, +learned or illiterate, always has a hard road to travel. Benedict's +companions declared that he was trying to enslave them, and one of them +brewed a poison and substituted it for the simple herb tea that Benedict +drank. Being discovered, the man and his conspirators escaped, although +Benedict offered to forgive and forget if they would go to work. + +Benedict adhered to his new inspiration with a persistency that never +relaxed--the voice of God had called to him that he must clear the soil +of the brambles and plant gardens. + +The thorn-bush through which he had once rolled his naked body, he now +cut down and burned. He relaxed the vigils and limited the prayers and +adorations to a few short exercises just before eating, sleeping and +going to work. He divided the day into three parts--eight hours for +work, eight hours for study, eight hours for sleep. Then he took +one-half hour from each of these divisions for silent prayer and +adoration. He argued that good work was a prayer, and that one could +pray with his heart and lips, even as his hands swung the ax, the sickle +or the grub-hoe. All that Benedict required of others, he did himself, +and through the daily work he evolved a very strong and sturdy physique. +From the accounts that have come to us he was rather small in stature, +but in strength he surpassed any man in his vicinity. + +Miraculous accounts of his physical strength were related, and in the +minds of his simple followers he was regarded as more than a man, which +shows us that the ideals of what a man should be, or might be, were not +high. We are told that near Benedict's first monastery there was a very +deep lake, made in the time of Nero by damming up a mountain stream. +Along this lake the brambles and vines had grown in great confusion. +Benedict set to work to clear the ground from this lake to his +monastery, half a mile up the hillside. One day a workman dropped an ax +into the lake. Benedict smiled, his lips moved in prayer and the ax came +to the surface. The story does not say that Benedict dived to the bottom +and brought up the ax, which he probably did. The next day the owner of +the ax fell into the water, and the story goes that Benedict walked out +on the water and brought the man in on his shoulders. We who do not +believe that the age of miracles has passed, can well understand how +Benedict was an active, agile and strong swimmer, and that through the +natural powers which he evolved by living a sane and simple life, he was +able to perform many feats which peasants round about considered +miraculous. Benedict had what has been called the Builder's Itch. He +found great joy in planning, creating and constructing. He had an eye +for architecture and landscape-gardening. He utilized the materials of +old Roman temples to construct Christian churches, and from the same +quarry he took stone and built a monastery. A Roman ruin had a lure for +him. It meant building possibilities. He stocked the lake with fish, and +then made catches that rivaled the parable of the loaves and fishes. +Only the loaves of Benedict were made from the wheat he himself raised, +and the people he fed were the crowds who came to hear him preach the +gospel he himself practised--the gospel of work, moderation and the +commonsense exercise of head, hand and heart. + + * * * * * + +To Benedict came twelve disciples. But further applications becoming +numerous, to meet the pressure Benedict kept organizing them into groups +of twelve, appointing a superior over each group. In order to prove his +sense of equality, he had but eleven besides himself in the monastery. +He recognized that leadership was a necessity; but the clothes he wore +were no better than, and the food he ate no different from, what the +others had. Yet to enforce discipline, rules were made and instant +obedience was exacted. Benedict took his turn at waiting on the table +and doing the coarsest tasks. + +Were it not for the commonsense methods of life, and the element of +human service, the Christian monastery and probably Christianity itself +would not have survived. The dogma of religion was made acceptable by +blending it with a service for humanity. And even to this day the +popular plan of proving the miracles of the Old Testament to have been +actual occurrences is to point to the schools, hospitals and orphan +asylums that Christian people have provided. + +In the efforts of Benedict to combine the life of unselfish service with +intellectual appreciation of classic literature, he naturally was +misunderstood. Several times he came near having serious collisions with +the authorities of the Church at Rome. + +His preaching attracted the jealous attention of certain churchmen, but +as he was not a priest, the Pope refused to take notice of his supposed +heresies. + +An effort was made to compel him to become a priest, but Benedict +refused on the plea that he was not worthy. The fact was, however, that +he did not wish to be bound by the rules of the Church. + +In one sense, his was a religion inside a religion, and a slight +accident might have precipitated an opposition denomination, just as the +Protestant issue of Luther was an accident, and the Methodism of the +Wesleys, another. + +Several times the opposition, in the belief that Benedict was an enemy +of the Church, went so far as to try to kill him. And once a few pious +persons in Rome induced a company of wanton women to go out to +Benedict's monastery and disport themselves through his beautiful +grounds. This was done with two purposes in view; one was to work the +direct downfall of the Benedictines, with the aid of the trulls, and the +other was to create a scandal among the visitors, who would carry the +unsavory news back to Rome and supply the gossips raw stock. + +Benedict was so deeply grieved by the despicable trick that he retired +to his former home, the cave in the hillside, and there remained without +food for a month. + +But during this time of solitude his mind was busy with new plans. He +now founded Monte Cassino. The site is halfway between Rome and Naples, +and the white, classic lines of the buildings can be seen from the +railroad. There on the crags, from out of a mass of green, has been +played out for more than a thousand years the drama of religious life. +Death by fire and sword has been the fate of many of the occupants. But +the years went by, new men came, the ruins were repaired, and again the +cloisters were trodden by pious feet of holy men. Goths, Lombards, +Saracens, Normans, Spaniards, Teutons, and finally came Napoleon +Bonaparte, who confiscated the property, making the place his home for a +brief space. Later he relented and took it from the favorite upon whom +he had bestowed it and gave it back to the Church. It then remained a +Benedictine monastery until the edict of Eighteen Hundred Sixty-six, +which, with the help of Massini and Garibaldi, made the monastery in +Italy a thing of the past. The place is now a school--a school with a +co-ed proviso. Thus passes away the glory of the world, in order that a +greater glory shall appear. + +Six hundred years before Benedict's day, on the site of the cloister of +Monte Cassino stood a temple to Apollo, and just below was a grove +sacred to Venus. + +Two hundred years before Benedict's time the Goths had done their work +so well that even the walls of the temple to Apollo were razed, and the +sacred grove became the home of wild beasts. + +To this deserted place came Benedict and eleven men, filled with a holy +zeal to erect on this very spot an edifice worthy of the living God. +Here the practical builder and the religious dreamer combined. If you +are going to build a building, why not build upon the walls already laid +and with blocks ready hewn and fashioned! + +The Monte Cassino monastery of Benedict rivaled in artistic beauty the +temple that it replaced. + +Man is a building animal, and the same Creative Energy that impelled the +Greeks and later the Romans to plan, devise, toil and build, now played +through the good monk Benedict. His desire to create was a form of the +great Cosmic Urge, that lives eternally and is building in America a +finer, better and nobler religion than the world has ever seen--a +Religion of Humanity--a religion of which at times Benedict caught vivid +passing glimpses, as one sees at night the landscape brilliantly +illumined by the lightning's flash. + + * * * * * + +The motto of Benedict was "Ecce Labora." These words were carved on the +entrance to every Benedictine Monastery. + +The monastic idea originated in the Orient, where Nature placed no +special penalty on idleness. Indeed, labor may have been a curse in +Asia. Morality is crystallized expediency, and both, as we are told, are +matters of geography, as well as time. + +And truth it is, that north of the Mediterranean idleness is the curse, +not labor. + +The rule of Benedict was not unlike that of the Shakers, for near every +monastery was a nunnery. The association of men and women, although +quite limited, was better for both than their absolute separation, as +with the Trappists, who regard it as a sin even to look upon the face of +a woman. + +The thrift and industry of the Benedictines was worthy of Ann Lee and +our friends at Lebanon. A man who works eight hours, with fair +intelligence, and does not set out to make consumption and waste the +business of his life, grows rich. Thoreau was right--an hour a day will +support you. But Thoreau was wrong in supposing men work only to get +food, clothing and shelter. To work only an hour a day is to evolve into +a loafer. We work not to acquire, but to become. + +The group idea, cemented by able leadership and a religious concept, is +always successful. The Mormons, Quakers, Harmonyites, Economites, and +the Oneida Community, all grew very rich, and surpassed their neighbors +not only in point of money, but in health, happiness, intelligence and +general mental grasp. + +Brook Farm failed for lack of a leader with business instinct; but as it +was, it divided up among its members a rich legacy of spiritual and +mental assets. In family life, or what is called "Society," there is a +constant danger through rivalry, not in well-doing or in human service, +but in conspicuous waste and conspicuous leisure. The religious rite of +feet-washing is absolutely lost, both as a rite and as an idea. In +truth, "good society" is essentially predatory in its instincts. In +communal life, or the life of a group, service and not waste is the +watchword. This must be so, since every group, at its beginning, is held +together through the thought of service. To meet and unite on a basis of +jealous rivalry and sharp practise is unthinkable, for these are the +things that disintegrate the group. + +It is an economic law that a group founded upon and practising the idea +of each member giving all, wins all. Benedict's idea of "Ecce labora" +made every Benedictine monastery a center of wealth. Work stops +bickering, strife and undue waste. It makes for health and strength. The +reward of work is not immunity from toil, but more work--an increased +capacity for effort. + +De Tocqueville gave this recipe for success: Subdue yourself--Devote +yourself. + +That is to say, subdue the ego to a point where it gets its +gratification in concentrating on unselfish service. He who does this +always succeeds, for not only is he engaged upon a plan of life in which +there is little competition, but he is working in line with a divine +law, the law of mutuality, which provides that all the good you do to +others, you do for yourself. + +Benedictine monasticism leads straight to wealth and great power. The +Abbot of the group became a Baron. "I took the vow of poverty, and it +led to an income of twenty thousand pounds a year. I took the vow of +obedience and find myself ruler of fifty towns and villages." These are +the words which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of an Abbot, who +became a Baron through the simple law of which I have hinted. And in his +novel of "The Abbot," Sir Walter gives a tragic picture of how power and +wealth can be lost as well as won. Feudalism began with the rule of the +monastery. + +Benedict was one of the world's great Captains of Industry. And like all +great entrepreneurs, he won through utilizing the efforts of others. In +picking his Abbots, or the men to be "father" of each particular group, +he showed rare skill. These men learned from him and he learned from +them. One of his best men was Cassiodorus, the man who evolved the +scheme of the scriptorium. "To study eight hours a day was not enough," +said Cassiodorus. "We should copy the great works of literature so that +every monastery shall have a library as good as that which we have at +Monte Cassino." He himself was an expert penman, and he set himself the +task of teaching the monks how to write as well as how to read. "To +write beautifully is a great joy to our God," he said. + +Benedict liked the idea, and at once put it into execution. Cassiodorus +is the patron saint of every maker of books who loves his craft. + +The systematic work of the scriptorium originated in the brain of +Cassiodorus, and he was appointed by Benedict to go from one monastery +to another and inform the Abbot that a voice had come from God to +Benedict saying that these precious books must be copied, and presented +to those who would prize them. + +Cassiodorus had been a secretary of state under the Emperor Theodoric, +and he had also been a soldier. He was seventy years of age when he came +under the influence of Benedict, through a chance visit to Monte +Cassino. Benedict at first ordered him to take an ax and work with the +servants at grubbing out underbrush and preparing a field for planting. +Cassiodorus obeyed, and soon discovered that there was a joy in +obedience he had before never guessed. His name was Brebantus Varus, but +on his declaring he was going to remain and work with Benedict, he was +complimented by being given the name of Cassiodorus, suggested by the +word Cassinum or Cassino. Cassiodorus lived to be ninety-two, and was +one of the chief factors, after Benedict himself, in introducing the +love of art and beauty among the Benedictines. + +Near Monte Cassino was a nunnery presided over by Scholastica, the twin +sister of Benedict. + +Renan says that the kinship of Scholastica and Benedict was a spiritual +tie, not one of blood. If so, we respect it none the less. Saint Gregory +tells of the death of Benedict thus: + + Benedict was at the end of his career. His interview with Totila + took place in Five Hundred Forty-two, in the year which preceded + his death; and from his earliest days of the following year, God + prepared him for his last struggle, by requiring from him the + sacrifice of the most tender affection he had retained on earth. + The beautiful and touching incident of the last meeting of Benedict + and his twin sister, Scholastica, is a picture long to remember. At + the window of his cell, three days after her death, Benedict had a + vision of his dear sister's soul entering heaven in the form of a + snowy dove. He immediately sent for the body and placed it in a + sepulcher which he had already prepared for himself, that death + might not separate those whose souls had always been united in God. + + The death of his sister was the signal of departure for himself. He + survived her forty days. He announced his death to several of his + monks, then far from Monte Cassino. A violent fever having seized + him, he caused himself on the sixth day of his sickness to be + carried to the chapel of Saint John the Baptist; he had before + ordered the tomb in which his sister already slept to be opened. + + There, supported in the arms of his disciples, he received the holy + Viaticum, then placing himself at the side of the open grave, but + at the foot of the altar, and with his arms extended towards + heaven, he died, standing, muttering a last prayer. Such a + victorious death became that great soldier of God. He was buried by + the side of his beloved Scholastica, in a sepulcher made on the + spot where stood the altar of Apollo, which had been replaced by + another to our beloved Savior. + + +In the very year, and at the same time, that Justinian and Theodora were +preparing the Justinian Code, Benedict was busy devising "The Monastic +Rules." Benedict did not put his rules forth as final, but explained +that they were merely expedient for their time and place. In this he was +singularly modest. If one can divest himself of the thought that there +was anything "holy" or "sacred" about these communal groups called +"monasteries," and then read these rules, he will see that they were +founded on a good knowledge of economics and a very stern commonsense. + +Humanity was the same a thousand years ago that it is now. Benedict had +to fight inertia, selfishness and incipient paranoia, just as does the +man who tries to introduce practical socialism today. A few extracts +from this very remarkable Book of Rules will show the shrewd Connecticut +wisdom of Benedict. To hold the dowdy, indifferent, slipshod and +underdone in their proper places, so they could not disturb or destroy +the peace, policy and prosperity of the efficient, was the task of +Benedict. + +Benedict says: "Written and formal rules are necessary only because we +are all faulty men, with a tendency towards selfishness and disorder. +When men become wise, and also unselfish, there will be no need of rules +and laws." + +The Book of Rules by Benedict is a volume of more than twenty thousand +words. Its scope reveals an insight that will appeal to all who have had +to do with socialistic experiments, not to mention the management of +labor-unions. Benedict was one of the industrial leaders of the world. +His life was an epoch, and his influence still abides. + + + + +[Illustration: MARY BAKER EDDY] + +MARY BAKER EDDY + + + The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found + in the following postulates: that Life is God, good and not evil; + that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is + not and can not be materialized; that Life is not subject to death; + that the spiritual real man has no consciousness of material life + or death. + + --_Mary Baker Eddy_ + + +MARY BAKER EDDY + +Let the fact be here stated that Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of +Christian Science. This woman lived long and well. + +She was alert, earnest, highly intelligent, receptive. She was ever +discovering. We know this because she put out a new message every little +while, or modified an old one, having come in the meantime into a +position to get a nearer and clearer view of the fact. The last edition +of "Science and Health" is a different book from the first one. + +Christian Science is not a fixed, formed, fossilized, ossified +structure. Possibly it may become so. But the probabilities are it will +grow, expand, advance. Life and growth consist in eliminating dead +matter and evolving new tissue. The institution, commercial, artistic, +social, political, religious, that has ceased to grow has begun to +disintegrate. + +Christian Scientists do not flee the world, renouncing and denouncing +it. As a people they are well, happy, hopeful, enthusiastic and +successful. I am fairly well informed on the history of all great +religions. In degree I know the character of intellect possessed by the +folks who make or made up their membership. And my opinion is, that no +religion that has ever existed contained so large a percentage of +intelligent people, competent, safe and sane, as does Christian Science. +There is an adage to the effect that a prophet is not without honor save +in his own country. + +In the case of Mary Baker Eddy, the adage just quoted goes awry. Mrs. +Eddy as long as she lived, retained the good-will of Concord, Boston and +Brookline, where she chose to make her home. Very many of the leading +men and women of each of these cities are Christian Scientists. + +The Christian Science Church at Concord cost upwards of two hundred +thousand dollars, and was the gift of Mrs. Eddy. Over the entrance, cut +deep in granite, are the words, "Presented by Mary Baker Eddy, +Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science." As to the argument that +the truths of Christian Science have always been known and practised by +a few, Mrs. Eddy issued her direct challenge. In all of her literature +she set out the unqualified statement that she was "The Discoverer and +the Founder." She was never apologetic; she assumed no modesty she did +not feel; she spoke as one having authority, as did Moses of old, "Thus +saith the Lord!" + +She entered into no joint debates; she did not answer back. This intense +conviction which admits of no parley was one of the secrets of her +power. For many years the Billingsgate Calendar was directed at her upon +every possible occasion. + +But Mrs. Eddy won out, and legislation and courts were compelled to +whistle in their hounds. Your right to keep well in your own way is now +fully recognized. Doctors are not liable when they give innocent +sweetened water and call it medicine, nor do we place Christian +Scientists on trial if their patients die, any more than we do the M. +D.'s. + +In fact, Mrs. Eddy influenced both of the so-called sciences of medicine +and theology. Even those who are perfectly willing to deny her, and +noisily discard her tenets, are debtors to her. + +Homeopathy modified the dose of all the Allopaths; and Christian Science +has attenuated the Hahnemannian theory of attenuations, it having been +found that the blank tablet often cures quite as effectively as the one +that is medicated. Christian Science does not shout, rant, defy nor +preach. It is poised, silent, sure, and the flagellants, like the +dervishes, are noticeable by their absence. + +The Reverend Billy Sunday is not a Christian Scientist. The Christian +Scientist does not cut into the grape; specialize on the elevated +spheroid; devote his energies to bridge whist; cultivate the scandal +microbe; join the anvil chorus, nor shake the red rag of wordy warfare. +He is diligent in business, fervent in spirit, and accepts what comes +without protest, finding it good. + +Mary Baker Eddy lived a human life. Through her manifold experiences she +gathered gear--she was a very great and wise woman. She was so great +that she kept her own counsel, received no visitors, made no calls, had +no Thursday, wrote no letters, and even never went to the church that +she presented to her native town. Mrs. Eddy's step was ever light, her +form erect--a slender, handsome, queenly woman. When she passed on, in +December, Nineteen Hundred Ten, in her ninetieth year, she looked scarce +more than sixty. Her face showed experience, but not extreme age. The +day I saw her, a few years before her death, she was dressed all in +white satin and looked like a girl going to a ball. + +Her eyes were not dimmed nor her face wrinkled. + +Her hat was a milliner's dream; her gloves came to the elbow and were +becomingly wrinkled; her form was the form of Bernhardt. Her secretary +stood by the carriage-door, his head bared. He did not offer his hand to +the lady nor seek to assist her into the carriage. He knew his +business--a sober, silent, muscular, bronzed, farmer-like man, who +evidently saw everything and nothing. + +He closed the carriage-door and took his seat by the side of the driver, +who wore no livery. The men looked like brothers. The big, brown horses +started slowly away; they wore no blinders nor check-reins--they, too, +had banished fear. The coachman drove with a loose rein. The next day I +waited in Concord to see Mrs. Eddy again. At exactly two-fifteen the +big, brown, slow-going horses turned into Main Street. Drays pulled in +to the curb, automobiles stopped, people stood on the street corners, +and some--the pilgrims--uncovered. + +Mrs. Eddy sat back in the carriage, holding in her white-gloved hands a +big spray of apple-blossoms, the same half-smile of satisfaction on her +face--the smile of Pope Leo the Thirteenth. The woman was a veritable +queen, and some of her devotees, not without reason, called her the +Queen of the World. + +Some doubtless prayed to her--and may yet, for that matter. Mrs. Eddy +was married three times. First, to Colonel George W. Glover, an +excellent and worthy man, who was the father of her only child, a son. +On the death of Glover, the child was taken by Glover's mother and +secreted so effectually that his mother did not see him until he was +thirty-four years old, and the father of a family. + +Her second husband was Daniel Patterson, who was not only a rogue but +also a fool--a flashy one, who turned the head of a lone, lorn young +widow, who certainly was not infallible in judgment. In two years the +wife got a divorce from him, on the grounds of cruelty and desertion, at +Salem, Massachusetts. Her third marital venture was Doctor Asa G. Eddy, +a practising physician--a man of much intelligence and worth. From him +Mrs. Eddy learned that the Science of Medicine was not much of a science +after all. Mrs. Eddy used to say that her husband was her first convert; +certain it is that Dr. Eddy gave up his practise to assist his wife in +putting before the world the unreality of disease. That he did not fully +grasp the idea is shown by the fact that he died of pneumonia. This, +however, did not shake the faith of Mrs. Eddy in the doctrine that +sickness was an error of mortal mind. For a good many years Mrs. Eddy +drove the memory of her two good husbands tandem, hitched by a hyphen, +thus: Mary Baker Glover-Eddy. Many a woman has joined her own name to +that of her husband, but what woman ever before so honored the two men +she had loved by coupling their names! Getting married is a bad habit, +Mrs. Eddy would probably have said, but you have to get married to find +it out. + +In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-nine, Mrs. Eddy organized the First Church +of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and became its pastor. In Eighteen +Hundred Eighty-one, being then sixty years of age, she founded the +Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in Boston. For fifteen years she had +been speaking in public, affirming that health was our normal condition +and that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. From her forty-fifth +to her sixtieth year she was glad to speak for what was offered, +although I believe that even then she had discarded the good old +priestly plan of taking up a collection. The Metaphysical College was +started to prepare students for teaching Mrs. Eddy's doctrines. + +The business ability of the woman was shown in thus organizing and +allowing no one to teach who was not duly prepared. These students were +obliged to pay a good stiff tuition, which fact made them appreciative. +In turn they went out and taught; all students paid the tidy sum of one +hundred dollars for the lessons, which fee was later cut to fifty. +Salvation may be free, but Christian Science costs money. The +theological genus piker, with his long, wrinkled, black coat, his collar +buttoned behind, and his high hat, has been eliminated. + +Mrs. Eddy was manager of the best-methodized institution in the world, +save only the Roman Catholic Church and the Standard Oil Company. How +many million copies of "Science and Health" have been sold, no man can +say. What percentage of the money from the lessons went to Mrs. Eddy, +only an Armstrong Committee could ascertain, and really it was nobody's +business but hers. + +That Mrs. Eddy had some very skilful helpers goes without saying. But +here is the point--she selected them, and reigned supreme. That the +student who paid fifty dollars got his money's worth, I have no doubt. +Not that he understood the lessons, but he received a feeling of courage +and a oneness with the whole which caused health to flow through his +veins and his heart to beat with joy. The lesson might have been to him +a jumble of words, but he lived in hopes that he would soon grow to a +point where the lines were luminous. + +In the meantime, all he knew was that whereas he was once lame he could +now walk. Even the most bigoted and prejudiced now agree that the cures +of Christian Science are genuine. People who think they have trouble +have it, and it is the same with pain. Imagination is the only +sure-enough thing in the world. Mrs. Eddy's doctrines abolish pain and +therefore abolish poverty, for poverty, in America at least, is a +disease. Mrs. Eddy's chief characteristics were: + +First, Love of Beauty as manifest in bodily form, dress and +surroundings. + +Second, A zeal for system, order and concentrated effort on the +particular business she undertakes. + +Third, A dignity, courage, self-sufficiency and self-respect that comes +from a belief in her own divinity. + +Fourth, An economy of time, money, materials, energy and emotion that +wastes nothing, but which continually conserves and accumulates. + +Fifth, A liberality, when advisable, which is only possible to those who +also economize. + +Sixth, Yankee shrewdness, great commonsense, all flavored with a dash of +mysticism and indifference to physical scientific accuracy. + +In other words, Christian Science is a woman's science--she knows! And +it is good because it is good--this is a science sound enough for +anybody--I guess so! Christian Science is scientific, but not for the +reasons that its promoters maintain. Male Christian Scientists do not +growl and kick the cat. + +Women Christian Scientists do not nag. Christian Scientists do not have +either the grouch or the meddler's itch. Among them there are no +dolorosos, grumperinos or beggars. They respect all other denominations, +having a serene faith that all will yet see the light--that is to say, +adopt their doctrines. The most radical among old-school doctors could +not deny that Mrs. Eddy's own life was conducted on absolutely +scientific lines. She never answered the telephone, never fussed nor +fumed. + +She hired big, safe people and paid them a big wage. She gave her +coachman fifty dollars a week, and her cook in proportion, and thus +secured people who gave her peace. She went to bed with the birds and +awoke with the dawn. At seven o'clock she was at her desk, dictating +answers to the very few letters her secretary deemed it advisable she +should see. She had breakfast at nine o'clock--ate anything she liked, +taking her time and fletcherizing. After breakfast she worked upon her +manuscripts until it was time for the daily ride. + +At four o'clock she dined--two meals a day being the rule. If, however, +she cared to dissipate a little and eat three meals a day, she was not +afraid to do so. + +She knew her horses and cows and sheep by name, and gave requests as to +their care, holding that the laws of mind obtain as to dumb animals the +same as man. Dogs she did not care for, and if she ever had an aversion +it would have been cats. Her servants she called "My helpers." +Christian Scientists very naturally believe in the equality of the +sexes. When girl babies are born to them they bless God, just the same +as when boy babies are born. In truth they bless God for everything, for +to them all is beautiful and all is good. Paid preachers they do not +have; they do not believe in priests or certain men who are nearer to +God than others. All have access to Eternal Truth, and thus is the +ecclesiastic excluded. To eliminate the theological middleman is well, +and as for the Church itself, surely Mrs. Eddy eliminated it also; for +she never entered a church, or at least not more than once a year, and +then it was only in deference to the architect. A Church! Is it +necessary? For herself Mrs. Eddy said, No. + +But as for others, she said, Yes, a church is good for those who need +it. Mrs. Eddy was the most successful author in the world, or, indeed, +that the world has ever seen. No other writer ever made so much money as +she, none is more devoutly read. + +Shakespeare, with his fortune of a quarter of a million dollars, fades +into comparative failure; and Arthur Brisbane, with his salary of +seventy-five thousand a year, is an office-boy compared with this regal +woman, who gave fifty thousand dollars a year for good roads. + + * * * * * + +The valuable truths and distinguishing features of Christian Science are +not to be found in Mrs. Eddy's books, but in Mrs. Eddy's life. She was a +much bigger woman than she was a writer. Emerson says that every great +institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. Every great +business enterprise has a soul--one man's spirit animates, pervades and +tints the whole. You can go into any hotel or store, and behold! the +nature or character of the owner or manager is everywhere proclaimed. + +You do not have to see the man, and the bigger the institution the less +need is there for the man to show himself. His work proclaims him, just +as a farmer's livestock all moo, whinny and squeal his virtues--or lack +of them. As a boy of ten I learned to know all of our neighbors by their +horses. The horses of a drunkard, blanketless, hungry, shivering, +outside of the village tavern, do they not proclaim the poor, despised +owner within? + +You can walk through the passenger-coaches of a train made up at a +terminal and read the character unmistakably of the general +passenger-agent. The soul of John Wesley ran through Methodism and made +it what it was. The Lutheranism of Luther yet lives; Calvinism the same; +and the soul of John Knox still goes marching on, carrying the +Presbyterian banner. + +Every religion partakes of the nature of its founder, until this +religion is mixed with that of another and its character lost, as +happened to the religion of Christ when it was launched by Paul and was +finally fused with Paganism by the Roman Emperor, Constantine. + +Christian Science is as yet the lengthened shadow of Mary Baker Eddy. +Her own immediate, personal pupils are still teaching, and her life and +characteristics impressed upon them are given out to each and all. Every +phase of life is solved by answering the question, "What would Mrs. Eddy +do?" Mrs. Eddy's ideas about dress, housekeeping, business, food, +health, the management of servants, the care of children--all are +blended into a composite, and this composite is the Christian Scientist +as we see and know him. + +The fact that Mrs. Eddy was methodical, industrious, economical, +persevering, courageous, hopeful, helpful, neat in her attire and +smiling, makes all Christian Scientists exactly so. She did not play +cards and indulge in the manifold silliness of so-called good society, +and neither do they. Indeed, that one thing which has been referred to +as "the plaster-of-Paris smile," the one feature in Christian Science to +which many good people object, is the direct legacy of Mrs. Eddy to her +pupils. "Science and Health" says nothing about it; no edict has been +put forth recommending it; but all good Christian Scientists take it +on--the smile that refuses to vacate the premises. And to some it is +certainly very becoming. Mrs. Eddy's self-reliant, silent, smiling +personality has given the key to conduct for the hundreds of thousands +of people who love her and revere her memory. + +Mrs. Eddy was a rare good listener. She did not argue. Once upon a time, +indeed, she was guilty of waving the red flag of wordy warfare; but the +passing of the years brought her wisdom, and then her only answer to +impatience was the quiet smile. As for eating, her table always had +enough, but it stopped short of surfeit; the service was dainty, and all +these things are now seen in the homes of Christian Scientists. Always +in the home of a good Christian Scientist the bathroom is as complete as +the library, and both are models of good housekeeping, seemingly always +in order for the inspection committee. + +Mrs. Eddy did not say much about hot water, soap and clean towels; but +the idea, regardless of the non-existence of matter, is fixed in the +consciousness of every Christian Scientist that absolute bodily +cleanliness, fresh linen and fresh air are not only next to godliness, +but elements of it. All of which you could never work out of "Science +and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in a lifetime of study, any more +than you could mine and smelt the Westminster Catechism out of the +Bible. + +The vital truths of right living come to us as a precious heritage from +the character of this great woman. She, herself, perhaps may not have +known this; but before she wrote her book and formulated her religion, +she lived her life. Her book was an endeavor to explain her life, and +as her life grew better, stronger and more refined, she changed her +book. Her book reacted on her life, and the person who got the most good +out of "Science and Health" was Mary Baker Eddy herself. + +"Science and Health" is mystical and beautifully human. The author's oar +often fails to catch the water. For instance, she tries to show that +animal magnetism, spiritualism, mental science, theosophy, agnosticism, +pantheism and infidelity are all bad things and opposed to the science +of "true being." + +This statement presupposes that animal magnetism, infidelity, theosophy +and agnosticism are specific entities or things, whereas they are only +labels that are clapped quite indiscriminately on empty casks or full +ones; and the contents of the casks may be sea-water or wine, and are +really unknown to both mortal and divine mind, whatever these things +are. Theosophists like Annie Besant, Spiritualists like Alfred Russel +Wallace, Agnostics like Huxley and Ingersoll, are very noble and +beautiful people. They are good neighbors and useful citizens. + +"Science and Health" is an attempt to catch and hold in words the +secrets of an active, honest, healthful, seeking, restless, earnest +life, and as such is more or less of a failure. + +Our actions are right, but our reasons seldom are. + +Christian Science as a plan of life, embodying the great yet simple +virtues, is beautiful. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" +does not explain the Scriptures. The book, as an attempt to explain and +crystallize truth, is a failure. It ranks with that great mass of +literature, written and copied at such vast pains and expense, bearing +the high-sounding title, "Writings of the Saints." + + * * * * * + +All publishers are familiar with inspired manuscripts. Such work always +has one thing in common--unintelligibility. Good literature is lucid to +the average mind. In fact, that is its distinguishing feature. We +understand what the man means. No able writer uses the same word over +and over with varying sense. Alfred Henry Lewis and William Marion Reedy +use the mortal mind, and their work is understandable. You can sit in +judgment on their conclusions and weigh, sift and decide for yourself. +They make an appeal to your intellect. + +But you can not sit in judgment on "Science and Health," because its +language is not the language we use in our common, every-day intercourse +with one another. It speaks of Christ as a person, a principle, a +spirit, a motive; as "Truth"; as one who was born of one parent or no +parents; who lived, died, or never lived, never was born, and can not +die. + +Metaphysics is an attempt to explain a thing and thereby evade the +trouble of understanding it. You throw the burden of proof on the other +fellow--and make him believe he does not comprehend because he is too +stupid. This is not fair! + +Language is simply an agreement between people that certain vocal +sounds, or written symbols, shall stand for certain ideas, thoughts or +things. Inspired writers string intelligent words together in an +unintelligent manner, and thereby give the reader an opportunity to +read anything into them that his preconceived thoughts may dictate. +Metaphysical gibberish is a rudimentary survival of the practise of +reading to the people in a dead language. The doctors continue the plan +by writing prescriptions in Latin. + +I once worked in a studio where the boys scraped their palette-knives on +a convenient board. One day we took the board out and had it framed +under glass, with a double, deep-shadow box. We gave it the best place +in the studio and labeled it, "A Sunset at Sea--an Impression in +Monochrome." + +The picture attracted much attention and great admiration from certain +symbolists. It also created so much controversy that we were obliged to +take it down in the interests of amity. + +To assume that God inspired the Scriptures, and did the work so ill +that, after more than two thousand years, it was necessary to inspire +another person to make a "Key" to them, is hardly worthy of our serious +attention. If God, being all-wise, all-powerful and all-loving, turns +author, why does He produce work so muddy that it requires a "Key"? + +Individuals may use a code that requires a "Key," because they wish to +keep their matter secret from others. There may be for them a penalty on +truth, but why Deity should write in a secret language, and then wait +two thousand years before making the matter plain, and then to one +single woman in Boston, is incomprehensible. What the world wants now +is a Key to "Science and Health." In reading a book, the question that +interests us is not, "Is it inspired?" but, "Is it true?" + +Mrs. Eddy's ranks are recruited almost entirely from Orthodox +Christianity. On page six hundred eight of "Science and Health," pocket +edition of Nineteen Hundred Six, a lawyer gives testimony to the good he +has gotten from Christian Science, and explains that he has long been a +member of the Episcopal Church. He is delighted to know that he has not +had to relinquish any of his old faith, but has simply kept the old and +added to it the new. + +This explains, in great degree, the popularity of Christian Science. +People cling to the religious superstitions into which they were born. +Mrs. Eddy's recruits were not from theosophy, spiritualism, agnosticism, +unitarianism, universalism or infidelity. You can't give a freethinker a +book with a statement of what he must find in it. + +He has acquired the habit of thinking for himself. + +Mrs. Eddy had no faith in Darwin, Spencer or Haeckel. She quoted Moses, +Jesus and Paul to disprove the evolutionists, sat back and smiled +content, innocently unaware that citations from Scriptures are in no +sense proof to free minds. All of the Bible she wished to waive, she +did. The cruelty and bestiality of Jehovah were nothing to her. Her +"Key" does not unlock the secrets of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, nor +does it shed light on the doctrines of eternal punishment, the vicarious +atonement, or the efficacy of baptism as a saving ordinance. + +Explanations about mortal mind, divine mind and human mind, citing +specific errors of the human mind, with a calm codicil to the effect +that the human mind has no existence, are not what you might call +illuminating literature. The stuff is simply "inspired." Mrs. Eddy was +very wise in not allowing her "readers" or followers to sermonize or +explain her writings. These writings are simply to be read. And so the +hearers sit steeped in mist and wrapped in placidity, returning to their +work rested and refreshed, without being influenced in any way, save by +the soothing calm of forceful fog and mental vacuity. + +The rest and relief from all thought is good. The related experiences of +Christian Scientists are the things that convince and carry weight, not +"Science and Health." "Science and Health" was made to sell. It was not +given to you to be understood: it was to be bought and believed. If you +doubt any portion of it, at once you are told that this is the work of +your mortal mind, which is filled with error. Good Christian Scientists +do not try to understand "Science and Health"--they just accept and +believe it. "It is inspired," they say, "so it must be true--you will +know when you are worthy to know." + +And so we see our old friend Intellectual Tyranny come back in another +form, not with cowl and cape, but tricked out with feminine finery and +jewelry and gems that lure and dazzle. There is one thing quite as +valuable as health, and that is intellectual integrity. To say, "Oh, +'Science and Health' is certainly inspired--just see how old Mrs. +Johnson was cured of the rheumatism!" is not reasoning. + +And it has given the scoffers excuse for calling it woman's logic. Such +reasoning is on the plane of, "Why, Jesus must have been the only +begotten son of God, born of a virgin, for if you don't believe it, just +see the hospitals, orphan asylums and homes for the aged that +Christianity has built!" Mrs. Johnson was surely cured of the rheumatism +all right, but that does not prove that Mrs. Eddy is correct in her +claim that Eve was made from Adam's rib; that agamogenesis is a fact in +Nature; that to till the soil will not always be necessary; that human +life in these bodies will have no end; and that an absent person can +poison your health and happiness through malicious animal magnetism; or +that a good person can give you absent treatment and cure your +indigestion. + +I agree with Mrs. Eddy as to the necessity of eliminating a medical +fetish, but I disagree with her about religiously preserving a +theological one. I have read "Science and Health with Key to the +Scriptures" for twenty years, and I have also read the Scriptures for a +much longer period. Also, I have lived in the same house for many +months with very intelligent Christian Scientists. + +And after mature consideration I regard both the Scriptures and "Science +and Health" as largely made up of the errors of mortal mind. My +intuitions are just as valuable to me as Mrs. Eddy's were to her. + +My conscience is quite as sacred to me as hers was to her. And in being +an agnostic I object to being classed as blind, stubborn, wilful, +malicious and degenerate. + +We should honor our Creator by cleaving to the things that seem to us to +be true, and not abandon the rudder of our minds to any man or any +woman, be they living or dead. Let us not be dishonest with ourselves, +even to rid us of our physical diseases. As for health, I have all of it +that Christian Science ever gave or can give. I have no "testimony" of +healing to relate, for I have never been sick an hour. And I think I +know how I have kept well. I make no secret of it. It is all very +simple--nothing miraculous. + +My knowledge of how to keep well is not inspired knowledge, save as all +men are inspired who study and know the Laws of Nature. Health, after +all, is largely a matter of habit. + + * * * * * + +Back of the reading-desks, in the "Mother Church," at Boston, are +quotations from Paul and Mrs. Eddy, side by side. But the quotation from +Paul, which is behind the desk of the woman reader, is not this: "Let +women keep silence in the churches." + +Mrs. Eddy believed the Scriptures are all true, word for word. Yet when +she quoted Paul she picked the thing she wanted and avoided all that did +not apply to her case. Personally, I like the plan. I do it myself. But +I do not believe the Scriptures are inspired by an all-wise Deity. So +far as I know, all books were written by men, and very often by faulty, +human men at that. Mrs. Eddy's "Key" does not unlock anything; and she +did not try to unlock any passages except the passages that seemingly +had a bearing on her belief. That is, Mrs. Eddy believed things first, +and then skirmished for proof. This is a very old plan. Says +Shakespeare: "In religion what damned error but some somber brow will +bless it and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness thereof with +fair ornament." Let no one read "Science and Health" in the hope of +finding in it simple and sensible statements concerning life and its +duties. They are not there. + +I append a few quotations, and in mentioning the page I refer to the +pocket or "Oxford" edition of Nineteen Hundred Six. On page one hundred +eighty-three of "Science and Health" I find, "The Scriptures inform us +that sin, or error, first caused the condemnation of man to till the +ground, and indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity." + +Mrs. Eddy evidently believed that work is a punishment, and that the day +will come when God will remove the necessity of farming and making +garden. Can a sane person reply to such lack of logic? + +On page five hundred forty-seven is this: "If one of the statements in +this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from its +system and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of +healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct +interpretation of Scripture." + +This is evidently inspired by Paul's quibble, "If the dead rise not from +the grave, then is our religion vain." Lincoln once referred to this +kind of reasoning by saying, "I object to the assumption that my +ambition is to have my son marry a negress, simply because I am +struggling for emancipation." Mrs. Eddy may heal you, but that does not +prove that her interpretation of Scripture is true. Because this +happens, that does not necessarily follow. Neither, because a thing +precedes a thing or goes with a thing, is the thing the cause of the +thing. On page five hundred fifty-three is this: "Adam was created +before Eve. Herein it is seen that the maternal egg never brought forth +Adam. Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a fetal ovum." + +In reading things like this in "Science and Health," let us not be too +severe on Mrs. Eddy, but just bear in mind that such silly superstitions +and barbaric folklore are yet officially believed by all orthodox +clergymen and members of orthodox churches. You can accept a belief in +Adam's fall and the vicarious atonement and still make money and have +good health. + +Page one hundred two: "The mild forms of animal magnetism are +disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The +looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every +hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are its present +methods that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very +apathy on this subject which the criminal desires." + +This passage reveals the one actually dangerous thing in Christian +Science--the fallacy that one mind can weave a web that will work the +undoing of another. This is the basis of a belief in witchcraft, and +justifies the hangings at Salem. On page one hundred three I find this: +"As used in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the +specific term for error, or mortal mind." + +"It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and both evil and good; +that evil is as real as goodness, and more powerful. This belief has not +one quality of truth or good. It is either ignorant or malicious. The +malicious form of animal magnetism ultimates in moral idiocy. The +truths of immortal mind sustain man; and they annihilate the fables and +mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy pretensions, like silly moths, singe +their own wings and fall into dust. In reality there is no mortal mind, +and consequently no transference of mortal thought and will-power." Page +five hundred two: "Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the +history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This +deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves the spiritual actuality of +man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. When the crude forms of +human thought take on higher symbols and significations, the +scientifically Christian views of the universe will appear, illuminating +time with the glory of eternity." + +I append these two passages simply as samples of "inspired literature." + +Any one who tries to understand such printed matter is headed for +Bloomingdale. You must leave it alone absolutely or else accept it and +read it with your mental eyes closed, mumbling it with your lips, and +let your mind roam like a priest reading his breviary in the +smoking-apartment of a Pullman car. The question then arises, "Was Mrs. +Eddy sincere in putting forth such writings?" + +And the answer is, she was most certainly sincere, and she was certainly +sane. She was an honest woman. But she was not a clear or logical +thinker, except on matters of finance and business, and consequently she +did not give forth a clear expression when she essayed philosophy. In +order to write lucidly you must think lucidly. Mrs. Eddy had no sense of +literary values. She was absolutely devoid of humor, and humor is only +the ability to detect a little thing from a big one--to perceive a wrong +adjustment from a right one. + +Style in literature is taste. But the lack of style, taste and humor is +general in mankind. The world has produced only a few great thinkers, +and one of them was Darwin, a name which Mrs. Eddy mentioned in "Science +and Health" with reproach. Great writers are even more rare than great +thinkers, because to write one must have the ability not only to think +clearly, but the knack or technical skill to use the right word, the +luminous word, and so arrange, paragraph and punctuate them that your +meaning will be clear to average minds. To say that Mrs. Eddy was not a +thinker nor a writer, is not an indictment of the woman, although it may +be a reflection on the mental processes of the people who think she was. + +To say that there are two million people reading Mrs. Eddy, also proves +nothing, since numbers are no vindication. Over a hundred million people +have kissed the big toe of Saint Peter in Rome. + +And surely the Roman Catholic Church contains a vast number of highly +educated people. The things you do not know, you do not know. And Mrs. +Eddy, knowing nothing of literary style, knew nothing of literary art. +Her prose and her poetry are worse than ordinary. All inspirational +poetry I ever read is rot, and all inspired paintings I ever saw are +daubs. Mrs. Eddy should not be blamed for her limitations. + +Many people who are great in certain lines labor under the hallucination +that they are also great in others. Matthew Arnold was a great writer, +and he also thought he was a great orator. + +But when he spoke, his words simply fell over the footlights into the +orchestra and died there. He could not reach the front row. Most +comedians want to play Hamlet, and all of us have heard girls attempt to +sing who thought they could sing, and who were encouraged in the +hallucination by their immediate kinsfolk. + +Mrs. Eddy thought she could write, and unfortunately she was +corroborated in her error by the applause of people who, not being able +to read her book, kindly attributed the inability to their own +limitations and not to hers, being prompted in this by the suggestion +oft repeated by Mrs. Eddy, herself. The resemblance of Mrs. Eddy's +thought to that of Jesus was never noticed until Mrs. Eddy first +explained the matter. Mrs. Eddy was by no means insane. Swedenborg was a +civil engineer and a mathematician. He wrote forty books that are nearly +as opaque as "Science and Health." If you write stupidly enough, some +one will surely throw up his cap and cry "Great!" And others will follow +the example and take up the shout, because it is much easier, as Doctor +Johnson affirmed, to praise a book than to read and understand it. The +custom of reading to a congregation in a dead or foreign language, which +the listeners do not understand, has never caused any general protest +from the listeners. The scoffers are the only ones who have ever noticed +the incongruity, and they do not count, since they probably would not +attend, anyway. + +Next to reading from a book written in the dead language, is to read +from a book that is unintelligible. To listen to such makes no tax upon +the intellect, and with the right accessories is soporific, restful, +pleasing and to be commended. If it does not supply an idea, it at least +imparts a feeling. Mrs. Eddy's success in literature arose from the +extreme muddiness of her thinking and her opacity in expression. + +If she had written fairly well, her mediocrity would have been apparent +to every one; but writing absolutely without rhyme or reason, we bow +before her supreme assurance. The strongest element in men is +inertia--we agree rather than fight about it. We want health--and health +is what Mrs. Eddy gives to us--therefore, "Science and Health with Key +to the Scriptures" is the greatest book in the whole world. Sancta +simplicitas! Why not, indeed! + + * * * * * + +People turn to Mrs. Eddy's book for relief just exactly as they formerly +went to the doctor for the same reason. + +In addition to bodily health, Mrs. Eddy gives joy, hope, worldly +success; and even superior minds, seeing these practical results of +Christian Science, move in the line of least resistance and are quite +willing to accept the book, not troubled at all about its medieval +reasoning. In Ungania is a very great merchant who, not content with +having the biggest store in the Kingdom, aspires to the biggest +University. The fact that the higher criticism is to him only a trivial +matter, and really unworthy of the serious attention of a busy man, +simply reveals human limitation. + +The specialist is created at a terrific cost, and that a person will be +practical, shrewd, diplomatic and wise in managing the buying public and +an army of employees, and yet know and love Walt Whitman, is too much to +expect. This keen and successful merchant, an absolute tyrant in certain +ways, has his soft side and many pleasant qualities. Why any one should +ever question the literal truth of the Bible is beyond his +comprehension. + +He is convinced that "Leaves of Grass" is an obscene book, never having +read it; yet he knows nothing about the third, eleventh and thirteenth +chapters of Second Samuel, having read the Book all his life. He has a +pitying, patronizing smile for any one who suggests that David was a +very faulty man, and that possibly Solomon was not the wisest person +that ever lived. "What difference does it make, anyway?" he testily +asks. If you work for him you have to agree with him, or else be very +silent as to what you actually believe. We often find an avowed and +reiterated love for Jesus, the non-resistant, going hand in hand with a +passion for war, a miser's greed, a lust for power and a thirst for +revenge. + +There may be a prating about righteousness while the hand of the man is +feeling for his sword-hilt, and his eye is locating your jugular. The +Ten Commandments are all rescinded in war time. The New York "Evening +Post" noted the peculiar fact that nine out of ten of the delegates at +The Hague International Peace Conference were theological heretics. As a +rule, Orthodox Christians stand for war, and also for capital +punishment. How do we explain these inconsistencies? + +We do not try to: they are simply facts in the partial development of +the race. Why millionaires should patronize the memory of Jesus is +something no one can understand, save that things work by antithesis. +Mrs. Eddy was of the same shrewd, practical type as the merchant prince +just mentioned. She was the greatest woman-general of her day and +generation. She possessed all the qualities that go to make successful +leadership. + +She was self-reliant, proud, arrogant, implacable in temper, rapid in +decision, unbending, shrewd, diplomatic--and a good hater. + +At times she dismissed her critics with simply a look. No man could +dictate to her, and few dared make suggestions in her presence. To move +her, the matter had to be brought to her attention in a way that led her +to believe that she had discovered it herself. And of course all the +credit went to her. In all Christian Science churches are various +selections from her writings, and beneath every one is her name. "Thou +shalt have no other gods before me!" is the one controlling edict +breathed forth by her life and words. One of her orders was that +whenever one of her hymns was announced, always and forever it must be +stated that it was written by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. Always and forever, +the "student" giving testimony refers, in terms of lavish praise and +fulsome adulation, to "Our Blessed Teacher, Guide and Exemplar, Mary +Baker Eddy." God Almighty and Jesus occupy secondary positions in all +Christian Science meetings. + +Mrs. Eddy is mentioned five times to where they are once. And I would +not criticize this if Mrs. Eddy had but regarded Jesus as simply a great +man in history and "God" as an abstract term referring to the Supreme +Intelligence in Nature. But to her, God and Jesus were persons who +dictated books, and very frequently she was careful to explain that her +method of healing was exactly the same as that practised by Jesus. Side +by side with His words are hers. Passages from the Bible are read +alternately with passages from "Science and Health." If both were +regarded as mere literature, this would be pardonable, but when we are +told that both are "sacred" writ, and "damned be he who dares deny or +doubt," we are simply lost in admiration for the supreme egotism of the +lady. To get mad about it were vain--let us all smile. Surely the +imagination that can trace points of resemblance between Mrs. Mary Baker +Eddy and Jesus, the lowly peasant of Nazareth, is admirable. Jesus was a +communist in principle, having nothing, giving everything. He carried +neither scrip nor purse. He wrote nothing. His indifference to place, +pelf and power is His distinguishing characteristic. Mrs. Eddy's love of +power was the leading motive of her life; her ability to bargain was +beautiful; her resorts to law and the subtleties of legal aid were all +strictly modern; and the way she tied up the title to her writings by +lead-pipe-cinched copyrights reveals the true instincts of Connecticut. + +This jealousy of her rights and the safeguarding of her interests were +among the emphatic features of her life, and set her apart as the +antithesis of Jesus. + +There is one character in history, however, to whom Mrs. Eddy bore a +close resemblance--and that is Julius Caesar, who was educated for the +priesthood, became a priest, and was Pope of Rome before he ventured +into fighting and politics as a business. Mrs. Eddy's faith in herself, +her ability to decide, her quick intuitions, the method and simplicity +of her life, her passion for power, her pleasure in authorship--all +these were the traits which exalted the name and fame of Caesar. + +The inventor of the calendar ordered that it should be known as the +"Julian Calendar," and it is so called, even unto this day. Once Carlyle +sat smoking with Milburn, the blind preacher. They had been discussing +the historicity of Jesus. Then they sat smoking in silence. Finally, +Tammas the Techy knocked the ashes out of his long clay t. d. and +muttered, half to himself and half to Milburn, "Ah, a great mon, a great +mon--but he had his limitations!" The same remark can truthfully be +applied to Mrs. Eddy. And about the only point that Jesus and Mrs. Eddy +have in common is this matter mentioned by Carlyle. + +The superior shrewdness and the keen business instinct of Mrs. Eddy are +seen in the use of the words "Christian" and "Science." The sub-title, +"With Key to the Scriptures," is particularly alluring. And the use of +the Oxford binding was the crowning stroke of commercial insight. Surely +Mrs. Eddy must command our profound respect. She was undoubtedly a very +great business genius, to say the very least. + + * * * * * + +When John Henry Newman became a Catholic, he gave as a reason for his +decision that he had found no place in literature or art to rest his +head. His reward for not finding a place in literature or art for his +head was the red hat. + +Let the followers of Mrs. Eddy take comfort in that their great teacher +had plenty of high precedent for believing that Adam was created by +fiat, and Eve was made from his rib, all the fiat being used; that +Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and it obeyed, even when the +order should have been given to the earth; that Lazarus was raised from +the dead after his body had become putrid; that witchcraft is a fact in +Nature; and that children can be born with the aid of one parent a +little better than in the old-fashioned way--parthenogenesis, I think +they call it. + +These inconsistencies of absolute absurdity, existing side by side with +great competence and sanity, are to be found everywhere in history. + +Mrs. Eddy excited the envy of the medical world in her demonstration +that good health and happiness are the sure results of getting rid of +the doctor habit; but they got even with her when she said that virgin +motherhood would yet become the rule, and tilling of the soil would +cease to be a necessity. + +Saint Augustine thought, as did most of the early Churchmen, that to do +evil that good might follow was not only justifiable, but highly +meritorious. So they preached hagiology to scare people into the narrow +path of rectitude. + +Chapman, Alexander, Torrey, Billy Sunday and most other professional +evangelists believe in and practise the same doctrine. + +The literary conscience was a thing known in Greece, but only recently, +say within two hundred years, has it been again manifest, and as yet it +is rare. It consists in the scorn and absolute refusal to write a line +except that which stands for truth. + +The artistic conscience that refuses to paint for hire or model on order +is the same. Wagner, Millet, Rembrandt, William Morris and Ruskin are +examples of men who were incapable of anything but their highest and +best creative work, and refused to truckle to the mercenary horde. Such +men may be without conscience in a business way. And a person may be +absolutely moral in all his acts of life, except in writing and talking, +and here he may be slipshod and uncertain. + +Mrs. Eddy was beautifully lacking in the literary conscience, just as +much so as was Gladstone when he attempted to reply to Ingersoll in "The +North American Review," and resorted to sophistry and evasion in +lieu of logic. Absolute truth to Gladstone was a matter of +indifference--expediency was his shibboleth. Truth to Mrs. Eddy was also +a secondary matter; the only things that really mattered were Health and +Success. Health and Success are undoubtedly great things and well +worthy of possession, but I wish to secure them only through the +expression of truth. If you gag my tongue, chain my pen and cry, +"Believe and you will have Health," I would say, "Give me liberty or +give me death!" Christian Scientists ask you to buy Mrs. Eddy's book, +"Science and Health." + +When the volume is handed you, you are promised health and success if +you believe its every word; and if you don't, you are threatened with +"moral idiocy." + +It is the old promise of Paradise and the threat of Hell in a new guise. +As for me, I decline the book. + + * * * * * + +Stephen Girard was a great merchant who had a great love of truth; but +if he had been in a retail business, his zeal for truth might have been +slightly modified. + +As a rule, the world of humanity can be divided into two parts: the +practical men and the searchers for truth. Usually the latter have +nothing to lose but their head. Spinoza, Galileo, Bruno, Thomas Paine, +Walt Whitman, Henry Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, are the pure type. Then +come Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson, crowded out of their +pulpits, scorned by their Alma Mater, pitied by the public--yet holding +true to their course. + +And lo! they grew rich; whereas, if they had stuck close to the shore +and safety, they would have been drowned in the shallows of oblivion. + +On the other hand, we find in, say, the directorate of the Standard Oil +Company, many men who are zealous members of the orthodox churches, +giving large sums in support of the "gospel," and taking an active +interest in its promulgation. All of them say, with the late Mr. Morgan, +"My mother's religion is good enough for me." So here we get practical +shrewdness combined with minds that, so far as abstract truth is +concerned, are simply prairie-dog towns. + +These men belong to a type that will cling to error as long as it is +soft, easy and popular. Most certainly these men are not fools--they are +highly competent and useful in their way. But as for superstition, they +find it soothing; it saves the trouble of thinking, and all their +energies are needed in business. + +Religion, to them, is a social diversion, with a chance of salvation on +the side. Inertia does not grip them when it comes to commerce--but in +religion it does. Lincoln once said that there was just one thing, and +only one thing, that God Almighty could not understand: and that was the +workings of the mind of an intelligent American juror. + +Herbert Spencer says that Sir Isaac Newton was one of the six best +educated men the world has seen. He was the first man to resolve light +into its constituent elements. Voltaire says that when Newton discovered +the Law of Gravitation he excited the envy of the scientific world. + +"But," adds Voltaire, "when he wrote a book on the Bible prophecies, the +men of science got even with him." Sir Isaac Newton defended the literal +inspiration of the Scriptures and was a consistent member of the Church +of England. Doctor Johnson was unhappy all day if he didn't touch every +tenth picket of the fence with his cane as he walked downtown. + +Blackstone, the great legal commentator, believed in witchcraft, and +bolstered his belief by citing the Scriptural text, "Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live"--thus proving Moses a party to the superstition. +Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of England, did the same. + +Gladstone was a great statesman, and yet he believed in the Mosaic +account of Creation, just as did Mary Baker Eddy. + +John Adams was a rebel from political slavery, but lived and died a +worthy Churchman, subsisting on canned theology--and canned in England, +at that. + +Franklin and Jefferson were rebels from both political and theological +despotism, but looked leniently on leeches and apothecaries. Herbert +Spencer had a free mind as regards religion, politics, economics and +sociology; yet he was a bachelor, lived in the city, belonged to a club, +played billiards and smoked cigars. Physical health was out of his +reach, and with all his vast knowledge, he never knew why. All through +history we find violence and gentleness, ignorance and wisdom, folly and +shrewdness side by side in the same person. + +The one common thing in humanity is inconsistency. To account for it +were vain. We know only that it is. + + * * * * * + +The very boldness of Mrs. Eddy's claims created an impetus that carried +conviction. + +The woman certainly believed in herself, and she also believed in the +Power, of which she was a necessary part, that works for righteousness. +She repudiated the supernatural, not by denying "miracles," but by +holding that the so-called miracles of the Bible really occurred and +were perfectly natural--all according to Natural Law, which is the +Divine Law. + +And the explanation of this Divine Law was her particular business. Thus +did she win to her side those who were too timid in constitution to +forsake forms and ceremonies and stand alone on the broad ground of +Rationalism. + +Christian Science is not a religion of fight, stress and struggle. Isn't +it better to relax and rest and allow Divinity to flow through us, than +to sit on a sharp rail and call the passer-by names in falsetto? May +Irwin's motto, "Don't Argufy," isn't so bad as a working maxim, after +all. + +All Christian denominations are very much alike. Their differences are +microscopic, and recognized only by those who are immersed in them. +Martin Luther only softened the expression of the Roman Catholic +Church--he did not change its essence. + +Benjamin Franklin declared that he could not tell the difference between +a Catholic and an Episcopalian. But Christian Science is a complete +departure from all other denominations, and while professing to be +Christian, is really something else, or if it is Christian, then +orthodoxy is not. + +Christian Science strikes right at the root of orthodoxy, since it +divides the power of Jesus with Mary Baker Eddy and affirms that Jesus +was not "The Savior," but A Savior. + +This is the position of Thomas Paine, and all other good radicals. +Christian Science places Mrs. Eddy's work right alongside of the Bible. +No denomination has ever put out a volume stating that the book was +required in order to make the Bible intelligible. No denomination has +ever put forth a person as the equal of Jesus. This has only been done +by unbelievers, atheists and free-thinkers. + +Christianity is at last attacked in its own house and by its own +household. It is thoroughly understood and admitted everywhere that +there are two kinds of Christianity. One is the kind taught by the +Nazarene; and the other is the institutional variety, made up of +denominations which hold millions upon millions of dollars' worth of +property without taxation, and parade their ritual with rich and costly +millinery. + +The one was lived by a Man who had not where to lay His head; and the +other is an acquirement taken over from pagan Rome, and continued +largely in its pagan form even unto this day. Christian Science is +neither one nor the other, and the obvious pleasantry that it is +neither Christian nor scientific is a jest in earnest. Christian Science +is a modern adaptation of all that is best in the simplicity and +asceticism of Jesus, the commonsense philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, +the mysticism of Swedenborg, and the bold pronunciamento of Robert +Ingersoll. It is a religion of affirmation with a denial-of-matter +attachment. + +It is a religion of this world. Jesus was a Man of Sorrows but Mary +Baker Eddy was a Daughter of Joy. + +And as the universal good sense of mankind holds that the best +preparation for a life to come, if there is one, is to make the best of +this, Christian Science is meeting with a fast-growing popular +acceptance. + +The decline of the old orthodoxy is owing to its clinging to the fallacy +that the world's work is base, and Nature is a trickster luring us to +our doom. Mrs. Eddy reconciled the old idea with the new and made it +mentally palatable. And this is the reason why Christian Science is +going to sweep the earth and in twenty years will have but one +competitor, the Roman Catholic faith. + +Orthodoxy, blind, blundering, stubborn, senile, is tottering--the +undertaker is at the door. Indeed, the old idea of our orthodox friends +that they were preparing to die, was literally true. + +The undertaker's name and business address attached to the front of many +a city church is a sign too subtle to overlook. Not only was the +undertaker a partner of the priest, but he is now foreclosing his claim. +Christian Science is not final. After it has lived its day, another +religion will follow, and that is the Religion of Commonsense, the +esoteric religion which Mrs. Eddy herself lived and practised. + +As for her believers, she gave them the religion of a Book--two Books, +the Bible and "Science and Health." They want form and ritual and +temples. + +She gave them these things, just as doctors give sweetened water to +people who still demand medicine; and as if to supply the zealous +converts, just out of orthodoxy, their fill of ecclesiastic husks, she +built fine churches--churches rivaling the far-famed San Salute of +Venice. Let them have their wish! Paganism is in their blood--they are +even trying to worship her! + +Let them go on and eventually they will pray not in temples nor on this +or that mountain, but in spirit and in truth, just as did Mrs. Eddy, one +of the world's most successful women. + + * * * * * + +Christian Science is orthodox Christianity, minus medical fetish and the +fear that a belief in sin, sickness, death and eternal punishment +naturally lends, plus the joy of a natural, healthy, human life. The +so-called rational Christian sects preserve their Devil in the form of a +Doctor, and Hell in the shape of a Hospital. + +My hope and expectation is that Christian Science will become a Rational +Religion instead of a one-man institution, or a religion of authority, +such as it now is. Its superstitious features have doubtless been strong +factors in its rapid growth--serving as stays or stocks to aid in the +launching. + +But now, the sooner the ship floats free the better. Christian +Scientists, being men and women, can not continue to grow if fettered +with an Index Expurgatorius and mandatory edicts and encyclicals. That +which binds and manacles must go--the good will remain. + +Christian Science brings good news, and good news is always curative. +Mrs. Eddy animated her patients with a new thought--the thought of +harmony, the denial of disease, and the affirmation that God is good and +life is beautiful. The animation thus produced is in itself the most +powerful healing principle known to science. Life is born of love. Joy +is a prophylactic. Christian Science comes to the "student" as a great +flood of light. His circulation becomes normal, his muscles relax, the +nerves rest, digestion acts, elimination takes place--and the person is +well. + +Fear has congested the organs--love, hope and faith place them in an +attitude so Nature plays through them. The patient is healed. In it +there is neither mystery nor miracle. It is all very simple. + +Let us rid ourselves of a belief in the strange and occult! The +Christian Science organization is an expediency. It is an intellectual +crutch. The book is a necessity. It is a scaffolding. Yet he who +mistakes the scaffolding for the edifice is a specialist in scaffolding. + +Truth can never be caught and crystallized in a formula. Also this: +truth can never be monopolized by an "ite" or an "ist." Eventually the +label will be eliminated with the scaffolding, and the lumber of ritual +and rite will have to go. + +We will live truth instead of talking about it. Among Christian +Scientists there are no drunkards, paupers or gamblers. Also, there are +no sick people. To them sickness is a disgrace. + +Orthodox Christians get sick and gratify their sense of approbation by +receiving pastoral calls and visits from the doctor and neighbors. The +biblical injunction to visit the sick was never followed by Mrs. +Eddy--she always decided for herself just what injunctions should be +waived and what followed. + +Those which she did not like she interpreted spiritually or else glided +over. The biblical statement that man's days are few and full of +trouble, and also the assertion that man is prone to wickedness as the +sparks fly upwards, are both very conveniently glossed. + +Christian Scientists know the rules of health, just as most people do; +but what is more, they follow them, thus avoiding the disgrace of being +pointed out. They have made sickness not only tabu, but invalidism +ridiculous. + +When things become absurd and preposterous, we abandon them. +Unpopularity can do what logic is helpless to bring about. The reasoning +of Christian Scientists is bad, but their intuitions are right. + +While denying the existence of matter, no people on earth are as canny, +save possibly the Quakers. A bank-balance to a Christian Scientist is no +barren ideality. It is like falsehood to a Jesuit--a very present help +in time of trouble. Sin, to them, consists in making too much fuss about +life and talking about death. Do what you want and forget it. Quit +talking about the weather, night air, miasma. + +Knowingly or unknowingly Christian Scientists cultivate resiliency. They +are proof against drafts and microbes. Eat what you like, but not too +much of it. Be moderate. Christian Scientists get their joy out of their +work. This is essentially hygienic. They breathe deeply, eat moderately, +bathe plentifully, work industriously--and smile. This is all sternly +scientific. It can never be argued down. + +No school of medicine has ever offered a prophylactic equal to work and +good-cheer, and no system of religion has ever offered a working formula +for health, happiness and success equal to that launched by Mrs. Eddy. +The science of medicine is a science of palliation. + +Christian Scientists avoid the cause of sickness, and thus keep well. + +There is no vitality in drugs. Nature cures--obey her. In this matter of +bodily health just a few plain rules suffice. And these rules, fairly +followed, soon grow into a pleasurable habit. Fortunately, we do not +have to oversee our digestion, our circulation, the work of the millions +of pores that form the skin, or the action of the nerves. Folks who get +fussy about their digestion and assume personal charge of their nerves +have "nerves" and are apt to have no digestion. + +"I have a pain in my side," said the woman who had no money to the busy +doctor. "Forget it," was the curt advice. Get the Health Habit, and +forget it. + +This is the quintessence of Christian Science. Your mental attitude +controls your body. Happiness is your health. There is no devil but +fear. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. + + * * * * * + +SO HERE ENDETH "LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF GREAT TEACHERS," BEING +VOLUME TEN OF THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD; EDITED AND +ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; BORDERS AND INITIALS BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, AND +PRODUCED BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR SHOPS, WHICH ARE IN EAST AURORA, +ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, MCMXXII + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great +Teachers, by Elbert Hubbard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE JOURNEYS *** + +***** This file should be named 18936.txt or 18936.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/3/18936/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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