A doctor was once riding from Yezd to Kerman, in Persia, to
make a visit. Arriving at a post-house, and finding no horse,
he demanded a mule. On this beast he made the next stage, to
be told on arrival that there was only a donkey available.
Accepting this mount from necessity, he reached in time another
stage, where he met the announcement that nothing in the shape
of an animal was obtainable but a cow! The story stops there,
drawing the veil of silence over the rest of the journey.
An evil life is successively degraded, declining in guilt and misery to
depths lower than the brute. (Text.)
(722)
* * * * *
The early Christians did not despise the dance; but as monkish
asceticism drew away from the simple, natural teaching of
Christ, the dance fell into disfavor and was frowned upon as a
manifestation of the evil one. And just so it was with artistic
perception and artistic appreciation. Where they were highest,
in Hellenic antiquity, dancing had its place among the arts and
was revered as the oldest of them all, that art upon which all
the others were based. Dragged down to pander to luxury and
profligacy, as were all the arts during the period of Roman
triumph and Roman decadence, the dance fell under a cloud with
the rest, and seemed to disappear during the dark ages, as did
the others. (Text.)--GRACE ISABEL COLBRON, _The
Cosmopolitan_.
(723)
=Degradation Inciting Philanthropy=--See DEGENERACY.
=Degradation versus Transformation=--See MISSIONARY RESULTS.
=Degrees, Honorary=--See LABELS, MISLEADING.