have simply to consider by what mode we may best provide for the normal
tendencies which ever have been and ever will be active in man. It is
not in our power to change these tendencies, nor to prevent their play.
But we may so order our social polity as to _assist_ their natural
drift, or to _obstruct_ it. In the one case, the affairs of the
community are conducted with harmony, and with the least possible
friction. In the other, they are discordant, and are forced to reach
their proximately proper adjustment through antagonism and struggle. It
is the difference between the ship which flies swiftly to her destined
port with favoring winds, fair skies, and peaceful seas, and one which
struggles wearily to her harbor through adverse gales and stormy waves,
battered, broken, and tempest tossed. The great mass of the people have
always looked to the more highly developed of their race for practical
guidance in the secular concerns of life, and for spiritual guidance in
religious things. That they have done so, and that the Church and the
State have been large factors in the sum of human progress, we shall
presently see. We shall also see brought out more distinctly and clearly
the fact, that the dominant classes in Society, whether the form of
Government be a Monarchy, an Oligarchy, or a Democracy, are, in the
main, and except, perhaps, in transitional epochs, the classes who
possess, in reality, superior capacities of the quality the age most
requires in its leaders.
In the earliest ages of the world, when brute force was regarded as the
highest attribute of greatness, the men of might, the renowned warriors,
the Nimrods and the Agamemnons, occupied the highest pinnacle of
Society, and received homage from their fellows as supreme men. Of their
age they were the supreme men. To our enlightened epoch, the fighting
heroes of the past are but brutal bullies a little above the level of
the animals whose powers and habits they so sedulously emulated. But if
we plant ourselves in thought back in that savage era, if we reflect
that its habits and instincts were almost wholly physical, that the
chief controlling powers of the time were the arm of might and
superstition, and if we ponder a moment upon the force of will, the
dauntless courage, the inexorable rigor, the terrible energy, the
ceaseless activity, and the gigantic personal strength which must have
combined in a single man to have enabled him to rule so turbulent and so
animal a people; we shall be apt to understand that the only being who
could, in that age, stand first among his fellows, must have been the
superior brute of all.
If we consider still further the ferocious natures of the men of that
time, we shall perceive the necessity which existed for a strong
Government, regulating all the affairs of Society, and administered by
the most severe and savage chieftain; one who could hold all others in
subjection by the terror of his might, preserve a semblance at least of
order in the community, and protect his subjects from outside wrong.
But what could hold _him_ in subjection--an irresponsible despot,
without human sympathy, without any awakened sense of moral
responsibility, capricious, self-willed, ambitious, lustful, vindictive,
without self-control, and possessing absolute power over the lives and
property of his subjects? Nothing but the dread of an offended God or
gods. And, as a consolidated despotism, wielded by brute force, was the
best form of Government possible in this age; so a worship based chiefly
upon the incitements and terrors of retributive law--the holding out of
inducements of reward for the good, and of determents of direful
punishment for the wicked, in a future world--was the best religion for
which the time was prepared.
Tracing the history of the world down to later times, we shall find the
same state of things in society at large, until a period which it is
difficult to fix, but which, we may say, did not fairly begin until the
beginning or the middle of the eighteenth century. Down to that time,
physical force was the dominant element among the nations. The great
warriors were still the prominent men upon the stage of action, though
many of the brutal characteristics of the earlier ages had disappeared.
The people were still ignorant, credulous, childlike, and looked to the
Feudal Aristocracy for direction and support--an Aristocracy founded on
superiority of warlike talent; thus fitly representing the leading
spirit of the age, and the proper guardians of the people in this
warlike time. The Catholic Church, and, at a later period, the
Protestant sects, held the upper classes from oppressing the lower, and
taught the latter to respect and defer to the former. The Feudal Lords
were thus the Social providence and protection of the poor and weak,
thinking and acting for them in things beyond their range of capacity;
while these, in turn, performed the agricultural and other labors to
which they were competent. Each class occupied its appropriate position
and fulfilled its legitimate calling. The superior orders held the
superior situations; and were recognized for what they really were,
leaders and guides. The masses of the community were faithful and
obedient as followers. The Church inspired each with a feeling of
devotion to duty, protected the subject and controlled the ruler. In its
function of a Governmental arrangement, the Feudal System was admirably
adapted to the necessities of the time. In its religious capacity, the
Catholic Church was the bulwark of Social order during the Middle Ages.
About the period of time mentioned above, the warlike spirit which had
theretofore pervaded the world and controlled its destinies, began to
yield before the enlightenment of civilization. Commercial, industrial,
and intellectual pursuits commenced to assume the leading position among
the interests of Society. At the same time physical force and hereditary
blood began to give way, as tokens of superior character, to
intellectual greatness and executive commercial ability. The struggle
which then commenced between the Aristocracy of Birth and the
Aristocracy of Genius in all its forms, mental or practical, is still
pending in the Old World. In America it has declared itself in favor of
the latter. The only Noblemen here recognized are those of Nature's
make--those who bear in their organizations and culture the stamp of
superiority. These are, in the main, quickly recognized and
acknowledged; whether they exhibit their genius in the field of
Literature, Science, Invention, Government, Religion, Art--or in the
thousand Commercial and Industrial Enterprises which are characteristic
of this era, and especially of this country.
With the breaking up of the Feudal System and the advent of modern
commercial activities, a great change took place in the organization of
Society. Under this system a community was, as has been indicated, made
up in such a manner that the whole body formed, so to speak, one family,
having mutual interests; each individual performing those functions--for
the benefit of the whole--for which he was, as a general rule, best
fitted. The most warlike, sagacious, executive--those, in short, who
were best capacitated for leaders and protectors, being at the head, and
looking after the welfare of the whole; while others occupied such
stations and rendered such services as their qualifications made them
adequate to, in subordination to these leaders. Thus the interests of
community were linked immediately together. They formed a grand
Coöperative Association, in which each member recognized his obligations
to the whole body of associates, and to every individual associate, _and
measurably fulfilled those obligations as they were understood at that
day_. The poor were not left to fall into starvation and misery for the
want of work; there were no paupers; and the rich and powerful classes
did not neglect the affairs of the indigent and weak as those who had no
claim upon them. On the contrary, they felt that mankind were the
children of one Father, and their brethren. They felt that their
superior powers devolved upon them accompanying responsibilities; that
because they were comparatively far seeing and strong, they were bound
by all the nobler sentiments of manhood to watch over and guide the
short sighted and the feeble. Under the inspiration of the Catholic
Church--a Church whose persistent efforts were ever devoted in a marked
degree to the amelioration of the physical no less than the spiritual
conditions of humanity, a Church which strove in the darkest hours of
its history and always to stand between the helpless and suffering and
their oppressors--they accepted this office and fulfilled its functions.
To the beat of their understanding--with the light they then had,
considering the times in which they lived, and the state of the world's
progress--they executed well and faithfully the duties which pertained
to it. Far better, indeed, as we shall presently see, than the opulent
and powerful perform the same duties in our day.
With the commencement of more peaceful times and the gradual
civilization of Society, the necessity of personal protection which had,
in great measure, given rise to the Feudal System, passed away. Civil
law acquired the protective power which had formerly resided in the arm
of physical force. Travel became safe. The accumulations of industry
were less liable to be wrenched from their legitimate owner by the hand
of the robber. There was a rapid opening up of intelligence among the
masses. Individual energy was stimulated. Commerce received a wonderful
impetus. The bounds of personal freedom were enlarged. Men felt no
longer the necessity of association for the sake of safety. They felt,
moreover, the restless surging of new-born powers within them; and
longed to give them exercise. So the old forms of community life were
slowly broken up. Individuals embarked in various enterprises; now no
longer consociated with others in mutual coöperation, but for their
individual benefit. Thus _competitive_ industry gradually supplanted the
old method of _coöperative_ or _associated_ industry, as seen in its
crude and imperfect form, and the inauguration of the false and selfish
system which still prevails began.
There could be but one result to a mode of commercial and industrial
traffic and a system of labor and wages which pits the various classes
of Society together in a strife for the wealth of the world, the
fundamental principle of which strife is, _that it is perfectly right to
take advantage of the necessities of our neighbors in order to obtain
their means for our own enrichment_.
For this was the principle which instinctively sprang up in the world as
the basis of business, and which has never been changed. Traffic
originated in the necessities of life, and was extended by the desire to
obtain wealth. Each individual perceived some want in his neighbor, and
forthwith proceeded to supply this want, _charging just as much for the
thing supplied as the desire for the article or his need of it would
force the person supplied to pay; without reference to the equitable
price, estimated with respect to the labor bestowed in supplying the
want_. This principle of trade, originating in the most complete
selfishness, and, viewed from any high moral point, both unjust and
dishonest, has always been and is to-day the fundamental principle of
our Political Economy. That 'a thing is worth what it will bring,' is a
basic axiom of all trade. The only price which is recognized in commerce
is the market price; which is, again, what a commodity will bring. What
a commodity will bring is what the necessities of mankind will make them
pay. Thus is exhibited the curious spectacle of the existence of a
Religion which inculcates good will and love to our neighbor as the
foundation of all true civilization and virtue, coexisting side by side
with a Commercial System, a relic, like slavery, of ancient barbarism,
which forces all men to traffic with each other on the principle that
our neighbor is an object of legitimate prey.
Of course, in a System of Competitive Industry thus carried on, the
wealth of the world would fall into the hands of those of superior
powers; while the feeble, the stolid, and the ignorant would be left
poor and helpless. And, as the different classes of the community would
be no longer directly associated with each other in their labors and
interests, but would be, on the contrary, competitors--and as the fact
that there had been free competition would be held by all classes to
absolve them from any responsibility as to each other's welfare--it
would inevitably result that the weaker orders should fall into
indigence, degradation, wretchedness, starvation, and premature death.
Such has been the case. With the advent of Competitive Industry in
Europe and America--to confine ourselves to these countries--with the
disintegration of the Social System in which the different classes were
associated in mutually dependent and coöperative efforts; with the
abrogation, on the part of the superior body of citizens, of all
responsibility for, and direct interest in, the affairs and comfort of
the lower orders, has come Pauperism, Social Instability, and a degree
of misery and depravity among the poorest of the masses, never before
known in the history of the world, all things being taken into
consideration. It is a well-known saying of Political Economists, that
the rich are daily growing richer, and the poor poorer. It might be
added with truth: and more degraded and dangerous.
The effects of this method of Competitive Industry upon the higher
classes have been scarcely less injurious, though in a different
direction. It has bred an intense selfishness and an apathy in respect
to the sufferings of others which no lover of his race can contemplate
without emotions of anguish. Not only is the idea of any effort for the
permanent relief of the poorer classes, for taking them under special
care and making their welfare the business of Society, not entertained
by any large number of persons; but those who do feel keenly the
necessity of such a step, and whose sympathies are aroused by the
sufferings of the masses around them, are too deeply imbued with the
ease-loving spirit of the age, too much wedded to their own comfort, to
take any active measures for the realization of their desires, or to
forego their momentary interests to secure them.
The rich heap up riches by the iniquitous trade-system which drifts the
earnings of the laborers into their net, and are dead to the call of
those whom they are, unconsciously in most cases, defrauding. Nay! they
even struggle to wring from them the largest possible amount of work for
the smallest possible pay! Day by day they grow more exacting as they
grow wealthier; day by day the laboring orders sink into more harassing
and hopeless conditions. Had the functions of Government in our own
country and in England been those only of protection to persons and
property; had not the general and local authorities in some degree
assisted the oppressed toilers; had not the Church by her admonitions
and pleadings kept some sparks of feeling alive in the breast of the
people of this money-getting age, and stimulated somewhat their
benevolence, the laboring classes of England and America would long
since have sunk to utter destitution. Nor would this have been all. For
when the mass of the people reach such a point; when they are driven to
despair, as they are now fast being driven, and would long ago have been
driven but for the circumstances stated, then comes the terrible
reaction, the frightful revolution, the upheaval of all order, anarchy,
and--who shall tell what else? The Riot of July is still ringing its
solemn warning--all unheeded--in the ears of this people. Society has
yet and speedily to lift the masses out of their ignorance, poverty,
squalor, and accompanying brutality, or to sink awfully beneath their
maddened retaliation.
In thus criticizing the Industrial Polity of modern times as, in the
respects indicated, inferior to that of the Feudal System, the writer
does not wish to be understood as affirming any more than is really
said. The idea which it is desired to express is this: that the plan
upon which this system was founded--the mutual interdependence of
classes and their reciprocally coöperative labor--was far superior to
the method of Competitive Industry now in vogue; and the true type--when
rightly carried out, without the drawbacks and the evils of the Feudal
System--of Social organization. That there are compensations in our
modern mode, and that, on the whole, Society advances in adopting it, is
true. But it will take a further step in advance when it reverts to that
plan on the footing above indicated; when it adopts the _plan_ without
the evils which in an ignorant and undeveloped age necessarily
accompanied it.
It has not been forgotten that the Church has arrayed itself, to no
small extent, against the advent of new knowledge; that the State has
suppressed the enlarging tendencies of individual liberty; and that both
have been, in this way and in other ways, as Mr. Buckle and Professor
Draper have clearly shown, clogs upon the hurrying wheels of the
nations. It is precisely because they _have_ been and _are_ still so,
that they served and do serve the cause of progress.
It has been previously stated that new truths come from the body of
advanced Thinkers, who constitute a fourth and comparatively small class
in the community. The discoverer of a new truth sees the immense
advantages which would accrue to Society from a knowledge of it, and is
eager for its immediate promulgation and acceptance; and, if it be of a
practical nature, for its incorporation into the working principles of
the Social polity. This may be true. But there is another verity of
equal importance, which ordinarily he does not take into consideration,
namely: that the great mass of the people who form Society are not
prepared for the change which he contemplates. They comprehend and act
more slowly than the Thinkers. The novelty must be brought home to their
understandings gradually, and assimilated. Old forms of thought, old
associations, encrusted prejudices, the deep-seated opinions of years
must be modified before the new will find a lodgment in their
convictions.
It is well that the Thinker should urge with impetuous and ardent zeal
his side of the case; that he should insist upon the immediate
adjustment of thought or activity in accordance with advanced right. It
is true that he will not instantly succeed. It is equally true that,
with human nature and Society as they now are, he would destroy all
order if he did. Men can live only in that portion of truth which they
are competent to appreciate. Place the Indian in the heated city, and
make him conform to the usages of city life, he pines and dies. If it
were possible to take away from the ignorant and child-minded races of
the earth or portions of community their superstitious faith, and
substitute the higher truths of a more spiritual interpretation, yet
would they not subserve their religious purposes. So, when the new
verity is held up to view, to the great mass who cannot understand it,
it is no truth, but a lie. They oppose it. Thus the discovery becomes
known. Discussion excites new thought. The Thinkers array themselves
upon one side, urging forward; the State and the Church, representing
the body of Society, take the other, standing sturdily still, or
hesitating, doubting either the validity of the alleged truth or its
uses. Between the clash of contending opinions the new ideas take shape
in the awakened minds which are prepared for them. These come shortly to
be the majority. The State and the Church gradually and imperceptibly
modify their methods or their creeds; and so, safely and without
disaster, humanity takes a step in advance.
It would be better, indeed, if this slow process were not necessary.
When the whole scope of Fundamental Truths is apprehended; when a
Science of the Universe is known; when truth is no longer fragmentary;
and when there is mutual confidence and coöperation among the different
classes of community, it will not be necessary. But until then, any
attempt to force an instantaneous acceptance of new truths or an
immediate inauguration of new methods upon the mass of the people will
only serve, if successful, to overthrow order in Society, and introduce
Social anarchy in its stead. From such an attempt came the chaos of the
French Revolution;--from an endeavor to inaugurate ideas essentially
correct among a people noway ready to comprehend them rightly. The
Conservative Element is as essential to the well-being of society as the
Progressive. To eliminate either is to destroy its balanced action; and
to give it over to stagnation on the one hand, or to frenzy on the
other. The Thinkers of the past have done, and those of the present are
doing, good work for humanity, on the Progressive side. The Church and
the State of the past have done, the Church and the State of the present
are doing, good work for humanity, on the Conservative side. Through the
instrumentality of the Thinkers, the Church, and the State, the world
has been brought slowly, steadily, and safely along the path of
progress, now gaining in one way, and now in another; at times
abandoning one line of advance, only to go ahead upon a different one;
yet always moving onward, and standing to-day, in spite of its seeming
retrogressions, at the highest point of development which it has ever
touched.
The Church and the State of the future will be the subject of subsequent
consideration.
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.
For months that followed the triumph the rebels had boasted they wrought,
But which lost to them Chattanooga, thus bringing their triumph to nought;
The mountain-walled citadel city, with its outposts in billowy crowds,
Grand soarers among the lightnings, stern conquerors of the clouds!
For months, I say, had the rebels, with the eyes of their cannon, looked
down
From the high-crested forehead of Lookout, from the Mission's long sinuous
crown
Till GRANT, our invincible hero, the winner of every fight!
Who joys in the strife, like the eagle that drinks from the storm delight!
Marshalled his war-worn legions, and, pointing to them the foe,
Kindled their hearts with the tidings that now should be stricken the blow,
The rebel to sweep from old Lookout, that cloud-post dizzily high,
Whence the taunt of his cannon and banner had affronted so long the sky.
Brave THOMAS the foeman had brushed from his summit the nearest, and now
The balm of the midnight's quiet soothed Nature's agonized brow:
A midnight of murkiest darkness, and Lookout's dark undefined mass
Heaved grandly a frown on the welkin, a barricade nothing might pass.
Its breast was sprinkled with sparkles, its crest was dotted in gold,
Telling the camps of the rebels secure as they deemed in their hold.
Where glimmered the creek of the Lookout, it seemed the black dome of the
night
Had dropped all its stars in the valley, it glittered so over with light:
There were voices and clashings of weapons, and drum beat and bugle and
tramp,
Quick flittings athwart the broad watchfires that spotted the grays of the
camp:
Dark columns would glimmer and vanish, a rider flit by like a ghost;
There was movement all over the valley, the movement and din of a host.
'Twas the legion so famed of the 'White Star,' and led on by GEARY the
brave,
That was chosen to gather the laurel or find on the mountain a grave.
They crossed the dim creek of the Lookout, and toiled up the sable ascent,
Till the atoms black crawling and struggling in the dense upper darkness
were blent.
Mists, fitful in rain, came at daydawn, they spread in one mantle the
skies,
And we that were posted below stood and watched with our hearts in our
eyes;
We watched as the mists broke and joined, the quick flits and the blanks of
the fray;
There was thunder, but not of the clouds; there was lightning, but redder
in ray;
Oh, warm rose our hopes to the 'White Star,' oh, wild went our pleadings
to heaven;
We knew, and we shuddered to know it, how fierce oft the rebels had
striven;
We saw, and we shuddered to see it, the rebel flag still in the air;
Shall our boys be hurled back? God of Battles! oh, bring not such bitter
despair!