The ancient philosopher Diogenes, whom even the presence of Alexander
could not overawe, is one of the most marked and heroic figures of
ancient history. It is said "The Athenians admired his contempt for
comfort, and allowed him a wide latitude of comment and rebuke.
Practical good was the chief aim of his philosophy; for literature and
the fine arts he did not conceal his disdain. He laughed at men of
letters for reading the sufferings of Ulysses while neglecting their
own; at musicians who spent in stringing their lyres the time which
would have been much better employed in making their own discordant
natures harmonious; at savants for gazing at the heavenly bodies while
sublimely incognizant of earthly ones; at orators who studied how to
enforce truth, but not how to practice it. * * * When asked what
business he was proficient in, he answered, 'to command men.'"
Psychometry brings up these ancient characters as vividly and
truthfully as history. Such psychometric descriptions are a continual
miracle. How the psychometers, knowing not of whom they are speaking,
guided only by a mysterious intuition, should speak of the most
ancient characters as familiarly and truly as of our acquaintances
to-day, will ever stand as a psychic miracle, to illustrate the Divine
Wisdom that established such a power in man. This is the daily
experience of Mrs. Buchanan. Her description of Diogenes was as
follows:
"I think this is an ancient. There is something quaint about
him. He does not seem to follow anything or anybody. He lived a
natural life, indifferent to current teachings. He had peculiar
original ideas of his own as to life and its purposes, and seems
to be a man of philanthropic nature, not aesthetic, but very
indifferent as to personal appearance and habits, or as to
pleasing people, not at all fastidious. He did not mind people's
opinions in the least. They never disturbed him.
"He had enough combativeness to fight his way through
difficulties. He had great self-reliance, and did not mind
obstacles. If he had to take part in disturbances, he was ready,
and had tact and tactics. He had a peculiar power of governing
men, and a peculiar way of gaining confidence and esteem. He did
not show off at all, and was not at all condescending. He had a
great deal of sagacity. He regarded as trifles things people
considered as momentous.
"(To what country did he belong?) He was probably a Greek, but
he did not accord with anything of his time. He lived in the
future and anticipated great changes. He did not agree with any
contemporary religion, politics, fashions or manners, but was
very sarcastic upon them. He was a philosopher, devoted to the
useful, and cared nothing for the ornamental, either in
architecture, fashions or anything else. He might not make war
on the religion as he was not rancorous or rebellious, but he
had different ideas in himself, and was candid in expressing
them. He does not give much attention to modern times, but if he
were here he would enjoy modern improvements and benevolence,
but would denounce our fashions and our bigotry, and teach a
primitive style of living."
Let us invoke the strong spirit of Diogenes whose sturdy freedom
of thought was like that of Walt Whitman, to cooperate in the review
of modern life. Such men are greatly needed to review a
corrupt civilization; and where is the civilization now, where was
there ever a civilization that was not corrupt? The function of
Diogenes is not performed either by the pulpit or the press. A
few special journals are terribly severe on special evils, but the
reformatory words of the press generally are few and far between, in
comparison to what is needed. The JOURNAL OF MAN does not
propose to fill the hiatus and make war upon the myriad evils of
society, but it must speak out, now and then, like Diogenes, especially
when others neglect their duty.
What is the condition of our legislative bodies? Where is there
one that does not provoke sharp criticism? The Albany correspondent
of the _N. Y. Sun_, speaking of the legislative adjournment, says;
"Mr. William F. Sheehan, leader of the Democratic minority to the
Assembly, summed up the work of the Legislature of 1887 when in
his address on the floor of the Assembly on the day of final adjournment,
he said: 'Prayer will ascend from thousands of hearts of the
citizens of this State at noon to-day for their deliverance from this
Legislature. It began its session with the corrupt election of a
United States Senator. It lived in bribery, and it dies a farce.'
No one here regrets the adjournment except the gamblers and the
lobbyists. Even the lobbyists would be glad for a vacation, as their
labors in bidding for the legislative cattle the last month have been
most arduous. The people of Albany look on the Legislature as a
pestilence to which they must yearly submit, and they welcome its
departure as a farmer does the going of a swarm of locusts from his
fields.
"Whatever else may be said about the Legislature of 1887, no one ever
accused it of being honest, and there is no doubt that it was
industrious."
This corrupt Legislature passed two very discreditable bills which
would have been made positively infamous if it had not been for the
active opposition of a few friends of liberty. One of these bills was
designed to add to the stringency of the present obstructive medical
law; the other was designed to assist the labors of Anthony Comstock
in interrupting the circulation of popular physiological literature,
under pretence of suppressing obscenity.
In the Legislature of Pennsylvania, the law designed to suppress the
cultivation of spiritual science by severe penalties, was favorably
reported by a committee but prevented by popular indignation from
passing. Yet the people were not sufficiently alert to prevent
legislation in favor of that monopoly the Standard Oil Company, which
is considered a betrayal of justice.
In Illinois a bill was passed in the Senate and came near passing in
the House, which would have abolished all medical freedom and made it
a crime for any one but a licensed doctor to help the sick in any way,
even by a prayer. Verily the spirit of American liberty does not
pervade American communities and American legislatures.
In Massachusetts the Old Puritanic Sunday Laws having fallen into
"_innocuous desuetude_," an attempt to give them a partial enforcement
in Boston compelled a little legislative action and the result was
what might have been expected in a State in which religious opinions
are allowed to interfere with the credibility of a witness, and in
which Diogenes, if he were here, would be struck with the vast
inconsistency between the creed of Christendom and its practice, and
the vast disparity between the progress of modern knowledge and the
effete system of education in our Universities. He would wonder why
modern colleges are more interested in the details of Greek life and
letters than in the beneficent sciences of to-day of which the Greeks
knew nothing.
He would wonder why the edicts of the Pagan emperor, Constantine,
concerning the observance of Sunday are observed and enforced as a
religious duty, while the Divine love inculcated by Jesus Christ,
which forbids all strife and war, is no more regarded by Christian
nations than by the rulers of ancient Rome.
He would look into the schools and universities professedly devoted to
science and literature, and ask why they have even less freedom of
discussion and thought than the schools of Athens, every professor
being interested to discourage the investigation of novelties in
philosophy instead of being ready to welcome original investigation.
Under the new Sunday law of Massachusetts, Sunday trains and steamboat
lines are at the mercy of the railroad commissioners, who can stop
every one of them; but boating, yachting, and carriage driving on
Sunday are free to all who have the money to pay for them. But while
outdoor frolic is free-and-easy, indoor enjoyment is prohibited.
Everybody is liable to five dollar fines for _attending_ "any sport,
game, or play" on Sunday, unless it has been licensed, and private
families never ask a license for their own amusements. But _to be
present_ on Sunday "_at any dancing_," brings a liability to a $50
fine for each offence! What a terrible thing dancing is to be sure,
that looking on should cost $50, while a frolic in boating and
yachting is unexceptionably holy, and the fast young men may kick up a
dust, kill the horses, and smash the buggies with impunity, or kill
themselves by rowing in the hot sun, under whiskey stimulus on Sunday.
The laws for hotels and restaurants are even more absurd. Travellers,
strangers and lodgers may be freely entertained, but if _anybody else_
(who is he?) comes into the house, or remains on the grounds about it,
on Sunday, the landlord can be fined as much as $50 at the first pop,
$100 at the second pop, and at the third pop he is to be shut up and
deprived of his license. Somebody else must be a terrible fellow on
Sunday--and he is a dangerous customer on Saturday too, for if he
comes in on Saturday evening, or even lounges on the grounds, it is a
fine of five dollars for the landlord. But who is he? How is the poor
landlord, or victualler to discover _somebody else_, who is neither
lodger, stranger, nor traveller. The landlord cannot detect him, but
all sheriffs, grand jurors, and constables are required to hunt for
him! _Vive la bagatelle!_
Strictly private gambling is safe on Sunday, and our _Chevaliers
d'Industrie_ may ruin a dozen families, and provoke suicide and
murder,--"plate sin with gold" and it is protected, and the swindling
shyster is protected too on Sunday, for no civil process can be served
on that holy day; the rogue who is bothered on that day can get
exemplary damages by this law of Sunday asylum. But the poor keeper of
a restaurant or of an inn, is the victim for old legislative boys to
throw stones at. They have provided a hundred dollar fine for every
innholder or victualler who keeps, or "suffers to be kept," on his
premises, any implements "used in gaming," or which may be used for
"purposes of amusement," and does not prevent such things from being
used on Sunday. So if he is not extremely vigilant throughout his
house and grounds, he may be caught with a hundred dollar fine, OR be
imprisoned three months in the House of Correction at the pleasure of
the magistrate!! and for every subsequent offense may be _imprisoned
in the House of Correction_ as much as one year, and then required to
give security for obeying the law. Under such a law a malicious young
hoodlum may contrive to send a landlord to jail.
To open a shop, warehouse, or workhouse on Sunday is a fifty dollar
offense, and it is fifty dollars also for doing "any manner of labor,
business or work" on Sunday, unless the judge considers it a matter of
necessity or charity; nevertheless, the "making of butter and cheese"
is good Sunday work, if we do not _open the doors_ which would bring
on a $50 fine. So is the work of steam, gas and electricity,
newspapers, telegraphs, telephones, druggists, milkmen, (bakers before
10 and after 4,) boat houses, livery stables, ferry boats, and street
cars. But to catch a fish or fire a pistol on Sunday is a $10 offense,
and to look on at a game of chess is a $50 crime. However, the law
does not punish whistling on Sunday, unless the whistler has
spectators, then it is a $50 business for all concerned. To read
Longfellow's Excelsior on Sunday to a parlor of company is a $50
crime. Reading Milton's Paradise Lost, or the American Declaration of
Independence would also rank as criminal business, being an
entertainment, and a party of twenty playing a game of croquet may be
fined a thousand dollars.
Verily, if it were not for such hypocritical and asinine legislation
as this, we might forget the history of New England witchcraft, and
the hanging of Quakers in sight of the spot where this law was enacted
as an _improvement_ on a still worse, but practically obsolete
statute.
Such Sunday legislation is a fair evidence of the absence of true
religion, and the predominance of hypocrisy. It is not enforced, and
is not expected to be. All the Sunday legislation in New York did not
prevent the immense Syracuse Salt Works from carrying on their work
day and night. Gov. Hill and the N. Y. Legislature have shown their
character by increasing the penalties of the Sunday laws, but they
have not approached the Massachusetts standard.