Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-05-28
THE MISTAKES OF REFORM.

LII A1o4AA6o We 011 O&h%A
We are accustomed to waste a great deal of
excellent granite in building monuments for
men who merely lived to make a noise, and
died to become silent; yet the martyrs of the
world are its heroes, after ALL Doubters who
listen with misgiving and scofiers who oppose
them with scorn, are quite as likely as any
others to make peuitential journeys to their
tombs. In some way the spirits of the mar
tyrs live among men; while those of their ex-
ecutioners, with the names which distinguish
ed them from one another in the life, jostle
each other into the limbo of the hopelessly
forgotten. There is no fame more to be COW
eted than that of the sincere and earnest man
who devotes himself, with a self-consecration
that knows no weakness or regret, to the vel
fare and the happiness of his fellow men, The
zeal of such a man is his assurance of victory.
His fanaticism is at once his shield and his Or
nament; the source both of his strength and
his pride 1t inspires him with the prophetic
vision which assures him that his works and
purposes will live when the stupidity which
denounces them will have lost its brief and
useless animation. 1t is attractive in its ex-
cess, and beautiful in its disorder, if it remains
interrupted by ambition and undefled by
misanthropy.
The difficulty with that philanthropy which
is theoretically perfect, is, that it makes
SO many practical mistakes. While it is
speaking almost the language of inspiration,
with the voice of prophecy, the crowds are
less affected than by the appeals of politicians,
or the coarse defamation of demagogues. 1t
is not altogether owing to the original deprav-
ity of the crowd. 1t is the testimony of com.
mon experience, that affairs go smoothly
enough when men are consciously true to
themselves. The influences of sincere and
well. grounded convictions, if there is no Sleep
ing demon of discord in the background, pene-
trate into very dark places, and awaken, if not
sympathy at least respect, in the midst of enc
mics. The Trojans would have believed Cas-
sandra, and kept their fingers out of the fire,
if she had kept her faith. But her act of folly
prevented the prophecies from doing good
work for her country, and has given the haterS
of reform in all other ages a name with which
ible exegesis of the instructive fable applies
with peculiar fitness to some of the agitators-
we use the word in its good sense-of our own
generation Those who do not consider that
variations in method are consistent with unity
in purpose, and do not observe the modulations
and measures of affairs, the sharps and flats of
discourse, the differences in ears, the times for
speech and for silence, let them never be
so intelligent, their advice SO frank. and their
counsels SO good and just, yet their endeavors
either of persuasion or of force are of little sig
nifcance, and little use to those whom they
advise. But the misfortune is not wholly
theirs. For at last, when the caamitous
events make the sufferers feel the effects of
7saslaGt. and they too late, reve
renee their advisers far seeing and faithful
prophets. The mistakes of reformers are
their own impediments.
1t is necessary to secure among all who are
aiming at essentially the same thing, a kind of
reciprocal trust aud confidence. 1t does no
harm to a man to be called hard names, unless
they happen to be absolutely, not construct
lively true. But the mischief of bandying hard
names on account of speculative differences
consists in the interruption and disturbance of
that concord whichis the bond of union and the
motive of success. The Titans of reform,
who have been battling these many years, and
find their immediate ranks as thin as in the
beginning, have the best right to exclaim, wo
unto you, pharisees and hypocrites Those
who are striving, through different channels,
to attain the same end, though they are now
embraced in that sweeping denunciation, will
not be likely to find much fault Much is to be
pardoned to their consummate devotion to the
theory of absolute right. But it affords to
actual scribes and pharisees the opportunity
which they covet, of assailing the best and
purest of all the causes in which men are en-
gagged, under the false pretence of ridiculing
the defenders who are exposed on its ram
parts. In any conceivable event the "Satanic"
element in journalism and in life would con-
tnue its vulgar burlesques. But it is in the
power of the radical leaders to disarm, in a
single hour, the ridicule and the hostility of
that large middle element which claims re-
speciality, and INDUCES only in periodical
fits of denunciation for the sake of maintain
ing it, That does not require cowardicc; but
simply judgment
But what we need, most of all, is a larger
and more generous charity. The sea gathers
its waters from thousand streams, whose
sources are far apart, and whose currents run
in different directions and with varying force
Yet they are as sure to meet in the multitude
of waters as the laws of nature are to stand
together. God superintends all movements of
reform with as sure and exact hand. Wher-
ever there is a sincere conviction and posi-
tive and courageous purpose to meet and over
throw the wrongs with which men are Cypress
ed, by whatever agencies, are right and avail
able, there exists a moral claim on the sympa-
thy and cooperation of all others who cherish
the same conviction and are fixed upon the
same purpose Some work best through es.
tablished institutions. Others can do more by
carrying their appeals straight to the con.
sciences of individual men. But which OF
them has the right to denounce the otherl
The MASSACHUSETTS CLAIMING Simon
P. Hanscomb has received, or is soon to re-