Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-12-30

civilization at best. The iron-clad man on
horseback divided the whole soil among
his captains and corporals; the multitudes
were throttled and made to wear the collar
of serfdom marked with their owners
names; burglars and fllibusters became
kings princes by grace of God-which
meant the steel gloved ist-the feudal
system was established, and poetry, ro-
nance, groveling legend and sycophantic
chronicle have spread halo around the
perpetual crime unto our own days. Man
still reeled on-falling, rising again, stag
gering forward with hue and cry at his
heels, wounded felon daring to escape
from the prison to which the grace of God
had inexorably doomed him. And still
there was progress Beside the sword two
other instruments grew every day more po-
tent the pen and the purse. The power
of the pen soon created stupendous mon
opoly. Clerks obtained privilege of muir
der, because of their learning; Norman
King gloried in the appellation of fine
clerk because he could spell the sons OF
serfs and washerwomen became hi gh pom
titfs, put their feet on the neck of Empe-
rors through the might of education and
appalled, the souls of idiotic tyrants with
their weird anathemas. Naturally the
priests kept the talisman of learning to
themselves. How should education help
them to power and pelt if the people could
participate in the mystic spell ? But
there was another power steadily augment
ing the magic purse of Fortunatus with
it's clink of perennial gold. Commerce
changed clusters Of novels, covering for
protection under feudal castles, into power
tul cities Burghers wrested or purchased
liberties from their lords and masters
And at last there were leagues OF munich
palities, chains of commercial republics,
IN all but name, stretched across Chrlsten-
dom, and tripping up Tyranny at every
turn. Liberties IN the plural not liberty
of man. concessions to corporations from
the iron fist, from grace of God, in ex-
change for coin or in reparation of buff
cts. And still Man struggled on. An ex-
perimenting friar, fond of chemistry, in
one corner of Europe, put nitre and char
coal together; a sexton or doctor In anoth-
er obscure nook carved letters on blocks of
woodland 10 there were explosions
shaking the solid earth and causing the
iron-cad man on horseback to reel IN his
saddle. Much good was accomplished both
in the ancient and the new establishments.
but freedom of religion was scarcely
dreamed of mutual federation was ac-
counted q crime. But sacerdotalism (po-
litical priesthood) reigned too long and
went too far There WAS . reformation,
but it was only leap into the light
Priesthood was triumphant after all. for
Church and State maintained their incest
uous union The people obtained new
creeds, if their masters professed one, or
cient dogma riveted to their limbs, il their
masters remained faithful to that. Who
ever governs you. his religion shall be
yours Yet this was accepted as the net
result of the Reformation, so far rs priests
and princes could settle the account. This
was the ingenious compromise by which 1t
was thought possible to remove the troub-d
lesome question of religion forever from
the sphere of politics. Could it be doubt
ed that the ancient church would seize this
weapon from the Protestant hands which
had forged it, and smite every people with
it that struggle for emancipation p? Not
freedom of religion, but freedom of princes
to prescribe religion to their slaves. For
this, so many tens of thousands had died
on the battlefield, or been burned and
buried alive And il was sincerely hoped
and believed that humanity could be thus
to its dungeon, buffeted, fouted,
jeered out of its rights. and the paddock
placed forever on the immortal mind. And
truly, 10 those who reckon history by the
year, who find the record Of Mans |
progress only in political annals, how
dreary must seem our fate. Unless we
hold fast to the fact that in human, as in |
physical history, nature is ever patiently |
producing her effects through long lapses
of time. by causes which have been in ope- |
ration since the beginning. History is but
another word for despair. But history is
never hysterical, never proceeds by catas-
trophies and cataclysms, and it is only by |
this that we can comprehend |
its higher meaning. But now another tai
lsman was to change the face of the world |
for the great discoveries are apt to leap
from the highly electrified brain of man at
identical epochs. Christopher Columbus,
confding in his own stout heart, and the
mariners compass, sailed forth on unknown
seas, and behold America Here was the
chief event thus far recorded in human |
progress, as time, in its deliberate patience |
was one day to prove. Speech, the Alpha
bet, Mount Sinai, Egypt, Greece, Rome,
Nazareth, the Wandering of the Nations,
he Feudal System, Magma Charta, Gun
powder, Printing, the Reformation, the
Mariners Compass, America, here are