The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-27
THE PURITAN JUBILEE.
From the N. Y. TTibun


THE PURITAN JUBILEE.
From the NJ y. Tribune
The accomplishment of the first quarter of
the American millennium has been most fit
tingly celebrated. There have been no
shows or pageants--no building of sheds
with classic names-no marching with ban
ners and music. AS was proper in the OBJ
servance of an event whose highest signif-
cance was moral and intellectual, the chief
incidents of this anniversary were Mr.. Win
throps speech at Plymouth the gathering of
notable people at the dinner in New York,
and the discourse of Mr.. Ralph Waldo Emer-
son in Steinway Hail. Our readers have
already been able to appreciate the chaste and
cultured eloquence of the orator of Plymouth,
and the brilliant and incessant flashes of wit
that played over the board at Delmonicos.
But Mr.. Emerson's speech will be re-
membered after many anniversaries.
1t is a mastery presentation of the
New England thought and claim. 1t is
not pure eulogy the habit of mind of the
accomplished scholar and poet is rather judi
cal than partisan. But of all communities
that ever existed, the Pilgrim Fathers have
least to fear from candid research, aud, there
fore, in hands so just as Mr.. Emerson's they
have met with treatment that cannot but
enhance the love and reverence they have
always received from their desc endants.
Some undiscriminating wit has called Ply
mouth Rock the Blarney Stone of America.
1t was talent of meanly hattering others
for your own purposes that was fabled to be
conveyed by contact with the famous stone
of Blarney Castle. 1t is an honest and out
spoken admiration of ourselves and our his
tory that is excited by the mention of the
iron coast of Plymouth. And this is a much
manlier and more hopeful quality. The peo-
| pie that does not in some form adopt the
Chinese religion of the worship of ancestors
is most defect and wretched and the one that
does not thoroughly believe in itself is
already struck with death.
There is dangerous tendency in a highly
| cultivated civilization to avoid these natural
expressions of national pride and gratitude,
as if there were something of personal vanity
mingled with them. Even such genuine
Americans as those who form the New Eng
land Society of this city think proper to adopt
tone of witty badinage in singing the
| glories of the early historic days of the Com
monwealth. The general tone at these recent
festive meetings of New Englanders has been
to avoid any serious assertion of the faith
that is in US all; and, therefore, there is
something little incongruous in the grave
and earnest words with which DIR. Bellows and
General Sherman answered to their respective
toasts. But on the platform, be-
fore some thousands of people who had come
10 Heton TO hi an ona vc tho vivaresl
and profoundest thinkers who writes
! English, man of great learning and
wide experience, who has surveyed more
generally than most men the vast field OF
literature, and has studied men in many
lands, had no hesitation or false modesty in
giving, as the result of his laborious lifes re-
Election, his conviction that the work of the
founders of New England was the greatest
yet performed by men; that this country leads
to-day the vanguard of the world: that the
town of Boston is the true starting point OF
the highest civilization of the planet. OF
course, he does not claim the first place as to
achievement in the world of original thought
We have produced no Shakespeare nor Mil
ton-no NOgum OrgGnlna nor Mechanigut
Celeste. Yet more Americans than English
men read Shakespeare, and some forty mil
lions of us have more definite idea Of law
and government than the educated classes OF
Europe.
This is our heritage-the highest average
of intelligent aspiration known to history
The one quality that distinguishes the Anne
rican from all other men in his disinclination
to rest forever satisfied is the condition in
which he was born. This is the direct result
of the Puritan life. The spirit of protes
against political or ecclesiastical thraldom
the imperious need of knowledge, and the or
ganization of its supply; the sense of indi
| Nluudl TSSpOuSlDlllty W NOu tudI lou 10 II COI
responding sense of independence befor,
men, were the influences that shaped tn,
character of that mighty society that has pro
ceeded westward and southwark from Mas
sachusetts Bay. In all that is best of us WI
can recognize the trace of the Puritan cha
racter. In most that is evil we can see the
result of some departure from their precep
and example. We need not copy til,
exaggerations of their gloomy ant
ascetic orthodoxy, but the spiri
of their religion was altogether admirable
We profess and practise more Christian ant
catholic tolerance than they, acquired by tn
light which they transmitted to us. But thi
should not prevent us from believing witt
all the energy of our natures the things on
hearts and reasons recommend to u.s. Tru
science leads to no languid skepticism. Thos
who know most believe most energetically
We cannot afford to forget or neglect tn
lessons of our origin. There is no knowledg
more wholesome or more inYigorating tina
the history of our forefathers. We canno
study them too much or initiate them to
closely. Their faults have passed out of ou
reach in the change from medieval twiligt
10 our brighter day. The nearer we can 70
low them the closer we will come to thei
! perfect ideal, never yet reached.