The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-12-25
THE PR ESS.
MONDAY MORNING, DEC. s5,1s7r.
ssAbOve the Nations is >.
11 a;,ot IL would have had If

4
ssAbOve the Nations is Hn" -
What an absurd effect it woulu nave n'.
Abou Ben Alden, d-of requesting tne
angel to write his name as .'one who loves MS
fellow men ), had directed "the presence" to
write Him him as one who loves (if we can for a
moment forget the Oriental -name) his rela=
tives. or his wife, or his fellow Congregation
aiists or Unitarians, or his fellow Free Ma
sons, Odd Fellows OF Good Templars, or his
fellow members of the board of trade or Con-
gress, or even his fellow Americans! The
good old soul fully deserved his notable pro-
motion if his heart was really SO large and his
mind SO broad as to embrace mankind. AS
for the most of us, alas! the scope of our SYM
a pathies isn't wide enough for a school district,
and when we give ourselves credit for ''patri-
otism," we mean no more than we have chos-
en- to clothe a patch of territory with all sorts
of ideal excellencies, and that foreigners must
''mind their eye''-not that our love embrace
es at least all our naturalized citizens. Spa
triotism" is a sentiment that gets so much
fuller and more distinct expression on its ma
levolent than on its philanthropic side, that
we call a man "a patriot who in war or di-
plomacy strikes ''the enemy hard blows. AS
for the moral cosmopolitan, the true interna-
tional man-where is he? Garabaldi, per-
haps, Victor Hugo, sentiinentally, at least,
and a herd of nameless, prescribed and perse-
euted Reds and Internationals who are hunt
ed from one country to another as disturbers
of the peace. When a man wants to live
longer, like poor Rossel, in order that he may
'love more" he is shot forthwith.
This Christmas festival in commemoration
of the birth of one to whom alone distinctions
of race and nation were of no importance,
comes nearer an international institution than
any other which the world celebrates. Chris
tianity, at least, takes no note of geographical
lines, and Christmas ought to promote in the
highest degree our tendency to practical ac-
acknowledgement of the brotherhood of man.
England and America have taken a long step
toward the formation of federation of ma
tons by submitting their differences to a
peaceful tribunal. The moral influence of
such course must be tremendous, and before
many more Christmases have passed no doubt
other tribunals, with ampler powers and far
wider jurisdiction, will sit in judgment on the
disputes of nations. There are those who be-
lieve that the antagonism of nations as well as
that of individuals must continue in order to
afford sufficient incentive to action. They
believe that without the strife of peoples as
well as of persons the world would stagnate
and decay. As if nature did not place obsta-
cles enough in the way of the race to demand
the utmost expenditure of their united force /!
AS if we could afford to go on wasting nine
tenths of all human energy in combat with
each other! As if there was not enough in
the loads gravitation has placed on our backs,
in the tasks extensive and the other qualities
of matter have set for us, in the suffering aris-
ing from remediable ignorance and imperfec-
tion, moral and physical, to call into play all
the activities of the race! |