Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-05-16
THE RUTLAND HERALD.


Once standing on the summit of Mt. |
Mansfield, endeavoring to catch a glimpse |
of the sublime scenery around through |
the fast driving mist, which seeming |
to spring at once from the atmosphere,
would suddenly envelope us in thick
cloud, and then dissolve again into thin air
"a friend at our side wonderingly ex-
claimed, .'Where' does the mist come
from?" "Oh," said another in tone
which showed how easy it was to settle
the question, ''Oh, it makes" ''But
what the deuce makes it." was the quick
response.
This little dialogue illustrates the
progress of discovery in all ages. 1t is
ever at first encountered by a phrase,
and not until men have learned to look
behind or leap over it has the truth APP
peared. The world is governed by phras-
es. The error of centuries past, settled
into an axiom, becomes powerful weap
on in the hands of the conservative. 1t
opposes all progress, answers all arguv
ments, and is to be taken IA the ultima
thule of human reasoning. 1t is not to
be questioned. Hoary with the dust of
ages, it is even impious to look it in the
face All must bow before it. When
Calico gave to the world the sublime
truth, ''the earth moves" he was met
by the phrase, doth not the Scriptures
say, the san also riSeM and the san gOeh
dorm p" And Calico was imprisoned
as a hereto. Men laughed when New
ton set himself to thinking why the APP
pie fell from the tree. A phrase salts
fed them. 1t is heavier, said they, than
the air, therefore, why should it not
fallf"
A phrase is great defence of the ''let
alone policy For centuries the Span
iards opposed the cleaning out of their
rivers on the ground that " God made
them so and God knOaoS aohat IS best for
u.s." A phrase annually destroys its
thousands. When uncleanliness or care
less habits of living invite the foot
steps of disease, and its marked victims
fall around us, we sigh,,'ov the ''mys-
FERROUS dispensatjons Of Providence" and
go on in the old way again, to suffer
from our ignorance and folly. A phrase
takes millions from our pockets. We
build costly stone walls and support
thousands of idle men, because we must
I'm time Of peace prepare for aoar." a
phrase sanctions all men of seltishneSs
and deceit. We worship self, cheat our
neghbors, harden our hearts against the
calls of suffering humanity, and are JUS
titled, because " Charity begins at
home. A phrase is the weapon with
charitable and exclusive crush all not Of
their set, or all outside of their narrow
sympathies. The Austrian nobility,
when they would utterly annihilate
man of low origin, who may have risen
by integrity, talents or industry, what
do they do? They say, "He IS not
born, denying to all not of noble blood
their very 6jrM-r5ght, and leaving it to
be supposed that they sneaked into the
world in manner contrary to nature,
and "the best blood of Austria" So
when we Americans would throw a
stigma upon a man or manner, though
sound sense be on the side of both, the
cry of mot respecta6Ie," seals the fate
of either forever. Phrases are, there
fore, the refuge of the unthinking, the
stronghold of the ignorant, the weapon
of the bigoted, the defence of the UNI
just, and the shield of the selfish and
dishonest. As the people learn to ques-
ton them, to submit them to the test of
truth, they will free themselves from the
shackles of prejudice and ignorance,
and be prepared to make far greater adj
vances in knowledge and power than
they have yet achieved.