Los Angeles daily herald., 1873-11-11


a mental discipline, possessing no pre-
eminence over modern literature in
beauty or diction, or depth of thought,
there are yet more potent and unan-
swerable objections to the traditional
system of mental culture.
The mind bears the impress
through life of the character of
the knowledge it acquires during
the scholastic period. Its mental
habits are then formed its intellectual
basis then given. This constant
dwelling among and continual con-
temptations of the things of the far
past, which is the necessary concOmit-
ant of the traditional system alienates
the mind from all interest in and
sympathy with the things of the
present. 1t begets spirits OF intoler-
ance to all reform, and engenders a
feeling of hatred to all progress. 1t
teaches to bow with unquestioning
submission to authorities, and obey
with servile humility the dicta OF
leaders and the dogma ofcreed. 1t wOr-
ships with the oriental reverence the
falsehOods of the past, but spurns with
contempt the truths of the present.
1t wastes the seed time of life in the
trivialities of cOnjugatiOn and para
digm, and debauches the minds of
youth with silly fables, and the indie
cent amours of heather gods 1t grows
learnedly critical over Il Greek ode,
but passes unheeded that grand epic
written by the finger of God upon the
strata of the earth.
The bitterest\ foes to the scientific
discovery, and the most unrelenting
enemies to the freedom of thought in
the centuries that are past, were to be
found among the. schOOlmen of the
universities and the monasteries, and
to-day the most obstinate opponents
to every truth in the world of mind
and matter, are the narrow minded
conservatives among the college bred
men in our pulpits, on our rostrums,
behind the teachers desk, and upon
the editorial tripod. These are the
worshippers of the things past, the
prophets of evil for things to come.
10 them the charnel house of antiq-
uity holds all that is good, all that is
true, all that is beautiful. The pres
ent is anathema manatha, the abOm-
ination of desolation spoken of by the
prophet. Oh! the sighs and the grOans
of these good mortals over the degen-
eracy of the times, over the wicked
ness of the world, over the sins of fall
en- humanity. TO listen to their sad
refrain you would be led to believe
that in the good old days, the brave
old days, all men were saints and all
women angels; you would really be
lead to believe that the vices had made
meal of all the virtues, and like poor
Oliver Twist were still crying for
more. The world is far from being as
good as it might-as it will be let us
hope. But for all its wickedness, it is
hardly yet in the transision period
from perfection 10 pahdemonium.
sincerely reverence all that is good,
all that is true in the past, but l dis
like to be told that the men and the
women of to-day, are merely playing
the part of puppet or villain upon the
worlds stage, in drama of Doom.
1t is well to tell the world of its sins
and wickedness, but to tell that it is
all sin, all wickedness is the readiest
way to make it so.
would have no objection to these
dear old conservatives, or young ones
either, at groaning as much
as they like if they enjoy it, and it
makes them happy; but | do object to
their continually whistling "dOwn
breaks" on the ear of Progress, simply
for fear that the noisy thing may run
over somebody's belief, or collide with
somebody's prejudices that he mis-
takes for principles. These rantitng
refOrmers and prying men of Science
who will suggest improvements, ana
make discoveries that shake our faith
in the infallibility of our hereditary
opinions, severely task our powers of
fOrbearance, Q sometimes join the
conservatives when want to enjoy a
grOan.) 1t is a great pity that the
18th century has grown so squeamish
about cauterezing for opinions sake.
If we could only bring out the old
gridiron of st. Lawrence, and roast
the heresy out of few of those pes
tilential fellows, who are forever kick
ing ever our hereditary opinions and
beliefs, what an example it would be
to the rest of them to let us alone. l
believe that all our troubles began
with the assertion that "the world
moves" If we could only get that
heresy out of peoples heads, all would
be like it was in the happy days of the
Past. 1t is q source OF unfailing re-
gret to us that those dear old cardinals
who brought GallileO to his knees, for
asserting that the earth is huge ter
resteal top, forever spinning around
~, Il inc 81 ~ hn nj
rascal in the fire until the brassy inn
pertinance melted out of him. If the
laws of primOgeniture and entail could
only be made, as binding in the be-
queathing of Beliefs and Opinions, as
they are in Real Estate, then it would
be possible to inherit SO many acres of
Greed, SO many square rods of Princi-
pies. so many links (brOken ones of
knowledge. If we could ouly reach i'm
the mental and moral world this
fixiety of things, then it would be pos
sible to take the altitude of integrity
by triangulation, and to extract the
cube root of virtue. Then if congress-
men or senator should forget his
honesty and leave it at home, as they
some times do, we could express it to
him at Washington in q bundle. as
we would his umbrella. But this mill
lenium of Fixiety will never dawn
upon us while these prying Scientists
are allowed to make, and promulgate
their discoveries.
The sequel to all this is, that for
steady mental and moral diet, the
things of Far Past are not the most
nutritious or healthy. Atih itu
Having dispensed with the classical
curriculum of the colleges and leaving
Greek and Latin to be studied as the
Sanscrit, the Chaldaic and other dead
languages, are by the curious i'm Phi
IoIorxy xyhot ,.,on1I I c,,,hCfifuta IN ito