The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-02-14

them, are worthy OF the vencration. not
alone of all admirers Of old things, bat Of
radicaism as well. Cambridge and Ok
ford, Heidelberg and Prague, Paris and
Erfurt were the centers from which the
intellectual life of even our age has been
disseminated. They were not model
schools. but we who still struggle, almost
hopelessly against so much of established
custom and unreasoning prejudice can
afford to forgive them that. We who
believe that God did not create an aristoc-
racy Of sex, cannot admire the exclusion
of women from all education, neither can
we consent to admire the enforced servility
of the lower classes, that the organization
of those schools accepted as right. Equal
" absurd to us seem the contests of the
school men, the students OF Aristotle, that
engrossed much OF the attention of those
schools.
No matter what the follies Of those
schools may have been, their founders
builded better than they knew. Even
when founded as was sometimes the case,
especially to keep alive the prejudice of
their age, they did more than their found
ers intended. They spread the light Of
intelligence over Europe and as consc-
quence put in motion the train Of causes
that has so nearly destroyed fcudaism and
is destined at last to raise all sexes and
castles to q legal equality.
1t was in those schools that SGvonarola,
Wlcklit1e, and HISS received their train
ing and began to throw the first rays of
light through the murky night Of their
times. 1t was in one of them that the
earnest, impulsivc Luther found his chain
ed Is ble and reading in its pages the great
lessons Jesus came TO teach, saw how wide
was the action of the church from the
teachings of the book On which it was pro-
fessc6ly founded. However willingly the
common people may have accepted the
ideas of the reformation, it was the schol-
ars Of the universities who gave it form.
Tie world has had its great men before
and since; men who have led armies and
whose teachings or discoveries have made
eras in history. Above them all. peerless
as Sirius among the lesser stars, towers
the fame OF Martin Luther. See him aifiX-
ing his theses to the door of the Witten-
berg Church. What scene has history to
equal that in its consequences to human
ity? In that manly protest was involved
the future history of Europe and of Amer
ica-freedom of thought, freedom Of
speech, and best of all, chance for gen
eral intelligence. It was protest against
the ignorance of the past and a demand
for education in the future. How insig-
nifcant Charles and Caietan now appear,
but the stern monk work still goes on
Every protest against ignorance and super
stition, every advance humanity has made,
the constitution OF England and the free
dom of America, the scientific progress
that has made the last two centuries event
full, as well as our public schools, was in
volved in that protest against established
creeds and priest-ridden ignorance. 1t has
not been your warriors or statesmen rs
much as your radicals;-your LuthcrS, Cal
wins, Melancthon and Cranmus, that have
been the " worlds simple, great men gone"
The reformation was a protest against
churchly uperstition-unreasoniu assent
and God did not neglect to give it the
ting his letters was the counterpart of
Luthcr's sermons. 1t was the press Of
Faust and Tyndall that secured that spread
Of the reformed faith. Tyndall with his
press did much the same work for the six
tenth century that his descendant is doing
for the nineteenth; ne was spreading the
means of intelligence. The preacher and
the printer may have been strangers to
each other, yet the work of either would
have been failure without the others
help.
Glance at the history of Europe since
Luther and the prosperity OF any of its
nations, it is evident, has been dependent
upon how faithfully it has followed the
teachings of Luther and improved upon
Charles V. with the England Of Henry
VIII, and again the Spain of Serranno
with the England of Gladstone. What
has made the immense difference in their
success England accepted the teachings
of Luther, Spain crushed all Intelligence to
death by the inquisition. England has
been progressive; Spain trying to stand
still, has retrogaded, until we see her
bankrupt, torn by factions, the prey OF
Adventures, the hopeless problem Of Eu-
ropean politics.
The reformation threw wide the gates of
free thought. Columbus gave the world
hemisphere and upon it untrammelled by
the feudaIisn of Europe the great battle
Of educated intellect, against established
order has been fought. Columbus planted
the cross, Bradford brought the Bible, and
almost in sight of Plymouth rock, planted
the common school. Virginia was equally
true TO the cause Of education, but only
for the higher classes. When in 1929 the
Connecticut colony ordered that every fifty
families should support public school,
they put in motion power the results of
which can never be measured. Yale and
Harvard, Brown and Princeton, William
and Mary, Hampden Sydney, have done
good work, but it has been our common
schools that have moulded American char
acter.
In Mexico, Cortez found a noble empire
but the inquisition destroyed what intell-
gence the soldiers sword may have spared.
The time came when the American colo,
MES grew to manhood and stood alone
The United States threw wide the gates of
freedom to all religions and at the same
time gave chance for education that can
only be based on free religion. Mexico
established the blood-staincd faith of
Rome. Compare the success Of the two.
Could the history of Mexico have been
what it has with free press, free schools
and their consequence, intelligence ? 1t is
true she has now thrown off the yoke but
she must new fight the battle England
fought three centuries ago, and Of which