The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-10-27


emotions. Some men, carried away by the
vanity Of snocula,ion. have invented kind
of philosophic patriotism whose country
should be the world. whose citizenshin.
mankind. whose allegiance should be rem.
dered to tho laws n tho universe. Rut
sucb dead distractions have no mower 70
swell, tho heart with great homes and fears.
or stir tho blood 70 heroic action Tho
mon witbout n country. tho mon whoso ma.
triotism ia 90 broad that IL c,nnot condne
itself TO any one land. the Anacharsis Cloot.
SEES the "orators and advocates of the hu-
man race are sure TO be men without
character, and are, by the concentrated
breath of mankind. hisscd off the stage of
history; while the men who are willing to
strive and die for the land thew cali their
own. whether it ia as small as Athens or
Switzerland or as large as the limited States
are held in undyinp affection and honor;
and next to these. men Mace the poets and,
orators who in each nation have best sue.
ceeded in giving voice 10 the passionate love
of the people for their home and country.
AS him who sang. "Scots wha haze wi Wal
lace bled." or ssBreathes there man with
soul so dead" or as him who uttered
great nations PRAYER in the ever memorable
MASSAGE bepinnine. "When nv ewes shall
behold for the last time the sun in the
heavens"
We ought not to disguise it from our.
selves that the patriotic feeling is exposed
to great dangers in our times This may
seem n strange thing to saw lust after such
n splendid exhibition of national feeling as
our late war brought forth. But bear in
mind that the generation which displayed
so noble n patriotism had come IN under
different influences from those now pre-
yailing. We have outprown the Fourth of
July with its patriotic associations and an.
peals, which, if they were sometimes dis.
figured by braggadocio. vet kent up the
memories of the heroic period of our his.
tory-and what have we in its place that
will exert half its educating bower? II
there had been no Fourth of July. there
had been no Gettysburg. no fermentation
Proclamation, and no thirteenth Amend
ment. With the execution of the speeches
of the great national orators, Henry, Web.
ster and clay, now fast becoming obsolete
TO our young men, we have no patriotic lit
erature. no national epic, no songs, like
those of Dibdin and Campbell, Beranger
and Arndt, not even n popular history.
The only American history which aspires
to be a classic is so bulky and SO costly ms to
be rarely found out of public libraries. Most
of our American histori rs write the histo-
ries of other countries han our own Our
great poets, with the exception of Whittier
take their tone and most of their subjects
from England or Spain, or Italy. Our
sculptors make G eek slaves and Zenobias
Only two states and Vermont one of them
have thus far hung upon the walls OF their
capitols battle scene commenorating the
valor of their sons in the late war What
are We to depend upon for sour es of patri-
otto inspiration? Meanwhile our Young
children are taken abroad in crowd, to be
educated, and missing in their suscep; BILE
years the impressions which their Young
minds and hearts ought to be receiving
from scenery, institutions and history, they
come back to regret the lost pleasures of
European capitals.
The picture that / have drawn is rather
dark, but for us in Vermont there is one
re-assuring consideration. All history
shows that love of country CLOVIS brightest
and fingers longest in mountainous regions,
Vermonters are not yet ashamed TO be nat
riotic; God forbid that they should ever
learn the new fashion. If it must be that
everywhere else men become so broad and
cosmopolitan that patriotism seems n bar
barian passion; if it seem to others so i'm
portant to learn foreign tongues, and the
languid airs of foreign society that to forepo
their attachments to home and its institu-
tons seems no sacrifice; if feeble imita-
tive literary spirit will not take inspiration
from our own scenery and legends and his
tory stranger and more inspiring than legend
then let native, rugged, passionate pa
trotism cling to these hills and nestle in
these valleys of Vermont, for it will be the
only spot in the land where it will be any
longer possible to raise men,
In still another quarter, see another
danger threatening the sources of character.
AS nothing so ennobles and glorifies human
character as the true religious spirit, so
nothing debases and beggars it like irrel-
gion. 1t would carry me too far away from
the proprieties of an occasion like this, to
discuss this topic according to its merits;
but it would argue total lack ofappreciaton
and of sincerity as well, to ignore it alto
gether. | am not afraid of the ultimate re-
suits of the free inquiry of our times.
believe these results will be new and larger
truth shed on every field of human thought
But this intermediate stage of doubt and
negaton and scepticism is full of peril TO
immature character. 1t NAV be that Ger
tain kind of scepticism is essential to the
verification of truth-but the sceptcal spir.
it, the denying, challenging cavilling spirit
is fatal to ali nobleness of character. 1t
eats out the vital marrow of enterprise it |
saps all the energies; it undermines all the
virtues. The spirit of false religion, if it
is earnest and believes in ANYTHING, can
urge man to great heights of noblencss:
even superstition has mower to lift n man
out of his selfishness and animalism. hut
scepticism lowers the tone of everything
human takes away from character all snrinS
and vitality; depresses. stupifes. deadans
manhood. | had rather n son of mine were
sucked in n creed outworn. the creed Of
old Neptune and his Triton than in no
creed-ten thousand times rather thar ho |
were trained in the most irrational creed |
that ever was caricatured bv the enemies of
Christianity. than in the miserable nagot;on
that nobody knows ANYTHING and it's No |
matter. If / sneak feelinolv On ibis noint
it is because I see the disastrous effects ~
the shirt / am describing ali around mo