The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-01-28
ITO be continued
The Common People.

Whenever we hear the old, familiar
phrase, the Common people," we feel
that the English language affords none
expressive or more charming. We
think, while the sound fingers, that
King James version did no service so
valuable as that of embalmiug that
phrase. Before we analyZe it, it touches
the finest chords of sentiment, quickens
the fount of the best moral purpose, and
concentrates the whole force of human
sympathy. No phrase will better bear
analysis. The term common" signifies
the universal; it does not, therefore, sig
nifty anything low, vulgar, or mean.
We catch its meaning when we say that
1.-THE sun is the common light of the
world" or "The earth is the common
mother of US ALL" 1t embraces every
aim, hope, affection or aspiration which
human beings share with each other.
1t indicates the widest human fellow
ship. 1t is the best expression of that
democratic sentiment which throne and
aristOcracy have cOnspired for centuries
to stifie, but which, surviving every at
tempt of power to crush it, shows the
indestructible vitality it bears.
This sentiment was never so vigorous
as it is to-day. There was time when
people did not hesitate to apply the
phrase, common people," to others;
but few would care to do so now. Who
could do it without the consciousness of
at least an incipient blush at the i'm
piled assumption that he is himself an
uncommon person, made of something
better than common clay? He must be
a brave man who can speak of the
common people" as class of human
beings to which he does not belong.
Happy is he who does not voluntarily
exclude himself from this great fellow
ship! Yet the pains and penalties of
such exclusion will men still incur in
blind or thoughtless disregard of the
consequences. All stingy men do it, by
that excessive selfishness which apprO-
pirates and boards what does not justly
belong to them. All proud men do it,
by that immense conceit which impels
them to snatch uncommon privileges,
position, or distinction. Men, in both
the "higher classes" and the CLOVER
classes" as they are called, inflict on
themselves the dreary isolation of cut
ting off the sources of human sympathy,
and sundering the ties of human kim
ship. We can bear any amount of per-
sOnal dislike on account of the unpOpu-
larlIy OF our Oplnlonsi we can enuure
with moderate equanimity the haughty
arrogance of assumed social superiority;
but when we discover that our human
brothers withhold their sympathy and
goodwill because of our sOrdid mean
ness or exclusive pride, we shall wish
no longer to live.
We have faith in the common people.
We know that their judgments are Of
ten distorted by prejudice, and their
minds fettered by tradition; and that,
while they wait for higher intelligence
and broader view, they halt and waver
on the path Of human progress; but we
know, too, that we are one of them,
linked to their destiny by indissoluble
ties, and that it is impossible to escape a
share alike in their shame or in their
glory. And our hope of human ad-
vancement is based on the conviction
that beneath all the incrustatiOns of
prejudice and tradition, the undying
flame of aspiration and progress still
burns, fed by the instincts that always
kindle into life at the touch of whatever
is common, and human, and divine
NeIO Age.