Litchfield enquirer., 1876-12-28
Reverence.

Reverence.
 rf. essy. but arievous; to reverence is diff ewR h1r satisfactory. Man does not willingly submit kEvseF so reverence, rather he never so submits hFwwssF- a f@ higher which must be communl-
 sea tn hss nature: which only in some favored indi- vSasss uzfo9ds itself spontaneously who on this ac Ss teo have of old been looked upon as Saints and G0aA-CseGhe.
 In other words it is easy to fear power; hard to reverence goodness. The savage admires and obeys superior physical strength. The civilized man admires and Obeys superior intellectual strength. Nei- ther readily renders due reverence to mo- raI strength. One day in a week. indeed, ne may worship Unselfshness;but the re- nainipg SIX days he devotes to Selfish ness. In childhood fear and reverence are 90 commingIed that their separation ia difficult The more the reverence and the les the fear, the better the training. For. after time, the fear must pass away, and often no reverence is left behind. Reaee the critical time with yonth is when it's physical and intellectual strength develops tiT it no longer fears and ad- nires the strength of parent or teacher but rebels against it; when it worships embOdiments of selfish power, and runs eraxy after Byrons and Napoleons and desuises the tanner Wordsworths and wazhingtous whose superior merit it is on- lygIven a uise maturity to recognize. Ut- tsxly disastrous is it when the youth who has Iost fear fails to learn reverence; he VIII surely be perverted into a knave or soured into cynic But if he grows really wiser as he grows older he will learn that there is a vast deal more goodness than greatness in this world, and that this gn0dness is worthy of reverence where ever fOand, whereas the greatness. care fully anaylzed. becomes in the main only apOwerfaI selRshness. Hence the par eass whO seemed the embodiment of wis., doa and power to the child should be- cone justly reverenced for the disinter- szAsdness, unsel6shness and the self-re- uunrsasiOn of their later treatment of their gr0Wn mp offspring.
 Tk is one of the severest penalties of the lax Of development that the periods of most rapid grOwth are also the periods og nosE rapid dislntegration. The imma- tzre admintiOns of youth for what IS real- ly unworthy of reverence have to be dis emraed; and, in this discarding. there is a tsndency to discard all reverence. Even beyOod the period of youth, to the end of RIEs.mental and moral development is al- ways running thls great risk. The dethron- Snxof bad monarchs as often leads to anar- eAy as t0gOOd government. Hence in times oE revolution, when what have been wor- shipped as sacred turn out mere idols, Uea lose respect even for what is most w0Ethy of reverence. Froude tells us tAmA the Reformation in England was a tina of uncommon moral Iaxity. From re1ozncing church some went so far as to reaoance virtue. The utter chaos of the French Revolution is terrible exam p1e la point Our own recent experience Is another. A great war which taxed the patriotism and the energies of our people to the zssermOst; followed by a political rsxolzti0a which turned society bottom up h large sections of our country. has devel- Sped sa amount of .selfshness and abso- lase rsscaIity. in high places that has ter EIbly vsakened the old reverence of our people for popular government. The Cu@la Mohilier revelations and the Sala- r-Grzhs of former Congresses have made us sazp5ciOus of all Congressional hon.. ssky. The true American of to-day feels nzcA as the true Englishmen must have feIt ia the first quarter of the Seventeenth Century. A real king in Elizabeth had gIvsa place to . sham king in James. The statesmen of the Great Queen had been m@eoeeaed by breed of favorites. There seemed nothing left worthy of reverence. Yek. ss the subsequent history of that cen- tzFy disclosed. there was people of Eng land who were worthy of reverence. and who attained 70 the government of them selves through that very weakness of the Ss1axt kings which seemed to threaten England with destruction. So, now, here Tn America. cuk of the distrust of weak Fulexs should grow better modes of self government, such as will really ensure govsEnment by the people, for the people. fhr0zgha1t the land.
 IErsveEence is. ws hear, the pet vice of de@ocracies- We pay no millions, like the people of Englands for mere figure h..a oE government. such as they still revere or seem to revere. We make and wnmake s4skatezmen" with immense zeal, an1 haste and want of care; and they are often the kind of statesmen it is not eaay to reverence. In fact republicans wnxt learn tO reverence those principles of fFlgAk aud honesty and unselishness on wAseh republics stand. if they have any ssE53 fSand4tion. and not the mere ser vszts who@s daty it is to make such laws as ws demand Of them and no more. We mms& Eearn that the rule. ''like monarch, like eDurssers" holds here as we'll as else wAerA Elizabeth vas s.rved by states mens James. by Incompetents. Honest and Isaell gent communities elect honest and capable representatives. Ig lorant a11 Incompetent constituencies clioose b0a1as hke that monstrous farce of 5eaEh Carolina legislatures. eleven freed mea b 0ns white, barely half able to