Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-03

the highest law. 1t sets out with a
practical recognition of the doctrine,
that all things should be examined,
tried, tested; and that whatever is
found to be good, which endures a
fair and yet thorough test, held fast;
the bad, of course, or that which
proves to be bad on trial, thrown
away. This doctrine, as you will
readily see, is both radical and con-
servatiye, and very reasonable. 1t
does not teach blind acceptance, nor
an unquestioniug assent. If new
theory Is presented US, or a new GUS
tom introduced, we are neither to
cast it aside nor to adopt it because It
is new; but we are to look into it,
test it, and if it is true and good hold
il fast. So, too, old things are to be
sifted for any wheat that may be in
them. They may have been held in
reverential regard for hundreds and
even thousands of years, and still con.
tain a great deal of chaff-a great
deal that is worn out, or that has no
adaptation in this new day. Old
modes of thinking, old PHILOSOPHERS,
old institutions, old laws and customs
all are to be examined, questioned,
winnowed. proved, to find what good
there is in them, that it may be added
TO the good and new of the present
time.
We will none of us deny That man
was created for progress-that he
was not stuck down here on the
earth like hop-pole never to sprout
or grow. There is implanted in the
human soul a rational longing for
higher attain m en- ts-for the enjoy mens
of that which at the present moment
lies just beyond its reach. And just
because man was created to grow in
the breadth and altitude of his man
hood, to attain ever to higher des'
tiny, to create new earth around
him aud new heavens above him,
we see him struggling and bat
Ting with the crude and evil
things which beset b m, and
ever looking earnestly forward
through the long night of watching
and tears for the morning of better
aud happier day. A glance over So
ciety will show Us how dissatisfied men
are with their present condition,
vastly improved as it is, and that
they are reaching out after some
good they believe is not far from
them. There 10 a hurrying to and
fro, and an incessant buzz in the
great hive Of humanity. And along
with this restessness and agitation
there is a disposition not to take any
thing on trust, but to subject it to
the closest and keenest scrutiny and
investigation. This is well, 80 far
the extravaganza we see, the out
burst of wide and tumultous feeling,
the ultraism and passion, connected
with the efforts of men to reach the
light, are to be deplored. Still, they
are what might be expected. 1t is
scarcely to be wondered at, that, as
the masses of our humanity become
dissatisfied with their coDdition-as
they look around upon the dark and
forbiiing aspect of the things that
are, and forward to the future in the
sky of which they seem to behold
signs of coming day of glory which
they may usher in, their imagination
should be enkindled, and their en-
thusiasm fired, and their zeal set ALI
afiame, and that they should SOW in
dreams only to reap shadows.
Change is not always progress-it
may be going backward. A rejection
of the old and laying hold upon the
new, may be an exchange of the
true for the false, of the good for
the bad, of the road to heaven for
the road that leads to perdition. 1t
is equally true that standing still is
not progress, although it is better
than walking 10 downward path.
And then, again, TO say with Solo,
mon, 10 q sense which he probably
did not mean to convey, that there
is no new thing under the sun--that
no truth has come into the world
for these many hundreds of years
that we of to day are no wiser than
our great grandfather's were-that
all of goodness and perfection was
concentrated in the creeds, and IN.
st;tutions, and laws, and customs of
centuries ago,-is to babble Gonsense
or to convict ourselves of having en-
tered into fossil state. For whils
it may be true, and is true, that with
respect of hereditary likeness, this
perpetual REPETITION of the life and
experience of the past, the world Is
made to be now, individually and. ma
tionally what it was long ago-that
so far IS scheming and plotting are
concerned, the thirst for power, the
bad men ia office, the strifes and con-
fiiots in the state, the domestic dis
cords and infellcities, there is meth
ing new; it is very wide of the mark
to say, that while the world and hu
man life repeat themselves they dc
not alter nor advance. Continually
has the race moved forward and up.
ward, and age after age all things
! have been made new. There had
been progress in Soloman's day
new light had been coming into The
world new revelations of the wisdom
and grace of God-and the once
scattered and half barbarian tribes
of the desert, were now strongly
consolidated and civilized nation
And ever since then the human SOU
has been growing, getting larger
getting richer, adding to its stores o
wisdom, widening the area OF 1T
thought, solving deeper mysteries
climbing to higher spiritual eleva'
ns,and by all these, and in all these
, ways, has filled the world with
!, new life, with q better civilization
, with more righteous forms of gov
eminent, with the symbols of bet
E ter religious faith, and with the altar
, of diviner worship.
!, And yet it must be conceded, tha
, mingIing with this wealth of goot
. things, connected with this grandeur
| of progress, gro wing with all thl