New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-04-25
MODERN PILGRIMAGES.

The pilgrims from Canada went rejoicing on
their way on Saturday. The coming Summer
bids fair to be season of pilgrmages Large
numbers of devOut Catholics are preparing to
90 to Rome or are already on their way from
all parts of this country to join in the celeba-
ton of the fiftieth anniversary of the POpe's
elevation to the EpscOpacy; there are to be
mammoth conventions of temperance societies
in England, to which large delegations are
going in June; the Young Mems Christian
Association, several reform societies, scientific
associations, etc, ETC., each will draw what
may be called large floating population from
this country during the Summer. In fact, pill
grimages promise to be as lively as they were
in the twelfth century, though they end at all
sorts of shrines, instead of the Holy Sepulcher,
and will have most probably Cook and Jenkins
as conductors, instead of Godfrey and CGur dc
Lion. The pilgrim from Montreal or Cincin-
natl travels by rail and steamer instead of
on foot or on his war-hOrse; he has no
Saracens to fight at the journeys end, but
means to put up at a hotel and learn
how to make war against whisky, how to
manage his county Jail, or to pick up the
newest idea in biology. But we suspect the
secret motive which drove the old Crusader
and the Yankee pilgrim out on their journey
ing was in many cases pretty much the same !:
they wished to see the world. Castles and
American shops and Offices are apt to bore
their owners occasionally, and sepulcher
stolen by the heather or a flag for Pope Plus
or a grand caucus of temperance leaders will
serve as an excuse for leaving them to catch
a glimpse of how other men live and manage.
The leaders of these modern pilgrimages ex-
press great hopes that they will rouse the
enthusiasm Of their followers in the cause Of
Catholicism, or Temperance, or Protestant unity,
ETC., etc. Perhaps they may though that is
uncertain. The old Crusaders, we are told,
came home with the startling conviction that
the world was much bigger than they thought,
and that there were other causes in it worth
fighting for besides the one which they set out
to serve.
One result of these journeys, however, IS
certain: the travellers will be uncOnsciOusly
educated, as they could have been by no mere
book training. Take man to the top of a
mountain for ever so short II glimpse, and he
will never believe again that life and its duties
are shut into his own valley and farm. The
old pilgrims, GuizOt tells us, found out that
their enemies were not monsters, but men like
themselves. They saw other civilizations than
their own, and tried to import the refinement
and art which they found abroad into their
homes: they pushed commerce with the coun-
tries which they visited they developed
freedom and independence of judgment I'M
known before. In short, If these half savage
migrations were the foundation of European
civilization, why should we not reap like
benefit from our modern pilgrimagesf Art,
philosophy, Manners commerce have not cul-
minated in perfection with us. So good-speed
to all pilgrims, whether it be Pope Plus or
Darwin or Father Mathew OF Cooks cheap