The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1878-09-01
PUBLIC SPIRIT.

PUBLIC SPIRIT.
Lives there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself has said;
This is my own, my native land %
Man was first, then society. So
ciety itself is not a compact entered
into for mutual protection or mutual
advantage. Neither is it a confed-
eracy for purpose of mutual advan-
tage. 1t sprang originally from no
philosophical speeulations or selfish
reasoning, neither is it an abstraction.
The elements of Organization belong
&c the instincts. Man is by nature a
gTegarious animal He goes in
droves. He seeks his kind by law
of mental gravitation or cohesion.
COmpanionshjp is necessity. Such
was the cause of the origin of socie-
ty in the primival ages, when men
were few upon the earth, and isola-
ton or companiOnship was matter
Of choice. Independent of the pair
ing instinct which makes man leave
father and mother and cleave unto
his wife, free from this material uni
~ of the sexes in pairs, which we
call marriage, men sought each other
for the instructive pleasure of mu-
tual sympathies, and under the infiu-
ence of gregarious instructive SYM
pathies and the elements of aggrega-
ton and cohesion, springing there
from. Families were born and blood
ties formed men into classes, from
the latter sprang tribes, and from
| tribes nations.
For il is self-evidenl that habit be-
gets love, or at least friendship, so that
those who have grown accumtomed
| TO each other are Bound together
and are miserable when separated.
Thus from this principle often man
and wife live together in tolerable
harmony when what we call love has
fed, and though making each other
perpetually miserable by pickering
and recrimination are unable to sep
arate. By this force of habit men
once associated together for any
length of time became inseperabie
and the clara and tribe established a
sort of fedual tenure one upon the
other and the tribe and clan became
unified. \ fusion of tribes and
clans by geographical necessity or
geographical accident became a
nation. When once united together
thus by necessity or accident pro-
cess o. .assimilation took place, a mu-
tual modification of language, habit
and thought until, the atomic ele-
ments became fused by virtue of a
common thought and common senti-
ment. .-r go
At this epoch of social transfornla-
ton the instinct of proprietorship
and self appropriation stepped into
the mental laboratory. Men began
to say, This is my country" These
are my people" An insult to the
mass because an insult to the individ-
ual because the individual held a
right to the mass in fee simple. Iden-
tity or community in the state resen-
ted an outrage on another member
of that state, just rs the brain SYM
pathizcs with the hand and the hand
with the foot.
The whole national instinct is foun-
dcd upon the SENSE Of proprietorship,
and this perfect assimilation of the
mass is what we denominate, with
scrupulous reference TO psychological
truth, Public Spirit. The man who
never to himself has said, This is
nv own, my native land" is not a
social but individual man.
The same process, however, which
produces this identity and unifica-
ton of national spirit, operates with
the same force in narrower circles.
1t belongs TO the family, the town,
the county. the State. The national
order of patriotism or public spirit,
for they are one and the same, is love
md devotion TO ones family first, to
lis town the next, to his precinct, to
his county, his State, his country, the
world. Man is domestic first, cosmo-
politan last. 1t is the order of ma |
ture. lie who does not hold his own |
town above all others in his estima-
ton, who does not feel pride in its
growth, its prosperity, lacks the es-
sential element of patriotism.
In this sense and in the exuberance
of our pride at the beauty the grow
ing wealth, the high elements of
prosperity which meet our eye in
this retrospect of last year, we re-
jOice as patriots devoted to their own
city and county, and TO their inter-
ests. We would have our readers
share our exultation, which they do.
In newly settled states where peo-
pie are thrown together by accident
little influenced by choice, it requires
time TO fuse and assimilatei TO unity
habits and thoughts, and feelings,
sentiments and different habits seem
to threaten disintegration. But as
time passes the great law which first
made clans and tribes and nations,
gains sway, and soon a homogeneous
people with identity of sentiment |
appears.
Through that transition period
Waco and our county, settled by peo-
pie from all states, has passed. Our
people are of a common sentiment,
a public spirit has grown up that
takes pride in this new land and
new city, and is jealous of her fame
and interest.
This public spirit should receive
an impetus from this retrospection.
1t should stimulate our people to
u. ny