Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-12-24

NOT AS BAD AS We MIGHT BE.-There
are a good many people who, when thev
have nothing else in particular 10 worry
over or to groan about, spend their sur
plus energy in bowling that the world is
growing worse. Sometimes they COM
pare the world of to-day with what it was
when they were chileren. Sometimes they
go n step further back and draw the com
parison with the good old days of their
fathers or grandfathers. Now, the fact is,
that the world is at least as good as it has
ever hecn, and perhaps better. There is
more life, more enlightenment. more
sound morality and more real religion.
As to education, we are far in advance of
the attainments of our forefathers. Ad-
mitting that great deal of the enterprise
of to-day is favored with badness, we still
have enough that is both enterprising and
commendable TO place us far above past
generations. We might be better men
than we are. We might have fewer crimes
to report. 1t would be delightful if every
newspaper column devoted to the chroni-
cling Of a crime, were occupied with the
story of some good deed. We have not
yet reached that happy state of affairs. If
the history Of the day is more largely
made up Of tales of wickedness than we
would like to have it, we may console our
selves by reference TO the history OF past
ages, which was nearly all made up of
narratives Of crime and casually, and we
must remember that, in former DAYS,
owing to the exceedingly meagre facilities
for reporting and publishing, the public
were made acquainted with only small
proportion Of the crimes which were COM
mitted. Had newspapers been published
in the days Of Cain or Nmrod, or Nebu-
cbadneZzar, or Julius Cesar, or Nero, or
Henry the VIII, their police report ="
department would have crowded out all
of the editorials and most of the adver-
tsemenls. Referring to the groaners over
evil times, the Christian Union says
There is not new crime in the calen-
dar; politicians have not recently become
dishonest, nor private integrity spotted.
Fifty years back bring us to the most Bit
ter denunciations of all this, and the most
comparisons with the good old times.
F. This may only prove that we are lower
than we were them but may it not prove,
instead, that lamentation was mistaken
then and is so now? On the other hand,
II IL Is ulSeu llldt Tue WOllu Is growing
worse now, that is venturing into prophe.
cy. The temporary effect Of tremendous
and accumulating changes in the last forty
years must not be overlooked. They have
transformed the geographical distribution,
the business methods, the domestic life,
and nearly all the conditions of civilized
existence. We are not even born the same
men and women as those of 1910; even
nature is changed in her relations 10 US,
and only her visible aspect is as then. So
we develop too rapidly and crudely; by
over haste we trip into commercial crisis
es; we squander material resources, sink
capital and subject every part of our ma
lures to unwonted stains. Turn over a
fiat stone in the field and insects scatter in
disturbance; if, in the providence of God,
our intenser life and our discoveries Of
science and invention have let in light so
fast as to dazzle their eyes, what wonder
that we are temporarily confused and
stumble into moral by.paths' in time
these new conditions will adjust them
selves. The comparative faults of to-day.
And, even if we cannot see that the world
is growing better. reason united with faith
is denying this fact 10 be proof that it is
growing worse.