The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-06-21

alumni OF Richmond College.
Commencement week" opened very
ausplciously Sunday night In the able SER
mon Of Rev. DR.. I. b. Lake, OF Loudoun
county, before the Missionary Society OF the
college.
Despite the rain, highly.intelligent and
apprecIatve audience assembled 10 hear the
orator OF the evening.
DR.. Gwin Is q native OF Alexandria, grad.
uated at the college in 1860, and has made
an envlable reputation as pastor at Rome
and Griffin, Ga; Montgomery, Ala, and
now at Atlanta. His many old friends have
given him cordial welcome back TO his old
walks, and new friends have warmly greet
ed him.
After prayer by Rev. DR.. Lake. Howard
Bayne, Esq, president Of the Alumni Socie-
ty, appropriately introduced DR.. Gwin as
orator OF the evening.
Address OF Rev. DIR. ID. william Gwin,
or Atlanta.
After an historical incident the speaker
said :" In his inimitable tenth satire Juvenal
has illustrated by various examples the sad
end OF unregulated passion" and in closing
he bids us '.pray that we may have sound
mind In a sound body" That is our ideal.
that our goal, alas not our possession. Let
us consider the theme
MANIAs AND MoYoMAyIAs.
These words come to us from the Greeks,
but their ideas belong 10 us by nature. Dr..
Dunglison says, "If the raying be not
directed to q single object 1t is mania; II TO
one object, it is monomania." propose to
discuss monomanias, because in unfolding
them we can see the manas. Mine is not
the sphere OF the physician, but Of the
We often hear it said, "That person has
a monomania on that subject" The mean
ing is his mind is so full OF it as TO shut out
from its proper place every other subject,
however vital or valuable. It's machinery
is run by limited, one-sided idea. With
a monomania the mind cannot have q pure
TO breathe, or comprehensive
cause to advance, or catholic end TO reach I;
but is dwarfed and stamped with but one
1t brings everything under
its sway as a chess.player on the streets
turns every object, man or post or tree, into
a pawn or castle or queen. Whatever its
victim does, wherever he goes, he impresses
with growing zeal the peculiarities that
color and change his mind.
Consider some examples:
|. Scientific MonOmanid.-Among some
scientists this disease is epidemical. Inf
deity has arrayed science against Christian
It's. The questions OF species and evolution
have suffered at their hands. 1t is uDwor-
Thy of science to make hasty deductions
from insufficient data. To do so invalidates
It's authority and brings it into ridictle.
This is "science falsely so called" Science
No
1isprove anything, nor can the facts OF one
sphere contradict the facts OF another
sphere.
1t is an amusing absurdity OF the present
day to affirm that the Bible ought 10 have
used scientific instead OF popular language.
Scientific language itself is but an approXi-
nation 10 an exacter phraseology, Just as
science is but an approximation to truth.
What Is scientific language now will be un-
scientific language century hence. The
Bible must 60 c6Rdescend 10 men in their
low estate-must use human words and
ideas which fall infinitely short OF the Di.
vine realities and are but shadows Of the
truth" God has written two books-Ilis
works and His word-wbich can never
clash. 1t is the mad man who arrays
science against the Bible.
Here followed in exhaustive analysis
q biting satire against Draper's History OF
The Conflict OF Science and Religion. >
III. Social M0nOmdniq.-1. Communism
which is the cooperative idea run mad.
Worded on its red flag are "Liberty, Equal
lty, and Fraternity" It's dogmas are,
:" Liberty is License" property is Rob-
berry," Religion is MateriaIism," "Present
Order is Tyranny" These are the condensed
drops OF the poison OF that vast laboratory
Of human yillany. 1t is the deyil.tish OF
Dangers Of every kind dance round
it in full choir. Call 1t Socialism, or Agra
rianism, or Nihiism, or what you may,
point the finger Of caution at it as the vam-
pire, the moustrous embodiment OF disease,
slowly moving to crush the vitals OF society.
D, thou fierce. untamable genius OF equal
ty, how long wilt thou continue to
infringe upon the claims OF justice, TO
seize the comforts OF the honest, TO
trample on the rights Of the toiler.
10 usurp the prerogatives of Providence, to
break up the divine balances, and to throt-
lie the interests OF society and the functions
Of government. Standing over against and
often generating this mania is the colossal,
Lyrannic system OF corp0rationism, which,
interest OF society and government. Ma
bobism, with its fearful monopolies, now
bat Gods balance has been disrupted. will
yet sweep over our fair southern heritage.
Pause, o honest laborer and honest capital
st, and see to il that common sense, law,
lpd religion bind together your mutual re-
ations and bind down your common enemy
est it twine its coils around the cradle OF
liberty to crush it into an indistingulshable
wreck.
2. Another monomania akin TO this is
he doctrine Of Woman's Rights. BY 1t
woman is not to be elevated, but to be low
cred into the arena Of politics and tactics.
By it she is TO be begrimed by the scum
hat floats on the surface OF every public
current. II this mania prevail, woman's
influence, now the salt OF society, will re-
,eive dreadful stab, and there will be
" An hundred Bedams TO entertain the printers"
A woman may rightly use her gifts in the
station assigned by God, but she shines
most where she does not appear, in the
characters she has nodded within the hal
owed precincts OF home. Hers Is place
which man cannot fill; his is place which
he cannot fill.
III. Religious Monomdnia.-T genius
II this disease is subtle qualification
md self-assertion which deny freedom to
opponents. Its despotism arises from the
Intellect, or from the conscience, or from
he will. One OF its fruits is bigotry, which
)ersecutes or abuses man for mere opin-
on's sake. Another form is fanaticism,
which. stopping its ears to all remonstrance,
.reeps like an assassin or rushes like tor
lado against all that oppose it. Truth Is
Is antidote. Truth needs no weapons, but
,rayely marches or waits, sure OF its final
pcrownment. Nor does 1t pay court to
liberalism, which prescribes uniform be-
ief for all.
Another variety Is the persistent attempt
o solve iHsolubIe problems. And this
eads 10 endless misunderstanding, III feel-
ne, and division. The lack OF clear dis
irctlons and definitions, and OF Just llmita-