The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-01-26

It mon people, and the shameless corruI
s ton of the higher classes, are the mos
S conspicuous features in their imperia
: story. In America let the wealthie
: class become as corrupt as they may
e the intelligent smiddle class will tax
e care of the government.
S Greece fell because the teachings o
e Academus reached so few; because tn
e first instinct of the Greek was brutal
ity instead Of intelligence. The few
great names of Grecian thought, i
they failed to win the martyrs palm
were slaves and walked all their live
in the paths of contumely and neglect
Had the teachings Of her saints an(
sages taken wider range she might
, have had better fate. No state ha:
, ever come nearer success in making
, its citizens mere machines, under the
control of the state than Sparta did
but these citizens were but a privileged
few, the mass Of her people were igno-
rant slaves, Systematically degraded
and brutalized. Ignorance and vi
ciousness travel hand IN hand in all
ages, climes, and lands. An ignorant
lower class has been in all ages a source
Of danger No mind can be kept a
blank no matter how hard society or
law may labor in that direction. Vice
is pretty sure to claim as its own the
mind that intelligence fails to irradi-
ate. We are making the same exper-
iment Greece and Rome made but un-
der much more hopeful conditions.
have little more patience with polit-
ical aristocracy, based upon sex, than
with one based upon birth or wealth,
but unlike the older republics our
theory Of political life is based upon
universal education and we are travel
ing toward political equality. Uni
versal education will be the prelude to
universal suffrage.
What intelligence there may have
been among the better classes of Rome
In the Augustan age, seems to have
been pretty well dissipated by the
time of Constantine Christianity
overthrew alike the gods and the lit
erature of early Rome but furnished
little to take the place of the earlier
literature Julian labored equally in
vain to r store the older faith and the
older. philosophy; with his death Eu-
rope was ready to plunge into all the
ignorance-into all the darkness so
cial, moral and political of the Middle
Ages. 1t was not barbaric invasion
that destroyed the. literary life of those
centuries; it was the decay of litera-
ture that made these barbaric inva-
sions possible The old decaying fab
ric of despotic power that had ruled
the world so long from the seven hills
of Rome, was rotten 20 the very core.
and could only be restored to vitality
by the infusion Of newer, better blood
from the north.
One of the mistakes Of early Chris
tiapity, that tinged all its future for
a thousand years, was its discourage
ment Of all study of the old Latin lit
erature. Still more insane, the coun-
Gil of Carthage in 39S forbade all read
ing of secular books. The story of
the murder of Hypatia is one Of the
most pathetic in the long story of
fraud and violence that overthrew the
earlier philosophy nd literature and
offered nothing better in its place, than
the legends of monkery, boundless su-
perstition, and aggressive idolatry,
under the domination of which igno-
rance became universal. Literature
once dead, even the language became
corrupt, ceasing at last to be the spok-
en- tongue, while a half dozen others
sprang from it as a common root.
When Latin ceased to be the spoken
tongue the very treasury of literature
was locked from the common people. |
Yet, while all laws and legal instru-
ments; the mass service of the church
even, were in Latin, it was not strange
that law and letters were finally di-
vorced from the ideas of the common
people, until it became rare for lay
man to be able to read, while the lit
erary accomplishments of the priests
were very often confined to knowl-
edge Of the Latin of their mass books.
1t is said to be doubtful If either Char
lemagne or Frederic Barbarossa could
read or write Think of the kings
and statesmen of to-day without
even that little spark Of literary cul-
ture If such was the truch as there
is every reason to believe it was, among
''the simple, great ones gone forever
and by" may God forbid they should
ever return. The practice Of making
the sign of the cross in lieu of sig
nature, now mark of the lowest ig-
norance, originated among the lovely
kings of that sanity epoch.
Under such circumstances it is not
hard to understand why the popedom
became the giant power it did. AL
most universal ignorance gave few
shrewd, able men the power to build
up d system, preserving nearly all that
was vicious and eliminating about all
that Was good i'll the systems it super
ceded. An ignorant populace, sunk
in slavery, vice and misery; believing
that priesthood little superior to
themselves, held the keys of heaven
and hell; too ignorant to consider or
if they did ito condemn the viciousness
of the church, no such opportunity
for the unlimited spread of supersti-
ton Will ever be offered again.
One name here and there looms up
through the universal gloom, but they
only serve to make the mental night
more bewildering. Alcuin, Erigena,
Gerbert borrowed from Mohammedan
schoolmen at Cordova and Seville
much of the light then poured on the
mental night of the age. Gerbert one
of the grandest names among them
reached the papal chair but only his
age believed, as the price for which he
had sold his soul to Satan, and for
which the Prince Of Devils came when
the bond was due. The story is still
told, that after sleeping in his tomb |