The Portland daily press., 1885-07-01

ger, "To my much hOnOred and loving friend
joseph Jones, Present these.
This public sentiment has Its say about all
new things. When Jonas Hanway, bravest
Of men, first put up an umbrella IN London
the crowd scOffed and ieered and thought he
was breaking down British manhood. Now
umbrellas are so common that the right Of
property no longer exists in them. Whoever
invented the fork four hundred years ago
outraged the public sentiment OF his day XII
OTIS took place over them and at least one di-
vine preached against them as mhallowed and
disrespectfu to the Deity. When the Pill
grim Fathers from whom all Boston Is de
scended, except the North End, landeT
Plymouth Rock not one solitary fork bore
testimony to the respectability with which
it is evident they have been too hastily cred
tied. Two hundred years ago nobody used
fork to-day nobody dares to use anything else
This perpetual control of mankind by itself,
this constant and persistent demand for
uniformity so irksOme to all innOvators, so
repressing to all improvement, must be ter
rible necessity. 1t shows by its very force
how much the human race needs watching
The devil is as sedulOus in this world as
water under ship. II there is any chance
Of leak the water is right there ready to
take advantage of it. Whenever the control
of public sentiment is lifted for a moment
you see the need of it. What terrible things
mobs do! What life people led away of
in California in 40 in Australia in 52. IL it be
true that the British army recently In Egypt
have been filling up the wells and shooting tne
people like rabbits, 1t only shows that the
varnish Of civilization is thin and needs some
body or rather everybody close by to keep
retouching it all the time. When the French
Revolution disorganized society how the
French people went into the airl What an
astounding disruption Of all human use and
wont. Religion seemed blotted out chastity
was a jest and M rider a pastime. Shouting
for liberty took e place Of all the virtues.
Kingship and nobility being proved sham
they thought everything else was. But pub
lie sentiment still reigned. A man might
outrage all time honored deeencies but he
had better be sure he loved liberty If he
"'5s---s t. wear his own head.
soaTebaG we DO Ma 5sa-sreeiate this tremendous
troll Of popular opinion 5s>Deo - Of olr
lives are passed in easy submIssSs--
it behooves man to take heed befOrv .e
to proclaim great principle which will free
a race, or merely wants to wear his hair long
down his back. In most cases he will be
simply suppressed, and even if he be of the
stuff Of which heroes are made he will many
time be sore of heart because he has seen
fit to be unlike other men. have called this
control of public sentiment terrible neces-
sity. | call it so because it has many grave
disadvantages; True 1t keeps mankind
sters up the Revised Statutes But
it does more. What is this public senti-
ment? 1t is In its essence nothing more or
less than the expression OF the average in
telligence and average ignorance Of man
kind. 1t demands insists upon, and will
have, uniformity. The race must go on to-
gether, and as a whole. 1t demands that those
who are below the standard shall, in their
outward lives, come up to the standard, and
that those who are above the standard shall
come down. That last is where the trouble
is. Let man proclaim a new principle in
science or make an invention which super
cedes the existing one and he must fight
Public sentiment will surely be on the Z"
side 1t may try to kill him or it may
shrug its shoulders. The abOlitiOnists ID
England and in New England know
this means and so did John Wesley ana
early Methodists and almost all great inven.
tors. The statue Of jacquard whose inven
tiOn added thouSandfOld to the comfort ant
culture of the world stands to-day on th
very spot where his loom was burned unde
the orders of the council of wise men of tn
trade of Lyons. In earlier ages we used Il
burn the man too.
The discovery Of the solar system by Co
mighty comprehensive mind must have filled
that frail body. But there is one ciFeu.
stance which shows that he had the wisd0
of this world as well as of all the OtheFs-r
did not publish his book until he was on m
death bed. He knew how dangerous it is t,
be right when the rest of the world is wrong
GalileO ninety years afterwards had the
same truth twisted out Of him by the rack
He had the knowledge but not the wisdom
of COpernicus. The truth is, the greatest
discoverer can have no audience until the
world has been lifted to his heights II
rising sunbeams may strike into beauty Ii
hill tops first, but their glancing rays are ba
rex ddop1tructifying, until they pour yer
c. " ,o,,s' Wfednr1 to '~~Ha