Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-04
THE NEW YEAR.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.

tUl VIEW IEHns
| st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Said Wolfgang Goethe, 81 always CON
suit foreign nations, and advise every on
to do the same. National literature viii
do but little. The epoch of literstur,
| Of the world is at hand, and every on,
! ought to labor to hasten it," To day tina
literature OF the world exists, and the
writings of Goethe stand well among ths
foremost OF our common human posses
sions. We are as proud Of Goethe as the
Germans are proud OF Shakespeare. III
any part of the world you will find on 9
students table. side By side, Plato, Schil
Ter, Locke, Emerson, Tasso, TolstoI,
Pascal, Milton, Homer, Cervantes. Men
of all. nations, ancient and modern,
come together in our Libraries
As brothers in the great frater-
nifty of man. Boundary lines pass
for little in these days. Thoughts need
no passports. National pre- JUDGE is
yielding TO an appreciation Of single hui
msnity. Genius recognizes that it speaks
no longer for tribe, or nation, but for
Gil the world. What sharper contrast
can there be than that between Homer
eiugiDg hexameters TO village crowd in
Tnessaiy and Homer annotated by Glad
stone and published in Languages spoken
by 400, 900, OG0 of people.
Look farther at the tendency toward q
system Of universal law, 8 common code
OF international comfy. When any peo-
PIE fails TO become an integral part of tie
commercial compact OF .nativity, 1t per-
ishes. LAWS that render one nation
prosperous st the expense OF another do
not satisfy the moral sentiment of this
generation.
1t is NO longer possible to fad an tx.
cuse, even in "decrees" and ''Provi-
dence," for the enforcement OF bondage
on any race or sect. The idea Cf human
equality has been called In scorn ga gilt
tering generality" A golden generalizi-
tion 1t is; and a truth that moves on 10
fulfiilment. Spain was the last of civil
lied nations to confess slavery to be no
longer toIerable institution. Our little
globe is the common property OF single
family.
There is also a growing community OF
CUSTOMS tendency toward common
coins, weights, lnessures and other ap-
plisnces OF progress. Japan and China
take up the westward roll of ideas; and
while we admire their Elasticity in
our institutions and methods,
10, they have gone further, and
worked out holder problems than We had
dared to conceive. Progress accelerates
it's rate of speed each year. Whatever is
good in one land soon becomes common
endowment. The invention of 8 common
language has long seemed desirable; but
heretofore attempts in taat direction
failod n hca1nfafu Rnf nhcrY,ra G uria
priest, working in retirement, has sud-
available commercial language for the
will be disgrace rot to understand this
language of humanity. It will crowd into
our colleges, elbowing out Greek and |
German: and doirg what the classics
never did-unite tie people in common
Interchange of ideas. Language is not
only the vehicle of thought but the mould
Of thought. It shapes thought. We shall
think much as we speak. 1t we speak
English we remain English. II we speak
German we do not become Identical in
sympathy with Americans. We must
talk together to feel together. COM
mon language for civilization is desider
alum OF supreme importance. The old
Egyptian language had no pliability that
enabled the nation to breed great philoso-
piers, great poets and great orators; it
could only have priests. Greece had, on
the other hand, remarkably flexible
language; the result was Homer, Plato,
Demosthenes. The future OF human pro-
gress will open along the line Of more
and richer human speech.
Language was the first Of arts; it IS also
the last and greatest. By means OF words
man became man; By richer yocabularies
he became enlightened; by still broader
speech will he become Intellectually
greater
Another feature Of our years is the
'ealty shown tolhumanitY as greater than
Old legends that were the
points about which nation
slism took shape, have become Preside |
tales for our amusement. The Yankee |
axes more pleasure IN the Suez canal
han in Plymouth Rock; the Switzer
cares more for the tunnels beneath the |
Alps that bring him tourists and trade
han he does for William Tell; and the !!
ScotChmaD, st last, cares less for John |
Knox and Calvinism than he does for |
to Bombay. We began with
he tribal feeling some 5000 years ago,
hardly strong enough to master the FAM
ly instinct. Tribes gravitaied into ma
ion, and now nations gravitate together |
INTO humanity. Patriotism was . geo.
virtue; philanthropy is power
If sympathy that leaps rivers and sur
mounts mountains.
Prejudice means pre-judgment. It is
/ curious product Of the human mind.
The Jew called all others Gentiles. ALI
others reto,ted by concentrating all Bit
erness in the word Jew. The Chinese
:slled US outside barbarians; we detested
hem In return as outlandish laggards.
We dsspised Mexicans because we were
strongest; and erslaved Africans because
ne were able to do it. But mark the