Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-06-18
Deformed Opinions.

SPOLoe pIOOlSJ, 1OOi3
mark, blotch. Men as a genera
rule, under like circumstances, are
not greatly unlike; and yet there are
few that in a spirit of opposition.
or from peculiar make up, will have
opinions that are cratic, strange, de-
formed. The owner of such mind
and character is generally conscien-
tious, doing what seems in his very
soul to be right and true. But he
goes up when other men 90 down
he goes in when other men go out
he prays when other men swear, or.
perchance swears when other men
pray. He goes out into the cold
storm, sometimes, and halloos to the
whole world to come out and warm
and dry themselves. He has a re-
ligion that must be sought for out
side the vedas, the koran or the BIZ
ble he has politics never dreamed
! Vi ny UAO uStSS vi ulduhlnO dIO q
philosophy that would confound Ar
istotle or Newton. The world some
ical, or, in the much more slangy
term-a crank. These people, odd
and peculiar as they are, have Their
uses. To the sympathetic they are
objects of pity and benevolence.
Who has a heart so cold that he does
not look with pity on the unfortu-
nate from whom nature has withheld
the things of health, perfection and
beauty? To those who are curious to
study the causes which control the
minds of these cratic men, there is a
fruitful field for investigation. The
vagaries of these men, who invent a
religion of their own, afford the the
ologian opportunity to discuss the
shades and the character of his own
belief, or they may pour effulgent
light on the Divine pages of revealed
religion. The politician whose party
principles are inbred OF blind kicks
his cranky opponents and learns, per
chance, that he has a lameness of his
own he had not before discerned.
The great and the good have oppor-
tunity to see how wonderful is their
greatness and goodness, only as they
compare themselves with the little
and the bad. So, really, there are
not few useful things that these
people with deformed opinions do in
the world.
But for the useful, the practical,
the grand things of life these cranky
people are not a success. The sol
dier who can not or will not fire his
musket is, at best, only target to
stop the lead that other people are
distributing; the religionist that has
notions unlike his brethren-and has
his notions hard-is good for moth
ing in his church, and may find him
self stopped at the pearly gates be-
cause no s'mansions" have been "pre-
pared for men of his make up. The
man who dislikes the methods, the
measures, the men of the greater
parties, and starts one of his own, has
small one at best and after he has
fought his campaign out, has moth
ing but fuss, froth and failure for
compensation. There are thousands
of pet notions, ideal theories and
sublime conceptions of men that have
early graves and no tears from the
world.
Public opinion is not always infal-
ible opinion. That great political
parties are right in all things is not
true in the fullest sense, but pin the
largest measure of faith with the be-
lief of the many, in things where
others have equal opportunities for
forming correct opinions, not with
the few.
If men find humps on their backs,
better will it be that they conceal
them than to declare that all men
are crooked or that curved spines
are natural. When a victim is struck
with an important idea unlike any
which finds a place in other mems
heads, let him beware of the asylum.
When somebody is, in his own con-
ceit, better, greater, holier than all
the rest of the world, let him remem-
Der that the good die young. The
oft quoted arguments that Calico
declared that the earth turned on it's
axis, when all the world knew it did
not that Columbus was scorned and
laughed at for believing that another
continent could be found in the far
west that Christ was called an i'm
poster and his followers mad men ;
that the Pilgrims were heretics and
the abolitionists lunatics do not al
together prove that all lunatics are
right. There have been thousands
Of theories as persistently stuck to as
| Galileo's which have failed, and hun
dreds of men every now and then are
as jealous and as self-sacrifcing as
the Pilgrims, who are wrong in their
beliefs OF mistaken in their methods.
The world has seen thousands of anti
christs, and only one Christ.
There has always been an album
dance of folly in this world, and the
zealots, idiots, cranks and fanatics
have enjoyed it as fish enjoys wa
ter. For the few, when nature has
afflicted, we have pity, but for that
larger class, who despite the teach
ings of the past and the light of the
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