The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-08-28
The Egis & Intelligencer
HITS AND MISSES.
CONTRIBUTED BY A. sPARRER.
"De onsni re scibt6 ct quibusdam aliis d"

upon some rather startling utterances, start
ling at least to orthodox ears.
In an article entitled Hypocrisy as Socia
tcvator" the writer takes the ground tina,
stimulation of virtue, though far inferior to
the real article, is still the next best thing tc
it," and advances along that line until he has
enunciated some remarkable truths ~
49,
We will quote some of the least objection
able
"Denunciation of hypocrisy forms large
part of the properties of lay and ecclesiasti-
cal moralists, who exploit time warped
theories of salvation. Exercise of moderate
reasoning powers would teach them that cal
culating and persistent hypocrisy has been
one of the most powerful factors in the moral
advancement of the world.
National histories and the portraiture of
the great men of the past are all more or less
fragrant pieces of hypocrisy.
Histories of religions show the rapid ad-
vance from pretense 10 actually.
with several volumes of standard reference
books close at hand, calmly await the We
hement chorus of dissent from this PROPOSE
ton"
~
So be it, When so formidable a barricade
is set up before our very faces, we might
hang our diminished heads abashed and mute
were it not for this demonstrated truth
thai Fools rush 10 where angels fear to
tread"
Non-poeticslly there are just few eternal
verities which loom up higher and strike
down deeper than all the tones that man
can heap pile on pile to the very sky.
Charity may be one of the properties" of
the moralist, too orthodox, perhaps, to be &C
ceptable to so doughty hero as our friend
behind the books who tells US hypocisy is
factor in the elevation of the human race, and
yet we fain would grant him so much as
would remove the mountain OF fog behind
which his words would ensnare US.
The charity that thinketh no evil tells me
he uses the word hypocrisy but as rather
strong substitute for the ideal, as something
better suited to our grosser sense.
The charity that suffereth long and is kind
cannot imagine even a fin de steele realistic,
materialis.ic American administering SO po-
tent an an anesthetic to our finer suscepii-
bilities.
A high ideal that is beyond us and yet al
ways held in view, let US hope, is slightly
milder form for the same truth our friend is
advocating
Granted our modern thought admits no
romantic imaginings, do we not all cling to a
golden shimmering past?
Fear not to build thine eyrie on the heights
Where golden splendors lay,
And trust myself unto thine inmoSt soul
In simple faith Away; Gas
And God will make dvinely Real F..
The highest forms of thine Ideal.'
~
We do not "expect that the mass of human
ity will be steadily aligned" on any such
standard as that, but we do contend their
teachers and helpers should hold up before
them such sun of divine radiance rather
than the farthing rushlight of so poor thing
as hypocrisy.
The inferiority and brutality of the dark
and middle ages cannot be disputed; ours
would be poor civilization that would not
more than retrogrsde, and it is habit of
the human mind to polish and refine in re-
Prospect.
We cannot leave to ecclesastics and enthu-
siasts alone the belief 10 Christianity as an
elevating force. A fair critic who brushes
h,,a Ill Ill
delusion, the religion of Jesus Christ has
been very salutary as purgative for selfish
ness, that it has taught code of ethics which
ifpracticed only half-heartedly, embodies the
elements of gentleness, refinement and cour-
tesy.
The blood and battle faith of the first fifteen
centuries was not of Christianity but in spite
OF it.
The enforced submission of conquered
hordes sowed a semblance of truth abroad in
the land that semblance developed the germ
through its inherent purity, not because
cloaked in hypocrisy.
-
Furthermore could we accept our hero be-
hind the books literally, we should be forced
to the argument as not against The factor hy-
p crisy, but as against The consequence
vation
We would be driven TO the belief that even
SD powerful a motor as hypocrisy has failed
OF its mission, if it brings us to no higher
plane than is thus set forth iii Hypocrisy
as Social Elevator?
OF all the evolutions of modern thought is
this the triumph and the f1ower2 This
chivalrous warfare that throws down the
glove for what we learned vice at our
mothers knee, and which has go few whole
hearted champions in that battement of
books.
Our friend would hardly apply his formula
10 his own every day life; need he fasten it
in print and foster it upon what is already
not the best in our humanity?
~
Granted for the sake of argument that The
term hypocrisy be accepted, and granted the
truth of each dctum laid down in the afore-
said article, we are confronted by another
question-whence this hypocritical spirit
What set OF influences first made us all aspire
higher than we attain? Has this all along
been blind cropping after the fittest, or did
Christianity start force, that however mis-
directed and Inexperienced by our poor hui
man nature, has toned US and smoothed us,
given us high aspirations, and which tells US
the next step forward will be to press to the
front as contemners of the spirit of hypocrisy
and as heralds of pure ideal
Nay, can we not now compromise upon
the real as against hypocrisy, the real elevat-
ed by the ideal?
There no limits to the Real
Save those that bound the pure IDEAL
~
We need not hope that with the literary
and artistic syndicate we have reached the
end. New fields and pastures green are ever
open to such infinite possibilities
~