New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-08-17
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
wurPr paTERyAIsM MIGHT END.

LOOKING WITHIN The misleading tendencies Of
Ro 1oEins P Bscs Sys i!laq Barnes Co
One OF Remains profound sayings is that the
nation which devotes itself to social prooiems Is
a lost nation. The reason Is that human progress
IL always unconscious and that nation can no
more better itself by deliberate intention than the
individual man by taking thought can add cuot
10 his stature No sane thinks in his heart
that either paternalism or anarchy would remedy
the present Ills of humanity. What he Is apt 10
think under the influence OF that blind seii-coh-
ceit of which every human being has an over
plus is that he could be apostle OF Improvement
II other people would only obey his voice 1ncy
should 60 thus far and no farther. Then every
thing would exactly satisfy him ana the WORTH
would enjoy Utopia under the domination OIL d
single master mind. SO far as the published hlera
ture goes this assumption underlies 1t all, whether
the aim OF the writer be nationalism or indViduai
ism No prophet ever thought himself falhble lot
he always conceived some plan by which without
untoward interference his predictions might DE
realized to the letter. But the untoward interier-
ence is Just what Is sure to happen.
Though Mr. Roberts is conservative In MS AIMS
It Is not at all certain that he has improved mat
tiers by his answer to Looking Backward lie
indicates possible dangers growing out OF 'le
present attitude OF labor and capital, anu he
ridicues or less effectively the pan Oh
reducing all to dead level in opportunity
and capacity But he makes the vital mistake OF
supposing that after an age or two OF modhcauoh
the world could return to the habits OF the nne-
teenth century. History is all against that. NOM
ing is more certain than that the twente'h
century will offer new lessons TO humanity ono
of those lessons will probably be that the social
enthusiasms of the present day have TO pe pli"
for with social depressons in days TO come. Inc
intoxcation that has attended the SWALLOWING Vi
all that prophetic trash. of which Looking Back
ward is a sample will have 10 be paid for with
a headache. This is the invariable rule IN cases
OF drunkenness.
The plan of Mr.. Roberts's story is very simple.
But there is too much chemistry in it, when the
hero has to pass an age in slumber. he taxes Il
mysterious potion out OF a bottle. Neither the
Ezra nor the Seven Sleepers of oriental legehd
needed to do this. Why not assume without all
this alchemy that the sleep was prolonged! one
trouble about these magical fancies is that they
stmulate ill-reguated imagnations TO quests after
the impossible They add to the number OF crarks
IN the world and that is needless. Mr. Roberts to
some extent defeats his own purpose as a moraiist
nv these concessions TO what is worse Tor It's
votaries than immortality. A chance remark pub
lished in London some years ago brought out the
fact that the search for the philosophers stone
satirized by Chaucer 500 years ago still occupied
the time and wasted the substance of a number Of
people The word Of a mathematician that America
was practically clear of those who thought that
%bev coud SQUARE the circle brought to light sew
oral persons afflicted with this form of insanity.
It would not be surprising at all to learn that Mr.
Robertss book had revealed lot of death-stricken
,nortals with recipe for an elixir of life in their
hands.