Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-03-20


What will be the condition of literature
and drama 100 years hence?
To keep the answer to this question out
of the category of mere guesses on the one
hand and save it from the imputation of
rash prediction on the other, it must be de
duced from the indications of the present
There is a feverish energy in every de
partment of intellectual life Just now that
is symptomatic. Every person of fairly
good education and of restless mind writes
a book. As "A rule it is superficial book,
but it swells the bulk and it indicates the
cerebral unrest that is trying to express it
self We have arrived at a condition In
which more books are printed than the
world can read. This is true not only of
books that are not worth reading, but it Is
true of the books that are.
All this | take to be the result of an in
tellectual affranchisement that is new, and
of Il dissemination of knowledge instead ot
IA concentration of culture Everybody
wants to say something. But it is SLOWLY
growing upon the world that everybody
has not got something to say.
Therefore one may even ut this moment
detect the causes which will produce reac.
tion. In 100 years there will not be so many
books printed, but there will be more said
That seems to me to be inevitable 1t Is
certainly in the direction of intellectual de
velopment which implies that man reaches
n condition Individually and socially, if he
progresses ut all, in which he cares less
about talking than about doing.
But, taking the whole bulk of current
literature, good, bad and Indifferent, and
acknowledging that as "A mass it is more
active than profound, there is nevertheless
an observable tendency in tit is measur
ably moving toward "A somewhat
If we can get the direction and the ratio
we may reasonably measure its progress
during the next century.
Now what is that tendency?
do not see how any one can diligently
investigate the material without perceiyinQ
that its slow advance is toward a better
humanity, a closer fraternity, a broader
charity. These signs are unmstakable even
in its lighter veins of cynicism and persi-
flage.
Nine-tenths Of all the imaginative writers
are jibing at the wrongs of society. The
other tenth are jibing Mt the political short
comings. OfCourse they have ideals, against
which they adjust the real. Some of these
ideals are made of moonbeams; some are
wildly impracticable; others are fantasies
on Plato's notion or travesties Of More's
dream. But the incentive IL a restless sense
of imperfection and a growing conscious
ness of central sun somewhere in the
moral and intellectual universe which is
pulling all things to it. When this is not
distinctly theistic feeling it is a vague
philosophic counterpart of it.
So far as this is a gain in unity and rea-
sonableness, it is permanent gain. | can
conceive of no political or social disaster
that will destroy it.
The philosopher who undertakes to sur
vey this ground needs not be On extreme
optimist to see that there is a distinct ethic-
al gain in the aggregate of intellectual
work. When it does not lead it reflects, in
broken and uncertain CLEANS, the spirit Of
the age, and that spirit stands for better
solidarity and n nobler destiny for man.
Under all the factors that must influence
the intellectual future, broader and deeper
than any of them lies education. If you
want to find out what the future man will
say you will have to ask, What will he
know?
At this moment the whole educational
energy of the country is centering itself on
the want of an ethical basis of instruction.
1t is not alone the Catholic church that OBJ
iects to the system which makes smart men
instead of good men. Some of the wisest of
Protestant teachers have conceded that our
public school system is fatally deficient in
the elemental teaching which develops the
moral sense and makes honest citizens
This protest, ! take it, is another form
of the reaction against the intense materi-
alism of the time. But it is also sign of
intellectual development. No one who
studies it can doubt that the education of
our youth during the next fifty years will
be in measure freed from the mathemat-
ical restrictions of the present courses.
If we now recognize the fact that labor
everywhere is insisting that more time to
study and rest shall be taken from toll, and
add this to the fact that the studies promise
to improve In the direction Of ethics, dc
not see how we can avoid the conclusion
that, barring some great and incalculable
eonvnlsion that would throw mankind