The herald., 1895-05-07

his life. privilege accorded to but few
so-called cranks.
There is Professor GARNER. who has
locke himself up in Il cage with gorillas
and chimpanzees in order to learn the
speech of apes. He believes there is a
simian vocabulary--if he could prove his
premises how far would that go
towards proving the theory Of Darwin as
to the origin of man? Ii the world had
been permitted to lndulge us conserva,
tive tendencies the page of science and
philosophy. teeming with lessons, would
never have been written; everyth ing that
now constitutes civilization would not
exist Yet despite itself humanity has
been pupil at the feet of many cranks
and has learned from them its great des-
tiny on earth.
Then there are the dreamers of which
the world is full. Almost every thinking
being has some unfultilled hope slowed
away in his breast, the ideal that some
day is to become realized. The craving
after perfect happiness produces the
dreams which is, strictly speaking. the
So does the poor dream of wealth; and
the broken in health dream of health ;
the downtrodden dream of liberty; the
oppressed of being freed from his yoke;
the prisoner. OF the day when the door
shall not be shut between him and the
return to the land that Graded him.
The world has Its great DIRE amers.
From the beginning al most all great souls
aspired for humanity's sake to Olympian
heights. Existing conditions are not
always the conditions that produce the
greatest happiness to all men. Generally
the happiness of the one is the misfor-
tune OF the other. The great ideals of
mankind are born Of the contrast be-
tween the actual and the hoped for.
The nation that is enslaved will be the
first to give birth to the ideals of free
dom; out of the nations wrapped in mem
tai darkness have come the great ideals
OF right, out Of oppression the dream of
equity; out of war and conflict the
dreams of pea e and rest.
One OF the longest dreams of,humanity
has been the dream of perfect liberty.
We understand liberty to mean tho free
enjoyment of body and of soul, subject
to no depressing or expressing influence,
but voluntary submission to common
law that, because it is Obeyed by all, is
the protector of all.
1t has taken the world its full age to
either comprehend the simple doctrine or
permit it to be taught. We understand
it, but two or three wars and half mill
ion of martys have taught us. France
understands it. through the guillotine.
But assuming that true liberty prevails
under all constitutional governments,
the majority are still ensaved; they have
no individuality every ego is merged
in the great personality of it's ruler. Still
the world has made progress, and its ad-
vancement has come out OF the dreams OF
thinkers of former generations and ages.
Among these dreamers might have be ell
Moses. the court-bred Hebrew, who lived
to rejoice in the realization of his dream.
and see the slaves march on to liberty.
Some of the Jewish prophets dreamed OF
perfect human liberty. The sacred litera
more alive to the unsatisfactory condi-
tions of their own times than these old
rugged preachers of the word. Their dar
ing fight to milennnial heights are to
this day themes Of wOnderment and me-
ditation. Such liberty as they dreame ed
of is as yet beyond the ken, if not the
conception, of mOrtals.
Liberty in their dreams was not OF
liberation from some intolerable yoke,
nor even the unhindered exercise of re-
ligious duty, nor even the peace based
upon mutual respect and common
obedience; it was the absolute merging of
individual plans and purposes into the
proud design of liberating entire hu-
manity. A humanity with one God, one
country, one law, one knowledge; a hu-
manity shorn of every selfish thought and
purpose; humanity of children loving
one another and led by a little child; a
humanity, stranger to the contention OF
interest. and a God before whom there
is no respecter of persons or conditions.
Such liberty is still dream, for many
reasons. Can there ever be a time when
there will be neither cross nor crescent?
When the Jew will not call upon the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? When the
prophets of the races will be deemed re-
vealed OF comm on truth and the word of
God stand in the full glory of a universal
ly accepted divine ruler?
There was one dreamer who stood on
the topmost heights OF prophetic vision
and saw in the eternal years of God the
coming of worlds peace. His name is
invoked whenever churchly arrogance
seeks to dominate the power of opinion.
But his name stands also for the coming
of peace, the fraternity of men, the loving
kindness that shall supplant war. In His
name man has been prosecuted. yet is
his name a promise of another dream
realized. That dreamer was Jew, and
his name is Jesus of Nazareth.
AS yet all is as it has been. Moses and
Jesus, Mohammed, Brahma and Buddha
Confucius, Jerusalem, Rome and Augs-
burg--at present these are the words that
awaken contention, hatred, contempt and
passion. mona so bitter as those who hold
themselves privileged in special revela-
dreams-some parts of the vision shall
come to pass; Alre idy in the conclave
of sages in Chicago they knelt together
and worshiped God, the Almighty.
Once it has come to pass, and 1t may-it
shall-come to pass again.
Liberty is but one of the grand themes
OF human dreams, and their number is
legion. Liberty, fraternity, equality.
Three magic words each representing a
dream for the realization of which men
have given their lives.
Let us dream on yet awhile-dream of
the leveling of conditions. the raising Of
the lowly the publication of the impure.
the disappearance of ignorance. the death
of oppression. the opening of prisons
dream of the perfect conditions of a mil
lenial era.
Let us dream on. Some particles of
gold always cling to the purifying retort.
So shall humanity absorb grains of
knowledge from the impractical visions of
dreamers yet to come, and 1t may be the
awakening will be in holy harmony with
their dreams.