The herald., 1896-11-29

those who lived in the days when 1t was
fashionable to adorn the nose and the
cheek and the forehead and the ears
with rings, and paint the skin with the
Juice of the berries. To be sure they
confine their rings to the fingers AMI
ears, and ask tine chemists to prepare
coloring for the skin-cheeks-but the
fashion has its roots in tribal life. The
time was in the history Of our ancestors
made them a most toothsome dish, and
today we enjoy eating the child Of the
family COW, Notwithstanding 1t loves its
offspring quite as tenderly as our first
mothers loved theirs. II we could but
stop and consider that whatever thinks
loves, and that all love has a common
source, no doubt we should advance
civilization more rapidly. Nevertheless
the world is wiser anc better every
way in these the last days of the nine
teenth century than in any former pc
riod, and the government OF every peo-
pie marks the advance they have made
away from the civilization of their caves
and mud hut domiciled forefathers.
But, great and good and virtuous as we
Of the twentieth century are, as we may
properly claim ourselves to be. no doubt
the people of the fortieth century will
refer to US as "the pagans and barba-
rians of two thousand years ago-a peo-
pie so suspicious and prone to dishonest
acts that they locked and bolted the
doors of their sanctuaries. lest some of
them should plunder as thief the
altar of the Most High God" No
doubt. too, their contempt for the civili-
zation that we of today are making will
be intensified when they read how our
wage-earners alone spent annually
more than three times as much Of their
earnings for malt and spurious liquors
than they did for the maintenance and
propagation Of the principle of Chris
Ptianity, but they will have to admit
that we made better showing than did
any OF our ancestors.
There are those who hold that the
world grows stronger Intellectually, but
does not materially improve morally,
but there is no doubt that they are mis-
taken. No age of the world had so
many free institutions for caring for
the poor and sick There are more big
hearted philanthropists than ever be-
fore, and never before in the history oe
the world did so many of the working
class own houses. Never before was
the human family so nearly on a COM
mon level asTto opportunity to acquire
knowledge and compensation for ex-
pended effort; but while all these do not
speak we'll for the civilization of our
ancestors, nor over much for this age
and generation, they do show that hu
manity is gradually getting closer to
that degree Of moral and mental unfold
ment which calls for the Golden Rule as
the basis of government. No doubt,
too, we are approaching the time when
children of parents who wear the yoke
Of society will not have to apologize for
disturbing the rounds of social life long
enough to come into the world. But,
anyway, the civilization of today is the
best the world has ever enjoyed, but it
is crude, ignorant and barbarous 20
what it will grow to be in time. But
this fact obtains: We know the right
better than our ancestors knew it, and
the responsibility which rests upon lis
Of today, and our duty to the ages 10
come is greater than that which rested
upon centuries of the past. Although
living in more Of the darkness of the be-
ginning than in the light of the ultimate
of civilization, we see the light clearer
than it was ever before seen; we know
better what truth is than did our an
cestors, and the responsibility resting
upon us is correspondingly greater. But
in any event. our moral and intellectual
worth is accurately reflected in the
system of government we maintain,
and in the spirit Of truth and justice
that prevails in the administration of
law.