Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-01-13
WE HAVE AGE ENOUGH
No American Need Long for Objects
of Veueration at Home.

NO American Need Long for Ob5eotN
Of Veneration ut Home.
We are accustomed to speak of every.
thing In America as brand-new. 1t
smells to us Of varnlsh more than anyt
thing else, and when we go abroad We
say Of buildings and of institutions,
'"Alas, we have nothing at all of this
sort In American There is truth In
this. and yet perhaps we do not suffl-
ciently realize how long our American
civilization has been growing, and
how much Of the worlds history has
been made in the last $50 years. 1t Ii
Interesting to find Suggestion OF tAis
nature emanatipg ftom so thoroughly
English source as the London spoctd.
tor, tho attention of which has been
drawn to the age Of our American col.
leges by book of Illustrations of our
university buildings. 7@ r..
: Lot us follow out this suggestion,
and, taking Harvard University ns q
measure Of Age, see where the world
was standing at the time Of the foun.
dation Of that institution, This was II,
1888, Charles I. &as on the throne OF
England. Cromwell was A young man,
"guiltless Of his country's blood" and
had just been turned back from hls
plan of coming to America. The face Of
Germany was then desolated with the
Thirty Years war. Richelieu had Just
formed the French Academy, and was
In the zenith Of his power. The Span.
lsh inquisition was pursuing Its reiept.
less work, and Galileo was yet busy
with bis literary labors. II was sixty
years before Peter the Great applied In
LONDON for his naval apprenticeship,
and nearly 100 years before Frederick
the Great came into his inheritance.
We are apt to think Of English lltera.
ture as ante-dating our American CIV
pization; yet at the time the New World
had taken on the educational and NOR
al strength which gave US Harvard Col.
lege, English literature was practically
unwrltten, If we except Chaucer, spen.
ser and Shakespeare. Paradise Lost"
was only dream of Milton. who was
30 years old in 1888, and then began his
continental journeys. Dryden was Q
years old; Bunyan was 10, with no
thought Of serving under Cromwell OF
being jailed for his views. Pope, Swift,
Addison, Bolingbroke, Bishop Berke.
ley, were yet unborn. Sa
These reflections show us how large
n part of human history belongs to the
period since the foundation of our old.
est university. Into the life OF this
young and growing republic all these
things entered-the growing hatred OF
nbsolutism, the spread of religious toll
Grafton, the literary Inspiration Of Mil.
toms day, the artistic spirit that breath.
ed from st. Peters dome. The Ameri
can of to-day need not lack for objects
Of veneration In his own country. 1t is
old enough. Its founders and those
who have preserved it with sufferings
and death, and sometimes harder ser
vice Of living effort and denial, have
left bright spots in the dark and devious
strugglings Of the human race. TIC
emulate rather than to disparage theiI
character and service Is the duty and
privilege of the intelligent patriot of to
day. Moreover, to consider the mattel
from another point of view, the para
dox Is true that, II we are to look te
antiquity, the present age is tho old
est. --- -. -