The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-06-24

SWIM the sea, or cleaVe the mountain,
until the earth jars, and roars, and
rings, and crac]1les, and booms with
strange mechanism, and ships with
nostrils of hot steam and yokes of fire,
draw the continents together.
I say nothing against healthful Gu
riosity. May it have other 1seyden
Jars, and other electric batteries, and
other voltaic piles, and other magnify
Eyeglasses, with which to storm the
barred castles of the natural world I'M
til it shall surrender it's last secret.
We thank God for the geological Gu
riosity Of Professor Hitchcock, and the
mechanical curiosity of Liebig, and the
zoorog1eal curiosity of Cuvier, and the
inventive curiosity of Edison; but we
must admit that unhealthful and irreg-
ular inquisitiveness has rushed thou
| sands and tens Of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how it tasted, and
that curiosity blasted her and blasted
all nations. So there are clergymen in
this day inspired by unhealthful in
quisitiveness who have tried to look
through the keyhole of Gods mystic
ries-mysteries that were barred and
bolted from all human inspection, and
| they have wrenched their whole moral
nature out of joint by trying to pluck
| fruit from branches beyond their reach
| or have come out on limbs of the tree
| from which they have tumbled into
| ruin without remedy. A thousand trees
of religious knowledge from which we
may eat and get advantage; but from
| certain trees of mystery how many
have plucked their ruin! Election,
| free agency, trinity, resurrection-in
| the discussion of these subjects hun
dreds and thousands of people ruin the
soul. There are men who actually
| have been kept out of the kingdom of
| heaven because they could not under
| stand who Melchisedec was not!
Oh, how many have been destroyed
| by an unhealthful inquisitiveness! 1t
| is seen in all directions. There are
| those who stand with the eye-stare and
| mouth-gape of curiosity. They are the
| first to hear falsehood, build it an
| other story high and two wings to it.
About other peoples apparel, about
| other peoples business, about other
| peoples financial condition. about 9TH
er peoples affairs, they are over
| anxious. Every nice piece of gossip
stops at their door, and they fatten and
luxuriate in the endless round of the
great world of tittle-tattle. They in
vite and sumptuously entertain at their
house Colonel TWaddle and Esquire
Chitchat and Governor Smalltalk
Whoever hath an innuendo, whoever
hath a scandal, whoever hath valua-
BILE secret, let him come and sacrifice
it to this Goddess of Splitter. Thou
sands of Adams and Ewes do nothing
but eat fruit that does not belong to
them. Men quite we'll known as math-
ematicians failing in this computation
of moral algebra: good sense plus good
breeding, minus curiosity, equals mind
| ing your own affairs!
Observe also in this subject how re-
polling sin is when appended to great
attractiveness. Since Ewes death there
| -
hood. You could not suggest an al7
tractiveness to the body or suggest any
refinement to the manner You cx1ld
add no gracefulness to the gait, no lus-
tire to the eye, no sweetness to the
voice. A perfect God made her a per-
feet woman, to be the companion of a
man in perfect home, and her entire
| viii in
beauty and song Of Paradise. But she
rebelled against Gods government,
and with the same hand with which
she plucked the fruit she launched up
on the world the crimes, the wars, the
tumults that have set the universe a.
wailing.
A terrible offset to all her attractive
ness. We are not surprised when we
find men and women naturally vulgar
going into transgression We expect
that people who live in the ditch shall
have the manners of the ditch: but
how shocking when we find sin an
pended to superior education and to the
refinements of social life! The accom-
plishments of Mary Queen of Scots
make her patronage of Darnley, the
profligate, the more appalling. The
! genius of Catharine II. of Russia only
sets forth in more powerful contrast
her indispensable ambition. The trans
lations from the Greek and the Latin
by Elizabeth, and her wonderful quail
fcations for a queen, make the more
disgusting her capriciousness of af-
lection and her holiness of temper.
The greatness of Byron's mind makes
the more alarming the Byron's sensual
ity.
Let no one think that refinement of
manner Or exQuisiteness of taste OF
superiority of education can in any
wise apologize for ill-temper, for an
| oppressive spirit, for unkindness, for
any kind Of sin. Disobedience God
ward and transgression MAYNARD can
! give no excuse. ACCOMPLISHMENT
en-high is no apology for vice hell
Geep.
My s,bj~t also impresses me with
the regal influence of woman. When l