Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-06-22

swim the sea, or cleave the mountain,
until the earth jars, and roars, and
rings, and crackles, and booms with
strange mechanism, and ships with
nostrls of hot steam and yokes of fire,
draw the continents together.
l say nothing against healthful GU
riosity. May it have other Leyden
jars, and other electric batteries, anu
other voltaic piles, and other magnify
Eyeglasses, with which TO storm the
barred castles Of the natural world un-
til it shall surrender its last secret.
We thank God for the geological Gu
riosity of Professor Hitchcock, and the
mechanical curiosity of Liebig, and the
geological curiosity of Cuvier, and the
inventive curiosity of Edison; but we
must admit that unhealthful and irfeg-
ular inquisitiveness has rushed thou
sands and tens Of thousands into rum.
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 III
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, resurrecton--in
the discussion of these subjects hum
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 faisehood, build 1t an
other story high and two wings to ii.
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 Smailtalk.
Whoever hath an innuendo, whoever
hath a scandal, whoever hath a 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 well 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
has been no such perfection of woman
hood. You could not suggest an at
Effectiveness to the body or suggest any
refinement to the manner. You could
add no gracefulness to the gait, no lus-
tire to the eye, no sweetness to the
voice. A perfect God made her per-
feet woman, to be the companion of a
nature vibrated in accord with the
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.
waiiing.
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 APP
DenueQ 10 superior tuuCdllOu anu 10 the
refinements of social life! The accom-
plishments of Mary Queen of Scots
make her patronage of Darnley, the
profiigate, the more appalling. The
genius of Catharine III. of Russia only
sets forth in more powerful contrast
her unappeasable ambition. The trans
lations from the Greek and the Latin
by Elizabeth, and her wonderful quail
fications 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 or
superiority of education can in any
wise apologize for ill-temper, for An
oppressive spirit, for unkindness, for
any kind of sim Disobedience God
ward and transgression MAYNARD can
give no excuse. Accomplishment
heaven high is no apology for vice hell
deep.
My subject also impresses me with
the regal influence of woman. When
see Eve with this powerful influence
over Adam and over the generations
Al. fAll 10 IN M