The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-26


compelled by law or by general custom
to spend Sunday in way not agreeable
to him. Mr.. Gannett is a sincere and
courageous man, of high character,
whose personal preference is for relig-
ious use Of the day; but he is true to the
logic of his liberal" creed.
1t is worth the while of Mr.. Gannett
to consider where every community that
has made any gains from the savage
state and organized them into law and
usage. would be il it adopted his philos-
ophy. A civilized state is not one in
which every member is at liberty to do
with himself what seems good in
his own eyes. 1t is an order of rela-
tions and OF conduct instituted by
the best citizens, on the basis of the ex-
perience Of the race. for the common
welfare. 1t is more or less imperfect, of
course. it may be unequal and in places
tyrannical. For it is not easy to deter
mine the proper ratio of individual free
dom to instituted authority. But un-
less the gains made in behalf of decency,
order and thrift, were consolidated and
conserved by authority, the lawless and
lovers of pleasure would speedily make
an end of civil society. Things gained
slowly and at immense cost may be
turned to dust and ashes in an hour.
THE crowned embodiment Of the
commonplace" is the Philistines charac-
terization of Victoria, by grace of God
queen of Great Britain and Empress of
India" the sixtieth anniversary of whose
unexampled reign is celebrated this
week. There is touch of truth in the
satire of the organ of the Philistines-an
edge of fact that cuts as you handle it.
much like the altogether similar quality
in the saucy Saturday Review. Victoria
was never known to do or say brilliant
thing. And when one without remark
able gifts of any kind. holds, by the ac-
cident of birth, position of high honor
and great influence, the temptation to
satirize the phenomenon is too strong
for the virtue of Philistines. But per-
haps Victoria has served her country
and her age better by being common
place, steady and trusty, than che could
have served them by being brilliant.
Washington was called. THAT old numb
SKULL" by John Adams.
Two papers of more than passing
interest and value are evoked by the In
dependent, on occasion of the Queens
anniversary. In one, Principal Fairbairn
of Oxford, passes in review Religious
Thought in the Victorian Era; in the
other, Prof. Simon Newcomb supplies
sketch of science for the same period.
DIR. Fairtairn traces the development of
religious and philosophical thought in
Great Britain during the sixty years in
the large and lurid way for which he is
distinguished. He concludes at the end
of the next century churches may be
fewer but Christianity will be larger. No
single generalization will give the scope
of Prof. Newcomb's paper. He recog-
nizes the bewildering character of the
work of 80 many specialists who do not
know what their fellow investigators are
doing nor understand what they tell;
but he expects the present confusion of
scientific tongues to be succeeded by
few comprehensive principles and SIM
pier nomenclature.
The little book of DR.. HI. Schell, of
Wurzburg, on Catholicism as the Prin-
ciple of Progress" is on its way, without
doubt, to place in the index expurga-
torium. A Catholic professor may have
light. but not liberty to let it shine as in
this volume. 1t is. however, precisely
the kind Of book which the pope and his
clergy should wish to have circulated
among Catholics. 1t points out the true
reasons for the comparatively insignifi-
cant influence which the largest and
most powerful religious organization in
the world mas on the thought of the
time and on the course of human prog
ress. at is astern of all the craft that
float the intellectual sea-" because it ex-
purgates instead Of appropriates new
knowledge.
CANTON THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.