The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-09-30
oecllnf oe N REAL DANGER threatens us. It invades the church,
rms mai. ~ ,permeates the state, and has fastened itself upon

Pc ss;' ':t. e. Am REAL ".ssa q: ''.:s: ..s 3 "a. s.ss,ss' ' !: s': ss:s
the individual: a lepmsy consuming the life of religion; a cancer stretching
its cots and tendrIs around the vtals Of liberty; a paralysis that touches
the soul. We speak Of materahsm in its broadcast sense. The materiaism
that brushes the ideal; turns the index finger downward, and snees at the
higher manifestations Of thought, by the leverage OF which the world Is ele.
waited: that swart and malignant influence that destroys the spirit while 1T
enlarges the letter. 10 church 1t magnifes the import of FORMS rites and
ritual while the widow smves and the orphan cries for food and raiment.
Charity is at a discount, and the faith which is 50 loudly proclaimed by the
lips, finds N responsive echo in the deep recesses of the SOU. 81
The truth is-and to this fact all history bears testimony when the
ideal denarts the glory life disappears. This is true OF nations. Of rlig.
ions, Of individuals. So long a. the ideal hbMed before the Roman mind
and haunted her public heart she grew in majesty and greatness. until the
invisible mistress Of the world turned her eye downward and, losing sight Of
the bright angel from whose inspiration she had grown great, gave herself
up to the material; preferrng to wallow in sensuality and gluttony to tread
ing the heights where glory dwet and progress pointed; then Rome fell,
never to rise again.
That religious belief which in its infancy sank so deeply into the heart
Of Israel. that IA small handful Of people we're held together rs one family.
and for centuries drove back the invading foe, at last lost the spirit which
made it potent, ST that when the great Nazarene entered the Holy City He
found a religion essentially MATERIAL body without a soul. The ideaf had
vanished. and in bitterness Of heart we hear Him exchim, "Woe unto you
Scribes and pharisees, hipocrites, fol- yc devour widows houses, and for
pre,ense make long prayers We pay mint anise, and cumm'n' but omit
the weghtier matter Of the law, judgment, mercy and faith; yc are like unto
whited scpuchres which, indeed. appear beautiful without but are within
full Of dead mems bones. ~ Such are the yoarns of religion who cast of
the spirit, but hold fast to the letter, who cling to the shell, but heed not
the flight Of the bird.
What was true more than eighteen centuries ago is growing more pin.
fully palpabe today; the ideal is vanishing. In the halls of state the light
is going out before the sygian miasma that is rapidly spreading. The
splendid republic founded by our greatsouled fathers, intended to guarantee
to generations then unborn the widest and breadest liberty, is now yielding
her richest treasures to strong trust combinations, societies and monopoies,
who, under the guisc of public good, are binding the people hand and foot,
changing a republic OF liberty into 4 putNcratic despoism, From the heart
and soul Of our statesmen that faith in the people and loyalty to the ideal
that made the infant republic SO grand, seem to be departing before the
presence of trusts monopolies, and the money-ending fraternity. '"'
SO also is the individual American yielding to the pressure of the age.
The race for gold, the growth of wealth, the advent of ease and luxury, are
turning the minds Of thousands from the lofty negion Of the soullife, from
where dwell the ideal, the beautiful. and the true, to the base region OF ap:
petite, passion and sensualty.
1t $ a frightful thing for the coronal region of the human brain to be.
come subject to the basilar; then the good in man is silenced, and the beast
controls his being; the soul and the light Of the higher life succumb to the
appetite of the material body. Probably no one ever depicted this struggle
between the ideal and the material human beings Sc strikingy as Victor
Hugo, in the following remarkable language, which, though often more
forcible than elegant, Is pregnant with timely truths:
1.-The belly is to humanity a formidable weight; it breaks at every mo-.
ment the equilibrium between the soul and body. 1t fills history; it is re.
sponsible for nearly all crimes; it is the matrix of all vices. 1t is the belly,
that by righteousness makes the sultan. and by drunkenness the car; that
it is that shows Tarquin to the bed Of Lucrecc. 1t is the belly which coun.
sells the ruined lherune, Caesar, the passage of the Euhcon. To pass the
Rubron, how well that pays our debts. To pass the Rubicon, how readily.
that throws women into your arms! What good dinners afterwards! The
appetite debauches the intellect. Voluptuousncss replaces will. At start
rcel. There is a distinction between being fuddled and being dead drunk.
Then the revel degenerates into guzzhng. Man becomes a barrel; thought
is drowned in an inner dcuge of cloudy notions; conscience submerged, caa,
not warmth the drunken soul. EQUALIZATION is consumated; it, is not even
any longer cynical, it is empty and scottish. niogencs Disappeared; there re-
mains but the tub. Beginning with Acibades, we end with Trimalchio;'
and the thing is complete: nothing is eft. neither dignity, nor shame uor
honor or virtue, nor wit-crude animal qualification, thorough impurity.
Thought is dissolved in safety; carnal gorging absorl~ everything; nothing
survives of the grand sovereign creature inhabited by the soul; the belly
pass the expresion) eats the man. Such is the final state of all societies
where the ideal is eclipsed' This passes for prosperity, and gets the name
of growth. Sometimes even philosophers heedesIy further this degrcda.
ton by inserting in their doctrines the matcriansm which is in mems con-
sciences This sinking Of man to the level of the human beast is a great
calamity. Its first fruit is the turpitude visible at the summit Of all pro.
fesions; the vcnal judge, the simoniacal priest, the hirenng SOLDIER
The great Frenchman has not Overdrawn the picture, and the end hint.
ed at has been emphasized ten thousand times in the wrecks that strew the
highway Of the historic past.
Art, poetry and music wait upon the ideal; hope, truth, justice and
love arc her landmarks; she is the inspiration of the soul that ever ponts to
nObler heights, and whispers Of the boundlcss possibilities that lie before q
broad, liberal mind who has strength to subduc the base and courage to pre-
serve, who thirsts fol a grander manhood md a lofter civilization.
II the republic Isl to be redeemed: II the church is to regain her pristine
glory; II the individual is to become Il splendid type of civilization, the spr.
it o IA cloud and gross materalism that has of late grown great at the e.
pense OF the soul life must be driven back, and the ideal -uminous tyne OF
ever.moving progress, emblem Of all that is hottest, wkcst, and nobhst In
the aspirations OF man-musto once again sway the heart and move the mind.
b. q. FLOWER, in the New Times.