The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-16
NOT A NATION OF DOORS
DIR. MILBURN EXCEPTs TO RABID
VIEWS OF PROF. NORTON.
Americans Lead the World in Real
Culture, In Spite of Many FaiIings
Church Debt Lifted.

ing from IL Timothy, ii, "a: "And the serv-
ant of the Lord must not strive but be
gentle unto all men" Mr. Milburn prefaced
his sermon with the following explanatory
remarks: Il read in the daily press the
other day this extraordinary statement in
regard to the fruits of our national civili-
cation: There are few gentlemen in the
United States. i feel with Sir Horace Wal
pole, that L could be proud of our country
IL 1t were not for my countrymen. -
This statement, which has been credited to
an Eastern college professor, furnished an
additional text for the sermon which fol-
lows. Ordinarily statement of this kind
would be swiftly read and just as swiftly
forgotten" said Mr.. Milburn. Ordinarily
1t would be unworthy of comment, but there
are circumstances that give to this criticism
or our people serious cogency and i'm
'portance, for it is spoken by a man who
stands at the very summit of culture-a
man or letters, a man of great academic
reputation, a man who is himself a gentle
man and who labored under no misconcep-
ton as to what constitutes a gentleman.
"Of course we shall labor under no mis-
understanding of the true conception of a
gentleman. This word does not connote
mere social prominence. although social
prominence is not by any means to be de-
spised; neither does it connote ancestry,
though a great ancestry is certainly
thing to be priced; neither does it connote a
mere superficial culture or external social
equipment. The word gentleman impli-
Gates in its true and reasonable definition
the completed, the polished, the refined
man; it duplicates reasonableness, holiness
of mind, dignity of manner, largeness of
uyi6n Of aolif uFn
attitude towards life, and especially in
curiousness regarding the affairs of other
people. These sublimated, refined, polished,
symmetrical, these lifted up into forms of
delicacy and beauty-this Is the definition
of and these are the qualities that const-
tute a gentleman.
rs Is true, then, that our national civliza-
ton fails in the production of this the
most perfect and consummate fruit of all
true and admirable human institutions?
The answer to this question is not so OBJ
vious, think, as it may specifically seem
to be- Our national pride will insist that
it is untrue, altogether untrue; that it is an
injustice to great people, an indignity to a
great nation. And no doubt it is in part un-
true In comparison with other nations it
is certainly untrue
He went on to say the people of this coun-
try are not behind England, Germany or
France.
Il think in proportion to our numbers"
said he, "there are more cultivated people
in the United States of America than you
will find in any European nation. And IL
this culture is not so manifest it is because
the practical working of our national in
stitutions keeps it more or less hidden"
The man of culture, he said, was more
in evidence in continental nations in power,
authority and places where he may be
easily visible and estimated than he is here
Talent and refinement tend, unfortunately,
to secrete themselves here, he said.
Democracy does not demand that they
shall come to the front, does not reward
them adequately enough, does not properly
appreciate their worth, but stih they are
existent and existent perhaps in greater
measure than they are elsewhere
More than that he said the spirit OF gem
tility attains a higher form OF expression
in America than in any other nation.
There is beauty, charm, grace ana loVll-
ness" he continued, "obserVant in an Eng
lishman of real and genuine culture; a Dig
nifty, repose and sweetness that make MIN
admiral BILE in the. ewes of thoughtful people.
One cannot but admire the character or a
man like Jowett the master OF Balloi, VINO
lately passed away; one cannot but admire
the character of man like Thomas Arnold,
the master of Rugby and the fatner or
Matthew Arnold one cannot but admire the
dignity, meekness, simplicity, sweetness OF
such a character as Arthur Stanley. These
men stand at the very summit or EngnSh
chivalry, beautiful and almost perfect en-
bodiments of the characteristics and the
qualities of the gentleman.
And yet as one studies the life of even the
purest aristocracy of England we find that
it is more or less unhappily limited; that
even its greatest men are provincial, that
even it's completest men are hampered with
mannerisms that even its most distin-
guished men are insular in their views. They
are provincially English in their speech,
in their manner, in their conceptions of life;
they are deficient In the air and mlen or
universally.
Fortunately however, our own civilza-
tion in so far as it utters itself in spirit
of grace and refinement is hereft of these
dwarfng limitations of insularity and pro-
vinciality. There is no more perfect gentle
man than an American gentleman, no more
perfect culture than American culture 70
more perfect English spoken than by an ed
ucated American, no more universal haDlt
of mind than that which characterizes the
thoroughly emancipated and polished Amer
Hence / think that this criticism which
has been put. into the, mouth. of one OF tie
most learned and distinguished of the
professors of Harvard University is
at east relatively unjust; 1t is unjust Jus
advantage to our country in compar-
ison with other countries in the matter
of national dignity and charm. 1t is further
unjust in that it fails to recognize the fact
that the most complete and consummate
expression of the ideal gentlemen has been
realized chiefly within the limits of our own
Nation
And yet there is no doubt some measure
of truth in this humoing criticism. For
when we note the relative nagpltECes of
the cultivated and rncultiv1ted areas of
American citizenship, when we compare the
relative areas occupied by the educated, the
polished, the sensitive. on the one side and
the unpublished the illiterate, the unsensi-
tive on the, other, then ! think we. must
hold that there is some truth in this I'M
happy criticism, that there are few gen.
tlemen in the United States. Not few as
compared with England. not few as COM
pared with Germany, not few as compared
with any other country, but yet few in COM
constitute our own Nation.
FIhe real truth is, think, that the general
spirit OF America, like the general spirit of
all nations. is spirit of mediocrity; there
is general lack of dignity, a general lack
of amenty, a general lack of personal
mold called the quality of sweet reason
ableness, a general lack of beauty, deli
cacy and refinement. And the evidences of
this unhappy fact are many. First we be-
hold an indication of deficiency of national
gentility in the Incorporate energy of the
American people. Americans naturally pride
themselves upon being an industrious peo-
pie, and they no doubt are industrious be-
yond all other people; they are intensely
energetic ardently vital. their industrial
life is full of action, nerve and DASH They
az knowledge no obstacle to he too gre /,
tent. they are an incarnation of the spirit
of energy and motion. And all this is quite
admirable in many ways, but IL has its
serious drawbacks For the best life of a
people cannot be realized in motion; the
highest life though ii involves action, is