The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-12-02

~ASS utSVS VI WuUtSSSX NATURE 61CCk g O'CLOCK
p. m. ia Thursday.
"EACroRs IN THE WORLD's FRO
GREsS.o
The lecture given by DR.. Ka-
than at TIE Nj. E, Church last
Sabbath evening. on Factors in
the Worlds Progress, vas we'll
attended, and The Enterprise
takes pleasure in presenting to
readers short synopsis Of the
address, In mentioning the var
led factors he touched upon CON-
merce, literature, architecture,
music, painting, war and Chris
tia 1ity, as among the great forces
In the worlds Development
In speaking of commerce, Re
said it was as old as history it,
self, citing as proof the purchase
of the field OF Ephron by Abra-
ham for 400 shekels of silver, and
the sale of Joseph by his breth
rem to the 1shmaelites bearing
spices, balm and myrrh to Egypt.
He also mentioned the fact that
the Phoenicians of Tyre and ST.
don received ivory and corn from
the Nile, and oils, silks and dyes
from western Asia; and that Ar
abs as ancient as the descendants
of 1shnael and Esau, were for
eign traders and merchants. He
showed how commerce had fixed
the foundation OF great cities. as
London on the Thames cities on
the Severn and the Clyde, on the
Euphrates, the Nile and the
Gauges, and gave as a striking
illustration the establishment, by
commerce, of Boston and New
York in those magnificent har
bors, and Chicago on the lakes.
now the greatest grain and stock
market of the world. By way of
contrast he mentioned China, a
non commercial people having
made no progress since the days
of Confuscius; also the defeat of
the Persian hosts under Xerxes
10y Greece, small but CONNER
cial people. He said that when
Alexander wept, while his horse
was drinking at the river Indus,
he had no knowledge that there
was such country as China, for
at that time mo vessel had bray.
ed the Indian ocean, nor passed
round Cape CONFORM into the
bay OF Bengal"
He said that invention was to
great extent the outgrowt4a of
commerce, and that discovery
owed nearly everything to it,, as
commerce had discovered the
Canary Isles in 1880 and sighted
the Azores in 1881, and under it's
inspiration Columbus touched
San Salvador, Jamaica, Puerto
Rico, the isthmus of Darien; and
saw the waters of the Orinoco.
The second factor discussed
was literature, which the speaker
said implied an extensive civil
cation. He mentioned the mag
nifcence of the Ptolmies as only
equaled by her literature. He
said the glory of Alexandria was
her two great libraries, one con
tainlng 400, 900 volumes and the
other 100000 volumes, both de-
stroyed by Caesar, who set fire
to the fleet that lay in her har-
Dor, the flames accidentally ex-
sending to the city aud destroy
ing it's literature. He showed
the retrogression of the world
during the dark ages, when liter
allure was largely destroyed or
suppressed. He said France was
a highly civilized country. for
she had more literature than any
other country in the world, the
National library of Paris contain.
ing 2, 200, 900 vols. That Germany
was the home Of great libraries,
ard Berlin. Munidh and Dresden
were literary headquarters, out
of which went Slererinacher and
Luther and Melancthon; that
Vienna has 100 libraries, and that
st. Petersburg is under the influ-
ence of a library of 100000
printed vols, while the u. S. has
1900 public libraries thrown op-
en- to the reading world.
Mr.. Kathan then asked if we
could spare our literature, He
said, let US take away a single
branch, as poetry. Let US take
Virgil and Horace from the Ro-
mans, Homer from the Grecians,
Cl. m