The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-02
in GLASS HOUSES.
Rev. Bradley Gilman
Says Americans
Live in Them.
FRANCE GIVES US WARNING.
Splendid Lecture Before
the Society Of
Antiquity.
FRANCE GIVES US WARNING.

"Our churches are descending to a
low and shameful level of competition
with lecture bureaus. Dual households
are growing among us rapidly, while
our divorce laws are derided even by
the French. We have been guilty of
an act of fickleness never surpassed
by Rome or France"
These words were spoken by Rev.
Bradley Gilman of Springfield, in the
course OF a scholarly lecture at the So
ciety of Antiquity, last night. The
hall was well filled with members and
their friends, and after the lecture, a
reception was rendered Mr.. Gilman.
Mrs. Gilman, who was expected, did not
come, 10 the disappointment of her
Worcester friends.
France as a warning to the United
States was the subject upon which
Mr.. Gilman spoke He held the closest
attention of his hearers, and said in
part:
when the guileless Gil Bias took the
bishop of Granada at his word and told
him that his sermons indicated the APP
proach of old age, the prelate received
the criticism with great wrath; so hard
is it for old age to recognize itself to
see itself as others see it! For sold
age can no more be felt by the aged
person than one can feel himself white
or physician. The muscles and lig
aments act through the nerves, and
indirectly tell him that he is old
but they can do so only indirectly, by
the symptoms. Beside the physical
signs of old age, which are familiar
to you, there are the mental indica-
tions Putting aside with a smile the
clever skit that a man is no older
than he feels, a woman no Older than
she looks, we may note as mental
signs of age, extreme caution, garrul-
ity petulance, and an undue proportion
of emotion, displayed either by an ex-
cessive amount of feeling or else by
inability to control the emotions In
this respect, old age
RESEMBLES CHILDHOOD.
closely. There is, too, tendency for
age to sharpen and accentuate the
prominent characteristics, the satur-
nine person becoming more saturnine,
the melancholy person more melancho-
ly, but under this intensifying of the
nature is present the increased emo
tionalism.
so much for the physical indications
of senility. In the second place, the
laws of growth, health and decline APP
ply to nations as well as to individuals.
Gothic, Lachesio and Atrapos preside
not more over the destinies of individ
uals than of nations, but the modern
historian is not blinded by the poetry
of Atrapos' shears, for he knows that
certain causes have certain effects;
that there is not definite duration to
life, but men die generally before they
need to die, and that nations, too, may
die before their time, not by the
| processes of nature, but either through
premature senility or disease; or, like
the brutes, from violence. The fate of
Persia or Greece, or Rome is not to be
read in
WRITING ON THE WALL,
but in certain causes. The analogy
between the individual and the nation
| is perfect; one can diagnose the condi-
ton of the latter as well as of the
former.
"The old age of both individuals and
nations is accompanied by state Of
extraordinary nervous agitation" con-
tinued the speaker. I'm the case of
Persia, of Athens, of Rome, the fall
was due to excessive, uncontrolled,
emotional life. Christianity may shud-
| der at the slaughters of Nero, but the
historian knows that these were made
the Roman people.
| There are nations now that are be-
| ginning to die as these nations died.
! OF course, / mean the Latin nations
! France especially. France has reached
| her zenith of greatness and is entering
| upon the state of decline. In art and
| literature, in science and philosophy
| ana religion the world will ever owe
| her a debt of gratitude, but this does
M conceal h1f ba
shows signs of fast approaching old
| age. The history of France proves that
| time has accentuated the primitive
| Gallo nature of extreme nervous
IRRITABILITY THAT TACITUs ,
| noted. When life was less strenuous,
this quality was not drawn upon more
| severely than it could bear, and the
| French were sturdy, vivacious peo-
| pie while those of less nervous tenn
permanent appeared stolid and lethargic.
| The fierce pressure of today finds in
| the latter a reserve of power that is
not exhausted, while the excitable
nature of the French is Slapped by it,
| France is dominated by her emotions
| to an abnormal degree; her fate is
| sealed. When Jules Faure faced Bis
marck after the Franco-Prussian war,
| he burst into tears The act was due
| not so much to individual as to racial
! emotion, and it awakened no surprise
| in the French nation. Note the open,
| innocent display of emotionalism in
| Paris when friends meet or part. Note
| the indolent epicureanism of the mod
| ern Partisan in his enjoyment of his
| dinner, for instance. Note the differ
ence between him and the Englishman
| in the matter of sports and games
Note, furthermore, the recent intro
| duction into parts of France of the bull
| fight, a sign that the jaded nerves of
the people will respond to only the
| most violent and brutal stimulus
Noteworthy, too, is the tendency
| of the French to exact entertainment
| from things that are not regarded by
! other nations as fit subjects for merri-
| ment. Agnoticism, for instance, which
| in England and Germany are serious,
even sad, offers the Frenchman mate
| rial for joke, and so does municipal
and national politics.
LAS for social immortality, the say
| ing of Matthew Arnold twenty years
| ago has been neither forgiven by the
people of whom it was written nor for
| gotten by those for whom it was writ
! ten, The French make a goddess of
lubricity' The French call the English
hypocrites in the matter of sexual
vice. but the fact that in France inn
| purity goes unconscious, unashamed,
| unreSTeIteu, is the uedullSSl IdcI Oh all.
| The Englishman may sin, but at least
he conceals his offense. Hypocricy is
the tribute vice pays to virtue. Eng
land keeps her ideas, and ideals are
the only means of reformation.
Again, the French love of titles and
decorations may be classed with their
love of shams, falsities, glittering un-
realities, superficialities In our own
| time we have seen how the Gallo ear
is caught and the Gal'ic heart satisfied
by the words glory. honor OF course
l refer to the Dreyfus trial. Why, the