The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-01-17
KNOWLEDGE AND CIVILIZATION.
Zion. 4. b. Reed In Saturday Evening
post.)

hNoWL EDOk AMI OlVAblo y AASNs
Zion. 4. b. Reed In Saturday Evening
Post.)
The proposition is that increase of
knowledge is increase OF civilization
some think that morality and religion
play no small part In the progress Of the
world. 10 me IL seems that morality
and religion are themselves indebted to
knowledge for their ripenipg. When We
speak OF morality and religion we do not
mean rules and tsnets. comments and
texts, but practical actions of men. So
far as definition and exhortation 60,
morality and religion havs been fixed
for many years. so far az their practical
control over mems deeds are concerned,
they vary from age to age.
As the world grows In knowledge,
practical morality grows. AS the world
softens, religion softens. What have re-
ligion and morality done with war; Wsr
10 beastly barbarism. 1t is only muir
der on q large scale with ranked bat
talions and pomp and circumstance.
Eighteen Christian centuries have not
abolished 1t. The wars which ended IN
the Dutcn republic were religious wars
Men fought for their religions When .
ovn was taken the horrors were such
that they cannot today be put on paper.
Though the increase OF knowledge has
not yet abolished war, though IL would
be rash to say that no wars today nre
Unsuitable, yet wars are not what they
were. Fort Pillow wss mild massacre
compared with the inoarrate hendishress
which possessed the soldiers In the Meth
erlsnds. And yet the Indignation OF the
whole world IVES aroused about Fort Pil-
low, and / my self saw the commander In
that wickedness, whose brazen tongue
hau trippingly uttsrsd not one but many
oratinns on conciliation and brotheTly
love. falter In a set volunteered defence
under the spoken Indignation Of one
party and the Unsurpassed disgust OF
the other.
what, then, has ameliorated war; Per.
haps IL will aid us to know how 1t has
been ameliorstsd. War no longer de-
molishas cities. Private property is ga
cred. No pillaRe IL permitted. But Tor
the refusal of the United States no pri-
watering would have bsen allowed long
before the conferences at The Hague and
the com merce of mankind would have
safely moved over the seas. France and
England have great commerce and great
navies, and object TO privateering. his
Unitet States has the same religion, but
not the same navies, and thought 1t
would rather Issue letters OF marque.
Interest and not N orality seem to act.
War Ia made more and more to respect
material interests. Men have found by
experimentation Is smother name for
knowledge-that 1t does not pay In the
long run to destroy property, and here.
after they will find out that 1t does not
pay to destroy life. War Is dying out be-
cause men have something else to do.
They are engaged In trade, In en- tsrprises
which war intsrferes with.
Life 10 getting every day to be better
worth living. Hence men do not want
to lose 1t. When the life of men, like the
life of Australians Disgers, was only an
alienation Of starving and eating to
such replstion as made tasm roll on the
ground IN agonies Of surfeit, man must
nave been particular who cared whether
there was war or not. Bot when the In
tsrests OF all nations get SO universally
Interwoven with the warp and wool OF
trade that the knowledge OF its desasta-
lions will be brought home to all men
war will cease. But the proclamation
that there shall be no more war " Ill come
from the tradesman and not from the
preacher.
Our idea, then, Is that improvement In
morality and religion, like improvement
In government, Is part and parcel OF DIV
ilization and results from the same cause.
II not from the same cause, whence
religion of this century Is better than the
eligion when burned men for opinions.
believed In ghosts and witches. led John
Rogers TO the stake and put John Bun
van into Bedford jail. The difference is
mar ked and wide. Between those days
and these there have bsen no new mira
Giles, no new revelations. Men are not
more fervsnt; rather less so. Religion
en- crosses mems minds less rather than
more. Nevertheless, the statesman,
though still not without guile. lies
less. seldom murders, loves
liberty more and power less.
Mercantile morality is higher, at
tornays pettifog less and help justice
more, and the time is coming when all
men win realize, as some do now, that
Mr.. John Rand paid William Pitt Fes-
sender at his death u finer compliment
when he said that ''he won every cause
he ought to have won" than II he had
said he won every cause Ii you say that
preaching religion and teaching morality
have done this. then will you tell US why
the higher life We live now was not soon-
er prear sd and taught. and II sooner
preached and taught, why not sooner
practioedr The plain answer Ia that un-
til the world knew as much as 1t does
now it was not possible to prea,h or to