Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-08-24
AN AGE OF MENTAL DEPRESSION.
An Evolutionary Process Similar to That
Attending PaRanism's Downfall.

Westminster Review: 1t is generally
admitted hat the disease Of mental
depression is a very common one at
the present time, especially with what
are usually called the educated
classes.
No doubt In all ages there have been
many people who suffered from de-
preston from various causes more or
less personal to themselves, but the
wide extent Of the disease In modern
times seems to suggest that there must
be some general cause or causes OF the
phenomenon. Mr.. Albert Chevalier's
well known song, "Wot's the good Of
anyfin? Wy, muffin! expresses a really
not state OF mind, and It's
popularity is probably due to It's stllk-
ing a sympathetic chord In the breast
Of the hearers.
The moral and intellectual confusion
is naturally most keenly felt by The
finest minds. People who live by rule
Of thumb, or by accepting the onVen
tional ideas OF their %neighbors, and
who never think things out for them
selves, are hardly aware OF the extent
Of the collapse Of the traditional creed.
1t is only the intellectual people who
are troubled.
without going into theological quns-
tons, few competent authorities will
be disposed to deny hat a great deal
Of Christian theology, which was once
firmly believed and made the basis Of
Christian ethics, is now no longer EN-
able. The dropping of a few theol0-
gical articles would perhaps matter lit
tie, If we could be sure where we
would stop, and If 1t could be shown
that the overthrow of the theological
structure Of Christianity would roc eff
feet it's moral authority. That, how
ever, is just what cannot be shown.
The ethical authority OF a religion can
hardly survive the theology which con-
stitutes to so great an extent the re-
ligion itself-whlch is. at any rate, the
skeleton or framework upon which the
religion Is built. The Christian religion
annot afford to be brought down to
the level of that Of Confucius, which is
simply a collection of moral apothegms
without n ultimate authority beyond
their inherent merits.
The authority Of Christian ethics
must necessarily stand or fall with the
truth Of Christian theology. The most
logical minds canno help seeing this
and appreciating the consequent chaos
In ethics.
The present age bears a considerable
resemblance to the declining days Of
paganism. when the philosophers were
undermining the old religion with their
criticism and the new religion was
struggling into life. While Christian
ity is not perhaps being destroyed as
paganism was destroyed, 1t is I'M
doubtedly going through a very crit
ical evolutionary phase, and 1t seems
inevitable that 1t will issue from the
ordeal a very different kind of re-
ligion from what 1t was, say, a century
ago.
Such ages of transition are frequent
ly periods of melancholy. Mems minds
are unsettled, and there is a general
spirit of uneasiness abroad. When the
Roman empire was under the govern
ment Of the Antonines, although the
period was one Of great material pros
perity Dust like our own Victorian
epoch in that respect), 1t was yet
tinged with a kind of intellectual sad
ness.