The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1901-12-13

All white. and to the eternal dawn Inclined, :
Thou art not for thysclf but for mankind.
And to despair of thee were to despair
OF man, of mans high destiny. of God,
OF thee should man despair. the journey trod
Upward, through unknown cons. stair on stair
BY this our race. with bleeding feet and slow. |
We're but the pathway to a darker woe
Than yet was visioned by the heavy heart
OF prophet. To despair of thee. All. no,
For thou myself art Hope: Hope of tn" World
thou art.
III. THANK GOD FOR \ BETTER MAN
1t were cause for Waiing and lamcn
tation and not for praises and jubila-
ton if we were compelled to chronicle
along with our "almost appalling"
material prosperity Il coincidcnt de-
generation Of American manhood, for
Goldsmith was right when he said:
Ill fares the land to hasttninS ills prey.
Where wealth accumuiatr> and men decay"
J To be sure we cannot bindly shut our
eyes to the still present and too prcva-
| lent evidences of fraud. SeltiShncsS and
mcanncSS. There remain yet some
I Benedict ArnoldS and Aaron BurrS
among us-chcap opportunists who
would sacrifice principles, if they had
any, the moment Policy, with cunning
shrcwlnc>S, suggested hat it would We
personally advantageous.
But, taking our American people all
in all, it is certainly an improved and
improving order of beings. Our
churches, our schools and colleges. and,
to Il large degree, our press, have been
powerfully, though unOStcntatiOusly.
infusing magnificent young blood into
the republic blood that is strongly
surcharged with the oxygen of high
civic ideals and sterling public recti-
tude.
think we are rapidly attaining what
may be called the New PuritaniSm.
After all that may be said against
them has been said, and much may be
truthfully said in that direction, it
must be admitted that this nation is
what it is to-day in moral earnestncss
and national virtue, in very large
measure because of the sturdy, God
fearing, Bible-reading Pilgrims and
Puritans who formed so important an
element in the sources of our national
life. Far more beneficial has the in
tluence been of those ascetic. rigidly
and, even narrowly. ScrupulOus New
England pioneers, blue laws and all,
in the development of American life
, than the free and easy spirit of the
Cavaliers whose love of ease naturally
turned them from the barren shores of
Massachusetts to the more hoSpitable
Southern cline. Even SO did the
; Puritan Cromwell, warts and all, bless
England more than the prolligato
, Charles in whose palace at Whitehall
7 debaucherieS unparalleled on Engli
soil were perpetrated behind the thin
disguise Of French ceremoniousness
and royal prerogativcS
Yes, they were austcrc and iiintlke,
those original New Englanders. They
} had to be. The storms. the bleak
winters, the famines and other hard
ships developed by force and stress
of circumstances the ruggcdness
OF their souls. \ Southern orator once
5 said in deriSiOn he had heard that the
| Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock
' but that he had often wished Plymouth
t Rock had landed on them. Well, wher
. you contemplate those characters of
=. Colonial days and see the granite col
I umnS that took the place in theil
S anatOmicS which spinal columns take
| in most mems anatomicS, you may
S think that the wish of the SarcaSt il
l orator was gratitied long before he ex
| pressed it and that that historic
: boulder at Plymouth, or some othel
: rock, did land on or in them. Pcrhap!
e this would explain a tenacious phrase
G that is decidedly New Englandese-
l ''throwing rocks'' for ''throwins
1 stones" We must not, however, get
1 off the main track On Il pathological
e switch.
S Let me say this much, just as Ply
4 mouth Rock and the other rocks along
! the coast were put there by the God O.
Nature to keep back the ravcnou.
G waves of the OmniverOuS sea. sayin!
e to them in superb defiance, thus ia
i ana III l'tl Tiki, 81 lllt COi VI -NdtlpIlS
Q it seems to me, put those rocks 0
e moral fcarleSSncSS and StcadfaStncS:
into the very constitution of the Puri
:, tan character that they might, like al
G an imprcgnable cOaSt-line, successful,
/ resist the inSOlcnt entertainments O
y European intidelity, vice and tyranny
l. The gay Cavalier became enfccbleo
4 by the harvest of his frivolitieS ant
o lax morality, cnerVated by the toe
e steady warmth of Southern skies, ant
@ eMaSculatod Of The highest manhood
by the blight of slavery with which HI
!, StuDiornly insisted on cUrsing lin!Scl
S and his postcrity.
O Now neither of these original set
e tiers, gay Cavalier nor stern Puritan
. was entirely symmetrical in his man
G hood. The DOwn-SUll1h man had gen
{ tility and generosity bat lacked gri
II and gimltiun. The Down East nal
y had granite and gravity but lacked
n fycntlcncSs and geniaitN. This on,
had the hard. DUnv skeleton which j.
Is the abiding framework OF manhood
the former had the flesh and ilpot
;. which makes him lowing and lOV;tblc
s ae& hNY