The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-05-31

/
! man and his nephew. 1t is taken from
the pen of the erudite, Orestes a.
( Rrownson. whose writings, more than
/ any other convert to the Catholic faith,
! in America, tend to explain the real
doctrines of the church and their log
zeal bearing on the divinity of the
| Christian religion. The story opens
with a description of Uncle Jack.
! UNCLE JACK AND HIS NEPHEW,
OR CONVERSATIONS OF AN OLD
FOGY WITH 4 YOUNG AMERI-
| CAN.
Uncle Jack, as he is Familiarity called.
is a hale old man nearly seventy years
of age, though in appearance not much
| over fifty. His form is erect. his step
elastic, and his dark, thick hair has
as yet no sprinkling of gray. His dis
position is mild and gentle, and his
feelings are youthful and buoyant. He
| is not precisely a scholar, but he has
| travelled, mingled a good deal in So
| ciety, read some, observed much, and
reflected more. He lives now very
much retired, surrounded only by a
! few persons, of whom he is very fond
and with whom he delights to converse
on the various things which he has
seen, or of which he has read. He is
averse to all display of superior knowl-
edge, but whenever he does chance to
| open himself, you see that he is well
| informed on most topics, has cult
waited mind, and rich and varied eX-
perience.
His most intimate companion is a
young nephew, the only child of his
youngest and favorite sister. This
nephew was graduated at the early age
| of sixteen at the oldest and most re-
nowned of our American literary in
situations, with the first honors of his
class, and as the general favorite or
! his classmates. He subsequently spent
| five years at a celebrated German uni
| versity, under several famous German
professors, and afterwards visited Ber-
| lin, Stockholm, st. Petersburg, Vienna,
Venice, Constantinople, Jerusalem and
! Naples, spent six months at Rome and
| Florence, and year at Paris, whence
| he has returned home to take an ac-
tive part in the affairs of his own coun-
! try. He is a tall, finely proportioned
young man, with handsome features,
an open and manly countenance, and
modest and prepossesing manners. AS
| his father and mother are both dead,
| he for the present lives with his Uncle
Jack. He has won the heart of the
| kind old man, but does not fail, never
| theless, to give him much uneasiness.
| Uncle Jack is called an old fogy, and
| he certainly sees very little in modern
| notions and movements to approve.
| while his nephew is a genuine son OF
| the nineteenth century, having thor
oughly imbibed it's spirit and fully
adopted its ideas. He shares it's good
and it's bad qualities-is liberal, phil
anthropic, fond of action, Indifferent
| to religion, impatient of restraint, en-
| thusiastic for social regeneration and
| nd orria nv q sort
| of revolutionary mania. 1t may very
we'll be believed there are few topics
/ on which he and Uncle Jack do not
! take opposite views. Their conversa-
lions are long and frequent, and some
| times assume almost the form of elab-
crate discussions Minutes of some OF
these conversations have been fur
| niShed us, and a portion of them we
venture TO offer to our readers. They
| will be read, we doubt not, with eager
ness, and, perchance. with much pleas
ure and some profit, as they touch
subjects of deep interest at all times,
| but more especially at the present.
CONVERSATION I.
II like best, my dear Dick, the rule
| that leaves it to old men to counsel,
and young men to execute. Your young
| America, young Ireland, young France,
! y y
this rule, settle your plans, form your
resolutions, call upon US to help you
carry them into execution, and then
| denounce us as old fogies, or tell us
that our eyes are on the back side of
our heads, and that we dwell only
! among the tombs, if we refuse. Is it
| not possible that you youngsters, in
| your zeal for the rights of man, forget
| the rights of age?"
! Not Intentionally, my dear uncle;
| but forgive me if 1 am unable to un-
| derstand the rights of age to damp the
4 holy ardor and generous zeal of the
young. Those are noble words which
| Schiller puts into the mouth of the
| Marquis of Posa: Tell him, when he
| is old. not to forget the dreams of his
| youth Old age is sometimes cold and
| selfish, and feels too little interest in
| the amelioration of society and the
progress of civilization"
"And youth in it's rashness and in
experience often attempts what is inn
practicable, and INDUCES dreams which
no wise men could wish to see realized.
Age has no right to do wrong, and L
admit that there are old men who have
profited little even in the hard school of
! experience and who are devoured by
| an insane ambition or an Unsuitable
avarice long after they have outlived
every other passion, and when they
have one foot already in the grave.
Yet, old men for counsel and young
men for war, remainss as one of those
| precious maxims in which is condensed
| the wisdom of mankind. The young
| prince who, on coming to the throne,
dismisses the experienced counselors of
! his wise father and surrounds himself
with advisers of his own age, is gem
orally regarded as on the high road to
the ruin of himself, if not of his king
DOM Sometimes. indeed, we find a
marvellous young man, wise beyond his
| years; but ordinarily the wise head is
not found on young shoulders.
But, Uncle Jack, you forget that the
youth of our generation have advan-
tages which those of former genera
tons had not"
Il do not know that. The young
fancy every succeeding generation SUI
perior, as the old regard it as inferior,
| to it's predecessor. Both old and young
are probably wrong. If the young were
| right. the world would by this time
have made such progress that nothing
would need amending; and if the old
We're right, it would have become so
! bad that there would be no enduring
| it. The young count all changes inn
provements, and the old count them
deteriorations. Perhaps, if just bal
ance were struck, one generation would
be found not much superior, nor much
Inferior to another
'At any rate you will concede that
we better understand liberty and are
prepared to make more generous sac
rifices to obtain it,
Not in any worthy sense of the
word. Our age, perhaps, surpasses all
others in it's skill in using good words
in bad. or old words in new senses.
One not initiated into your philosophi-
cal, moral and political doctrines can
hardly understand Won even when Won