The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-05-29

though he spoke long, never was there
sign of tagging interest.
He drew a graphic picture of the con-
dition of things in 1850, when the world
was still dark. Then man who sought
medical aid paid not for the compound
ing of prescription but instead he paid
a fee to some supernatural being to
mysteriously bring about a cure. Did a
man set sail upon a voyage, he made a
votive offering TO some deity to grant
auspicious breezes. Scholarship was not.
Ignorance was universal. What litera-
ture there was had nothing of harmony
or beauty in it. Science was absolutely
undeveloped. If a man had any new
ideas, he was burned at the stake. The
merchant and capitalist were under a
social bondage that declared the pro-
fligacy of the debtor honorable and the
saving of money wretched miserliness and
despise the charging of interest for
money as usury. How different was
everything by the year 1850. Then we
find medical science fairly we'll de-
veloped, navigation has ceased to be the
uncertain, with-caressed venture it used
to be- There were in 1850 thousands of
untitled young men in the various uni
verSities.
Much stress was laid by the speaker
upon the effectiveness of the use of gum
powder in gunnery as a means OF de-
livering men from the enthralling bond
age of feudalism into the freedom of good
government, it was possible for men to
use their brains in fighting, and contend
with their intellect, and not their claws.
The barons had been trampling down
the people. Now government began to
be for the people. Now the trained men
were put to drilling, and there was de-
veloped from this the standing army
Before this, all Europe had been a mill
tary camp. All were compelled to serve
some lord or baron. So gunpowder and
the standing army were the principal
means that brought about the new civili-
cation.
Printing was another means. The
speaker drew a picture of the miserable
little town of England, with its wretched
huts by the side of the one grand and
magnificent temple to its king. There is
another splendid building, but palmer.
Here one would be welcomed by the
kindly monks. They are the book makers
OF that time. Here DR.. Backus beauti-
fully described the infinite pains and
work put upon the vellum in the making
of those priceless gems of antiquity, the
Illuminated missals, the costliest product
of the industry of man.
There were several little inventors
that went to make UP the art of printing.
Chief of these was the inventor of paper,
which made possible the issuing of great
numbers of books Between 1875 and
1900 there were 10000 editions of books
tossed out to the hungry hands that
waited for them. at may have been
laundering chance" said DR.. Backus, but
| think it was by divine providence that
those BYZANTINE scholars were driven out
just at this time, and found their way to
Italy, where, with their familiarity with
the classical literature of the ancients
they interpreted the books that came into
the peoples hands, Some of them reach
cd England, too, so that the English
speaking people are now the champions
of conscience and the devotees of duty.
Thus the bullet and the book were the
great agencies. to lift the world out of
the dark ages.
by the freedom from tyranny, which
the bullet won and the awakening of the
spirit which came with the book. the
European of the 18th century, at the
peril of his soul ventured to doubt the
religious dogmas about geography.
Among some of the books that had got
ten into his hands were those of the
Mohammaden astronomers. Moreover,
the compass had been discovered. Co
lumbus discovery shattered the super
stitions of that day 1t gave the think
ers authority to think"
DR.. Backus pictured graphically the
efforts of Vasco de Cana and his crew
in searching along the west coast of
Africa for an eastern passage to the
Indies, as indicative of the bold spirit
that characterized the discoveries of the
age The final rounding of the Cape of
Good Hope and the discovery of the
eastern passage robbed the Italian cities
of the monopoly of the commerce of the
East.