Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-06-06
EMERSON I ! ON TIE r.
CONSERVATIVE.

Conservatism stands on mans con-
fessed limitations, reform on his In
disputable infDitude; conservatism ON
circumstance, liberalism on power.
One goes TO make an adrOit member of
the social frame, the other to postpone
all things to the man himself. Con-,
servatism is debonair and social; re-
form is individual and imperious. We
are reformers in spring and summer
in autumn and winter we stand by thaH
old-reforrners in the morning, con-
servers at night.
Reform is affirmative, conservatsms
negative. Conservatism goes for COM
fort, reform for truth. Conservatism Is.
more candid to behold another's worth,
reform more disposed to maintain and
increase it's own. Conservatism makes
no poetry, breathes no prayer, has No.
Invention; it is all memory. Reform
has no gratitude, no prudence, no hus-
bandry. 1t makes a great difference,
to your figure and to your thought
whether your foot is advancing or re-
ceding. Conservatism never puts thu.
foot forward. In the hour when tt
does that it is not establishment, hut
reform.
Conservatism tends to UNIVERSAL
seeming and treachery, believes In a.
negative fate, believes that mems tenn.
per governs them; that for me it avails
not to trust in principles; they WilE
fail me. I must bend little. 1t dis
trusts nature; it thinks there is a gen.
eral law without a particular applica->
tion-law for all that does not include
any one.
That which is best about consefve-
tism-that which, though it cannot be-
expressed in detail, inspires reverence.
in all-is the inevitable. There is tho
question not only what the conserve
tive says for himself, but why must has
say it? What insurmountable fact.
binds him to that side? Here is the,
fact which men call fate, and fate In
dread degrees, fate behind fate.
Moreover, so deep is the foundations
OF the existing social system that tt
leaves no one out Of it. We may b.
partial, but fate is not. All men have.
their root in it. You who quarrel with,
the arrangements of society, and ara.
willing to embroil all, and risk the In
| disputable good that exists for the.
chance Of better, live, move and have
your being In this, and your deeds con-
tradict your words every day, for az
you cannot jump from the ground
| without using the resistance of the
ground, nor put out the boat to sea.
without showing from the shore, nor at
tain liberty without rejecting obliga-~
ton, so you are under the necessity of
using the actual order Of things in Or
der to disuse it, to live by it while you
wish to take away it's life.
| As there is thus no pure refOrmeE,
80 it is to be considered that there In
no pure conservative. no man who
from the beginning to the end Of hia
| life maintains the defective instftn->
tons, but he who sets his face like 4,
flint against every novelty, when ap-
preached in the, confidence Of CONVEX
sation, in the presence of friendly and
generous persons, has also his gracious
and relenting motions and espouses for
| the time the cause of man, and, even
| If this be short lived emotion, yet tho
| remembrance of it in private hours
mitigates his selfshness and complt>
ance with custom.