Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-03

fore J., Trough his reverence am vol
UntG-y submission he is ripe for liDer-
ty. So lorg aS there IS no vigorous
and SOVEREIGN inner law he is incapa-
BILE of breathing las air. for he will be
drunken with it, maddened. morally
slain. Tie man who guides his life
By inner law can no more live servile
to outward authority than can the full
grown bird live imprisoned in the egg
shell. But the man who has not yet at
tanned to governing himself can nO
more live under the law of liberty than
can the unfiedged bird live without its
protective covering. These things are
terribly simple. and the series Of DEM
Onstrations old and new that proves
them increases daily under our eyes.
And yet we are as far as ever from
understanding even the elements of
this most important law. In our de-
mocracy how many are there. great
and small. who know from having per-
sonally verified il, lived it and obeyed
1t, this truth without which people is
incapable of governing itself? Liberty?
1t is respect. Liberty? 1t is obedience
to the inner law. and this law is mel
Their the good pleasure of the mighty
nor the caprice of the crowd, but the
high and impersonal rule before which
those who govern are the first to bow
the head. Shall liberty. then. be pro-
scribed? No; but men must be made
capable and worthy of it; otherwise
public life becomes impossible. and the
nation, undisciplined and unrestrained,
goes on through license into the mex
tricable tangleS of demagogy.
When one passes in review the in
dividual causes that disturb and COM
plicate our social life, by whatever
names they are designated, and their
list would be long. they all lead back
to one general cause, which is this
the confusion of the secondary with
the essential. Material comfort, edu-
cation, liberty, the whole of civiliza
tion-these things constitute the frame
Of the picture but the frame no more
makes the picture than the frock the
monk or the uniform the soldier. Here
the picture is man, and man with
his most intimate posScssions-namely.
his conscience, his character and his
will. And while we have been elab
Grating and garnishing the frame, we
have forgotten. neglected, disigured.
the picture. Thus are we loaded with
external good. and miserable in spirit
ual life. We have in abundance that
which, If must be, we can go without,
and are infinitely poor in the one thing
needfui. And when the depth of our
being is stirred. with it's need of low
ing, aspiring. fulfilling its destiny, it
feels the anguish of one buried alive
is smothered under the mass of sec
ondary things that weigh it down and
deprive it of light and air.
We must search out. set free, re-
store to honor the true life. assign
things to their proper places and re-
member that the center OF human prog
ress is moral growth. What is n good
lamp? 1t is not the most elaborate,
tie finest wrought, that of the most
precious metal. \ good lamp is n
lamp that gives good Light. And so
also we are mel ard citizens, not by
reason of the number of our goods and
the pleasures we procure for ourselves,
not through our intellectual and arts
tic culture, nor because of the hOnOrs
and Independence we enjoy. but by
virtue Of the strength of our moral
fiber. And this is not Il truth Of today,
but Il truth of all times.
At no epoch have the exterior condi
tons which man has made for himself
by his industry or his knowledge been
able to exempt him from care for the
state of his inner life. The face of the
world alters around us. its intellectual
and material factors vary. and no one
can arrest these changes, whose sud
denness is sometimes not short of per-
ilous. But the important thing is that
at the ceuter Of shiftin- circumstance