Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-08-22

great cities. One day an officer OF the
law comes to him ana says: This kind
| of household is contrary to our laws.
! You have seven wives too many" But
the oriental replies: Il have taken out
naturalization papers. and | am a free
| citizen. | can live as | choose" But
the officer answers: NO; you are under
legal restrictions. If you continue to
violate them we shall send you to pris.
on as bigamist.'
The land of the free? Yes, If you
obey our laws. but not otherwise You
are free to do as you will in your own
home-that is, If you do not abuse your
offspring. If you do. as an agent for
the Society For the Prevention of Cruel
| ty to Children | can step in and take
your children away from you The
land of the free? Yes, but YOU dare
not sell to my children obscene pic
lures, for if you do l can make you
wear convict's stripes The land of
the free? Yes, it is the land of the
free if you do not try to forcibly
| enter my home, or rob my store, or re-
! fuse to pay your taxes or to go to war
as an American soldier when you are
drafted, or to serve in the jury box
when you are impaneled You are
free, in a social sense, only when your
| liberties do not conflict with the equal
! liberties of some one else.
Not only does man have his physical
| limitations and social limitations. but
also his mental limitations. AS the
United States government first has its
| national legislature, and then this ma
! tional form of government is subdivid-
ed into states, and these states into
counties, and these counties into town
ships, SO l find the great human race
is divided and subdivided and again
redivided in reference to its limitations.
| And in no way can you trace these
limitations more than in the mental
makeup of the individual.
Educational Limitations.
Under the old educational system ev-
cry Ameacan college used to exact a
| hidebound course. The young man
who was candidate for the B. A. de
/ gree had to take just 50 much of mathe-
matics, so much Of languages, SO much
| of the Sciences so much of philosophy,
so much of this and that and the other
thing But now our college systems
| have become broadened. The elective
| system" is in vogue Great educational
| leaders have come to the logical and
right conclusion that what is meat for
one brain may be poison for another
| Charles Sumner was one of the great
est men America ever produced, but it
was simply an imposSibility for
Charles Sumner to grasp mathematics.
AS a result of this deficiency Sumner,
one of the greatest of all Nassa-
| chusettS' scholars, was unable to grad
uate from Harvard college. When my
| father graduated from college Howard
Crosby, then a professor in the New
York university, declared he was the
| finest student of "belles lettres" who
| had ever studied within the walls of
New YOrks great institution of learn
ing. But, though my father was strong
| in certain studies, he was very weak
! in others. Among his weaknesses was
| his inability to grasp foreign tongue.
| For years he wanted to go forth, as
did my Uncle John, as missionary to
foreign lands. He was, however, de-
tered from this purpose by the Ito him)
almost insurmountable difficulty Of be-
coming proficient in a foreign Ian
guage.
Sometimes there is born a child, as
was Edmund Clarence Stedman, with
brain of myriad possibilities. AS an
American poet he treads closely upon
the heels of our greatest poets. Yet
Stedman the poet is also Stedman the
Wall street banker, as he was also Sted-
man the famous war correspondent.
But such minds as that of Edmund
: Clarence Stedman are the rare eXcep-
lions. For the most part God gives to
man but one first class talent and not
ten. The reason Theodore Parker be-
came the great power he was in his day
was because, as he said: Everything
ever saw or did l ground up into the
mental grist for my sermons. 1 was
born preacher and can do nothing else
but preach" When q. S. Grant drew
his sword as commander Of the Ameri-
can armies, he carved out for himself
one of the greatest names in American
history, but U. S. Grant made failure
| at everything on earth he ever attempt
ed except the vocation Of a soldier.
Many a soldier has been a failure as a
statesman; many a statesman has
proved his utter incapacity when he
tried to command an army.
Beecher and His Father.
The limitations of brain power can be
we'll illustrated by comparing the men,
tai makeup of Henry Ward Beecher
with that of his illustrious father, Ly-
man Beecher, one of the greatest eccle-
4 siastical leaders Of his day. The ia
nous pastor of Plymouth pulpit was in
every sense prose poet He spoke, he
thought, he lived, in symbol and pictur-
esque verbiage The songs Of the birds,
the beautiful wardrobes of the flowers,
the autumnal sunsets, the beehives, the
snow banks, the murmuring brooks-all
had t0 him q message LYMAN Boecher