The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-31

sense of the distinction of his intellect
and character and the value of his
services to his country" He was
indeed a writer of high qualities, was
a man of much greatness, and, as it
is claimed Justly for him, was one
of the most impartial and philosophi-
cal historians of the last century, and
for that matter it may be more justly
and broadly stated, that he was this
including all the centuries. / hardly
know among the eminent historians
his equal in the most important quail
ty of fairness, impartiality and wis
dom. The only objection / could urge
after reading his first six volumes.
was that he was not so fascinating as
Macaulay and Green. Like a dozen
or more very noted men in Great Brl-
tain during the last half century, he
was a sceptic, and died without know
ing or acknowledging Jesus Christ the
Son Of God as his Saviour What a
curious condition it is, that among
many of the most gifted and dis
tinguished authors of his time there
were so many homeless infidels. The
list embraces more of the very Supe-
rior writer's than you probably could
find Of equal rank and power who
were their contemporaries. Ruskln,
Darwin, Herbert Spencer Huxley,
son, John Morley. and others of fame
and high gifts were almost heather,
and living in a land Of Bibles and in
contact with highly civilized and
scholarly people and hundreds of
thousands of true Christians.
The solid profound, earnest Lecky
had this as to the exclusive divorce
craze in the United States: at is re-
markable that this great facility of
chr Of n n flsNy
which has long been conspicuous
for it's high standard of morality, and
for its deep sense of the sanctity of
marriage"
/ am glad that this profound phil
osophical and reflective historian did
not know particularly of fallen, de-
graded North Carolina. Divorces
among the early Jews were common.
In the early days of Christianity di-
vorce was forbidden. but it was prac-
ticed more or less. Tt required 1900
years to straighten up the divorce
disgust and make marriage indisso-
uble Greeks and Romans were ter
rible in this divorce abomination and
curse. Prof c. E. Howard, in his
three volume work on "A History of
Matrimonial Institutions" writes of
the disastrous results among the two
greatest ancient nations. and cites the
Mettius, the Macedonian wrote:
Romans, if we could get along
without wives assuredly none of us
would accept so grievous a burden;
but since nature has ordained that
we cannot live easily with them nor
live without them, let US sacrifice the
happiness of our short life in the
perpetuity of our nation"
The Saturday Review says:
Later even the most distinguished
and reputable men on purely selfish
or absolutely trivial grounds put away
their wives To believe the exaggera-
tons of the satirists. one changed his
partner as often as the cut of his
garment"
Lecky writes:
"a vast wave of corruption had
flowed in upon Rome and under any
system of law it would have pene-
trated into domestic life. Laws pro-
hibiting all divorce never secured the
purity of married life in ages of great
corruption, nor did the latitude which
was accorded in imperial Rome pre-
vent the existence of a very large
amount of female virtue"
Let me gather q few lines of Liter