The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-10

to the spirit of conscience which I4u-
Their roused in the breasts of men.
What Christ taught as TO the inde-
pendent relationship of the individual
and his Creator Luther reviv.aed in
an age when the name of the great
Teacher was being invoked to
tive his every lesson. his lifelong plea.
+ Out of Luther sprang Calvin, sprans
Cromwell. Under the influence he Set
in motion arose a captain Ike Ma
poIeon. Braced by the audacity OF his
thought. Voltaire was nerved TO pour
his vitriol into the open sores of en-
pire. Like Luther-though he himself
would have Scorned the comparison
came that qneer. h~alf-forned, half
insane and wholly egotiStlc genius,
Jean jacques Rousseau. with his
"Contrat Social TO preach democracy
in an empire where to think was TO
sin. Back to Luther, rather than to
the match of the diamond necklace,
may be traced the French Revoiu-
tion-that orgy which saw a remedy
in death and sought TO build on blood.
but which, for all its excuses. and
despite it's failure. stands today a
warming and q menace to all of every
sort whom the taste Of power intoXi-
Gates to madness.
Cromwell, q Radical Of Action.
The career of Cromwell, contrasted
with that of Voftaire and that OF
Rousseau, is interesting as establish
ing the difference between the radical
ism OF action and the radicalSm or
thought. Cromwell. fred with zeal
against the abuses of his day, saw the
concrete objects Of attack. He IN
spired his Ironsides with a crusaders
thirst for battle. He spoke with can
non and with pike. He smote and
strangled and destroyed.
After he had killed the king who
was exactly what the country wanted
in a monarch. the power fell from he
hands Of the lord protector. The peo-
pie began to count the cost. They be-
gan to wonder at the passion by which
they had been moved. War, viewed IN
its red retrospect, was. as ever, folly
and madness. Cromwell. inns rad
zeal, was fortunate in his death.
Though he was spared the revulsion
of feeling which hailed the merry
court Of Charles II. he undoubtedly
saw it spreading across his political
sky.
Yet, for all the scorn and hatred
wherein he was held in life and while
the stigma of regicide was still moist
upon his name. Cromwell is today q
word with which to c%onjure the ma
tons to independence-a name with
which to bring to dreams of privileged
avarice a nightmare awakening to the
fact Of it's limitations
Cromwelrs radicalism, like tina of
Napoleon, was q matter Of deeds. The
skull Of the one was exposed for years
in a high place; the life of the other
ended in an isolation from which he
could gain a vivid picture of the tran
sient quality of greatness. Their i'm
press on the world was the impress Of
instead Of blessings; negative, rather
than positive, factors. in history.
Two Eighteenth Century Radicals.
The radicaIism Of Rousseau and OF
Voltaire was Of a different and a mOro
lasting order. Theirs was the radical
ism of mind, the desperate call to free
speech and free thought. In play ana
against presumption and arrogance
and conceit. They threw the false
reverence Of ages on the scrap-heao.
They exposed to wondering mankind
the fact of its kingship.
Themselves enemies, the work OF
Voltaire and the work of Rousseau
constituted the intellectual renaissance
Of the eighteenth century. HoWlei
down as an atheist. Voltaire's caustic
burned in the Journalism with which
religion was covered just the rent that
was needed to reveal the difference
between the false and the true. De
nounced as an Cneny Of the state. the
clarifying mind of Rousseau planted
in the state the priceless seed OF the
individuals sense Of responsibility ana
his sense of power.
Both these men, rivals and enetnies
grew into their real service to life and
humanity. The one a lyric poet, the
other an Indifferent musician, each
found in the practise of art the gem
of truth they spoke. Few know the
plays Of Voitaire or his poems: fewer
still know anything of Rouss.Iu's
ODorA ar VIC EHfoyN nf ~, r-fn NOT -
Ton But so long as through the dc
velopn Of so-called radicalisnl the
world shall progress toward the ideal
of the people best governed with the
least government, these two will be
OF liberty.
Racica1ism. in other words. is mem
tai emancipation. It is the spiritual