The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-04-22

listed and civjzation has been pres
ent it has established certain crit
eria of ethics, and imposed a certain
standard of fitness. which from the
Sinai of its own creation it has pro-
claimed in thunder tone thou shalt
conform to these" A premium has
been placed upon infancy and a
price on the head of originality.
Where the ecclesiastic coercion
of thought left off the temporal be-
gan and hand in hand they have
ground with an iron heel those
elements of discord and dissent
found within it's limits. Petty vlo-
ators of the law have been relent-
lessly pursued, and ruthlessly ex-
terminated, a premium has been pla-
ced upon pliancy and submission
to authority and heavy hand upon
turbulance and vicking recklessness.
For centuries rebellion has called
down the curse of Cromwell'' upon
those who dared defy authority,
crushing with bloody finality the
spirit that dared resist. The Tory
has always stood above the patriot.
Six thousand were crucifed in a
a single day under Roman Law be-
cause they dared to break the yoke
that made them less than men.
For centuries following the fall of
Rome, the fountainhead of education
reposed in the church; its preceptors
the barren monks, these in whom
the intellectual and moral aesthetic
prevailed over the glamour of action
stood alone between the densely ig-
norant and illiterate masses and a
total intellectual blackness; and tho
by reason of celibacy they have
contributed nothing directly to the
blood of posterity, and thru concep-
tions of tolerance were held largely
in check, they kept alive tn e
Pickering flame until the i'm
petus given by the Graeco- Arabian
culture quickened the mental life
into the great intellectual revival of
the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The superior and mental and moral
endowment of the barbarians" had
pricked the slumbering conscience
of Christendom into a realization of
it's own short coming and lethargy.
Then followed a peroid of frenzied
search and passionate enthusiasm
and admiration of the remains of
the classic art that 80 long had lain
in oblivion. During all the pre-
vious centuries the best minds Of the
time in blind obedience to authority
had withdrawn from the world, to
prepare for the one to come. When
we consider the number of clear, ac-
tive, master minds that have vol
UNFAIRLY withdrawn from the world
to waste away thro self f-abnegation
it is impossible to estimate the angle
Of divergence between what is, and
what might have been, had they
been free to develope the talents
with which they were so richly en-
dowed, and had they contributed
their share to the blood of posterity.
Not alone thru the church has cell
ibacy been a powerful modifying
agency upon the worlds intellectual
and moral complexion, but thru the
laity as we'll. Those who thru in
dependence of mind, thru selfishness
or poverty, or whatever other eco
nomic condition or psychology of
mind that would permit no palmer in
life, have contributed nothing to the
blood of posterity. This as select
i've factor can scarcely be over-es-
timated, standing perhaps, second
only in importance to that of mill
try decimation. When we con-
slider the vast army of those migra-
tory birds of passage" which line
the curb stone of our cities in sum-
mer, crowd the bread line in winter,
and are occasionally seen TO move, in
the harvest fields of the west we
i oon form cnnoo onnnonfion of tho