The Irish standard., 1915-05-22

AoAO ~ AZ U8rO 10 uu4 WO1US "
express the debt of gratitude which
modern civilization owes to the Roman
Catholic" When John Fiske made
that admission. rest assured that he
knew whereof he spoke.
Don't talk about "lazy monks" They
built the many hundreds of, monas-
teries in England. drained the fens
and raised the dignity of labor. The
president of the Massachusetts, agri-
cultural college declared that monas.
teries were the first agricultural
schools.
Don't ever talk against the Jesuits
until you know at least one Of them.
You can find them now in any Amer
lean city Of half a million inhabitants
or so, and they are rather pleasant
men to meet.
Don't talk about lack of initiative
i'm the Middle Ages. Frederic Harri-
son said: "Of all the epochs of ef-
fort after new life, that of the age
of Aquinas, Roger Bacon, st. Francis,
st. Louis Giotto and Dante, is the most
purely spiritual, the most really con-
structive and, indeed, the most truly
philosophic.
Don't forget that in recent years
there has been serious discussion as
to whether the Thirteenth century
may not have been in most respects
the greatest century of human exist
ence.
Don't scott at the idea of a medic.
val century as the greatest until you
have weighed Frederic Harrison's ex-
preston, 1--WE find in this century (the
Thirteenth) harmony of power, a
universally of endowment, a glow, an
aspiring ambition and confidence
such as we never find in later centu-
ries.'
Don't brush aside the thought of
the medieval period as quite unworthy
of consideration in the history of hui
manity until you have read further
what men like Fiske, Freeman, Fred
eric Harrison, Macaulay, Hallam and
many others have written of it.
Don't be out of the fashion. 1t is
fashionable now to talk about the Mid,
die Ages as the bright Ages" because
of all they did for art, architecture,
education, literature and, above all, for
the arts and crafts.
Don't suggest that the Middle Ages
was wrapped up in it's own conceits.
It made the most beautiful books, the
most charming needlework, the finest
illuminations, the most wonderful
stained-glass windows that the world
has ever known. We are just begin.
ming to admire these things properly
1t was when we had no interest in
these things that we had no interest in
the Middle Ages.
Don't talk about the failure of the
Middle Ages to appreciate values prop
erly. Our richest millionaires scarce
ly have money enough now to buy the
things that medieval folk in little
towns of less than 10000 inhabitants
made for themselves.
Don't forget that students of sociol
ogy are beginning to call the Middle
Ages 1.-The brotherly ages" because o.
all they accomplished for men, follow
ing the principle in those days thai
man was indeed his brothers keeper
Don't fail to recall that old age pen
sions, disability wages and all thu
modes of fraternal insurance, Otter
thought to be quite modern, were or
ganized by the guilds of the Middl,
! Ages.
Don't call medieval people serfs. AL
the basic legislation of our liberties
was laid down in the Middle Ages
Magma Charta was signed, the frs
English parliament was held, the Eng
lish common law was framed. and thu
great principle, mo taxation withou
representation" was formulated SOM
three centuries before the Middle Age
closed.
Don't quote anesthesia as new in
vention which men had never evel
dreamed of prior to our time. W.
know now that for nearly two cen
turtles before the Fifteenth practical
ly every operation was done under al
anesthetic. The mystery is how mel
lost sight of it.
Don't talk of our modern surgery a
| if there had been nothing in surgica
accomplishment worth talking abou
until now. During the past twent!
years the text books of half-a-dozel
medieval surgeons of the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth centuries have beer
republished and they prove that prac
tically all the operations that are nov
being performed were done in nearl!
the same way six hundred years ago
Don't think good hospitals ant
trained nursing altogether modern il
their origin, for Garrison. in his His
tory of Medicine says: "The chic
glory of medieval medicine was in tn
organizations of hospitals and sicl