Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1918-11-02
Reversion of Sentiment From Habit
uaI Condemnation of
Middle Ages.
Unitarian Thought of Unrestricted
Regime Not Social Nor
Healthy.
CREDITS THE MIDDLE AGES.

Many writer's and speakers OF
greater or less consequences con-
slider 1t a mark of education and
an expression Of refinement to in
tersperse their public utterances with
supercilious references to the Middle
Ages as the dark ages" the era OF
ignorance and superstition and the
period of stagnation in civic and So
cial progress. Their statements are
but the repetition of those made by
ADLER men, who spoke thus of the
Ages of Faith because they were
what that name signifies, or because
the social or economic policies of
those ages pleased them as little as
the religious belief of those days
pleased others. A Voltaire hated the
church whose teachings inspired the
thought of the Middle Ages, and
consequently spoke disparagingly of
that period. And Adam Smith, the
apostle of economic liberalism, COM
bated the solidarism of that era
and naturally was not overly friend
iy to the church which had inspired
that solidarism.
However, reversion of senti-
ment is gaining ground, and the
sober thought of some thinkers of
our times leads them to give due
credit to the spirit and the philos-
ophy of the Middle Ages, while con-
demning the destructive individual
ism and liberalism of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries as bitterly
as once their predecessors did the
opposite characteristics of the
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. This reversion
to sanity of judgment helps to
cast down the barrier of prejudice
which blinded men and prevented
them from seeing the good that was
wrought in that distant period. The
Anarchist Kropotkin has endeavored
to do justice to the civic and So
cial policy of the medieval COM
munities and organizations. Other
writer's are doing likewise, among
them the authors of a book recently
published: 1.-THE Town Laborer." In
this excellent book we find chap
ter on 1.-THE New Town." which con-
trasts the new with the old, to the
credit of the medieval community
and the disparagement of the town
and city during the Unrestricted re-
gime.
ITO the people of ancient Ath-
ens," we read, cor of Florence or
6iena in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, or of Norwich or York In
the fifteenth century the town was
not a mere roof from the wind and
the rain: II was living personality.
expressing and cherishing the In
stincts, tastes, beliefs and corporate
pride of the citizens, widely and
richly pictured. This city life had
produced the art and literature of
Greece and Italy, and In England
spirit of enterprise In representa-
tive government and public admin
istration that infieuced profoundly
the form and development of British
national institutions. The history
of these towns, the brisk and eager
life, their triumphs and their
crimes. the active share that the
citizens had taken In building,
adjoining. defending and serving
them, were reflected in their streets
and halls and churches. The old
English towns were often over
crowded, insanitary, honeycombed
with alleys and courts that never
saw the sun or breathed the air
but the fancy, and emotion, and the
skill and craftsmanship of different
ages had made them beautiful and
interesting. They were the home of
q race, with all the traditions and