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Show HI HI 7$rciKes on the Wheels of Pro greets. I If i 1 I had hoped no further reference to the stric- n I 1 tures of "The Pessimist" would he necessary, hut j I 1 he is guilty of such palpahly erroneous deuctions If i I that I deem it important to direct attention to I I H some of them, at least. Into a controversy with v 1 1 him I shall not he drawn, and for two reasons: I ) if V do nt eel capable of defending the position I take I it 1 wu ne a1!)ily demands, and I have yet to learn J ,' the advantage that follows invective in discussion. f ; In its last stage, a discussion generally leaves ti both contestants and their followers more widely ' m apart than they were in the beginning and for ' Ij ,, a reason heretofore advanced: because men seek n' si information for the purpose of confirming them in ; H convictions already possessed, rather than for the ' ill In purpose of learning the truth. '' fj m The statement of "Pessimist" of the evanescent ' f j$i an mutable character of the works of man can s II ,' no e sainsaid. His illustrations are accurate, KJIfyifl $1 but the deductions made by him are by no means BBH H'in Hi BB ifisii1 irrefragible. Granted that beneath the rank vege- E f J tation of tropical Yucatan, as beneath the weird BB ' J'fl 4 an( desolate sand stretches of Asia, are architects architec-ts r'il f tural evidences of a civilization that seems to B ( w have passed away, does it follow that the astute B tj k dj "Pessimist" looks upon this fact as proof that the B jjj j'f'J tendency of the race is not upward and out-BI out-BI -llf! ward? No such architectural evidences are dis- I'ltil'ir covered as having been contemporaneous with 1 iji&j the man of the stone age. His habitation was a f T cave. The excavations and researches of later 111 days Prove conclusively that as the race has V if grown in years it has advanced In civilization, $ I j"! and in those arts and sciences that are counted I I to, the higher and more intellectual and civilized I I part of man. Beyond doubt, the race has faltered K J I and fallen back time and again even as a child .III learning to walk halts, stumbles and falls. But H '"' A' I tue normal child learns to walk, and the race gains H ' $ f W fresh courage from each backset a courage which H s .& . is emphasized by an advance to a stage compared I ':i m f wtn wnicl1 ne highest achievements of those I i Hff' who ved n tne unknown past are as nothing. I ' I ff W Does it follow that because the genealogy of those I r if whose labors were Dut recently discovered in I ! Is Isi Yucatan and in Asia is yet unknown that the I f Wi offspring have vanished and left neither blood nor I 5 ' progress on the face oi. the earth today? Hardly. !i : The history of the races of the earth is yet to '( I W be written. ' To what extent the blood that quick- !' ' m ened extinct peoples to civilizing efforts has fil- i !aj tered through unknown generations to reappear if jfc as the moving factor in the development of this i M age Is not deduclble. But it will take a greater jjjB than "The Pessimist" to prove there is no blood or H H mm racial connection between the peoples whose cities I m mtm are now DenS uncovered in portions of the earth I S Wm widely apart and the blood that impels the Anglo I m II 'H Saxon race to its onward march; and until it is HIE Wm shown that there is no connection, my right is to Hfll J fl assume that it exists, not only on the priciple of Bfffl li evolution, but on the known fact that our virtues Bkk jf?B are tno gIfs of countless past generations, and mmmt II ua we must DQ the offspring of races that were HKb MM impelled to higher walks, because only such could B B beget a race in which such impulses are born. mmW- If B Tho veriest tyro must concede that the white MmW 1 m man bas advanced and is advancing in civiliza- B I jM tlon. He must also know that the records of this WmW- 1 m advance and civilization cannot wholly perish from Bn 11 m e sht of man unless man becomes extinct as BK B m 'to this earth. Compare the man of today with BR WW. the man of the stone age. No really sane person BBS mm will deny that there is no difference no advance; BK mm or that the advance may not be claimed as abso- Hw ii lute and permanent. H. BK The face of the earth has been transformed. IBBi SB an Jp hecome both homogenous and gregarious. Communication is established almost everywhere either by rail, electricity or vessel. All parts of the earth are brought into close relationship. What evidence is there in records of the past that such a civilization ever existed or was even dreamed of by the wildest enthusiast? Leaving out of consideration con-sideration the edifices of the day the comforts and conveniences for man that have become so common as to pass wholly from his thought as marvels any more than he marvels at food let us view man as an individual producer. Let "The Pessimist" and his ilk walk down any city business busi-ness street during the day, or'eafly evening, and cast his eye critically at the countless the literally liter-ally innumerable things displayed for sale in the shop windows things of comfort and things of beauty all showing patience, skill, training and high intelligence, and let him remember that these are the products of men average men of the Anglo-Saxon race men who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. If he will do this I should like to have him tell where, in the dismal records of the past to which he dolefully points as revealing the "complexion" to which we are destined to come he can find a parallel. If there is no distinction between the man of today, who fills all the civilized world with beauty and comfort, com-fort, and, by his labor, points to a greater and more glorious future than he of the stone age, .then, indeed, "The Pessimist" is right and I am a hopeless dreamer. If there be, as I think, a marked distinction between the creature of that age and the civilized man of this, it is up to "The Pessimist" Pessim-ist" to confess what he is. He asks for answer, "Honor Bright," as to whether I think mankind as near an equity in this age as at the time when we first have records of his existence. If compelled to make a direct answer, an-swer, I should unhesitatingly says "Yes." But that reply w Duld fail of a fair response. There is literally no comparison between the man of that age and the civilized man of this, save in the image in which both walked the earth. In those days the distinction between men was physical. The mighty man was the strongest and fleecest. Modern civilized man, by the invention of weapons of aggression and defense, has made himself more nearly equal with his fellow man physically. So no man runs any longer. The railroad, steamboat, steam-boat, electricity and other discoveries make the cripple as fleet as the swiftest. The race is faced with new conditions,; in respect to these I hold man to be relatively as nearly equal as he was before environed with the devices and advantages and inventions of modern times. While above all and sustaining all that civilized man does is the lofty ideal to which all his energies are bent; that a day will yet dawn when men shall, in all possible pos-sible aspects, stand equal before each other. It is idle to direct attention to the fact that failure is written everywhere, for that is conceded. But stronger than the influence of these failures, stronger than the delight of those who take pains to paint for man only gloomy and hopeless pictures, pic-tures, is the abiding faith of man in his own high destiny. And this sustains him in spite of past failures, and inspires him to continued and hopeful hope-ful exertion, despite that almost sightless summit to which, footsore and weary, he nevertheless journeys dauntless. There are but two brakes upon the wheels of progress: the religious fanatic and the sneering pessimist. It is to the credit of mankind that the pessimist is he with least influence influ-ence in fact, save for such occasional outbursts as have appeared in Goodwin's Weekly, which are, perhaps, superinduced by indigestion or some like local disorder, he is never heard of, and is as little heeded. How truly Pope declared: "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." AN OPTIMIST, 9 |