Salt Lake Telegram | 1922-09-22 | Page 16 | Epoch-Making Books

Epoch-Making BOOKS By Thomas Bragg Coprrl.ht, ist IN.w Tnrk Bv.ala j . World I. br Prooa Faellehlns Co. afniNui axd n siimr.T." "I1 t'olltte e dalle Ptnt" (On t'rlmes and Ptinl.hm.nta I. by Caesar ilerrarla. waa published lit years ago Marcli, 1784. The rnoaanao that It brourht to tna world n. aao!ulelv now, and of the bleaaodn.ee of Its Influence It would be Impossible to apeak too highly. If human heppln.aa Is a holy thing, then It may bo aald. without rtaerva-tlon rtaerva-tlon and qualification, that a holler book than Hacrarla's "!! LMIltts s della rtn," waa never written. t The moat hideous nightmare vlalons of "Hell" snd Its. fiends were never mora terrible than ware the actual conditions con-ditions on thla planet throughout 1000 yeara praoadlng iiaooarla's birth In mi. Kor all or that long period the world waa one groat torture pen, filled wltii the eerennie and groana of those who were being subjectod to the Infernal rirleon methoda evorywhere prevailing s church and state. Tha lami ntallona of ths tortured ones wore still to be hoard ao lata as the I middle of the eighteenth eonlury. and Inspired bv Meccarla'e ringing aiipoal. MonteeMMleu. Voltaire, llaylo. LMderot and others swore that they should ceaae. With hla hoert almost breaking si the thought of the suffering to which hla fellow men wore everywhere auu-! Joctod. and hie brain fairly afire with ' Indignation over the 'brutality of the' authorities which made such suffering, poaalble, I'.ecrarfa wrote hie bonk and j sent It forth on Its bloaaod mtaslui.. The effect waa Inatantanooua Its In- , fluence sprosd over Kurope with tna; rapidity of a prairie fire. Kor soma stranve rosaon the book waa put on the lndes." but It made no difference, j Within a few months the book hau , Is or aeven additions. The loading i minds of all the Kuropean countno. road It. and from Ita powerful argu-monta argu-monta there was no, escape. It convinced con-vinced the reaeon. It touched the heart; It made many, even among the "author-Itloa." "author-Itloa." ahudder and feel ashamed af thomselvea. The empress of Russia abolished tol-ture tol-ture throughout her domlnlone, and. Frederick of Prussia and Mopold oi Tuscany followed suit. Hlnwly but I stosdllr the good work went on. and (by and hv tho ponal codoa and prlaoi. methods of all Kurope began to show a chsngs for the hotter. Thie Is s great time for the erection of memorials to distinguished men and women. In the parks and public aquares of the world a big cities slsnd splenaio monuments erected to perpetuate the memory of wsrrtors. stalo.mon. historians, his-torians, orators, nsvlgstors. Inventors snd othsrs who "did things," but I- do not remmer ever to hsvo seen anywhere any-where In my travola a monument to Career Ilorresano Heecarla. ths maa a ho did most to do sway with unmerited unmer-ited sorrow, snd who stands first smong the noble souls throughout the veers who hsvo fmirht for human hspnlnosa snd ssslnst the brutal and unfeeling laws which had for sses msd!ened them with their Infernal torturoa.