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Show Uncle. Jack and '-'-His nepbeiv.' BASS!11' We left Uncle Jack last week discoursing dis-coursing "on progress in its relation to human government and arguing that its perceptible effects did not and could not disturb immutable truth. He continues con-tinues in the same strain. CONVERSATION VII. Continued. "In the fifteenth century men turned their attention with new ardor to the conquest, possession and enjoyment of the good things of this world. Assuming Assum-ing that end ..as the end to be gained, several. European ; nations have since then made very great progress. Physical Physi-cal conveniences and comforts have been multiplied, and certainly luxuries lux-uries have been placed within the reach, so far as these nations are themselves concerned, of a much larger number. But even in this respect, striking out the gain which has been affected by the discovery and coloniza- Pacific islands, it may be a question whether England, for instance, has gained so much as the nations which she has victimized have lost. In this sense, the creation of large industries, the extension of commerce, the construction con-struction of roads and canals, the introduction in-troduction of railroads and steamships, labor-saving machinery and the light-; ning telegraph may be regarded as so many giant strides in the onward march of the civilized world. But under un-der all this lies the question, whether the mass of the people are really better bet-ter off, whether they find it easier to supply their physical wants than they did 400 years ago, whether they are really happier and more contented? And under this lies another question, whether in a moral point of view, that is, in the real business of life, gaining the end for which they were created, they have really made any advance? This, after all, is the main question, and here the difference, I apprehend if difference there is, is not in favor of me present. "But you have made no account of the progress of lVTeas, in the understanding under-standing and vindication of human rights," said Dick. "Certainly not, any more than I do of the varying fashions of dress," replied re-plied Uncle Jack, "for the most excellent excel-lent reason that in these respect3, though there have been changes, I am not aware that there has been any progress. There is a vast amount of shallow and disgusting cant in the community, in books, periodicals, newspapers news-papers and conversation on this subject. sub-ject. It seems to have been taken for granted that all changes are improvements. improve-ments. ' Everywhere we are boasting of progress, everywhere applauding ourselves for the new and important conquests we are daily obtaining over nature, and we look with pity and contempt on those who lived before us. And this is not confined to non-Catholics. These boasts are caught up and published by Catholic journals, as well as by others. I read in a Catholic paper the other day a selected item, intended to show hr.w scarce books must have been, and therefore how deep the ignorance, in the middle ages, by stating the enormous price which was paid in a certain instance for a single book. It never occurred to the editor, or may be the Protestant foreman in his office, that the case mentioned was an extraordinary one, and says nothing of the ordinary price of books at the time ,or that even higher prices have been paid in our own day for a particular par-ticular edition of the work to which bibliomaniacs attach a facetious value. A thousand guineas have been paid in our time'j for a single copy of an edition edi-tion of a work which in another edition edi-tion may be bought for a few shillings any day in the market. People gen- mentswhich accord Avith their convictions convic-tions or prejudices, and are skeptical only with those which do not so accord. "In consequence of the general prejudice, pre-judice, very easily accounted for, or the prevailing impression that there has been a mighty progress in these late centuries, youth take it for granted grant-ed that it is so, and even men of some learning and pretention take no pains to examine wheth&r it be so or not. We always accept what is popular, unless we have strong reasons for rejecting it, and those reasons we do not seek, and we remain ignorant of them unless they force themselves upon our notice. From Erasmus to the Schlegels it was customary to speak of the middle ages as barbarous, and to laud t,o the skies ancient Greece and Romi. Catholics blushed at their own antiquity, and pusillanimously gave up, or humbly apologize for it, in all except pure dogma, as indefensible, or as chargeable charge-able to the times or the opinions of the age. They grew ashamed of their tecture in general. They could not abide the popular literature, which had charmed their ancestors, and conceded all but dogma to the proud, arrogant, but equally supervicial and less erudite Protestant. Now you know this has all changed, and in the higher literary circles . we have no longer to defend or to apologize for the middle ages, but to moderate the excessive admiration of them. Medieval art has become the fashion, and its obvious defects, even its monstrosities, are severally copied and praised as exquisite beauties. Even traces of heathenism are detected in Raphael, and the mose flourishing period pe-riod of Italian art is looked upon as the commencement of a decline, while we go into ecstacies over the lean and pale creations of the school of Over-beck. Over-beck. (To be continued. |