ere its moral or religious accomplishments. The pages of
history which detail the events of this epoch, are crowded with
relations of heroic devotion to the individual's highest ideal of truth,
not as occasional acts of life, but as the dominating purpose of
existence; of loyalty to men and women of superior powers; of
self-sacrifice for the welfare of others. The sentiments of
Christianity, which appeal mainly to the heart, took fast hold on the
emotional and affectional natures of a simple people not yet developed
in their intellectual faculties. A sense of responsibility for his every
action rested heavily on every person. Men shut themselves in dungeons,
scourged their flesh, lacerated their bodies, inflicted all manner of
torture on their frames, that they might purge away every evil desire,
every wrong propensity, and conquer their material elements into
submission to the spiritual. Deeds of lofty self-abnegation, rarely if
ever known to modern days, were then common. Stern virtue, as virtue was
then understood, was largely prevalent. The habits of life were devout,
reverential, careful of sanctities, solemn and austere. Individuals and
community lived in the constant remembrance of being strictly
accountable for the manner and actions of their lives. A moral and
religious atmosphere pervaded society, such as our modern levity can
little understand. An atmosphere which impregnated every living being
who came within its scope, and hallowed their lives, so that the guiding
and animating spirit of the day, among high and low, rich and poor,
ignorant and learned, was the conscientious desire of thinking, acting,
and living as God wished and as their better natures approved; of being
pure in their purposes and holy in their deeds, as purity and holiness
were then conceived; of subduing and controlling their passions, and in
all ways being devoutly scrupulous that everything they did was
dictated, not by a desire to gratify a selfish impulse nor an ebullition
of feeling, but by a conviction of duty under a sense of eternal
responsibility to God.

The moral and religious grandeur of the age could not avail, however,
for the highest purposes of civilization, in the absence of intellectual
vigor and mental growth. Devotion itself made men bigots. Their love of
God, unaccompanied by right views of human liberty, induced cruel
persecutions. Humanity had no hope in such developments alone, grand as
they were, and a new princi