passing. Yet the people were not sufficiently alert to prevent
legislation in favor of that monopoly the Standard Oil Company, which
is considered a betrayal of justice.

In Illinois a bill was passed in the Senate and came near passing in
the House, which would have abolished all medical freedom and made it
a crime for any one but a licensed doctor to help the sick in any way,
even by a prayer. Verily the spirit of American liberty does not
pervade American communities and American legislatures.

In Massachusetts the Old Puritanic Sunday Laws having fallen into
"_innocuous desuetude_," an attempt to give them a partial enforcement
in Boston compelled a little legislative action and the result was
what might have been expected in a State in which religious opinions
are allowed to interfere with the credibility of a witness, and in
which Diogenes, if he were here, would be struck with the vast
inconsistency between the creed of Christendom and its practice, and
the vast disparity between the progress of modern knowledge and the
effete system of education in our Universities. He would wonder why
modern colleges are more interested in the details of Greek life and
letters than in the beneficent sciences of to-day of which the Greeks
knew nothing.

He would wonder why the edicts of the Pagan emperor, Constantine,
concerning the observance of Sunday are observed and enforced as a
religious duty, while the Divine love inculcated by Jesus Christ,
which forbids all strife and war, is no more regarded by Christian
nations than by the rulers of ancient Rome.

He would look into the schools and universities professedly devoted to
science and literature, and ask why they have even less freedom of
discussion and thought than the schools of Athens, every professor
being interested to discourage the investigation of novelties in
philosophy instead of being ready to welcome original investigation.

Under the new Sunday law of Massachusetts, Sunday trains and steamboat
lines are at the mercy of the railroad commissioners, who can stop
every one of them; but boating, yachting, and carriage driving on
Sunday are free to all who have the money to pay for them. But while
outdoor frolic is free-and-easy, indoor enjoyment is prohibited.
Everybody is liable to five dollar fines for _attending_ "any sport,
game, or play" on Sunday, unless it has been licensed, and private
families never ask a license for their own amusements. But _to be