t being useless to break with the established
order, assume a cheerful tone, crying down all efforts to unmask the
widespread and ever-increasing evils which are festering under the cover
of silence, and in substance urge us to eat, drink, and be merry, taking
no thought for the morrow or for the generations which are to follow us.

A second class, comparing the ignorance, superstition, brutality, and
inhumanity of the past with life to-day, arrive at the conclusion that
the nineteenth century is the flower of all the preceding ages, which is
true. That the present, registering the high-tide water-mark of the
centuries, is to be extolled rather than assaulted, and all efforts to
create discontent are unwise, and should be frowned upon. The mistake of
these individuals lies in the fact that they fail to see that the chief
cause of humanity's triumphs is found in the works performed by those
thinkers who in all ages have corresponded to the persons flippantly
characterized pessimists at the present time: they who have assailed the
existing order of things, who have thrown into the congregation of the
people the shells of doubt; who have confronted the priests and
potentates of conventionalism with a disturbing "Why"; _who have
compelled the people to think_.

A third class of writers who pitch their thoughts in a hopeful key,
appreciate the injustice of much that is accepted by conventional
thought as right, or which is tolerated by virtue of its antiquity, but
seeing the profound agitation which a thoughtful and earnest
presentation of the evils of the hour produces in the public mind, they
have become alarmed, fearing lest the rising tide of angry discontent
sweep away much that is good, true, and beautiful, in its blind attempt
to right existing wrongs, and inaugurate an era of justice. Old
institutions, ancient and revered thought, accepted lines of policy,
even when palpably unjust, are safer, they urge, than the sudden
blinding light of justice, the instantaneous widening of the horizon of
popular thought. The strong light of a new era thrown suddenly upon the
foul, monstrous and iniquitous systems in vogue, the awakening of the
public mind to the enormity of the injustice, hypocrisy, and immorality
of respectable conservatism of to-day will turn the brain of the
people--they will become mad; a second French Revolution will
ensue--such is their fear, and from a superficial view their
apprehensions seem reasonable.