4068 UNIVERSAL HISTORY-THE MODERN WORLD.
reared as the ramparts of civilization, and
for which an enlightened people have no
more need than for a Chinese wall.
One of the greatest enemies of freedom,
and therefore of the progress and happiness
of our race, is over-organization. Mankinds
have been organized to death. The social,
political, and ecclesiastical forms which have
been instituted have become so hard and
cold and obdurate that the life, the emotion,
the soul within, has been well-nigh extinguished. Among all the civil, political, and
churchly institutions of the world, it would
be difficult to-day to select that one which
is not in a large measure conducted in the
interest of the official management. The
Organization has become the principal thing,
and the Man only a secondary consideration. It must be served and obeyed. He
may be despised and neglected. It must
be consulted, honored, feared; crowned with
flowers, starred and studded with gold. He
may be left a starving pauper, homeless,
friendless, childless, shivering in mildewed
tatters-a scavenger, and beggar at the
doorway of the court.
All this must presently be reversed. Organization is not the principal thing; man
himself is better. The institution, the party,
the creed, the government,-that does not
serve him; does not conduce to his interests,
progress, and enlightenment; is not only a
piece of superfluous rubbish on the stage of
modern civilization, but Is a real stumbling block, a positive clog and detriment to the
welfare and best hopes of mankind.
Closely allied with this overwrought organization of society is the pernicious theory
of paternalism-that delusive, medieval doctrine, which proposes to effect the social and
individual elevation of man by "protecting,"
and therefore subduing, him. The theory is
that man is a sort of half-infant, half-imbecile-a hybrid of child and devil-who must
be led along and guarded as one would
lead and guard a foolish and impertinent
barbarian. It is believed and taught that
men seek not their own best interests; that
they are the natural enemies and destroyers
of their own peace; that human energy,
when liberated and no longer guided by the
factitious machinery of society and the
State, either slides rapidly backward into
barbarism, or rushes forward only to stumble and fall headlong by its own audacity.
Therefore, society must be a good mistress,
a garrulous old nurse to her children! She
must take care of them; teach them what to
do; lead them by the swaddling bands; coax
them into some feeble and well-regulated
activity; feed them on her insipid porridge
with the antiquated spoons of her superstition. The State must govern and repress.
The State must strengthen her apparatus,
improve her machine. She must put her
subjects down; she must keep them down.
She must teach them to be tame and tractable; to go at her will; to rise, to halt, to
sit, to sleep, to wake at her bidding; to be
humble and meek. And all this with the
belief that men so subordinated and put
down can be, should be, ought to be, great
and happy! They are so well cared for, so
happily governed!
On the contrary, if history has proved-does prove-any one thing, it is this: Man
when least governed is greatest. When his
heart, his brain, his limbs are unbound, he
straightway begins to flourish, to triumph,
to be glorious. Then, indeed, he sends up
the green and blossoming trees of his ambition. Then, indeed, he flings out both hands
to grasp the skyland and the stars. Then,
indeed, he feels no longer a need for the
mastery of society; no longer a want of
some guardian and intermeddling State to
inspire and direct his energies. He grows
in freedom. His philanthropy expands; his
nature rises to a noble stature; he springs
forward to grasp the grand substance, the
shadow of which he has seen in his dreams.
He is happy. He feels himself released from
the domination of an artificial scheme which
has been used for long ages for the subjection of his fathers and himself. What men
want, what they need, what they hunger
for, what they will one day have the courage
to demand and take, is less organic government-not more; a freer manhood and
fewer shackles; a more cordial liberty; a
lighter fetter of form, and a more spontaneous virtue.
Of all things that are incidentally needed
to usher in the promised democracy and
brotherhood of man-the coming new era of