Modern Society.
BY
JULIA WARD HOWE.
BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1881.
Copyright, 1880,
BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.
PRINTED BY
ALFRED MUDGE AND SON.
CONTENTS
Modern Society.
What means this summons, oh friends! to thegroves of Academe? I heard, in the distance, themeasured tread of Philosophy. I mused: "Howgrave and deliberate is she! How she matchesthought with thought! How patiently she questionsinference and conclusion! No irrelevance,no empty ballooning, is allowed in that Concordschool. Nothing frivolous need apply there foradmission." And lo! in the midst of this severeentertainment an interlude is called for in thegreat theatre. The stage manager says, "Ringup Puck. Wanted, an Ariel." And no Shakespearebeing at hand, I, of the sex much reprovedfor never having produced one, am invited to flyhither as well as my age and infirmities will allow,and to represent to you that airy presence whosefolly, seen from the clouds, is wisdom; that presencewhich, changing with the changes of the year [Pg 6]and of the day, may yet sing, equally with thesteadfast stars and systematic planets,—
Modern society, concerning which you have bidme discourse to you, is this tricksy spirit, many-featuredand many-gestured, coming in a questionableshape, and bringing with it airs from heavenand blasts from hell. I have spoken to it, and ithas shown me my father's ghost. How shall Ispeak of it, and tell you what it has taught me?You must think my alembic a nice one indeed,since you bid me to the analysis of those subtleand finely mingled forces. You have sent for me,perhaps, to receive a lesson instead of giving one.You may intend that, having tried and failed inthis task, I shall learn, for the future, the difficultlesson of holding my peace. For so benevolent,so disinterested an intention, I may have moreoccasion to thank you beforehand, than you shallfind to thank me, having heard me.
But, since a text is supposed to make it surethat the sermon shall have in it one good sentence,let me take for my text a saying of the philosopherKant, who, in one of his treatises, restsmuch upon the distinction to be made between [Pg 7]logical and real or substantial opposition. Accordingto him, a logical opposition is brought in viewwhen one attribute of a certain thing is at onceaffirmed and denied. The statement of a bodywhich should be at once stationary and in motionwould impl