The days that are, are not what they should be; we
still want reforms, we need much reforming ourselves; but the former
days were not better than these, whatever these may be; and if the
next six hundred years exhibit as decided an advance as the last six
centuries have brought about, and if your children's children of the
coming time rise as much above your level in sentiment, material
comfort, knowledge, intelligence, and refinement, as you have risen
above the level which your ancestors attained to, though even then
they will not cease to desire better things, they will nevertheless
have cause for thankfulness such as you may well feel to-night as you
look back upon what you have escaped from, and reflect upon what you
are.
III.
DAILY LIFE IN A MEDIEVAL MONASTERY.
"Now I think on't,
They should be good men; their affairs as righteous:
But all hoods make not monks."
[The commemoration of the birth of Martin Luther, which people would
have called his quater-centenary if they had not been deterred by the
terrific appearance of so huge a word, was the occasion of many
preachments and much lecturing, besides a great deal of heroic talk
in public and private. With so much to encourage cynicism and
persiflage among us it was comforting to find that the instinct of
hero-worship is not quite dead, and that the story of a great man's
life still stirs the heart.
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