drift together. Sumptuary "blue laws" have never been able to suppress these differences, and experience has taught modern men that only in case of antagonism with the general welfare is it safe or just to control the methods of satisfaction of the various groups of a community. The ponderous machinery of government is too awkward to regulate the styles of bonnets, the rules of ball games and the number of wheels on vehicles. The permanent and universal needs may be met by state or municipality, but the criticism of Dante is best left to select circles. It would hardly be thought advisable to elect a congress for the settlement of the merits of Browning or of the higher criticism of the Bible. In fact even the larger ecclesiastical bodies make but little headway on such delicate matters. The army quartermasters can supply beans and bacon, but private enterprise must select the delicacies; and the Christian Commission was welcomed by the regular corps of surgeons as an indispensable aid during the Civil War.
Another normal use of the voluntary association is the development and application of a criticism of established customs and institutions. It is not reasonable to expect all the members of a great people to move forward at an equal pace. The highest peaks are flooded with the light of dawn while the valleys remain dark with the shadows of night. Columbus made it easy to cross the Atlantic, but it was not easy for him. The older abolitionists worked out a theory of a "higher law," an ideal of a better social conduct, and they condemned constitutions and decisions of gowned judges in the light of that law. They shamed the majority by contrasting fact with truth. In new and uncultivated communities clubs of women are slowly learning and teaching the first lessons of æsthetic culture. If they waited for town councils to act, under the control of rude democratic majorities and uneducated boards of education, our western cities would remain barbarian for another century. There is a "tendency in all things to sag," and the people of each generation are girded and braced for new journeys only by the prophetic discoveries and appeals of inspired leaders. And as the timber for martyrs is not found in every township we
