Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1876)
Coitformity. 11 & y and kneeling, one of llicm enquired what church they were In. On hoing told that it was not their own, they botli left imme diately. Like these Germans in a strange church, wo arc constantly bowing and kneeling and fawning, and for what pur pose, wo know not. Through our own impersonality we live as stranger? to each other and die as fugitives; the real man being almost sutfocated with the fumes of conformity is hid from our view. This conformity is the cause of social despotism and hypocrisy. If wo will not conform, we are persecuted and ostracised from society. A person whoso mind is too magnanimous to be trammeled by the arbitrary rules of society is looked upon by the smaller minded conformists as a clown or heretic. "What right has etiquette or religion to dictate to you or me how to converse or worship ? How others should converse and worship, is not how you or I should converse or worship. Were it not for conformity there would bo little hypocrisy. Aj person wishing to conform with the world joins a popular church, lie being of a diU'ercnt temper ament, the church is no more fit for him than the Hottentot religion. What is the result? Ho is almost unconsciously and continually going through with the most contemptible forms of hypocrisy. Could wo but know the thoughts of a congrega tion at worship! 1 have often looked around the church endeavoring to read the thoughts that seemed (o bo stamped on the brows of tho hull Herein. There is the large and corpulent Mr. 1$., bowed in hum bio prayer. It seems plain that his thoughts arc all lodged in a fat turkey which ho expects to havo for dinner. There is Mrs. C, arrayed in costly attire, also bowed in humble prayer. It appears evident that her thoughts arc lodged in her fashionable bonnet. Thoy say there is nothing so bad but what has its good. Conformity and fash, iou will no doubt result in good with the poor down trodden negro. As black is a fashionable color for tho clothes, it may also be a fashionable color for tho com plexion. Instead of using lily-white, tho young ladles and maybe, gentleman will use lump black. The negro will then no more be scorned, but will then be looked upon with an envious eye. Each person has a law within himself, and it, is only by conforming to this law and observing its workings that wo can become grand and noblo beings. Why do legislatures make our civil laws? Why does the church dictate the moral and spiritual law? If every one should con form to and strictly watch the law within him, wo would have little need of tyrran. nical legislation and despotic religious weeds. There is no law, either civil, mor al or religious, that will make a man like him who strictly guards tho gates of his own soul; and he himself only is fit to guard these gates. Though ho should deputize tho whole clergy and tho infalli ble Pope as guards, it would bo of no avail. As well might ho set them to guarding the gates of heaven and hell. When wo cannot gather knowledge at our quiet homes, wo repair to tho collegB or university, thinking its shades will lend us a charm. When its curriculum has become exhausted, we journey to foreign climes in search of greater charms. Hut how we are deceived I We return to our homes and find that wo are no wiser than many who never entered college or saw a foreign hind. Whether we go to college, or Europe, or remain at homo, wo must bo selCmadc or never made. Why not solve the problem by sitting quietly down at home? Can tho college atmosphere, or the ruins of antiquity, aid us in our learn ing? It is as if our very manhood and inward law were repulsive, and wo wero endeavoring to evade them by conforming to the llcklo world. Lot us not conform to man, but to Na ture. For " Tho roundod world Is fair to bco, Kino Union folded tn myutory: Though ImllliMl Hvi'i'8 enn not Impart Tho Hocrol of ItH laboring hunrt. Throb thlno with Nnturo'H throbbing breast, And nil Is clour from cant to west. B5H