第258章

But you ought not to be always ironically apologizing for the Deity.If that thing is going to arrive, it is inferable that He wants it to arrive; and so it is not quite kind of you, and it hurts me, to see you flinging sarcasms at the gait of it.And yet it would not be fair in me not to admit that the sarcasms are deserved.When the Deity wants a thing, and after working at it for "ages and ages" can't show even a shade of progress toward its accomplishment, we--well, we don't laugh, but it is only because we dasn't.The source of "righteousness"--is in the heart? Yes.And engineered and directed by the brain? Yes.Well, history and tradition testify that the heart is just about what it was in the beginning; it has undergone no shade of change.Its good and evil impulses and their consequences are the same today that they were in Old Bible times, in Egyptian times, in Greek times, in Middle Age times, in Twentieth Century times.There has been no change.

Meantime, the brain has undergone no change.It is what it always was.

There are a few good brains and a multitude of poor ones.It was so in Old Bible times and in all other times--Greek, Roman, Middle Ages and Twentieth Century.Among the savages--all the savages--the average brain is as competent as the average brain here or elsewhere.I will prove it to you, some time, if you like.And there are great brains among them, too.I will prove that also, if you like.

Well, the 19th century made progress--the first progress after "ages and ages"--colossal progress.In what? Materialities.Prodigious acquisitions were made in things which add to the comfort of many and make life harder for as many more.But the addition to righteousness?

Is that discoverable? I think not.The materialities were not invented in the interest of righteousness; that there is more righteousness in the world because of them than there, was before, is hardly demonstrable, Ithink.In Europe and America, there is a vast change (due to them) in ideals--do you admire it? All Europe and all America, are feverishly scrambling for money.Money is the supreme ideal--all others take tenth place with the great bulk of the nations named.Money-lust has always existed, but not in the history of the world was it ever a craze, a madness, until your time and mine.This lust has rotted these nations;it has made them hard, sordid, ungentle, dishonest, oppressive.

Did England rise against the infamy of the Boer war? No--rose in favor of it.Did America rise against the infamy of the Phillipine war? No--rose in favor of it.Did Russia rise against the infamy of the present war? No--sat still and said nothing.Has the Kingdom of God advanced in Russia since the beginning of time?

Or in Europe and America, considering the vast backward step of the money-lust? Or anywhere else? If there has been any progress toward righteousness since the early days of Creation--which, in my ineradicable honesty, I am obliged to doubt--I think we must confine it to ten per cent of the populations of Christendom, (but leaving, Russia, Spain and South America entirely out.) This gives us 320,000,000 to draw the ten per cent from.That is to say, 32,000,000 have advanced toward righteousness and the Kingdom of God since the "ages and ages" have been flying along, the Deity sitting up there admiring.Well, you see it leaves 1,200,000,000 out of the race.They stand just where they have always stood; there has been no change.

N.B.No charge for these informations.Do come down soon, Joe.

With love, MARK.

St.Clair McKelway, of The Brooklyn Eagle, narrowly escaped injuries in a railway accident, and received the following.Clemens and McKelway were old friends.

To St.Clair McKelway, in Brooklyn:

21 FIFTH AVE.Sunday Morning.

April 30, 1905.

DEAR McKELWAY, Your innumerable friends are grateful, most grateful.

As I understand the telegrams, the engineer of your train had never seen a locomotive before.Very well, then, I am once more glad that there is an Ever-watchful Providence to foresee possible results and send Ogdens and McIntyres along to save our friends.

The Government's Official report, showing that our railways killed twelve hundred persons last year and injured sixty thousand convinces me that under present conditions one Providence is not enough to properly and efficiently take care of our railroad business.But it is characteristically American--always trying to get along short-handed and save wages.

I am helping your family congratulate themselves, and am your friend as always.

S.L.CLEMENS.

Clemens did not spend any more summers at Quarry Farm.All its associations were beautiful and tender, but they could only sadden him.The life there had been as of another world, sunlit, idyllic, now forever vanished.For the summer of 1905 he leased the Copley Green house at Dublin, New Hampshire, where there was a Boston colony of writing and artistic folk, including many of his long-time friends.Among them was Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who wrote a hearty letter of welcome when he heard the news.Clemens replied in kind.

To Col.Thomas Wentworth Higginson, in Boston:

21 FIFTH AVE.Sunday, March 26, z9o.5.

DEAR COL.HIGGINSON,--I early learned that you would be my neighbor in the Summer and I rejoiced, recognizing in you and your family a large asset.I hope for frequent intercourse between the two households.Ishall have my youngest daughter with me.The other one will go from the rest-cure in this city to the rest-cure in Norfolk Conn and we shall not see her before autumn.We have not seen her since the middle of October.

Jean (the youngest daughter) went to Dublin and saw the house and came back charmed with it.I know the Thayers of old--manifestly there is no lack of attractions up there.Mrs.Thayer and I were shipmates in a wild excursion perilously near 40 years ago.