Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/273

Rh shops of the capitalist, are alike fortresses adverse to the welfare of mankind. The temperance movement finds little favour in the cities.

In tho country ho who works with manly hands is held in esteem; in the city, in contempt. Here labouring men have no political influence, and little confidence in themselves. They have been accustomed to do as they were told,—to do as their "masters" bid.

I call a man a Tory who, for himself or for others, socks a privilege adverse to tho rights of mankind; who puts the accidents of men before the substance of manhood. I may safely say tho cities, in tho main, are Tory towns; that Boston, in this sense, is a Tory town. They are so, just as in tho Middle Ages the cities were on tho other side. This is unavoidable in our form of civilization just now. Accordingly, in all tho great cities of the North, slavery is in tho ascendant ; but, as soon as we get off tho pavement, we come upon different ideas; freedom culminates and rises to the meridian. In America tho controlling class in general are superior to the majority in money, in consequent social standing, in energy, in practical political skill, and in intellectual development; in virtue of these qualities, they are the controlling class. But in general they are inferior to the majority of men in justice, in general humanity; and in religion—in piety and goodness. Respectability is put before right; law before justice; money before God. With them religion is compliance with a public hearsay and public custom; it is all of religion, but piety and goodness; its chief sacrament is bodily presence in a meetinghouse; its only sacrifice, a pew-tax. I know there are exceptions, and honour them all the more for being so very exceptional: they are only enough, to show the rule.

In the main, this controlling class governs the land by two instruments: the first is the public law; the next is public opinion. The law is what was once public opinion, or thought to be; is fixed, written, and supposed to be understood by somebody. Public opinion m not written, and not fixed ; but the opinion of the controlling class overrides and interprets the law,—bids or forbids its execution. Public opinion can make or unmake a law;