In the Legislature of Pennsylvania, the law designed to suppress the cultivation of spiritual science by severe penalties, was favorably reported by a committee but prevented by popular indignation from passing. Yet the people were not sufficiently alert to prevent legislation in favor of that monopoly the Standard Oil Company, which is considered a betrayal of justice.
In Illinois a bill was passed in the Senate and came near passing in the House, which would have abolished all medical freedom and made it a crime for any one but a licensed doctor to help the sick in any way, even by a prayer. Verily the spirit of American liberty does not pervade American communities and American legislatures.
In Massachusetts the Old Puritanic Sunday Laws having fallen into "_innocuous desuetude_," an attempt to give them a partial enforcement in Boston compelled a little legislative action and the result was what might have been expected in a State in which religious opinions are allowed to interfere with the credibility of a witness, and in which Diogenes, if he were here, would be struck with the vast inconsistency between the creed of Christendom and its practice, and the vast disparity between the progress of modern knowledge and the effete system of education in our Universities. He would wonder why modern colleges are more interested in the details of Greek life and letters than in the beneficent sciences of to-day of which the Greeks knew nothing.
He would wonder why the edicts of the Pagan emperor, Constantine, concerning the observance of Sunday are observed and enforced as a religious duty, while the Divine love inculcated by Jesus Christ, which forbids all strife and war, is no more regarded by Christian nations than by the rulers of ancient Rome.
He would look into the schools and universities professedly devoted to science and literature, and ask why they have even less freedom of discussion and thought than the schools of Athens, every professor being interested to discourage the investigation of novelties in philosophy instead of being ready to welcome original investigation.
Under the new Sunday law of Massachusetts, Sunday trains and steamboat lines are at the mercy of the railroad commissioners, who can stop every one of them; but boating, yachting, and carriage driving on Sunday are free to all who have the money to pay for them. But while outdoor frolic is free-and-easy, indoor enjoyment is prohibited. Everybody is liable to five dollar fines for _attending_ "any sport, game, or play" on Sunday, unless it has been licensed, and private families never ask a license for their own amusements. But _to be present_ on Sunday "_at any dancing_," brings a liability to a $50 fine for each offence! What a terrible thing dancing is to be sure, that looking on should cost $50, while a frolic in boating and yachting is unexceptionably holy, and the fast young men may kick up a dust, kill the horses, and smash the buggies with impunity, or kill themselves by rowing in the hot sun, under whiskey stimulus on Sunday.