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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��great familiarity with their simpler neigh- bors ; the children of humbler means, indifferent culture, moderate refine- ment, and lesser j^ersonal force feared a usurpation of privileges and digni- ties in the same consummation. The great, so to speak, were few ; the small, as we may say, were many : the one class were largely occupied with the problem of moral, social, aesthetic, and political ways and means ; the other, mainly with the •' struggle for existence." The two classes could not intimately sympathize. The same condition of things essentially exists in society to-day, only we have learned how to control our feelings better than we used to do : we are also learning that society is necessarily a composite structure, and not simply an aggregation of individuals all of the same kind.
John Harris was one of the social elite of Hopkinton. In person, he was dignified ; in mind, cultivated ; in morals, strict ; in his home, a mas- ter of men-servants and women-ser- vants ; in industry, diligent and exact ; by profession, a lawyer ; by initiation, a Freemason ; in politics, a Whig ; in religion an Episcopalian. In his day and generation some of these things might be said of many men, but all of them could hardly be affirmed of any one outside of the smaller social circle including that class sometimes called aristocratic.
It were illogical to suppose or affirm otherwise than that John Harris indi- vidually bore himself as any one might have been expected to do in the same socially dynamic case. John Harris, of course, kept mainly within his se- lect social circle, and said things not appreciable without that social circle. We offer this reflection because there are those in Hopkinton to-day who have unpleasant recollections of him. These people, of course, do not rep- resent the social circle to which John Harris belonged, and the lights of memory still vividly reflect upon their minds the pictures of a once living past. These people doubtless have
��forgiven him, but they have not for- gotten him.
We will, in this instance, illustrate the meaning of the foregoing allusion. Three religious societies have built churches in Hopkinton village, the home of John Harris. These socie- ties are the Episcopal, the Congrega- tionalist, and the Baptist. Other so- cieties have from time to time held services here. It is hardly necessary to say that the Episcopal church is the most Eesthetic structure of the three. The Episcopalians, compared with other protestants, are memorably more inclined to illustrate the aesthetic element in religious matters. As a natural consequence, they have a cer- tain zeal peculiar to their tastes. Look- ing back to the time of John Harris' meridian manhood, one need not be surprised to discover that he said something that wounded the sensi- bilities of somebody not of his own religious faith. At any rate, a Baptist authority does affirm that he said something offensive to Baptists in par- ticular. The affirmed statement was in substance this : " The time is com- ing when all the first-class people in Hopkinton will attend the Episcopal church ; the middle class will serve the Congregational ; the tag-rags will go to the Baptist." We cannot logi- cally condemn John Harris for this statement, ^\'as he not an Episco- palian? Was not puritan Congrega- tionalism a protest against the Church of England and her twin sister, the Protestant Episcopal Church of Amer- ica? Was not the Baptist church a protest against puritan Congregation- alism ? Was not then a time when ecclesiastical distinctions were very distinct? Is it not natural for every sect to think its own spiritual house- hold the nearest to perfection ? Had an enthusiastic Baptist of those days ven- tured to compare the social status of the different Hopkinton churches, he quite as likely as not would have made a statement something like this : "The humble servants of the Lord are Baptists ; those having a cjualified
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