THE MUSKET AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 485 



springs from the ability, and the ability is the fruit of invention. It 

 may seem a strange assertion to many persons, but I believe it can be 

 shown to be true, that the development of the moral nature of man has 

 been as directly dependent upon invention as has his physical comfort. 

 [ To he continued. '\ 



THE MUSKET AS A SOCIAL FOECE. 



By JOHN McELROY. 



WHAT has always greatly puzzled the historical student has been 

 to account for the debasement of the mass of mankind that took 

 place during the long night of the dark ages. 



In the lustrous afternoon which preceded that going down of the sun 

 of civilization for a half -score of centuries the people of Europe seemed 

 to be enjoying a fair measure of liberty and self-respect. In decaying 

 Rome they were poor, for the wealth had agglutinated into the hands 

 of the few. In barbaric Germany they were poor, because the wealth 

 had not been created. But they were all free, and highest and lowest 

 stood on a common plane of manhood. In spite of apparent caste 

 distances, the substance of equality was yet a permanent and control- 

 ling quality. Everywhere the high and the low were but an arm's 

 length apart, and the arm that measured that distance was a sturdy, 

 manly one, usually quite ready to give and return blows. South of 

 the Alps the proudest noble was within reach of the torch and dagger 

 of the humblest plebeian. North of the great mountains no chief was 

 so powerful as to be beyond the spear-thrust of the meanest of his 

 followers. No man need be wholly abject, for he was always within 

 striking distance of his oppressor. The turbulent Roman proletary 

 resisted encroachment on his rights with riot and insurrection. The 

 brawny Teuton knew no master but his elected chief, whom he de- 

 posed with scant ceremony the moment the leader's hand or nerve 

 weakened. 



A thousand years later, when day dawned once more, an amazing 

 chasm was found to have opened up between the high and the low. 

 The few were as gods in their power over the lives and property of 

 the many. The low were as abject in their degradation as the beasts 

 that perish. 



In each community there had come to be one who lorded it like a 

 wolf in a village of prairie-dogs. He dwelt on a hill-top, in a castle 

 of massive masonry, clad himself in fine raiment, and gormandized 

 battened, and rioted. Where he was, there was " gude chere in knightlie 

 hall," there were "wassail" and "revel" and "rouse" and all the other 

 fine-named forms of the dull gluttony of feudal days. 



