as children we have all amused ourselves by looking into a kaleidoscope, turning it around and around and watching the changing patterns formed from the mixing bits of different colored glass in the other end. each turn makes a different pattern and each bit of glass seems to seek a spot in the general medley where it can be settled until another turn drives it to find a resting place somewhere else. the organization of individual units into a group is more or less such a formation, each seeking to adjust itself to a pattern and finding that the pattern is ever-changing and the individual units obliged to seek new positions and make new adjustments.
it is vain for social theorists to talk of a perfect order, a system of social organization that will find the proper place for each unit and bring social symmetry out of the whole. such a society is not consistent with the varied capacities and wants of men. neither is a perfect order possible with ever-changing and moving physical forces, with new mental conceptions, with new needs and wants, with constant births and deaths, and with the innate instincts of man.
some system may be the best for a time but must in turn give place to new formations. in this process the old is ever mixed with the new. the past hangs on to plague the present, and the vision of the future disturbs the quiet and stability that the present inherited from the past. organizations of society are necessary and automatic. the frost on the window pane takes its pattern, the crystals in the glass and stone have their formations, the grain of sand, the plant—all forms of animal life—the solar system and, doubtless, an infinite number of other systems which the eye cannot see or the mind comprehend take on form and order. the symmetry and shape of any of these organizations may be shattered by growth or catastrophe, and new forms may take their place. all life is constant friction and constant adjustment, each particle in a blind way trying to find a more harmonious relation, but never reaching complete rest.
the social and political patterns that men have taken have been of many forms. all through the past these have changed, and the laws and habits that were meant to hold men together, have been made and discarded as fast as new emotions or ideas have gained the power to make the change. men are of all degrees of adaptability. some can readily conform to the new. some adjust themselves very slowly. man's structure is fixed; his inherent instincts are of ancient origin, always urging him to primitive reactions; his habits are slowly formed and slowly changed. slowly he settles himself to the conditions that surround him. he learns their demands; he manages to conform, but the folk-ways that he knew and the way of life he learned must be changed to something else. every new adjustment, every change of organization, every modification made by civilization, bears its toll of victims who have not been able to adjust themselves to the new order.
the first criminal regulations, doubtless, had to do with the personal relations of men. the number of offenses was small for life was simple, wants were few, and ambition rare. the growth of religion created a ferocious criminal code, regulating every thought and action that god's agents thought might offend the deity or threaten their power on earth. anyone interested in the story of punishment for heresy, sorcery or other crimes growing out of religious fanaticism, can read the story in lecky's history of rationalism in europe, in white's a history of the warfare of science with theology in christendom, in draper's intellectual development of europe, and in many other books. the spanish inquisition alone furnished about 350,000 victims in the two centuries of its power. many of them were burned alive, many others were killed by the most cruel torture that could be devised by man. up to recent times more victims have been put to death for heresy and kindred crimes against religion than for any other cause. next to this no doubt stand political crimes. even america hanged old women for witchcraft, a crime they could not commit. practically all the victims of religious and political persecution have been guiltless of any real crimes, and among them were always many of the noblest of their age.
every general change of religious or political ideas bears its quota of crimes. for whatever the religious or political organization, it always uses every means in its power to perpetuate itself. this is as true of republics as of monarchies, although the severity of punishment and the amount of heresy permitted change from time to time. each age is sure that it has the true religion and the god-given political organization. in every age the accepted religion is true, and the king and the state can do no wrong.
one thing only seems to be sure. human nature does not change. whether it was the theological systems of the ancient world fighting to keep christianity out, or christianity fighting to preserve itself, the same cruel, bigoted, fanatical majority has been found to do its will, and the same reasons and excuses have served the law from the earliest times down to today.
a letter of the younger pliny, who was then governor of bythinia-pontus, a province of rome, asking the emperor trajan for instructions in dealing with the early christians shows how persistent are intolerance and bigotry. this might have been written yesterday to seek advice in the suppression of opinion and punishment for sedition in any of the most advanced governments of the modern world, as it was in the most advanced of the ancient world. the letter is here reproduced as an interesting exhibit of human nature and it fixity.
pliny, the younger, was born in 61 a.d. and became governor of the province of bythinia-pontus about the year 112 a.d. under the emperor trajan. in the discharge of his duties as governor, pliny discovered that the conversion of many of his subjects to christianity had resulted in a falling off of trade in the victims usually purchased for sacrifices at the temples and in other commodities used in connection with pagan worship. as a good governor, pliny sought to remedy this economic situation, and his plan was to restore his subjects to their old forms of worship. thus he was brought into contact with christianity. the following letters, one from pliny to trajan, and the other, trajan's reply, show the situation. these documents are from the tenth book of pliny's correspondence, letters 97 and 98.
pliny asking instructions of trajan on trials of christians
it is my invariable rule, sir, to refer to you in all matters where i feel doubtful; for who is more capable of removing my scruples, or informing my ignorance? having never been present at any trials concerning those who profess christianity, i am unacquainted not only with the nature of their crimes, or the measure of their punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an examination concerning them. whether, therefore, any difference is usually made with respect to ages, or no distinction is to be observed between the young and the adult; whether repentance entitles them to a pardon; or if a man has been once a christian, it avails nothing to desist from his error; whether the very profession of christianity, unattended with any criminal act, or only the crimes themselves inherent in the profession are punishable; on all these points i am in great doubt. in the meanwhile, the method i have observed towards those who have been brought before me as christians is this: i asked them whether they were christians; if they admitted it, i repeated the question twice, and threatened them with punishment; if they persisted, i ordered them to be at once punished: for i was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction.
there were others also brought before me possessed with the same infatuation, but being roman citizens, i directed them to be sent to rome. but this crime spreading (as is usually the case) while it was actually under prosecution, several instances of the same nature occurred. an anonymous information was laid before me, containing a charge against several persons, who upon examination denied they were christians, or had ever been so. they repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and incense before your statue (which for that purpose i had ordered to be brought, together with those of the gods), and even reviled the name of christ: whereas there is no forcing, it is said, those who are really christians into any of these compliances: i thought it proper, therefore, to discharge them. some among those who were accused by a witness in person at first confessed themselves christians, but immediately after denied it: the rest owned indeed that they had been of that number formerly, but had now (some above three, others more, and a few above twenty years ago) renounced that error. they all worshipped your statue and the images of the gods, uttering imprecations at the same time against the name of christ. they affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a stated day before it was light, and addressed a form of prayer to christ, as to a divinity, binding themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of any wicked design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then re-assemble, to eat in common a harmless meal. from this custom, however, they desisted after the publication of my edict, by which, according to your commands, i forbade the meeting of any assemblies.
after receiving this account, i judged it so much the more necessary to endeavor to extort the real truth, by putting two female slaves to the torture, who were said to officiate in their religious rites: but all i could discover was evidence of an absurd and extravagant superstition. i deemed it expedient, therefore, to adjourn all further proceedings, in order to consult you. for it appears to be a matter highly deserving your consideration, more especially as great numbers must be involved in the danger of these prosecutions, which have already extended, and are still likely to extend, to persons of all ranks and ages, and even of both sexes. in fact, this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread its infection among the neighboring villages and country. nevertheless, it still seems possible to restrain its progress. the temples, at least, which were once almost deserted, begin now to be frequented; and the sacred rites, after a long intermission, are again revived; while there is a general demand for the victims, which till lately found very few purchasers. from all this it is easy to conjecture what numbers might be reclaimed if a general pardon were granted to those who shall repent of their error.
trajan to pliny
you have adopted a right course, my dearest secundus, in investigating the charges against the christians who were brought before you. it is not possible to lay down any general rule for all such cases. do not go out of your way to look for them. if indeed they should be brought before you, and the crime is proved, they must be punished; with the restriction, however, that where the party denies he is a christian, and shall make it evident that he is not, by invoking our gods, let him (notwithstanding any former suspicion) be pardoned upon his repentance. anonymous information ought not to be received in any sort of prosecution. it is introducing a very dangerous precedent, and is quite foreign to the spirit of our age.
civilization is largely a question of new machinery and methods. it is not the humanizing of men. it is plain that no matter what the time or age, the characteristics of man remain the same. his structure does not change; his emotional life cannot change. new objects and desires may control his feeling, but whatever the aim of the age and place, the same inherent emotions control.
intolerance has been one of the great sources of evil all down the ages. it is practically certain that neither time nor education has made man more kindly in his judgment of his fellows or more tolerant in his opinions and life. all that education can do is to remove some of the inducing causes that have always brought the sharp conflicts and awakened the cruelty of man.
every civilization brings new evils and new complexities which man meets with the same machine and the same emotions. it is fairly certain that no nobler idealism or no finer feelings have been planted or cultivated in man since the dawn of history, and when it is thoroughly realized that man's structure is fixed and cannot be changed it seems as if none could be developed.
