Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1875 — Saying “ No.” [ARTICLE]

Saying “ No.”

Civilization owes an irredeemable debt to those who had the wisdom to think “No,” and the courage to stick to it. Galileo, Melancthon, Luther, Hampden, Bentham, Jenner are among the heroes who, in defiance of Popes" Emperors, Kings, Councils and all the faculties, have said"*No” to the high-placed and convenient wrong—to the time-honored error; and, unlike good Launcelot Gobbo, refused to bid their conscience “Via!” All these, and more of the same kidney, have at one time been stigmatized as infidels, traitors, dreamers, charlatans. Even in our own prosaic times we have men in theology; politics, art and sciences whom we call dreamers because they see a little further than we can; and charlatans because they are sayers of “No” to the convenient doctrine that whatever is is right On the other hand, how humanity might have gained if some great ones of the earth had been able to sav “No” to their ambition, their vices and their self-will! Suppose Cssar had not been ambitions, Louis XIV. vicious, and our own George 111. pig-headed ? Suppose—to reverse the position—Elizabeth Tudor had said “Yes” to the King of Spain * Such speculations belong to that history of things which never happened, suggested by the elder Disraeli, and which I am not going to write. So, to descend from

great things to small, suppose White had persisted in his “ No” to Smith’s request that he would put his name to that little bill—that bill, the proceeds of which were to get good, easy Smith out of an ugly scrape—that bill which he was certain he could “ take up” long—oh, long! before it would become due. Smith got a “ No” at first, and observed: “ Oh! indeed! I thought you were my friend; but I can easily get some one else.” Some one else! Some one to whom Smith would point in* the future and say: “Capital fellow— Brown! Did me ever such a good turn once when that sneak White shirked.” Well, the name is writ down, and the bill is not taken up. Baby falls sick unto death, and there is a guinea a day for a fortnight payable to Dr. Calomel. The wife—who has not closed an eye all that weary time—breaks down; both are ordered to the sea-side, and (thanks to Smith) there is not a five pound note left in White’s treasury! How he wishes now that he had stuck to that “ No.” What would he care now if every man he met from Highgate to the bank called him a sneak, so that he had that fifty pounds safe for poor pale Bessie and her bairn! But it is too late. Mr. Shadrack has that fifty pounds, and Smith doe§ not drop in to tea as he used to do.— Temple Bar.