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012 - Chapter 12 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of The Famous Missions of California. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Chad Jackson. The Famous Missions of California by
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  Speaker 1: William Henry Hudson, Chapter twelve. It does not fall within
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  Speaker 1: the scope of this little sketch, in which nothing more
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  Speaker 1: has been aimed at than to tell an interesting story
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  Speaker 1: in the simplest possible way, to enter into any discussion
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  Speaker 1: of a question to which what has just been said
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  Speaker 1: and might naturally seem to lead the question, namely of
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  Speaker 1: the results immediate and remote, of the mission system in California.
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  Speaker 1: The widely divergent conclusions on this subject registered by the historians,
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  Speaker 1: will on investigation be found, as in most such cases,
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  Speaker 1: to depend quite as much upon a bias of mind,
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  Speaker 1: mind and preconceived ideals as upon the bare facts presented,
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  Speaker 1: concerning which one would imagine there can hardly be much
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  Speaker 1: difference of opinion. To decide upon the value of a
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  Speaker 1: given social experiment, we must to begin with wake up
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  Speaker 1: our minds as to what we should wish to see
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  Speaker 1: achieved and where there is no unanimity concerning the object
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  Speaker 1: to be reached, there will scarcely be any in respect
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  Speaker 1: of the means employed. It is not to be wondered at. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: that critical judgment upon the Franciscan missionaries and their work
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  Speaker 1: has been given here in terms of unqualified laudation and
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  Speaker 1: therein the form of severest disapproval, and that everyone who
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  Speaker 1: touches the topic afresh is expected to take sides in
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  Speaker 1: their favor. It must, i think, be universally admitted that
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  Speaker 1: they wrought always with the highest motives and the noblest intentions,
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  Speaker 1: and that their labors were really fruitful of much good
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  Speaker 1: among the native tribes. On the other hand, when regarded
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  Speaker 1: from the standpoint of secular progress, it seems equally certain
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  Speaker 1: that their work was sadly hampered by narrowness of outlook
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  Speaker 1: and understanding, and an utter want of appreciation of the
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  Speaker 1: demands and conditions of the modern world. Thus, while we
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  Speaker 1: give them the fullest credit for all that they accomplished
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  Speaker 1: by their teachings and example, we have still frankly to
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  Speaker 1: acknowledge their failure in the most important and most difficult
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  Speaker 1: part of their undertaking, in the task of transforming many
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  Speaker 1: thousands of ignorant and degraded savages into self respecting men
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  Speaker 1: and women fit for the duties and responsibilities of civilization.
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  Speaker 1: Yet to put it in this way is to show
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  Speaker 1: sharply enough that such failure is not hastily to be
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  Speaker 1: set down to their discredit. It is often said, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: that they went altogether the wrong way to work for
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  Speaker 1: the achievement of the much desired result, And it is
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  Speaker 1: unquestionably true, as La Peruse long ago pointed out, that
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  Speaker 1: they made the fundamental, but with the inevitable mistake of
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  Speaker 1: sacrificing the t temporal and material welfare of the natives
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  Speaker 1: to the consideration of the so called heavenly interests. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: in common fairness, we must remember the stuff with which
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  Speaker 1: they had to deal. The Indian was by nature a
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  Speaker 1: child and a slave. And if out of children and
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  Speaker 1: slaves they did not at once manufacture independent and law
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  Speaker 1: abiding citizens, is it for us, who have not yet
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  Speaker 1: exhibited triumphic success in handling the same problem under far
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  Speaker 1: more favorable conditions, to cover them with our contempt or
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  Speaker 1: dismissed them with our blame. Civilization is at best a
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  Speaker 1: slow and painful affair as we half civilized people ought
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  Speaker 1: surely to understand. By this time a matter not of
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  Speaker 1: individuals and years, but of generations and centuries, And nothing
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  Speaker 1: permanent has ever yet been gained by any attempt, how promising,
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  Speaker 1: soever it may have seemed to force the natural processes
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  Speaker 1: of social evolution. The mission Padres bore the cross from
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  Speaker 1: point to point along the far off Pacific coast. They
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  Speaker 1: built churches, they founded settlements. They gave their strength to
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  Speaker 1: the uplifting of the heathen. Little that was enduring came
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  Speaker 1: out of all this toil. Perhaps this was partly because
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  Speaker 1: their methods were shortsighted, their means inadequate to the ends proposed.
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  Speaker 1: But when we remember that they had set their hands
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  Speaker 1: to an almost impossible task, we shall perhaps be inclined
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  Speaker 1: rather to acknowledge their partial success than to deal harshly
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  Speaker 1: with them on the score of their manifest failure. Be
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  Speaker 1: all this as it may, however, the missions of California
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  Speaker 1: passed away, leaving practically nothing behind them but a memory.
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  Speaker 1: Yet this is surely a memory to be cherished by
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  Speaker 1: all who feel a pious reverence for the past, and
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  Speaker 1: whose hearts are responsive to the sense of tears that
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  Speaker 1: there is in mortal things and alike. For those who
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  Speaker 1: live beneath the blue skies of California, and for those
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  Speaker 1: who wander awhile as visitors among her scenes of wonder
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  Speaker 1: and enchantment, the old mission buildings will ever be objects
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  Speaker 1: of curious and unique interest, survivals from a bygone era,
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  Speaker 1: embodiments not only to the purposes of their founders, but
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  Speaker 1: of the faith which built the great cathedrals of Europe.
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  Speaker 1: They stand pathetic figures in a world to which they
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  Speaker 1: do not seem to belong. In the noise and bustle
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  Speaker 1: of the civilization which is taking possession of what was
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  Speaker 1: once their territory, they have no share. The life about
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  Speaker 1: them looks towards the future. They point mutely to the past.
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  Speaker 1: A tender sentiment clings about them. In their hushed enclosures,
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  Speaker 1: we breathe a drowsy old world atmosphere of peace. To
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  Speaker 1: linger within their walls, to muse in their graveyards is
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  Speaker 1: to step out of the noisy present into the silence
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  Speaker 1: of departed years, in a land where everything is of yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: and whose marvelous natural beauties are but rarely touched with
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  Speaker 1: the associations of history. Or charms of romance. These things
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  Speaker 1: have a subtle and peculiar power, a magic not to
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  Speaker 1: be resisted by anyone who turns aside for an hour
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  Speaker 1: or two from the highways of the modern world to
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  Speaker 1: dream ung the scenes where the old padres toiled and died,
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  Speaker 1: and as in imagination, he there calls up the ghostly
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  Speaker 1: figures of neophyte and soldier and priest, now busy with
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  Speaker 1: the day's task work. Now kneeling at twilight mass in
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  Speaker 1: the dimly lighted chapel, as the murmur of strange voices
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  Speaker 1: and the faint music of bell and chant steal in
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  Speaker 1: upon his ears, he will hardly fail to realize that,
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  Speaker 1: however much or little the Franciscan missionaries accomplished for California,
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  Speaker 1: they have passed down to our prosaic after generations, a
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  Speaker 1: legacy of poetry whereof the sweetness will not soon die away.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twelve, recording by Chad Jackson. End of
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  Speaker 1: the Famous Missions of California by William Henry Hudson