If living to-day, the spiritual pioneers and reformers would no doubt be surprised at the visible harvest. Yet it was their opening of dark places to the light, through the cultivation of the mental soil, that made the intellectual landscape which we see to-day. The Indians call the plantain the “white man’s footstep,” because they note that the cutting-down of the dark forests and opening the soil to the sunlight have given the weeds also their opportunity; so that, far more numerously than in the twilight of the woods, or even in the little clearings for the corn and pumpkins, the highways and fields are to-day populous with what we call “weeds.” Yet how vastly greater is the crop of what makes food for man! This is the story, also, of intellectual culture in every age and land. Perhaps it always will be thus. The best of all practical philosophy on this subject is that taught by the greatest of teachers--“let both grow together.” Persecutors, bigots, and tyrants have acted in a different spirit, with appalling results. The Reformation was more of a success in Scotland than in England, even as men are of more value than edifices of brick and stone, and the people of more value than courts. It culminated, in the lower part of the island, in the divine right of kings and the celestial origin of the Established Church, for Elizabeth was advised by Spain and was strong enough to prevent any open change. But north of the Tweed the people were more generally educated and elevated to a higher place. Hence, in Scotland there was no such tempest raised as there was in the next century, in England, when one king was decapitated and another sent out of the kingdom. Scotland saved herself from stupid kings and a multitude of horrors by previously giving her people the rudiments of knowledge. We in America have never had, from English writers, either fair play or full truth about the Scots, nor is the Scotsman’s part in the making of the United States generally appreciated. The Scotch Puritans not only exercised a marked and lasting influence upon their brethren in England, but upon those beyond sea. Next to the Hollanders, who taught us Americans pretty much all we know of Federal Government, was the influence of Scotsmen in the development of the American nation. The Normans gave to England her universities, her cathedrals, and her legal system, but Scotland never shared in the benefits of the Norman invasion as did England. One may almost say that in place of the nobler and creative side of the Norman genius was Presbyterianism; that is, representative and responsible government in the Church, the actual rule being by lay elders chosen by the congregation. Much of this republicanism in things religious was the work of one man, the greatest in a country prolific of great men as Scotland has been. John Knox’s power was resistless, because he trusted in God and in the common man.