Justice Brandeis On
Liberty
-X
We have never read anything
more beautiful than the follow
ing discourse on “Liberty” by
Justice Louis Brandeis of the
United States Supreme Court:
“We speak of liberty as one
thing, and of virtue, wealth,
t nowledge, invention, national
strength, and national independ
ence as other things. But, of all
tnese, liberty is the source, the
mother, the necessary condition.
She is to virtue what light is to
color; to wealth what sunshine
is to grain; to knowledge what
eyes are to sight. She is a geni
us of invention, the brawn of na
tional strength, the spirit of na
tional independence. Where lib
erty rises, there virtue grows,
wealth increases, knowledge ex
pands, invention multiplies hu
man powers, and in strength and
spirit the freer nation rises
among her neighbors as Saul
amid his brethern—taller and
fairer. Where liberty sinks,
there virtue fades, wealth dimin
ishes, knowledge is forgotten, in
vention ceases, and empires once
mighty in arms and arts become
a helpless prey to freer barbari
ans!
“Only in broken gleams and
partial light has the sun of liber
ty beamed among men, but all
progress hath she called forth.
“Liberty came to a race of
slaves crouching under Egyptian
whips, and led them forth from
the house of bondage. She hard
ened them in the desert and
made them a race of conquerors.
The free spirit of the Mosaic law
took their thinkers up to heights
where they beheld the unity of
God and inspired their poets
with strains that yet phrase the
highest exaltations of thought.
Liberty dawned on the Phoenic
ian coast, and ships passed the
Pillars of Hercules to plow the
unknown sea. She shed a par
tial light on Greece, and marble
grew to shapes of ideal beauty,
words became the instruments of
subtlest thought, and against
the scanty militia of free cities
the countless hosts of the great
king broke like surges against a
rock. She cast her beam on the
4-acre farms of Italian husband
men, and born of her strength a
power came forth that conquer
ed the world. They glinted from
shields of German warriors, and
Augustus wept his legions. Out
cf the night that followed her
eclipse, her slanting rays fell
again on free cities and a lost
learning revived, modern civili
zation began, a new world was
unveiled; and as liberty grew, so
grew art, wealth, power, know
ledge, and refinement. In I he
History 01 every nation we may
read the same truth. It was
strength born of the Magna
Charta that won Crecy and
Agincourt. It was the revival of
liberty from the despotism of the
Tudors that glorified the Eliza
bethan age. It was the spirit
that brought a crowned tyrant
to the block that planted here
the seed of a mighty tree. It
was the energy of ancient free
dom that, the moment it had
gained unity, made Spain the
mightiest power of the world, on
ly to fall to the lowest depth of
weakness when tyranny succeed
ed liberty. See, in France, all
intellectual vigor dying under
the the tyranny of the seven
r?
teenth century to revive in
splendor as liberty awoke in the
eighteenth, and on the enfran
chisement of French peasants in
the great Revolution, basing the
wonderful strength that has in
our time defied defeat.
Shall we not trust her?
In our time, as in times before,
creep on the insidious forces
(hat, producing inequality, de
stroy liberty. On the horizon
the clouds begin to lower. Liber
ty calls to us again. We must
follow her further; we must trust
her fully. Either we must whol
ly accept her or she will not stay.
It is not enough that men should
'vote; it is not enough that they
should be theoretically equal be
fore the law. They must have
liberty to avail themselves of the
opportunities and means of life;
they must stand on equal terms
with reference to the bounty of
nature. Either this, or Liberty
withdraws her light! Either this,
or darkness comes on, and the
\ery forces that progress has
e volved turn to powers that work
destruction. This is the univers
al law. This is the lesson of the
centuries. Unless its foundations
be laid in justice, the social
structure cannot stand.”
SIX-CYLINDER SHOOTER
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men before he was 21.”
She: “What kind of a car did
he drive”?
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