Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1813-02-27

/, state, and in enforcing, with the whole
artillery of rhetoric, it. superior claims
over that of polished and ameliorated
life. Remote as this doctrine is from
common sense, conspicuous as it is in
the history of the eccentricities and fol-
lies of the human mind, and separated
as we are from the country which ush.
cred it to light, there is yet distinctly to
be seen, more than glympse Of its sad
and delcterious influence.
Many among US (net as St. Paul, mad
with too much learning, nor sobered by
copious potations from The Pieriah
spring, but whose mental istoxlca,ion
will perhaps be co.existent with their
lives, have been cap,iyated by the splen-
dor Of system, which promises once
more to place mankind in pristine igno.
rance, and enviable sayaglsm, exempt
from the cares and tolls Of civil life, and
disentbralled from the tramme!s OF law,
or the irksome decorums Of society.
Pleased with the illusions Of bril-
liant sophis.ry, they have mistaken the
splendid dellneations of the pencil OF
fancy, on the canvass Of a heated ina
gina,ion, for the representations OF truth.
Destitute of penetration to discern the
fallacy of such baseless theories, they
a:e deceived in the very nature and cs-
sence Of happiness, and devoid OF the
benign influences Of liberal and scien-
tic education, they sigh for the imagi-
nary ease and freedom of nature, and
find themselves isolated in the midst of
society, separated from its endearments,
It's interests and its hopes.
In the breasts Of such deluded beings,
spleen must soon establish its empire !;
and to give vent to its feelings, it rails
with all the gall ofin,eetive against sci
ence as the enemy Of virtue; against
law, as the foe of liberty; against phi.
losophy, as the art of cnslaving the un.
enlightened; against the forms of reli.
gion as the visor of hypocrisy; against
the fine arts, as pampering the imagi-
nary wants and whims Of the great and
wealthy; and against commerce, as the
prolific source of luxury, Of avarice,
dishonesty. and long train of conse.
quent evils.
That serious doubt should ever have
been entertained whether knowledge en-
creases cur happiness; that any one in
an enlighteneda age should be bold enough
t" ssscr, that ignorance is the genial state
If man. and that the approximation to
civilization and the physical and intel.
,ectusI re6nements Of polished life, is
but proportionatc recession from that
sphere of innocent iIIiteracy in which
nature placed US, and from which she is
supposed to have intended we should ne
yer deviate, is indeed passing strange"
but how infinitely pore so is it, that
this wild and mis-shapen cbimera which
prostrates every barrier between man
and the brute, and sewers the link con.
Meeting US with celestial intelligences,
should Gn country where the proud
pre- eminence and dign ty Of man is SO
confidently asseried) be so generally
fos:cred; by some, openly and Without
the blush Of shame, and by many in
their totalneglect of learning, and learn
ed men; their indifference to the diiFa-
son OF knowledge, and institutions for
its advancement and finally, by their
levelIing doctrines, which accord to VAN
daIism the rights and privileges of the
learned, and place in the seats of office
and power the unenlightened yotarics Of
ignorance and OF folly.
Who can contrast the wonderful arts
of uncultivated man, and the transcend
ency of amcliorated & refined life, with
the ignoble and contracted views Of un-
tutored nature, and for moment chi
brace so preposterous a tenet! WHO
can behold the houseIess savage, tor
whom the seasons have no regard, bat
VINO leads sad, dissocial life amidst the
desert, seeking an occasional asylnm
from the violence Of the tempests in
some gloomy cavity of the earth or
rocks, and not hail education with great
delight, as the incxhaustible source Of
individual and collective happiness, and
the fountain Of Legitimate & wholesome
authority.
As nature has given US minds highly
susceptible of improvement, and en;Iow-
ed US with faculties infinitely progress
sive; and as happiness is one of the final
cause. of our creation, it is irrational to
suppose, nay iapious to assert, that the .
exercise and cultivation Of these facul-
ties, induced a condensation Of our en-
desvors after happiness.
Man in his physical organization, is
not distinguished BY any very decided
superiority over the brute creation. 1t
is the intellect,-the mind,--,he soul,
which exalts him to the highest point of
dignity in the scale of being, links him
with the 1nte!ligences, coniers on him
sovereignty over animate and mani.