Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-06-23
Original.

qualities:
For nouyht 50 vile that on the earth doth
live,
But to the earth some special good doth
give;
Nor ought SO good, but, strained from that
fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling On
ADJUST;
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplled,
And vice sometimes by action digniiied.
Within the infan, rnd Of this small flower
Poison hath residence, and medicine
power:
For this, being smelt, with that part
cheers the heart;
Being tasted, Stays all senses with the
smart.
I've such opposed foes, encamp them still
In man As well as herbs-graes and rude
wiH.
And, where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats pp that
plant.
Romeo and Juliet.
Thus are good and evil mingled, not
only in the best physical bounties OF ma
ture, but in the unaltersble dispensations
Of the Almighty one, the wisdom OF
which we are bound not to cali in qces.
ton, and the tender mercies of whom,
it is impossible, without madness, to
doubt. In preparing the cup fur our
selves. the proportion Of good and Of evil
depends so much upon our manner OF
mixing the ingredients, that persevering
prudence and virtue seldom fail to make
the better instead Of the woRsER pre.iO.
minan.--and GRACE (by which the poet
means e(icacious virtue') generally
produces happiness but slightly tincturcd
with evil: while RUDE WILL as seldom
fails to emb;tter the draught Of life, and
to dash it with proportion Of calamity,
beyond the original destination Of nature.
Perhaps this is the reason why we are
often found to be, practically, most un.
happy, where barren speculation would
conclude that the means Of felicity are
most abundantly within our rea,h--and
why free nations are generally more TUT
bu!ent and discontinued, than the sub
jects Of moderate despotisms and why
as part and parcel Of that hayward ten
dsncy, suicide prevails more in free than
in other countries. 1t is an ascertained
fact that there have been more acts OF
self-murder committed in Engla. !, Swift
iceland and America, than in all TIE des-
potisms Of Europe taken together.
OF the various circumstances attending
human alfairs. in which RUDE WILL, VIC.
lently breaking in, rends, aud ravels,
and dis6gures the " MINGLED IhRN," as
Shakespeare calls it, Of which the web of
life is composed the liberty Of the press
stands eminsntly conspicuous. In sOcie.
ties nothing is 30 productive Of goOd-no-
thing so powerfully operative to human
happiness and security as free press
but at the same time, nothing which,
"when strand from the fair USE" so far
revol;s from its true birth, or stumbles on
such mischievous abuse nothing in which
'virtue by being misapplied may be so
turned into vice'-or the medicine of so.
cial life be so easily Transmitted isto poi.
son: indeed. SO intimately are good and
evil interviewer in it, that it is scarcely
possible to enjoy the one, without incur
ring the danger Of the other; or to re.
move the latter, without tearing up the
whole fabric, and laying society open to
ten thousand worse evils than any to be
apprehended from its ordinary excuses,
abuses and perversioas.
Yet is there not something remediable
to be done by due regulation of the sen
tments and opinions Of leading men in
every circle Of society," May not the
abuses Of this most glorious instrument Of
national independence and freedom, be
corrected BY the discountenance and con-
: tempt OF men Of influence ? If trading
-
politicians, ambitious or venal dema.
gosues, or their subordinate agents, Of
the pen and the press, merely for the
purposes OF political intrigue, Of the low
est order and most corrupt character, dis.