Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-06-12

full array. 1t is full of sublime and glowing
and poetical imagery-and may proudly claim
parallel to the most powerful production of
fancy or feeling among ancient and modern
writers.
"Science and revelation concur in
teaching that this ball of earth, which
man inhabis, is not the only world that
millions of globes like ours, roll in the
immensely ofspace. The sun, the moon,
"those seven nightly wandering fires,
those twinkling stars, are worlds"
"There doubtless, dwell other moral,
and intellectual natures; passing what
man calls time in one untired pursuit of
truth and duty; still seeking; still eX-
ploring, ever satisfying, never satiating,
the ethereal, moral, intellectual thirst
whose delightful task it is--as it should
be ours--to learn the will of the Eternal
Father; 10 seek the good, which to that
end-for them and us to seek-he hides
and finding, to admire, adore, and praise
-" Him first, Him last, Him midst and
without end.
"Imaeine one of these celestial spi-
rits, bent on this great purpose, descend
ing upon our globe; and, led, by chance,
to an European plain, at the point OF
some great battle on which to human
eye, reckless and blind to overriding
Heaven, the fate of States and Empires
is suspended.
"On a sudden the field Of combat
opens on his astonlshed vision. 1t IS a
field which men call glorious A hun
bred thousand warriors stand IN opposed
ranks. Light CLEANS on their burnlsh-
ed stccls. Their plumes and banners
wave. Hill echoes to hill the noise OF
moving rank and squadron; the neigh
and tramp of steeds, the trumpet, drum,
and bugle call.
There is a momentaiy pause: 81
lence, like that, which precedes the tall
of the thunderbolt; like that awful still
ness, which is the precursor oil the desc
latng rage of the whirlwind. In an in
slant flash succeeding fash, pour CO.
lumns of smoak along the plain.--The
iron tempest sweeps; heaping man,
horse and car in undistinguished ruin.
In shouts of rushing hosts--in shock OF
breasting steeds-ln peals of musquetry
i'm artilery's roar-in sabre's clash
in thick and gathering clouds OF dust, all
human eye, and ear. and sense are lost
Man sees not, but the sign of onset
Man hears not, but the cry Of" on
ward"
Not so the celestial stranger. His
spiritual eye, unobscured by artificial
night, his spiritual ear, unaffected by
mechanic noise, witness the real scene,
naked in all its cruel horrors.
-" He sees-lopped and bleeding limbs
scattered; CRASHED, dismembered trunks,
outspread, gore-cloued, lifeless ;-brains
bursting from crushed SOULS; blood
gushing from sabred neck; severed heads
whose mouth uttered rage, amidst the
palsying of the last agony.
He hears-the mingling cry of an
guish and despair, issuing from a thou
sand bosoms, in which thousand bayo-
nets turn-the convulsive stream of an
guish from heaps of mangletl, half-ex-
piring victims, over whom the heavy ar
tillery wheels lumber and crush into one
mass, bone, and muscle, and sinew -
while the fetlock of the war-horse drips
with blood, starting from the last palpi-
tation of the burst heart, on which his
foot pivots.
This is not earth"-would not such
a celestial stranger eXclaim -" This is
not earth--this is hell.--This is not man!
but demon, tormenting demon
"Thus exclaiming, would he not
speed away to the skies His immortal
nature unable to endure the folly, the
crime, and the madness of man."
Numerous other passages might be extract
ed that could not fail to crafty the reader
Indeed we have found it difficult to make
selection of the best, where all are excellent.
The length and number of those already
taken, remind us that it is necessary to set
bounds to inclination, and to close this article
with the brief word of exhortation with which
Mr.. @. encourages and urges his colleagues to
perseverance, at the conclusion of his address.
Whatever there is in the circum-
stances of the time, tending to make war
less frequent, less probable, or more
odious, on that seize; that analyze, dis
play and enforce.-Bring the principles
connected with those circumstances,
home to mems business and bosoms
not by discoursing on the beauties of
moral truth and on the bliss of a tranquil
state, but by exhibiting those facts and
relations, existing among men and be-
tween societies which, if cherished and