The Litchfield County post. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1826-1829, 1827-03-15


hands; their diadems, crowns of glory
which should never fade away On the
rich and the eloquent,on mobiles and priests,
they looked down with contempt: For
they esteemed themselves rich in a more
precious treasure, and eloquent in a more
sublime language, mobiles by the right of an
earlier creation, and priests by the imposi-
ton ola mightier hand. The very mean
est Of them was a being to whose fate a
mysterious and terrible Importance belong
ed-on whose slightest action the Spirits
of light and darkness looked with anxious
interest, who have been destined before
heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a
felicity which should continue when heav-
en- and earth should have passed away
Events which short sighted politicians as
cribed to earthly causes had been ordained
on his account. For his sake empires had
arisen, and flourished and decayed. For
his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his
will by the pen of the Evangelist and the
harp of the prophet. He had been wrested
by no common deliverer from the grasp of
no common foe. He had been ransomed
by the sweat Of no vulgar agony, by the
blood of no earthly sacrifice. 1t was for
him that the sun had been darkened, that
the rocks had been rent, that the dead had
arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the
sufferings Of her expiring God .4..-
Thus the Puritan was made up of two
different men, the one all establishment,
penltence, gratitude, passion; the other,
proud, calm, infexible, sagacious' He
Frustrated himself in the dust before his
Maker. But he set his foot on the neck
othis king. In his devotional retirement
he prayed with convulsions and groans and
tears. He was half mnddencd by glorious
or terrible Illusions. He heard the Tyres
of angels, or the tempting whisper of fiends.
He caught glimpse of the Beatifc Vision,
or awoke screaming from dreams of ever
lasting fire. Like Fane, he thought him
self intrusted with the sceptre Of the mil
lenial year. Like Fleetwood, he cried in
the bitterness ofhis soul that God had hid
his face from him. But when he took his
seat i'll the council, or girt on his sword for
war, these tcmpestuous workings of his
soul had loft no pcrceptible trace behind
them. People who saw nothing Of the
godly but thcir uncouth visages, and heard
nothing from them but their groans and
whining hymns, might laugh at them. But
those had little reason to laugh who en-
countered them in the hall of debate, or in
the field of battle. These fanatics brought
with them to civil and military affairs, a
GOODNESS ofjudgment, and an immutablity
ofpurpose which some writer's have thought
inconsistent with their religious zeal, but
which were in fact the necessary effects of
it. The intensity of their feelings on one
subject made them tranquil on every 9TH
er. One overpowering sentiment had sub
jected to itself pity and hatred, ambition
and fear. Death had lost its tcrrors and
pleasure its charms. They had their smiles
and their tears, their raptures and their
sorrows, but not for the things Of this world,
Enthusiasm had made them Stoics, had
cleared their minds from every vulgar pre-
udice, and raised them above the influence
of danger and of corruption. 1t sometimes
might lead them to pursue unwise ends, but
never to choose unwise means. They
went through the world like Sir Artegale's
iron man Talus with his fail, crushing and
trampling down oppressors, mingling with
human beings, but having neither part nor
lot in human infirmities insensible to ia
tigue, to pleasure, and to pain not to be
pierced by any weapon, nor to be with
stood by any barrier. -.s .sr
The Small POr.--In January, man
passed through this disease in this city duly
fenced in against all unnecessary connexion
or intercourse with his unvaccinated neigh
bors. We are glad that this poor fellow
was not driven from has house at this Sc
we're season, to accommodate the fears and
apprehensions of those whose fears and
danger arise solely from objectionable neg
ligenco and Indifference to their own safe
ty. If those who neglect vaccination are
made to believe that no case of small pox
will ever be permitted to exist near them,
they will be confirmed III their sgluggish
neglect ofduty. When men disregard the
clearest injunctions of reason and expert
ence, it is right to stir up their fears just so
far as to induce them to see, admit and a.
void the danger which threatens, and would
destroy them. Any more alarm than this,
in any case, we hold to be improper and
injurions.--If it be not so, we may Their
terrify man into insanity, and fatter our
selves that we have done him great serv-
ice. .... ..-t -. ....-....-.