The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-03-04

oOlltefated and forgotten. Modes OF living,
behaving, and employing time--the pursuits
of the busy, and the entertainments of the
gay, have been entirely changed. They
were the offspring of fashion, the children
of day. When they had run their course
they expired, and were succeeded by other
modes of living, and thinking, and acting,
! which the gloss of novelty recommended for
a while to the public taste.
What appears to US so perfect in princi-
pies, knowledge, appearances. and behav-
Jour, shall, in its turn, pass away. The
next race, while they crowd us off the stage,
will introduce their favorite discoveries and
innovations; and what we now admire as
the height of improvement, may, in few
ages hence, be considered as altogether
rude and imperfect. AS one wave effaces
the ridge which the former had made on
the sand ny the sea shore, so every succeed
ing age obliterates the opinions and modes
of the age which had gone before it.
The world looks no longer to us as it did
in the beginning oflfe. Illusions have van
ished, and entertainments have lost their
magic charms. Not only things within US,
but all external things have been changed.
! wherever we cast our eyes over the face
OF nature, or the monuments of art, we dis
Germ the marks of alteration and vicissitude
! Turn to our private connexions, and youth
ful companions, cur old acquaintance and
confidential friends, and what changes and
desolations do we find Thus all terres-
trial objects, in their origin, growth, decay,
and dissolution, strikingly shew the incon-
stancy and mutabiity, the great and sud-
den transitions and fluctuations of worldly
possessions, beauty, splendor, and happi-
ness
/ 1t may be pertinent and profitable to in
dulge our recollections, and particularly
bring to view some of the manifest and
prominent changes which have taken place
within the space of thrice ten years. And
first, the amusements and manners of the
young and the old have experienced al
most an entire metamorphose. One pas
time, one attire, one mode of entertainment,
has become obsolete, and others have been
substituted. The government in families,
and the discipline of schools-municipal
Legislative, and legal concerns-and even
ecclesiastical proceedings, have undergone
wonderful changes. What were consider
ed Indispensable prerequisites for initiation
to membership in churches, and the only
modes of expiation for offences afterwards
committed, have been exploded as super
erogatory; and the long and bitter contro-
versy, whether sprinkling or inmersing was
the scriptural mode of baptism, has been,
by common consent, given up by polemic
theologians, as mere lOgOulachy in no
wise touching the vitality of religion; and
many new methods of teaching ethics and
piety, not to say new doctrines, have been
introduced, instead of former antiquated
modes. In our schools, academies, and
universities, the course of instruction, and
the science, literature, and arts taught
therein, are SO far innovations, as almost to
exclude the ancient system. Many branch
es of physics, hardly known or exclusively
confined within college walls, now are the
common topics and knowledge of the COM
munity. The Lyceum, unknown except in
Attica, on the banks of the Ilissus, now APP
pears in nearly every country village.
In agriculture and architecture, so great
changes have been adopted, that the exte-
rior of the world seems a new creation.
Almost every house of public worship, and
other public buildings, have been erected,
or repaired and modernized, within the pc
Rod ofthirty years so that, in this respect,
we may truly say" the fashion of this
world passeth away"
Looking over the surface of my town,
search almost in vain for one who was
landholder thirty years ago. Those who
had great possessions, and those who had
hut mere point of territory, have, either
I by alienation, penury, or death, yielded
their estates to another set of landlords
| Each in his narrow cell for ever laid
( The rude forefathers of the hamlet Sleep
Not one mechanic, innkeeper, trader. or
/ professional man, who then hung out his
labelled sign, now has part in the din and
hustle of this world Other lettered boards
tell the passenger the change, and silently
inform what now is done, and who inhabits
there The spiritual shepherd, too, who
fed the flock, is gone! These are some of
the transformations and associations of time
within the purlieu of my residence and it
may not be unsuitable in the close of this
essay, to glance at the visible and promi-
nent changes which have taken place in
the centre of the shire town of the county
within the time of our remembrance. Eve
ry artisan, taverner, shop-keeper, physician,
and printer, who was active on the stage,
thirty years ago, has either finished his
earthly career, or given place to success
sor. Ot those lawyers then active, who
had swift, and words, and worth, and ac-
ton, and utterance, and power of speech to
stir mems BLOOD" but one venerable gen.
tleman remains yet among the legal frater-
nifty New signs are up, and clients flock
around other counsellors and the heralds
of salvation, who "allured 10 brighter
worlds and led the way" have all departed,
except one ancient and worthy servant OF
God! So we may say the words of the
prophet are almost literally verified" The
mighty man, and the man Of war, the Judge,
I and the prophet, the prudent, and the an
Gent, the captain of fifty, and the honora-
bic man, and the counsellor, and the cum
ming artifcer, and the eloquent orator."
have been removed, and mournful is the