Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1829-05-29

mischief, the Uhio sui uowed downWards. ne
disputants. needing nothing this manifest displea-
sure, ate and drank, in duty bound as athletic,
on asystcm of diet and regimen. in training for this
jeventfui collision Of intellect. The day Of Ill
Fools also came; although the duration and sever
lev Of winter menaced that either the displeasure
OF the Pandect the dismay Of nature, in view
OF this threatened search into the privacy of her
mysteries, would never again revolve upon us the
smiles and tears of April In due time. we learn
ed that the champion Of the convent had been
waited down our stream from the rising sun in
FURNISHED panopy, and fraught with abundant syl-
logistc appointments from the ample magazines of
Bethany. The European philosopher had gained
sadness on the Atlantic brine; had heard natural
thunder in the tropical isles Of Jamaica and Cuba;
had defied the black vomit OF Vera Cruz; and had
been pcrched in the empyrean and meditative
heights Of the city of Montezuma. Treasnrng
materials Of power, as he has thus traversed both
henispheres, he came upwards on us from the
west. Thus these conflicting minds came in con-
tact in our city, like two conflicting thunder
clouds.
Fame had already blown her clarion, and our ci-
ty was thronged with visitants from two or three
hundred miles distance. Nor was il an injurious
spirit that brought them to hear question at
length put TO rest, which had been in controversy
, for eighteen hundred years; and on which books
enough had been written to sink a seventy-four.
/, At a called meeting all decorous and proper
engagements were made. A committee was APP
pointed to provide arena for the gladiatorship.
After being refused the first presbyterian church,
they finally obtained the Methodist stone chapel.
! The champions and the said committee enacted
| the rules and courtesies OF the combat with
knightly and chivairic precision 1t was ordained,
that they should fight it out, in western phrase,
| turn about, thirty minutes each, until one or
| the other should cry quarter. Under correction,
we venture to suggest that in similar cases here
alter. victory ought to be adjudged to the party
that shall receive the enemys fire, during his own
silence. with the NEST unwincing countenance,
and the most exemplary patience.
| Travelling back to the ages Of philosophy, and
| remembering the seven wise masters and the
ven sages of Greece, the committee and disputants
selected seven moderators an intellectual court
| OF oyer ana Terminer, who were conspicuousIy
mounted on a carpeted stage, and in purer air.
Their business was not only to Judge, but TO pre-
serve fair play, and nterdct all poisoned weapons,
and all other trespass Of the prescribed rules of
honorable combat.
April Is ,lS29the church and the open area lead
ing to It was perfect wedge, or as he of the Pan
conditions were there. Even our fair spinsters,
with their shining morning faces, were waiting to
catch mouthfui of metaphysics, with which to
swoop the intellccts of their SWANS at the first
morning, hne April sun gave the light Of his
countenance. The combat, unparalleled in the
annals OF dspntation, was opened. On the coun-
| tenance OF the immense crowd, sat cheerful and
seit-relying brightness OF keen discrimination.
! which announced TO the most careless adopts in
/ physognomy, that they had brought TO their task
not only due estimate of their ability 10 weigh
the great points to be discussed in unerring intel.
ectual scales, OF nicely to turn with the weight
OF an additional hair, hut that they felt the respnn-
sibiiity OF their case; and were nf1cxible in pur-
pnse to settle those long agitated questions in JUS
| tlce and Judgment that they might henceforth
sleep for ever Imagine the emanating bright
ness which beamed from the chronological do
MAN Oh fbe aforesaid seven sages, who were pur-
posey appointed 10 he ar and determine, touching
these momentous questions.
Then we gazed at the two athlete. and magin-
ed the munitions Of logomachy, laid always in
mysterious and awful order and power in the mar
row precincts of two small heads We silently
admired the infinite compressibiiity of that knowi
edge, which Is power more energetic than thun-
dered from all the cannon at Borodino.
Every one has seen the face the print of the
benevolent Social cosmopolite, the Welsh phlo-
sopher, whose strange taste il is, to wander over
the world, bestowing vast sums in charity, and to
obtain in return, an ample harvest of vilification
and abuse. He was dressed in Quaker plainness,
wearing his customary, undaunted, self posse sed
good-natured face, surmounted, as most peopIe
know, With an Intellectual rudder of almost por-
tentous amplitude, that might we'll have been
deemed an acquisition in pilgrimage to the pro-
montory OF noses. From each side of this prornin-
ent index OF mental power, beamed such an inces.
SAINT eiitux OF cheerfulness, as might well shame,
in comparison, the sour and trstful vsage OF many
an heir OF the hope of Immortality
The chiTalrous champion Of the covenant is
|
gentleman, we should think between thirty and
forty, with long face, rather small head, Of
/ sparkling, bright and cheerful countenance, and
finely arched forehead; in the earnest yigor of
youth, and with the very first sprinking Of white
| on his crown. He wore aspect, as Of one who
had words both ready and ineyhaustible, and as
possessed oil the excellent grace ofperseyerance
| 10 degree, that he would not retreat an inch in
| the way OF concession, TO escape the crack and
! pudder OF dissolvinG world. His venerable rrey-
headed father, also a clergyman, and two young
| er brothers, were with him. II was understood,
that he was independent in point OF property; and
| that he edits religious paper of extensive crcu-
lation. 1t ought not to be forgotten that both the
father and son perform their clerical duties 10 the
| congregation, at Bethany gratis. Mr.. Owen had
| a kind oil second, too, in young German gentle
man, who travels with him an interpreter.
stenographer also, sat in the enclosure Of the al
tar, TO take notes of the debate.
| When the Welsh philosopher arose might have
been seen, in their most amusing relic ewes
strained, mouths half open, and heads bent for
ward. We saw him forthwith mounted on his
won.ed black hobby, the social system - 1t
was not long before we discovered that the cham
! pion Of the covenant, in like manner, sported a
I magnificent moitled hobby, which our innate re-
/ yerence for holy things forbiddeth us to name.
The historian relateth with grief, that during the
eight long days Of this logical tournament, these
two conrsers were riding up and down the field Of
controversy, constantly menacing fight, but never
coming to close quarters in the actual tug OF bat
tie; for 10 instead Of effectus closing in OF
| quiddities and metaphysical cuts and thrusis
which we expected woulG make the lint fly >
at once, Mr.. Owen fought shy reserved his FIRE
and entreDched himself impregnabiy behind the
" twelve divine, fundamental laws Of human ma
ture, precisely soldiers did on the glorious
| eighth, behind the cotton bales below New Or
iean'' On the contrary, our western friend of the
tl1~, 81. n Z 4