The Arkansas advocate., 1830-11-10

prospect of the New Jerusalem; still bui an emanation of that spirit of pride, winch, refusing to be ''but a little lower than the angels" asserts an immediate communion and equality s;ths i;t!hs them, tli iiits whlch,according to the temper of the pa ticnt,feeds him with the gorgeous visions oi quletlsm, or impels him, like furious 1 Malay, along the path ofpersecutien.-- some persons assert that, n this this nine nine teenth century of ours we have no en- thnslasm. h eur opinion, oil the con trary, we have great deal too much i; at no period, we believe, nas enthusi- asn, ot the worst kind, been more rife 1; witness the impostures of Southcote and hoheiaohe, and the thousand phanta- sies which are daily running their brief course of popularity. At no time has that caIentufe of the brain been more widely ditfused, which as it formerly converted every natural occurrence into the actual agency ofthe devil, now trans forms every leader of a petty circle into sslnt, and invests him with a garb and dignity of an apostle. Daily, 1t appears to Us, are the practical and active du- ties ot life more neglected under the in tfuence of this principle; the charity which thinlleth no evil of others daily becomes more rare; the stream of be- nevolence which of old stole deep and silently through the haunts fpoyertyand sickness at home, is now butpoorly com pensated by being occasionally thrown up in few pompous and useless iests. at public subscriptions or distant objects; while even in those whose minds are untlnctured by the grosser evils to which enthusiasm gives rise, life passes away in vain ard illusive dreams of selfcen- piacent superiority, which, as they are based only in pride and constitutional susceptibility, rarely endure when age and intirn,ity have shaken Or removed the materials out of which they were reared. Thus, the enthusiast who. like Mlrza, has been contemplating through the long day the Glysiau islands that lie beyond the gulf, and already walking in q tancied communion with their myrtle crowned inhabitants, feels in spite Of all his efforts, that, as evening creeps upon the landscape, the phantasmagoria be- comes dinner and more dim; the bridge, the islands, the genius who stood beside them disappear; till at last nothing re- mains for him but his own long hollow valley of Bagdad, w;th its oxen, sheep, and cameiS grazing on its sides;--this sober, weary world, in short, with all it's cares and duties, through which, if he had been wisely fulfilling the end for which he was sent into 1t, he should | have been laboring onward with be- netleent activity, not idly dreaming by the way side of the Eden for which he is bound; and so he awakes to con- ] sciousncsS of his true vocation in life when he is on the point of leaving it. and percciyes the value and the para mount necessity of exertion, only when youth, with it's opportunities, and its en- orgies, lies behind him for ever, like the shadows ofa dream.n
 l It is true that the current of human opinion seems now to set in different direction, and that if the evil spirit ol persecutionis again toreappearon earth his aDotar must in all probability be made in q different form. Our brains are no longer, as Dr. Francis IIutchin son says of Bodinus, "mere storehouses for devils to dance in,' and if the iniu- ence of the great enemy is still as ac- tive, as before on earth, in the shape ol evil passions, he at least keeps personal ly in tie back ground, and has changed his tactics entirely since the days of the .Malleus Malefearaaa.
 s'For Satan now IS wiser than befo.e,
 And tempts with making ricA--uot making poor
 Still, however. it is always useful check to the pride of the human mind tolook back 10 those delusions which have darkened it, more especially to such as have originated in feelings, nthemselves exalted and laudabie. Suchis unques. tionably the case in regard to one o1 the gloomiest chapters in the history ol human error, the belief of witchcrafl and its consequences. The wish to raise ourselves above the visible world
 and so connect ourselves with beings supposed to occupy a higher rank in ere l ation, seemed at first calculated to eKer- else only a beneficial influence on the mind. Men looked upon it as {. sort ol