Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1833-06-24

or his family the food, WHICH tney nave oeen
able to procure neither for themselves nor him.
See the poor grown up chi'dren,-boys and glrls,
perhaps Young men aud women, old enough 10
feel the shame as we'll as the misery OF ther ne
ritage,-without tinge OF health upon their
checks; without spark OF youthlul cneeriui-
ness in their ewes, silent and terrified, creeping
supnercss for the night, to their wretched garrett
| to escape outrage. curses, and blows. from the
author Of their being. Watch the heart.broken
| wife. as, with countenanre haggard with care
and woe, she seeks in vain to supply the wants
Of half starved sht,eking babe, out OF the tOun.
| tain, which hunger and i'll usage. and despair
have exhausted; and then return in the morning,
and find her blood and the infants wet upon the
hearth stone.
Do Il paint from the Imagination, or do paint
| from nature Am sporting with your feelings
or might heishten the picture, and yet spare
YOU many heart sickenng trait from real liie!-
| It is not week since Tread, in one OF the pub
lie prints, a notice of the trial of wretch, IN
PENNSYLVANIA, who, under the influence OF intern
persnce, beat his vile, and drove her from be-
neath his roof; beat child, aud threw it out OF
doors. where it was found, in the morning, al
most chilled to death; murdered his other child
outright, and then went to sleep He was ar
rested, tried. and found guilty of murder, in
the second degree.
| A few years since, if my memory serves me,
I read, in the public journals. an account OF the
| trial of another monster in human shape. who,
under the influence of liquor, tied his wife by her
hair to the bed post, and beat her to death. He
too was'founh guilty of murder, i'll the second
degrees. The facts in these cases have very pos
sby been misrepresented, aud tar be 1t from
me, on slight grounds, to censure the tribunals OF
the State, which led the way in the great reform
of penal Jurisprudence. which has taken place in
the last thirty years. Butt the facts alluded
to are correctly stated, and VI our brethren IN
Pennsylvania regard this as murder in the &C.
cond degree, heaven preserve them. in the hour
when the incarnate. spirit Of malice and murder
shall come. hot from his abode, to commit muir
der in the first degree.
In a word, Sir when we contemplate intern
perance in all its bearings and effects on the con.
d,ion and character Of men. believe we shall
come to the conclusion, that II is the greatest evil,
which, as beings OF compound nature, we have
to ar: the greatest, because striking directly at
the ultimate principle Of our Constitution Let
US contemplate this point moment, for within II,
is comprehended. If | mistake not, the whole
philosophy OF this subject. Our lite exists in a
mysterious union vt the corporeal an d ihtel'ec'u'
tual principle, alliance o! singular intimacy. as
we'll as of strange contrast, between the two ex'
tremes of being. In their due relation 10 each
other. ard IN the rshful discharge Of their re
spective functions. do not know whether the
pure ETHEREAL essence itself lat least as far as we
can comprehend IT, which is bu, faintly.) ought
mUre to excite our admiration than thlsJnost won
drous compound OF spirit and matter. do not
knNp nat frly n fI,S fhaf ID
as signal display Of the Dvi1e skill, in linking
those intellectual powers. winch are the best i'm.
ayes of the Divinity, with the forms and proper
ties of matter As IN the creation OF orders OF be
ings purely dIspmbodied and spiritual. When
contrast the dull and senseiess cod Of the val.
ley, in its unanimated state, with the curious
hand. the glowing cheek, the beaming eye, the
discriminating sense, which dwells in thousand
nerves, feel the force Of that inspired exclama-
tion, IS am fearfully and wonderfully made."-
And when consider the action and reaction OF
soul and body on each other, the impulse given
to vOlition from the senses; and again to the or
gans by the will when think how thoughts, so
exalted, that though they comprehend all else,
they cannot comprehend the laws Of their own ex-
istence,-are yet anIe to take shape in the ma
teria air, to issue and travel from sense in
man to another sense in another man; so that, as
The words drop from NY ii.s the secret chambers
Of the soul are throw open, and its invisible ideas
made manifest, am lost in wonder Ii TO this
add the reflection, how the world & its affairs are
governed, the face OF nature changed-Oceans eros.
sed-contlnrnts settled-famies Of men gathere ed
& kept together for generations, and monuments
Of power, wisdom, s. taste erected, winch last tor
ages, after the hands that reared them have turn.
to dust, and all this by the agency OF that fne
intellectual principle, which sits modestly con.
cea!ed behind its vail OF clay, and moves its sub
ject organs, find no words to express my adml-
ration Of that union of mind and matter, by which
these miracles are wrought. Who can thus con =
template the wonder. the beauty, the vast utility.
the b-nevoenoc, the Undesirable fitness Of this
organization, and not feel that this vice ofintem-
perance, which aims directly to destroy it, is the
arch abom,nation Of our natures; tending not
merely to create conflict between the nicely ad-
justed principles; but to assure the triumph Of
that which is low, base, sensual and earthly over
the heavenly and pure: to convert this SD curl.