Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1835-04-23

quicSening efiulgence Of unclouded
noon.
\ But that unclouded noon has not yet
arrived. God grant il may speedily
come. Whether it shall come now,
prophetic vision hath not yet ioretold.-
The results Of improved civilization, in
consequence Of the diffusion of know
ledge, the unlimited freedom of the press,
and the rapid accumulation Of capital,
have given all energy to human passion,
and have taught such skill in devising
modes by which it may be gratified, that
the impulsNe powers Of man have speed
lily acquired an energy before unprece-
dented. That they are already fully
sufficient to balance the existing forces
OF moral restraint, seems, from many in
dcatons, far from improbable. The
proof Of this is seen in that leverish rest
lessness, that growing disregard for law,
that universal disrespect for authority,
that eagerness for war, and that desire
for revolution, which are so character
lstic OF the present time. 1t has been
truly remarked, that for the last ten
years, single official note, from any
important iunctionary, could have set
Europe in Il blaze. War is now IA game
which even wise kings can with the
greatest difficulty prevent their subjects
from playing at. And if kings refrain
from fighting with each other, it is very
doubtful whether their subjects can be
kept from fighting among themselves
The people are every where very much
bent upon taking the social fabric to pie
ces; every individual being well salts
fed that he could quite easily construct
it better The whole history of our globe
seems not yet to have convinced men,
that it has always been found very diff
fcult to improve an edfice, by levellng
It with the dust, when YOU are obliged
to reconstruct il out OF the very same
materials.
but societies can never remain for n
long time stationary. If the expulsive
violence OF human passion overthrow the
buttresses which bind together the social
edltice, the whole fabric will collapse
with an overwhelming crash. The nat
ural lerocity Of the human heart stimula-
ted and directed by an intelligence to
which 1t never before attained, and whet-
ted to anguish by the splendors of help
less oPulence every where within its
physical power; science and arts are
furnishing means of destruction before
unknown, and capable Of gratifying TO
the full the widest love of slaughter; the
press raining down in every land one
horrible tempest OF firebrands, arrows &
death, will combine to form scene of
triumphant havoc such as the pen Of the
historian hath never yet described nor
uninspired imagination ever yet conceiv-
cd. Thus civilization will be swept a
second time from the earth, not as be-
fore, by hordes OF barbarians Of the
north, but by n sanguinary herd Of her
own degenerate children. Nor is this
idea all chimerical. Within the mem
ory Of many of you, this drama has been
enacted in the most civilized and polish
ed nation of Europe. France was de-
lugcd in blood, her treasures wasted,
and the continent from Moscow 10 the
Mediterranean, was whitened with the
bones of Frenchmen, before the turbu-
hence of passion, once ascendant, was
brought within the limit of the moral
power which existed to restrain it,"