Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-07-21
SOME OF "OUR PERILs,"


prevalence Of Atheism. 1t used to be
said that there were no Atheists among
US Il is too late now to sing that song
in our ears. They are in the midst of US
and on every side. They swarm like the
frogs of Egypt; they 60 up upon our tn
bles. and into our chambers to pollute and
desrOy. And they are different from. the
Atheists Of former days. Formerly they
were men Of speculation, insulated men,
here and there INDUCING their theory like
David Hume in his study But now they
are open, active, organized, laborlous,
proselyting. Instead Of looking into the
airy regions Of mere fanciful speculation
and theory, their maxim seems to be like
that Of Cromwell to his soldiers, when ne
said, "Fire low" They aim at the
mass of mankind they prepare contain
ination and death for our working men.
They scatter the materials Of political
combustion among those who are our
strength, the bone and sinew Of our ma
ton; where touch will blow US into at
oms. Theprevalence Of corruption in our
cities, however lamentable, would be COM
parative!y a triHe so long as our farmers
and the yeomanry ofthe land keep steady,
Your theorists and abstract Spectators
may float like balloons in the moral at
mosphere; and we may gaze upon them
as objects rather of curiosity than alarm,
but corrupt the people and all is lost
This is what they are now attempting to
do by the printing and circulation oftracts.
by the publication of newspapers, and by
a combined application of ingenuity and
industry worthy Of better cause.
Another of the dangers which threaten
US is fatalism. know, indeed, that there
are others in the opposite extreme; but
this isan evil upon which we cannot with
safety shut our eyes know what say
am well acquainted with the interior Of
many -four cities, and do know that the
prevalent epidemic which is there most to
be dreaded is skepticism. II is not deism
nor atheism. The being Of God is ad-
mitted, and the truth ofthe Bible is not de-
MED but there is practical doubt Of per-
sonal accountability. 1t was in Boston,
when I resided there believe it is so to
great extent, in New Y ork, and know
il to be so in Cincinnati. The laws OF
Gods government lie loose upon the neck.
The form Of this skepticism is philoso-
ply which treats the mind Of man as tho
it were matter, and volition the coerced
effect Of motive, as the spark is produced
by the conclusion Of the flint and the
steel. This is the moral miasma which
is fast rising in the marsh Of the national
corruption, and creeping and spreading
abroad over the whole lace Of our COM
munity. The evidence Of its existence is
TO be found in the unquiet state Of society
in the unsettling of things heretofore sta,
bic, and in the occasional bursting out anC
explosion Of human passions in open vic
lation of public tranquility. Il is the
same influence which in Paris demolish
edthe Bastile, and which now burns with
secret hatred against our laws, and every
thing in the form Of civil restraint Thi
is that demon which gnashes its teeth a
all curb of moral restraint, as well of earl
as Of heaven. ought to notice here thu
systematized advocacy Of licentious prac
tfces. Il is as though the human hear
did not pour out its streams Of corruption
fast enough-as if it needed the inebriut
ing draught to quicken it. There ar
men among Us who volunteer to becom
the ministers Of sin; and there are wome
who pour their polluted breath against a
the sanctities of social life 4; and there al
women too who go and with greedy cur
osity listen to the nvectives against tn
family state, and all that is pure and low
ly and of good report in our social stat
In this crusade against virtue and happ
ness, all that is odious, and all that is dea(
ly, takes the specious name Of some mor
excellence. 1t is all done under the nan
ofvirtue. have read the tracts of Fal
ny Wright and Robert Owen, and fe
lieve blushed, though no human ey
was upon me. in these productions the
10 nothing which men have agreed to ca
wicked, which is not canonized, and not
ing which; they have united to call Writ
GUS which these writings do not ridicul
vilify and throw mud upon. We decei,
ourselves il we think the influence of SUI
productions is feeble. Their absurdi
Il not an antidote TO their poison. WI
else does such RIGHTEOUSNESS burst out u
on u.s. The volcanic passions Of men,
would seem. are not hot and violent
nough, but like the furnace Of Nebuclta
nezzar' must be heated seven times. II
70 this source that we owe the assassin
tons and murders which are daily muI
plying upon US, 30 that the blood runs
unbroken stream. When Twas speakl
some years ago ON the subject Of duelliu
yentured to predict that unless that prt
tice should be checked, the time wor
s'" come when duelling would be too slow
process for the headlong passions of m,
and they would stab and pistol each 9th
in the public streets. And how far q
we from such state Of thIngs2 Assas
natior =, anna m III of ,nnr cnnn,--