Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1839-06-27
From the Laiy's Book.


From the Laiy's Book.
AMprrroS.-lt would be amusing, !!
il were mol provoking, to observe what
wretched work some writer's make Of this
subject. One points you, in indignan,
horror to " the slaughter clogged chariot
OF Alexander )" another tells you Of Ma
poleou, with the crowns Of the universe
signing ut his feet :" q third will talk oil
!" garments rolled in blood, and cities
wrapped in flame :"a fourth will be more
pathetic, and point you 10 some martyr
student. wearing out the failing springs Of
life, by the pickering beam oil some mid.
night taper!
while tho POOR mother, rining to decay.
Weeps fos her boy her wretched lite away
Now, perhaps our heart is worry hard
but our sympathies are not so sympa.
thetic as all this amounts to Alexander
was very naughty, TO wish for "other
worlds to conquer'-and Napoleon had
better have stayed at home with his wife
but the martyr stadent-that is too
much for US. Students had left off such
intellectual deaths long before we went
10 college! -.
And the poets, too, are equally lavish
Of their anathemas upon this Inflated
theme. How does the sober, the ambi.
.ious Pollok, wander from his course"
TO viIlify il. And the almost ever-to. be.
admired Willis, must preach again the
I" 1usy depu Of the human 6rcast!? OH
fe upon thee, Willis it lily becomes
thee 10 abuse thy " better angel"
But what, pray, would all these gen
tlemen, prosaic and poetical, who love SO
dearly this darling subject, havcl Why,
fossoolh, they would have US believe that
ambition has beer the author OF every
shameful decd upon the pugs Of history
And that ambition is therefore diabolical
in its influence! Sage philosophy this
first to advance a proposition, true only
in a very limited sense, and assuming ITS
entire truth, thence to ndduce a conclu'
sion Of an entiseIy unlimited charac.
ter. y,
But is ambition truly chargeable with
the enormities alleged against II! NJ
doubt its unbridied sway, It's lawless 9
cess has wrought crimes Of the deepest
dve! But to draw thence a conclusion
fatal to its subordinate and rightiul sway,
were az idle as TO condemn the utility Of
wholesome reason, from the miserable 10
gic which a mailman may employ! II
were az idle as & condemn the bench
cence Of the Creator in the gift OF the
kind and nulricious fruits Of the enrth,
because O fiendish invention has some.
times wrought from them baleiul and
deadly %poisonsl
Nay-ambi,ion has its uses. W. be.
lieve il was planted in the human breast
by the all. wise Maker. II was designed
to be-, not the master, but the slave--the
privileged servant, 10 provoke its posses.
sor to
"Noble ends, by noble means attained"
1t is not, of necessity, allied more TO
evil than to good. In be manfully re-
strained within its appropriate, IFS aPpoin-
ted sphere-if it be judic,ously needed, il
will guide over every obstacle to useful.
ness, to dignity, and to glory!
"Show me Il boy without AMBITION o
friend once quantity remarked TO US.
I" and | will shew you a candidate Tor a
/" poor-house! !" Aye, he said rightly
A boy without ambition is indeed u can.
didate for a " poor.house," If he be not
destined for the more elevated distinction
of a halter! Were it ours 10 advise such
a youthful traveller owe the track OF lie,
we would bid him be ambitious! We
would urge him to place his standard
high" to aim at great things, and to at
tain them! We would say to him, az
Willis said to his classmates, in his par
ting poem,