Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1839-03-01
VOL. XH--No. 61O

| 'tHR uNSts wv tHlcI 'IlU. lUnNuu b'''
pas5ionated, their struggles and suiitr'ngs.
The gross and violent heard his exhor'alion
like n faint aerial music, sweet and sublim,
but remote from all which they valued or
dreaded. The better and more thoughtful
were bewidered, by feeling tina, they did
no, understand or smpathlze with him, md
that oil which they found in religion of
present support aud comfort for their prac.
teal life, was TO him but worthless, il com-
pared 10 his ideal longngs and meditatlvc
communion with heaven.
Alter another day or two, he visited
the poor house, where he found a motely
collection of young and old. all more or less
in some perverse or unhealthy state. Old
ago in all varieties Of feeble, and freiful
imbeclli'y; diseases of many and hopeless
kinds, palsy, deafness, dumbness, blindness,
idiocj; the manned, the ulcered, the bed.
ridden, the deformed, the do,ng; orphans,
whom love had never approached: widows,
from whom it had forever fled away; the
broken in fortune, once rich the loa,h.
| some, once beautiful the relics. rags ash
es. add garbage Of our human life, still in
vested with CHASTITY human scmblnnces. all
decayed and worn out; and sepulchrai
shadows of what once was man, oil stuntcd,
abortve and dcs piscd modes Of young ex.
lstcnce; all these were there; and each a
mnnncholy portion OF hldeOus WHOLE
| The old and infanile were mixed together,
bot the aged received no dutcous rcvcr-
ence, and the children were regarded with
tender watchfulness. There was certain
dull tranquility enforced by power: chill
orderly suificiency Of physical nocessarics
provided by routine discipline and eco,
nomy directed TO no higher than an outward
end, and animated by no affection. Tho
whole was on image of evil Of oil kinds.
compressed, indeed. and frozen, and be-
numbcd by mere superficial pressure, eav.
ing only the consciousness Of unrest and
pain, but ready. had the weight been
removed, and the machinery for mo-
ment relaxed, to burst out in explosions
Of rage, hatred, horror, and despair
Here sat an old man. once wealthy far.
mer, whom drunkenness Ind made pau
per, and whose only child n daughter, had
been betrayed by poverty into fatal corrnp-
ton, and had died an outcast. He looked
downward with dim, inhamed eyes. still
occupied by the vision Of an intoxicating
draught which he could no longer procure.
There the widow of shop keeper, whom
, her fierce passions and self had goadcd
to the grave, sat in sulen dignity, dressed
with some protenson TO superior refine
ment, and brooding on the injustice Of the
fate which confined her to such society.
SCOTS and fury, when she happened to
speak, were the burthen Of all her Ian
guage. She had boarded for twenty years
| a sing lie pound 10 purchase handsmer fu-
neral and bettr attendance than were pro-
= vided at the expense ofthe parish, Among
] those about her were the worn out drudges
who had toilcd as the wives Of labourers
; now dead; and the men whose choicest
? recolections were Of years long gone by.
: when they enjoyed the nigh, Of ponchiug
and the ale house riot. There was the
! cobbler, disabled by incurable headache.
4 and half crazed by l.hcal,h and fanatacism,
/ whose sense Of the woiul present was every
now and then frightened by a flashing
Y dream Of golden and vermil!ion New Jer.
, usalem, and by the assurance of his own
9 immeasurable spiritual superiority TO those
\ who required moral conduct Of Christian,
. and who had ever been at school. For he
5 was a self,aught theologian, and even in-
Q genious in his absurdity. Beside him sat
G the soldier, with one leg and one arm.
v whose gayest phantasms were of the town
d he once helped to sack, and Of unstnted
d brandy. Chi'dron, moping over some
= heart cankered attempt at free and happy
/ sport, skunk in corners and made their
= presence known chiefly by an occasional
. quarrel and shrek. One woman, of seven.
V ~, who had appeared since ten years old
: destitute of every faculty but the purely
!, animal ones, now at last, while the clergy
G man was reading chapter OF the Scrip.
: lures, suddenly woke up at the names Of
c Ruth and Naomi, and began to multer in
language which she had not used for more
than half century an account Of tho last
# cleaning in which she had shared as n
=. child with her mother. She died before
), she could be carried into another room. In
d the midst, however, of this strange and dis
O ordered society, some members OF It appear
0 ed to enjoy all tho happiness OF which their
n poor mutated natures were now capable,
i and some eyes Of the lighter and more joy
If Gus ,emperaments twinkled with unqucnch-
y able goodhumour.
d In this dreary confusion. where it seemed
G that Orpheus might have sung, and almost
= that Moses might have lcgslated, in vain,
s tho bencvolonce and faith of Musgravc
n glanced by and vanished without n trace.
n One glow. worm under the coal-black vault
y of night. single candle in the largest,
d deepest mine is not more Intellectual.
Some, indeed, derived. from his soft and
lc decac mlnis,ratlons, purblind sense ol
a something like good will towards them ex-
IN sting somewhere; and even this was a
blessing. But he felt hlInsef a wanderel
l. into region which he did not understand
I'd aud where he had no hope of ever finding u
10 solid resting place for his foot. The hut.
4 terily among the rocks of Caucasus NIGH
" rs well have drcamt Of sweepin. down bo
v tore l's sken wings the crag on wbiG'
" the Titan groaned in vain,