Bloomington herald. [volume] (Bloomington, I. T. [Iowa]) 1840-1849, 1842-05-20
For the Herald.

= VI n0 A1Ct01us
moral REFLECTIONS No. 2.
"All the worlds stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrance;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages, &c"
SHAKESPEARE.
When we pause on our onward way to the mar
row house, and reflect upon the wide world, or more
properly speaking, the heterogeneous mass OF people
shat dwell upon its varied surface: When we look
Il our own race Alone what variety OF character 40
hshoh, 4 respects physical organization, const'-
tufioA 81 mind and incentives to action. Truly We
are 1bs& in wonder and establishment! Come with
me reader, for q moment, and let Us 60 into the
realms Of contemplation 1--WE will view those be-
nishted lands where the glorious faculty Of reason
and its attributes have been shackled and kept down
by tyranny. Men endowed with immortal minds
and bearing the impress Of Divinity are held under
the dominion Of superstition, idolay, sensibiy and
fear! Why Is this? Why should our fellow crea-
lures continue in darkness! Is the age Of barba-
risn to be LANDED down from generation to genera
ton Is man to remain the slave Of vile passion, and
the noble features of his nature to be palsed para
USED and kept liz AFFECTION by the power Of vitiated
and iegitimate habits, customs and the the laws Of
usurpation Forbid it justice, forbid it truth, forbid
it reason, forbid it humanity
The "gag law," must be abolished by every ma.
ton, ere its people become the civilized and refined
people the freedom of thought word and action.
The liberty Of the Press must reign supreme and
the rod of oppression broken in twain. The princi-
pie that all men are created free and equal and are
e,,do,ced By their creator NTH certain iaaleable
rights must be disseminated to the four corners Of
the world, and the throne heads must be battered
dowp and the cap of universal liberty reared upon
the fall consolidation Of po,cer is opposed to aAhat
enobles and exhalts man in the scale of happiness
virtue truth, justice and intelligence; find no
foothold while tyranny exists. To keep man IN
ignorance Of his ouUn nature and the laws BY which
he lives and moves and has his being, is the pride Of
usurpation and the lifebood of monarchy, reachcry
and deceit!
But political freedom is but one step in the path
way to human happiness ) and but one link in the
chain of that great and stupendous reformation that
is fast coming over the world. The social condition
of man needs radical and thorough chang if hon.
esty, Justice, truth, good will conduce to the end
Moppiness) Now, as society exists even in our
own dear country, all Of us more or less sub
iect to become the children Of misery, woe and want
The constitution Of society IS rotten. At Is based up
on ,veahh and its demorahzing influences! The
noblest feelings of man are corrupted, subdued and
brought under the dominion of money! The no
6lest faculty Of mna-that faculty which elevates
him above the brute creation-that faculty which is
his sheet anchor ofentimes when the overwhelming
storms of misfortune assail him has become contain
mated with the venom of avarciousness, and dies in
commissions at the footstool Of oppression
How plastic and pliable- in uonthfulness-how
stubborn and ungovernabe in age, is that wonderful
substance called the brain the impressions that
made upon it ere It has arrived at maturity, gen.
crate into habits be they virtuous or vicious and
dame nature has often to bear the blame of vtiated
education. The images of early thought are diff
cult to be erased from the tablets of memory deep
rooted prejudices are invincibe, matter how in
consistent they be with the dictates of an enlightened
judgment. The errors of a barbarous antiquity
haze become tn,DrougM ,cith the principles Of free
dom and equality, and many la,os and customs Of
the present century enacted in the dark ages at
a time ,chen mankind soere veg;tating IN inglori-
Gus ignominy and chains, and looked upon his teL
b,v man as his natural enemy, and physical po,cer
,vas the Standard of reputation!
But the invincibc Press The palladium of lib
erty, the diffusion Of knowledge and humanity, in her
march to universal eminent has trod down and is
treading down the enormities of ignorance, power
and combined agencies; and is she not now victori-
and error and lics and not these foes to truth
and man already fleeing before her like cha before
the wind! Every day we see fresh Developments
ofthe potency Of this AGENT following every new ap-
plication of its powers. In poltics-in religion-in
literature and the arts what has been effected through
the instrumentality of the Press! On the other
hand where her freedom has been trammelled, and
her mighty voice stifed, man has lived out an exis
ence with eyes blinded to his own state and welfare,
his ears closes, and his whole immortal mind en-
shrouded in the gloom of serviy, debasement and
superstition. The onward march of the mighty en-
CINE Of reform will long dispel the Clouds that
obscure the horizon Of mans happiness-will bring
about the reign of peace and good WILL and the
doctrines Of gentle charity, will no longer be the by
word, the reproach Of civilized men.
How simple in knowledge, yet how complex in
ignorance are the great and mighty truths of nature
Man once freed from the thraldom of the demon
passions once stated and trained tn the way
he should go will not depart from 1t. He will not
yield obedience to his enemies and the fortress of his