Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1844-04-05
From the Saturday Courier.
MAN HIS OWN GREAT ENEN1y
BY WILLIAM ALEXANDER, A, NJ,


Man is encompassed by many and compI.
Gated evils. Disease in all its mullifarious
forms may scatter dcath-causing distress
and gloom to pervade the nations of GARTH
MIsfortuncs may rise to cloud the mind, and
storms of adversely ,hicken around us. vet
of all the calamilies to which man can be
destined, there is none SO balefuI and de-
slructlvc as war. Let me not fall into the
hands Of man." said Jewish warrior. Pes
thence and famine he deemed less des,ruc
tive.
War has originated with man himself
Tired OF the few days allotted hlm here on
earth, he endeavors to render even these.
circumsrlbed as they are, incomparabIv mis-
erable-precipitatcs himself into the laws of
death, who is of his own accord hastily adj
vancing to devour him.
s. Nmrod first the bloody work began.
Almighty hunter and his prey was man.
In whatever aspect war is presented
whether ii be in the garb of intestine divis.
ion, revolutionary fury, or foreign INVASION
1T is depopulating iG its tendency, and aw.
fully disastrous in its results. Its cruellies
can be portrayed in no soflenng colors-nor
do its miseries, when depicted with all the
vIvIdneSs OF Imagination, pass the bounds of
probability.
Let the eye of the philanthropist traverse
the fields of the dead. Does he not see the
bodies OF his fellow men despoiled of life by
the arm of their relentless brethren. There
he those who but yesterday enjoyed all the
vigor and energy of manhood. The sight is
painful and dreadlully appalling. The clam
or OF the combat is over. Silence and sable
horror resume their awful sway. There des-
olalion holds her dreary court, TO which ill.,
omened birds resort-and shrek mournful
dirge with piercing note. Pity flows no, for
the dead. Red morn glimmers DER the
hills. Silence every where. No living foe
is seen, but many enemies and friends sleep
commingled in the arms of death. The
murmurs OF the breeze raising their gorv
locks, wake them not. To birds carniverous
as to living sepulchers, are the slain resign
ed. No monumental stone is raised to desig
nate the spot where the brave and beautiful
have fallen-but the bleaching bones, and
uneiiacing stain, long mark the field of battle.
Let it not be imagined thai this is the crea-
ton of enthusiastic fancy, or wish to exag-
gerate the horrors of war.
GO! ask the Greek
Go! stand where Athens left her crumblng head.
Where glory grandeur. sleep in ruins bed;
Go! ask the runs of old Rome 10 tell
Where Caesar sleeps, and where her ,roes fell"
The results of war are eminenly disas-
trous. BY it the most populous and fertile
provinces are depopulaled, and overspread
with the ruins of cities and viaees-public
costly monuments of art are
tired-and soon seem in one continued blaze.
"Great Moscow's ancient towers are now no more,
Her gorgeous temples with their lofty spires,
Are sunk and buried IN ten thousand fires"
Poverty also in her most direlul form
stalks abroad famine rages-empires and
Kingdoms skaters to their very centers-
fall, to live, as unhappy Poland, only in song.
And now avarice, and meanness, and treach-
cry, are -benevolence, virtue.
and excellence tramped under foot-inler-
nal happiness destroyed-ihe ties of families
broken-advance manufactures stopped
stagnant--security OF properly and
life precarious. All which proclan,s Justice
and harmony broken in the civilized
world.
Having thus attempted to draw a faint
representation of war and its evils, let US re-