The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1845-01-16

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ngy triumphant, as the discoveries and
inventions that have succeeded in such rap
id succession, as to burthen the creduity
of a people, not slow to believe. Time
has yielded her indomitable asperties, and
points once reached only through the
lapse OF many days, are now attained be-
fore the shadows of a mig htfall-distance
offers no obstacle. Liverpool and the Is
land of Manhattan are in juxta position,
and the dwelIer between the tropics holds
daily concourse, with his fur clad brother,
amid the external SHOWS of Polar sky.
Each day ushers in some creation of
the inventive genius Of man, which out
yesterday was looked upon, as The utopian
scheme of the infatuated enthusiast. and
placed in the same genealogical category
with the absurdities of Arabian alchemy.
This is emblematicalIy an age that demon
strates the truth of the maxim, knowledge
is power barrier after barrier is giving
way before its expanding influence. YeI
the cycle of her EMPIRES yet in the din twi'
light of its being, but if it assumes ia its
infant years such gigantic form, conject.
ure alone can guess its stature in maturer
growth.
Useful and entertaining as are The les
sons taught by philosophy and the mechan-
ic arts and imposing as are their trumphs,
yet would we examine those exhibitions
tha. 10 still higher degree exalt and en-
belish the character of man. we must sur
vey other fields of enterprise.
In reviewing the history of the world,
we are chiefly interested in the ceaseless
struggle between the material, and the i'm
material the spiritual and animal part of
man, and the gushing characteristic |
Of any nation, ago or time, is determined |
by the ascendeocy of one, or the other of
these gonizing causes.
When the animal predomnates, we con-
template man in the forest wilds and desert
junglcs Of savage life The effect of the |
extended predominance of this principle
is real in the history Of the fall Of the Ro
man Empire. 1t was sad thing for the
word when The seven-hilled city bowed
her mighty temples PROSTATE in the dust,
before the barbarian hordes of Northern
Europe; and the Roman Forum yielded
her Cicero's and Caleline's 10 the tread of |
the rude Goth end Vandal, whose every
football rang like funeral knell, and the
noble city toppIed from her deep Sounda-
lions, aItor-fane-and tempted dome in
one undi.tingushed ruin. Science and
all knowledge was crushed beneath the
fall Of their own altars. Then came the
thick murky night of the dark ages--ihe
altar fires Of genius faded dimly out, and
The thick shroud Of ignorance and barba-
ian night hung darkly over the ashes
Of old faded fires, like the pail Of pas,
world.
But when the spiritual and intellectual
part OF man again reigned ascendant, The
night of the world passed away, as the
morning mist clears the valley, rolls up
the mountain side, fingers and curls upon
it's summit ere it melis 10 the vewless, and
leaves an atmosphere radiant with SUM-
beams.
In a biographical review of those men
who have played conspicuous part in
the history Of the world, we are also chief
" interested in contemplating the cbarac-
ter OF those who have consecrated their
lives to The promotion of the well-being
and improvement Of their race Theirs
are the names that are pronounced with
Difference and veneration, and are handed
down from age to age, as undying and ex"
baustIess themes for anlithesis and euo~
GUM.
The day, Of military ehivnlry are past
The fame Of whose chieflains depended mp
on the skill and number of their embattled
mvrmidon.--!beir subjected provinces, and
the array of slaves brought home captive
at their chariot wheels. These are among
the things that we're. A brighter era has
dawnet upon the world, the identity of
man is no longer subject to the capious
caprice Of conventional prejcdice; but that
true Samaritan philanthropy that first kin