The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1845-09-29
HISTORY.

1T may be asked how are we to Judge of the
general consequences of principles unlimited in
their operation? The brief span of human ex-
istence will permit us to make but few, very few,
observations upon the course of human affairs ere
the curtain falls, and the scene of life is ended
But are we then left like the bengbteJ, tenn
pest mariner, with the deep unfathomable
gulf of Oblivion behind, and the dark portentous
clouds of doubt and uncertainty brooding over the
future ? without chart TO designate our relative
situation with respect to those nations, which in
times gone by, have risen, have fourished and
fallen? to point to the rocky shoals upon which
so many noble ships of state have been wrecked Z?
nor TO the awful whirlpool of luxury and effemi-
macy, ofmental, moral and physical degeneracy and
degradation, within whose chaotic vortex nation
after nation, has been engulphed and sunk to rise
no more Have we neither compass nor pole
star, by which our course may be directed TO the
fair haven of national felicity, of individual peace
and prosperity2 Yes, thank Heaven we are
presented with the vast inestimable treasury of
human experience; the store house of wisdom is
at hand. and he who will, may ope the golden
portals, enter the sanctuary Of knowledge, and be-
come the recipient of those joys inseparable from
the benign influence of that mental illumination
which shall insure moral recti,ude Upon the
historic page, with retrospective glance, we may
behold generation following generation in rapid
succession upon the theatre Of life. Here to the
phllosophic mind which reasons ofcauses from their
consequences, is presented truth of mighty i'm
port which is that TO a want of research and in
ic To ha firth tha e
those holy impulses of reverence and alteration to-
wards the Sovereign Arbiter of the Universe,
which constitute the basis of present felicity and
of future hope Thus have designing hypocrts
in the cupidity of their hearts, been enabled to
shacke the unsuspicious, unreflectiug mind, and
rear upon the dark foundations Of ignorance, the
deiormed superstructure of credulous superstition,
and institute those rites, the observance of which
would better comport with the ferocious DISPOSE
ton of the tiger, that deIighting in blood bathes
his fangs in the gore OF defenceless focks and
herds, than that love Of benevolence and mercy !,
which should characterize man. Who can with
out emotion reflect upon the horrd scene of thou
sands and tens of thousands sacrificing themselves
before the car of Juggernaut? mulLitudes perish
ing in the waves of the Gauges? the Indian
widow writhing in the egonies of death, upon the
flaming faggos Of her husbands funeral pile or,
the hosts of beauteous youth, who, like summer
flowers wthered and laid low by the blasts of livid
lightning, have been offered as victims upon Mo
locks blood stained affairs? Yet, these are to be
imputed to the blind submission of men, to the
dictation Of leaders, whose declarations, however
devoid of reason adopted as oracular truths, to
question which is little less than heresy, and in
support Of which, are enlisted all those inveterate
prejudices, and every impulse Of bgotry, of which
the uninstructed mind is susceptible.
To the same cause are also to be referred the
fanatical proceedings Of the followers of the Her
init Peter, who, in their Crusades not only spread
dismay and death through the Land of Palestine,
but, literally whitened the country over which
they passed in their way thither, with the bleach
ing bonesof the wretched vo,ares of that wild de-
lusion.