Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-01-21
familiar doors fly ope


ness and holowness of the world when
-familiar doors fly open:
And greeting hand with yours are linked,
In friendships grasp!
When,
A father bends DER you with looks of delight
And your cheeks are impaired with mothers warm
tear;
When brothers and sisters cling around you in
all the fondness of fraternal affection tell me-
We fathers, tell me, We children, is there not, IN
the repetition of scenes like these, abundant
cause for thanksgiving? And how much have
we all experienced during the year, of those
innumerabe and nameess Joys, that 90 so far
to make up the aggregate of human bliss! How
many kind looks, how many approving smiles,
how many words of gentle love, how many greet
ings of fond affection, how many tones of SYM
patty have been bestowed on US during the
year. If we turn away from these private Joys
to seek for general occasions of gratitude, we
shall find them on every side. The past year
has been, in many respects, highly distinguish
ed by tokens of divine benefcence Our coun-
try has been highly favored. Our fields have
the labors of the husbandman and filling his
barns with plenty And though local causes
have operated unfavorabIy in limited sections,
yet the general aspect of our agricultural inter-
est has been most satisfactory. All the neces-
saries of life are abundant aud cheap. No indo-
lent ignorant, starving poPuace swarm around
the doors of the rich, demanding bread at the
point of the bayonet. All kinds of honest bu-
siness are in prosperous condition. The fe-
verish and almost maniacal excitement that per-
vaded the community few years since, when
thousands were intoxicated with the idea Of be-
coming suddenly rich by speculation, without
degning to build up fortune by the slow accre-
tion of honest industry and the dark and dis
astrous period of distrust and failure and bank
ruptcy that followed, crushing all the business
interests of the country beneath an avalanche
of broken fortunes and ruined credit, have been
succeeded, for the most part, by the pursuits Of
safe and honorable business, bringing certain
and adequate return. Our literary institutions
exhibit degree of prosperity hitherto unknown
From the humble and unpretending distric
school to the proud and stately college, all thu
halls of science are crowded with students, cage
to drink deeply Of the sacred fountains of knowl
edge. And it is fact that we cannot too gladI,
hail. that science is becoming more and NOR,
the handmade of art Men are seeking knowl
edge with reference to its practical application
to the duties Of life. They are learning, no
merely that they may knO~, but that they ma
know how TO act
1t has been well said, the present age is EN-
inently unitarian. The question is ever prom
to come up concerning any new thing or pre-
ject, What is it good for! What can it effec
towards alternating the sufTerings or ENHANCING
the happiness of MANI" This utilitarian pre-
pensity has driven from the halls Of science eth
mouldy books Of the cloisters, and their no les
mouldy bookworms, the withered crOnes of tn
ancient universities who would spend a Who'll
life in writing dissertations on the Greek article
or characterizing the precise shade of differenc
between two particles Of matter when reduced t
the infnissimal fraction of nothing" Thos
musty folios of subimated nonentites hav
given place to the glorious truths and magn
6cent deductions of science; and instead G
those musty book-worms, wrapped in the mystic
and professorshps of our literary institutions ar
now filled with laborious matter-oEhct men
stern utllltarans of the modern school. An
they are putting their mark upon their student
and sending them forth in annual crowds
bless the world with the light of renovated an
useful knowledge. Art and science, thus wet
ded in holy and indissoube union, have alread
wrought out results so magnificent, that, herr
after, we shall not be astonished at any thin
they may accomplish BY the aid of few bean
Of wood and bars Of Fon-a few bushels of CO.
and gallons Of water, they mock at winds an
waves, tides and currents, and plough the ocea
in any direction, at WILL in defiance of them al
Nor is their triumph confined to the painless an
treacbercus deep. On the land, by the sau
means, they are rapidly supersediug all oth
locomotive powers on all the great thoroug
fares while in the mill and shop they are labo
ing with the force Of million sinewy arm
to cheaper the necessaries and comforts of Inf
and place them within reach of all classes
the aid of few bits Of brass steel, copp
and zinc, few yards of silk, few glls
water and drops Of acid, they have annihat
so that soon the grey-headed sire in Maine M
talk with his far off son in New Orleans
Chicago or Oregon, almost as readily as thou!
they sat together by the old family hearth-ston
Does art wish to sketch the human face divn
or copy in miniature some beautiful scene in n
ture, she no longer confines herself to the sic
and imperfect labors of the pencil or the brus
but, collecting few metallic and mineral SUI
stances, she calls in the aid of science and
gether they seize upon the very sunbeams tn
are reflected from the object, and in moment
them, with the most unerring precision, on t
surface OF the polished metal. All these t
umPhs OF art and science have place in t
economy OF Divine Providence. They are
part and parcel of the mighty machinery ii
God has put in motion to work the physical a