The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1847-03-31
(wRITTEN FOR THE BASSER.)
Modern Civilization.
No. /.

WuuCIu ClFulZdllON.
No. l.
Mr.. Editor Man, the last, the favorite.
the most exalted work of the divine energy ;
iio who alone, of all the works of G od s hands,
was formed in his image; man, we say,was
emphatically made for civilization. Indeed,
the only natural element of man is civiliza-
ton: it is his destiny. The grand charac-
tcristic of man, that which more than every
thing distinguishes him from the brute crca-
ton, is the faculty of collecting experience
and transmitting it from generation to gene
ration, conscious of its being experience,
and thus improving on every addition to the
common stock ad imfnitin,. That mute archi-
tect, the beaver, for instance, builds its dam or
its hut to-day, in modern times, the same as it
did, for aught we know, thousands of years
ago. Animals are not progressive on the
contrary, according to their whole nature
and destiny, they arc essentially stationary.
Man, with his unlimited capacity, may aid
and improve nature to an astonishing de-
gree; he may, by ennobling the stock, en-
large the size, devclopc their physical pow
crs, and render them more muscular. more
active, and better able to endure fatigue ::
but unaidcd nature never would advance
them any hig her in the scale of being.
Animals we said were stationary, not
so say we of man,; his destiny, like the
Wandering Jcw'' of modern fiction, is
march I! march F! onward onward! Mans
natural state is progressive civilization.
The experience of all time goes to prove the
Author of Nature never designed man to re-
main stationary. Then, if not stationary,
he must progress and fain would we hope,
Mt least, that the direction would be towards
amclioration.
The past history of the world, on the
whole, presents to the mind scene to the
last degree G gloomy and dark. Throughout
the annals of ancient history, the mind is
continually presented with the most revolt
ing scenes of war, devastation, cruelty and
oppression. The human species, with but
few exceptions, seem ever to have been
doomed to support an existence surchargcd
with misery. The intellect of all antiquity,
appears to have been compressed in the iron
embrace of tyrany. Hence we always be-
hold the great mass slaves to despotism-a
despotism both mental and physical-politi-
cal and ecclesiastical dcspotism. To what
are we to attribute these evils but the neg.
lcct of mental cultivation alonc-thc reign
Of ignorance over the human mind. The
world has always possessed the same ele
mcnts of prosperity, "and there is nothing
new under the SUM-" The progress of
knowledge marks, with unering truth, the
progress Of nations. That intelligence is
the life of liberty, is not more a trusm, than
that ignorance is the nurse of slavery.
What inscription shall be written by the
historian on the sepulchre of the nineteenth
century? Shall we be able to see the in
habitants of Mars; shall we converse with
them, through magic wires? Has any one
the temerity to deny Il? If we had said
such things were Impossible, then indeed it
might be negativetd. Will Our earth
stili continue TO be the abode Of many
Kingdoms and principalities and powers, Or
shall We have but one ysst and mighty
& wor)d dfspubIic-a huge commonwealth, weak
lbooiiiassdod North by ths North star, South by
.ss .tshs ,osit osittth4pole; East and West alternately