Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1850-06-19
COWLEY IN A sPLENETIC MOOD.

| COWLEY IN SPLENETIC MOOD,
| Cowley, in the autumn Of his life, says
I"Man is to man all kinds of beasts-a fawn-
ing dog, roaring lion, .hieving fox, q
robbing wolf, assembling crocodile, q
1treacherous decoy, and rapacious vuture
The civilest, melhinks, of all nations are
those whom we account the most barba
rous there is some moderation and goot
nature in the Toupinambal.ians, who eat nc
men but their enemies, whilst we learned
and polite Christian Europeans, like SO ma
ny pixies and sharks. prey upon everything
we can swallow"
Poor Cowley must have penned this mis-
anthropical sally at a moment when he wa!
suffering from the onslaught of some trucu
lent critic, who had reviewed him with al
the rancour Of fend. Yet he reckonet
his books and the muse among the deares
pleasures of the world, for he says, in hi
Latin poems:-
Nee vos dulcissma mund
Normina, vos Muse libertas, otia, libri,
Horrique, sylvaque, anima remanente relinquam.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
MAKERS.
While we are shocked and amazed at tn,
reveres with which the political quacks ant
visionares Of France have lately been in
sanifying the world, it may inculcate {
wholesome lesson of humility to recall g
few Of the dogmas which have been pro,
pounded by some Of the most eminent phi
losophers of England. Sir Thomas More
in his "Utopia," recommends the entire abo-
lition of property that rewards should be
offered for assassination as mode of war
fare; and that persons laboring under in
durable diseases should be encouraged to
commit suicide.
Harrington, in his "Oceana," maintaining
that political power should always be based
upon property, proposes an aristocralical
republic as the best of all governments all
elections to be by ballot; and the popular
assembly TO be confined 10 the mere deter
mination Of measures proposed by the sem
ate, as was the case IN the old Venetian
Republic.
Polybius, agreeing with Hippodamus, one
Of the ancient sages, asserts that all political
constitutions must observe general law of
growth and decay, as the inevitable condi-
lion of man and his institutions.
Plato first conceived the idea of provi-
Dental arrangement of human society but
if we may judge by recent occurrences, man
is left in the free, but selfpunishing indul-
gence of his own political vagaries and a
looker-on would be rather tempted TO ex-
claim with Shakspeare-"Thus do we play
the fool with time, while the spirits of the
| wise sit in the clouds and mock us."-
Luckily, however, for our posterity, it is on
ly with the present time that we can play
the fool while, therefore, we 60 not SO far
in our optimism as to adopt Condorcet's
theory Of human perfectibility, nor in an op-
posi.e direction as to agree with Voltaire in
his "Candide," we may confidently believe
that whatever may be the temporary fluctua-
tions in the career of the human race, it must
have been destined by benefciet Deity to
all ultimate progression and elevation.
Curious FACT ABOUT RAIN.--There is
one remarkable fact connected with the fall
of rain, which has never yet received salts
factory explanation Over any given spot
more rain falls at the surface of the earth
than above it. Heberdon made some ex-
perimen,s to ascertain this fact, in the fol-
lowing manner lie fixed ran-guage on
the square part of the roof of Westminster
Abbey, away from the western towers
which might obs.ruct the clouds, another
on the roof of neighboring house, and a
third on the ground III the garden of the
same. The number Of inches Of rain caught
on the Abbey roof was IL, on the house
top IS, and in the garden %. The illustri'
Gus French astronomer, Arago, has for ma
ny years noticed the fall of rain, at differ
ent heights, at the Observatory at Paris, and
his results, with which hundreds of others
agree, are like those of Heberdon. II is well
known ,ha. the quantity of rain which falls
at the foot Of q mountain is considerably
larger than that deposited on its summit
Many explanations have been offered of this
curious fact, but none TO which the scien-
tfc have given sanction.
FoRGlvENEss-My heart was heavy, for
its trusts had been abused, its kindness an
swered by foul wrong, so turning gloomlly
| from my fellow men, one summer Sabbath
day, ! s,rolled along the green mounds OF
the village burial place, here | was remind
ed how all human love and hate find one
sad level, and how, sooner or later the
wronged and the wrong doer, each with a
mockened face and cold hands folded over
still heart, pass the green threshold of a
common grave, whittier all footsteps tend
whence none depart. Awed for myself and
pltying my race, one common sorrow, like
mighty wave, swept all my pride away,
and trembling forgave.-J ~. IThutier.
Industry makes the man.
A sweet temper and kind heart makes
the woman.