The Smyrna telegraph. (Smyrna, Del.) 1849-1850, 1850-01-03


piring goodness, would fain excite repent
ant sigh for mis-spent time and talents, and
inspire your minds with the niger and holier
aim of the true ambition of man. Sensuality
is the bane of intellectual strength and the
miasma Of all moral excellence. Genius, it
is true, may glimmer and sparkle, and even
shine with magnificent lustre, at times, amid
the noxious exhalutions of polluted morals !;
but ere long it will succomb to the cancer of
the hcart, which, in many instances has fixed
the early doom of the most brilliant genius in
the universe of mind. There is no permanent
intellectual power which has any other foun-
dation for its sphere of action, than that prin-
ciple of infinite goodness which first gave to
man the image of his Creator. The grandest
consummations of minds the most mighty, if
not based upon this attribute of benevolent
wisdom, will crumble into dust or vanish like
the meteors Of night, while far above the dark
ness left in their path, this superior principle
will shine as the fixed stars in the armament
of truth forever and ever. 1t was the absence
Of protective power in the mind, that obtained
for that period of the worlds history commenc-
| ing with the tenth century, the name of s'the
dark ages" II was the putting out of this
light that came nigh overwhelming France in
gloom more profound than that which COW
ers the mind of the lunatic; and that too, by
men of the highest intellectual powers. 1t
was the breaking down of this pillar of all true
greatness that caused the splendor of Voltaire's
intellect to 60 out in utter darkness, and leave
his spirit beneath the wreck Of his genius pray
ing for the light he had quenched. And it
was the possession of this immaculate virtue
that has given to our own venerated Washing
ton, fame that will endure until all the re-
cords of the universal world have been blotted
out Had Napoleon been led by the light Of
this diamond of the soul, his sun would not
have set in the clouds Of Waterloo-his great
untamed spirit, chained at last to a lone rock
OF the sea, would not have been moved 70 ex.
claim, when too late to redeem the wasted
pearls of his errng ambition, "Washington
Washington his name will live in the great
heart of the world, when mine will have been
long buried in times oblivious grave"
And the recent revolutions of Europe have
given us another example of this God-lke
principle. In the noble Magyar refugee, the
patriot hero, kossuth, we sec the moral beau.
ties of mighty mind shining with refugent
brightness, and like the rainbow overhangne
ry rises from the pure light of his lofty sou
and encircles the horizon of the East, and by
its vivid contrast renders the darkened minds
of his dcspotic victors still darker, and make.
his own eminence more beautiful among the
great lights of the world. 1t is this that give:
to the hero, the statesman, the scholar, hi
true and permanent glory. Without it th'
three combined may rule the state, the nation
f the world, with rod of iron, and lock up it
virtues in the gloomy cells of their own carne
hearts, where they will remain until Luthe
or Washington rises, and with the "wing o
the swan' fans again into flaming fire tn
spark that can never be utterly quenched.-
q And in all the pursuits Of life, good or evil re
suits from the actions of men according to tn
4 measure of this foundation stone of all tru
J.. greatness. You may reach the utmost limit
d of worldly ambition by the fires of you
r. genius and intellectual powers, but when yo
r. write, fail not to dip your pen in the "water
o of life," lest your names become rcproac
n to the moral heart of the present and the fl
n ture, and your fame the shadow of an imag
> that exists only in the minds of the depravet
l. But must pause. The last hour of thi
10 measured space of time so familiar here, b'
re nameess when the curtain of life falls DER ii
10 face of immortality, passing like swift a
h. row through the limitless ether, and momel
I'd hence it will be but q thought in the silent b
er som of the past. And in bidding adieu to Il
r. year in which health and life with innumer
,u bic blessings have been dispensed to as, Il
al grateful heart will not forget its duty to Il
ii, great giver of all. Nor should we forget tn
er the year on which we are about to enter ms
rs be the send of time" to us, as the closing O.
,et has been to some who greeted its opening wi
it the light heart Of holiday joys. We have fl
u lowed the father, the mother, the daughter a
Ills the son to the grave, and we can never bri
ed them back. The pale white rose withcre
is. and 'sthe scar yellow leaf" while they pers
he nate the sure end of earthly ties, are likew
not emblamatc of bright unending spring in
D.. -..:.f c. .Lo ilo.t ,,,hotLo. .