The freeman. (Fremont [Ohio]) 1849-1850, 1850-01-19
BY REV. H. P. POWERS.

" BY REV. II. L. FOWEhS.
But little lower than than the angels!-But
little lower than the angelsI Enviable position i
Can there be race of beings, without the vesti-
bule of heaven, whom God hath elevated thus
Lives there one of our species who covets not the
exatation, and would not, were possibilities opened,
aspire to the semi-Divine condition?
Yet who would dare indulge the thought, and
in his widest Dreams entertain the hope as he sur
veys the myrds of his race but little higher than
the herds that Craze, the carnivora that prowl;
But little higher? Nay, more irrational than the
one; more cruel than the other, and more imbrut-
ed than all the brutal world. Not merely cani-
balls of body and substance, but feastng on the
hearts sorrows and the souls agonies, eating up
their fellows as it were bread
With such exhibitions from the only rational race
with which We are conversant, where would tho't
nix the residence of beings made but little lower
than the angels? What planet rolling nearest the
Eternal Throne, was made the favored point and
Peopied by creatures on whom the Creator spent
superlatlve care? How broad must be its valleys
and how bright its lawns-how chrystaline its
tounts and how salubrious its chimes! There must
happiness revel and music swell in everlasting carol
that we were transferred to the blissful scene
and made participants in its Joy and raised to its
elevation!
But stay This earth is the elected spot; and
ours the race placed in the proud pre- .enlinence.
But why this depth of degradation and this con-
vulsive sorrow? Why is he fratenizing with
brutes and breathing sghs, whose soul was formed
for seraph converse and whose organs for song? :?
1t is because mistaking his destiny, he has given
to Passion the which is the MINDS RIGHT
1t is because, becoming bestial, he has departed
from proximity to his Maker.
But remains there no remedy? May we not, in
some measure at least, regain our elevation, and
recover enjoyment?
We may. The antdote is found in the minds
| casltiUdtion and the hearts discipline
But let me here throw out few local sugges-
tions which, to me, seem to have material bear
ing upon our object
It will be perceived from our Constitution and
Bylaws, that our Society is social and being So
cial, it should be free.
When say free, I refer not to broad door of
entrance through which every of stupidity,
vulgarity and vice may gain admission ProcaA,
0 procm, este profani: / speak of that unre-
strained liberty with which all should enquire and
all instruct
The moment you hamper the Association with
stiff formality, and sneering or envious fault
finding, you will cripple its energies and subvert its
purpose To be useful to each other, we must be
social and kind. Criticism must be fraternal The
promptings of beneUolence, not of ridscule
Here let every feeling of superiority be suppress
sed in the overfowngs of kindness; or if cherished
cherished only to awaken additional desire to in
struct and elevate. Let the sentiment and the i'm
pulse which should pervade the seignior and junior
members of the same family, mark our meetings,
and give spirit to our actions and intercourse
Neither Aristocrats Democrats nor Sutaries, but
a brotherhood of learners, let our motto be TRUTH,
INTELLIGENCE and UNION; and round this let us
rally, without murmer of dissent or ain emotion
of bitterness. If there be member less agreea-
BILE to me, be it mine to recollect that am uncon-
ciously. as disagreeable to some one else; and it
is very possible that the real fault is not that he is
little like myself but that am so aa1like him.
Our watch-word is AMENDMENT. not Prescription.
Our purpose to improve others as well as to be i'm
proved.
An intellectual creature, made little lower than
the angels, capable of improvement, it is the proud
prerogative of man to be improving and approx
mating to his original elevation. The design is
aided and progress secured by combination and con-
cert. If the world has furnished here and there
an intellectual Solitaire vending his monastc way
of science, it has had its niyriads who have climb
ed the steep in social concert and relative ease !;
demonstrating the eaS~antage of cornmngling minds
and uniting efforts.
Members of this Association, you have enlisted
in noble enterprise; let US see whether the means
practicable, and the object attainable; the la
Dor available and the end an adequate reward
Incidence may very probably sneer at the humility
of our efforts But with the whole analogy of ma
ture to encourage us, and examples of success
standing forth in the light of demonstration, we
may prospectiyely triumph, though but just enter
ed upon the onset
When we see the adamant worn by the drop
ping water and the rippling rl swollen to float the
gallant ship, and the acorn grown to oak, shad-
owing thousand heads we cannot but borrow
fbo of Eba oil
nings.
If examples be needed, we have them in abun-
dance. Many illustrious spirits have risen to
evince the power of perseverance, and the benefits
of confederated effort. Our own Franklin laid the
foundation of his after-emnence in an association
far more limited and humble than this Himself
with perhaps five companions were banded for mu-
tual edi6cation and improvement. They convers-
ed and originated They wrote, and read, and
criticised. And the collision of mind, though
but that of apprentice-boys, ripened into giant
intellect, which conceived the frame work of free
DOM welded the affairs of State; played with the
lightning's flash, and chained the thunder-bolt.
can never think of Franklin and his associates
without smiling in the recollection of circumstance
which he relates:
One of his comrades had conceived profound
veneration for Ben's genius, and of course applaud
ed every thing he wrote; his prejudice being equal
ly inhexbe against another of their number, whose
productions he always abused. Franklin and the
unfortunate wight formed the design of interchang-
ing COMPOSITIONS at the next reading to try the Of