The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1850-08-16
MISCELLAN EOUS.
The Use Of the Passions.

The passions are in morals, what motion is in
physics; they create, preserve, and animate, and
without them all would be silent and death. Av-
arice guides men across the deserts of the ocean,;
pride covers the earth with trophies and mauso.
leums. and pyramids; love turns men from their
savage rndeness; ambition shakes the very foun.
dation OF kingdoms. BY the love of glory. weak
nations swell into magnitude and strength.
Whatever there is of terrible, whatever there is
of beautiful in human events. all that shakes the
soul to and fro, and is remembered while thought
and flesh cling together, all these have their or
ipin from the passions. As it is only in storms,
and when their coming waters are driven up into
the air, that we catch a sight of the depths Of
the sea. it is only in the season of perturbation
that we have glimpse Of the real internal ma
ture of man. 1t is then only that the might Of
these eruptions shaking his frame, dlssipates all
the feeble coverings Of opinion, and rends in
pieces that cobweb veil with which fashion hides
the feelings of the heart 1t is then only that
nature speaks her genuine feelings; and as atthe
last night of Troy, when Venus illumned the
darkness, Eneas saw the gods themselves at
work, so may we, when the blaze OF passion is
flung upon mans nature mark in him the signs
Of celestial origin, and tremble at the invisible
agents of God!
Look at great men in critical and perilous mo-
ments when every cold and little spirit is extin-
guished; their passions always bring them out
harmless, and at the very moment when they
seem to perish, they emerge into greater glory.
Alexs nder in the midst OF his mutlnous soldiers.
Frederick of Prussia, combating against ,he ar
mics ofthree kingdoms; Cortes breaking in pieces
the Mexican empire; their passions led all these
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objects of their desires, they saw them under as
poets unknown to, and unseen by common men,
and which enabledthem to conceive and execute
those hardy enterprises, deemed rash and foolish,
till their wisdom was established by their success.
1t is, in fact, The great passions alone which en-
able men to distinguish between what is difficult
and what is impossible; distinction always con-
founded by merely sensible men, who do not
even suspect the existence ol those means which
men of genius employ to effect their object 1t
is only passion which gives man Il at high enthu-
siasm for his country, and makes him regard it
as the only object worthy of human attention;
an enthusiasm which to common eyes appears
madness and extravaganza, but which always
creates fresh powers of mind, and commonly in-
sures their ultimate success. In fact, it is only
tile great passions which. tearing Us awaV from
the seductions of Incidence, endow US with that
continuity of attention, to which alone superori-
tv of mind is attached. It is to their passions
alone. under the providence of God, that nations
must trust, when perils gather thick about them,
and their last moments seem TO be at hand.
The history of the world shows us that men are
no: to be counted by their numbers. but by the
FIRE and vigor Of their passions; by their deep
sense Of injury; by their memory of past glory;
by their eagerness for fresh fame; by their clear
and steady resolution of ceasing to live, or of
achieving particular object, which, when it is
once formed, strikes off load Of manacles and
chains and gives free space to all heavenly and
heroic feelings. Allgreat and extraordinary ac-
tions come from .he heart