Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1850-12-12
From The N Y. Morning Star.
A bit Of . Rhapsody.

We are inclined to think that the selfish
ness Of the world increases as it grows
older. Our great. great t-xrandfa,hers, and
our great t-great- grandmoihers took tbo't
for pos'erily. Every thing they bought,
or fashioned was made to endure. Their
houses were not egg-.hell ediices, run
up in six weeks, and occupied before the
pla,tering had time to set. Their furni-
tnre was not veneered but Of solid oak or
walnut; AMI instead Of tinseily French pa
per, their rooms were lined with wooden
wain> coating. The double,s and trunk
hose Of our venerable pa,ernal progeni,ors
had nothing flim>y about them, and the
brocade and pa.lusoys Of the danes Of old
had the wear oftwo generations in their
texture and their stitches. In fact, every
thing manufactured by those fine old
trunps had the stamp OF perInanence upon
it. AMI was intended 10 do good service to
their children's children. But in this stan-
pede age, much Of the worlds work is
done as i!,here was no future; and if Mil
Ter had been an ingenious man, instead of
iana'cal old fogi-, he weuld have argu.
ed from this make-shiit tendency, this in
disposition to make things durable, that
mankind had an instructive perception Of
the approach Of the "grand crisis" and
did not care to waste their labor on the
articles TO be destroyed,
Nay. he might have gone little fur
,her and pointed to the handiwo,k of ma
,ure herself. The men and women of the
present day are constructed with much
less solidi'y than they were in days OF
yore. Half the humans one sees have a
fragile temporary sort of appearance very
different from that Of our stalwart ances-
tors. II history is 10 he believed, the
"bone and sinew" Of the race have been
gradually whiting down with e,ch sue
cessive generation, fro,a the time OF those
long lived fellows the patriarchs to the
present day. The world was young then.
and as mankind had plenty OF time before
II, a man could use up three ar four CEN
tnrieS or so far IA lifetime, without the
slice being missed. But now tempus fugH,
the worlds day approaches its twilight,
and people have {" live fast in order tn
keep up with old Chronos. THIS is what
is meant, Of course, by "economy of,imp,'
Of which we hear so much. We do no,
measure time by the clock so much as by
events, and il we can accomplish FIVE
times as much in a given time as old Me-
,hnsaleh could have done, why our three
score and ten, be the same more or less,
is eq"a! TO his 1--WE forget how many
centuries.
To sum up, we maintain that the hur-
rying principle upon which every thing
is now done, is the result Of an instructive
feeling that 'iime is nearly up;" and .ha,
our fragile frames, SO pnny and feeble, as
compared with ,hoss Of our Sam.onian
ancestors, are the result ofihai beautiful
adaptation Of nature 10 circumstances
which runs through all the wosks OF ere
alton. A man 10 last three hundred years
must, Of course, be bnilt solid. but il your
biped's timbers are 20 be shivered at the
end Of half a century or so, il is just as
well 10 make him OF Iath and plaster as ol
live oak.
Such is our theory, and there's nearly
as mnch common sense in it, as you car
pick ont of socialism, cl.irvoyance, biolo.
gy, and Swedenhorgianism, kneaded to-
ge,her and served up in an old white coat
and pair Of s,rapless pantalouns.