The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-08-26

days IDEAL OF sefdenyng virtue and osinefestsd patriot
sBraus generously throws open the boards of bis Golfers
when thrifty usarY permits him to help The Of the
republic, which be desry loved Do the lamDreys Of
Lneuus pine for their choicest ood2 The Dacian slave
handed 10 The steward Of the house bold; and the dalng
ihts OF the paician pond Teoce in their dainty shFeds of
human eah7 This contempt Of lete Thirst Of carnage
winch marked the Roman paciate and paTctsd the nobeY
ieengs OF the heart, gradually warped the minds Of the
PIERS bred their evil passions, and, amidst the daily
s y pefcH etcyeeses, tie dole Of bread 0r hun
geftae saughter Of tie circus TO fass our e. sfnay
seped ihe vory stones OF Rome in torrents Of civil blood
ne, lor moment tia cherished ilusio1s which this
sanctudy OF leaning have more IN onca fitted in escs
fol forms over your youthful minds
strip Roman history Of Us hollow ro,nuit. s.naptiou.
n'aAA-'u iofty decamators about virtue which, on the
W o. poeI, olat, or orator, brutal courage
examine that history in al It's deia, IA an their nakenes
with all their peculiar features unnov.e Nv III
ton and more than generous soul ,yi III ~ [ IL
picture of tragic horrors, which it hanss to the I -
derment Of the world! Lt mp the drop, which cover. the
theatre of Roman e-dive into the depths Of The ene
itse-waieb the actors in their hour Of rsst-and beneath
the lying smile, catch fhe settled SOON Of soa lie e,
ne= OF gross peasnrethe Eoms safiety Of M the lo, az
all confidence. in renal. friend. child or wiftfe borrr f
old age and the absence of all holy and exaiax ru in The
power Of virtue and the destines of mani And deeper and
deeper still, gentemen The loathing pageant seIuouy kent
from our viey-ths world converted into battle plain
reekng with manreh corpses and heagstones dei1Red
with kindred blood We are no longer called on II L, frue
to shrink in horror before the immense carne Of whole ma
hons destroyed. We do hear the deahrats Of agony
gnrgng from thousands of prescribed victims, whose
strueon every centurion of the eorqueroF
or the friend OF yeserday-aumes the office and performs
the task Of the execuone The mprecaiion of the exile
the shrek Of the widowed mOtherthe wall of The baoess
babe-t deathgoan of the expiring gladiator Ionser
hea they no longer strike the heaTsngs and wake
them into deep and mounful prayer to the G. of Jus
tice, for Eerbutions of splendid homicdes And
re, such things have leen such things, even now in mere
contemplation, wiring the better sympathes of the souI
From every quarter the plant Of tortured humanity was
lifted up in desoaton and in From the North the Ea
and the West the voices of the oen traditions Of mankind
through the lips Of Prophet and Syb the coming
OF the hour Of DOOM The fate of Rome was irevocahy
recorded the eternal pageGod had spoken and in the
words of one Of her last champions, "G6etnn da be
Gods were passing with their rule of nd the
train Of vice Her creed. moral social and intellectual
exeed its last best efforts her sneey, morals and hatue
and arts crumbed with the crumbng fabric; and again il,
the far0f distance from the ruins Of some fallen temple
from the shrine Of some rake serapion, hsard the
Gods hGUe passed awayhe funeral kne of the visIencf
and the brutality of Roman heathsnism
And til event. the downfall of the Roman Empire /
assumed to be of the has in the march Of civilization
an these hours wrought into themes of lamenatior
on which sentiments mainly love dwell Yet oob
little beyond and whether mankind actually receded
even at this nauspcious houree WHETHER for the bottn
out of these splendid they received nothing return
When Cesar Augustus entering upon twelfth Con
suhp. and Caius Cesar had been proclaimed Primes Of tn
Roman Youths another and hspr power made it's appear
anoe in an obscure bywor of scnrn in Palestine
Whilst TibeFus startled the lid with crueIties and vices
which the mind barely reaze the Messenger OF ina
Justice had begun his mission of purify and truth sol icing
mankind by his teachings and redeemng them by his death
the people, with religion, he br ught moralty freedom
and hope, at the time when they fed ievo
caby to disappear from earth From the pageany of gor
geous misery aud gded vice, the OF the people tue,
ade-ooked upwards and hoped for judgement and peace
Next TO the vouptuary crowned with roses stood the grave
and thoughtful sage, whose aspirations scared in behalf Il
mankind Next TO the monster who od upon the sanctie
Of life and sported with the majesty Of right the man
who asked whether bis neghbOr cherished tho social Office
and obe ed the laws of common humanity. A sysiem
iruitiuhyirtues butt the wrecks of oicis the last
useless, effort Of the phosO bic genius OF antiquity Sub
lime IN its simplicity, lofty in lis moras reaching an
Notwithstanding in It's acton. this aew code Of rnankin,
from its very pr mitigation rebuke the depotsm OF NeFs
and deiied the fortunes of DoeesRn Man turned grad
ually to doctrine, the panness of which isistibly an
peaed to he heart while the precepts that taught az,
the very prvations which il imposed supplied energetic u
for the better feelings of and tho more gena
workings of the mind. The seeming aussrlty of life W
warmed and peaded BY spirit Of stern enthusiasm IN
der its influence, prosecuted, hunted dowgiven to th
sword, the rack and the beast, the knde feelings seemed d
expand IN hearted thanks TO their tOtun the very ecae
of marty rdom.
Yet in spite of all these concuring elements of dfusim
and succession how many conflict borne how many trs
undergone in asserting the triumph of this doctrine Th
inal oontesthe last baesoek, between Constantine an
mnxentius was ONE o. those events which, physicaye1
pressing struggle for power display of mil
tay resources and skill bn really and truly constituted D.
riod of revolution in the human mind Two worlds witt
their respective doctrines. met by the arches of the Mva
bridge; two creeds with their distinct civilizations stood il
mutual deianee the banks of the Tiber the base
the Capitol itself. Maxentius heading the host Of heahenism
questions the Sybine page-saerifces angura hon an
eonsults the entras OF murdered babes whilst Constantine
leading band of enthusiasts fired by the afns
the det ITSELF looking the emblem of his death for t
earnest of their triumph advanced the CONTEST taned
not only by the greatness of his mon but also by the spin
OF the power that had marked him carry out its decree
In vain did the oden Gods Of the Jancuum call around thei
tOtterinE aArs, the had and
long scattered in desoaon the EARTH The standard
the new civilization wra ned the imperial eages in its vie
orious folds and the land of Saturn bowed to the powero
him who had sanched the heart by the holiness of his
ample and cOasecated mankind BY the sacrifice of his life
Time and society had taken gigantic stride in their onward
march,
Still were material error. gentlemen. to suppose la
fagans though bsa en- in BATTLE was, therefore, read
subdned. Far, very far, am from mourning with Gibbo
and Ssmondi the downfall of the Roman Empire ye
with them, am free to admit the relations which continue,
between the ascending speed of Christianity and the gradna
decline Of Poy.heism. For years almost for centuries
contended, however ruitley, after the more general d
sion OF the noby cvi2ing doctrines the gospel And such
struggle, too! During that time the antagonists clunE de
perate conict-thrsanty, drawing its energies from III
heavens Of its origin; and Pagansm, Animus like borrnw
ing resistance of the earth. from which it had sprung
side stood heahen philosophy with the worship
forms and the other Christianity with its devotion
spiritual beauty Here the intricate theOgony of Heiodhr
the simple books of Moses here poesin Mythology cea
ting its material del;ies there an areut belief in The
infinite and unereaed God From the reign of Adrian III
days of Jusnian, the contest had ragged with various tor
tunes, only In Roms and Greece, but throughout th
boundaries of their power Not religion merely. but ega
ton morals literature and the brought into aet
in turn All the civilized nations sharedn the great debate
debste which the Greek philosophers and heoogsrs
maintaned their Intellectual superiority. Many, howeve
and varied were the exotic shades blending with the picture
Christianity Asia ain up the warfare Of intellect
represented by Judea from which had emanatsd the first
lgious code OF humanity India those mystic do
trnes and eastern visions which, wholly foreign the ensus
ideas of Greece and the brutal impulses of Rome bende
the dreams of wild gnosticsm with the meeker preeepts
the Christian creed Egypt even, brings in her admixture
astronomy and symbolism, which constituted the religion
the learned under the last OF the Emnerors of Rome Thi
insane pursuit of the futile and intangible, IN period
novelty and change 1.-THE metaphysical sHbets which COS,
the eusion of much blood, however we may deprecar
them now, the less evidences of the predomnance
miudbu of mind, thrown from its harmonic eenres and
comelke, flashing useessly It's perverted splendors owe
world ofdreams The theology involved in those discussion
find place within the scope of these Ienars thong
it cannot be denied that he period which saw their origin
ono import in the history of the human race Fer th
first time exhibited the workings of system of represe
taon, which, it peculiar boast have consecaieda
the rreat political truth Of modern tines For the t tim
was held out the example OF society. existing in different eli
mates and living under local and clasng lawsa socet'
made of dscFepant elements, derived from various
hostile nations yet distinct from them a sending ther dele
gates from every quarter of the unvers9 debate question
referring to their moral life and hsirspiua hopes
How many implied rights, genieemen tacity aeknoui dg
by this shyering OF the seals OF authority. ch had htheh
been affixed the free will OF and the blurred dsnt
of mind For the first time since the days Of Moses, th
divine manifestations of Sinai renewed-but renewe
under the influences of sancuon OF nsher reach As ers