The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1851-01-20
orlgin and Prosress Of Inyentlon.
ApvEsr OF TIE ARTS.


Man has everywhere made his debut in the
character of an 0rson. Soon as the curtain,
rises, behind which there is no peeping, as an
untamed animal he leaps upon the stage, and
as such goes through the opening act. The
annals OF all the people of old began with
their condition as sayages, Those of the
Jews form no exception their earliest pro-
genitors are represented as being at the foot
of civilizations ladder, both in arts andmor-
ais. OF the present occupants of the earth,
the records OF the enlightened trace their
forefathers to various phases of this same low
condition, beyond which large portion Of
mankind has not yet advanced; an indication
Of the infancy Of the species
Mans physical wants first occupied his at
tention. In the dawn of his being, he was
as ignorant of Others as his widest descen-
dants IRE now. In common with creatures
below him, his necessities were his monitors;
designed by his Maker to initiate him into
habits and awaken impulses that were to be-
come distinguished traits of his race. He
was TO be thinker and worker. All crea-
lures act more or less from reflection, but in
him these qualities were to be pre- eminent.
He was to live by his ingenuity and labor, ac-
cording to law from which no order of be-
ings on our globe is exempt, and most likely
on no Others.
1t is irrational to suppose that happiness
lof any kind can be realized, except as the re-
ward Of efforts to attain it. In this respect,
ants and angels are probably alike. Every
living thing is furnished with organs adapted
to its nature and the theatre of its existence;
and on the proper application of these its
Ienjoyments and their augmentation are made
to depend. knowledge comes not TO us by
intuition, and the tenderest insect, as we'll as
the mightiest quadruped, perishes, that uses
not the means given it to live. All are Or
dained to preserve life by the diligent en-
ployment Of their faculties, and all are urged
thereto by the most pressing of natural re-
quirements. The spirit of the injunction
that man should earn his bread by the sweat
Of his brow, was therefore nothing new,
since it had been imposed as condition oi
life and of the enjoyment Of life from the
beginning. Indeed, it is not conceivable
how any of earths denizens could have been
disciplined for the work assigned them, had
not their energies been stimulated into action
by privations. Man certainly could not, as
the story of Eden proclaims; philosophy and
,experence unite in declaring that, had he
been encircled with perpetual ease and abun-
dance, the sloth and the glutton, with mind
torpid as in zoophytes, had become united il
him. His sin was Incidence, and in ma.
tional point of view that includes all others
it is one for which there is no forgiveness
can be none. sHe preferred, aud so have hi
unreclainied and half-reclaimed descendants
to this day, to live on spontaneous food rath
er than earn it by labor as commanded; henc
it was blessing to expel him--a curse to lie
him stay. Had he been permitted in loos
idleness to live
"With brother brutes the human brute had gra
zed."
No one doubts that at his advent ampl
provision was made for him-else he had per
perished in his nonage-and that it was con
tinued till by increasing numbers the specie
was established. He was then urged to re
tire from location merely intented as tn
cradle of his intancy-a nursery in which h
was to grow till strong enough to provide 70
himself. His very nature and organization
made labor necessary TO both mental and bod
| lily vigor, but in the midst of plenty he ha
no motives to activity or useful pursuits
Without it the race must have become ex
tinct Even now, with all our experienc
of the value of science and art, were tn
earth 10 bring forth, without culture, food il
superabundance, and continue TO produce ii
mankind would inevitably fall back into bar
barism
AS with man, so with all terrestrial crea
lures. None come till the earth was read,
to receive them. Every genus had its Eden
in which its first representatives burst int,
being, and were nourished till strong and nu
merous enough to migrate. They, too, wer
then driven out.
If, therefore, wants had never been felt
THE ARTS had never been known, and with
out them there could have been neither sci
ence, refinement, nor morals. Happily, thel
thrice happily-did sterility Of soils, in
clemencies of seasons, scarcity of game an
other food, force man to reflect, invent, an
, construct-to become an artifcer-and there
by to clear the way for the unfolding of tn
higher qualities of his being.