New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-11

smoking factories, It's Iahlfoo "nSCis' - H-.N
agents In every zone it's focks Of ships on every
ssa and saw Lo this is my age-the age OF
money newer and Of material aspiration" And
he who perceives how feebly the appeals Of re-
lieion are responded to; how faint the realities Of
he sniritua world shine through this yellow at.
mospbere Of traffic and indulgence, and how the
! claims Of truth and of absolute right are beat
down by gross and conventional standards, cannot
deny that il is so.
And yet, in the might and the connection the
gigantic life Of these material agents, who does
not recognize unlimited capacities for moral re-
suits Who does not see that these material We
hicles may be, and are, the equipped and har-
messed ministers Of truth and goodness adding
strength TO the natural limitations of man IN the
service Of righteousness, as well as of evil Who
does not see that the fruits Of science multiplying
material comforts are thus clearing the way Tor
moral results Though vice is too apt TO increase
with civilization, still there appears TO ne an I'M
provement from the gross and swinish lnd0lgen'
cies of the preceding epoch. Moreover, though
our practice may be more intensely materahstc,
owing 10 the increase of agents, our philosophy IS
better. There is a reaction from the sensuons
and fatalistic theories of that time, and in the
very existence of nobler ideal there abldes
great hope.
The Intellectual activity Of the time, also has
its evils. IL has been too much characterized By
haste, Tashness, irreverence and ultraism, and oy
q too eTclusive intellectualism. The press, that
stream, and with that which enlightens, elevates
and blesses, sends forth that which tempts, pol
lutes and curses. But he who believes in the
omnipotence Of Truth, the right Of uDshackled rea-
son., and that if the Angel Of Light be uabOund
the Angel of Darkness can secure no final
triumph, will find in this mental activity and col
lision no inducement 10 sigh for the time when
faith identical because it was mechanical,
and the intellect was quiet because it was torpid,
but will only argue brighter consequences for the
future and an unmistakabe mark Of progress in
the present.
So, too, great dangers have grown out of the
moral movements Of our day. Men have been led
to place too much dependence in outside improve
ment and organized effort, to the neglect of in
terror regeneration and individual responsibility.
In the success Of the agent they have forgotten
the rock from which it was hewn-the original
influence without which the salt loses its salt
ness They have dwelt too much upon one seq.
ment Of things. They have attributed too much
to the present-too little to the past.
Yet who that looks upon what has been achiev-
ed, will not say: Here are great indications Of
progress?" Look over the history Of the Tenn
perance movement. Consider the position of the
nations in regard to the question of War The
cause of peace is by no means triumphant yet
there is more reluctance than formerly to plunge
into aggressive strife. One fact is sufficiently
striking. There have been now thirty.fye years
Of general peace. In the three quarters of cent
ury preceding this lapse of time, there were
forty five years of war; and no period Of peace
exceeding twelve years.
In the meantime, these movements unfold
lesson for the Conservative and for the Retormer,
Every question Of the last fifty years has been
iought with tne ssme OS-t'n~sy apd sel6shness,
every proposition for reform has been met WITH
the same kind of arguments, as at the present
moment When Samuel Romilly, in 1910, brought
into Parliament his bill to abolish the penalty Of
death for stealing goods to the value Of five shil-
lings, or for stealing from dwelling house to the
value of forty shillings, Lord Peterborough and
Chancellor Eldon employed objections which are
now used against more extensive reforms by men
who would shrink with adherence from the idea
of returning to those bloody penalties for trivial
ofienses. The first gas company In England were
decred as 'rapacious monopolists intent upon the
ruin of established industry" But these move
ments have triunphed, and the most strenuous
conservative now is in advance of the ground oc-
cupied by the reiormer then.
The lesson to the Reformer appears ia the fact
that Improvements do not leap but gr0U are not
violently superinduced upon but evolve out of
the circumstances OF the present, and that we
| cannot dispense with the scadoldng before we
! erect the fabric
| As TO religious progress, so far as it is an in
ward life, it cannot be measured by any external
! rules OF progress, but has its estimate in the
| depths of individual experience, and the data
! must be gathered from that experience and from
its expressions in personal history. During the
past period, however, religion has been practi-
caly recognized not merely as an interior life but
as an outward and expansive force It's progress
is manifest, toe, in sotenng liberation, ana IN
wider acknowledgement of the spirit Of Christ as
the great bond of Christian union.
Such then, are some of the elements upon which
we are to form judgment OF the contribution OF
the last half century to the essential progress OF
mankind, and which may require yet more COM
prehenlive views and prOtounder analyses to be
taken into the account ere we can come to an alb
solute decision.
| One lesson, however, seems pain-that ourfaith
| in progress, as a final law, must rest upon rei'
giOus basis. Because God is working in the
world and conducting it's destinies we may be-
! lieve it is ever moving forward. Strike out this
faith and where are our data 2 Fifty years can
not determine the question. They do not afford
sufficient scope to judge of the ultimate tendency
| of things They are much, reckoned In a man S
life, but very little in the stupendous march of the
universe Old issues continually reviving
questions that seemed laid to rest, ever aud anon
| leap from the dust with new vitality. The great
battle that was fought two or three hundred years
since between Catholic and Protestant must be
fought over. Out from our age of revolution and
! democracy spring up theories like those of Car.
lyle and NJ. Romeu. While a giant problem,
bearing incidentally for good or evil upon the fact
| OF human progress, waits the coming age-the
great problem Of Labor. Beside we are apt, in
! our speculstons upon human progress to consider
only part of the earth We must take into
view not only the salient activity of Europe aud
America, but the stagnation of Africa, the change
less life Of Asia-the lesson that peals from her
buried magnifcence and her ruined cities. And
when we comprehend in cur calculation all that
! relates TO the question when we consider the
vast geological changes through which the earth
and all that is upon it has passed and probably
will pass, the whole sweep OF human history
dwindes to apoint. Things seem to move for
ward now, but how do we know that this is not
one phase of perpetual oscillation Leave US
know, bat we believe it 10 be progress, because
we recognize the agency Of wise and good Con-
trolles, under whose government one generation