Litchfield enquirer., 1852-03-18
For the Liichfeld Enquirer.
Roger Williams.

Ihe great men of any age, are those that advance beyond their cotempora. ries. Energy and perseverance, will enable even ordinary minds to accomplish what others have done before them but something more is necessary to enable ono to advance tin the dark" where none have nod before. In this consists the originality of genius.
 IL has ever been the fate of original gen. fuses to suffer persecution. So long as even great men have been content to be followers and i'm italors of others, all has gone well with them but so soon as they have ventured into the unexpl0red regions Of thought and observation, and have disclosed the results to the world, the cry of witchcraft. insanity. or heresy, has been raised against them, and not un(req ue utly has the prssumpluous adyemturer been called to pay the penalty of his rashne ss with his liberty. if not with his life.
 It was not, however, until science has begun to spread it's light, and the human mind tO feel it's own powers and to exercise them in the way ofobservation and inven- tion, that opposition arose: Hence we hear of little opposition, (for there was comparatively liitle mental progress.) in the early ages of the world. But when science and invention began to astonish tho world, the scene was changed. Hence Dr Faustus Cor Faust ) the inventor of the art of Printing, was accused of intimacy with the Prince of Darkness, and came
 near being executed for witchcraft, Hence Copernicus escaped imrrisonm. nt and
 perhaps mar,yrdom, only by Deaths ans
 licipaling his prosecutors. Hence Calico i fell under tie baa of the Acquisition, and s. de Caus was imprisoned as a maniac, for daring to assert the power and useful~ ness of steam. Even in our own day, we
 have a remarkable instance in the person of Robert Fulton, who escaped persecution only by the success of an unceasingly rid iculed experiment.
 Roger Williams, too, was an original man. and like other great discoverers, be> came an object of persecution. The doc- trine of human rights was already under stood so far as these related 10 civil mat. lers but cue thing was wanting. The temple of Liberty had already been erected, but it was left for Roger Williams to place the topmost stone. This he did when he discovered and proclaimed the doctrine of |. The Rights of Conscience. ."--a doctrine which, though now regarded as the key stone of the temple, was at that time con- sidered heretical and dangerous, and sub . jected it's author to unmerited exile.
 The discoveries and inventions named or referred to above, with numerous others, have all their use to the world. Coperni. cns has given us correct Syetem of Ass tionomy with all its consequent benefits. Galileo has revealed 10 us worlds before unknown, opened the portals, and disclosed some of the wonders of indni,y. Faustus has reyoluiionized one half of the world, and is fast revolationizing the other. De .Caus and Fulton have annihilated space, and changed the commerce of the world. The influence ofthese men and their fellow laborers in the same great causes, will be increasingly felt to the end of time. But what will be the influence of the doctrine of Roger Williams While others have changed the affairs of the world. he has un- shackeled the souls of men. He broke the last chain of desPotism. and completed the Independence of man. He prescribed the
 bounds of human laws, aud polluted out
 the claims of the Divine. To the former
 ho subjected the actions of men, to the lat.
 sers the eonsciences. He has given freedom I--whole, complete. unlrammeiled--to one
 halfof he world, and thrown the "golden | apple" into the other half, and created a strife that will never cease till the whole human family shall stand erect, in the full possession of all the rights of social, civil
 aud religious liberty. Respect tO the mem.
 cry of Roger Williams N. seG Fl