The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1853-12-30
CONSISTENCY.


Sandwich diamond, which may glitter an'
sparkle in the sunbeams, but is only worth
less piece of glass.
Men strive to be consistent, even to th'
sacrifice of principle, honesty and common
sense. They have lived 50 far in life, follow
ing certain course of thought and action
and when they are about to do any new thing
they oftener consult this ghosty phantom Of
consistency than the law of right, truth and
justice. They strive to keep their doings
and sayings in conformity with this miserable
standard, rather than in obedience to the
promptings of enlightened reason.
If man has held certain opinion for the
last forty years, he feels compelled to hold it
still, no matter how much the tinas may
have changed, or how much light the march
Of mind has diffused in Che world. A young
man votes for Wing or Democrat because
his father did; and having once committed
himself, his consistency makes him whig or
democrat for the rest of his lifetime. If he
read and study, he does il to bolster up his
whig or democratic opinions, not to find the
truth. He opens the book or the paper with
his mind made up; all he discovers which has
tendency to convince him that his opinions
are wrong, he carefully winks out of sight.
Every honest man will perceive that there is
lamentaby great majority of the people,
who reason and study in this manner.
Political newspapers 60 back twenty years
to find what politician said and did at that
time, and judge him to be true or false to his
principles by his present adherence to his old
time professions. Old speeches are tumbled
down from the dusty shelves of the antigua
rian to convict and confound honest men,
Old foges believe that politician, minis
ter, or philosopher should hold fast by the
theories Of the past. Reform, progress, is
decried as IN innovation, and as such must be
put down. Consistency, a rigid adherence
to the manners and customs of the past, is
worshipped as a goddess, though reason and
common sense are trodden under foot
This consistency is an old fogyism, utterly
at variance with the advance of truth. An
old lie is better than new verify, is the
practical creed of the consistent party, and
they live on-themseves lie-'in the good
old way, and expect to die a consistent death. |
We yield to none in reasonable veneratlon |
for the good and true of the past, but save
us from that hollow, empty consistency,
which would perpetuaie lies and unsound
principles!
How can an honest man, who reads and
thinks, who profits by every days experience, !
who grows wise on the errors of the past
how can an honest man always hold the same
views and opinions? What Daniel Webster,
Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun believed in
1920, are nothing to them in 1910. Twenty
years of experience are not wasted upon
them. Floods of light have in that time fall
len upon the dark spots of the nations kisto-
ry; changc-the natural consequent of pro-
RtSooiNC uII Tic
institutions of the land; trade and commerce
have spread their wings, bearing our mercan-
tile marine into every sea on the globe; new
States have risen up, new interests have been
created, new theories have been adopted, and
in the midst of all these vicissitudes, shall
the mind of man alone remain stationary 1t
is impossible.
But politicians find themselves after the |
lapse Of years, in a different position from
that they formerly occupied. How and when
the change occurred they know not. 1t was
so gradual as to produce no jar in their con-
sistency. The current set that way, and they
we're borne impcrceptibly on, Perhaps they
would not have been guilty of changing an
opinion. They would have summed the OBJ
loquy of a sudden and decided transition,
would have been frightened at the idea of
being what is called 'turn-coat.' But where
all the world is changed, it is no disgrace to
turn over a new leaf. Hence, the general
even Of an acknowledged im-
is slow and gradual.
Not only in politics and theology are men
consistent but in the arts, in the adoption of
new things. Many men are slow to believe
that the practices of their fathers are not bet
ter than have since been discovered We'd !
ded to 'old fogy' notions, they tenaciously
cling to old IDEAS and for consistency's sake,
dare not meddle with new things.
This consistency is spurious-it is absurd
No man would be willing to acknowledge
that he was guided by it, Everybody pro-
fcsses to be ready to adopt Improvements
whenever their value has been demonstrated,
it is only profession, as the present state of
the arts and the learned professions conclu-
sively show.
Genuine consistency is an adherence to
principles, not to old opinions. II permits,
nay, commands man to change his views,
as often as old notions prove fallacious. 1t
matters not what man may have believed
in ls43, for in 1853 the world stands in an
entirely different relation to him. Neither he
nor men and things, are what they were ten
years ago. Let him be true to the light
within him, regarding not what Others may
say and think.
.Y-Man ought never to be idle. Inaetiv-
ity illustrates the very design Of his creation;
whereas an active life is the best guardian