The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-03-25

.sesses many of the qualifications ofthe feline
species. If we confne ourselves to praise OF
her virtues she purrs with great satisfaction,
but let the same person
"-touch her modes or laws
OF goes the velvet and out comes the claws!"
clearly before our eyes that we dare her
wrath, and thrust .fearessly about in the hope
that we may perchance reach that unheard
of article, the universal conscience. We
make no assertions as TO the certainty of the
existence of the article in question, but in
our manipuations we shall merely cut and
thrust in the place where it ought to be.
1t is useless to attempt to deny that the
present is an age Of the most overpowerinr
excitement. With this reflection we write
with much the same feeling we would expe-
rence should we attempt to deliver lecture
on political economy to an excited populace
that is. we stand about an equal chance of
being heard
Notwithstanding we make greater rreten-
sions to higher state of civilization, un-
trammelled thought, and more liberal and
inquiring spirit than former ages, we are far
inferior to them in that solidity and intensi-
ty of thought and reflection which should
mark our era. This is true from the fact that
we are living so fast that it is utterly impos-
sible for us to devote proper degree of at
tention to these matters and at the same time
keep pace with the spirit Of the age.
All our faculties must necessarily be i'm
paired when we crowd into weeks and months
what formerly took years to consummate.-
The natural and moral laws remain the same
as of old, and of course, such intense excite
ments, such 'fast living must, from the very
nature of those laws impair both our physical
and our moral energies.
The crowd is continually crying out-''room
for the perfection of science!' And we are
making room for science-so much room that
none is left for more serious and more weigh
ty matters. Heretofore Religion occupied an
exalted position in the heart-no presuming
hand dared reach to shake it from its posi-
tion-no blasphemous tongue dared to ques-
tion the stability Of its pedestal. But now
we see even Religion subservient to the ad-
vanccment of scence-even its Immaculate
purity is not exempt from the rapid, onward
stri1es of ccianra Tho collo oc b,,s;,osc 4, 80
becoming so urgent, so absorbing that no
loom is left in the breast for more spiritual e.
motions. If such be the case are we not JUS
tilted in raising the question whether this is
an age of true advancement! An advance
ment it certainly is, but it is only onpard not
upward!
What could exceed the pleasure derived
from the rural habits of our fathers! The
social call, the festive holiday, the wedding
the burial, the simple form of religious wor-
ship in the rustic chapel, in word, the re-
tirement and modesty that formed the chief
attraction of those rural districts, was cer-
tainly form of life the best calculated for
the development of those finer impulses of the
heart that are fast fading away before the 'ad-
vancement OF SCIENCE These characteris-
ties that formed that pecu lar charm, and ac-
ted as a safeguard to the virtue of a country
life are being crowded out by pernicious in
novations from the city. Our primitive en-
joyments are thrown aside for the discussion
of the crimes, the weaknesses and the wild
vagaries that are agtating our country from
centre to circumference. Foreign countries
are, as it were, brought to our very door,
The conquered lightning leaping mady thro'
its iron prison calls all hearts from the calm
enjoyment of that delicious home feeling to
contemplate the co unUt;on and marriage of
an emperor in the land of Charlemange-the
outburst of poor Italy under the very eye OF
the Pope, and within hearing of all the thun-
ders of the Vatican-or the hoarse growing
of the great Russian Bear, as he turns lazily
in his winter retreat, walked by the twanging
of the bowstrng and the plunge of the sack
in the moat of the ennervate Ottoman
Shades of our ancestors, what subjects for q
country fireside, or avillage taproom!
In this way we ore becoming one huge city
we have no more country towns-city in