New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-01-21

Single copies, with without wrappers can be had at
the desk of tho office, No es st Charles street
THE OLD TO .aDFTSE; THE YOUNG
no EXECUTE.
Our neighbor Of the Delta SCOTS at our praises
of those ancients of the American Press, til,
editors of the National Intelligencer; of whom
we are proud as our instructors, because the,
! never taught us any unwise nor any unworth,
thing Chiefs as they yet are, in the Journal
ism of our country ever its best head an,
its strongest as well as soberest arm; by the
experience and abilities always a light to tn
public counsels, not merely of Congress, but o
the very Administrations which they opposed
never otherwise than temperately and Justly
yet such politicians the Delta would unceremo
niously thrust by, not for any sign Of age, bu
for its simple fact; not for any known act o
decaying judgment or lessened vigor, but il
mere compliment to that sagaeious school, head.
ed by q somewhat ancient young gentlemar
(Senator Douglas) Withdrawing never given
any other proof of its wisdom-makes itself a
grand and sufficient one out of its youth
The whole idea Of country's betaking itself
to such leaders upon such grounds-merely
upon the theory of their superior ignorance-is
precisely as if all schoolboys should be exhorted
to turn out their tutors, as necessarily less fit
to teach than they
The editors of the Delta are, almost as little
as ourselves, benefciaries Of this new theory Of
wisdom. If they are conscious Of growing in
incapacity as they have grown in age, they
should certainly not attempt to edit paper !;
but, on the contrary, abdicate their chair to the
youngest devil" about their office.
So much for the argument between the exist.
ing riyals-between living Fogyism and living
! Juyenility. But we are not merely believers in
the Old: we are believers in the Past rather
than the Present; We prefer many of the Old
Opinions to the New, many of the points of
character and intellectual tendencies of other
days to those of the moment. In short, we
greatly doubt if the Young World is bit wiser
or better than its ancestors and some of our
reasons for the doubt, we will try to explain.
In the vast and constantly growing body of
knowledge which civilization has now long
transmitted. it might seem one of the surest
laws of Thought, that the Positive, the certain,
the just, the Useful would always ultimately
establish itself; that the Immaterial and the
False would be constantly sifted out that the
Wise and Right alone would be left; and that
q wide and orderly Intelligence would reduce
the ascertained certainty of each subject into
so many well-arranged systems of Learning or
Of Science. Such is, indeed, the general fact:
but the process is imperfect, in many particu-
lars; and fails, entirely, in others. 1t nav
suffice, for the present, to remark, that the
Practical sense Of Mankind is far from having
always made the same advances as their attain
ment Of Speculative Truth. IF Wisdom be in
Thought only, we are wiser far than our ances-
tors but II IN Action, they we're wiser than
we, because, from the simpler form of their
Thought litter to act. There is point, in the |
progress of Intelligence, in which the strong |
and plain truths, accumulated upon each SEN I
arate part Of knowledge, form distinct and
well defined body, where, among clear facts,
ana principles not yet pushed beyond their
bounds, 1t Is easy to fix upon the rules which
are to be applied to the direction of our con-
duct, public and private. There is another
point. at which the very multiplication of ideas
begins to efface the separateness of these masses
y Truth, and to re-confound their differences.
% that none but the most powerful and exer-
elsed eyes con any longer detect them For
merly, it was from the want of light that men
saw not: now, we blink from its excess
Thought--a vast and rich halls better seem
by a few Well-arranged hambeaux. dismissed
about its noblest parts, than by tapers multi
piled till they shut from view the yery walls
hey were meant to display. So is it with not {
! little of the Illumination of the present dav t
We shall have to put out part of it, in order
o see. 9
Ii the growth and the diffusion of KNOWLEDGE t.
tsef bring with it these inconreniences Of un- "
Eieidness and uncertainty, what, meantime, b
lust DO the effect of the infinitely rapid and =
lultiform propagation of Error? What of tbe -
'rlbbied or detained nonsense, that fills the
cry air, IN countries where the Multitude fix Ia
10 standard OF Truth ?-the dreams of Science U
Superstition the folies of System builders q !,
nd Inventors the sanguinary bene6cence Of
the lies of Party or of Sect
lie inventions OF wonderloving credulity; the M
uths proper to one set of circumstances only til
I'D all the rest; those other truths "a
nlch, turning into inveterate Prejudces have w w
ken the nature and the temper of Falsehood ri
g lmpostures Of mere Authority the Opinions ju,
lat continue to subsist, only because thew pc
ave once subsisted; the guesses of half Know wa
dge, the laborious nothings of senseless Learn ~
g, the reyeries of Mysticism, the monprel
9uons got between Reason and Madness. and KIN
that countless spawn of Absurdities. which b
'oke the Shadows of common place minds WI
It'll their small fry These and multitndas ot ~
hers, the mere brood of Chance. sprino. mn an
tn no regular relation to Reason. even 4
their oppositeness to it, and perish, when jeo
cir day is over, not of the destroyino tar
rength of Truth, but of their own moth tho
gness' Often. indeed, you but excite in tina
EN- fresh tenacity of life, BY assailing y
em ; and propagate, by attempting to destroy ma'
Dr. trample folly into the earth-sbred it IRE IRE
to BITS and each segment becomes endued mid mid
TIN Its own base vitality, just as worms and
'iypi are multiplied by the very act of CUTTING
en- to pieces Truth, on the contrary, like p
ngs Of the higher organization, Is sino1o ond was
diyisible, Its dismembered parts vii, NJ exc
're grow again than will amputatea arms or s.
g. You cannot plant it, like parasite ~ pest
vail or tree; nor graft scion of wisdo, has ,ass
on stock of stupidity. Fling Folly down attr
the contrary, where you will, and not st;cl, alon
IT but will take root Thrust its ton ;rto ofl1