New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-05-04
'FfE DAILY CIR ESCENT.
THURSDAY MORNING. MAY 4, 1854.
BRIGHTNESS, past .a.y.p PREsE.NT.

4
THURSDAY MORNING. MAY 4, 1854.
4 r@--s.z--=zz------ -
GRE.aT.NESS, PaS7. .dsseD PRESENT "a. 'i
Where leeks and garlic were worshipped, Gas
among the Egyptians Of old one would say that
4 .he ia ntard 81 she human must have been low,
IN n,onSrtion to that Of the divine Where the
y gods are monkeys, Gus In Atrica,) what must
the men be? ii
In order to ascertain aohat people are, you
" h4ve only 10 ascertain schop, they honor. For
mems morals are never better, but generally
worse, than their tastes or their judgments.
& 10 measure human wit or virtue at two differ
ent periods, We must take it at its high, not its
low-w mark for either. To gauge the gran
deur Of two eras in the same country, compare
their great men In this way. we can tell how
just are the present large presentions of the So
called y Progress, and what Young America
is, in comparison with Old America. Let US see
scao scere and soho are our great men y
8yg8 We need hardly enumerate the eminent men
Of the older order of things, now departed
Y Great and worthy of attention they we're out
the are already passing into swift oblivion
ders Of personal reno#n, that crowd upon as Id
a country where glory efeces glory 50 fast;
where every body mounts vt once 70 the topmost
eninence of celebrity where the supreme, the
superlatve of public and virtues is quite
+ as common as in other regions it is rare, where
great ess IL tie rule and not the exception, the
usual course Of Nature, and not the phenome-
ne1ss ElseEhere, it is a secular plant that like
\ the aloe, blossoms but once in d century: with
{ us, il grows:on every hedge. in any cabbage
yard, in each turnip-feld, an eternal and nni-
versal bloom, rich and radiant. In eras less
fortunate and parts of the earth less ilustrious,
consummate Genius, whether for civil dominion
or for Arts. or for Arms, was a sort Of intellec
ftual phoenix the brightest Of all the children of
the air; self begotten and self-consuming, it
knew no generation, neither parentnor offspring
nor mate; but lived on, whole ages of lives, com
panionless, and died at last without having ever
seen its own like. Among us, however, the
feathery wonder is quite as familiar as any 9TH
er kind Of poultry phonixes, here, go in focks,
almost the tamest Of domestic fowls; not "a barn
yard but breeds them; not dung hill but is de-
corated with them, not a hen but matches them /:
may as If the dearth of genius were dreadful
an artificial incubation by charity schools and
colleges is called in, at every corner. to warm
countless patches into being, until phoenixes
Of greatness are become as multitudinous and
as cheap as are the oven-nursed chickens Of
Egypt.
AS WELL however, as one can judge who looks
on the mighty contest of universal abilities from
as far below as we do, this boundless prevalence
Of Incompatible regulations is not altogether
without its attendant inconvenience n the
first place, the old eternal signs of individual
grandeur hold no longer the crowd and the
confusion Of great men is such that nobody can
now tell who is or who is not one Who that
knew the mighty Houston, the loudest bully and
foulest blackguard of the pot-hoase; stained
with every vice that can disgrace civilization,
without possessing o single one Of its compen-
sating refnements; man formed only to shine
IN brawls, but of scarcely the wretched courage
that makes valor enough for them; fugitive
from the strange infamy Of having illuminated
his own spotless and newly married wife; an out
cast among Indians who, less degraded than he,
adopted the outlaw, after their manner of apt
designation, by the nameof IS The Big Drunk y
who could have imagined that, for single bat
tie, won by accident, and fought in his despite,
by troops that dragged him into it, 8 blockhead
bravo like this would suddenly, as if Fame had
gone mad, emerge into renown and Become
hero and sage' Non gttopis lgfao AEer-
GURUS tit, said the ancients: but now o. days
there's no stick of timber but may be made into
god Oh enviable lumber-men what a pro-
motion to your commodity! The fact is that no
man, however unamhitious, or however stupid,
can any longer be sure of that obseurity to
which his wishes, or even Fate herself as
signed him: the humblest Of spirits, or the most
lsodden of ounces, cannot lie down at night. in |
the happy nothingness of his aspirations or per-
farmauces with the slightest certainty that he
shall not, like Lord Byron, g wake up in the
morning and find himself famous' The very |
precautions Of prudence. the very efforts of
foresight which men take to save them from
celebrity, serveb but 70 hasten that catastrophe :
the modest Topper, alarmed at the idea of being
a vii, gave to the world, as the am |
ptest certificate Of imbecilty that man ever pub
hshed, his s Proyerbial Philosophy, y and loi he |
was hailed at once, by an unbounded popular |
isy, as one Of the wisest of authors Franklin |
Fierce, equally apprehensive of being taken I'M
awares and lifted to some inordinate honor, was
at pains to show himself to the nation, for ten
years, as Representative in Congress and a
Senator, in order that all might see, by positive
demonstration, how small was his capacity for
civil affairs then, with "a like view and equal
success went all the way to Mexico and served
o campaign, for the mere purpose Of proving
that he was no better for war than he had been
for peace but vain was his care! fruitless all
his foretheught They took him up, and set him
on high, as President, the chiefest man Of the
most amazing of nations. at the brightest epoch
that ever dawned upon it.
THE LITE SOUTHERN CoNVE.N.
TIoH
We are not, usually, slow to express our |
apprehension Of such public things as We delibe-
rately condemn But, among even such, there
comes, occasionally, one of which we deliver our
opinion with reluctance For the charities of
life command that no little should be passed
over, where the leading intentions were good
many of the gentlemen composing the recent
Charleston Convention were either personally
our friends or entitled to our respect the chief
part of them were very innocent Of all political |
skill. and a1thnu0b Soma fa.,, 80 ,,,nls