Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1854-08-11
I'VE min.
The morally impossible fl

men ana women As VIC iino 'hc h"''""
race in their physical condition now to
lie. Examine the book Of Genesis, which
contains tie earliest annals Of the human
family. As is commonly supposed, it
comprises the first 5000 years of human
history. With childiike simplicity. this
book describes the infancy of mankind.
Unlike modern histories, it details the
minutest circumstances of individual life.
Indeed, it is rather series Of biographies
than history The false delicacy of
modern times did not forbid the mention
Of whatever was done or suffered. And
yet, over all that expanse Of time-for
more than one-third part of the duration
of the human rsce-not single instance
is recorded of child born blind, or deaf,
or dumb, or idiotic, or uniformed in auy
way. During ;hc whole period, not a
single case of natural death in infancy, or
childhood, or early manhood, or even Of
middle manhood is to be found Not one
man or woman died of disease. The
simple record is, "and he died." or he died
Sin good old age and full of years. or
he was cold aud full of days" No epi-
demic, or even endemic disease prevailed.
showing that they died the natural death
of healthy men, and not the unnatural
doatb nf I;S,on,r,r,3 ,,os TLro,,b IL,
this time. (excep: in the single case Of
JOB, in his age, and then only for day
or two before his dcath,l it does not ap.
pear that any man was ill., or that any old
lady or young lady ever tainted. Bodily
pain from disease is ne where mentioned
No cholera infantum, scarletina, measles,
smallpox not even a tonth"clc SO ex-
traordinary a thing was it for son to die
before his father, that an instance of it is
deemed worthy Of special notice (; and this
first case of the reversal Of natures law
was 1000 years after the creation Of Adam
See how this reversal # natures law has
for us become the law . for how rarely it
is now for all the children of family to
survive the parents. Rachel died at the
birth of Benjamin but this is the only
case Of puerperal death mentioned in the
2400 years Of the sacred history; and
even this happened during the fatigues of
apatriarchal journey, when persons we're
not waited along in the saloons of rail
car or steamboat. Had Adam, think you.
tuberculous lungs? was Eve fla: chested,
or did she cultivate the serpentine line of
grace in a curved spine? Did Nimrod
get up in the morning with flrred tongue,
or was he tormeuted with dyspepsis? Had
Esau the gout or hepatasia? Imagine
how the tough old Patriarchs would have
looked at being asked to subscribe for
lying-in hospital, or an asylum for lunatics,
or an eye or an ear inGrmary, or school
for idiots or deaf mutes. What would their
eagle vision and swift footcdness have said
to the project of blind asylum or an or
thopedie establishment? Did they suffer
any Of these ravagcs Of nature agains,
false civilization No. Man came from
the hand of God so perfect in bodily Or
gans, so defiant of cold or heat. of drought
and humidity, so surcharged with vital
force, that it took more than two thousand
years of the combined denominations Of ap-
petite and ignorance; it took successive
ages of outrageous excess and debauchery,
to drain of his electric energies and make
him even accessible to disease and then
it took ages more to breed all these vile
distempers which now nestle like vermin,
in every organ and fibre of our bodies.
During all this time, however, fatal
causes were at work which wore away and
finally exhausted the glories and abound
ing vigor of the pristine race. At least as
early as the the third generation from
Adam, polygamy began. Intermarriages
were all along the order Of the day. Even
Abraham married his half sister. The
highest pleasures and forces of the race
gradually narrowed down into appetite and
incon.inence.
After the Exodus, excesses gradually
developed into diseases First came cuta-
neous distempers-leprosy, 5oils, elphan-
tiasis, &c, the common eflrt of nature to
throw visceral Impurities to the surf'ce.
As early as King Asa, tha. right royal
malady the gout had been invented Then
came consumption and the burning ague,
and disorders of the visecral organs, ani
pestilenccs, or as the Bible expresses it,
great plaques and of long continuance
s"l ">orc sickness and of long cpntInu-
p =" until. in the time of Christ, We See
i,v diseases of al. kinds bad become the
l. maLkiud, by the crawds that hocked
10 hm TO be healed.
And 50 frightful, so disgracefully nnme-
rous have diseases now become, that if we
were to write down their names, in the
smallest legble hand, on the smallest hi's
of paper, there would no, be room enough
on the human body to paste tive tables
Horace Mrta.