The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1854-07-21


BEAUTIFUL ExrRAcr.--fn the July mum.
Der ofPutnam, an article-"A Brobdinagian
Look at Wall Street"-in which the writer
ascends the steeple of Trinity Church, at
whose baces, Wall street lay "stretch out
like stony detile to the river," presents us
with various speculations upon the littleness
Of this mad rush for lucre when one looks
down for moment upon the thousands that
slave away their lives between the Bank
and the Stock Exchange; and compares the
ignoble strife with the great destiny that
God intended US to fulfil. The following
passage is to US particularly beautiful.
Beneath the outline Of that sacred tower
found it easy to fill out the mental and NOR
al statute Of a man and in the belittled shapes
of fussy life below, to symbolic the compar.
alive magnitude Of operations, only, appa-
rently large. tried to imagine myself in
some sort of proportion with the gigantic the
DRY upon which men was formed by his
Creator, and after the measure of the stature
of the fitness of Christian commonsense, to
look out upon life in its greatness and in its
lit,leness.
"From such height, I saw life in its great.
ness, stretching away like some vast seem
cry, till it's background was lost behind the
stars. could hear the deep melodies of that
immensely rolling heavy along its mystic dis.
breathed. The whole atmosphere appeared
charged with mighty response to an invisi-
BILE existence beyond. The very planet it.
-,
finite emotion, seemed TO career beneath me
like s:eed. saw immortals, born of mys-
terry, moved on mysteriously, and ascend to
greater mystery still. saw every plunge
of new life into the world to be the signal
for eternal relations to form, and circle away
from each man, like ripping zones upon on
! illimitable sea.
"And when drew nearer, and looked
within this august life, its glory sweled out
even its minut@ into magnifcence. saw
affections, which developed, would have Cir
died the globe with a MILLENNIUM. / saw
powers to which only an outrage law, and
not the A mighty had said, "thus far shall
though 90 aud no farther" saw no less
than the tides, Of the Eternal deep surgng
unperceivei beneath every soul, as the oce an
roars unheard along the undiscovered arch.
ways of the earth. Thus did behold d.
vinity stirring through and energsing all
things; and subtitle, secret and sacred agen.
cies pervading the whole sphere of human ex.
istence. Such was its scenery.
81 glanced from this upon the plateau oil
Wall street, and estimated in its turn that Lit.
tie struggle and pgmy endeavor. The crowds
ebbed and f.wed with the fluctuations of the
market. In the dwarfish pursuit, one man
looked like every other man. saw not the
Wrinkle of care, nor the exulting mien of tr.
umphant recklessness. detected not from
where stood the cheat in his nefarious at
tempt. nor appreciated the honesty thai
would not lend upon usury. All was mon.
oionous similarity, and suggestive of but one
idea, that there the better nature Of men hac
but stinted growth, raising it's bloom'esi
head amid the sterile influences of the marke
place where the light of Divinity could ne
more awaken its grander sympathies, thar
the pattering rain, or the blessed sun coul'
fertiIize the earth whilst those ponderou
buildings did crowd upon it. There saw
man a defaulter to his noble impulses ant
desires; actuated by no more than the in
stinct Of the bee, or the ant to hoard up ad
} ditons TO his substance; and like the little
dweller of the mole hill, blind to the great
ness of any thing which transcribed the mi
nor interests Of his State"