The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-03-31
Miseeiianeops.

7Disceiiaqeops.
From tie Odd Fs7lers' Castef.
The Westward March of Empire.
Human history is perpetual exodus.
National migrations seem to be prompted
by both divine and human purposes
There are always tyrants to conquer, op-
pressors to flee from, Red Sea to cross,
a wilderness to traverse, and promised
land to attain and possess in the end.
The history of the world might be di-
Tided, like drama, into FIVE acts, four of
which are already played out. The cur
tain is just rising on the fifth and last.
/. THE AGE OF PERIcLEs, OR THE AGE
OF ARTISTIC BEAUTY.-Fifteen hundred
years before the birth of our Savior, the
world wasi in petri6ed condition. Ithad
no history, no States. All that had been
done in Assyria, in Persia. and in Egypt,
was in stagnant condition. At that
period, action began to ooze out, taking
its origin in Western Asia. the source of
all future civilization. Two young men
are students in Egypt. Each is intent
upon his unknown but lofty purpose,
which he first natures, and then sets out
to accomplish. One crosses to Greece.
He brings letters with him, and sows on
Greek ground the primary seeds of civili-
zation. Nine years afterwards, the other
"a man of down-trodden race, an out
cast, man who was born to overthrow
tyranny, and who burned under its inhu-
ence-sets outon his expedition, and leads
his brethren over sea and land, into the
wilderness. With these two fCadmus
and Moses) originates the history of the
world, secular and sacred. Passing on
to about 700 B. G., We find genius devel-
oped into beauty tits the age of beauty
in art, in sculpture, in architecture, in
literature, and philosophy-everywhere
beauty 1t is the age of Socrates and
Plato, of Aristotle and Euripides, of He
sold and Sophocles, of Eschines and
Demosthenes, and Praxiteles and Phidias;
in word, the age of Pericles, for in him
all the elements of the highest GFecian
culture were exemplifed. He was re-
splendent with all that could communi-
cate grandeur. He stood forth, amid
forms of artistic excellence, the exponent
of beauty that the world has since only
approximated. In literature, in painting,
in statuary, in architecture, the world
has only dug up the defaced and broken
fragments of these days, and yet they are
masterpieces which its best workmen
have never since been able to equal.
g. THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS, OR THE AGE
OF MARITAL FoRcE.-A colony of adven-
turers are driven upon the Italian coast I;
they lay there the foundation of a future
city, and as they are digging the first
trench its walls, the soothsayers, taking
theirinspiration from the sight of bloody
head, (caput, predict its future greatness.
"This," say they. "shall be the bloody
caput; the warlike metropolis, the capital
of all the world" Oriental languor gives
way to strength and vigor. The brigands
go on gathering energy from their super
stition. They go out against theirneigh-
bors and subjugate them. They conquer
new territories, and each conquest paves
the way for another. and another, until
from the shores of the Mediterranean to
the healthy hills of Scotland, from the
Euphrates to the Rhine, there is but one
government, one language, one religion.
1t is grand amalgam of nations, blend
ing of all tribes. 1t is Just perfected
when the Roman Emperor proclaims him
self Ponti6ex Maximus. The monument
of that age is the Pantheon. All the
great monuments of human progress are
architectural What the Pantheon was
to Greece the Pantheon is to Rome. 1t
is type of the people, gross as they are
themselves: not beautiful, like its Grecian
prototype, but bearing Greek beauty de-
faced and defiled by Roman touch; the
touch ofiron muscle and iron mind. That
Pantheon is filled with the deities of con-
quered nations. As province after prov
ince is subjugated, niche after niche is
filled, statue after statue is erected. God
after god takes its place among the diyin-
tiles of Rome, until the hist is complete.
Then as the sculptor is putting the last
touch to the marble, a light breaks in the
East. 1t comes from the fountain head
of civilization just as the field is cleared
of the distractions of martial force, Just
as the world is prepared for universal re-
ligion. He is born in Bethlehem, who
is to dethrone all these gods, enlighten
and bless all lands, and send out re-
deeming influence, westward, all over the
world.
5. The AGE OF LEO Y, OR THE AGE OF
ENLARGED ISyENTIoS.-A man, Asiatic
In temperament, European In education,
towering above all the people In noble
ness and culture, lands on the coast of
Italy. He, too, comes from the East
He Is the predestined hero, qualified to
appear just at this ripe period in Europe.
Through perils, through storms, through
persecution and suffering, he has come
even into the presence of Nero, saving,
So far as in me lies, I am willing to
preach the gospel st Rome also" He
sows the seed among the toiling and toll
worn, always the regenerators of the
world. They receive the divine truth,
and Christianity comes upon the EARTH
That same man lives to write letter to
Cesar's family. Though that truth is TO
be gradually corrupted and obscured and
misrepresented, It viii emerge at the end
all the brighter for Its trials.
/ Atthe end ofthe fifth century, the East
goes to decay, never to be restored agaln
nntii the West becomes the East, and CIV
ilization and empire have spread around
the world IN track of unbroken spleHdor.
The rugged North comes down, and ap-