Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-06-16


What is within the everlasting book
Of destiny decreed cannot by wit
Or mans invention be dissolved or shunned.n
LODOvIC BARRY.
The period distinguished by the wars of the
Roses, although characterised perhaps beyond
any other by the unprincipled strife of ambi-
tiouS mobiles, and by those restless and capri
ciouS changes of popular feeling which always
indicate transition state of society, although
exhibiting few instances of pure and lofty pa
triOtism, or generous selfdeyotion, is yet in
tenSely interesting, from the solemn moral les
son which each page presents. From the muir
der of the Duke of Gloster to the death of
Richard at BOsworth all along the track of
those disastrous forty years, vengeance, slow
but unerring, is seen, like the tabled Nemesis,
following, with steaIthy footstep, each short
lived claimant of power, and melting out his
just doom. Each and all are involved in the
web OF IneXtrcable fate the dcceiver is de-
celved, the betrayer is betrayed, the murderer
tails beneath the axe or dagger while omen,
prophecy, dream, prOgnOstic, each mysterious
Shadowng forth of the unknown future, sheds
pOetlcal character over each scene And,
arising partly from the unsettled though ad-
yancng, state of knowledge, but more from
the changeful aspect of public affairs, scarcely
can any period be found in our history, when
an insight into futurity was more earnestly de-
Sred or when those delusive fancies which
gave not only to the star, but to the plant the
gem, and the flower, the faculty of revealing
Il, were more eagerly believed and pursued
Startled and amazed at the unlOoked-for events
winch each day brought to pass around them,
men turned from a changeful world 10 question
the SteadiaSt stars, and, anxious restless, and
GStruSttul of their fellOw-men, they sought by
charm and spell to wrest from the lofty intel
hgehcesOt the spheres that unerring knowledge,
mat potent aid, which from the inhabitants of
the earth they might ask in vain And thus
'ne knowledge that taught the attainment of
oil insight into futurity was the knowledge
sought Tor beyond all other and thus was it
.Ad', at period when " old things were pass
NY away and men stood, though they knew
uoI, upon the brink of a new ocean that was
SUN 10 swallow up the institutions, religious
Glu political, Of Medieval Europe each wild
rgall' and each lofty theory, which sought to
NlA The ie6tiGg dostinies of man with an un-
seel world, was eagerly cherished by the ar
usnt student and astrology took up her un-
'eonked abode in college halls, and in convent
1oiSetiu that all searches into the future is sin,
,a'' aside the ponderOus tones of Peter Lom-
% PARA and st. Thomas Aquinas to gaze on the
"IIsht face Of heaven, and exchanged for the
ss,'rola9e e., and horoscope his accustomed cruel
Tx and breviary.
AND frequent theme of hoastful graduation
asgS a1glS the canons Of the richly endowed priory
VI 81 Martin lie Grand was it, that one Of the
o,S' learned of astrologers dwelt among them;
% sIi often, while the humble citizen, half asham-
~ nan afraid, knocked at the iron-barred door
c, y, 'ne sanctuary of st. Martin, to seek, silver
o'od' IN hand, a revelation of the future from
I5He hgure-castcr" or diviner whom fear of
s e SaHows-tree had sent thither for refuge
rII ,II The hrst mobiles of the land, leaving their
nro ,,u! trapped palfreys before the great gate,
IGIoeeled Goled not to the church to ask counsel of
pb;o. ba'en but to the study of DR.. Reynold Bour-
o. % " prepared to "raiSe up strife and debates"
e.ns, W At quietly at home-to maintain the
baas. ase Ot the White Rose, or to fling out the
tbo brltr aI OF the Red-even as the stars, through
,Ss;. ;o2seure and often unintelGgihle reply of
ueIophant, should determine.