Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-11-19
'.ssHl s@ '1a ~ . For the Spectator.
Bath, Kirkland. and Pendleton Counties.

- 'i-fl ~ - '+-i.'' .'f's
'aaHl s& .aA II, =. For the Spectator.
Bath, Highland, and Pendleton Counties.
| Messrs Editors Here in the midst of thes
| pilings of natures handy-works, beg leave t
send you hastY copy of my thoughts, as the,
60 sweeping along the wales below, or skipping
4 from peak to peak of the heights above, or fly
! ing away beyond in the regions of other facts
fancy. From my long and familiar acquain
tance with mountains and their imposing scene
ry l had thought myself so fully satiuted, my Gu
riasity so entirely gratifed that my fancy or IN.
fysIlilgs could no longer be regaled or enraptur
ed with their vast and diversified panorama
But SO far from this, it seemed as was vending
my way along the grassy vales or ascending
the sunny slopes, or climbing the lofty heights,
was indeed for the first time privileged to be
hold the wonderful works of God and to reve
in the luxllries of theirown inspiration. Led b.
these surrounding objects to series OF contem
plations, was struck and delighted with tn
divine wisdom and goodness displayed in the
arrangement combinations, and adaptation t.
the pleasure, the multiplied wants and purpose
of man. There could be traced the handspring
of the pure rills and riyulets that trickle along
and hurry down from their high beginnings t.
fructify lands and to supply the gathering ant
widening streams, as rolling on in their courses
they turn the busy wheels ofmechanism, or beal
upon their wide spread bosom the accumulated
commerce of the nations. There also that mys
| tic and invisible agent-the Withdrawing as il
were the malarious and impure regions below
and seeking these higher aud purer localities
seems to filter and to rusticate itself and SC
starting afresh and renovated upon It's world
wide mission it hurries on to dsperse its breezes
and its blessings among the inhabitants of the
earth.
And these mighty heights are not only the
sources and refners of these two great natural ell
ments so necessary and conducive to animal ex-
istence and enjoyment, but they serve the far
higher and nobler purpose Of preserving and
perpetuating mans dearest and most valued
brth-rights and of eleyating him in the scale OF
moral excellence. Resting upon their everlast-
ing foundations and lifting their lofty SUBMITS
to the skies, they point themselves out as the
last resting place of the patriots hope and as the
great impregnable bulwarks of civil and relig-
ious liberty. AS the waves of the sea in their
otherwise resistless course are made to know
their bounds and to roll back upon themselves
or break in spray along the shore-so the tide
of human ambition or despotism, striving now
as heretofore to deluge the earth with her dark
waters, shall ever find here an impossible bar
rier to its hitherto onward and resistless prog
ress, and shall be made to verify the scriptural
adage-"H Hitherto hast thou come but no further
and here let thy proud waves be stayed" Yea
in the times of political or Gespotic aggression
when every vestige of human rights or national
liberty are about to be destroyed or swept away
by those fiery pillows Of passion or of plunder,
these mountain breast-works, rising high above
them, all shall stand out. .unscathed and unharm-
ed while their sides and SUBMITS will be cover
ed with ernbattled hosts, and made to echo and
re-echo with the shouts and huzzas of victorious
freemen. Thus it was in the darkest hours Of
our revolutionary struggle, the sage of the times
and Father of his country was led to say -
leave me but banner and give me the means
of planting it on the mountains of West Angus
ia, and l will yet rally around me the men who
will lift our bleeding country from the dust and
set her Free" And so it has been and doubtless
will continue to be among the gallant Highland
ers of Switzerland. Though surrounded for cen
turies and for ages past by European Anarchy
and despotism, none of their dark waters have
ever reached them in their high mountain habi-
tatons, and their free republican government
remains still, an oasis in the vast desert around
it or rs beacon of light and hope to the OPP
pressed and despairing of other lands. Noun
tains in their upward tendencies and their cor
responding elevating influences likewise raise
mans thoughts and aspirations high above the
groveling and perishing things of time andsenss,
and as so many celestial finger-boards they point
him away above and beyond them to that land
of pure delight where Saints immortal reign
How cheering, how gladstone and how delight
full, are the future prospects and hope OF the
christian philosophers when contrasted with
those vast and stormy piles. Standing upon
some one of their lofty heights and surveying
the extended and diversified panorama of hills
and dales, of forests, OF cities, towns and ham,
lets, with all their concomitant and complex re-
alities of fortune and misfortune, one is natural
ly led to enquire-"What meaneth all this2"-
We're these vast preparations made to subserye
mans highest interest or to compass the ends OF
his ultimate destiny2 No! will be the answer
of every enquirer when he looks into the perish
able nature of even these seemingly perpetual
elevations. When he remembers that these and
all other thing, terrestrial were only made to
serve the divine purpose OF mans temporary
probation, he casts his wistful eyes-his eyes OF
faith beyond the regions of sin and OF sense and
deserving in the distance the new heaven and
the new earth wherein are to dwell righteous
ness forever, he strives with cheered though Of
ten saddened heart, with bright and still bright
er though often beclouded prospects, to prepare
for and to attain to that uninterrupted, unend-
ing, and unspeakable blessedness and glory con-
stituting and comprising the highest and the
happiest destiny of us immortal and redeemed
creatures. Among the many and | trust not
the most Improbable of my reflections, during
my rustic peregrinations there was one suggest
ted and impressed upon me by the contiguous
and social positions Of these natural highways.
As cast my eye from some high eminence over
the extended and intermediate ranges, | discov-
cred sort of neghboring or coDiugal affinity
and nearness-a silent yet very expressive and
necessary contiguity And so it seems that IN
the wise and gracions orderings OF providence
all, things animate and inanmate, rational and
irrational (save and except the unique sons OF
single blessedness) arc made for union, assocla-
ton and Iifetime-nutual, dependent conjunc,,
ton and cooperation, presides, accompanies anu
blesses all subunary affairs.
This truth is not only manifested upon the
face of nature, but is universally, though often
alas unsuccessfnlly, impressed upon the heart,
and illustrated in the lives of too many OF the
children of men. Sometimes crossed IN early
love, or the affections buried in an untlmely
grave, (as was true of our unfortunate Democrat
c candidate for the Presidency, for whom, on
that account, would vote,) or the prime. vigor
of youth and of manhood wasted away in the
idle pursuit after imaginary perfection, or the
still idler phantom of great and modernized do
mestic preparation, or the yet greater and more
dreadful misfortune of ones affections diffused
and scattered hither and thither DER the face OF
creation many, very many, have allowed, and
many more are still allowing themselves to float
alone down life's eventful current, without once
endeavoring to coax or to WOO into his lonely
bark her whose buoyant spirits or dulcet strains