Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1856-12-05
RICHMOND WING.
The student Of Oriental geography mus, have see,

youth TO scale the heights OF knowledge what passes
or the portrait Of solemn looking parsonage seated
cross-lcgged upon elevated PEDESTAL before which
IN innumerable crowd is reverently Frustrated IL
Is the great DALAI LANA, worshipped by the Eastern
world as the most glorious incarnation of Deity. BY
long course Of abstraction, entire abandonment
to purposeess and voiceless musings an utter abne-
cation Of all the functions Of social e he has reached
that last stage OF progression towards ipfnite bliss
called nirrdnd, ''in which there are no ideas, nor
even consciousness Of the absence of ideas"
IL may seem strange that mere mental torpor and
apathy Of soul should be COMPOUNDED with the source
OF intellectual and creative energy. But our Demo.
cratic friends, while duly rejoicing in their exemp-
ton from the degrading superstitions Of the East
should beware Of unjustly dsparaging their Oriental
brethren. There proverbs, hom0ly but signf-
can't which dissuade the pot from hazardng reproach
full inuendoes against the complexion of the kettle
and warn the coon against heering comments upon
the narrowness Of the opossum's physiognomy. The
Democracy have for months been worshipping great
DALAI LAMA Of their own, who previously to his
apotheoss, answered to the highly respectable name
OF James Buchanan During all the recent canvass
he sat cross-legged upon the Democratic Platform
profoundly selfinvolved aud inexorably silent As
deeply medtatiye as the toad immurred for centu-
res in the living rock, he chary of all revela
tons as to the result Of his reflections. Like the
nystics Of Mount Athos, he jealousy ignored the
pressure OF outward circumstances, and aspired TO
reach the sphere Of celestial illumination and Godke
quietsm by fixing his devout medtatons on his own
umbilca region. In fact he seemed to have entered
the portals of the Buddhist heaven and to have re-
allied the negative joys Of 'Rirrand." Amidst the
loudes Of the political tempest and the widest
surgngs OF fanaticism when all that is dear to the
patriot was threatened with instant wreck there he
safe, as il possessed by the prince of dumLness in
sublime abstraction stolid indifference When
-Pllicock sat on Plicock's HILL he might have
been more entertaining spectacle to 'mad Toni,"
but he was scarcely so edifying, was Mr. Buchanan
to his Democratic followers. Devoutly believing, as
good Buddhists should, in the doctrine of transmit
grafton, they assured that all the divinity which
years before had successfully informed the clay
ofVan Buren, and Cass, was now seen in mantlng
efulgence to kindle nimbus Of glory around that
sacred head. His very squnt had in it something
awful and portentous, as il more worlds than one lay
within the field Of its vision.
Then occurred the most marvellous transformation
recorded in human annals his personal existence
became merged in the Democratic platform: his last
intellectual effort faint and tremuous echo of
n
rallel such an instance of selfimmolaton Even
Priapus the scurvest God OF all the Pantheon. re-
joiced in good Horatan verse, that he escaped the
ignominy of being changed into jont-stool, which
We take to be kind Of platform. This last indgni.
ty was reserved for Mr. Buchanan. The Roman no.
ct who records the transformation of men into trees
and depicts in colors lively, the budding forehead
aud cncroachng bark would have delighted to add
mo 10 II
wonders He would have described the gradual
deadening of the sensblites, the increasing obscu
ration OF the faculties, the extinction Of conscious
ness and the final loss of identity, which perfected
the triumph Of vegetable over spiritual nature.
There subjects upon which all reflection is
painful. The awful expanses Of immensity brighten
US The infinite prolongations of eternit, confound
The deeps under deeps of human abasement nosi
lively appal This voluntary descent from the heights
OF intellectual power and solemn remuneration of all
that constitutes manness-this deliberate putting
oil OF humanity and put,ng-on Of nonentity-srikes
us as something strange and unnatural Politicians
are so apt to deem servile compances the essential
conditions Of success, that we may assume their
spontaneous humiations as the measure of their
ambition they fancy that to spring high they must
stoop low just
:" As cannon shoot at higher pitches,
The lower We let down their breachesn
But such cool uncasing in tie eye of Heaven-sucb
alacrity in stripping off all the surroundings which
mark political indyiduaiy-such a ready return TO
the forked and featherless state Of the pritniv e
man-as was exhibited by Mr. Buchanan, betravs an
unexampled lowliness Of mind, or else argues a de-
gree oil philosophical sans-cuottism, and dashing
disregard OF the preudices Of sophisticated society
never before displayed on any public theatre.
IL was some relief to those who distrusted his pro
chylty to intrigue, to suppose that by thus condem
ming himself to a condition Of absolute torpor ne
had precluded himself from all resort to his fayorite
arts Of equivocation: and, indeed it was fair TO in
fer that, by refusing to be questioned and by dent
Tying himself with the Cincinnati platform. he had
dispensed with the necessity Of any farther trckerv
That curious piece Of mosaic unlike the Procrustc
m bed seemed TO accommodate itself To every lang,b
Of limb II would fit with equal ease the propor
tons Of Tom Thumb and Of Daniel Lambert In ev.
cry part Of the confederacy, it was made TO assume
the popular cast and complexion. And when Mr.
Buchanan declared that he was neither more nor
than the Democratic platform, it really seemed thai
the force Of fraud could no farther 90 Under sucb
circumstances, nothing but invincible love Of Fl
nessc could have tempted him to a secret breach NJ
his selfimposed silence. But he wished to c.ioe tho
voters Of California by tie avowal Of opinions some
what hazardous to his popularity on the Auanti,
border and he scrupled not, while affecting to be a
mute as the God Of Silence hushed in groves Of As
phode, to favor them with private despatch. 81
timed that Il might operate on the election there
while here every sentiment Of honor would stiff
the suspicion Of its existence Upon such sh,r
practice We forbear, from very shame, to commen
But had any Of our earlier Presidents we dare no
name Washington in such connexon-bnt ma
james Madison ventured upon such an electiopee
ing mansuvro, how would the hearts Of all the ne,
pie have throbbed with anguish, that the fine gol
had become dim, aud the lustre Of the morning ST,
imbibed stainl
We have received from Misrs WORKMAN & Go
troll 'Lifs In Israel POrtraitures Of Hebrew Oh
raetor" by Maria T. Richards author Of Life
India" very interesting volume also IAN Etym
"a