The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-07-16

wall OF human victims they walk chained behind the
Wheel Here, too, immortal captains, who return
from the vast fields of human thought loaded with spoa
opa of their conquests but they bring no wooden EN-
gies clothed in the armor of murdered princes TO be OIL
ered In the temple of Jupiter Fcreus they bear then
mighty spols in the mperishable forms OF TRUTH robed
in the native light from Heaven and TO be consecratcd
the altar of the great temple of Science, where they
win represent fallen majesty, but become great bench
cent, and living influences.
These, young gentlemen, considerations well worthy
Of being weighed ere form plans for future
ton There Is into which the educated youth
OF the United States, particularly of Virginia have been
too prone TO fall in selecting the objects OF their pursuit
in life They have been apt TO think that there
but few suitable professions and they have looked too
much the prizes of political life the highest rewards
of human exetona mistake which has been fatal TO the
happiness and usefulness OF many young whose cir
cunlstanccs and qualifications fitted him better for some
other pursuit lar be it from to dspalage the labos
deprecate the prizes OF political life. The man who
honestly devoes high powers and energies To the public
service his country doubtless entitled to the praise
and gratitude of his fellow-men But how often Is Office
sought when it only give the possessor title without
honor, and opportunities craved which wasted with
out benefit TO him who has them those for whom they
ought to be employed How often do men make
total shipwreck of fortune and happiness upon the
shoals which environ the devious way that only tholi
teal trimmer pursue with safety, and none can fol-
low with honor
Nor can it be said that the eminent of this
profession of fame exercise greater in
4nence upon their kind than the class in the other
pursuits and occupations of life The great social changes
and the revolutions of governments do not always
from the statesmen of the world They are often,
perhaps Often be traced to the church and the
school, which furnish the who the first to SOW
the ideas which ultimately direct and take root in the
public mind The Sa,acen, when he swept the face OF
the old continent of the world did not only with
the scimitar in One hand-he carried his koran in the
other and the ideas OF the penetrated where the edge
Of the other keen and tempered it could never
have entered James III of England, who filled place
intended for statesmen fell under his dirccted efforts
Locke poor doctor of physic, expelled from his fellow
ship and exied from his country was conceiyng and pre-
pairing project upon the world those ideas which were
ultimately to shake the whole fabric Of civilized society
For it has been said that he and Rousseau who studied
and in followed him. sowed those ideas which
the seed of the wind from which sprung the whirl
wind the French revolution say the seeds of the
wind for he who sends forth great general idea for the
government of his race without the limitations and
strcons necessary to fit it for the practical uses OF man,
although that idea may be founded in TRUTH is like him
who turns locomotive loose upon the track without a
conductor to guide it, who hurs projectile
into space without any knowledge of the direction which
it may take
But if wild uses have been made Of of his concep
TONS the world is deeply indebted to him for the appi
cations of his great ideas upon civil liberty and the toll
Grafton of religious opinion which has been made by
of its States Certain it is that there was no polit
ica philosopher whose works much in the hands
of the forethers who framed our institutions those OF
Locke and he has hewn of the everlasting rock more
than npershable stone for the foundation Of the
great fabric Of civil and religious liberty He lived in the
midst OF English statesmen, great IN position and renown
and yet who of them, If except perhaps Somes, has
exercised great and widespread influence over his
this poor prosecuted scholar The great MARI
borough with all his victories did not make half so pro-
found Impression upon European society as has been
produced by the ideas Of the political school of which
Locke the head and founder The true architects of
country greatness not always recognised at once,
nor often sufficiently honored in their day.
In looking to the famous OF Europe who belonged
TO the generation Just passed away every eye turns in
stinctivcly to Napoleon the crownng figure Of the pyr-
amid But more than one British writer of cminencc,
Porter, McCrcgor and Alison have said that their
try owed to two of her mechanics, Watt and gayc the
which enabled and take large part
in subduing him Ii to the Of the inventors OF the
steam engine and spinning jenny they had added that OF
Arkwrght, who invented the spinning frame, their prop
oson would have been both just and true and yet how
naequately does the world appreciate the services which
these have rendered it. the extent of their nlu
upon the happiness and destiny of their race In
achieving his grandevr Napoleon converted Europe into
great Anldama field of blood but these men, by
their Inventions enabled their country to sustain millions
OF beings who to them the OF subsistence, and
in existence itself The pe0pled the cities
the dead the other those of the living The dcs
troyed governments and dissolved natonatics with fire
and slaughter in the of his terrible column and the
gaunt images of famine and despair closing up its
the others sustained their country through the trials
of the most perous struggle into which it ad enter
ed and happy homesteads and smiling hamles and state
y cities by magic upon the fields OF their
alton.
If society had crowned these men as they deserved,
and it is forward to do with the desoyers OF
the human race, flower in that chnplet would have
been bcdewed with the tears of the sufferer widowed or
orphaned by the work Of their hands, amongst all
its leaves would have been found Of That deadly bay
whose thirst be Stacked and whose green can be
freshed by nothing but the blood of the brave Am
not right then in saying that the of acquiring
wealth. favor and the power of influencing fellow
man, to be found in all the honest and useful
occupations of life and that the too exclusive pursuit
political honors is neither sanctioned by right reason
nor justified by experienced There many fields Of
independent exerton from which without the aid
of popular favor or of constituencies, SO operate
upon public opinion direct the labors of society
~ exercise influence upon human affairs which shall
be great small according to his gifts and acquire
ments And surely upon any all of these he can
better discharge his domestic duties and protaby
pursue his individual interests, far mere wealth is
concerned
In proportion as you increase the general power and
influence Of public opinion the affairs and govern
ment of you multiply the opportunities for indie
pendent excrtion and You increase the of ndvid
ual usefulness the world at large for in the degree
yhich you enlarge the empire Of ideas, you Increase
the power and influence of the master-mnd that con-
ccivcs themand this without regard to his particular
position in society the circumstances of his life The
poor scholar from out the dim OF his garrett may
utter the warcry which shall raise world in arms
against oppression abuse which he has been the
first TO discover and to point out the true mode Of at
tacking Or he may conceive and send forth the idea
which is to-be a welcome guest in every human habita
tion from the palace to the howell, and TO dwell MS
secret companion and familiar charm in the seat alike Of
the peasant and the prince