The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-05-25
- -. world Getting Norses

Il I1N D1As.-c~s~y~,~ .--~~~~~~~~>>~~-
M..Sny NIsrning, May 't5, 1897.
1,tse world Getting worses
rhs general opinion seems to give an afhrma-
.,ve .nsver TO this question. Not that the mates
rial world 10 getting any worse. Our planet u
.,l bright. we'll disposed planet, bringing forth
hsr svrits In taus season. and running her coure
around the sun with undertaking regularity. The
moral World. however, 10 said 70 be dsteriorasing
every dav the papers abound with rapss, roo-
Maria. r.sca,,,,ea. seductlons and murders; Ia
short. uulssa the comet brings universal deiuse,
ar the impurities Of this earth will
become intolerable.
We can nee no reason for any such dscouraging
view Of human affairs. We hear moro Of crime in
these days because Of the multiplication OF news'
papers and Of readers. 10 old times, before the
introduction Of papers, or, when. they were very
few, people knew little of what was going on in
the world except In their own immediate neigh
borhood. Now, every crime is chronicled In the
journals Of Its own vcinsgs, and copied into ali the
other Journals of the country. If human nature
seems more corrupt In our own than in former
times It IL because its dark deeds are at once put
In print, and conveyed to every mans door. The
same complaints of the degeneracy and depravisy
Of the times have been common ia every age
We have . volume of Lioyds London Gazette
printed before the American Revolution the po'
lice reports of which show crime JUST Is i'e Ill
England, just as ingenious and good oeAi more
daring than ct the present day Dr. beho"s' ID
his late discourse upon the drama, declares tna''
whilst the outward rgours of the Puritan were
greater for the firss century and . half OF their
settlement In this country than at present. secret
immortality was much more prevalent than now
At all events there il more humanity now; more
federation no burning of witches and hanging OF
Quakers; no bodily torture for conscience sake.
Men are not IS savage and cruel as formerly; they
recognize more than In old times the duty OF re-
lieviug each others wants and sorrows; they
build hospitals and benevolent Institutions for the
insane, for the deaf and dumb and blind, for
orphans, &C., which they never did In former
times They may be IS bad as ever, inwardly
probably, they are but they are more civilized
more refined, more decent outwardly. There Ia
less drunkenness, less infdelity and more respect
among men of the world for religion than formerly.
Even If the respect be not real the display OF IL
show that religion has made progress and gained
strength and influence, or men would not treat II
even with the outside show of poliseness
L. is true that in the large Atlantic cities we hear
much of startling crimes, especially OF tnat par
ticular class of crimes developed in the Disgusting
details of the Cunningham and Dalton trials
Passing by the premature and almos. pretefhs'u
raj growth of those Cities whose material develop
ment has outgrown, as we sometimes see III 'ne
human system, the reasoning and moral powers
and also the fact that each OF them Is more OF
less sink and sewer for the corruption OF Inc oio
world, we deny that New York or Boston, that
London or Paris, are any more adulterous or IL
centious now than were the large cities OF. two
centuries ago. II adulteries occur they are
not boosted of as then, and made the materials OF
comsdy, to be performed upon the stage, to excite
the laughter and the base passions OF the popu'
lace. 1t is true that woman has written drama
of detestable morality, which was lately perform
ed on the New York stage, but it was universally
damned by every newspaper in the city. That
drama was exception, and one which ELECTED
general remark aud indignation. But how was 1t
with the comedy of the seventeenth century,
Why, the play then, in which adultery was not
made the whole staple Of the plot, was the excep.
ton, ard was looked upon as tame and tedious.
The dramatists of that time, 1t has been truly
said, erected adultery into q science, and seemed
to take . perverse pleasure in teaching their au-
dience every possible method, accident, cause, and
consequence of it; whilst the tragedies were as
questionable as the comedies, making revenge, ha.
tired, villainy, incest and murder, their constant
themex, and that with little no moral purpose
The English morals and literature of Charles the
Seconds time were but a reproduction of the Itaa
Iian morals and literature and the French Court,
of the same period, was a sink of infamy which
might have well provoked from indignant Heaven
the blasting fires of Sodom.. There is nothing in
the worst of American cities which can compare
with the boundiess and shameless depravity of
those times. It should also be recollected that
whilst the public prints chronicle the crimes they
tell us little of the daily virtues of society. Five
hundred thousand citizens of New York, for ex.
ample. may lead quiet Industrious inoffensive
lives, but we never hear of them; whilst the crimes
which ten thousAnd commit are published In eve.
ry newspaper, and most unjusty accepted as the
standard of the morality Of the whole community.
Men are bad enough, no doubt, but it is as unwise
to make them think themselves worse than thew
are as to unduly exalt their self.esteem. As
philosophical friend of ours observes,-"There ia
agood deal of reality in imagination. Convince
man be is devil, and he is one"
New Publications.
LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRoNTE-ByE q GaskeU
New York D. Appleton & Co Much ,nterest
has been excited in the Literary World of this
country. as well as England, by the two volumes
haar hia 10 Mr5