Oroville daily Butte record., 1857-04-08
Otuuille DaiIq Dutte RerprN.
Decline Of True Courage.

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at different periods and under different
states of circumstances exhibit their
disposition to quarrel and warfare in
very different degrees OF intensity, is a
fact to which history seems to testify
with equal directness an unanimity
Nations, like individuals, appear at
times excessively puguacious and ten
der upon points Of honor, while at 9TH
ers, they exhibit, in view of injuries,
most forbearing and Christian-lIke
spirit. 1t is said, and, doubtless, with
truth, that the appetite for hostllities,
even with those whose whose courage
is NEST unimpeachable, depends great
ly upou the state of the physical stom-
ach. A hero with an obstinate dNs-
pedsia, Bayard, Slduey, or e Mu-
rat sufferlag under chronic iui estIon,
so far from being possibility, j. one of
those monstroslIies which, like the cen
taur, the ph~nlx. or the griffin, can
only be conceived by people whose i'm
aginatI"ns are IN IN abnormal condi-
ton. Whether nations are subject to
complaints analogous to those by which
individuals are afflicted, that have the
effect to cool down their courage aud
incline them to the practice of di>crc.
ton, we VIII not attempt to decide, but
that there are certain causes which
serve. For the tame being, to divest
States of their warike proprnsities.
seem sunquestionablc. CoMrE. in his
Positive Philosophy, affirms that the
industrial spirit, in its perpetual ex-
tension, constitutes the best safeguard
against any serious recurrence of the
military or feudal spirit and all ex-
perlence seems to teach that in pro-
portion as fondness for productive
labor prevails, the appetite for unpro-
ductlve bloows disappears. The An
glo-Saxon race, nevertheless, is of Il
warlike nature, and 1T can hardly be
supposed, however earnest its atten-
tioo to material pursuits, that its orlgi-
nal love of strife has become entirely
obliterated. NATURE says Lord Ba-
con, lis often hidden, sometime over
come, seldom extingui,Eed.' The drs.
cendants of the ancient Sea Kings now
and then demonstrate that the taste for
plunder and piracy which distinguished
their hardy ancestors. still shoulders
ready to break out whenever a tavora-
BILE occasion appears. AS each indivi-
dual, in his progress from infancy to
maturity, is supposed, by philosophers
to exhibit the differcnt stages through
which nations pass in the march of ci.
vilization, it is not surprising that
Young America robs watermelon patch
es in his boyhood, joins bands,
and goes on fillbusteiing expeditions in
his youth, and all preparatory to set
ting down into mone. making, pans
taking manhood. Thus the character-
istic Of race make their strongest app
pearance in the young, the soil most
susceptible. also, to new ideas; and
thus it is that in th" bosom of the ris-
iag generation occur the most violent
strugg S betweru the past and the fu-
ture. between the radical and the CON
servative elements. between progress
and order, that humanity is required
to sustain.
That there is however, a very con
siderable filling off in this gcnaeration
from the ancient spirit of the Anglo
Saxon race, as exhibited in those acts
which are supposed to indicate the pre-.
sence OF real bravery, seems almost un-
questionable. There was a time when
fair play and magnanimity and honora.
bic bearing were deemed of true cour
age the indispensable Accomplishments
and he who had not the latter exposed
himself to deserved contempt by set
ting up pretenslons to the former.
Now the Importance that is attached
to an act of personal violence without
regard to the circumstances under
which il was committed, aud the repu-
tation for pluck which such an act con
fers upon the author, would seem to
indicate most lamen.able scarcity of
that high and chiva'rous courage for
which tho Anglo Saxon was once so
ominentlv DISTINGUISHED