New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-03-09
For the Daily Crescentl @. ,ss
PRESENT AGE COMPARED WITH THE PAST,
AsEssAY BY AGNES nossMAs, .(nrspEs, Ia,

IFor the Daily CRESCENT asa s4Ss7
PRESENT AGE COMPARED WITH THE PAST.
IN AN ESSAY BY AGNES RossMAs,ss (M1NpES. LAY y,
~
Every age Of the world has something peculiar to
distinguish it, which, if not remarked at the time, is
noticed and celebrated by the historian. The age
through which we are passing is one of great deeds
and wonderful achievements, and does not need the
lapse Of time to lend grandeur and glory. To com
pare the present age with the past and to show the
superiority OF Christian refnements over the ruder
forces OF less cultivated age is the subject assigned
LOT THIS essay Its an old and oftrepeated saying,
that the world grows more and more sinful every
day. and every age increases in crime' What is his
tory, from the days Of the first murderer who i'm
brued his hands in the blood of his innocent brother
down to the present time, but record of crime? It's
kings and its heroes, its Alexanders and its Caesars
and host OF Others to whose names, enrolled its
pages are hung the imposing title of greatwhat are
they? Their deeds indeed emblazoned on the es-
cutcheon OF fame but is in characters of blood for
devastation and death were in their path 1t is true,
as we pass over the black catalogue sometimes
cheered by Cincnnatus, rising up at the call of his
country and fighting her battles and assisting at her
eouncils-and Washington and Lafayette whose
Names uneepsed in their glory amid the brilliant gal
axy of those belonging to our revolutionary worthless.
shall ever shine as stars of the first magnitude in the
glorious armament Of American liberty.
Can our age so renowned for its victories over ma
trets achievements in the arts of peace boast, too
that crime has diminished, that human life possesses
higher value! answer yes. Although the din
Of arms has just now ceased and although too have
gazed upon scenes of destructive as any that
mark the bloody steps of ancient conquerors, vet
amidst all these scenes of havoc and death we can note
some progress. 5.ss. ~ a.aar.
Civilization, the handmade of Christianity, was
never before universally diased among all nations
of the world, as at the present time. Indeed, the
ullness of years almost to have arrived in this
respect ; so much So that it is even commended by
learned writer's that the great battle of Arma.
geddon is to be fought in the present age, in which
virtue is to triumph over vice, and the uninterrupted
law of God is to reign for u time among men.
What rivers of human blood have, in past ages,
been made to flow by the sword of persecution and
"wielded by the champions of the cross, pretending
to go forth under the banner Of the Prince of Peace
All too often have the pure garments Of Christianity
been deled by the artful and designing perhaps as
often by the simple and misguided. Witness the mad
enterprise of the Crusaders undertaken at the sug
gestion of wild enthusiast.
The wealth and blood of empires were poured out
like water, and vast multitudes, of every age and
condition, from the beardless boy to the greyhared
sire, and even delicate women, babe adieu to their
peaceful homes to die amid the din of BATTLE or on
the tented field. The world it is to be hoped, may
never again witness such reckless disregard of life,
such lavish expenditure of wealth, for an object so
unworthy of great sacrifice. But are not our pages
vol ,p;ybfl
Christians against another? Have not the fires of
Smthield been kindled again and again, and have
not the most cruel torments been heaped upon those
who aspred to freedom of conscience.
These scenes with their actors, have long since
passed away, and We trust mlder spirit has gone
forth to conquer" 1t may be said that the arms of
persecution is now stayed by the laws of the land
but whence did these laws emanate but from the
spirit of Christianity Whose still, small voice,
though often lost amid the thunders of the warning
elements which disturb the peace of society," is gradu
ally winning its way to the heart OF mankind and
hushng to rest the turbulent spirit that ould oppose
its progress
The laws that regulate the intercourse Of man
with man, and the principles of political freedom, are
more perfect now and better understood than ever
before. 1t is now no longer, to the degree at
least, in the power of one man to elevate himself
above his feowmen by the exercise of mere brute
force-to entrench himself within his lordly CASTLE
surrounded by host of bonded and servile outlaws
and to issue thence only on expedition of plum
der or violence. Society is now united together by
the firm cement of law, founded upon perfect
knowledge of natural rights and reciprocal duties
And above ALL the rights of woman better under
stood and more safely guaranteed in tine present than
in any previous ages of the world.
To what age of the world could point as the one
in which woman honored, or her position in
the social sphere fifty assigned to her, than to
the present. Woman has ever been honored to some
extent even in the darker ages of the history of
race But often has it been honor that stultied
her reason and depraved her morals We read of the
regard paid to the Roman matron, and the homage
won by the dark.eyed maiden of Greece, but those
were exceptions to the general condition of woman in
ancient times. She was the gay companion of man
in his lighter hours of ease, the patient drudge of
his necessites-not the ministering angel, the asso
cate for fe the soother of his sorrows the sharer of
his joys, the equal in station and respect
1t is the boast Of the present generation that the age
in which live isvasty superior to all others in every
point of excellence. Our attention is directed to
mighty Cities and stately plies of architecture to rat
ting cars to steamships rushing like the spirit of the
ocean the great deepin spite of wind and waves
True the ancient world could also boast of its great
cities, and its noble specimens of architectural skill
it could point with feelings of worthy pride to its
stately Coliseum, its majestic Parthenon, and its
towering pyramids but these merely creations of
beauty, or monuments of strength and subserved only
the purposes of display and pride
1t is the popularity of our age, that our great
works of art devoted to important practical
purpose-that they minister to great necessity
Read the account Of the great American frigate Mer
rmac, recently constructed, and which drew forth the
encomiums of the British press and people. 1t fur
nishes an apt illustration on this point Could all the
art skill and decorative power of past ages have
produced an object half worthy of our admiration
and wonder, this Leviathen of the ocean? Even
in our own age, when accustomed to great dis,
plays of human genius, this monarch of the seas may
well excite our wonder. Could the Roman who went
out upon the quiet Mediterranean in his threeoared
gay, and cautiously threaded his way along the pro-
iectng headands and by the indented Shore rise
from his sumber of ages and behold before him the
" Merrimac' moving swiftly by, mpelled by an un-
seen power, rearing aoft her mighty bulwarks, and
agtating the waves by the track of her gigantic keel
he might well suppose that the gods had laid by