Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1858-01-21

almost be ranked among the exact
sciences.
This uncertainty of details but
certainty in aggregates forms the ba-
sis Of our Insurance companies, an d
renders their operations susceptible
ofthe most exact calculations notwith-
standing they seem to deal in mat
ters of mere chance and accident
Thus they may insure the lives ol
one hundred thousand men and pre-
dict with great certainty how many
Of the number will die in a given
period, and at the same lime be ut
terly ignorant who will be the unlor-
tunate individuals.
A single man may be industrious,
talented and energetic, and may
prosper for time when some un-
looked-for calamity comes and in a
moment sweeps away the fabric he
has erected and leaves bim PROSTATE
in the dust-but a nation dlstis-
guished by these qualities marches
on to prosperity with unlalteting
tread and achieves position which
requires not the eye of prophecy to
foresee. The destiny OF nations Is
not determined by chance, but de-
pends upon laws fixed and immuta-
BILE before which mere surrounding
circumstances and impedimenss bend
like twigs before the rush OF the
mountain torrent.
The unfailing tests then of a peo-
ple's capacity are the results which
they accomplish, and the fruits which
they produce when banded together
in large communities not in the course
of years but of centuries-as exhib-
tied in their form Of government
and the happiness it affords, in their
progress in the useful and ornamen-
mental arts and sciences, in their ideas
of the good as expressed by their
theologians and philosophers, and in
their monuments of the beautiful as
shown in the works Of their poets,
painters and architects. The beau
tilul temples and Statuary of Greece,
its immortal poems and histories to-
gether with its democratic forms of
government, proclaim even to the
comprehension of the school boy,
that the characteristics of the Greeks
were refinement, elegance and a love
of freedom. On the other hand, a
love Of justice and order, frmness
and stern dignity, indomitable perse-
verance under the most adverse cir
cumstances, and a pursuit after the
useful rather than the merely orna-
mental, are the distinguishing traits
of the character of the Romans,
clearly pointed out in the admirable
system of jurisprudence which they
have handed down to posterity, in
the production of their orators and
poets, in the roads and aquedacts
which they erected, in the architec-
ture of their private and public build
ings and in other monuments which
they have be1neathed to posterity.
Judged by the same rule Of results,
the Anglo Saxons have shown them
selves to be one of the great races of
mankind. Perhaps when we consid-
er their progress in the arts and SCI
ences, their love Of liberty and JUS
tice, their industry, perseverance, en-
ergy and untiring activity, it would
not be going too far to pronounce
them the domina Mt race OF modern
times. The history of this great
people is sufficient in itself to over
throw the idea that the progress ol
nations depends on chance. By
wha teyer circumstances they have
been surrounded and in whatever
parts of the world they have been
called on to act, regardless of climate
and the accident of position, the char
acteristics of their nature have al
ways produced appropriate results
They we're never savages, nor even
barbarians. True when first settled
in England they were rude and uncul-
tivated and little better than predato-
ry bands governed by military chief
tains like the Filibusters Of the pres
ent day, but in the course of a few
centuries, they develop free and
enlightened government, a system
of good order and freedom almost
perfect, commerce so vast that the
history Of the world shows not its
equal, their progress in manufactures
agriculture and all that surrounds
men with wealth, comfort and happi
ness, has been wonderful, and they
have furnished a brilliant glaxy Of in