The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1858-07-08
Communications.
For the N3ws.
THE SCHOLARS MISSION.

BY A. II. HAURITT.
Itmay be observed, by examining the
influences extant among the ancients,
that when wisdom, virtue and truth pre-
vailed, ignorance, vice, and superstition
we're subject to the will of man; but
when the former lost their influence, the
powers of mind became latent-were
yelled in a curtain Of the bane Of human
Iintellect-shePh'cism and idolatry.
When man understood and acknowl-
edged the rights guaranteed to our race
by the Creator-when wisdom and vir-
tue governed every action-when free
dom Of thought was regarded as sacred,
and freedom of speech was granted as
one of the rights of intelligence; then
! it was that nations fourished-thatt the
powers of mind lowered to the zenith,
and that the race was exalted to that in
tellectuality which secures peace and
prosperity. But when knowledge was
regarded as a curse, and dangerous
when the range of thought was narrow
ed down and circumscribed by the petty
limits of selfish qualification, and to sub
jects of sordid passion, Ignorance stalk
ed rampant through the world, and vice,
infamy and idolatry, and their COncOm-
itants took the lead of every mind and
marked every whim and caprice Of per-
ycrted nature.
Turn, if you please, and behold the
characteristics incident to Grecian ex.
ccllonce; and the mind will readily re.
cognize those higher attainments result
ing from a proper value being placed
upon moral and intellectual worth. Or
with mo- traverse the panorama of Ro
man greatness Of yore, ere the midnight
pail of the Dark Ages had curtaineC
the world, and tell me to whom these
nations owed their success. Was it t.
the ignorant-thc illiterate? Was it t
the masses? Nay, verify. 1t was du,
to those only, who regarded knowledge
and her sister Truth, as sacred boons-
as priceless Jewels. But as soon as thei
influence was stilled by party Prejudice
or state chicanery, the masses took up
on themselves the inscription Of "sheph
cism and jnfdeHy." Then, when
moral night had settled down upon tn
world, shutting out the light of revela
ton aud intellectual achievement
when the gloom of ten centuries haC
we'll nigh oxtinguishod the last spark Of
an enlightened Christianity, the vota
ries of wisdom waxed Indifferent, ant
the intellects of man became almOs
blanks, and were closely allied to the in
stincts of the herds that hooked tn
mountains, or the beasts that roame
the vallies. Crime filed the avenues oi
lifo, and shame and degradation staine
the reputation Of those who pleaded viz
tue S cause. The finer sensibilities be
came dormant, and nothing was too hor
rible or of too base a character to glu
the frenziod passions Of an infamou
people.
But wisdom rightly applied, is power
The oblations Of ignorance had los
their influence over the minds Of a fe,
Ia brighter period was dawning Trut
and Reason we're about to supplant tn
innovations Of Error. knowledge, lik
5 the nowly-risen sun, assembled triumph
ant over hilltop and mountain, unit
the cloud which had curtainod tn
world for centuries was driven away
, Her few scattered votarios rallied to he