The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1858-05-06

every page, and paupers forgotten, name
less grave is not infrequently the fins. Ver-
lily, poverty lisa great producer! would rath :
er have the thoughts Of poverty, as it works
in the laboratory Of Nature, in close COM
munion with the thoughts of Deity as
stamped on his works, than all the sinful
imagnings Of pampered wealth, with its
intimate leisure for iniqnity.
The great source Of thought is Nature ::
but the man who is raised by wealth above
the necessity of any direct intercourse with
Nature, is not apt to be taken by her into
any very intimate relationship. Trace the
history of our presidents, statesmen, phi
losophers, and great men, and we find pov-
erty tending their cradles, and clothing
their boyhood in rags. Their early lives
were spent amidst the teachings Of Nature
acquiring IDEAS and language, not from
books, but from Gods book, with the Au-
thor himself for Il teacher. There is deep
philosophy i'll this-a truth that the world
is slow 10 learn-that poverty is better
than riches. But the race must learn TO
renew their strength, Anl;ruslikc, by fire.
qucnt restin"s on their mother Earth or
our best society" will soon become extinct
and children born in novels and in the mud
lluts OH the prarics, but livin. in daily at
tendance in the council -cil,mLcr Of jehovah,
Will hereafter make our history, and write
the thoughts OF the age
But what lies ut the basis Of all this
There are men of wealth, culture, and in
ilucnce, whose genius is as bright, and
whose ahi!t: rs nnqlcstinncd, as that of
any who are driven by the lash of want.
These exceptions point out the reason why
they are exceptions, rather than the general
rule. Wealth tcnls to form exclusive socie-
ties !; t" work in corporations; to do by as
socia,nn what humber means must accom-.
plish single handed; and hence mcrgrs the
individuality Of the man into the generality
Of the m:>s. Wealth is too apt to think
for Il cli.>s-,o wlitc for class. Poverty,
t.I,iry back OH the basis of human hopes
and fears, joys, sorrows, and aspirations,
writes from the heart and speaks from the
heart Il common language, that thrills
chord i'll the vast soul Of humanity. Wealth
writes well and speaks vol; its sentences
arc well rounded, and the tones Of its voice
are always symphonious; but it writes for
wealth, and speaks to wealth, and it must
be read Oh brussels carpelng, by the soft
light Of chandeliers, or listened to in the
fashionable assembly, vibrating an atmos-
ph"re faint with pcr!'u'nery. The strong,
unlilutcd thoughts of Poverty may be read
with equal profit and pleasure in the cabin,
or i'll the palace, because they speal; to lIu-
mainly.
What is it that is so cnervatinr oar liter
ATTIRE, and causing it to resemble the sinewy
iolios Of former days, less than collection
of wax figures resembles human bcings9 1t
is not that we as Il nation are too rich, but
it is that VIC as nation are wholly given to
materiasity, and seem to consider Gou's
footstool only as place to try machinery
on, and to secure the right of WAY for
railroad! We are given TO corporations
and comp panies, to partnerships and societies,
until We can hardly give five cents to
bcgg"r, without first calling meeting and
voting upon the question. No man seems
to have sense of his individuality, and it
requires respectable company, with an
adequate cash capital (alI paid in) to dare
assume the responsibility of a single idea
And so our literature, which is always the
out growth Of popular sentiment, instead of
claiming Immortality by virtue of revealing
the responses Of the human soul to nature,
claims only short-lived notoricty among
the class for whom it was produced.
Iovcrty Is the g. cat producer, and we
have seen why. Poverty stands as the rep
resentative of the whole human race, whose
destiny is to "earn their bread by the
sweat of their brows." Wealth stands rs
the representative of class who, by being
as it were above the reach of this primal
law of Nature, arc annihilating themselves.
The one thinks the though of Humanity
the other those of caste.
Is Religion BcautifHl2-Always! In
tho child, the maiden, the wife, the mother,
religion shines with holy bcnignant beauty
of its own, which nothing on earth can
mar. Never yet was the female character
perfect without the steady faith of piety.
Beauty, intellect, wealth ! they are like pit
falls, dark in the brightest day, unless reli-
gion throws her soft beams around them
to purify and exalt, making twice glori
GUS that which seemed all loveliness be.
fore.
Religion is very beautiful, in health, or
sickness, in wealth or poverty. We can
never enter the sick chamber of the good