Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-08-13
VOICES OF THE TIN TRUMPET.

From II new lojA-"lhe lin Trumpet, or Head,
and Tails for the WISE and Wnr,i.h."l
ANrIQUW-1he stalking horse on which
knaves and higots invariably mount, when ihey
want to ride over the tmd and the cgedulous
Never do we hear 50 much solemn palaycr about
The time hallowcl institutions, and approved
wisdom of our ancestors as when attempts are
made to remove some staring monument Of their
folly. Thus is the youth, homage, Ignorance and
incNpciicnce of the world inv ostod, by strange
blundcr, which Bacon was the first TO indicate,
with the reverence due to the present times,
which arc its true old age. Antiquity is the
young miscreant, the type of conmnglcd igno-
rance and tyranny, who massacred prisoners
taken in war, sacrificed human beings to idols,
burnt them in Smithiied as heretics or witches,
believed in aStroogy, demonology, sorcery. the
philosophers stone, and every exploded folly
and cnormity; although his example is still gra
Vely urged Us rule of conduct, and standing
argument against innovation, that is to say
Improvement, If the seal of time were to be
the signet of truth, there is no absurdity, op-
preston or falschood, that might not be received
as gospel while the Gospel itself would want
the more ancient warrant of pagansm. Never
was the world so old, and consequently so wise,
as it is to-day; but it will be older, and, there
fore, still wiser, tomorrow. In one generation,
the most ancient individual has generally the
most experience; but in a succession Of genera
tons, the youngest, or last of them, is the real
Mcthusclah and Mentor To this obvious dis
tinction, nothing can blind us but gross stupidi-
tv, or the most miserable can't To plead the
authority of the ancients, is to appeal from civ
ilized and enlightened Christians. to fierce. un-
lettered Pagans; for no one has decided where
this boasted wisdom begins or ends, though all
agree that it is Of great age Every elderly
man is an ancestor to his former self Let him
compare his boyish notions and feelings with
his matured Judgment, and he will form pretty
correct notion Of the wisdom Of our ancestors (;
for what the child is to the man, are the past
generations to the present. Let US learn to
distinguish the uses from the abuses of antiquity.
Not to know what happened before we were
born, is always to remain a child: to know, and
blindly to adopt that knowledge, as an implicit
rule of life, is never to be man.
APpETITE-A relish bestowed upon the poor
er classes, that they may like what they eat,
while it is seldom enjoyed by the rich because
they may eat what they like.
ARGUMENT-With fools, passion, vocifera-
ton, or violence; with ministers, a majority;
with kings, the sword; with fanatics, denuncia-
ton; with men of sense, sound reason.
AsCETIC-Dr Johnson has observed that the
shortness of life has afforded as many arguments
to the voluptuary as to the moralist, and there
can be no doubt that the ascctic, in his cell is
seeking his own happiness with rs much selfish
ness as the professed epicurean: one bctakcs
himself to immediate, the other to remote graft
fcations; one devotes himself to sensuality, the
other to notification; one TO bodily, the other,
perhaps, to intellectual pleasures; one to this
world, the other to the next; but the principle