The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1859-08-26

BY W. A. LEE AND HUGH WILSON
PHANTOMs.
BY HENRY W. LoNaFELLow.

BY HENRY W. LoNGFELLow.
All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open door,
The harmless phatoms on their errands glide
With feet that make no sound upon tho
floors.
We meet them at the doorway. on the stair,
Along the passages they come and 60,
&mpalpable Impressions on the air.
sense of something moving to and fro.
There are more guests at table than the hosts
Invited; the illuminated hall
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts.
AS silent rs the pictures on the wall.
The stranger at my freside cannot see
The forms see. hear the sounds hear
He but perceives what is; while unto me
Ali that has been is visible and clear.
We have no titlc-dceds to house or lands
Owners and occupants Of earlier dates
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,
And hold in mortmain still their old estates
The spirit world around this world Of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Watts through these earthly mists and vapors
dense
vital breath Of more ETHEREAL air.
Our little lives are kept in equipoise
BY opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle Of tie instinct that enjoys,
And the more noble instinct that aspires
The pertubati0ns, the perpetual jar
OF earthly wants and aspirations high,
Come from the influence Of that unseen STAR
That undiscovered planet in our sky.
And as the moon from some dark gate Of cloud.
Throws DER the sea a floating bridge oflight,
Across whose trembling planks our fancies
crowd,
Into the realm Of mystery and night;
So from the world of spirit there descends
A bridge Of light, connecting it with this
Der whose unsteady floor, that sways and
bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.
LESSONS OF THE WAR.-The London
illustrated News thus sums up what the
recent war has taught. 1t tells the whole
story:
That the rulers Of mankind have no faith
in the intelligence, justice or honesty Of
one another; that they have no regard for
either the happiness or prosperity Of their sub.
jects; that they look upon those over whom
they are placed as mere machines, without
the faculty of independent action, as instru-
ments of cute force to he used for the ac.
accomplishment of objects which they cannot
comprehend, and in which they have no
interest. It teaches us that the despotic
monarchs ofthe world imagine that mankind,
were made for them, and not they for,
mankind that their ambition and revenge
and abominable selfshness, are the only
impulses to be felt, and the only rules to be
obeyed by the millions subjected to their
sway. 1t teaches us that they despise the
intelectual power of the mass of humanity,
and look ubon their fellow men as of value
only as they assume the nature of so many
Alangerousbeasts whose ferocity is intensified
by higher kind Of instinct and rendered
more destructive by the appliances Of science.
Hence. though the despots know that their
protocols and bulletins are all false deliberate
misrepresentation Of facts, and coolly
contrived falsehoods, intended to deceive
the crowd, such is their confidence in the
stupidity and folly of mankind that they
do not hesitate to launch their fraudulent
delusions before the world-nay, they even
expect them to be admired and believed in.
AS they regard no man, neither do they
fear God. They play upon the religious
instinct Of man as they do upon bis passions
and weaknesses.