The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1859-11-10
TIE GOOD OLD TIMES.

1
| We al think our neighbors rardon
looks so beautiful that his house is SC
neat and convenient, and that life slips on
so smoothly with him. But then we dom,
sec his backyard. lilo doesn't come to see
us when he has Il headache, and if he is
sc"ld'n;s his children or quarrc!ng with his
wife when we call upon him, lie becomes
; ut once as bland and sweet as sunshine and
honey.
| 1t is precisely in tho same way that
people of fifty look at young people,
| and wonder if boys and girls enjoy them.
! selves as much as they used to. Many an
old bachelor hangs round tho ball room at
Saratoga and Newport, shaking Lis head
d"lefu!!y, and informing you that the days
when the lovely Smith and the celebrated
Jones danced the old fashioned quadrille
were tho days. Then Saratoga was Sara.
t"ga. Saratoga is a spectre now.
The old bachelor forgets the other old
bachelors Of an earlier date, who used to
say the same thing to him. If we take
the peoples word for it, the golden age was
before the memory Of the Oldest inhabitants
of the globe.
There is no author WHO mentions the
matter AT all, who does not complain Of
the decline and degeneracy 6! the age.
Carlyle does go now, and Million did so
two Centuries ago, and Luther a hundred
years before, and Philip Sidney still ear
lier. icS, and in tho Oldest book do
We not read Of vanity and vexation of
spirit?
Doubtless the world is bad enough all
The time, but the comfort is that it is con
tinual'y growing better. Thsre are always
great weeds in the garden, and it is every
ma"s '.Ity who is sent into the garden to
work, to be busiIy pulling them out. But
if he lose heart, and think that they spring
up faster than lie can pull them down, he
will not be a very useful worker. uo viii
sigh and groan and lament, until he be.
comes tho worst weed of all.
But to suppose that the great Gardener
will ALLOW the weeds to choke the flowers,
and That when he has laid out garden,
any internal or surerns! power can make
it Il waste Of weeds, is to believe that lie,
too, is servant, and n servant NOT of beauty
and grace and JOY, but CT mockeiy and
Iesolal:on.
Nobody who reads history with lis mind
- we'll as his eyes, will haze very pro.
found faith in the good old times. When
were the good old times of England, Of
France, of Ita:y, or of Spain even, com.
pared with the present? The most despotic
monarch in Europe, Louis Napoleon, is
compelled 10 explain himself constantly
to Tie people. Even the Emperor Of
Austria Issued manifest to his empire
indicating vague sense of responsibility.
No king iii Europe feels that he reigns by
divine right, except AS everything that ex
lists is by divine permission.
This is but one point, yet it shows much.
The leaven Of liberty is always working in
the world, and tho history of progressive
liberty is but another word for the story of
human development. Who will deny that
more men have more, know more, and
have greater freedom, politically and re-
liyiousIy, and make better use of it than
| ever before
In these days we look forward to the
progress of the race. But when the race
has advanced five more centuries, the poets
will recur TO the times 10 which we live as
the good old times.