Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-01-19
For the Green Mountain Freeman.
The Past and the Present.
BIZ EDWIN RUTHvEN TowLR.

When we compare the past with the pres.
ent, the scenes of long ago. with those of to-
day, the contrast that presents itself to our
view is SO striking, that VIC wonder we have
not perceived it, to its full extent before.
Surely, our fathers must have been pos
sessed OF spirit to dare and will to do"
TO meet and overcome the many obstacles by
which they we're surrounded.
AS we survey the luxurious fields, the
pleasant hills and wales, the homes of happy
families, the delight of the enter prising far
mer, his chosen heritage, where his hopes
and plans are formed, and are soon rewarded
by the expected result, our minds go back,
over the lapse of throe-fourth Of century,
to the time when an unbroken forest, occu-
pied the space, where farms and villages are
low seen, when the deer and moose, the wolf
and bear, wandened over the grounds that
now yield to the tread of quiet focks and
herds-yet to the time, when the Indian came
in the summer time to chase the game on
the hills, to supply their winters store of
provisions, then depart for their distant
homes-oft have our minds wandered back
over this period, and as oft, have we exclaim-
ed, " how great has been the change" Truly,
no light task could it have been, to fell the
mighty forests, to subdue the serrated soil,
until the landscape resembles,
An enchanted lake,
With its thousand isles.
But the idea of home, the prospect of one
day being surrounded with the comforts and
cfegancies of life, to which many of the
early settlers babe adieu, when they came to
this wilderness solitude, and sought to rear
for themselves a habitation and name,"
nerved them with superior energy; and un-
der their hands the forests soon gave way to
cultivated fields, and thus has the work of
demolition to the one, and Improvement to the
other, been progressing until the present
time.
Bat Notwithstanding the numerous obsta-
Giles the early settlers had to encounter, and
prlvations to endure, that was time in which
men HUed. A large proportion of their food
and raiment was the production of their own
labor, and hence there existed not that cause
for emulation, strife and contention that
characterizes to too great an extent the peo-
pie Of the present time. There was as we
may say, singleness of purpose, friendly
interchange of thought and opinion, a social
harmony, that we may look for in vain to-day.
Change is the order of nature; passing
away" is written upon all things mutable.-
Perhaps we are not to expect that the same
ideas, opinions and desires that were held in
violate generation ago, will be character
istic of the present age. Wealth has re-
warded the earnest efforts Of her votaries,
and this has created new order of thing
Each one is more independent Of the other
each lives more within himself; there is not
that union Of feeling and sympathy, of half
a century ago; religious and political dis
cussions have arisen to distract the mind, and
separate chief friends" Still we indulge
the hope that things are not growing worse,
disproportionally fast that there is a right
principle, implanted within the hearts of all,
and that there is sufficient influence in ex-
ternal circumstances, to develop the latent
good, and wisdom enough to direct in the in-
tricate ways Of life.
The forest landmarks are disappearing--so
are those that placed them there but as
they pass away, they leave an enduring mon
ument Of their toll and industry; their
principles and opinions; their prayers and
their faith and as their places become vacant,
and we see others stand where we once be-
held THEM, let us cherish their memory with
becoming reverence, initiate their virtues,
and preserve unspotted the inheritance be-
queathed to US, to the generations that follow.