Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-23
Decline of an Ancient Breed Of bulls.


Decline of nm Ancient Breed of Bulls.
One of the most melancholy signs of the
deqeneracy and generalization of the world
under the introduction Of modern improve
ments, is the decline of the virtue of the
ecclesiastical anathema. The curse was |
always potent weapon under the ancient |
dispensation as we see by scripture history |
The blessing or curse of the Patriarchs de-
cided the fate of their posterity and ofnations
and all are aware of the piousfraud practiced
by Rebekah to "switch off ITO use modern
phrase for which there is no equivalent in
the Hebrew-the blessing Of the Patriarch
Isaac, from Esau, the eldest son by very
small interval, to Jacob, the youngest bless
ings in those days being subject to the laws
of primogeniture, the same as goods and
chattels. All-that is all whose early train
ing has been properly cared for-are aware
what came of it; how Jacob prospered among
Laban's daughters and cattle; and all remem-
ber how the devout youth always attributed
his prosperity to his own virtue and to the
divine blessing which he finessed Esau out of
by the hairy contrivance of his mother.
Joseph, also when he took his two sons to
Jacob, for his blessing, after the excellent
patriarch had become old and blind, and was
about to be gathered to his fathers, was par
ticular in the order in which he presented
them for the benedction, that the right hand
of the patriarch might be placed on the head
of the eldest, the right hand having more of
this virtue than the left-a paternal care
which the patriarch defeated by crossing his
arms, and planting the right-hand blessing
on the youngest son, having probably less re-
gard for the rights of primogeniture from the
way in which they had been circumvented in
his own case.
Curses were equally potent with blessings
indeed, their virtue seems to have exactly
correspondent and it is probable that a loss of
virtue in one must have a corresponding eff
feet on the other. So potent were these re-
garded, that Balak supposed that all that he
would need, to stop the conquering progress
of the lsraelites, was to secure the curses of
Baalam against them, directed from suffi-
cient elevation; hight increasing the power
of these as of other warlke projectiles The
speech of an asian uncommon occurrence
then-diverted this plan temporarily, and
eventually the curse broke out in involuntary
blessings.
In that remarkable illustration of Scrip
ture history the Prodigdl Son--a drama
which seems intended to sprinkle salt on the
spinal termini of those who are excluded
from the theater by conscientious scruples,
and which has been put upon the stage in
this city, recently, giving picture of patri-
archal life and luxury most ediiying to the
devout mind-we observe the watchfulness
ofJepthelc to intercept the half-formed curse
of the Prodigal which the Patriarch was
moved to utter; and when the Prodigal re-
turns penitent, we behold the protracted
and surprisingly natural debate which the
Patriarch has with himself whether he had
better curse his son; an improvement on the
"divine parable"-as it was called in the
biiis-us if especially to show how the power
of cursing was cherished in ancient times
Nor was this instrument less potent in the
Christian era, till within about three centu-
ries. The successors of St. Peter preserved
the power with its virtue unimpaired, and
swayed the world with it, The time has been
that papal bull of interdict would bring the
most refractory kingdom to its lacteal secre-
tions; and the bull of accommodation had
only to sound its preparatory key note, paw
the earth and lash its sides with its tail, to
bring the proudest monarch barefooted TO
pay osculatory homage. Now his Holiness
Plus Ninth, has launched his bull of excom-
munication az his Romagnese subjects, and
upon all who have aided and abetted them in
their rebellion, excluding them from the bene-
fits of the clergy in this world, and consigning
them to eternal perdition in the next, and yet
the world moves on as usual, and the refrac-
tory subjects seem to regard the temporal
protection of Sardinia with the reversion of
that of France, as more important than the
eternal salvation of which his Holiness has
the keys. The papal bull roareth about the
streets and no man regardeth it, and the gov
ernments of the world are doing as the He
brews when they were left for season to
regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way without divine interference, every
one as seemeth right in its own eyes.