Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1861-06-07
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1fely ftlolce at Tue liSHt vi thdt llne VI pdI-
Ting clouds m a S b al Ii n e in the distant
West, and skirting the verge of the horizon
with the ample folds of their great white
banners of rolling vapour, after a long and
weary mid-summer's day, when the great
burning eye Of the sun looks down upon
the heated and parcbed earth, without even
the gauzy veil Of cloud TO dim the radl-
ance of his piercing glance z when not
cooling zephyr breathes over the landscape,
but the air seems dull and dead, and all an
mated nature is sweltering and painting un-
der the stagnatlng oppressiyeness. How
does rejoicing nature clap her hands in &C.
stacy, as the first cool puff of wind fans her
feverish check, fresh from the magazine of
the tempest, and the grand army of the
storm king marches M al silica ly up
the broad archway of the sky, darkening the
heavens with the densely packed columns
of its mastering squadrons. How grateful
the sound, wheE the rain and the hail come
rushing down from the battlements of the
skies, and the reyelling gales break loose
from their bondage, when peal on peal
rolls from the thunder drum of heaven
when battery after battery of celestial artil
lery is discharged, blazing iercely along the
whole line, vibrating with fresh vitality the
languid pulses Of the air, and sending their
auickened beat thrilling through all the ar
teries of creation.
Now, who objects to this agitation Of the
elements !? Is it not absolutely necessary
to preserve the health and vitality of ma
ture What though, i'll this elemental war,
the flashing ',levin brand" Of Omnipotcnce
news to the ground, at single stroke, the
gnarlcd old oak of thousand summers. and
the dashipg bolt topples down in blazing ru-
in, the tower aud the dome, and here and
there strikes dead the pulse of human life
and hope, who would choose the ever1ast-
ing stagnaton of sweltering midsummer
day to escape such occasional catastropbies2
When "the deep blue sea" is motionless
to the bottom, aud not ripple dims its
mirrored surface, one might, perhaps, be
tempted to wish it were always so. But
stagnation and miasmatic poisons, and pes
tilential death around all its shores would
be the consummation of such W is h
Health requires that violent agitation should
sometimes stir its depths, and wild winds
lash its surface into foam. This is an I'M
perative law of nature. Agitation purifies.
It is as necessary as the vital air in the
lungs for the preservation of universal life.
And though the fated ship is sometimes, by
this agitation, whelmed beneath the angry
surges, and the al ors 60 down to their
tombs in the coral caves, where the sea
monsters sport, yet the evil. if any there
be, must be accepted for the sake of the
Immensely greater good.
Who, for the sake Of avoiding an occa-
sional catastrophe, however horiid it might
be. would desire the realization Of Byron's
Poem on Darkness, in which, to the fever
ed dreams of the poet, was presented this
vision:
-er'Tbe world was void;
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, hefbless, treeless, maness, lifeiess,
A lump Of death, chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes ard oceans all stood still,
And nothing stirred within their silent depths;
Ships. sailorless, lay rottng on the sea,
Aud their ma&ts fell down pitcemeal as they
dropped,
They slept upon the abyss, without surge;
The waves were dead the tides were in their graves,
The winds were withered in the stagnant air,
And the clouds persisted"
AS in the elements, as in air, earth and
water, agitation is essential sometimes, to
vitality and heath, so in the political world.
That community or nation. which can look
upon great political aggrcssions, that vio-
late the very fundamental laws Of society
which can look upon OPPRESSION and wrong,
and outrage, and not feel keenly in the ia
most depths of the soul, and not be intense
ly ogitated, is ready to be subdued-is rea-
DIV to settle down, with calm, stupid sub
mission, into rayless and unbroken des-
potism.
Better play the part of the lightning and
the gale, and the storm-bette lay cities
in ashes, and deluge the land in blood, and
pile the ground with heaps of aggressors
slain, as did our Revolutionary fathers,
when they withstood the naughty insolence
of Great Britain, than to let Right ever be
trampled under foot by aggressive Wrong.
Give us occasional agitation then, if ne
oessary, and let that agitation be equal to
the emergency that demands it. II is the
great purifier of the political, as we'll as the
physical elements. Better is it that our
country should be convulsed to its centre,
aud shaken as with a whirlwind, than that
stupcndous wrong should prevail over Sun
aztenabIe right Il E C***.
PRoMorED We are glad to see that the
President has appointed Col. VIVA. FL i.
Walker to be Brigadier General. 1t has
beer source Of much modification to has
many admirers that he has net sooner been
placed iu position where he eoud be effect
Il 2 j