The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1862-08-30
From the West Chester Jefsrsonian.
IDLE DREAMS.

use 10 times of excitement. Nations
cease in the presence of popular tumult,
to regard the solemn warnings of the past.
The course of national history depends on
human nature. The good that is in man
will save, the evil that is in him will des-
troy individuals, communities and peo-
piles. IF human nature were all good,
there would be no occasion to guard
against evil. If there is tendency in
man to 60 wrong, then the only salvation of
man or of his inventions in governments
and nations, is the mercy of his Creator in
providing compensations so that the re-
suits of human action will counterfeit or
overbalance the wrong tendencies of indi-
viduals. When radicalism has plunged
people into anarchy, sel6shness itself some
times becomes a saving power, aud the
desire which those who have enriched
themselves on the spoils of others, will
have to preserve themselves and their
gains, leads to reaction. But that reac-
ton is almost always in morals as in ply
sics-at least equal to the action-and un-
less some restraining power or principle
comes in on the other side, there is
swift oscillation to despotism as the oppo-
site extreme to anarchy. The lessons of
national history are all against radical re-
forms. Slow, judicious, carefully guarded
reformations have benefited the human
race and improved the condition of King
doms and Republics. But sudden and
terrible commissions, the overthrow of
foundation principles, have not in gener-
al so resulted, but have on the contrary
led almost, if not quite, invariably to ma
tional ruin.
There is a favorite saying of the radical
men Of our time, s'that the mills of God
grind slow, but they grind exceedingly
SMALL The saying, in one sense, has a
terrible significance. Those mills grind
always the same grist, and always the
same fine dust of crushed human fabrics
pours from their ceaseless whirl. The
same eternal principles which God estab-
lished for His creatures in the forgotten
ages, which determined the fate of the
nations before the food and after the
food, are the rules by which He governs,
and protects or destroys in these latter
days.
What wild fancies have some men, that
through this terrible crushing we are to
come out, of necessity, refined and puri-
fed |! 1t may be that we shall, but it will
not be because such result is the neces-
sary effect of national affection, and it will
not be so if we go through the trial with
our brains filled with radical notions of
popular reform, and with the grand error
kept prominent that the present trouble
proves that our former condition was one
of sin or political mistake. On the con-
trary, the evil is forever attacking the
good, and unfortunately for the radical
theory, it is a solemn truth of history,
that evil has overcome good more fire.
quently than good has overcome evil
God sometimes, often, uses evils and sins
as the upper and neither stones of the mill,
out of which come no similitude of the
old forms, but only exceeding small dust
to be swept away on the wind, and some
day gathered into new and diverse organ
isms. The plots and crimes of the wicked
have married the most worthy fabrics of
the human race in all times past. The
strong are often most liable to weakness
Nations have advanced from barbarism to
meet with destruction at the pinnacle of
grandeur, and the destroyers are some-
times barbarians, and sometimes fools,
and the succeeding nation or power is
rarely an improvement on the past. Nor,
in q time like this which we are now pass
ing through, is there any hope in the fu-
ture except in clinging to that which has
proved itself good in the past, and seek
ing to prevent the nation from being torn
off from its old foundations.
There are men who talk as if the mil
lennium Of nations were at hand if we can
only get rid Of slavery. They imagine
that if In this war we can establish liberty
as the birthright Of every human being in
America, the grand end Of hnmarl govern
ment is attained. and the day Of peace
and Joy to the race is at hand. The idea
is purely chimera, an Idle dream Lib
erty itself is and always will be mere
word Of comparison, never Of actual reali-
cation on earth or in Heaven. Content
ment is the nearest approximation to lib
erty that man can ever know. The slave
that works ii the rice fields, who is con-
tent with his lot, is more free than the
poor laborer Of New York, who staryes
within sight Of plenty, or longs anxiously
for riches, and luxury, and travel, and the
entry to the theatres and social assemblies