Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-09-08
w OR c E S T E R /:
TUEsDAY, sEPT. 8, lsoa.



excited the English heart and fred all men
with dreams of wealth and power to be won
in those far away lands of dream and fable,
where the waters of eternal youth sparkled,
where the ocean lay in its bell of pearls,
where the rivers gave gold for the gathering,
and the mountains blazed with rubes and dia-
monds, the English sailors who came over in
quest OF adventure, lost their manhood in that
lazy tropical life, where clothes were no
needed, and the trees offered on all sides their
luscious fruits for food. They had no desire
to return to civilizations the old life of activity
became hateful TO them, and with their Indian
wives they dreamed their days away in indo-
lent ease and luxurious idleness. Such a
group, found by the captain whom they had
deserted, is thus described:
''Amyas rested the point of his sword on
the ground, and his hands on the hilt, and
looked sadly and solemnly upon them. One
of them spoke, half trying to buster away the
coming storm,
swell, noble captain, so you've hunted out
us poor fellows; and want to drag us back
again in halter, | suppose"
Il came to look for Christians, and find
heathens; for men, and | find swine. | shall
leave the heathens to their wilderness, and
the swine to their trough.
''What do you want of US, Sir? Our two
years vow is out, and we are free men now"
Free to become like the beasts that per-
ishr"
Free to be happy interrupted the man,
with the best of wives, the best of food,
warmer bed than Il dukes, and finer garden
than All emperors. As for clothes, why the
plague should a man wear them when he don't
need themf As for gold, what's the use OF it
where Heaven sends everything ready made
to your hands?'
"Amyas stood spell-bound. He knew that
this sensual sloth was of the devil, and yet he
could not answer the Evil One His English
heart full of the divine instinct of duty and
public spirit, told him that this life must be a
lie. But how to prove it lie? Might not
the renegades have some reason on their side,
after all? He shuddered at the thought; but
he could not shake it off. 1t glided in like
some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils
round all his heart and brain He drew back
to the other side of the lawn, and thought and
thought"
''What dead silence! He looked up and
around; the birds had ceased to chirp; the
paroquetS were hiding behind the leaves; the
monkeys were clustered motionleSs upon the
highest twigs; only out of the far depths of
the forest the campanero gave its solemn toll
once, twice, thrice, like great death knell,
rolling down from far cathedral towers"
''Was it an omen? A rustic roar
shrek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to
see huge dark bar shoot from the crag
above the dreamers' heads, among the group.
A dull crash, rs the group few asunder; and
IN the midst, upon the ground the limbs of
one were writing beneath the fangs of a black
Jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the for
est kings"
Oh, Lord Jesus" said Amyas to himself,
Thou hast answered the devil for me And
this is the selfish rest for which would have
Dartered the rest which comes by working
where thou hast put me ~
Were we not falling into this selfish rest,
and making the end of work ease, luxury, in
diligence; had not slothiul, sensual life
mastered US somewhat when the black jaguar
of rebellion sprang upon as? We said,
''COtton is king, let us bow down to him.
We thought to found peace on the wants OF
trade. We thought, because war clipped our
golden fleece, that henceforth we would have
no more of it. We thought to buy Peace by
the shining Of our gold, to come down ard
dwell with us forever. But peace is not that
condition in which we may best grow rich; it
is that condition in which we can live the no.
blest, where honor is most unsuled, and vir-
tue brightest, and courage loftiest and life
purest. Peace is not measured by prosperity,
you must go to the inner heart and test a
nations policy and deeds, before you can
judge of its peace.
We thought we possessed peace as we look
ed round on our growing wealth. but you
might as well judge womans character by
her silks and laces, or mans heart by his
coat, as nations peace by the mere gloss of
its growing civilization and refinement and
splendor. Take England for instance. She
was poor and powerful under Cromwell, and
the eyes of Europe were yelled in respect be-
fore her. She was rich and rotten in the days
of the second Charles, and the French king
sneered, and flung his yearly bounty into her
profiigate lap, and sent over his cast-of mis-
tresses to bend her to his policy and pur-
poses. This the world called "Peace," while
we were taught to count Cromwell and his
bands of psalm-Singing warriors arch hypo-
critics, worthy only to be hated and despised.
But now that time has removed them far
enough for the weak eyes Of men to bear their
light we find that what the world called dark
ness was the very sun in heaven, and Crom-
well now shines the brightest star in Eng
lands armament.
Our outside gliding did not win peace to us
as we have seen. Under the gliding was the
ulcer of oppression! Under the silk and pur-
pie was Sin! The tread of Evil was heard in
spite of the soft carpets that muff1ed his foot
fall But we scoffed at the purity on which
alone peace can be founded and stamped the
sacred name on our gilded sins and oppres-
sions, and fancied they would pass current,
and dreamed that the millennium had come
down to US.
But wrong must be swept out from the
foundations before the habitation of peace
can be builded. Since the Jews tried to write
the name Peace" upon a cross, all efforts to
yoke it with evil have been vain. Never has
peace been written with success on gibbets,
never has it dropped from the heads-m
axe with the sacred blood of the martyrs for
hoerty. What harvest of peace has Virginia
gathered from that winter-sowinp of bersp
ahuNA