Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-03-17
MISCELLANEOUS.
RadicallSm q d COnServatism-..A
.., Figure and its Application.

M M1COLLAA lNLOOOs
Radicallsm a d COnseryatIsm-..A
.. Figure and its Application.
No happier illustration of Il great truth
is to be found in the whole range of lit
erature than the following from the pen
Of the celebrated DR.. Holmes, of Boston.
1t is perfect in its imagery, and has Il case
exactly in point to fit it, which we shall
proceed to point out:
''Did you never, in walking in the
fields, come across large fiat stone.
which had been, nobody knows how long,
Just where you found it, with the grass
forming a little hedge, as it were. all
around it, close to its edges ? and have
you not, in obedience to kind of feeling
that told you it had been laying there
long enough, insinuatcd your. stick or
your foot or your fingers under its edge,
and turned it over as a housewife turns
cake, when she says to herself: It's
done brown enough by this time What
an odd revelation, and what an unfort :
seen and unpleasant surprise to a small
community-th very existence of which
you had not suspected until the sudden
dismay and scattering among its mem
bers, produced by your turning the old
stone over Blades Of grass hattencd
down, colorless, matted together, as if
they had been blcachcd or ifoned hidcous
crawling creatures, some of them celeop-
-terons or horneysshelled turtle hugs, one
wants to call them some of them softer,
but cunningly spread and compressed
like Lepine watches, black, glossy crick-
cts, with their long filmants, sticking out
like the whips of four.horsc stage coaches;
motioncss, snug-like creatures, young
larvae, perhaps more horrible in their
pulpy stiffness than even in the infcrna!
wriggle of maturity But no sooncr is
the stone turned and the wholesome light
of day let upon this compressed and
blinded community of creeping things,
than all of them which en;oS the luxury
| of legs-ahd some of them have good
many-rush round wildly, butting each
ether and everything in tlclt y,,and
end in general stampede for Under
ground retreats from region poisoned
by sunshine. Next year you will sec the
grass growing tall and green where the
stone lay; the ground-bird builds her
nest where the beedle had its hole the
dandelion and the buttercup are growing
there, and the broad fans of insect-angels
open aud shut over their golden disks, as
the rhythmed waves of blissful conscious
ness pulsate though their gloriiied being.
There is meaning in each of those
images--the butterfly as well as the 9TH
ers. The stone is ancient error. The
grass is human nature borne down and
bleached of all its color by it, The shapes
which are found beneath are the crafty
beings that thrive in darkness, and the
weaker organisms keep helpless by It
He who turns the stone over is whosuey-
er puts the staff Of truth to the old lying
incubus; no matter whether he does it
with serious face or a laughing one
The next year stands for the coming time.
Then shall the nature which had lain
blanchcd and broken rise in its full stat
ure and native hues in the sunshine.
Then shall Gods Ministries. build their
nests in the hearts of newborn human
Iity. When shall beauty-divinity taking
new lines and colors--light upon the souls
Of men as the butterfly. image of the beau
tiful spirit, rising from the dust, scars
from the shell that held grub which
wonld never have found wings had not
the stone been lifted. You never need
think you can turn over any old falsehood
without terrible squirming and scatter
ing of the horrid little population that
dwells under it, f, ,.sa,.
The large fiat stone" in Missouri is
slavery, that for long years has been ly-
ing prone upon the State, shutting out
the sunshine and crushing and stunting
the development of her energies. Around
the edges. over in Illinois, in Iowa and in
Kansas, the fragrant '.hedge" that DR..
Holmes speaks Of, has grown up in the
shape of luxuriant free institutions and
fourishing industrial enterprises, leaving
Missouri like desert in their midst.
Nor is the other part of the picture, the
'.hideous crawling creatures" produced
and sheltered in the darkness that finds u
place beneath the great stone, wanting.
The entire progeny of treason, the most
loathsomc and venomous of all the vermin
atflict the earth, the multudinods off
spring of ignorance, and all the creeping
forms which oppression brings to life,
have found place and protection beneath
the shadow of slavery. .i go III n
Happily for Missouri, deliyerer has
come, to remove this incumbrance from
her bosom and let the sunlight and the
winds of freedom perform their holy Office
|; in het behalf. Radicalism has taken
hold upon, the .''stone," raised it from its
bed, and is about rolling it away from the
State forever. True, there is,wild com
fusion as this process goes on. The en-
tire community Of Conservatism is id
agony and trepidation. The Shiny and
hideous creatures which 30 long have
dwelt undisturbed in their Businesses,
deeming- the, State their own, array them
selves fof battle, but their resistance will
be vain. The stone will go over, and
the State will be free.-Mssoari Demo-
crdt 81. IN, y, 5Ais,er n, an. +.
t.M 'ss-A - -----...-.>.-..i..-- ~ = -''''
II V-.l 4. . = L. =