Weekly national intelligencer., 1864-03-10
THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1854.
SOBER THOUGHTS FOR THE TINES.


i, Cioer,, in many Of his letters end speeches i'm
medistely preceding the overthrow Of the Republic
dwells with honest indignation, not unmingled with
idespondency, On the luxury and frivolous amuse-
ments to which the people suffered themselves to
be addicted while the State was convulsed BY civil
war and actually in the throes Of dissolution.
Instead Of practising the virtues Of sefdenal and
Of graphing with the stern difficulties Of the time
in which they lived, they sought diversion in the
cares Of business or in the dissipations of Roman
Z life. Magnificent palaces were reared while the
foundations of the State were rocking beneath the
blasts Of centending factions, and costly fshponds
expanded in their dimensions until they WED with
the Lucrine lake Such was the optimism and such
the insensibity Of the people that he writes Of men
who deemed themselves most happy if they got
tame fish to come out at their call and eat out Of
their hands-fools enough" he adds, to believe
that if the Constitution were destroyed their fish
ponds would be safe" There was no adequate per-
5oepti,n Of the duties demanded by the crisis, and
no attempt to perform them by the great mass Of
the ruling population who gave tone to Roman
society. 9a n"
It will not be denied that we are living in times
fraught With the most solemn destinies that ever
awaited any people-embroiled as We are in civil
7 war Of unexampled magnitude, whether regard be
had TO the extent Of territory covered by it the
number Of the forces brought into fratricdal conflict
AT the same time the foundations of our civil in
utitutons are destroyed in eleven States by their
unconstituional secession from the Federal Union,
until tho decorations Of the body polite are no less
ghssty than the wounds and sosrs left by the ma
terial strife Of the, war.
ss4,And yet, amid oil these evils which call for
humlation, or at least for soberness and recollec-
tion Of thought, what do we witn,ss3 The in
crease and spread Of luxury and extravsganoe on
every hand. A spirit of speculation psrvades all
Glasses Of people. The imitation Of the currency
lends itself to the iaelusions of those who make
haste e@'t to yet rich Our great cities, if we may
trust tbo representations which reach u.s. are filled
With til. .:asstbs Of Vanity Fair" All forms Of
popular any ,~ment are patronized beyond prece-
dent Ihy ry winter quarters of our armies are in.
vaded by The train Of Pleasure, and "the sound Of
arevelry BY night" in ball and dance preludes the
opening Of tie spring campaign
+ While England was engaged in the war Of the
Crimea We read that such was the solemnity in
, spired by public calamity, and SO keenly fell
we're the privttc griefs that darkened the
/, hearthstones Of English homes, that there was :
general suspension of the ordinary forms in which
/, social gayety finds expression. Are We living in
less solemn time, or are We less sensible to the
proprieties, not to say the duties eOjoined by the
judgments Of God when they take the most awful
shape in which they visit any people Il
fivolity and thoughtlessness, if greed and luxury
are at all times the reproach of people, what
shall We think of dissipation and extravagance and
corruption holding high carnival in time of civil
war LII nc higher motives can arrest the progress
Of thia degcneracy than such As appeal to the pas
sons OF war; it is sufficient to say that no war can
be successfully wsged which does not beget in its
sprosecut the hardy virtues of sacrifice and deyo
tion, whi Jeaven must frown on cause which
identifies i.s IA with social and political dissolution