Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-04-20


have drawn up for future times even an
abridgement of all that they expected 10
be known, and thought worthy 10 be
known in regard 10 them. the history of
the world before the food would have oc-
cupied more space than that of all ages
since and we should have had an ante
diluVian Bible, emblazoned all over with
the record of their glorious achievements;
and doubtless it would have been a strik-
! ing, a most extraordinary history. All
elements of human greatness, as well as
| of human wickedness, would have enter
ed into its composition: for there can
scarcely be doubt that the intellectual
faculties of men wrought on a scale as gi-
gantic as their passions, so that, by the
time the flood came, the earth must have
been covered with memorials of most sur
passing grandeur. The very first born of
Adam, the murderer OF his brother, when
the volcano of passion had a little burned
out, and he had somewhat recovered from
the tempest of madness and remorse of
conscience, buiided cify, impressing upon
its stupendous architecture all the energy
of a mind of gigantic strength, and in
stead of giving il a name that might have
connected it saeredly with heaven, in
and ambition, and called il after the name
of his first born son. But of all the grand
eur that might have grown in time to be
characteristic of the first city, and of all
the countless temples and palaces wheIm-
ed beneath the deluge, not a vestige was
preserved for after admiration, even in
description and of all monuments Of
genius, in history, poetry, biography, or
10 al Il, h. 4 -
diluvian antiquity might choose for its
creations, though there may have been Ii
bTsries larger than that of all the Ptolem-
les, it is doubtful if Noah designed to take
one solitary leaf into the ark, to be pre-
served amidst the waste of waters Over
all achievements of fame, all wonders of
genius, all events of history, in which the
actors anticipated an Immortality of glory
the pen of inspiration draws blank it
Is period of significant rubbish; it is
like the chaos of an uniformed world it
is all passed over in forgetfulness, and the
record of their life is cOmprehended in the
mere affirmation of mortality-ke died.
Only one event is recorded alike of
them all, no matter what may have been
their situation in life. whether princes of
the earth, surrounded with grandeur or
beggars in rags upon the dung-hill. They
may have amassed wealth beyond the pos
sibility of computation, they may have
enlarged the bounds of science, and filled
the world with the fame of their discov-
cries, they may have travelled into dis
tant lands, and brought back volumes of
knowledge, they may have possessed an
eloquence like that of angels, they may
have written poetry worthy the abodes of
Paradise, they may have founded empires, !
and given systems of law TO communities, |
they may have been poets, orators, states
men, philosophers, they may have done
all that makes the name of mortals great, |
they may have been the Homers, the Vir- |
gils, the Newtons, the Bacons, the Shaks- |
pears, the Millions of age but with all |
this, the history of their life is reduced |
down to the bald, UNMARRIED epitaph, ks
died There would be all varieties of ex-
lstence among them as among us; some
whose rank and connections in life would |
place them at the summit of society, and
others whose powers of conversation made
them the admired in every circle, and
others whose days were crowded with
events Of wonder. and others whose do
mestic relations were full of beauty and |
and others of Il glowing i'm
agiDation, and Others of-angelic symme- 1
try and strength of body and yet it is
all annihilated in that one simple record,
he died
There would be in the progress of ante
diluvian existence, all materials that ev-
er combine to raise the record of a mans
days from obseurity and insignifcence, all
that we ever look upon as constituting fit
stuff for the tissue of magnificent his
tory, or a grand and glowing biography /:
they must have attained all that in the
worlds view is worth living for; they must
have accomplished all that in The eye of
constitutes a ground for that
of fame which the fallen
mind thiTsts after actions TO draw a |.
worlds applause, inventions and discov-
cries of surprising ingenuity, systems of
science and philosophy, all forms of great
ness realized and yet is sll disposed of
and confined within the annals of two
words. he died