New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-01-07
LETTERS, ART, AND TuR WAR.

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through their advertising columns, arc exceed
ingly and We may sag pleasantly suggestive.
The arts Of war which We have been forced to
cultivate seem TO have repaid us for our devo-
ton by lending stimulus 10 the arts Of peace.
1t is not common for a people engaged in "a
cruel, bloody, and barbarous war" to find time
for the elegancies and dclicacies Of reading-we
are Goths who buy new poems, Vandals crowd
| ing to see new pictures, savagcs thirsting 'o'
musical and dramatic novelties. fanatics OF 50
strange stamp that for us no singer is too sweet
and no artist too refined. With our hearts full
Of anxiety, aud with our personal pleasures sub
ordinate TO tho public veal, No welcome with
friendly eagerness the new books Of our iayorite
authors. aud ~ L,hem in deliberately sump-
tuous FORMS a. , 9 Ike TO SEQ those who are
dearest TO Us wel!-drcssed for the holidays. This
would seem 20 indicate something more than
general cultivation of the eye and the ear
something better than cileminate preferences,
which are quite consistent with public decay
real intellectual healthness and activity, wlSh
must exercise an important influence upon our
future fortune. We are beginning 10 reap the
priceless harvest of our educational system
IN the clear intelligence with which The
public mind acts upon public affairs,
and in tbs patience with which II waits
for historical justice. Napoleon snecrcd al the
theology Of the Germans. but the philosophers
in the end proved too much for the Old Guard.
Tho Shareholders have never been weary OF con.
temptuously ncknaIning us theorists. nor OF
predicting that education would prove dar'
gerous solvent of our social integrity; but now,
when the whole question Of tho war IS mar
rowed down 10 one Of persistence, the
PASSIONATE aud spa,lnodc desperation u
an ignorant aristocracy, competes but III
with the rational determination Of plain
farmers and mechanics. Our English CENSOR,
who are So pathetic when they dcpiore our Pc
cuniary va.lefalness, seem "a have forgotten
that Ia addition o. our material resources, We
bring 20 the contest millions Of active minds and
Of generous hearts. There can be- 10 political
insolvency Of people who make II their bud-
ness to think aud thoir pride to think wisely.
aud who read all histories with a continual
consciousness that they too are adding annals
honorable OF disgraccful to the chronicles OF
mankind.
1t is impossible also. 10 forget that
our literary cultivation II not Of al
secluded, austcrc, and inonastic character. bat
that it constitutes, next perhaps to the ties of al
iinity, tho chief charm Of countless homes
which are happy, not in perishing and earthly
treasures. but in prcdomina'ing courtesy
and that refinement which banishes per-
sonal selGshness from board and fire.
side. IL il cultivation which ~ shared
alike by man and woman, by the old and
the young, by tho rich and the poor, which
makes tendercr tho ties of consanguinity, aud
lends TO love the perpctuating influence Of con-
mon tastes and pursuits. IL presuppose- II
certain calmncss and sobriety, n Interrogation
Of our loilicst duties, q discrimination between
pleasures which are icetins and those which
are perpetual, and recognition Of li!e's dignity
aud duty, which insures decorum and fidelity.
A planter, whose whole idea of home is Of m cs-
tablisbment swarIning with tangible evidences
Of wealth, and remarkable merely for the many
menias who jostlc each other in ministering to
its coarse necessities, has no comprchen.
sion Of that domestic enjoyment which re-
suits from a community Of refined tastes and
elevated pursuits for, spite Of modern garb,
speech and habit, he IL not one ell In advance Of
the Roman patrican who SYSTEMATICALLY paraded
his bondmen, and occasionally, for the gratif.
cation Of his guests, flung u living serf into his
fish pond. The man-owner finds his prototype
in the baron Of the middle ages who scorned
politeness Of demeanor and Of speech, and who
was equally proud of his ancestry and his gno.
rance II is not to be denied that TO this rule
there arc exceptions; but the general influence
Of Slavery is none the less TO DO traced in these
plantation manners which long rgo became
provcrbial.
The effect Of popular cultivation Is sufficiently
to be seen in those high hopes Of future great.
ness which II has become one OF our daily habits
to cherish for our country. 1t Is customary for
foreigners to sneor ut American vanity, as 1t Is
called, and 10 ridiculo our attachment to the
formulas upon which We have based our Repab-
| lie. We are content to abide the contempt and
misrepresentation Of those who believe that the
future, by kind of clingng fatality. must re-
peat the errors Of the past. and that the world
long ago mastered the possibilities of social cd.
vancement. II old Lord Brougham has sban-
doned his early faith In the schoOlmaster. and
has asserted the bliss Of ignorance. we
Ill L.. audi