New-York daily tribune., 1865-10-04
runEE VERY ooOD THINGS.

drilling oil Freshmen, Is Ot Tie opinion (C1de q
published letter to friend in Petsrsburg) that
"om country will not only be restored in
mats:al prosperity. but will be advanced 10
science, in virtue, and in religion" most
respectable triad, indeed land especially the
religion! We have needed it, aud we are glad
to be assured, upon such competent authority.
that it s coming, and coming speedily. Aud 30
Of the rest.
Not that we have heretofore been altogether
ont Of science" so to speak. For We have
bad Agassis, and Mitchell. and Draper, and
many other midly.beaming luminaries. But
when We doomed man to lifelong, unrequted
labor, and bestial rank in social arrangement,
because his facial angle did not come up TO our
notions Of an orthodox degree, or because bis
shin-bone az to it's curve did not suit our
peculiar idea of linear beauty, it rs
clear that our science, mole-eysd and
not star-cyed wanted a refreshing rubbing up,
before it could bring us anything save "tidings
of despair" In tho good time coming we fear
that the pro-Slavery ethnologists will not out q
very illustrious figure. Nor yet political econo.
mists of the De Bow brotherhood. Their prob
lem has not been exactly "played out, but it
has been worked out in blood and fire upon fifty
hard. fought fields, and the solution is severely
against thom. Whatever wonderful things wo
may hereafter achieve in scionoo We shall no
longer mako ourselves spectacle for gods and
men, by counting our fingers like bothered
school. boys, and petulantly insisting that two
and two make five. And 30 much for science
Not that we have heretOfors been altogether
deficient In "virtue." But there was room for
Improvement. OF public virtue, in the sense cf
public bravery-of the virtue which looks truth
in the face and is not incontnently demOralzed
--ef tho virtue which dares to acknowledge a
blunder, own wrong. and call spade spade
of tho virtue which fears neither man nor
devil. nor short crops, nor co,ton-mills out OF
gear, nor the non-declaration Of dividends, nor
the defeat Of party, nor the bIus,cr Of bulles
nor tho reproofs of milk-sop quictists, nor tho
excd:nnunicatioDs Of pusillanimous pulpts--0f
such virtue. shrinking from corporate as trsmu-
lously as from personal crime-we never fsve
had more than enough in this country; Out it
is now within the limits Of probability, a. Gen.
Lee suggests. that we shall "sdvance" In 1t.
Aud so much for virtue.
Not that we have heretofore been deficient in
"religion." But apart from the fact that in
this. from its very nature. thore Is always room
! for improvement, there are now two OF three
minor attributes Of religlon-small matters,
such m love, justice, charity. h'tmAnity-some-
thing better than tithcs of wealth and scvenths
Of days"--to which society can now give its
sttsr ion. And thare will be no more need Oi
the savage sophistry which makes Divine
Providence responsible for human iniquitics.
Slavery demanded fearful waste of our polem-
ical res0urccs II was always the death's-head
at our love-fcssts; it bothered bishops and Il
distracted deacons; it tormented tract t.aocieties
produced q clerical softening Of the brain.
r and clerical ossifcation Of the heart,
in comparison with which the clerical
: sore throat was no more than petty
a pip; 1t bred expurgation and exoommunica-
:. ton, dcpravcd CLOSES Of Scripture, miracu.
,. mandment, and a Pharisaioal estimate of tho
!, most genuine philanthropy Of the age. 1t
s, drove men ont of the Church, and II provoked
:. them when out Of it TO ray sharp things OF those
H. who remained IN it, The fraternity which We
a denied TO tho sable man, white ~ Wa were. wc
'e could not maintain for ourselves. With the
is admission of the black TO the pale Of the human
o. family, this demoralizing trouble ceases. And
rs 20 much for religion
," 1t is the opinion Of Gen. Lee that no should
=. now "give scope to eyary kindly feeling. We
Q. agree with him; but he must not ask Us to con
q fine our "kindly feeling" to few thousand
in WHOM several millions, with quite as good Q
"a claim, are in sore need Of it. And we arc
Q. exceedingly happy that kindness IL now possible
,e Is now compatible with the performance o
it imperative public duties. 1t is not pleasant t.
e.. remember into what sloughs Of sophlsticatior
D. men suffered themsolyes perhaps by their vory
II kindliness, to be led. Nathaniel Hawthorne
,. whom no wrote his unfortunate Life of Gen
II Pieyee could gee in the anti-Slsvery movement
only "the mistiness of philanthropio theory,
!. and in Abolition only tho ruin Of Two races.
o We are probably at the end Of this pseudo
tenderness, and hereafter, whatever regard VI,
1t may express for "our Southern brethren" vii
- ;. be based upon rational respect, and our frater
nifty, no longer matter of forms and phrases
q will bear the legitimate fruits of peace and