The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-06-16
COLUMBIA
Friday Morning, June Is, 1866.
Look at Hone.

resources, either OF pride or<reasure. 1t
wanders off or yearns perpetually after
the foreign and remote. 1t fails to find
attraction in the familiar. With such
minds, it is distance lends eachautnent
to the view" and the local association
takes from all ehe charms in the prospect.
This leads to absentee eisin-lo the neglect
Of all domestic mprovements-to q per-
petual f,iure III the development Of all
the natural resources of place. Mere
egotisn and vanity are thus Constantly
busy in the disparagement of the native
They find nothing good at home bu,
themselves. But the worst influence Of
this sort of feeling and thinl<ing-;f such
a course does not absolutely imply the
equal absence of thought and feeling-is
to be found in social and moral effects.
Such people never believe in one another
They have no faith in one another; they
regard their successful brethren as so many
rivals, whose successes are wrongs done to
themselves and likely, to subs,ract from
their own Importance. Now, one Of the
great secrets Of success and distinction
among people is to learn TO believe
in one another, to have faith in one
another, and to take for granted that the
same benevolent God who has made them
selves has also fashioned among men other
spirits and souls with genius, art and in.
tellect, adequate to the maintenance of the
race in its progress to the greatest heights
and the most diversified achievements in
the history of civilization. Faith in one
another is, in other words. that feel and
touch of the elbow which, in an army,
makes the soldier confd of his strength,
assured that he will have support from
thousand noble comrades when engaged in
the shock Of battle and the trials of dan
ger. Among the miserable class Of ego
lists who never seem 20 comprehend this
law, and who are continually. warning
upon the native Developments and demon,s
strations ofstheir own people, nothing is
more common thun to hear them disparage
nstive! art, science and literature. For
these they will look only abroad; aud the
book, the picture or the machinery must
come to them with the ;mprn,ta.'tr of Lon
don or Paris, before they will condescend
to acknowledge or even to examine into
It's merits. How common it is to hear the
diletta',tc of a provincial town speak
snecringIy Of the native book and author
nay, they will tell you that they never
suffer themselves to ren,l the writings Of
the american author. And you will hear
the author, in turn, but too frequently.
speak in terms of contempt of all native
art. All this is the sheerest im3udence,
and should be met always by such reply
rs shall lay bare their own incompetence
to epeak at all on any such subjects. Such
praters belong to a class having mere
social position, presume in judgment upon
1t, and forgetting the rctort Of Praxiteles
to the shoemaker, "Nc sutor xltrn crepi-
dana," claim the right to preside as oracles,
speaking er cathelra upon subjects over
which society has no authority-to which,
indeed, society is bound to defer humbly,
as debtor, depending upon their profes
sors for all the light and guidance which
shall conduct it safely on its march. The
vanity of people, thus presuming, blinds
them to the fact that, in avowing their
disbelief in the genius Of their people, in
respects and qualities beyond their own.
all such avowals of opinion are fatal to
mono more than to themselves. They are of
the family. the same race and it is either
endowed or not for the highest achieve
ments. If race is competent to the
growth Of critic, why not to the growth
of author and artist9 If equal to one de-