Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1865-11-09
why the aEsutikamnuer Castle
was Destroyed.

1.-THE following interesting sketch from the
Atlantic Monthly for November, is understood
to be from thepen Of The we'll known ROBERT
DALE 0wES:]
THERE,ts test of truth in popular creeds
and III human opinions generally which is
prominently put forward by Herbert Spen-
seer, and has been more or less distinctly
stated by other writer's, long before our time
"A very searching aud Trustworthy test.
ut is, in substance, this Whatever doc
srinc or opinion has received, through cut a
gong succession of centuries, the common as
sent Of mankind, may be properly set down as
being, # moi absolutely true in its usually
received form, yet founded on truth, and
having, st leass;sa great, undeniable verify
that undeylies it.
II, however, there be conflicting details as
10 any doctrine. varying in form according
to the sect or the nation that cntertains it,
then the test is TO be received as affirming
the grand underlying truth, but not as prov
ing any of the conflicting varieties of in
vestment in which particular seets or nations
may choose TO clothc ii.
Thus he worlds belief in the reality of
another life and in the doctrine of future
reward and punishment.
In some form or other, such a faith has
existed in every age and among almost every
people. Charon and his boat might be the
means OF conveyance Or the believer, dy-
ing in battle for the creed Of the Faithful,
might expect 10 wakeup in a celestial harem
peopled with lfoUris. Or the belief might
ombody the matchless horrors painted by
Dante; bis dolorous city with the terrible
inscription over the enirance-gste: :" Laset-
ate ogni spsran=a, voi ch' eatrate."
Again, the conception might be of long
unconscious Interval after death, succeeded
at last by resuscitation; or it might be OF
another world, the supplement and immedi-
ale continuation of this, into which Death,
herald, not destroyer, ushers US even while
humsn friends are yet closing our eyes and
composing our limbs. II might be of the
Paradise III which, on the very day of the
scrucihxlon, the peuitent thief was 10 meet
the Saviour Of mankind or ii might be that
AeeSep, yet lncreate or unpeopled, seen by
some Ia long, distant persT ective, Swallowed
forth in such lines as these -
g That man, when laid IN lonesome grave.
shall sleep in Deaths dark gloom,
Until the eternal morning wake
The slumbers Of the tomh.p
Yet again, the idea may DO Of Future OF
which the denizens shall be- on some Great
Day, tried as before an earthly court, doom
ed as by an earthly tribunal and sentence
pronounced against them by presiding God,
who, Of his own omnipotent WILL decides to
infict upon sinners condign punishment, in
measure far beyond all earthly severity
torment in quenchless flames, with no dror
Of water TO cool the parehed tongue, for ever
and ever.
In other words, We may conceive, as to
human destiny in another world, either OF
punishmsnts optional and arbitrary, growing
out of the indignation of an Offended Judge
who hates and requites sin, or Of punish
lasnts natural and inherent, growing ont OF
the very nature o. the sin ITSELF as dehrilfl
Srssssns requites long career Of intemper-
-ance. q, We may conceive Of punishmenis
which are the awards Of Judicial vengeance
or we may believe in those Only which are
the inevitable results of eternal and immUt-
able Law, necessary sequence in the next
: life to the bad passions and evil deeds of
this.
Those who incline to this latter aspect of
the Great Future, SIS the scene Of reward or
punishment supervening in the natural order
of things, may chance TO fnd interest, be-