The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-01-13
PROGRESS of Improvement.

| Just started for Judea, Ill order TO survey a
| railroad, part of which, from Bethlehem 10
| Capernaum, will soon be thrown open 10 the
| public A contemporary remarks that chi
! yalry could not win the Holy Sepulchre, and
| steam is about to make the experiment,
| Everything in this era seems to be impelled
| by steam We live i'll wonderful age. AS
| tronomy has mapped out the heavens, ana tie
| ology has ransackcd the surface OF the EARN,
! tapping like 4 woodpecker ut hollow beech
| tree, and looking knowingly like maGpie III
| \ marrow bone We are constantly making
| discoveries in the world of science. We are
| finding ont n great deal about Light and Flee
| tricity.. We seize the lghtnings and make
| tbap, The vehicle of our thoughts. Machinery
| rules the earth. Our national progress Is 4
marvel in history. Our manufactures alone
are said to have reached the immense amount
| of ~, 500 900 900 in one year. Great events
| crowd upon lis so thicky and mature so IA
| mildly that existence in these times seems more
| like q fcvered dream than prosaic reality. Inc
old men. who were born in simpler ana
| slower era are bewildered by this rush OF
| progress They feel sometimes as II Il dl1er-
| ent race of men We're growing up around
| them-a race, not of the ancient Hesh ana
| blood. but of half iron and half steam Inc
| lovers of the ideal and romantic are III des-
pair. They might us well look to locomotive
| for an epic poem as 10 this mateIM age ior
| romance and sentiment.
| 1t is wonderful century, and lis sell
appreciation is not behind its other great
! nesses 1t will never suler from tle
want of self assertion, nor pine ana per
ish from an excess of mcdesty. II looks
upon the past ages as mere goal-path>
TO our great highways of human progress. we
have become so grand and wonderful that
there are those who suppose the world cannot
long stand such Touchdown OF talent, ana
must soon come TO an end. 1t may possibly
allay their apprehensions 10 consider some
facts which will tend TO moderate and chasteh
our exalted ideas of our own Importance.
That the world has advanced in the mechanl-
cal arts. in manufactures, commerce. material
wealth, is a rational subject of congratulations
But it remains to be proved that, II our
machinery is better, man, the greatest OF
mechanics, has exhibited corresponding
Improvement. The invention of nearly all the
great in strument alites Of physical progress,
including railroads, steamboats,, ana even the
electric telegraph, may be traced back 10 ccntu-
ries past. We have been trading upon caplIal
inherited from our ancestors; and IL we nave
| increased that capital, and made II more pro-
| iuctiye, it does not follow that any of us have
| the brains to create it. That was the most dlf-
| flcult part of the achievement, ana OF that we
have no right to boast. Nor Is 1t any great
reason for superciliouS contempt OF the
past ages, that, whilst material progress
has advanced, the intellect Of humanity
shows no superiority i'll any field OF exer-
| ton to that of former days. May we not
| look with some respect even upon those
far-of ages which gave birth to SOCRATES
to PLATO, to ARISTOTLE? Have we any
| orators like DEMosTHESEs? Was not old
| HOMER a respectable poet? Were not julius
| CESAR and HANNIBAL, considering they
did not live in this nineteenth century, very
] creditable specimens of soldiership and states
manship? Coming down still later, but con-
| filming ourselves to that inglorious period OF
| the worlds existence antecedent 10 steamboats,
and railroads, have we any reformers VINO
can compare with LUTHER, any pulpit orators
| like BossuET, any discoveries like COLUMBUS,
| any astronomers like Sir Isaac NEWTON, any
| meets like SHAKESPEARE and MILTON, any law
vers like Coke MANSFIELD, and BLACKSTONE,
any rulers of men like CROMWELL, any theo-
lorians like those great standards OF EngllSh
divinity which are indispensable in every cier-
gyman's library of the present day? where
are the BuRKEs, PITTS and FOXES In the Eng
| Hsh Parliament? Where the GOETHE, In Ger
manyY Where the worlds NAPoLEoNf III we
| come to our own country, can we discover
| such 4 race of immortals as trod the earth
| before most of our mechanical triumphs had
! been achieyedy Where is our WAsHINGToH?
| Can the North produce HAMILTON and FRANK
,,S9 Can the South exhibit such states
men. orators, and scholars, as graced the
| colonial and revolutionary eras! Does IL be-
Gonna us pipmies. because we bestrde steam
engines, 10 laugh at those giants who went
afoot?
We are aware that, in morality and virtue,
we claim to be n long ways ahead OF our ances-
tors. "Stand aside, for ! am holier than
thou is the language of this century 10 othef
centuries This may be 50; but human ma
| ture in all ages and i'll all lands, is very much
| alike The phrenologists have lately found
out q new bump, which they call the bump oil
| Human Nature If they will examine the
skulls of departed generations, we are IN
clined to think they will discover the average
bump of " Human Nature TO be the same as
ut present We see no evidence in the records
of crime which abound in the public press TO
conclude that modern inventions have altered
the mechanism of the human heart. There is
in this country as muck RIGHTEOUSNESS, as
much dishonesty, as much robbery and muir
der, as in its early history. We believe there
is great deal more. We believe that in
creased wealth has here, as everywhere, en-
gendered all kinds of social and moral depravi-
ties But we content ourself with the simple
statement that the age is no better than former
ages except, perhaps, III what Is called hu-
mainly. That, we are aware, Is its forte. 1t
abounds with religious and philanthropical
associations, which refuse to do good by stealth,
and blush if it is not mentioned in the news
papers. Stiil, even our philanthropy has lis
defects. ltsuffcrs from the inflrmity of far
sightedness, being only able to see objects at an
immense distance, while it is purblind to those
just under its nose. 1t goes abroad to convert
the foreign heather before it has converted the
heathen at its own doors. 1t permits men
and women to staryeo or steal under the shadow
OF Its own churches, while 1t spends It's money
| In eyangelizng the sayages at the antipodes.
and after all, has not evangelical as many OF