New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-06-08
IEFATUATIONs.

The indulgence in false and extravagant no
ttons is human infrmity peculiar to no race, con
dition, sex, or age. From the time when Adam
and Eve, with redundant desire for knowledge
ate OF the forbidden tree, to the present hour, all
their great family have been led and stimulated by
some sort of infatuation Sometimes it is shown
as mild enthusiasm, gently urging to action, but
yet surrounding the subject with false ana dis
torting medium sometimes it becomes mania
which utterly blinds the victim to all other things,
and robs him of the faculty of viewing nationally
the simplest facts of everyday life, and the plain
est of social, personal and political relations.
And between these extremes are a thousand
gradations Of infatuated and false notions, ex-
hibited on an endless variety Of subjects, and
shown in countless phases of varying moral and
mental phenomena. Thoughtless persons charge
these victims of infatuation with insanity or mania
while the actual truth is that very few of the sons
or daughters of Eve are free from this common
! infrmity.
" The poet, the lunate and the lover are of
| imagination all compact and the class of imagi.
natives might have been extended by the great
bard to many Others than the three classes he sets
down. Study men and women closely and we are
almost certain to find in each, cropping out more
OF less visbly, some sort ofinfatuation some notion
or scheme, some plan or theory, some aim or
purpose, to which they give an extraordinary and
irrational amount of attention and which often alb
serbs the better part of their mental strength,
Sometimes it is a subdued monomania for gamb.
ing; sometimes for a special branch of learning
sometimes for social pleasure; sometimes for the
dainties Of gastronomy sometimes for money.
For
for excellence in oratory and conversation; occa.
slonally for quarres, broils and duels, and very
frequently for religious excitements. Some thirst
ana banker for dress and personal ornament, an
intatuation which has dragged many weak persons
INTO wee and crime. Sometimes these infatuations
are subdued, quescent and quite harmless, assum.
lng the form Of idiosyncrasies or mere DISPLAYS OF
individuality OF personal vanity. They are seldom
offensive in such persons as abide by the conyep.
tonalities of social life. While in the great arena
almost every one has hobby-horse infatuation 10
ride, and while they are ridden in varying curves
and lines, without rule or system unpleasant col
llsions among the performers are rare. For the
privilege of having his own '7Yeakness respected
and indulged, each is quite willing to extend some
degree of tolerance to the nfatuatioas of others.
Sometimes peculiar form of monomania be-
comes epidemic and pervades an entire race or
nation These contagious infatuations may be
distinctly traced in many Of the great movements
chronicled in history. At the distance of ages.
these moral epidemios manifest their absurlitv
| and irrationality to all who read the records of
human events and study the motives by which men
in masses are impelled. The most notable of all
moral epidemics and infatuations was shown in
the crusades, lasting through centuries, peryadnq
scores of millions, attacking peasants and wise
kings, the ignorant and the learned priests ana
laymen astute statesmen, great generals, mechan-
les merchants, soldiers, the erudite scholar. the
literate boor, the lord and the thraA the lady of
the castle, the dame Of the cottage, the skincIad
tenant-at-wil, the pinned steel.clad, golden spur
red landlord the lawless brigand the rover of the
seas, the stroling Minstrel the fantastic mounte-
bank the men of the cloiser, the courtesan Of the
street the high in their pride, the lowy in their
poverty, the timid and the bold, the wise and the
simple. Very few in Europe escaped the con
tagon which ragged with equal violence among
Northern pines as among Southern palms.
In the RISE growth and career of the party of
aholitonists, we have another very remarkable
instance of epidemic infatuation. In 1850 few
dreamed that the handful of emancipationists
would swell in numbers, grow in influence. and
strengthen in power until they should become
supreme in their sway over the destnies Of a
mighty republic. Then they were looked upon as
fanatics by their New England neigEbors. and
their unlawful scheme was regarded as the fever
dream Of morbid enthusiasm, Their stealthy
gatherings were toleratedwith marked impattence
Their gerproeessons were jeered in the streets
of puritanic villages, and their dngy little propa
gand papers and pamphlets were but slowly ad.
mitted to gratuitous circulation. Yet the epi-
demie spread. The spark caught and the flames
were diligently famed and fed Impressfble
youths and sentimental females were first led away
and were soon followed by enthusiastic dotards
and ambitious speech makers. The steady growth
Of years showed to cunning politicians the greater
hereafter and they linked their fortunes to the
growing party. Wild, unreasoning, infatuated as
they Were they gathered to their fold many astute,
ambitious and unscrupulous men, whose knowl-
edge of human nature showed to them that the
new party had an element of vitality in its fanati-
eism, which opposition would only foster and in
crease. And so, by gradual aocretion, this party
absorbed the elements which had composed other
parties based on reason and theory, instead of pas.
sion, until it became powerful enough to force the
country into civil war, to succeed in that war,
and to dictate terms to the vanquished The mus.
tard seed infatuation took root and grew to a
great overshadowing tree, and many are the foul
birds that roost and chatter among its poison drip
ping branches
b