The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1866-03-29

by the results of experience in individual
cases, whether taken from state IF nature
or from race considerably advanced In civ
lhzation. Sayages are in proper training
when they are acquiring or practising the
most useful and simple arts known to civil
lZatlon, and III exercising their minds III
taking IN the new and simple ideas perpet-
ually presenting themselves in their new
situation, surrounded as they would be by /
the works Of men of the higher and more +
finished class, more wonderful than even the 4
works of nature in the minds of savages, I
becaise of their fDmiliar association with /
the latter from infancy. The civilization /
which masses Of men acquire taken from !
their primitive barbarism, with no other /
wants or desires than such rs are common /
with the beasts of their native forests, and !.
no higher grade Of reason than the instincts /
wild beasts manifest, Is not the work of a 4
single or even Of many generations. 10 :
have attained the present stage of civilian /
ton, by the most eulightene5 people of Eu- +
rope 0fthe Caucasian race, has been the /
work of ages-ot mite centuries, taking the /
era of the Norman conquest a. the com /
menccment Of modern civilization, having |
all the advantages of what remained Of the
Roman civilization TO start with and STILL !
ALI the boastcd Improvements of the nine
tcenth century, cannot save - large proper
on Of them from becoming the dupeS, and
often the victims of the widest and most
preposterous delusiOns and superstitiOns
connected with subjects that directly CON
ceru their own interests md welfare.
win mention first some of the more in
nocent and harmless OF the present day.
MileTism for example. spiritual rapplngs
and its cong .ueTs: second, of the more mis-
Chisyous class Murmonjsm. FoUrTierism,
and the whole bcvv Of cOgnate theories and
inventions intended to remedy the Unequal
I ~ ;t,frf tiga nd all bp OF
tue social system or conventional organlza-
tions Of society, eliminating in red repub-
Hcari-m, each Of which in its day, might
beast ils victims by Tire thousands. These
/ may be set down as belonging 10 the close
/ Of an experiment which has been in progress
more than thousand years, and upon
subject which a stranger TO the whole
scheme Of modern civilization or not pro
fUnndly versed in its history, would suppose
ought TO have been arranged at the very
threshold of society.
The best explanation that can be given Of
( its long neglect. is that it was a subject in
/ yolvcd in such intrinsic difficulties as pre-
vented its solution, at the first dawning Of
light. 1t vii not appear so marvellous
that this question was postponed so long
/ when we remember that so important HueS-
tiou rs that of ROMANS rights, or Boomer
ism, has shared a similar neglect until the
present century has at last acknowledged its
claim to a place in the catalogue OF the great
/ questions of the are pressing for q deCls-
ION. Before we permit ourselves to he
. much amazed n the multitude OF what we
. may be induced to Tg-Trd rs the light,
frivolous and ficcting questions which only
. occupy us ut the close Of a long roll OF cen
turtles. which occupied our ancestors III
settling the grave and more vital subjects
lying at the foundation of our Modern CIV
ilization, and which only occupy the pub
lie mind now, because from long habit
it Graves some employment though hight
and frivolous, as though it feared losing its
activity or perishing altogether from mere
inauitv. Let ua see how near we of the
present generation in the year 1866, have
approXimated the close of the arduous task
of civilization, entered upon by our fore
/ fathers or how soon the wa Chmeu may be
authorized to proclaim to the world that
the great lrorE is accomplished. 1t was only
in the century before the last, or during the
seventeenth century that the most civilized
people of all Europe could boast that they
had freed themselves, if indeed they have
entirely done SO to this day, from the degra-
ding deluSiOn or supeTstitioUs belief IN
witChcraft. next to idol worship badge OF
the lowest grade of intelligence and the
grossest ignorance 1t is so long since | eN-
amined the statistics connected with the
judicial murders and executions for witch
craft, that | cannot venture to state the
number of victims to this fatal delusion
within any particular period with accuracy,
but I remember enough to authorize me to
state that in England, Scotland, Germany
and France, the whole number of such muir
derS in the seventeenth century, and in the
= full blaze of christian civilization, was not
less than two hundred thousand, embracing
class of the most helpless and no doubt Ill
r / general. the most innocent members OF Socle-
ty, old men, old women and often children
, offender years: and Of these WretChed beings
, forty thousand We're put to death IN
England. 1t was not until 1886 that
= the act of Parliament prescribing the
, penalty of death against the crime OF
witchcraft was repealed; and as Late n
1747, the middle of the last century an edu
, Gated and intelligent woman was sentenced
f to be burned in Germany, and only sue
, ceeded by the influence Of powerful friends
- in having ii cOmmured to heheadln@. Cot
ton Mather. near the end of the seventeenth
century. closed his career in Salem, New
England, by causing minister of the Cos
, pei to be hung because he denied that there
was any such crime as WltchcIatt, and by
: insisting that an old man of ninety years o
= are should be pressed to death, because IN
refused to answer to the charge of witch
craft. 1t will probably be a mystery unit
! the end of time. in what way these power
fuI and mschevious deluSions take sucl
! firm hold of the minds of men but it seem
: that no measure of science or scholarship
[ OF learning or general lultLIlSeHtS NtU ut
tanned, can prevent the periodical recurrenc
= / at longer or shorter intervals, as they
\, chance to arise, of creating something mort
g than aptitude or mere pronenesS OF pTedl,
T. position to insanity among whole peOpl
e or nation; periods in which from some mys
+ FERROUS cause or causes, the imaginative fac
q ulties override or maintain such cOmplet
n ascendeucy over the intellectual faculties
e or in some other mysterious manner, to cN
= cite the mind to all sorts of fanatic Nagaries
: The application of the above views, | pre-
p pose to make to the present state Of tn
j. country in another letter III a few days.
If Respectfully yours, etc,
r. JOHN BELL.
r -