Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-01-29
HOW 10 MAKE THE FIRE BURN.


If an anthracite FIRE has been left for
hours and has run down, nearly burnt
out into ashes, and q person puts on
fresh coal and rakes it clear Of all dust,
90 as to let the draft revive 1t, out 1t
goes. But if he puts on a little fresh
coal and does not rake it, but just leaves
it for q quarter Of an hour, then it will
revive, the fresh coal kindles, and after
that to rake away the old dust will help
to make the FIRE burn famously. Why
this is there have been two conjectures
a. least. Some say that the change OF
arrangement Of the particles destroys
the FIRE, it being a peculiar kind OF mo-
ton or life, as it were. Others tnink
that the superior affinity OF the tresn
coal .bsorbs all the remaining heat u
of the dying cinders and ashes. IL us az
least clear that their too early removal
before this process has been effected
puts the whole FIRE out.
Tho same thing certainly holds true
in regard to keeping alive tho FIRE OF
knowledge, the life Of all social organi-
Nations, the growth, and even the exist
ence, Of q nationality. Let a class Of
people be ignorant, superstitious, and
full Of absurd customs and curious old
laws and usages, such as abound in
every little community in the Old World,
and the would-be reformef who attempts
to rake out at nce every particle Of dust
and error that has been accumulating
for centuries will only destroy the vital
energies that would soon have secured
q better state Of things, had only fresh
truths been fed in upon the old forms,
and the error and dust allowed to drop
or die out without sudden violence, or
until the new fuel was well kindled.
II is astonishing how long old and
imperfect systems will hold together
and retain their vitality, until new and
better ones are quietly placed beside
them; and then how rapidly the vitality
will be absorbed by the new and better
fuel, while the old will drop to pieces
and die out, so that it car then be re-
moved without Inconvenience or loss,
but with an actual benefit. Not until
all the remaining heat and vitality is
absorbed from those old customs and
ideas, however absurd in many respects
can they safely be parted from. When
fresh and living forms have a~bsorbedthe
whole of what was vital and true into o
moro solid mass, thenthe old may be en-
h,ely raked away safely, but not before.
This is the true secret Of conservatism.
Tho world is never intended to part from
old knowledge, even in imperfect or
corrupt forms, until it has secured the
whole of the same in a better, truer and
more exact shape. 1t is often hard for
the world to be quite sure that the ash
es are completely dead and cold, and
until they are bound not to disturb or
let them 60. There is often much slum-
boring FIRE in what seems nothing but a
heap of old ashes, and the too eager
raking and removal, that has put the
Ere out in the parlor, may kindle sHame
in the cellar that shall burn down the
whole house. It is well to respect care
fully even the ashes Of knowledge,
where once living fres shot through the
whole.
1t is, Of course, a good thing to rake
the world clear Of superstition and error
of every kind. These choke truth, they
block growth, they retard progress in
knowledge and virtue. But to be ever
raking out error will not half so much
minister to the growth of the world in
goodness, truth and wisdom, as to feed
it with fresh fuel of q more solid charac-
ter. voltaire and his skeptical associ-
ates in France were terrible fellows for
raking away all sophistries and expos
ing shams, but they for n while almost
put the fires of Christianity and civiliza-
ton out in France, and would have
done so quite had they been suffered to
20 on unchecked.
The late war has given the South a
terrible raking; it has swept away the
old ashes Of slavery, and no doubt there
is yet in the South many a heap of dust
and deafness not raked clean. But the
FIRST necessity of the South just now is
that a system of education, and all the
assistances for it, should be arranged
with the least possible disturbance of
prejudices, opinions and established
ussges. To produce Northern habits Of
thrift, morality, farming and progress
generally, regard must DO had to work
ing in harmony with customs and ideas
already established, or we may put out
the fires Of civilization, instead Of Civ
ing them vigor and life among the
whole population, such a. an antsgon-
ism of races would produce.
The iron-clads of Austria are here