The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-01-23

Men did as wonderful intellectual feats 2ouo ai!1
5000 years ago are done in the present tlne.
It be true that man was only an improved gorllla,
we don't find that he allowed greater TesemD!ancc
to it then than now; for his own part, ne believed
there were more monkeys now than then, and pos
Hibly the gorilla might not so much represent the
race from which ne sp1ang as the destiny to which
we are b .stening. Abraham he believed to be as
thoroughbred gentleman as any in the nine
teenth century; Jacob as good o man OF business
as they would find On the Liverpool Exchange;
while Joseph was statesman and Moses q leGis-
lator, worth great deal more in their timo than
all our Lords, Commons and Town Councils put
together.
fn our own country, in the 18th and 18th centu-
ries, there were hundreds OF men WHO, for brains
and the use of them, would stand comparison
with any that adorned this century. We had some
splendid remains Of architecture IN this country
and we .yainly attempted to equai the ounces OF
ara only bits taken from edifces erected hundreds
of Years ago Our mechanical appliances for build
ing are tar superior to what couiu have seen KNOWN
to the people of the olden times, but they reared
up buildings that the just astonisment OF tue
civilized world. aud which we cannot equal. w
may COPY them, but VIC may copy painting OF an
old master, but till We strike out something OF
our own as good as the Parthenon CT Strasburg
Cathedral, we must knock down to the old times.
We think We do all things on grand scale, and
Cockney will boast. that lhe LARGEST theat in
London will hold 1000 people; 50, 900 would scarce
ly have filed the Colossienm Of Rome St. Georges
nifcent building, but it was only reproduction
Of q very little bit Of the Baths of Diocletian,
which were nearly quarter Of a mile square, the
whole structure being 8 very great q al larger
said if the people OF the ancient times could revisit
the earth, they would be very much astonished.
He had no doubt they void, but lie would be
sorry they die in oase they should only laugh at
us. Possibly our great-fathers who lived IN that
stupidest Of all centuries-the 18th-would be
astoniahed but not the mon of 1000 yelrsago.
We thought We had made great progress in SAM
tary science, but he believed we were at disad-
vantage compared with The ancients. In Rome
alone there were 800 public baths and it never had
more than halt the population Of London. They
had hot. cold and vapor baths,-and something
like our Turkish bath, and, what was better still,
the people constantly used them. We boGsted Of
our ciy1 engineering, but it questionable il it
had advanced much since the time when the Ro-
mans built their aqucdIcts, which were carried
over alleys supported on thousands Of arches, or
tunnel]ed for miles through Tie solid rock, while
the greatest scientific sk1n was required to give
the supply proper grade.
There was great deal of talk about that Won
derful triumph Of genius bringing the water of
Loeb Katrine to Glasgow, but the quantity of
ten times the water supply Of London. An abun-
dant supply Of water was q special character site
Of ancient cities. We often read Of the inhabt-
ants Of besieged city suffering from hunger, but
rarely, if ever, from thirst. And there was no
overcrowiaing. Nineveh contained 100000 inhab-
itants, but the population of London was, for It's
nrea five times as dense as that OF Nineyeh. The
ancionts did not allow the dead to be buried within
the walls Of their cies-a practice only beginning
to be abolished with US. In point of cleanliness,
also, they were more careful than we are. He read
the other day Of some people taking cholera from
Washi4" the clothes OF persons who had died of
that mal.;dy. Acco. ding to the Mosaic Law these
clothes should have been buried. Moses would
not allow people to live In houses that we're un-
healthy, but it was no use turning the people ont
and allowing the house to stand; he knew people
would live in it if it remained, and so he said:
sDown with every stick and stone Of it
In the matter OF sewerage the Romans were su:
perior to us. The city was built arches for the
purpose Of complete sewerage, and there yet re-
mains sewer in Rome so wide that o cart loaded
with hay might pass through it. Excellent and
we'll contrived aims had been discovered in Nine
veh and other towns. The refuge OF the cities was
burned in the open plains. The hand-looms Of
thirty-thousand years ago produced cloth OF as
as We can produce, and the Hindoos, and some of
the Africans, knew the process of manufacturing
iron and steel, which led them to look with con-
tempt, and to reject as rotten, tho specimens of
these metals which we sent them In al1 these
points the past compared fayo1ably with the r1cs-
ent.
No doubt the present had it's achievements. It
had the printing press and railroads, telegraphs,
and extensive manufactures. He believed that it's
superiority consisted more in the greater power
Of production and in the wider diffusion Of woalth
and knowledge than obtained in the past, rather !
than in the intrinsic excellence or beauty, OF bril-
liancy, or depth of what it did or achieved 1t ex
oelled, iu the exent to which it had investigated
the laws and operations of nature, ard applied
them to the increase Of human power over matter |
Before, however, they boasted themselves too
much Of modern progress, they ought to inquire
whether the progress made was Commensurate
with their opportunities. He very much doubted
il there were any. room for boasting. Looking at
the wretohedness, profigacy, drunkenness, and
general degradation, which characterized our large
cities, he could see nothing worse in the days Of
tho past; and instead of boastng, It behooved this
little, and that in things it had not advanced
at all. IT was said that the upper classes did not
drink now SO much as they used to do, which |
might be true, but he was afraid the great bulk Of
the people were quite as Incorporate as ever thoy
we're, il they ever were worse than they are now,
which he could hardly imagine.