The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-24
The oPTABLE AND THE POSSIBLE.


SuDJeo of the next presidency. The thought
SPI' Ags from an error which is so nearly uni
W sgsal that to state it in a form that will be
comprehensive to the general understanding,
is extremely difficult. Immersed in it, the
mind is under an illusion similar to that of
the fly which beats all day against window
pane, because wholly unable to realize that
he transparent but impenetrable glass is not
the same as the transparent and penetrable
air. At the same time there is no error which
is more wildly felt Palpable to experience,
while as an abstraction hardly to be stated or
comprehended, the best method of explaining
it is to point to some of the practical difficult
ties and embarrassments which it involves.
Individuals, parties, churches, governments,
nations have staggered, and frequently gone
down under these consequences; painfully
conscious of the burden, but seldom having
even dim suspicion Of the cause, which lay
in the notion expressed by the writer above
quoted when he says: GAS to what we should
have if we could get it, any body can tell that
well enough-in generalities.
Let any one put the case to himself of the
removal of all obstacles in the way of the
question of what he should do, and would do,
if he could. Let him try to settle this
question off-hand, even in generahties that
would be ineligible and suspectible of ex-
emplifcation in facts. Or let him, laying
aside generalities, try to specialize in pre-
else and practical scheme his conception of
the fit and the desirable. In either case, he
would be COMPOUNDED, bewildered, over
whelmed. The intellect would stand aghast
at the unfathomable abyss of thought; the
conscience would swoon under the awful
weight of responsibility the will would
either be paralyzed or maddened by the
illimitable range of choice.
The question of the optable is infinitely
more difficult and dangerous than the ques-
ton of the possible. 1t is a providential
mercy that the desires and endeavors of men
are hedged round with obstacles; and it is
always a calamity when successful effort
goes so far as to be exempt from apparent
opposition. The greatest of all difficulties is
that of having no difficulty to overcome.
The most perilous of all situations is that in
which there is no enemy to oppose. A man
will struggle for years, clearing impediments
from his path and opening the way to some
possibility which, he imagines, will crown
his life with felicity. But what is his mood
when he reaches it He is lost in perplexity.
Where he expected happiness to await him,
he finds, perchance, only void and blackness.
He longs for the excitement of the pursuit,
for the joys of the strife, once more. Or, it
may be, be becomes reckless and, Diminishing
the question of what he ought to do, and
addressing himself solely to the question of
what he can do, exhausts possibility in wan
ton and criminal excuses.
While it is wholesome for men in ell their
relations, and in all their activities, to have
obstacles to remove and opposition to COM
bat, there is always danger that they will con-
tract the vicious propensity and the invete-
rate habit of overthrowing and destroying
what is in their way for the mere sake of
overthrow and destruction. This is, especi-
ally, the ruling passion with that class of
reformers who are commonly known as radi-
Gals. We see them in this country flying at
every institution that is destructible simply
because of its destructibility. All their poll
cies resolve themselves into negation. The
moment they touch the question as to what
should be established, the field being cleared
of what they were able to subvert, they are
as confused and discordant as Babel.
They are capable of doing no work effect
lively except that of combining in a precipi-
tate rush upon obstacles that stand between
them and some more distant point in their
road to unlimited power. Having attained
that point, they again occupy themselves with
considering, not what ought to be done, but
what can be done, and, once more, they are
only able to unite npulling something down.
Thus this radical column is destined to 90 on,
from bad to worse, until it shall at length i'm
pinge upon the edge of some sharp impossi-
bility and be broken to pieces. The force to
which it is to yield must be one inspired by
the consideration equally of what can be and
what should be DONE
1t is for the rest one of the mischiefs incl
dent to party politics everywhere, that policy
is adopted and legislation shaped with refer
ence to the possible rather than to the opta-
BILE. True craftsmanship will always consult
these questions together, qualifying one with
the other; and, avoiding every policy that is
antagonistic either to optability or possibility,
it will pursue only such measures as will
bring the two elements into harmony. True
craftsmanship, in short, will always recognize
the wholesomeness of having firmly planted
somewhere in the country, the principle of
indestructibility, and the wisdom of fostering
sufficient resistance to change to prevent pre-
cipitate revolution and wholesale subversion.
1t will not undertake to pull down existing
institutions until it is prepared to replace
them with something better; nor to erect new
institutions until reasonably assured that the
old ones can be got out of the way, and that
the benefits of the change will justify its cost.
The reverse of this picture is presented by
the radical charlatanry which is now rampant
and dominant in this country.
The quiet hours Of Sunday evening, when the |
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