Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-06-07
FORCES AND VALUES.
Two Lectures, Read as One, for the Ben.
eGI Of she Fanny EhUrstOn Fund,
at Memphis, in 1867.
By ALBERT PIKE.
tonrrrvrEp rRoE LAsr SUNDAY ]

- rcoErrSUED FROE LAST SUNDAY
What 8 force there is in GroUth =!
VINO can explain how the tiny teodrr
root, spriDging from minute seed
forces its way downward and side-wise,
in the hard gravelly or clayey coil The
growth of the psrsnip Is as grest mar
vel as the eternal movement of Sirius
in his orbit. Compare the force with
which its root makes its way GOwnUsrd
Wits that Of your finger endeavoTing to
force its way into the solid soil, and then
conceive, & yOa can, OF any material
force, by way Of mere pressure, which
the root can 80 exert as by any possibility
70 make its way there.
And then conceive Of this force, ghat-
ever il is, lying locked up for three
thousand years or more 10 the grain OF
wheat found 10 the saTeophsgus ten
auted by an Egyptian mummy, j there
auy thing more marvellous in the power
of one will over Others, or in the immOr-
tality OF the sOul2 And when we con
slider how growth seems caused by the
flight and heat of the suns rays, and all
the new marvels which science has made
familiar TO Us as the effects Of light, and
above all, when we reflect what il is 70
,s.s, revealing TO US all that Is visible,
and enabling u TO read the Sacred
characters Of God, written 10 the Book
of Mature, His iTst revelation, does not
that iSes Of the EBcisuts seem oOrs apd
more Dasural, more sDd more an iRspi-
ration, that light is the very msnifesta-
ton Of the Detty, aHd little more mate
rial than SpiritS
What forcs produces the toTnadoP An
Immense mass OF the atmosphere, con-
dsnsed, aud revolving Ike e sphere on
It's axis, moves at the same time onward
in right line, with irresistible mOmen-
tum and immeDse velocity. When
the same atmosphere IL at rest, you run
through it, aud hardly fGel u. In gentle
motion, il bends the howers, apd stirs
1he leaves, and makes ripping waves in
the grass, in the wheat-felds, on the
blue bosoms OF the lakes, and fans your
heated forehead, and plays with the tan
Ries Of your sweet. hearts glossy hair.
But now you hearsits treuz endOus roar
ing miles away; il sweeps dOyn the
oaks that count their age by centuries,
IS IL they we're blades of grass the cot
tage, the church and the palace fall be-
fore il it strews the shOre of the Allan
tic with the wreck Of shEtteFed navies.
What is hisimmense force ot the ysnd
1t Is but the result OF the action OF the
Suns rays upon the atmosphere.
Lisbon or Lima, startled from that
yyrufound security caused by confidence
in the stability and permauence Of the
kI6be, rocks and reels, snttten by the
terrible shocks of the earthquake. Al
most In single inhalation Of the breath,
II Is g ruin. and thousands OF human
creatures, burisd OF engulfeds VIII no
more zee the pleasant light of day.
Vesuvius yawns, the pillar cf fire and
,,S.,ud rises from its crater, the lava Jws
slowly down its sides, the rain Of its
ashes obliterates q city, TO be disinter-
red centuries afterwards. Islands rise
from the ocean, and mountains from the
plain; apd all these immense convul-
sions and terrible phenOmenG, recorded
by men as narvels, and remembered
after many generations, are but the re
suits of chemical forces, acting upon a
vast scale in the interior OF the globe.
The chemist daily produces the same
effects, the same chemical action daily,
in his laboratory. HoW the chemieal
action produces the force, remains 8
mystery; but analogous commissions are
caused, and destruction IS widespread
aud desslstiDg, when the nations are
sbRken by the throes OF revolution, and
republics rise up through the ruins OF
Kingdoms, aud empires amid the debris
Of republics; and these outbuTsts OF the
revolutionary forces are but the results,
also, Of concealed causes, long acting 81.
leBtiy on the popular mind.
Science takes 10 hand the destructive
force Of steam, controls it, manages it
makes it serve aud we have the steam
engine, the navigation Of great swift
rivers against the current, t,Ocean-steamers
che winged fiery dragons Of the railroad
Equally manageable by great aud wis'
men are the popular passions and forces
which, unknown to, or misunderstood
or exssperSted by fools, OvertGrn EN-
pi-es and cover Republics with ths
bloody foundations Of civil war Ths
passions and Prejudioes aud conflicting
opinions, snd falsely imagined eenhict'