Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1868-04-09
MISCELLANY.
rFrom the Chri.tian Obserrer. ]
The Law of Violence.

The following is a graphic description Of
War. 1t is from the pen of Grmke;
"War is the law Of violence. Peace the
law of love. That law of violence prevailed
without mitigation from the murder OF Abel
to the advent of the Prince of Peace. We
might have imagined, if history had not attest
ed the reverse, that an experience of four thou
sand years would have suffced to prove that
the rational and valuable ends of society can
never beattained by yconstructngits institutions
in conformity with the standard of war. But
the sword and the torch had been eloquent in
vain. A thousand battlefelds, white with the
bones of brothers, were counted as idle advo-
Gates in the cause of Justice and humanity
Ten thousand cities abandoned to the cruelty
and RIGHTEOUSNESS of the soldery, and burnt or
dismantled, or razed to the ground, pleaded IN
vain against the law of violence. lnvain had
Scipio. amid the ruins of Carthage, in the spirit
of gloomy seer, applied to Rome herself the
prophecy Of Agamemnon:
" The day shall come, the great. avenging day,
Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay,
And Priam's power, and Priam's self shall tall,
And one prodigious rum swallow all
In vain had Pyrrhus exclaimed " One such
victory more and am undone" In vain had
the disgrace and the sufTerngs of Miltades and
Nicias, of Themstocles, of Pausanus, and Al
cibiades, of Marius, and ScyHa, of Hannibal,
and Pompey and Cesar, filed the nations with
pity and dismay The lamentations Of the
widow, and the tears Of the orphan, the broken
hearts of age, and the blasted hopes of youth,
and beauty and love had pleaded in vain against
the law Of violence. The earth had drunk in
the lifc-bood Of the slain, and hidden their
mangled bodies in her bosom and there the
garden. the orchard, and the harvest fourishes
once more, beautiful in the tints Of nature, and
rich in the melody Of fount, and leaf, and
breeze. The waters have swallowed into their
depths the dying and the dead, and the ruined
fleets, both of victor and vanquished, and again
the waves danced in their sportiveness, orr rush
Gu III llltli bFtl bhtAtN VI "'''''N
navies. The innocence Of childhood had for
gotten the parents violent death, the widow
had recovered the lost smile Of former years,
the miserable old man had been gathered to bis
fathers, and affection found new objects for its
attachments.
From the infallible prophecies Of inspired
writers we are authorized to say that this insti-
tuition will be finally abolished Also that its
weapons will be converted to the peaceful pur-
poses of agriculture Whether this shall be
accomplished by the prevalence alone Of chris
tianity over the minds Of men las most think J
or partly by the inventions Of more dreadful
instruments Of destruction, we may not posi-
lively say. In confirmation Of the latter phase
il may be remarked that nations most expert
in the arts of war prefer diplomacy to the great
arbitrament" Also it is said in Holy writ
" foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child
but the rod of correction will drive it far from
him" So with nations. IGNoTUs.