The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-09-09
"DEUs sEMPER.v
BY HON. G. W. THOMPSON.

Books, like all other growths, have
their appropriate seasons, and the dog
days, or any thing like them, are not ap'
propriate to metaphysics. Summer is
the time for desserts rather than meats
Frothy things are palatable; substan
tial things we turn away from, and
piquancy of flavor, rather than much
thought, is the desIdcratum of our reads
ing.
Yet, dog days or not, here on our ia
bic lies "Deus Semper," which, on many
accounts, we greet with great pleasure,
not merely because the production of a
well known fellow.citizen, but on others
Immediately suggested by the work
| itself.
There is In eur day an excessive tend
ency TO go, as it is expressed, to the
root of things" to dig about them and
expose them, and thus TO endanger the
permanence among us Of the most sacred
institutions under which, in all the best
ages, the world has sat and flourished.
Nothing whatever is protected, either
by the amount of space 1T occupies, by
the value of the interests which it sup
ports, or by the memory of the benefit Is
it has conferred. Political, religious, or
social, it makes no difference; Christ
ianity, republicanism, the laws of mar
riage, or the sphere of women, none of
them are excepted.
The air is filled with uncertainty and
prcg gnaut with disSolutions; Imperialism
is not ont of the question; tho baldest
materialiSm is not impossible as a pop
ular conviction. Free Lpveisul" is hard
! s Udious, foy has it not been said with
high authority, Marriage is the grave
Of Love " Nay, it has actually become
feasible to demolish the duality of the
spheres of the sexes.
These things, it is true, we have been
used to consider a, the spirit of heathen-
ism, and yet Roman dictatorship, Gre
clan liceutiOusnesS, the barbarlC degra-
dation of women to masculine work,
(suffrage,) with popular faith in moth
ing, and thus the loss of popular heroism
and high ambitions-as result of nu-
merous schools Of thought, all respecta-
BILE, and holding nothing whatever in
common-all tEese are now held in So
luton in society, and are liable at any
time to precipitate into fixed insttu-
tions.
We are glad, herefore, to see a good
metaphysical book fighting the enemy
on his own ground. For although such
works are read only by the few, yet
their readers are precisely those who
have the most to do with shaping
public views; and the effect of their
doctrines are both deep and wide.
General change of opinion, it is to be
remembered, is brought about, not by
any increase of data on which the
opinions rest, but by an alteration of
the spirit or tone of society. Special
arguments for special movements, are
symptoms rather than causes; they
manifest the direction of the under
current; they are its opponents and
rarely serve any greater purpose than
to express energetically the peoples
latent wishes.
But this uuder-CuTTent or predlsposl-
sion is mainly determined by those
who take it upon them to discuss first
principles, especially when they do it
from "a standpoint not liable to the sus-
picion or devotion o. any party,
not Of course entirely. Commerce has
much to do with creating public ideas :;
so also the advancement of science.
Then the belief in witchcraft, for ex-
ample, eXorcism and kindred supersti-
tions, met with its death warrant with
out any arguments at all, but simply
through the encroachment of physical
learning upon the more occult terrific
ries of nature. Yet, of the three crea-
tors of public opinion, commerce, sci
ence and metaphysical study, the last
has probably been the most powerful
agent, as it certainly has been the most
direct.
Hence, as We have said, it is great
qualification to fiHd. as in Deus Sem
per" good metaphysical book, which
although necessarily somewhat difficult
reading, yet attracts our attention by
its freshness, our sympathy by its fear
leSsness, aud our confidence by the fact
that it leads, though by new ways, to
the old truths, that it supports the fab
ric OF human society, and above all is
in harmony with the Word of God.