New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-05-01
RESIGNATION.

ting the more paln1ul consequences VI Iho OSoO
aside) in Coroner's inquest, and great num-
Der of leading articles in the newspapers. We
suppose that at least one life per diem is lost
in the country from the explosion of kerosene
lamps, or other artificial Iluminators, and the
result is funerals and news paragraphs. Thou
sands upon thousands of lives are annually
sacrificed through bad drainage, incomplete
ventilation, and the arts of the adulteratlng
chemist, and the result is fuss and more flu
nerals. Steam boilers are forever bursting,
and the result is q lot of old iron for thef fur
mace. Indeed we SEQ something like this in
more private instances. A man knows, as well
"a he can know anything that This port wine
and tobacco are killing him, land yet he still
aims and smokes. A woman knows that thin
shoes and tight lacing are fatal to the lungs,
vet she still minces upon paper soles, and
wrigeles in a corset. A student knows that to
study until two o'clock in the morning is the
worst thing possible both for his brain and
the rest of his body, yet he still YEARLY turns
the folios, and puts his faith in spectacles.
bow knows that il he fails in his lesson he
will DC whipped, yet he fails all the same.
The truth is that man has the proud distinc-
tion of being the only animal who thus cheats
himself. AS a burnt child, he breads the fire |;
but "a an adult, he breads nothing. merchant
fails in business through his own folly and
over-confidence in others, and five years after
he has reestabshed himself and failed again
through the same causes But society is always
weltering in q sort of sea of just such lnsol-
yency. We know, but we either will not OF
cannot act upon our knowledge. The confia-
grafton of buildings, for instance, is one of the
opprobrums of our civilization. 1t should be
utterly impossible for thriving town to be
accidentally burned in n single night, yet tho
casualty is frequently recurring. 1t should be
next TO impossible for steamboiler to ex-
plode, vet the graves of those killed in five given
years by such accidents would people small
cemetery, if the disjectG membrG could be col
lected. As for the falling of building, either
dwelling house, school-hOuse, or cotton mill,
through faults in its construction, why, such
case should no more be probable than the
falling of the skies. Although there arc but
few forces of nature which are not at the COM
mand and under the control OF science and art,
vet we still permit ourselves to defy all natural
laws, and when the consequences come we
weakly talk about dispensatiOns.
perhaps one cause of this fatuity is the
ebeapness in which we hold human life. We
know that death is inevitable; we also know
that sometimes, rs in the case OF old age, no
wisdom, no prudence, can arrest its coming;
we see it occur under circumstances which
could not possibly have been anticipated; and
we are always, therefore, in danger of slipping
into a kind Of easy going fatalism we are
content to depend upon Heaven; We have
made that dependence part of our religion,
and we take great credit to ourselves for loudly
protesting il. We forget that all human mis-
fortunes are the result of violation OF laws
which we are too foolish to discover or too
unwse TO observe. When the penalties come
our bowls are prodigiOus; then, recovering our
cauanimity we await another thrilling catas-
trOphe.
The late accident on the Long Island-will
it cause an inspection of all the other railways
in the country-a search for flaws in rails and
for rotten ties We all know that it will oc-
cason nothing OF the kind. We are not even
sure that it will cause thorough inspection
of the road in question. If we shOuld be Wis
tied by cholera this Summer, and if that dis
ease should cause the death of thousands, not
only in our squalid quarters but in the palaces
of tho wealthy, we say that such q visitation
ought, according to all the laws of our social
existence, TO render cholera impossible here in
the year 1871. But we know very well that
the warning would be unheeded and almost
aforementioned We decline to set our houses
in order, until tho day Of ,-our departure is Mt
hand. We know we are always saying that
prevention is better than cure; but our princi-
pal skill is shown in curing, or in trying to
heal, to patch, or to arrest. When the storm
came, the gentleman who built his house upon
the sand exhibited no doubt, n surprising
energy and engineered with beautiful science
and admirable dexterity; hut the fate OF his
residence is well known.
We know that something lis to be said for
the mistakes and shortcomings Of the social
man. 1t must DO remembered that the activities
Of all other animals are more limited. and that
they are not distracted from attention to
natural instincts, including that of sclf-preser
walton, by artificial wants and conventional
ambitions. If ours were but the simple bust
ness of preserving life, and we could give our
whole minds to the subject-nay, did give our
minds to it almost invountarily-we should
probably be as far from disease and self-in-
flicted disasters as the BEASTS and the birds,
and we may even say the vegetables. Oar in
tellectual life, intense, earnest, and absorbing,
betrays us into a neglect Of that physical life
which will not be neglected without fearfully
avenging itself 1t sometimes seems to us that
the main and peculiar demand upon the Ameri-
can people is the reconciliation Of the highest
material activity with the finest development
of the mental fOrces-of the largest prosperity
with the most general prudence-of enthu-
siasm with sagacity, of wisdom in things that