Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-05-11

| pose we grant Democracy to be triumph
ANT. and all enfranchised, made equal,
the old household gods set up again f;
how long will it last ? How long ere the
same scenes of late years will be re.en-
acted? The Government would not last
even as it did when conflicting interests
we're not so strong when dishonesty had
not been developed by greed, when
bribery and corruption were not rite,
when the virtues and sufferings OF the
men f'76 were fresh in memory
We yet believe that up to 1860 we had
Government in which liberty, justice
and happiness were more generally DIS
tributed than in any government under
the sun, and were it possible to have con-
tinued such government we should not
now be advocating one which, while 1t is
not so good in some respects, yet will
give us a reasonable share of those
blessings, together with that stability and
durability which robs the future IN the
mind of men OF the rights and terrors
common to a people living under gov
eminent so liable to commotlon and
change as the democratic. Ii we seek
and believe in the perfection of human
nature and human governments, why
not freight political Argo at once and
90 in quest of the Republic of Plato, the
wondrous lNepefokokkryia of Aristo-
planes, the Utopia of Moore, or the Oce-
ana of Harrington Surely with this
vessel, and such leaders as we have, the
enchantment of Democracy will conduct
us in safety to the golden strands Of a
paradisiacai periectsbility. Hercules
must have had some such notions, for
after his Twelve Labors," sufficient to
have convinced moderate man that an
earthly Eden is myth, still suffered, and
only found rest and Hebe in Heaven.
But the sage Ulysses, after the Trojan
war, roams the world over, and
finding no such place returns to
his lost Ithaca" satisfied and
contented. SO Lycurgus, as the result
of his observations and travels, gave
Sparta government, not based upon the
idea of perfectability in man, but, con-
the weakness of human nature,
a good government of strength and dura-
bility which lasted over Eve hundred
years. Among the noted travellers, men
ton is also made of Ponce de Leon, who
sought for the fountain of perpetual
youth" He must have found it, though
not generally believed, since we cannot
fail to recognise his rejupenated spirit
in our midst. We have read somewhere |
how Bacchus, panoplied in the lions
skin, and with the club of Hercules,
seeks in the internal regions the |
missing Euripides; and how, being
in a natural condition, discern
ing not nicely, brings E,cbylus,
leaving Euripides to sing his own " Hep
for consolation. So we may see
our "demigods." seeking the butch
cries" of an Euripides, returs US the
grand scenes of an Hschylus. In their
mad frenzy, Providence will discover to
us "the flower Of safety"
Human nature of today is not changed
10 any essential point from the human
nature of other days. Hath not a Your
Jew eyes, etc.2 Is it not "the villainy
you teach me, will execute; and it shall
90 hard, but will better the instruc,
ton p To-day, as in the days of Mac
beth, those Who "teaeh bloody instruc-
tom will witness return of same ITO
plague the inventor" Can we forget
that in an earthly world, to do harm is
often laudable; to do good, sometimes
accounted dangerous folly ?" j. s.