New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-08-12
Is NoRiL1rY on THE DECLINE

ition of the fine gentleman, disregarded IN
the pursuit, his own good sense, natural
tastes and actual inclinations. He relates
how he drank, gambled and swore by
main force during many Of the best years
Of his life, and found. at last, his legiti-
| mate reward in constitution shattered
by excess, and fortune impaired by ex-
travagance. The experience OF Chester
field has been repeated by thousands OF
unfortunates who, on coming to mature
life with ample means, got without pains,
acquire dreadful pains in wasting them.
The desire to please, and the love Of show
and praise, which ignore the sense OF
nothingness derived from the conscious
ness of pursuing solely selfish aims, lead
to habits that end in bankruptcy,
not of fortune only, but too often
of life itself When Chesterfield
wrote his repentent sentences century
and quarter ago, there were, compared
with our time, few youngsters that in
herited fortune and had the privilege OF
self-indulgence. A later age and newer
people may profit by his warnings, as well
/ as those of his time and country. The
elements of society, its structure, morals,
PHILOSOPHERS, religions, and general con-
dition are changed and changing; but
the folly of excess and the wisdom OF
moderation remain the same.
An old-fashioned friend lately said to us,
'.things go on badly; in a few more
years society will be without morality
But we do not think such fear founded in
any truth, or that there is less morality
than formerly. What we do think is,
that the present safeguards Of society are
being removed through the prevalence OF
changes in social ethics, caused by the
growing weakness of religious restraints.
If SO, is society to procure new safeguards
and what are these to be Whatever ex-
periences arise in the course of time are not
by any logic to be considered prina .tac'd
retrogressive. The world, it should be
supposed, moves, and not backward and
forward in turn, on the principle OF up we
90 and down we go, but in circular series
of progressive moves that produce Elusive
appearances where we watch from our
place on the rim Of circle as Of going
backward. It is certain that religion has
lost much of its restraining power, and
that free thinking begets that kind OF
courage which INDUCES itself in taking
the responsibility. Individual minds
are launching themselves into new waters
under relief from religious fears; are OBJ
serving the elements of life and society
from stand-points that seem to them natu-
raj and rational, while the old appear edu-
cational, artificial and constrained. In
respect to sexual relations, it may be that
the mysterious interdictions by which
knowledge and intercourse have been gov
erned tend to RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1t is certain
that the art of dress, more in the conceal
ment than the exposure ofphysical proper
portions inspires immoral tendencies.
Wherever the reinements of civilization
have not devised arts by which the human
form divine is rendered mysterious, and
fortified them by edicts of prohibition,
RIGHTEOUSNESS is little known. Wherever
society is nude and the instincts of nature
rule in the intercourse of the sexes, virtue
and confluence prevail, not as high art,
nor refined from the fires of sensualism as
with US, but as the simple expression OF
untutored and untortured minds. These
conditions might recur after ages OF pro-
oress, by means of advancing to higher
refinement by which purity would be at
tanned, not through ignorance, but
knowledge; not through restraint, which
can not avail against normal tendencies,
but by exalting the intelligence over the
impurities that belong to the basic por-
ton of the human brain, and acquiring
an intellectual subtlety of spiritual sense
that gradually estrapges such tendencies,
and at last repels them with disgust. Il
we do not misunderstood the moral
promise of the prevailing indications in
society, it is to this they tend.
We know city of metropolitan preten'
sions in New England, where private
morals are in the keeping of public law
where the least venial offenses, such as
smoking in the open air, are prescribed
by authority. Under such regulations
vice finds its virtuous side in the conceal
ment; in exactly that circumstance which
by natural law makes it crime. AL
know how conscience is assuaged by un
loading itself of the ponderous weight o
secresy, which the law there imposes OF
the transgressor. To such extent, then
are natures and New England's law
opposed. It is not pretended that virtu
out-parallels that of less pretending cite
in this vaunted centre of moral perfection
where all merit lies in suppressing tn
signs of vice. If it were, such pfetenc
would beget much ridicule, and be tn
signal for immoderate ''lafter." But at1iu
ence there procures indulgence more fer
tile of baneful effects than elsewhere, be
cause its paraphernalia are more perfec
as its art is more refined and icens
abandon as secresy profound. Anothe
| city, aspiring to political powe
and distinction, child of tn
great West, scornfui of concealments
alike CONSPICUOUS for the rapidity of it
physical growth and the Incompetence