Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-10-22
rho cyussdsa.

{ rhsvairy reached lite perfection
when 8 he poetry Of love Il add.d
tina, poetry 81 devotion which gave
ri.e 10 The Grasa les. What avail the
endless TRADES upon Che folly and
abssrdity of The CrusadesY Arc the
worship OF gold, the enterprises oil
commercial ambition. the lust OF ter.
ritorisi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, which nov
cmbroil nations, n whit moro re-
spectacle than tho poetfcal devotion
which carried the chivatry Of Europe
to the sepulchre Of Christi Why
suffer tho enterprises of sordid ant
earth.born sclishness TO pass with
perhaps agentle EXPRESSION OF disap-
probation, aud exhaust the vocabu-
larry Of contempt upon the offspring
of great and generous emotions? No
doubt, that inundatioa of fiery va'or
which Europc poured upon Asia,
was turbid enough with proiieacy
seeking TO expiate n life of guilt by q
martial pilgrimage to tho cradle OF
religion, aud with vague hopes of
reckless adventures to repair their
fortunes aud crafty their passions in
the opulcat and voluptnous East.
What Of all that? Similar facts may
lie affirmed Of every large body OF
men thst ever assembled on earth.
The solemn homilies of conscientious
and respectable persons upon the
folly and wickcdness Of others. are
to the last degree wearisome ana un-
profitable. 1t is not in this tanner
tina, the historical philosopher COLI
templates the great movements Of So
ciety. The Crusaders were not SO
foolish; and those wars have not
been so barren of beneficial results as
some shert-sishted persons imagine.
1t is difficult to obtain q clear in
sight into the thoughts and feelings
Of those s'fervent days of DID," when
religious faith, instead of being n
moral probability floating in q mcdi-
um of metaphysical abstraction, and
patronized by politicians as all
useful auxiliary to law in the prescr-
Walton OF social order, was warm
and life-like reality, glowing in the
hearts and living in the daily bust
ness of men, and atlording the most
powerful incentives to action. In
modern times, the poetry of devotion
has been so much sobcrcd by motives
belonging to the present state of be-
inc, that it is hard TO tell whether
the chief sources of III prudential:
morality arc in earth or i'll heaven.
1et there is 10 reason why the self
comIlaccnt slrcwdlscss of this rather
barren and prosaic age of transition.
should DC particularly lavish of pity
or contempt upon half-cnlightcncd,
but still glorious, manifestations of
those high properties of u nature
which distinguish us from the beasts
that perish. The chivalric, like The
heroic ages, exhibit striking con-
tras.s of strong lights AID deep
shadows. The conduct oc men who
are guided by cool calculations Of
nroit and loss, will in general have
an even tenor, seldom sinking into
crime, seldom rising into heroic Vir-
tue. But ages of faith, which are
also ages of fervent and o~ycrmastcr-
ing impulses, are pro !uctivc OF
splendid virtues aud dreadful crimes,
and show many examples of those
powerful but irregular natures
which arc great alike i'll their evil
and in their good. The Crusades
were an universal sitting and shak-
ing up of the chaotic elements Of So
cietv. To contemporaries they may
have appeared, as the French Rcvo-
luton did to persons nov living, an
aimless tempest of human passions.
In such cases We observe nothing at
first but the cddying of hosts, the
shock of arms, the clouds of dust,
and garments bathcd in blood. But
when the uproar has ceased, and
clouds have rolled away, n new world
is disclosed. and we find that many
time-honorcd abuses, old institutions
and invctcratc prcjudices have pass
cd away forcvcr.-[Nourse's Lcga-
cies Of the Past.