The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-02-01
ruT ne Secll W III
ARE WE TRULY ALIVE!

Sights and sounds when they become
familiar, cease to be wonderful. We look
out into the infinite and the unknown, at
the vast systems of worlds and suns, and
planets, which all adown the centuries
have continued in their courses with such
unerring certainty, and. while We may adj
mire with brute admiration, we fail to rec
ognize the compleXity, the greatness, and
yet the beauty of the design. We see
nothing to attract, to ennoble. or to elevate.
Our thoughts and tendencies are all earth
ward. In some combination of matter we
think that we possess the highest, aye, the
very prototype of loneliness. We see more
to praise in the cut of the overskirt, or in
the latest style of wearing the hair, than
we do in the style and formation of the
universe. There is more to interest in
the progress which the bird dog makes to-
wards perfection, than there is in the edu-
cation and perfection Of ourselves. Some
can discourse learnedly upon shot, and the
kind most suitable for duckng" purpos-
es; some can evolve subtle theories by
which to account for the peculiarities of
certain birds, yet few can answer the
simplest historical or grammatical question.
They think only of the present and its
pleasures and fail to remember that the
"to-be y is to come, demanding of them
more substantial attributes. They would
rather gather around their neighbours stove
than study the great authors. About these
self same stoves they gently (9) hint at the
characters of others, and set afloat malici-
GUS rumors which they style delicious tit
bits, while their eyes sparkle with pleas
ure as they secretly gloat over the with
ings of their victims. And at their right
hands they have Philip Quizi5et to work
the 'rumors " into shape, thus giving to
Airy nothing,
A local habitation and a name
In them is concentrated the very essence
of Communistic doctrines, without the
bravery or the energy to declare it. In
the future you will find them on the side
y,
its pleasure in the cause and acts of that
ism which implants the spirit of destruction
within the breasts of its defenders; Of that
ism which howls forth in the demoniacal
yells of Partisan mobs for the abolition of
religion, of property, of family, and even
of the nation; of that ism which gives to
the world as models of its civilization, the
smouldering ruins of Tuileries, and the
unsightly stumps of Vendome columns
These are the enemies of society. Man
kind is too apt to obtain its idea of great
ness and power from great men. All the
great mechanical and chemical forces which
have been in operation since the world
began, producing new combinations of
grandeur and sublimity, serve as nothing
compared with the man who has achieved
success. Around this one revolve the les
ser lights, each striving to surpass the 9th
er in acts Of servility. These are the use
less parasites which abound in every COM
munity, the world over, and from which
our own is not free. And yet l can pluck
a lily, and holding it up, exclaim, in the
words of Holy Writ" Solomon in all his
glory was not arraycd like one of these
This little flower expresses in its very self
the transcendent powers of Him who made
it. Bodied forth and symbolized in it are
the thoughts of purity and virtue, crystal
lied and ennobled by it are our feelings of
humanity.
Power is Energy. Energy is Life. Life
inevitably controls and directs Power and
Force. But the Epicurean fails to see this
He Gates and sleeps and wakes, but for no
purpose other than pleasure. Beauty new
er conducts him to heaven. Were he sta
toned on the Alps, and could he see the
sun rise upon the world as if upon new
creation, the grandeur of clouds decked in
rainbows, the rosy ocean of vapor, with
many mountain tops rising around like
islands of light, the profundity, the sublim-
ity, the combination of the lovely and the
everlasting, and whatever of beauty in form
and hue, the light Of heaven might reveal,
his uncultivated mind would not be elevat-
ed above its own chaos. These are the
drones, the burdens Of society.
In every community there are two class
es of men. OF the first class there are
some who while all around them animate
and inanimate creation is swelling the
grand chora! hymn of praise, yet are as
ignorant of the fact at their exit from this
breathing life, as at their entrance into it.
Some acquire just knowledge enough to fall
in love with their own bodies, and so the
thought of leaving them is death. Some
possess a refined discernmcnt of all that is
beautiful in form, exquisite in design, and
wonderful in construction, and by studying
these they acquire classical taste, while
their standard reaches scarcely to the
heighth of human excellence, since they
look not beyond the grosser elements that