The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-02-15
rar The Ceril Wig.
Social Vices, What Remedy

WSliaiC ID llc spontaneous " 1871 Va every
one. These are priori truths, and are as
susceptible Of demonstration rs are mathe-
NAUTICAL problems. On account of their
very naturalness, so to speak, no blame
attaches to their fulfillment. But can We
say more? Can we say that they preclude
the idea of charity and self-abnegation;
that they prevent us taking an interest in
the we'll being of others, and render friend
ship an impossiblity? Can We say that
they bestow the quality of exclusiveness
upon certain families, and give them the
right of holding their aristocratic ? nos
er when anything humber comes "be-
tween the wind and their nobility?" We
deny it. This latter class, by its conduct,
deadens the heart beat Of progress, throws
the cold, damp shroud of indifference around
every enterprise, sneers at courage, ex-
hausts and blasts the energy of every per-
son and the utility Of everything, and, at
every effort to extrcate ourselves, sinks us
deeper into the qnicksands. Dare we go
further !? Positivism and Asceticism. what
community can withstand them? (" Big
Words" some will say with snecr, but,
nevertheless, the very essence of them pre-
vades and paralyzes our town.
off" says de Tocqueville, "the free
institutions of America are to be destroyed,
it will be owing to the tyranny Of MAORI
ties, driving miporities to desperation. -
Substitute - aristocracy for " maiorities,"
and the lowly" for minorities," and we
agree. BY aristocracy, however, land this
will explain what we have written we do
not mean that aristocracy of TALENT"
which Carlyle thinks should govern the
world; nor that arstocracy Of excusable
pride, which engenders and cherishes the
true spirit of manhood, imprinting charac-
| teristic nobleness upon the brow of human
| ity;-but that arstocracy of family and
caste which is gradually and surely drag
sing us back to some of the worst features
of Buddhism and Brahminism; that aris-
tocracy which pretends to despise the hum
doctrines which could revolutonize France,
work for the man, social encouragement
for the woman, liberty, equality, fraternity,
production and distribution, universal edu-
| cation, the Edenisation of the world; that
aristocracy, in short, which stagnates the
| progress of Our town, and in every town in
which it breathes. Atype of this class may
| be seen in those men, land there are SUCH,
who strut about our streets in "high hats, "
kid gloves and silk stockings. eternally
prating about what they style "ths good
old days of slavery, the Middle Ages of
| America-and speak in tones akin to rev.
erence OF the sabre, the scaffold and the
lash, and who are AS fully persuaded that
disserfters are dishonest, as was a certain
Ekton, that the Administration ran mid
night trains to transport our colored pop
| ulation" to Philadelphia before the Octo-
| Der elections.
| Such men as these are as intoxicated by
prejudice, error and intolerance as was poor
Robert Burns, when, Keeling home from
the wine tables of Mrs. Montagu,-like a
noble spirit selfdegraded and undone by
| sympathy with vulgar joys-he undertook
| a task which he facetiously describes;
"The rising moon began to glow'r
! The distant Cumnock hills out owre;
| To count her horns with ali my power | set
mysel;
But whether she had three or four | could
ma tell.
We may add, parenthetically, that our
| community does not lack worshippers of
the material Bacchus, and that, although
these devotees are generally satisfied with
| the dregs, yet, they would have rejoiced
immoderately if they could have tasted but
| a single drop from the pure, celestial (?]
| fountain, so generously provided by our
town fathers few weeks ago. who put
the engineer to bed? Taxpayers. answer
These are the weights which we are COM
pelled to carry, these the drawbacks to our
advancement. Literary Societies are start
| ed and they boot, Young Mems Christian
| pheme. But it is the same old story: we
chase "the vain. deiusive phantoms of
| Hope" and, after much toll, labor and vcx-
alton, we grasp them only to find bubbles.
| 1t is this spirit of exclusiveneSs, the ell
bowling the masses, which is the bane of
| our civilization, and as we contemplate it
weare constrained to exclaim, with one of the
greatest of Frenchmcn. "Light! Light" FL
evate the lowly, educate the ignorant, unbar
| the doors of society as well rs the common
cry "Open Wheat. Open Barlay"' as ct the
magical command "Open Sesame"'-pro-
| vided the applicant be worthy-and you
have a platform, with principles broad
enough and strong enough to sustain and
| nourish the most advanced civilization, and
the most phlanthropic enlightenment.
How many would he made wiser better,
happier, if this desire for improvement
we're more widely dlffused, from how many
| would be taken the heart-ache. and the
longing for the deep sleep in "the quiet
| halls of death, if the ambition of the sons
were nober and higher than for mere grog-
shop inactivity. What field for heroes,
what an opportunity for courage!
| And is there no encouragement, nothing
to be accomplished ! Away down in the
depths of tho trackless sea, far from the
sight of any human eye. the patient insect
is toiliug on, toiiing on, fashioning the
coronet and the crown. For, although
the sphere may be humble, and the result
of individual effort may be small, yet the
aggregate may buoy up the hopes of hu
many. Fame is not necessary for the ex.
| istence of true heroes.
"Full many gem, of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear
| Full many fiow'r is born to blush unseen.
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
| To go back step, that condition OF
which we have been speaking, is not the
normal condition of man. and his nature is
continually demanding something with
which to lift him up from the degeneracy
of mere selfish, subtitle slave. VIC say his
| nature, because he everywhere demon